Increase timeout of WSUS console

Question

Cross-referencing to this archived topic from last year:

wsus-sql-timeout

Somebody did a lot of digging and discovered that it was the spSearchUpdates sproc that was taking longer to execute than the WSUS MMC timeout. It was asked whether it was possible to a) make the sproc run faster or make the console more tolerant of timeouts.

The thread was archived before any meaningful answers were forthcoming.

Please don't point me towards the tweaks for WSUS such as queue lengths, HTTP runtime timeout, private memory limits etc. as I've tried them all ;-) I made the silly mistake of adding driver classifications into WSUS system to try and fix a completely separate KB update issue and now WSUS is unstable. I've got >100,000 unapproved updates that I can't get rid of. This WSUS instance is running on Azure so I've resized with with silly vCPU & RAM and still times out. It hardly eats in to the 16 vCPU and 64GB RAM...

Answer 1

I don't know what you're talking about. If you're performing the proper maintenance for WSUS and have optimized it properly, the console does not time out, reports are quick to generate, and checking for updates from client systems are also quick.

Not only this, but I RECOMMEND enabling the Drivers category. Most people hate it because enabling the Drivers category brings in a lot of updates but they also don't know the power of WSUS Automated Maintenance (WAM): WAM can remove all drivers from your system without requiring a reinstall of WSUS allowing only NEW drivers to enter your system. Over time, the list piles up again (as it's routine for 500-1000 updates a day to come in from Drivers) as you can see on my instance with a snippet of the next version's output below:

Decline Multiple Types of Updates:
There are 107329 updates in this server's database.
There are 41 types of updates listed in the configuration, however only 22 are enabled to be declined.

Of course most of the time you shouldn't be seeing pages and pages and pages of updates because you're using the proper techniques to scope your views for the approvals process.

Answer 2

Hi RobNicholson-1457,

Thanks for your posting on this forum.

To avoid misunderstanding, here are all my opinions of the issue. Please help to confirm:
You have synced drivers updates on the WSUS console but it destroyed your database. Is it right? What is the phenomenon of the issue? What is the type of the WSUS database? WID or SQL Server database?

I know it's very terrible to occurs such an issue and it is not recommended to deploy the driver updates by WSUS. There are so many case indicate that it will increases many issues when we deploy the drivers by WSUS. In addition, I found a one for your reference.

If you want to deploy the drivers by WSUS, it is recommended to test it on the clients and then import the updates on the WSUS console. I think it is the better method to solve this issue.

Please refer to the below picture to import updates manually:

Thanks for your time and hope the above will be helpful. If there are any updates, please feel free to inform me in time.

Regards,
Rita

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Answer 3

I don't know what you're talking about. If you're performing the proper maintenance for WSUS and have optimized it properly

Err... all I did was check "Drivers" and now WSUS times out trying to do any kind of maintenance. So suggesting that one needs to do proper maintenance is hardly useful because that's exactly what I'm trying to...

I find in hindsight that adding Drivers is always problematic due to the fundamental problems with SQL timeouts mentioned in the linked document. Therefore the general wisdom appears to be to not to enable that category.

The core problem is that I have lots of unapproved updates which I'm unable to decline so they then naturally expire/maintenance can be carried out. WSUS console times out, using T-SQL to run SPROCs times out and using the PowerShell cmdlets timeout.

Answer 4

I don't know what you're talking about. If you're performing the proper maintenance for WSUS and have optimized it properly

Err... all I did was check "Drivers" and now WSUS times out trying to do any kind of maintenance. So suggesting that one needs to do proper maintenance is hardly useful because that's exactly what I'm trying to...

I find in hindsight that adding Drivers is always problematic due to the fundamental problems with SQL timeouts mentioned in the linked document. Therefore the general wisdom appears to be to not to enable that category.

The core problem is that I have lots of unapproved updates which I'm unable to decline so they then naturally expire/maintenance can be carried out. WSUS console times out, using T-SQL to run SPROCs times out and using the PowerShell cmdlets timeout.

It's moot anyway as it was quicker for me to totally re-install WSUS and start again. It's only a small installation of four servers and 20 workstations.

Answer 5

@Rob Nicholson ,

Thanks for your response.

If your environment is simple, it is recommended to uninstall the WSUS role. Please refer to the below steps:
To remove WSUS completely, we could try to:

• Remove the following server roles and features through Server Manager:

Roles: Windows Server Update Server

features: Windows Server Update Services Tools(at Remote Server Administration Tools -> Role Administration Tools)

Follow the wizard prompts to complete the deletion. Then restart the server.

• After the server is restarted, manually delete the folder or file of the following path:

C:\WSUS (this depends on where you choose to install WSUS)

C:\Program Files\Update Services

• Delete database files

If you use SQL Server Management Studio to delete a database, you could try as follow.

In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of the SQL Server Database Engine, and then expand that instance. Expand Databases, right-click the database to delete, and then click Delete. Confirm the correct database is selected, and then click OK.

If you use a WID database, it is recommended to delete the following path folders:

C:\Windows\WID

• In the IIS Information Services (IIS) Manager, manually remove the WSUS Administration site. Then restart the server.

Last, we could try to reinstall the WSUS Role.

Thanks for your time and wish you have a nice day.

Regards,
Rita

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