Windows 10 Clients stops reporting to WSUS Console

Question

Hello Team.. Some of the windows 10 clients stopped reporting to WSUS console.. If i rename the Software Distribution Folder and then force to report it will report back to WSUS console, but after a couple of days it will stop reporting ,again if i delete and Software Distribution Folder it will report back for a few days and this keep happening ,This is happening for some of the clients,The machines were never cloned... "these machines which are not status reporting will still download and install updates.." and in WSUS console the last contact time is up to date, but last status report time will not change and will show as stale after 7 days.. initially after clearing the Software Distribution folder and then doing wuauclt /reportnow helps in reporting to the console.. once it stops reporting then this command does not help.. also the contents of the folder-C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\EventCache.v2 keeps accumulating on problematic machines and it does not clear.. where as on perfectly working machines it will be either empty or max 1 file.. Please suggest..

Answer 1

Are you performing the proper WSUS maintenance including but not limited to running the Server Cleanup Wizard (SCW), declining superseded updates, running the SQL Indexing script, etc.?

https://www.ajtek.ca/wsus/how-to-setup-manage-and-maintain-wsus-part-8-wsus-server-maintenance/

Have you been through my guide?

https://www.ajtek.ca/wsus/client-machines-not-reporting-to-wsus-properly/

The client side script - almost what you've been doing, is an all-encompassing script to help fix 99% of problems out there to do with the client reporting issues. One of the biggest things is to delete the computer from the WSUS Console first. After that script, there's troubleshooting items down the page, so make sure you review the entire page.

Answer 2

Hello Joseph Boban，

Thank you for posting on Q&A.

In my opinion, it seems that the clients didn't get updates from the WSUS Server.

"these machines which are not status reporting will still download and install updates.."
The downloaded and installed updates are not from WSUS Server. Right? All approved updates didn't detect on the clients. Right?

It is recommended to check the default AU Service first. We could open the PowerShell as an administrator and then post the following commands:

$MUSM = New-Object -ComObject "Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager"  
  
$MUSM.Services | select Name, IsDefaultAUService  

Here is a screenshot in my environment for your reference:

Please try to apply the following policy on the clients to prevent the clients to get updates from the Internet if the Default AU Service is Windows Update:
Group Policy: Do not allow deferral policies to cause scans against Windows Update

We could try to apply the above policy and then refresh the group policy on the clients. Then we could check for updates manually.

Please inform me if there are any updates about this issue. Hope the above will be helpful.

Regards,
Rita

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Answer 3

Hello Rita,

"these machines which are not status reporting will still download and install updates.." - Yes ,they take the approved updates from WSUS.. so they take approved updated from WSUS but do not report back the status and ,will become stale on WSUS console
Please find the results..
Name IsDefaultAUService

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Windows Server Update Service True
Windows Update False

Even now if i rename the EventCache.v2 folder it will status report back for 2 days and then stops..
The above group policy is also set but no help..

C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\EventCache.v2\ is having a lot of bin files with 1KB size and few with 359 KB (every 4-10 mins apprx ,a bin file is getting created)
I see machines where in these contents does not get cleared and they stop status reporting to WSUS. on a working machine this folder is either empty or has only 1 or 2 bin files

Answer 4

Answer 5

we shall check that, but in that case the clients will check only after 22 hrs the default value? then also it will be checking right? so what difference will it make?