Updates failing to install

Question

I have two Server 2012 R2 VMs (VMware) which are failing to install the following updates from a WSUS server:

KB5000848 - 2021-03 Security Monthly Quality Rollup
KB5000853 - 2021-03 Security Only Quality Update
KB4586823 - 2020-11 Security Only Quality Update

After installing these updates and rebooting, I get the message 'Working on updates' - it gets to 77% then says 'We couldn't complete the updates, undoing changes'.

I get the following error in the System log:

Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x800F0922: 2020-11 Security Only Quality Update for Windows Server 2012 R2 for x64-based Systems (KB4586823)

I have tried the following:

sfc /scannow - didn't detect any issues
dism /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth - found and repaired some corruption
Deleted Windows\temp folder contents
Reset Windows Update components
Disabled AV
Downloading the update files and installing manually

None of the above helped with the issue.

I'm now out of ideas; can anyone help please?

Thanks

Answer 1

If these two VM can’t connect to Internet, I am afraid that you need to reinstall system on these VMs, or re-create VMs with a newer version of Windows Server image.
Without Internet connection, DISM, SFC command and reset windows update components methods can’t work, because all of them depend on windows update service to download data from Microsoft Windows server online.
Lacking important updates or having corrupted system components will lead update failure, we need Internet connection to repair it. If we don’t have Internet connection, we need to reinstall.

Answer 2

Hi TeemoTang

Thanks for your response.

Unfortunately that didn't fix the problem; I still have the same issue as before.

This server does not have access to the internet for security purposes so I can't use that option. It has to use the internal WSUS server.

Answer 3

Try these at an elevated command-prompt:

netsh winhttp import proxy source=ie  

Stop the Windows Update service.

net stop wuauserv  

Delete the Windows Update cache directory C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution.

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution  

Restart the computer and restart Windows update service. (On one machine it required several restarts to actually get everything deleted from this directory, so keep trying if necessary.)

Run Windows Update manually again.

If still no help, try to update this VM via Internet rather than WSUS.

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