How can I enable/disable encryption for WSUS using WID after having installed ODBC 18?

Question

Hello, wsyncmgr.log contains following entries:

Sql Exeception was thrown while attempting to add index nclLocalizedPropertyID on table tbLocalizedPropertyForRevision.Error Message: The instance of SQL Server you attempted to connect to does not support encryption.

Sql Exeception was thrown while attempting to add index nclSupercededUpdateID on table tbRevisionSupersedesUpdate.Error Message: The instance of SQL Server you attempted to connect to does not support encryption.

This appears only on SUPs having the DB on WID (we don't have the possibility to switch to SUSDB at the moment on these servers).
WID does not seem to support encryption which seems to be default after having ODBC 18 installed.
How can we disable encryption on our servers that are having WID?
SSMS and SQL Configuration Manager do not provide an option for this when connecting to the WID.
thank you for any help

Answer 1

Dear Marta Arendas BMW,

Based on the error messages in your wsyncmgr.log, it appears that the recent installation of ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server has introduced default encryption settings that WID does not support. This is a known behavior, as WID does not support encrypted connections, and ODBC 18 enables encryption by default.

To resolve this, you can disable encryption for ODBC 18 connections by modifying the registry on affected servers:

Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe)

Navigate to the following key:

Code

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBCINST.INI\ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server

1. Add a new String Value: Name: Encrypt Value: no Restart the WSUS services or reboot the server to apply the change.

Please ensure you back up the registry before making any changes, and test in a non-production environment if possible.

I hope this helps. Just kindly tick Accept Answer that others in the community facing similar issues can easily find the solution. Your contribution is highly appreciated.

Best regards,

Domic Vo

Answer 2

As far as I know, ODBC 17 is the latest version that supports WID

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-ca/sql/connect/odbc/download-odbc-driver-for-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver17#version-17

WID = SQL Server 2014