Server 2019: WSUS Not Working

Question

Hi, I have had constant issues with WSUS on our Windows Server 2019 Standard 1809.
The server has a Intel Exeon E-2224 CPU @ 3.40GHz with 32GB of RAM. The partition for WSUS is 10.3TB with 10.2TB free, the WSUS folder has a current size of 66.8GB.

I have found many resources online that suggest tweaking the advanced settings in the Application Pool for WSUS in IIS, but nothing has helped.

Please see below examples of the problem...

As you can see, there are now a considerable amount of pending updates due to this problem. In this example, I have selected 3164 security updates are waiting to be approved. I have selected the blue approved button.

Once I click the approve button, I see the following screen with a loading mouse wheel for almost 5 minutes:

After around five minutes, I get the usual connection error screen:

If I click on Copy Error to Clipboard, this is the error:

Blockquote>

The WSUS administration console was unable to connect to the WSUS Server via the remote API.

Verify that the Update Services service, IIS and SQL are running on the server. If the problem persists, try restarting IIS, SQL, and the Update Services Service.

System.Net.WebException -- The operation has timed out  
  
Source  
System.Web.Services  
  
Stack Trace:  
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.WebClientProtocol.GetWebResponse(WebRequest request)  
   at Microsoft.UpdateServices.Internal.DatabaseAccess.ApiRemotingCompressionProxy.GetWebResponse(WebRequest webRequest)  
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)  
   at Microsoft.UpdateServices.Internal.ApiRemoting.ExecuteSPSearchUpdates(String updateScopeXml, String preferredCulture, Int32 publicationState)  
   at Microsoft.UpdateServices.Internal.DatabaseAccess.AdminDataAccessProxy.ExecuteSPSearchUpdates(String updateScopeXml, String preferredCulture, ExtendedPublicationState publicationState)  
   at Microsoft.UpdateServices.Internal.BaseApi.Update.SearchUpdates(UpdateScope searchScope, ExtendedPublicationState publicationState, UpdateServer updateServer)  
   at Microsoft.UpdateServices.UI.AdminApiAccess.UpdateManager.GetUpdates(ExtendedUpdateScope filter)  
   at Microsoft.UpdateServices.UI.AdminApiAccess.BulkUpdatePropertiesCache.GetAndCacheUpdates(ExtendedUpdateScope updateScope, ComputerTargetScope computerTargetScope)  
   at Microsoft.UpdateServices.UI.SnapIn.Pages.UpdatesListPage.GetListRows()  

If I visit IIS and look at the advanced settings for WsusPool within Application Pools, this is what settings are configured:

I have tried restarting IIS services, tweaking the advanced settings as per many other forum posts, but I get the same result every time. It does not make a difference if I try and carefully browse to WSUS>Updates>Critical or Security Updates, I get the same error again.

Can someone please tell me why this product is not working. We invest a considerable amount in Microsoft Software and this should not be failing.

Answer 1

@Robert Talks
Thanks for your posting on Q&A.

It seems that you have synced too many updates. According to the Official Document, In an environment that has around 17,000 updates cached, more than 24 GB of memory may be needed as the cache is built until it stabilizes (at around 14 GB). But there are only 32GB RAM in your environment.

Also please try to configure the Application Pool in the IIS as the below screenshots.

Also please try to cleanup the superseded updates. Here is PowerShell script for your reference:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-GB/troubleshoot/mem/configmgr/decline-superseded-updates

Best regards,
Rita

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Answer 2

Thank you @Rita Hu -MSFT for your reply.
I have followed through your post and made the necessary changes.
I also tried to use the PowerShell script you provided a link to but it is not running as per the below.

It would seem that the server is not running SSH from the results. Whilst it connects when doing a test run against WSUS Server without SSL, it fails to get updates with a time out error.

I notice that the WSUS Update Services Management Console also shows the same Error: Connection Error message it was showing in my original post at the start of this thread so the tweaks you suggested in IIS do not seem to have made a change. If I click 'reset server node' it tends to bring WSUS back up, but as soon as I run the PowerShell script, I get the Error: Connection Error message again and the PowerShell script returns the failed to get updates time out error message.

I have tried to re-start the IIS services, but this does not help.
I am running this PowerShell script on the WSUS server its self.

Is there anything else I can do to successfully get this to run and clear the updates?

Many thanks for your help.

Answer 3

Hello Robert,

Please follow the below steps and confirm whether it is helpful.

1. Try to connect to the WID database
   Open the SSMS as an administrator and print the Server Name: \\.\pipe\MICROSOFT##WID\tsql\query. Then we could connect to the database.
2. Try to attach the WID database again
   Reference screenshot:
   
3. Back up the database
   Reference screenshot:
   
4. Run the wsusutil.exe postinstall command on the WSUS server
   Open the CMD as an administrator and navigate to the wsusutil.exe tool(Location: C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools) Then we should run the command to finish the postinstall, like： wsusutil.exe postinstall SQL_INSTANCE_NAME=SQLSRV CONTENT_DIR=C:\WSUS

Reference screenshot:

5. Open the SSMS on the SQL Server and run the following command on the New Query to restore the database to the backup:

RESTORE DATABASE SUSDB  
FROM DISK = 'C:\backup\susdb.bak'  
WITH REPLACE  

Hope the above will be helpful.

Best regards,
Rita

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