Common problems

  • Article

Updated: March 10, 2009

Applies To: Windows SBS 2008

This topic contains information about how to resolve common problems with Update Services.

Computers are not registering with Update Services.

Update Services keeps track of the computers that are registered with it, and it periodically compares this list with Active Directory. To see the update status for each computer, in the Windows SBS Console, click Network, and then click Computers.

Computers may not appear to register with Update Services for a variety of reasons. Some common reasons follow:

  • The computer accounts in Active Directory may refer to decommissioned or inactive computers. If this is the case, you should delete the computer account by using the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.

  • You have just installed the Windows SBS 2008. In this case, you must wait at least 90 minutes for the client computers to refresh their Group Policy settings. When the client computers refresh their Group Policy settings, they receive new Group Policy settings relating to Update Services, which configure Automatic Updates to use Update Services on the computer that is running Windows SBS 2008. During the first contact with the server, the client computers register with Update Services.

  • If Windows Update is set to Never check for updates (not recommended) on Windows Vista or Turn off Automatic Updates on Windows XP, the client computer is not detected if you click Security on the Windows SBS Console, click Updates, and then click View the update deployment report. Re-enable Windows Update on the client computer.

Important

If you decide to use Windows Update instead of Windows SBS 2008 Update Services to update your server that is running Windows SBS 2008, you receive only Windows Server 2008 updates and not Windows SBS 2008 updates.

Update Services is running, but updates are not being downloaded from Microsoft Update

If Update Services synchronization fails, you may have a problem with the proxy settings. Use the following steps to configure the connection to the proxy server in the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) administrator's console.

Note

You must be a network administrator to complete this procedure.

To configure the proxy server setting

  1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Microsoft Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP1.

  2. On the User Account Control page, click Continue.

  3. In the Update Services navigation pane, click Options.

  4. In the details pane, click Update Source and Proxy Server.

  5. Click the Proxy Server tab, and then select Use a proxy server when synchronizing.

  6. Type the server name and port number. If your proxy server requires credentials, select the option Use user credentials to connection to the proxy server, and then type the user name, domain, and password information.

  7. Click OK to save the settings.

Client computers do not apply the Group Policy objects for Update Services

If the client computers do not appear to apply the Group Policy objects (GPOs) for Update Services, verify that the following GPOs exist.

Update Services creates the following three GPOs that apply to the Windows SBS 2008 domain:

  • Update Services Client Computers Policy

  • Update Services Common Settings Policy

  • Update Services Server Computers Policy

These are the only GPOs related to Update Services that should exist in the Windows SBS 2008 domain.

To verify the GPOs that are related to Update Services and that apply to your Windows SBS 2008 domain, complete the following procedure on the server running Windows SBS 2008.

Note

You must be a network administrator to complete this procedure.

To verify Update Services GPOs

  1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Group Policy Management.

  2. On the User Account Control page, click Continue.

  3. In the Group Policy Management navigation pane, double-click Forest:<YourDomain.local> where <YourDomain.local> is the name of your Windows SBS 2008 domain, and then double-click Domains.

  4. Double-click <YourDomain.local>, and then double-click Group Policy Objects.

  5. Verify that the GPOs related to Update Services match those listed in this topic.

  6. If you have any other GPOs related to Update Services or to WSUS 3.0 with SP1, you should delete them so that they do not conflict with the GPOs that the release version of Update Services creates.

Client computers are not deleted from Update Services

After deleting a client computer by opening the Windows SBS Console, then clicking Network, and then clicking Computer, you can still see the deleted computer if you open the Windows SBS Console, click Security, click Updates, and then view the device list. WSUS does not automatically remove deleted computers until 30 days after the computer is deleted. To remove the computer from the device list sooner than 30 days, run the Server Cleanup Wizard.

Note

You must be a network administrator to complete this procedure.

To run the Server Cleanup Wizard

  1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Microsoft Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP1.

  2. On the User Account Control page, click Continue.

  3. In the Update Services navigation pane, click Options.

  4. In the details pane, click Server Cleanup Wizard. Ensure that the Computers not contacting the server task is selected.

  5. Click Next, and then complete the wizard.

For more information about the Server Cleanup Wizard, see the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=137008).