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How WSUS and Cluster-Aware Updating are Affected by Windows Server 8 Beta Updates

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Scenario

There are three known issues with Windows Server "8" Beta update process:

  • All Windows 8 Beta Updates, security and non-security, are not marked for WSUS.
  • The Beta Microsoft Update Catalog is not available for WSUS on Windows Server “8” Beta.
  • When WSUS is configured in its default update file configuration, components that use Windows Update Agent (WUA) in Windows 8, such as Windows Update, Cluster-Aware Updating, and Automatic Updates experience hangs or errors due to an issue in WUA when it tries to download Updates that have Express files, but the Express files are not present on the update service. 

Due to these issues, the installation of Windows 8 Beta updates will appear to have hanged, or to have failed on clients running Windows 8 Consumer Preview, or Windows “8” Server Beta. 

Pre-release updates, including Windows “8” Consumer Preview and Windows Server “8” Beta updates, are not marked for WSUS. Normally when updates are not marked for WSUS, you can still import them via Microsoft Update Catalog. However, the Beta Microsoft Update Catalog Website  is currently not available for WSUS. Therefore, the import mechanism does not work. Updates for existing products that are marked for WSUS continue to be marked for WSUS. This known issue can affect the WSUS and Cluster-Aware Updating (CAU) features in Windows Server “8” Beta.

Workaround

To workaround the issues cited in the previous section, you must perform the following steps:

**Step 1:**Run this script on the WSUS Server running on Windows Server “8” Beta. This will import all of the currently publish update on Beta Microsoft Update Catalog into the local WSUS server.

Note: Open the command prompt with elevated privileges in order to run this script.

PowerShell –ExecutionPolicy remotesigned <localPathToPS1File>

Step 2:You will need to choose one of the following two options for this step:

** Option 1**:  Do not store the files locally:

  1. On the WSUS console toolbar, click Options.
  2. Click Update Files and Languages.
  3. Under Update Files, select “Do not store update files locally; computers install from Microsoft Update”.

Note: This option requires each client computer to have access to Internet – with or without going through a proxy server – in order to install updates from Microsoft Update. For more details on this option, see Advanced Synchronization Options

Option 2:  Download express installation files:

  1. On the WSUS console toolbar, click Options.
  2. Click Update Files and Languages.
  3. Under Update Files, select “Store update files locally on this server”.
  4. Under Update Files, select “Download express installation files”.
  5. On the WSUS console toolbar, click the name of your server.
  6. Monitor the “Download Status” section and wait for all of the files to download.

Note: This option will cause the WSUS server to download potentially a large number of express installation files, with associated network bandwidth and disk space demands. For more details on this option, see Specifying Where to Store Updates

**Step 3:**On the client machines that are experiencing hangs and crashes, please run the following commands:

  1. Open a Command Prompt with elevated privileges.

  2. Execute the commands below:

    1. Net stop wuauserv

    2. rmdir /s /q %windir%\softwaredistribution

    3. Net start wuauserv

  3. Open Windows Update control panel application and Check for updates.

 

Release History

  • 3/2/2012 - Original Script
  • 3/15/2012 - Support for Updates release on 3/13/2012, script updated.
  • 3/21/2012 - Support for Updates release on 3/20/2012, script updated. 
  • 4/10/2012 - Support for Updates release on 4/10/2012, script updated.

More Information

For more information about Cluster-Aware Updating read Cluster-Aware Updating: Frequently Asked Questions at TechNet Library.