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WSUS: How to change the location where WSUS stores updates locally

  • Article

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where the Content volume on your WSUS server is running out of space but you had no idea how to change where the updates are stored locally?  Or maybe the disk where updates are stored fails and the replacement disk uses a new drive letter?  Either way, knowing how to change the location where WSUS stores updates locally is something that will likely come in handy sooner or later and here's how to do it:

You accomplish this move with the movecontent command of WSUSutil.exe, a command-line tool that is copied to the file system of the WSUS server during WSUS Setup. By default, Setup copies WSUSutil.exe to the following location:

WSUSInstallationDrive:Program FilesMicrosoft Windows Server Update ServicesTools

You must be a member of the local Administrators group on the WSUS server to use the movecontent command of WSUSutil.exe, and these operations can only be run from the WSUS server itself which must be a 32-bit platform.  You must also create the new path for local WSUS update storage prior to using WSUSutil.exe.

The movecontent command takes an optional -skipcopy parameter which enables you to change the location of local WSUS update storage without copying any files. To change the location of local WSUS update storage complete the following steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
3. At the command prompt, navigate to the directory that contains WSUSutil.exe.
4. Type the following, and then press ENTER:

wsusutil.exe movecontent contentpath logfile [-skipcopy]

For example, if D:WSUS1 is the new path for local WSUS update storage, D:move.log is the path to the log file, and you wanted to copy the old files to the new location, you would type:

wsusutil.exe movecontent D:WSUS1 D:move.log

For more information see

* Managing WSUS from the Command Line at https://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/2686bd2b-910a-479b-961e-cea2a20280241033.mspx?mfr=true.

and

* Deploying Microsoft Windows Server Update Services at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=41777&clcid=0x409.

Ellis George | WSUS Support Engineer

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    PingBack from http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-server-2000-2003/37637-wsus-update-storage.html#post350479
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thanks for this article. Works great on w2k8r2 x64 as well.
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thanks for your helpI'm using WSUS 3.0 SP2 on Windows server 2008 x64 so I think my path to "wsusutil.exe" is different.First of all, the path to the "wsuutil.exe" in this edition is in "%programfiles%Update ServicesTools"I used the CLI to move the content from one drive to the other drive and then detached  the SUSDB (which you mention here** and attached the new one.By detaching and attaching new SUSDB, original folder can be renamed or removed without any error.** link blog.augustoalvarez.com.ar/.../wsus-30-connecting-managing-and-moving-susdb-as-internal-database
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    And by the way, the "UpdateServicesDbFiles" folder should be copy manually to the destination as it will not move by other content which "wsusutil.exe" moving, this folder contain the SUSDB which should be attach as a new DB.
  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2010
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2010
    ah, one more thing... once the move is complete, you will need to go back and remove the UpdateServicesPackages as well as the WsusContent folders from the original location.  There is a third folder nested in the original location (c:wsus) called UpdateServicesDbFiles that is locked and apparently cannon be moved from one drive to the other...  no matter the content folder was what was using all the space.
  • Anonymous
    January 13, 2011
    Also, the server can be a 64-bit platform.
  • Anonymous
    January 24, 2011
    Thanks for tip. I have done this but , While Moving the error occurred that 'Server service is not started'.So What to do now ?
  • Anonymous
    November 08, 2012
    hi,i cannot find a solution...i've a WSUS 3.0, i want to install sp2 but i can't, i tried to uninstall but i can't.i found that this path is wrong \serverWSUS\UpdateServicesPackages and both process cannot access.i can't find where to change it manually, can you help me?thanks in advance
  • Anonymous
    March 19, 2014
    in Windows 2008 R2 just found out that the default location of wsusutil.exe is located per the following directory below:

    C:Program FilesUpdate ServicesTools