SMS 2003: ITMU v3 requires two passes, two reboots, to deploy April 2010 security patches

We've been getting some calls about this one so I thought it deserved a mention here.  If you're having some ITMU related issues with the April 2010 security patch install then you'll want to take a quick read of this one.  Note that this issue only affects SMS 2003.  Our currently supported products, ConfigMgr 2007 and WSUS 3.0, do not share this limitation.

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Issue: Deployment of the April 2010 security patches requires two executions of PatchInstall.exe and may require two reboots of the client. On the first execution, the PatchInstall.log shows:

INSTALL FAILED: UpdateID = 804db346-55c5-44b7-8491-1ecf77062836, QNumber = 978601, Title = Security Update for Windows XP (KB978601), ExitCode = 1642, Executable = C:\WINDOWS\system32\VPCache\PackageID\SmsWusHandler.exe /InstallFile:" \\DPServer\SMSPKGx$\PackageID\804db346-55c5-44b7-8491-1ecf77062836\windowsxp-kb978601-x86-enu_49ae6ac4f6e0a609124f2ce6f80fcef249273c02.exe " /UpdateID:804db346-55c5-44b7-8491-1ecf77062836

...

INSTALLED: UpdateID = d9782d11-f459-402c-bf34-d2606caa91a1, QNumber = 979309, Title = Security Update for Windows XP (KB979309), ExitCode = 0, Duration = 2, Executable = C:\WINDOWS\system32\VPCache\PackageID\SmsWusHandler.exe /InstallFile:" \\DPServer\SMSPKGx$\PackageID\d9782d11-f459-402c-bf34-d2606caa91a1\windowsxp-kb979309-x86-enu_b6a3d8953714847d02d614e8fcb5b4171d1029fb.exe " /UpdateID:d9782d11-f459-402c-bf34-d2606caa91a1

And on the second execution, after the reboot, the same log shows:

REBOOT NEEDED: UpdateID = 804db346-55c5-44b7-8491-1ecf77062836, QNumber = 978601, Title = Security Update for Windows XP (KB978601), ExitCode = 3010, Duration = 2, Executable = C:\WINDOWS\system32\VPCache\PackageID\SmsWusHandler.exe /InstallFile:" \\DPServer\SMSPKGx$\PackageID\804db346-55c5-44b7-8491-1ecf77062836\windowsxp-kb978601-x86-enu_49ae6ac4f6e0a609124f2ce6f80fcef249273c02.exe " /UpdateID:804db346-55c5-44b7-8491-1ecf77062836

Cause: MS10-019 shipped as two KBs - KB978601 and KB979309 - with KB978601 requiring that KB979309 be installed in order to install successfully. ITMU v3 has a limitation that results in PatchInstall.exe trying to install KB978601 first.

Resolution: Per https://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2890, SMS 2003 mainstream support ended on January 12, 2010. As such, no further updates to ITMU will be released and use of the work-around - running the Patch Install package twice - is required.

It is important to note that our currently supported products, SCCM 2007 and WSUS 3.0, do not share this limitation and can deploy the current security patches in one pass.

Keith Thornley | Senior Support Escalation Engineer