WSUS 3.0 - The server is failing to download some updates

[Ascetica]

The WSUS server is not able to get complete updates that were listed. The error log just shows - The server is failing to download some updates message. While on other WSUS server this problem does not exist. After performing a health check by wsusutil checkhealth there nothing new found. There is only single warning which is not giving any better option to fix this. I did nothing recently and I am not able to understand why this error generated. I had sync the upstream server and it looks to be working well.

[Mr.Walter]

Did you verified which updates are failing actually. You can go for a manual setup also. Also in which environment are you working. I hope your server is not configured in proxy. If yes then you must check the proxy settings. There might be recent modification which has caused the failure. As a important part of configuration you require to overwrite the proxy server password. You can do that through configuration wizard. All those proxy servers which needs authentication the sync mostly fails and updates does not work well. To fix the issue you can try to run upgrade first and then cancel configuration wizard settings.

[LeSueur]

I want to provide some info of my system that I am using right now and facing the similar error. First I have full access to one of the server which using ISA 2006 as the default proxy. Second WSUS works on the mngmt server. I had downloaded a new antivirus and updated it. But that ha not generated any error yet. Some severs are not configured to use proxy passwords. The issue here is that I cannot find which updates are specified by WSUS. The error just stays that the server is failing to update. There are no warning no alerts listed.

[Hawkin's]

I can see the updates that failed to install. I can locate them under All updates. All of them has description as not downloaded. I had approved them back again and I hope it will work. The WSUS looks working fine. After some hours I notice that those updates are still listed as failed. There is nothing in download status. And the failure is mostly related to some clients on the network only.

[Oshea]

Even in my system the download is failing and I can do nothing there. The client system does not show any kind of failure. WSUS server downloads the updates but not able to push them properly. After reading a number of articles based on this error I found that the proxy server is one which is responsible for the same. Also if you had turned on Firewall then it also cause the same thing. It is almost a day the updates are failing and not working well. I had performed a clean installation and yet nothing worked out.

[DesTiny!]

My server is not using any proxy but still the updates failed. It looks like some kind of flow with WSUS service. It is running on Windows Server 2003 Web Edition. So I think this would be a bit more complicated to fix the issue.

[Khalid Saeed]

We have 4 different servers at different cities. We installed WSUS and it was working fine.

But when we approved Windows XP Service Pack 3, it stopped downlading this update on all the servers.

I dont think that there is a problem with firewall or proxy, because we are not using any proxy or firewall and earlier it was working perfactly fine.

[yeiyei1986]

Hey. I have the same problem here.

Try this to get the problem solved.

1. if you have WSUS in a Domain controler computer you may have to grant to the folder of wsus (the one selecte in wsus intalation) to user NETWORK SERVICE whith full access.
2. in the data base selected for wsus use grant access of db_owner to NETWORK SERVICE user.

this works for me.

[Jacob.M]

It can happen if someone modifies the parent permission and you are not aware about the same. There is a security template installed on my server and I found that is was responsible for the issue. WSUS on setup creates proper NTFS permission when you run it with admin rights. So there you do not need to check the permission stuff. Another thing which is necessary that you must grant the network service read permission atleast. There should be full control permission on WSUS folder. To check the right permission setup read the documentation properly.

[MBrunzlik]

I had just moved to WSUS server and then suddenly after a few while received low space error. I got WSUS 3.0 SP2 with SQL 2005 installed on my system and this was on a new server. I had checked in Application Even Log to find the error related to WSUS. Before installing WSUS on my system I had used Robocopy to move the folders in other server. I was expecting to have entire mirror copy with all settings and permission. But that does not looked to be working well. The folder permission that you are talking about can be right to some extent, but it looks more complicated to fix.

[Illeana]

There are chances that using Robocopy might copy the permission settings as it on the target. But yet I am doubtful as I had never tried this. The flaw can be with the SID. There are unique SID used among the server and groups. When we install WSUS the folder is created. After that you must verify the installation and then migrate the database that you are trying to do on working servers.