Like most good security conscious people I’ve applied all the relevant security patches to my network as they are released. I’ve therefore left non critical patches to weekends when I can apply them at my leisure in case something went wrong. Today one of the patches I was applying was the WSUS 3.0 SP2 patch. I instigated the installation of this patch right after a reboot so I know all was good with the server, but after around 20 minutes the patch announced it had failed. It instructed me to grab a copy of the log files relevant to the installation which I did. It also told me that it had done a backup of my WSUS database located in F:\WSUS\{BC844490-1AB9-4C55-B6B6-F3FB3B755B98} (that last part is some random GUID it generates).
Ok – two choices – my entire server from back or try out the MS repair guides. I decided to follow the MS repair guide for SBS 2008 and in particular the link for repairing WSUS installation.
I followed the steps given in the article and used the repair DVD (DVD#2) to reinstall WSUS. I issued the command to start the WSUS installation and it quickly returned to the command line and then NOTHING happened on screen for a period of time. I was beginning to suspect the command had failed until I looked at task manager and was able to see MSIEXEC was busy doing something. I figure that it was just taking its time and left it be for now. The only way you know the install is complete is if you watch for the MSIEXEC to disappear from the task list. Once it had installed I deviated from the
In my original installation I had used the SBS wizards to relocate the WSUS from the C: drive to my F: drive. I ran the wizard to do this again and it moved over nicely.
Given I had a backup copy of the database I figured I’d try to restore it over the top of the existing database. To do that I had to stop a few services first.
Stop the Update Services service.
Stop World Wide Web Publishing Service
I ran the SQL Server Management Studio Express (SQL SMSE) tool from the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 program group as ADMINISTRATOR and told it to connect to \\.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query using Windows Authentication.
I then right clicked on the SUSDB inside the SQL SMSE and selected Tasks, then Restore Database, then from file. I then selected to restore from File and located the SUSDB.bak file. I then went to Options tab and selected “Overwrite the existing database” and then press Ok to start the restore. It took 10 minutes to do the restore on my server but this might be as it’s an older server.
Once restored, I then started the Update Service and the World Wide Web Publishing Service once more.
I went into the WSUS console and found everything back the way it was before the upgrade. I checked the SBS 2008 console and found it too was working once more with the Updates section correctly reporting everything I needed.
Now – I’ve not attempted the upgrade to WSUS 3.0 SP2 again just yet – I’ll leave that for the moment and review the logs to see what might have caused it to fail.
Hi There
Well it is only a little while later, that I find myself in a similar state – yet worse. I too received an error message after aplying the WSUS 3.0 SP2 patch, however instead of being able to reboot, my SBS server is in an endless loop.
Upon Rebooting, after an unusually long time ‘Applying Computer Settings’ an error message is displayed saying “Updates were not configured correctly. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer.”
I am not able to get to a logon screen, in order to do any kind of further troubleshooting.
Safe Mode, and Last known good yeild the same results – before being presented with a logon screen – the system falls back to attempting to ‘revert changes’ but it is abviously failing.
Furthermore, when I boot to the SBS Disk 1, and choose the ‘Repair my Computer’ option, the “Restore from Backup” does not see my WD MyBook, that I have been using for backups.
So for options, I have been thinking about [1]System Restore, or [2]Disabling a service form startup, or [3]somehow clearing the state of the failed updates. Not much on google for this error on SBS.
So, [1]Is there a way that I can do a system restore from the command line?
[2]If I was thinking that disabling WSUS from starting may also allow me to boot into SBS and troublehsoot from there. How do you disable a service from starting, from the Repair environment’s command prompt?
and
[3]Lastly, I was wondering if there is a way to ‘clear’ the error state that seems to be triggering this looping ‘reverting changes’ error.
Any help is appreciated.
-=Ed
As a postscript – Ironically, I was applying patches in order to attempt a Migration from SBS 2008 to WinS08 R2, I have a new Dell Server rarin to go, and am running out of weekend.
Update:
I could not figgure out why the external Drive I have been using to do backups to was not found.
I went into the ‘Repair my Computer’ option off of the SBS DVD boot, and once there, connected the USB drive to a different USB port.
THen I ran the ‘Restore my Computer from Backup’ Option and it this time found the drive with the last backup.
Performed the restore – and am back in business.
-=Ed
This works like a charm, thanks
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