1

Hello,

I’ve read about the MS global WSUS issue last week and I’m looking for guidance with an existing system that is not domain connected. This instance has about 1,000 client PC’s and suddenly I cannot get anything to update (clients nor WSUS sync). The server is super slow at sync. I haven’t seen it complete and it has run days.

Troubleshooting I see things are running. Haven’t found any services stopped. Windows update on the server are up to date.

Adamj Clean-WSUS script is looking very blank/bleak:

################################
# #
# Adamj Clean-WSUS #
# Version 3.2 #
# #
# The last WSUS Script you #
# will ever need! #
# #
################################

*Connected to the WSUS server omitted @ 2025.07.14 08:04:13 AM +00:00*

**Adamj Decline Multiple Types of Updates Stream:**

There are 0 updates in this server's database.
There are 14 types of updates that we're going to deal with on the 1st:

1. Superseded: 0
2. Expired: 0
3. Preview: 0
4. Itanium: 0
5. LanguagePacks: Skipped
6. IE7: Skipped
7. IE8: Skipped
8. IE9: Skipped
9. IE10: Skipped
10. Beta: 0
11. Embedded: Skipped
12. NonEnglishUpdates: Skipped
13. ComputerUpdates32bit: Skipped
14. WinXP: Skipped

Decline Multiple Types of Updates Stream Duration: 00:00:03:36

**Adamj Clean Up WSUS Synchronization Logs:**

Changed database context to 'SUSDB'.

(2 rows affected)

Clean Up WSUS Synchronization Logs Stream Duration: 00:00:03:24

**Adamj Computer Object Cleanup:**

The following 21 computers have been removed.

|**FullDomainName**|**LastSyncTime**|
| --- | --- |
-omitted-

Adamj Computer Object Cleanup Stream Duration: 00:00:01:16

**Adamj WSUS DB Maintenance:**

The Adamj WSUS DB Maintenance Stream was run with the -NoOutput switch.

WSUS DB Maintenance Stream Duration: 00:00:25:09

**Adamj WSUS Server Cleanup Wizard:**

**omitted**
Version: 6.3.9600.18838
SupersededUpdatesDeclined:
ExpiredUpdatesDeclined:
ObsoleteUpdatesDeleted:
UpdatesCompressed:
ObsoleteComputersDeleted:
DiskSpaceFreed (MB): 0
DiskSpaceFreed (GB): 0
WSUS Server Cleanup Wizard Duration: 00:00:04:29

Clean-WSUS Script Duration: 00:00:42:25

Looking for help solving as I am learning. Thanks!

3 Spice ups
2

And you applied the fix or removed the problem KB?

This wouldn’t be a typical setup, WSUS and/or the clients are usually domain joined as you use GPOs to control when they get their updates.

1 Spice up
3

I didn’t see anything to do on the my end to do. I have rebooted the WSUS server after the reported fix.

Yes not ‘typical’ as in not being joined to domain.

We are simply pointing to the WSUS in local group policy and registry on the clients.

1 Spice up
4

1000 clients and you’re not using AD, that’s madness.

Have you looked at any event logs? That would be my starting point.

Along with disk space, and if you use a separate SQL server, space there too.

3 Spice ups
5

I had a similar issue with my WSUS with it crashing, I had to restart my server multiple times until my cleaning script finally completed. It would crash the console halfway through a script run and I would have to reboot the server to get it to come back up. It probably took me 3 tries and it has not bothered me since.

1 Spice up
6

Once you’ve got WSUS stable, it’s golden…until it isn’t and getting it stable can be very hit or miss. It can be easier sometimes to rebuild than to try and fix one when it goes sideways.

If you have downstream WSUS servers, you can remove and recreate the ‘main’ WSUS then replicate the downstream database to regenerate the update packages if it’s a problem to ‘start over’ in that regard.

7

Wondering if there is advice to get the WSUS to Sync most quickly? Are devices able to communicate with the server during sync, can that be paused and anything else I can stop/put on hold until sync is 100% and back to idle?

This is a system does have downstream server (1).
Main WSUS seems to be ok on drive space but 2.33 ghz processor & Memory is 8GB. CPU and Mem are in the 90’s% usage and spike above this during synchronization. I think once it syncs I’ll be ok on resources but for now I’m underpowered, and things are failing because of it.

I’m hoping for a few moments without rebuilding it, how to get it stable.

Pretty new at this so I thank everyone for all suggestions.

1 Spice up
8

Hi Ti,

We have WSUS maintenance PS script available please find below link. Try this to clean WSUS.

1 Spice up
9

That script is very old, so it may not be doing too much to help you. He has since published an updated paid version you can install if you want to go down that road. But whatever script you use make sure it removes older synchronizations, they can really bog down your overall performance (at least from my experience).

and Per Rod-IT definitely check your event logs on the server as well as the PCs. They should at the very least begin to point you towards a possible cause.

1 Spice up
10

If this is true, change the spec to something more.

It should be syncing periodically, if you’re downloading for multiple OSes and products it may take a while, have you looked at your internet connection to ensure it’s not throttled, nothing changed on firewall rules?

1 Spice up
11

What do you mean by “main WSUS server” ?? Is this a VM and what is the storage type (SSD, SATA HDD etc) ?

Then how are the local admin & local users created or assigned on machines ? what admin accounts are being used on the servers (including WSUS server) ?
Could the sync to user machines be slow due to the client machines ?

1 Spice up
12

They probably have downstream repositories. A repo at each off-site facility will cache updates provided by WSUS so that the end-clients aren’t pulling from the main unit half-way across the country, for example.

1 Spice up