Windows Server

WSUS clients appear and disappear from the WSUS Update Services console

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS): WSUS previously known as Software Update Services (SUS), is a computer program and network service developed by Microsoft Corporation that enables administrators to manage the distribution of updates and hotfixes released for Microsoft products to computers in a corporate environment. For more articles I have written, see the following hyperlinks: Configuring WSUS Email Notification to Work With Office365, How to setup and configure Windows server update services (WSUS), Important Areas to Master on WSUS (Installed and not applicable, Install 1/4, and Installed / Not applicable 100), Targeting WSUS Client with the Registry keys: How to configure WSUS Clients to get Updates from the WSUS server using Registry settings, How to apply Windows Updates from WSUS to the server using AWS RunCommand, How to Configure SSL between WSUS servers (Upstream and Downstream Servers), Handy WSUS Commands – Windows Server Update Services Commands, WAUACLT, PowerShell and USOClient, How to Start, Stop and Restart Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) via PowerShell and CMD, and Windows Server Update Services: Windows 2016 Servers does not show up on WSUS console,

Note: When I login to each workstation and type in the CLI(CMD) the following command below, I am able to see these machines from the WSUS console but the other would disappear.
wuauclt.exe /detectnow /reportnow

Reason for unexpected behavior

This happens sometimes to cloned servers because they are having the same SUSClientID.  Each time the server contacts WSUS, the entry in the WSUS console would get overwritten with the new server information and the existing machine would disappear.

Solution

Navigate to this registry path below and delete the “**SusClientID**” and “**SusClientIDValidation**” registry values in the key

HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionWindowsUpdate

Restart the windows update service

And perform or run the following from the CLI below

wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow
wuauclt.exe /detectnow /reportnow

Since the WUACLT is deprecated and not available in the newer operating systems, take a look at this article on how to scan or force updates from WSUS using “usoclient.exe“.

I hope you found this blog post helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.

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Graeme
Graeme
2 years ago

This exact problem has done my head in with some AWS servers running 2016
The wuauclt is deprecated but you can run usoclient.exe startscan to force a check-in to WSUS and get a new client ID generated too
Thanks regardless for the tip it’s going to save a lot of headaches

SysEnthusiast
2 years ago
Reply to  Graeme

Hi Graeme,

Thank you very much for your nice comment. I appreciate this. For more commands on usoclient.exe, see the following article
https://techdirectarchive.com/2020/02/05/handy-windows-server-update-services-commands-wauaclt-powershell-and-usoclient/

Mike
Mike
2 years ago

tks, you made my day 😉

Sergei
Sergei
1 year ago

Thanks a lot for the explanation, it has been very useful!

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