WSUS Not Working

I had an issue at a customer today where a new WSUS server was not patching clients.  I went through the WSUS configuration, all was correct.

Problem Symptoms

The symptoms of this problem are as follows:

Windows 7/2008 clients recieved the following message when attempting to receive updates from the WSUS server.

Windows could not check for updates automatically. (Important)

 

For these workstations, they report in WSUS with Last Status Report as Not yet reported.

 

 

On member servers and workstations experiancing the update issue, the following was observed in the WindowsUpdate.log file found under %WINDIR%\WindowsUpdate.log

WARNING: Search callback failed, result = 0x80072EFD
WARNING: Failed to find updates with error code 80072EFD

Here is the full Log:
2013-01-30 15:21:29:317  772 a54 Agent *************
2013-01-30 15:21:29:317  772 a54 Agent ** START **  Agent: Finding updates [CallerId = AutomaticUpdates]
2013-01-30 15:21:29:317  772 a54 Agent *********
2013-01-30 15:21:29:317  772 a54 Agent   * Online = Yes; Ignore download priority = No
2013-01-30 15:21:29:317  772 a54 Agent   * Criteria = "IsInstalled=0 and DeploymentAction='Installation' or IsPresent=1 and DeploymentAction='Uninstallation' or IsInstalled=1 and DeploymentAction='Installation' and RebootRequired=1 or IsInstalled=0 and DeploymentAction='Uninstallation' and RebootRequired=1"
2013-01-30 15:21:29:317  772 a54 Agent   * ServiceID = {3DA21691-E39D-4DA6-8A4B-B43877BCB1B7} Managed
2013-01-30 15:21:29:317  772 a54 Agent   * Search Scope = {Machine}
2013-01-30 15:21:29:491  772 a54 Setup Checking for agent SelfUpdate
2013-01-30 15:21:29:539  772 a54 Setup Client version: Core: 7.6.7600.256  Aux: 7.6.7600.256
2013-01-30 15:21:31:552  772 a54 Misc WARNING: Send failed with hr = 80072efd.
2013-01-30 15:21:31:557  772 a54 Misc WARNING: SendRequest failed with hr = 80072efd. Proxy List used: <(null)> Bypass List used : <(null)> Auth Schemes used : <>
2013-01-30 15:21:31:557  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestUsingProxy failed for <http://ang-pth-upd1/selfupdate/wuident.cab>. error 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:31:557  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestToServerForFileInformation MakeRequest failed. error 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:31:557  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestToServerForFileInformation failed with 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:31:557  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: ShouldFileBeDownloaded failed with 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:49:646  772 a54 Misc WARNING: Send failed with hr = 80072efd.
2013-01-30 15:21:49:646  772 a54 Misc WARNING: SendRequest failed with hr = 80072efd. Proxy List used: <(null)> Bypass List used : <(null)> Auth Schemes used : <>
2013-01-30 15:21:49:646  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestUsingProxy failed for <http://ang-pth-upd1/selfupdate/wuident.cab>. error 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:49:646  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestToServerForFileInformation MakeRequest failed. error 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:49:646  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestToServerForFileInformation failed with 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:49:646  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: ShouldFileBeDownloaded failed with 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:53:899  772 a54 Misc WARNING: Send failed with hr = 80072efd.
2013-01-30 15:21:53:899  772 a54 Misc WARNING: SendRequest failed with hr = 80072efd. Proxy List used: <(null)> Bypass List used : <(null)> Auth Schemes used : <>
2013-01-30 15:21:53:899  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestUsingProxy failed for <http://ang-pth-upd1/selfupdate/wuident.cab>. error 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:53:899  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestToServerForFileInformation MakeRequest failed. error 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:53:899  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestToServerForFileInformation failed with 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:53:899  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: ShouldFileBeDownloaded failed with 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:58:153  772 a54 Misc WARNING: Send failed with hr = 80072efd.
2013-01-30 15:21:58:153  772 a54 Misc WARNING: SendRequest failed with hr = 80072efd. Proxy List used: <(null)> Bypass List used : <(null)> Auth Schemes used : <>
2013-01-30 15:21:58:153  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestUsingProxy failed for <http://ang-pth-upd1/selfupdate/wuident.cab>. error 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:58:153  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestToServerForFileInformation MakeRequest failed. error 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:58:153  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestToServerForFileInformation failed with 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:58:153  772 a54 Misc WARNING: WinHttp: ShouldFileBeDownloaded failed with 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:58:153  772 a54 Misc WARNING: DownloadFileInternal failed for http://ang-pth-upd1/selfupdate/wuident.cab: error 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:58:153  772 a54 Setup WARNING: SelfUpdate check failed to download package information, error = 0x80072EFD
2013-01-30 15:21:58:153  772 a54 Setup FATAL: SelfUpdate check failed, err = 0x80072EFD
2013-01-30 15:21:58:153  772 a54 Agent   * WARNING: Skipping scan, self-update check returned 0x80072EFD
2013-01-30 15:21:58:213  772 a54 Agent   * WARNING: Exit code = 0x80072EFD
2013-01-30 15:21:58:213  772 a54 Agent *********
2013-01-30 15:21:58:213  772 a54 Agent **  END  **  Agent: Finding updates [CallerId = AutomaticUpdates]
2013-01-30 15:21:58:213  772 a54 Agent *************
2013-01-30 15:21:58:213  772 a54 Agent WARNING: WU client failed Searching for update with error 0x80072efd
2013-01-30 15:21:58:213  772 a0c AU >>##  RESUMED  ## AU: Search for updates [CallId = {44F20E45-61DE-4968-9DE7-32BD9B0ACFB0}]
2013-01-30 15:21:58:213  772 a0c AU   # WARNING: Search callback failed, result = 0x80072EFD
2013-01-30 15:21:58:213  772 a0c AU   # WARNING: Failed to find updates with error code 80072EFD
2013-01-30 15:21:58:213  772 a0c AU #########
2013-01-30 15:21:58:213  772 a0c AU ##  END  ##  AU: Search for updates [CallId = {44F20E45-61DE-4968-9DE7-32BD9B0ACFB0}]
2013-01-30 15:21:58:213  772 a0c AU #############

Resolution

The resolution to these problems in my case was upgrading my WSUS 3.0 server to Service Pack 2 by applying KB2720211.  This can be found under the following URL:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2720211

I then wanted all computers in my domain to attempt to detect new updates using the wuauclt.exe /discovernow, to ensure the WSUS console populated correctly and all machines started downloading new updates.  To do this I populated a list of all computers in the domain using the DSQUERY tool.

DSQUERY COMPUTER “DC=mydomain,DC=com” -o rdn -limit 1000 > c:\machines.txt

I then used Excel to construct the following psexec statement in mass wrapping the "psexec \\" and " wuauclt.exe /detectnow" strings around the computer name.

psexec \\COMPUTER1 wuauclt.exe /detectnow
psexec \\COMPUTER2 wuauclt.exe /detectnow
psexec \\COMPUTER3 wuauclt.exe /detectnow

I copyed this content from Excel to a batch script.

I then downloaded psexec from the following sysinternals website on TechNet:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx

Ran the batch script and forced every computer on my domain to discover for updates instead of having to wait for them to do it automatically.