Patch Tuesday

Details on Microsoft’s security updates.

 

Patch Tuesday is the name given to the day each month that Microsoft releases security and other patches for their operating systems and other software.

Patch Tuesday is always the second Tuesday of each month and more recently is being referred to as Update Tuesday.

Non-security updates to Microsoft Office tend to occur on the first Tuesday of each month and firmware updates for Microsoft’s Surface devices on the third Tuesday of every month.

 

NOTE : Most Windows users will experience more of a Patch Wednesday because they’re prompted to install, or notice the installation of, the updates downloaded via Windows Update on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

WSUS on Windows 2012 (R2) and KB3159706 – WSUS console fails to connect

As any other environment, my lab needs some maintenance from time to time. I use a Windows 2012 R2 VM with the Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) role to keep my Windows VMs up to date. Like many others, I was surprised by KB3148812 (Update enables ESD decryption provision in WSUS in Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2), which broke my WSUS. But the fix was easy: Uninstall KB3148812 and reboot the server. The WSUS product team published an artice about this known issue in their blog: Known Issues with KB3148812. In the meantime, Microsoft has published a new update, which supersedes KB3148812: KB3159706.

WSUS dead again?

Today I wanted to check the update status of my VMs. Unfortunately, the WSUS console was unable to connect to the WSUS server.

I checked the status of the service and found the WSUS service stopped. But even after I had started the service, the WSUS console was unable to connect to the server. I found an error in the event logs (ID 507, source Windows Server Update Services), but the message “Update Services failed its initialization and stopped” wasn’t helpful. More helpful was a log entry:

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2016-05-22 02:01:03.191 UTC Warning w3wp.19 SoapUtilities.CreateException ThrowException: actor = http://wsus.lab.local:8530/SimpleAuthWebService/SimpleAuth.asmx, ID=79bf356b-4f58-4cac-a4aa-b52ec6e0bf38, ErrorCode=InternalServerError, Message=, Client=? 2016-05-22 02:01:10.066 UTC Info w3wp.16 SimpleAuth..ctor Initializing SimpleAuth WebService ProcessID = 968, Process Start Time = 21.05.2016 21:43:13, Product Version = 6.3.9600.18324 2016-05-22 02:01:10.066 UTC Error w3wp.16 SimpleAuthImplementation..ctor Exception in SimpleAuth constructor: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): Cannot open database “SUSDB” requested by the login. The login failed. Login failed for user ‘NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE’.

After some searching and examination of the recently installed updates, I came across KB3159706.

Manual steps required to complete the installation of KB3159706

Open an elevated CMD and run this command:

1	“C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools\wsusutil.exe” postinstall /servicing

The output should look similar to this:

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C:\Users\Administrator.LAB>”C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools\wsusutil.exe” postinstall /servicing Log file is located at C:\Users\Administrator.LAB\AppData\Local\Temp\2\tmp63BD.tmp Post install is starting Post install has successfully completed C:\Users\Administrator.LAB>

Then you have to install the “HTTP Activation” feature under “.NET Framework 4.5” features.

After a restart of the WSUS service, the WSUS should work again.

Summary

The installation of KB3148812 on a WSUS server will break the WSUS installation. Because of this, Microsoft has published KB3159706. If you install this update (in my case it was installed automatically over WSUS…), you have to execute some manual steps to ensure that WSUS works as expected. The WSUS product team is aware of this and they pointed this out in their blog article “The long-term fix for KB3148812 issues” (you will find a hint directly at top of the blog article).