Hi folks,
We are having an issue with a client server not installing Windows updates correctly that has stumped us. The server in question is a Windows Server 2012 R2 VM sitting on a HP hyper-v host.
We first noticed our RMM tool flagged that the server had quite a few updates to install, and when we looked at them we could see that most were very old (2015-2016). We had pushed out all these updates to be installed through our RMM tool and scanned a day later only to see that none of the updates had been successful.
We then started looking at installing the updates manually via Windows Update and using Microsoft Update Catalog. For example, we had downloaded a recent 2020-05 Cumulative update from the catalog that the server was showing as installed. When we tried to install the update, it came back with an error stating that it was already installed. However when checking for updates on the server, the same 2020-05 Cumulative update showed up as an option to download and install.
In a nutshell, the server is telling us that updates are installed while also telling us that the updates are not installed and need to be downloaded. We don't see any failure messages or error codes.
Most recently we installed all updates via Windows Update and rebooted the server. Here is what we see if we navigate to Windows update:
Then if we check for updates:
If we then look at which updates it is attempting to install, we can see 2020-06 Cumulative update KB4561666 is present under Important updates and the optional updates are mostly marked 'Update for Windows Server 2020 R2 KBxxxxxx' and all except 4 of them are from 2015 or 2016.
Previous times we have seen these updates all appear in Update History also, however they don't stay there permanently - possibly running 'check for updates' removes them.
However, if we do look at Update History, one update that stands out as being installed successfully is 2020-06 Cumulative update KB4561666, which is the important update that Windows Update tells us we need to install.
We saw the same behaviour with 2020-05 Cumulative update but it is no longer showing up as either installed or need-to-install since 2020-06 Cumulative was released.
We have run sfc & dism on the server which reported no errors. We did also once see a 'rolling back updates' error when we attempted to push out updates using our RMM tool, but our RMM is equally confused by the situation, usually showing the same update KBs as 'installed' and 'missing' simultaneously.
Like I said we are stumped on this without error codes to troubleshoot. Any help would be much appreciated in resolving this issue - we can provide more information as well if that helps.
Thanks in advance!
Shane
We are having an issue with a client server not installing Windows updates correctly that has stumped us. The server in question is a Windows Server 2012 R2 VM sitting on a HP hyper-v host.
We first noticed our RMM tool flagged that the server had quite a few updates to install, and when we looked at them we could see that most were very old (2015-2016). We had pushed out all these updates to be installed through our RMM tool and scanned a day later only to see that none of the updates had been successful.
We then started looking at installing the updates manually via Windows Update and using Microsoft Update Catalog. For example, we had downloaded a recent 2020-05 Cumulative update from the catalog that the server was showing as installed. When we tried to install the update, it came back with an error stating that it was already installed. However when checking for updates on the server, the same 2020-05 Cumulative update showed up as an option to download and install.
In a nutshell, the server is telling us that updates are installed while also telling us that the updates are not installed and need to be downloaded. We don't see any failure messages or error codes.
Most recently we installed all updates via Windows Update and rebooted the server. Here is what we see if we navigate to Windows update:
Then if we check for updates:
If we then look at which updates it is attempting to install, we can see 2020-06 Cumulative update KB4561666 is present under Important updates and the optional updates are mostly marked 'Update for Windows Server 2020 R2 KBxxxxxx' and all except 4 of them are from 2015 or 2016.
Previous times we have seen these updates all appear in Update History also, however they don't stay there permanently - possibly running 'check for updates' removes them.
However, if we do look at Update History, one update that stands out as being installed successfully is 2020-06 Cumulative update KB4561666, which is the important update that Windows Update tells us we need to install.
We saw the same behaviour with 2020-05 Cumulative update but it is no longer showing up as either installed or need-to-install since 2020-06 Cumulative was released.
We have run sfc & dism on the server which reported no errors. We did also once see a 'rolling back updates' error when we attempted to push out updates using our RMM tool, but our RMM is equally confused by the situation, usually showing the same update KBs as 'installed' and 'missing' simultaneously.
Like I said we are stumped on this without error codes to troubleshoot. Any help would be much appreciated in resolving this issue - we can provide more information as well if that helps.
Thanks in advance!
Shane
