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Answered WSUS 3 Approved Updates Become Not Approved

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      Tuesday, February 21, 2012 8:07 PM
       
       
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      Basically, I have 130+ workstations getting updates from WSUS. Updates are installing fine and the workstations are reporting in to the server fine.

      My issue is this: I have about 80 updates which are needed (Security updates). I approve the updates for my groups I have created. The update files download fine, but then about a hour after I approved the updates, the updates are now "Not Approved". 

      Why are these updates reverting back to "Not Approved", how do I fix this?

      Any help would be much appreciated, these are security patches and need to be pushed out ASAP. Thanks in advance!

       

    Answers

    • Saturday, February 25, 2012 4:56 PM
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      Picture 1 shows the approved updates I have before approving my 74 security updates. (2 Updates approved shown)

      Okay. Makes perfect sense.

      Picture 2 shows my approved updates after I have approved my 74 security updates. (76 Updates approved shown)

      Okay. We're still on track here.

      Picture 3 shows my unapproved updates after a few hours, no longer are 76 updates shown as approved. 2 are shown as approved. 74 are shown as unapproved.

      And this is where we jump the rails.

      It's very difficult to compare Picture #2 to Picture #3 and draw any useful conclusions.

      For one, Picture 3 does not show any Approved updates, because it's being filtered to show NotApproved updates at all, so I cannot do anything with the statement that "2 are shown as approved". The image does not support that statement.

      Second, the image does not show =74= updates as NotApproved, it shows =75=!

      Third, the two images are sorted differently (I think they're not sorted at all), and only a small percentage of the total number of displayed updates can be seen -- so it's impossible to determine whether the updates in the two images are the same or not.

      Fourth, since the images are not timestamped, and the console is not timestamped, there's no proof in these images that the third image was taken after the second image -- or that they were even taken from the same server! So, to prove your (highly unlikely) assertion, you're going to have to provide much more convincing evidence.

      Finally, even conceding the statement that Picture #3 is a few hours after Picture #2, there's still nothing to be concluded. Yes, it does look like some "Approved" updates are now displayed as "NotApproved" (those that I can actually match from one image to the next) -- but that's no proof that it happened automagically. For all I know you set them back and have posted into the forum to jerk us around. I'd like to think that's not the case, but stronger evidence (and a realistic theory) would help tremendously. Copping an attitude and insulting my intelligence is not very helpful either.

      Unless you believe in spirits, ghosts, and the supernatural -- the much more likely case here is that a *human* made a change to your system -- so if you had posted and merely asked *HOW* could this happen, we would have replied with this:

      "I would suggest you review the logfile at %ProgramFiles%\Update Services\Logfiles\Change.LOG for the time period between when you approved the updates (be sure you can find your approvals in the logfile) and when you snapped Picture #3. The removals of those approvals will be logged also."

      rather than attacking the less-than-helpful images you offered.

      Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
      Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
      Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
      My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

       

    All Replies

    • Wednesday, February 22, 2012 6:51 AM
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      Hi,

      Where did you see the "Not approved" status? Are you sure that it is the same update you approved before?

      What if you approve this "Not approved" updates? what is going to happen?

      "Not approved" is an indictaive of not approving this update for any computer groups.

      Re-check it and post a screenshot if possible.

      Clarence

      Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

       
    • Wednesday, February 22, 2012 2:11 PM
       
       
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      I see the "Not approved" status under Updates - All Updates - Approval: Not approved, Status: Failed or Needed

      I am positive these are the same updates I approved.

      When I approve the not approved update, the approval gets set for install (I approved install for all groups).

      Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/lImmR#0

      Picture 1: My approved updates before approving the needed security updates.

      Picture 2: My approved updates after approving security updates for install.

      Picture 3: My unapproved updates after a few hours. My approved updates then shows the same items from Picture 1.

       
    • Thursday, February 23, 2012 1:11 AM
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      Ummm.. in Image #2 you have filtered by Approval=Approved, so the updates listed are those that ARE approved.

      In Image #3 you have filtered by Approval=NotApproved, so the updates listed are those that are NOT approved.

      The two lists are not the same.

      I don't understand what the problem is.

      Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
      Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
      Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
      My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

       
    • Thursday, February 23, 2012 6:13 AM
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      I can't get into the screenshots.But as Lawrence noted, it seems you are confused by the Filter Option in the All update Pane.

      Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

       
    • Thursday, February 23, 2012 1:44 PM
       
       
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      Lawrence, you seem to not understand. It is simple:

      Picture 1 shows the approved updates I have before approving my 74 security updates. (2 Updates approved shown)

      Picture 2 shows my approved updates after I have approved my 74 security updates.  (76 Updates approved shown)

      Picture 3 shows my unapproved updates after a few hours, no longer are 76 updates shown as approved. 2 are shown as approved. 74 are shown as unapproved.

      The 74 updates I approved a few hours later show up as unapproved.

      Is this really that hard to understand?

       
    • Saturday, February 25, 2012 4:56 PM
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      Picture 1 shows the approved updates I have before approving my 74 security updates. (2 Updates approved shown)

      Okay. Makes perfect sense.

      Picture 2 shows my approved updates after I have approved my 74 security updates. (76 Updates approved shown)

      Okay. We're still on track here.

      Picture 3 shows my unapproved updates after a few hours, no longer are 76 updates shown as approved. 2 are shown as approved. 74 are shown as unapproved.

      And this is where we jump the rails.

      It's very difficult to compare Picture #2 to Picture #3 and draw any useful conclusions.

      For one, Picture 3 does not show any Approved updates, because it's being filtered to show NotApproved updates at all, so I cannot do anything with the statement that "2 are shown as approved". The image does not support that statement.

      Second, the image does not show =74= updates as NotApproved, it shows =75=!

      Third, the two images are sorted differently (I think they're not sorted at all), and only a small percentage of the total number of displayed updates can be seen -- so it's impossible to determine whether the updates in the two images are the same or not.

      Fourth, since the images are not timestamped, and the console is not timestamped, there's no proof in these images that the third image was taken after the second image -- or that they were even taken from the same server! So, to prove your (highly unlikely) assertion, you're going to have to provide much more convincing evidence.

      Finally, even conceding the statement that Picture #3 is a few hours after Picture #2, there's still nothing to be concluded. Yes, it does look like some "Approved" updates are now displayed as "NotApproved" (those that I can actually match from one image to the next) -- but that's no proof that it happened automagically. For all I know you set them back and have posted into the forum to jerk us around. I'd like to think that's not the case, but stronger evidence (and a realistic theory) would help tremendously. Copping an attitude and insulting my intelligence is not very helpful either.

      Unless you believe in spirits, ghosts, and the supernatural -- the much more likely case here is that a *human* made a change to your system -- so if you had posted and merely asked *HOW* could this happen, we would have replied with this:

      "I would suggest you review the logfile at %ProgramFiles%\Update Services\Logfiles\Change.LOG for the time period between when you approved the updates (be sure you can find your approvals in the logfile) and when you snapped Picture #3. The removals of those approvals will be logged also."

      rather than attacking the less-than-helpful images you offered.

      Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
      Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
      Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
      My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin