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Wsusutil export package.cab : package.cab null size

Answered Wsusutil export package.cab : package.cab null size

  • Thursday, October 11, 2012 9:41 AM
     
     
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    Hi

    Recently I identify my wsusutil import didn't work because the package.cab was null size.

    When I export metadata with wsusutil export package.cab filelog.xml, my server works 0:45 and successfully generate a null package.cab and logfile.xml (45 Mb Size).

    I've already cleanup my server, reindex database, uninstall/install wsus component only and system (Win2K8)  +  component

    My server get all classifications and products for 2 languages (EN + FR)

    In my %TEMP% during export, I identify first 3 temp file (tmp1234.tmp) and later 5 others (EXP2 to EXP6)

    Example of my temp directory for export
    10/10/2012  10:51        36 033 560 EXP2
    10/10/2012  10:39                     28 EXP3
    10/10/2012  10:36                       0 EXP4
    10/10/2012  10:36                       0 EXP5
    10/10/2012  10:36                       0 EXP6
    10/10/2012  10:53                       0 file.txt
    10/10/2012  10:12         42 995 712 tmp1EC0.tmp
    10/10/2012  10:36         91 103 751 tmp1EC1.tmp
    10/10/2012  10:36                        0 tmp24E3.tmp
    10/10/2012  10:36     2 233 614 522 tmp2A0D.tmp
                  11 fichier(s)    2 403 779 405 octets
                   3 Rep(s)  64 295 100 416 octets libres

    Can the source be the 2Gb size file ?

    thanks


    • Edited by PF PEGASE Friday, October 12, 2012 7:39 AM precisions
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  • Saturday, October 13, 2012 1:36 AM
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    Can the source be the 2Gb size file ?

    Yep.

    And the cause of this is almost always failing to maintain the update repository on the connected server by properly removing approvals and running the Server Cleanup Wizard prior to peforming the monthly update exports.

    Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
    SolarWinds Head Geek
    Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
    My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

     
  • Tuesday, October 30, 2012 8:27 PM
     
     
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    I complete a full WSUS export weekly, “why? I hear you ask, because I have too; But why, thats crazy!! Because I have too!”.

    However; now I find that I get a 0kb cab file on exports because the embedded metadata.txt file is now over 2gb, which as you know is a cab file limitation. Seems to have only happened since Windows 8 and Server 2012 patching was enabled on WSUS 3.0.

    Question isn’t.. "why do you need to do a full export?" The question is: "When does Microsoft plan to resolve this issue?" An easy fix for them would be to split the metadata.txt file when an export is run and tell us administrators when its done.

     
  • Wednesday, November 07, 2012 7:23 PM
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    Question isn’t.. "why do you need to do a full export?"

    No, it isn't. The question is: Why aren't you properly performing maintenance on your WSUS server?
    The question is: "When does Microsoft plan to resolve this issue?"
    It's not an issue that needs resolution. If you properly maintain your server, and properly use the Server Cleanup Wizard, you will never have 2GB of metadata to be exported.

    Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
    SolarWinds Head Geek
    Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
    My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

     
  • Thursday, November 15, 2012 8:22 PM
     
     
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    Lawrence We use scup publisher here at my site and we pbulish full content when it comes to third party apps. Whats microsoft anwser for that since the full update is in the wsus content?
     
  • Friday, November 23, 2012 7:21 PM
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    We use scup publisher here at my site and we pbulish full content when it comes to third party apps. Whats microsoft anwser for that since the full update is in the wsus content?

    Not really grasping the context of the question, Mike, so I'll throw up every thing that might be relevant. (Also note that this subtopic is really out of scope for this forum, but I'll give it one shot. Actually, you might get different answers in the SCCM forums that do not agree with my perspective.) :-)

    With respect to the performance question, it's probably a non-issue since [a] the SUP doesn't have approvals or declines (generally speaking) and [b] SCCM automatically expires all superseded updates anyway and [c] most SCCM installation do not have downstream SUPs.

    With respect to the Server Cleanup Wizard -- it should be run on the SUP, just as it would on a standalone WSUS server -- but it has notable differences in its impact on a SUP, as compared to a standalone WSUS server.

    • Delete computers -- clients do contact the SUP (selfupdate; detection) and will be listed in the All Computers and Unassigned Computers target groups; but they don't report (by default). This option is based on Last Contact, so it can be used to cleanup dead computers from the SUP database.
    • Decline expired updates -- this will work, but it's going to be superseded by the "Delete updates" operation, so there's no real point in invoking it, except to get the occasional SNAFU from Microsoft that has to be expired for defects before it gets a chance to be superseded. (Then again, this seems to be a monthly occurrence of late, so maybe it's not so insignificant.)
    • Decline superseded updates -- SCCM already expires them, and a SUP has no approvals to remove, so there's no real value in this operation.
    • Delete expired updates -- BIG value in this option since on a SUP all superseded updates are also expired. The lower the number of updates in the SUP, the less time SCCM has to invest in performing daily update synchronizations.
    • Delete unneeded update files -- only to the extent that locally published updates have been manually declined, or superseded by a newer SCUP package (and thus expired by SCCM). In practically we're talking about file space consumption measured in tens of megabytes, though.

    Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
    SolarWinds Head Geek
    Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
    My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin

     
  • Wednesday, December 05, 2012 6:07 PM
     
     
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    So I guess I am confused.  We have 500 servers on 8 WSUS servers (1 direclty to microsoft and 7 replica servers).  We are ONLY pulling Security updates, Critical Updates, and Def Updates for Server 2003 and Server 2008 and we have this problem.  So I find your comment hard to believe that "you will never have 2GB of metadata to be exported"  because we do.  Now that we have an isolated test lab I have to get the data to it somehow.  There has to be a way to get it done.  The servers are cleaned monthly of all expired and superceded updates (against my will because I like to track superceded updates when security hits us with Retina findings). 

    Is there a way to purge the metadata?  I would think a cleanup would clean the DB but the metadata file is going to have entries for everything in an out. 

    Thanks all

    Chad Boone

     
  • Wednesday, December 05, 2012 6:24 PM
     
     
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    Dear Lawrence, the CAB 2GiB file limitation is just plain inexcusable these days. And again, absolutely not surprised to see yet another pointless tirade of yours here. Also, as said above, your assumptions such as "If you properly maintain your server, and properly use the Server Cleanup Wizard, you will never have 2GB of metadata to be exported." are plain false. 

    So, let me ask again (no, not you, Lawrence)  - when does MS plan to fix their clearly inadequate archive format to properly support large files? This is a real problem, as evidenced by other threads - not something to brush off repeatedly with "oh, that issue does not exist, it is just you fail to maintain properly".

    Pretty poor taste to blame customers for bad maintenance when the underlying issue is that the file format used is so poor that more that 2GB gets way over its head. Worse yet, wsusutil failing to detect the problem and leaving people with "successful" useless broken export, instead of at least splitting the "offending" metadata so that it fits the poor cab format.

    (As a side note - with proper design, people should not even have to go through the cleanup wizard nonsense every month, no reason for this, could (and should) be completely automated.)


     
  • Friday, December 07, 2012 10:41 AM
     
     
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    Same issue here (CAB file size limitation of 2GB), when will the (promised) solution from MS be ready?

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrsum/thread/d34b7e17-c36e-4631-9dec-4b0f08b6f49b

    Have run the server cleanup wizard several times, and also unselected service packs from products and classifications.

    Håkon

     
  • Wednesday, December 12, 2012 2:34 AM
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    We have 500 servers on 8 WSUS servers

    Yikes! Now that brings a new definition to the word =overkill=. I'd start by decommissioning seven of those eight WSUS servers.

    So I find your comment hard to believe that "you will never have 2GB of metadata to be exported" because we do.

    I understand that you *do* have >2GB of metadata. My point was that on a *healthy* WSUS server, you won't, so the fact that you do is prima facie evidence that you have an unhealthy WSUS server.

    Just last week, on a WSUS server with 6000+ updates, I did an export, and the export was less than 100MB!

    Now that we have an isolated test lab I have to get the data to it somehow. There has to be a way to get it done.

    Yes, you have to be realistic in the products, classifications, and languages that you synchronize to a WSUS server.

    What do you *NEED* in that test lab? If you have more than that on your existing connected server, I would suggest building a NEW connected server just to service the lab -- or reconsider what you have configured on the existing connected server and reduce that content to only what is actually needed.

    The servers are cleaned monthly of all expired and superceded updates

    I suspect the problem is not the superseded, thus expired by Configuration Manager, updates, but rather the NOT-superseded updates that you probably never needed. How many update are on the SUP? On a Configuration Manager Software Update Point, given that superseded updates are expired, and expired updates are deleted by the Server Cleanup Wizard -- I would be shocked if a SUP actually had more than a thousand updates.

    The exception would be a SUP with the "Drivers" update classification enabled, which adds another 30,000+ updates to the list, none of which are likely to be superseded.

    (against my will because I like to track superceded updates when security hits us with Retina findings).

    And this is a function of using Configuration Manager 2007. Upgrade to ConfigMgr 2012 and now you'll have choices about this matter.

    Is there a way to purge the metadata?

    Nope. Well, not easily. You're already purging all expired (read: superseded on a SUP) updates using the Server Cleanup Wizard. Beyond that the answer really exists in how many actual updates are reported as existing on the WSUS server, which probably brings us back to the "Drivers" question.

    I would think a cleanup would clean the DB

    What the Server Cleanup Wizard does, and does not do, is well documented, and discussed ad infinitum in this forum. It deletes expired updates. On a SUP, all superseded updates are expired, which means the typical SUP shouldn't have much more than a thousand (not superseded) updates, on any given day.

    Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
    SolarWinds Head Geek
    Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
    My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin
    The views expressed on this post are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of SolarWinds.

     
  • Wednesday, December 12, 2012 2:50 AM
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    Dear Lawrence, the CAB 2GiB file limitation is just plain inexcusable these days.

    Your opinion is noted, but entirely irrelevant to this discussion. The CAB file specification is a Microsoft specification, and it's what WSUS uses. That's not going to change in the current versions of WSUS, so there's absolutely no point in wasting energy talking about things that aren't going to change. Furthermore, as noted, a HEALTHY WSUS server is incapable of producing 2GB of metadata, so if this situation is encountered, the correct response is to perform the necessary update maintenance on that WSUS server and reduce the number of updates that need to be exported.

    This forum is chock full of empirical evidence that contradicts everything you're saying on this issue. On Nov 23rd, I exported ~6200 updates from my personal WSUS server, and the resulting CAB file was <50MB in size; in addition, the forum is chock full of examples of admins who reduced the size of active updates on their WSUS server and were subsequently able to export them.

    Whether the 2GB limit on a CAB file is an issue or not is an entirely separate discussion, and totally off-topic in this forum, but it's not relevant here, because a healthy WSUS server is incapable of producing a 2GB export metadata file!

    Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
    SolarWinds Head Geek
    Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
    My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin
    The views expressed on this post are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of SolarWinds.

     
  • Wednesday, December 12, 2012 2:55 AM
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    Same issue here (CAB file size limitation of 2GB), when will the (promised) solution from MS be ready?

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrsum/thread/d34b7e17-c36e-4631-9dec-4b0f08b6f49b

    Have run the server cleanup wizard several times, and also unselected service packs from products and classifications.

    Håkon

    Pray tell what "promised" solution are you referring to? There is no "promised solution". The CAB file format has a functional size limitation of =2GB=. That isn't gonna change! Deal with it.

    The FIX for a WSUS environment is to not try to export =2GB= worth of update metadata!

    Running the Server Cleanup Wizard won't help a whit if you still have archaic approvals assigned to old superseded updates, and unselecting Service Packs won't help a whit because the total number of Service Packs on a WSUS server is measured in double digits.

    • How many updates do you have on your WSUS Server?
    • How many of those update are APPROVED?
    • How many of those update are DECLINED?

     

    Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
    SolarWinds Head Geek
    Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2012)
    My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin
    The views expressed on this post are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of SolarWinds.

     
  • Wednesday, December 12, 2012 1:24 PM
     
     
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    Another useless tirade. And of course not detecting fatal failure to export (0byte sized) is no bug as well. Lawrence, may I suggest you instead go fix your website? Frankly, the amount of BS you seem to produce here would not be tolerated on any reasonably moderated discussion forum.

     
  • Thursday, April 18, 2013 9:12 PM
     
     
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    At last the "promised solution" arrives!!!

    I beta tested this a few weeks back and was happy to see it finally released last Wednesday, I guess it was'nt Adminitrators not following best practices after all!

    Happy days!