SCCM 2012 R2 - Software Update folders deleting

[Kazi]

Hello everyone,

 

I have a question regarding Software Update folders in SCCM 2012 R2 but first let me give you a little background about my environment.

 

We are running R2 and have been for about 3 months now. I have one Primary server which has WSUS and SCCM on. I use SCCM to deploy all Windows Updates to both servers and workstations.

 

When I need to download and distribute Windows Updates, I go into All Software Updates and use my saved searches that I have created. First I search for Windows Updates for servers and select all the ones that apply to my environment. I then right click and choose DOWNLOAD which requires me to create a Deployment Package. I create the new deployment package (ex. Windows Updates for Servers - April 2014) and when it asks me for a download path, I download them to \\ServerName\Updates\ServerUpdates-April2014 and let them download. After the download is complete I create my Software Update Group and set up my deployments. I do the same thing for workstations, I just create a folder in Updates named WorkstationUpdates-April2014 and do the download for the workstations into that folder.

 

Last week Friday, I went into the \\ServerName\Updates folder and saw that there were only 2 folders in there. One of them was for my automatic Endpoint definition updates and the other is a folder with a GUID for a name. Since I had server updates to be deployed on Saturday, I created a new Deployment Package, downloaded the Windows Updates again, recreated a Software Update Group, picked my distribution point and set my deployments. This created the folder in \\ServerName\Updates and everything appeared to be good.

 

Today (Monday) I checked the \\ServerName\Updates folder and all the folders in there are missing again with the exception of the folder for automatic Endpoint definition updates and the folder with the GUID for a name. I checked the Windows Update deployment that was scheduled for Saturday and it shows 100%. In the past these folders were not removed and I cannot figure out what changed in SCCM that is causing them to be removed now. I don't have the deployment set to expire and this is the "usual" way I deployed them in the past.

 

I have checked with other admins here and they have all told me that they have not deleted anything on the server. There is only one other admin that has full access to SCCM like I do and he swears he didn't remove anything. Right now I'm scratching my head trying to figure out where these folders have gone and if I need them or not since the job was deployed to the DP. As long as I don't update the deployment package then my update deployments should deploy without a problem, correct?

 

Thanks in advance to any information anyone can provide. I read thought this thread: http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/9077-my-content-is-deleting-itself/ but there wasn't any type of resolution given.

[Peter van der Woude]

The source path for the package is indeed where ConfigMgr will download the updates to. Also, that folder will never be deleted by ConfigMgr, not even after deleting the package...

[Kazi]

Thanks for the info Peter. Any clue as to what could be removing the folders? I am going to create new software update deployments (again) in hopes that they will stay. I have workstation updates that should be deployed this evening.

[Peter van der Woude]

There is nothing within in ConfigMgr that would trigger a deletion of that folder.

 

The only thing that I can think of right now is that there is another package with as source path a folder of a level higher (so it includes the other package folder), but even then I don't think that ConfigMgr would remove the folder.

[Kazi]

I wasn't sure if ConfigMgr was trying to remove expired or superseded updates, but these updates are from April 2014 patch Tuesday - so none of them should be expired and/or superseded. I downloaded and created the deployment jobs on April 9 and I deployed to test groups that evening without and issue. On Friday I downloaded all Office updates and when I went into the UPDATES folder to create the OfficeUpdates-April2014 folder is when I noticed that all my folders in there were missing... I never cleaned them up - I just left them alone in there, so all of last year's folders were in there as well. I went into Download Packages, right clicked on the package name and Show Members. I highlighted them all and clicked on Download. SCCM provisioned them very fast but did not download them, probably because it believes they were already downloaded for that job. I had to create new Deployment Packages and Software Update Groups to get them downloaded again. Once I had them downloaded, I deployed to my next group on Saturday with success. I came in today and checked the UPDATES folder but all the folders inside of there are gone again. I checked the SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER because it has a warning ! in front and it reports that the Distribution Manager failed to process the package "Windows Updates for Servers - April 2014" with the list of possible causes, (not having access, no drive space, etc.) but I checked the Deployments and it is reporting 100% compliant - that's why I was wondering if once the package is distributed to the distro point, does it need to be in the \\ServerName\CM_DSL\Updates folder anymore?

 

I really don't have any idea what is causing these folders to disappear, but it worries me that something is wrong and this is just the beginning of issues to come.

[Kazi]

Update on this - I recreated everything yesterday and downloaded the updates again. My deployment last night had a high success compliance percentage and the folders from yesterday are still there... I'll keep an eye on it to see if they disappear or not.

[Kazi]

The folders are deleted again - it happened between my last post and this one... I'm not sure what's up but I'm getting pretty frustrated.

[Iroqouiz]

There aren't any weird scripts running as scheduled tasks, or anti virus applications that interfere?

[Kazi]

There aren't any weird scripts running as scheduled tasks, or anti virus applications that interfere?

I have Endpoint Protection on the server - but I don't think that's what is removing the folders... I checked for any scripts and there aren't any that I can find. I'm the only admin with the exception of another guy here and he said he doesn't even know how to create a script to remove the folders. I'm really at a loss - I have created the deployment packages and the software update groups EXACTLY as I have in the past and I didn't have these issues before.

 

I asked the other SCCM admin if he did anything in SCCM or on the server. He said he deleted old software update groups but not the software update packages or delete anything off the server. I don't think that's the problem because my current software update groups are affected as well. In the link I posted in my first post, the final post by Abe says the update packages were downloaded to the root of the share. I'm not exactly following what he means - but my update package downloads are created on \\ServerName\CM_DSL\Updates and then I create a folder for servers or workstations with the date, so for servers this month I made a folder ServerUpdates-April2014 - so the complete path is \\ServerName\CM_DSL\Updates\ServerUpdates-April2014 and inside of that are the download folders with GUID names.

 

I'll keep digging today but I'm running out of ideas.

 

Thanks to all for reading and giving your input.

[Rocket Man]

Have you tried creating a new updates source folder, perhaps on a different partition or even one outside of the one you are using now? Just to rule out there is nothing malicious running at the root of the source directory you have at the moment that could be removing these directories.

Never seen this before but here is something kinda similar ... Link

 

EDIT: just seen that you have seen this link