Install Software Updates lasts forever

[Lagamorph]

Hi guys,

 

I've recently updated the 2008R2 update group I'm using to deploy some servers, but since adding in non-security updates (so just "Update for Windows Server 2008R2 x64 Edition) I'm having a problem where some updates just seem to hang forever. I've left servers for over 24 hours and they'll never progress. Below is a screenshot of a server having the issue,

 

 

Now my first thought is to just remove the problem update from the group, then just have it push out during a regular maintenance window after the server is built, but the problem is finding out exactly which update is causing the problem. As you can see it doesn't display the full KB number. I have checked through some logs, but I can't find a log file which references exactly which update is currently installing. Does anyone know which log file I should be checking and where it's located? C:\_SMSTaskSequence or C:\Windows\CCM\Logs ? Or somewhere else?

 

I have tried to reduce the number of updates that are pushed out during the SCCM deployment by using SCCM to pre-install updates into my .wim file, but even after doing this there are a lot of updates that are pushed out via SCCM deployment as you can see.

 

 

I was having a similar issue with my 2012R2 deployments, but using SCCM to pre-install the updates into the .wim did solve it there.

[YPCC]

C:\windows\windowsupdate.log

 

Or press F8 (if you have coomand prompt enabled), run tasklist to see all running processes, you might see the filename there. The filename might have the kb number in it.

 

Or power off the machine, start it up and go into windows. Control panel > windows update > view installed updates. Any that have failed? Those might be the suspect ones

[Lagamorph]

Thanks, I've checked that log file and think I've identified the update that has failed. I'm removing it from the Update group used during deployment and will re-start the build to see how it goes.

 

Oddly, I do have F8 enabled, but for some reason during the update stage it wouldn't work.

[Lagamorph]

Yep that's got it. Looks like KB2966583 was the problem. As soon as I remove that from the update group then the software update stage of my task sequence proceeds through (Just takes a while due to how many updates there are) and completes successfully.

Wonder if there's any known issues with that update.

[Lagamorph]

Sadly still getting issues, sometimes with updates that have previously worked. It seems as if there are just too many updates and it's overwhelming the builds.

I've noticed in some cases that when I reboot the VM during the hung update process the C: disk shows as only have 1GB of free space (on a 50GB disk), but on successful builds this free space is closer to 30GB. I wonder if something is happening to cause the C: drive to simply be getting too full due to the amount of updates that are needing to be downloaded and installed.