Comments on: WSUS Server multiple instances of computers listed.

By: Snirh

Snirh — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:27:39 +0000

The link… http://www.smart-x.com/?CategoryID=176&a…

By: Snirh

Snirh — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:26:46 +0000

Hi,

There is a tool for solving Duplicate SID and Duplicate WSUS ID’s on your network.
It called DSM (Duplicate SID Monitor), the good thing about it that it will monitor your network all the time and not just the one time you ran the script to solve a problem.

Link to the tool:

By: skepticals

skepticals — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 14:37:44 +0000

Thanks for the replies. I will take a look at that web site.

My issue has been resolved and the problem was with Deep Freeze. The computers were blocking changes to the registry; so everytime the computers would boot they would reassociate with the WSUS server.

I do have an additional problem now. All but one of the computer is listed. I am not sure why this one is different I still need to troubleshoot this. We will see. Thanks again.

By: dwiebesick

dwiebesick — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 11:35:24 +0000

Someone on another list that I am on had the same problem. This is the link to that forum
http://mcpmag.com/forums/forum_posts.asp…
Could it be duplicate SIDs?
dmw

By: VietBob

VietBob — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 20:35:31 +0000

I’ve only been working with WSUS for a week or two, but it’s been working very well for our needs! I’ve set up several groups, set new patches for all groups to detect, then depending on what the patch is about either my test group or my test group and the less significant group are set to install, the next week if everything seems to be fine I set the remaining groups to install. The DST update has been installed on all clients and servers now; before WSUS I had most clients on Automatic Update and had to manage the updates individually on the more critical clients and servers.

One resource you may find helpful is at http://www.wsus.info/forums/

-Bob

By: Swiftd

Swiftd — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:38:55 +0000

It’s definitely hard to beat “free” even if that means some pain. You may also find yourself using WSUS complimented with other products or methods to update the computers (like scripts or GPO deployments). I use WSUS and think it’s worth _more_ than you pay for it :), I just wanted you to walk into as an informed user.

Happy motoring,
Don

By: skepticals

skepticals — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 10:59:36 +0000

Don,

Thank you for all your input. I have heard other horror stories about WSUS. I guess I want to feel the pain myself I would like to at least be familiar with it before moving on to another application. We do not have the money for one right now and if I do not suffer now, I won’t know the benefit of the new software! Haha.

First of all, I will try to resolve the duplicate machines in the list. From there, I will see how WSUS operates. Cross your fingers.

Thanks again.

By: Swiftd

Swiftd — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 19:51:54 +0000

Once the ClientID is created on the thawed machine, it stores it in the registry. It never changes unless you force it to, so you are safe to freeze it again.

That’s cool that you can thaw the machine and then freeze it again after the updates are applied. That being said, you could do that and your image would be updated with the latest patches.

Deleting the duplicate machines is as simple as click on it and selecting “Delete machine” (I believe) in the upper left corner of the page. It’ll ask you something in reference to deleting the machine from the WSUS server or deleting the instance of the machine (that duplicate). Remove it from WSUS, thaw the machine, and wait for the new machines to appear in WSUS. You can then freeze them as they are listed in WSUS.

A note of caution:
WSUS is strange and quirky. I’ve seen where machines are configured identically to each other. They have literally everything setup the same in GPO and/or manually. One of the machines works fine and the other doesn’t. I still haven’t figured out why this is the case, but no matter what I’ve tried, I still cannot get some machines to work properly. Fortunately, it’s free so you don’t waste your money on it and there’s a lot of people out there who use it (support groups), but unfortunately, it needs work still. It’s light years better than SUS was, but not as good as any commercial product out there (Patchlink, Altairis, SMS, etc). Plus it patches MS products only… It’s definitely not the panacea and you’ll probably still spend time patching by hand or using a second product to catch those other applications. It’s like Microsoft’s apology for making their products insecure…

Don

By: skepticals

skepticals — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:06:34 +0000

Swiftd,

I suspected DeepFreeze to be the problem. I should not have a problem with thawing the workstations long enough to connect to the WSUS server.

You mention that a WSUS is useless with deepfreeze because the setting will be lost on a reboot; however, I can schedule a “maintenance” time that will thaw the computer and block access to the local machine at the same time. This will open a window of time that the computers will update and then reboot frozen. (At least it says so)

Does the clientSID only need to be created the first time? Will the constant thawing and freezing change this? or once the workstation has a SID, it will have it for good?

How do I delete all the current entries?

Thank you for all the help.

By: spadasoe

spadasoe — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:41:09 +0000

I believe deepfreeze is the issue here. It sounds like it is a clientSID issue. Check the following:

http://www.wsus.info/forums/index.php?sh…
http://www.wsus.info/forums/index.php?sh…

Your GPO looks almost like mine.