WSUS updates failing

[gilesy]

Hi everyone,
I'm running Office 2003 professional, on XP SP2 workstations. We use WSUS
3.0 on server 2003 to manage our windows and office updates. The windows
updates are working perfectly, but the office updates keep failing - none of
them install.

It just fails, but I can't find a reason.

Anybody got any suggestions? It is becoming annoying, as I have 140
workstations to keep patched.

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[Peter Foldes]

posted to the windows.server.update_services via crosspost

 

[gilesy]

Hi,
thanks for the cross post. Unfortunately, when I click that link it says
that the newsgroup is not found...
any other suggestions anybody?

 

[Peter Foldes]

What link ?? I did not put a link in there.

But here is one that you need to copy\paste into your browsers address bar to access it or set up your newsreader like Outlook Express with XP .. Don't use that awful Web interface for reading and accessing newsgroups.
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.server.update_services

Setting up Outlook Express newsreader
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

Microsoft public newsgroups

http://aumha.org/nntp.htm

 

[Lawrence Garvin \(MVP\)]

I'm running Office 2003 professional, on XP SP2 workstations. We use WSUS
3.0 on server 2003 to manage our windows and office updates. The windows
updates are working perfectly, but the office updates keep failing - none
of
them install.

It just fails, but I can't find a reason.

Anybody got any suggestions? It is becoming annoying, as I have 140
workstations to keep patched.

Dave, there are actually several reasons why this might occur, but the two
most common are these:

[a] The Office 2003 Local Installation Source has been removed, or
corrupted, or exists on an inaccessible network resources.

The Office 2003 installation has been previously managed by a *patched*
Administrative Installation Point.


In general, the WUA is unable (at last official word) to properly detect
updates needed on an Office installation made from a *patched*
Administrative Installation Point -- though there have been a couple of
isolated instances since the release of WSUS2SP1 that have claimed success
in detecting updates in exactly that scenario.

The "solution" provided by Microsoft was to unpatch the AIP, reinstall
Office from the AIP, and then use WSUS to maintain Office. You can get
further details on this scenario at http://www.wsuswiki.com/OfficeAIPs.

Since that time, we've also been told by the WSUS dev team, who was told by
the Office SE team, that updating Office installed from AIPs would not be
supported in *any* configuration at all in WSUS3.

I've not actually tested this on the WSUS v3/WUA v7 environment, nor have I
had any discussions with anybody concernign this scenario -- and I suspect,
given the history and information from the Office SE team, that nobody's
really even looked at the current functionality of this scenario in WSUS 3.


--
Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCTS, MCP
Independent WSUS Evangelist
MVP-Software Distribution (2005-2007)
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=30E00990-8F1D-4774-BD62-D095EB07B36E

Everything you need for WSUS is at
http://www.microsoft.com/wsus

And, almost everything else is at
http://wsusinfo.onsitechsolutions.com
.....

 

[gilesy]

Hi Lawrence, Thanks for that...

Office was installed using the installation CD on each workstation - i'm
guessing this is the problem. Does this mean that I have to re-install
office on each workstation from a network source? Or is there some sort of
group policy that I can use to change the location of the installation files
to point to a network drive instead of the cd? (I can make a shared drive
with them on easily enough)

Cheers,
Dave.

--
Dave Giles
Technology Services Coordinator
Kilmany UnitingCare
Victoria, Australia.

I'm running Office 2003 professional, on XP SP2 workstations. We use WSUS
3.0 on server 2003 to manage our windows and office updates. The windows
updates are working perfectly, but the office updates keep failing - none
of
them install.

It just fails, but I can't find a reason.

Anybody got any suggestions? It is becoming annoying, as I have 140
workstations to keep patched.

Dave, there are actually several reasons why this might occur, but the two
most common are these:

[a] The Office 2003 Local Installation Source has been removed, or
corrupted, or exists on an inaccessible network resources.

The Office 2003 installation has been previously managed by a *patched*
Administrative Installation Point.


In general, the WUA is unable (at last official word) to properly detect
updates needed on an Office installation made from a *patched*
Administrative Installation Point -- though there have been a couple of
isolated instances since the release of WSUS2SP1 that have claimed success
in detecting updates in exactly that scenario.

The "solution" provided by Microsoft was to unpatch the AIP, reinstall
Office from the AIP, and then use WSUS to maintain Office. You can get
further details on this scenario at http://www.wsuswiki.com/OfficeAIPs.

Since that time, we've also been told by the WSUS dev team, who was told by
the Office SE team, that updating Office installed from AIPs would not be
supported in *any* configuration at all in WSUS3.

I've not actually tested this on the WSUS v3/WUA v7 environment, nor have I
had any discussions with anybody concernign this scenario -- and I suspect,
given the history and information from the Office SE team, that nobody's
really even looked at the current functionality of this scenario in WSUS 3.


--
Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCTS, MCP
Independent WSUS Evangelist
MVP-Software Distribution (2005-2007)
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=30E00990-8F1D-4774-BD62-D095EB07B36E

Everything you need for WSUS is at
http://www.microsoft.com/wsus

And, almost everything else is at
http://wsusinfo.onsitechsolutions.com
.....

 

[Lawrence Garvin \(MVP\)]

Hi Lawrence, Thanks for that...

Office was installed using the installation CD on each workstation - i'm
guessing this is the problem.

It would defintely be the problem if the person doing the installs selected
the option to "Delete installation files" at the end of the setup process.

Does this mean that I have to re-install
office on each workstation from a network source?

No!

Or is there some sort of
group policy that I can use to change the location of the installation
files
to point to a network drive instead of the cd? (I can make a shared drive
with them on easily enough)

Not this either. The location is defined in the registry. I'm not aware of
any policy that can configure this, although you could merge a REG update
via a logon script, quite possibly, to redirect the configured installation
source path to a network share.

Your *best* long term solution is to download the LISTool Utility from the
Office Download Center, and rebuild the LIS (Local Installation Source) on
each of those machines.


--
Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCTS, MCP
Independent WSUS Evangelist
MVP-Software Distribution (2005-2007)
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=30E00990-8F1D-4774-BD62-D095EB07B36E

Everything you need for WSUS is at
http://www.microsoft.com/wsus

And, almost everything else is at
http://wsusinfo.onsitechsolutions.com
.....

 

[gilesy]

Cool thanks. I'll give it a go on a couple of machines and see what happens.

Dave.