Category: Technology

WSUS 3.0 SP2 will not run after installing update 2720211

~ brandon ~ 15 Comments

Let me clarify that post subject up there. KB2720211 FAILED to install on my server and at the same time absolutely FUBAR’d the entire thing to the point where Update Services wouldn’t even start. I had our lead programmer stop by this morning and tell me that his computer kept complaining about not being able to download updates… (Note to self — add that into Nagios as I appear to have forgotten).

Anway, what a mess. I logged onto the server and along with the MMC not opening, and being greeted with an IIS worker crash warning the event log was chock full of errors:

Event ID 1011: A process serving application pool ‘WsusPool’ suffered a fatal communication error with the World Wide Web Publishing Service. The process id was ‘7540’. The data field contains the error number.
Event ID 7031: The Update Services service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 1 time(s).  The following corrective action will be taken in 300000 milliseconds: Restart the service.
Event ID 18456: Login failed for user ‘NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE’. [CLIENT: <named pipe>]
Event ID 7032: The WSUS administration console was unable to connect to the WSUS Server via the remote API.

I’m sure you get the point…

Anyway, it appears this was a fairly widespread issue (great QA work MS). I found one solution that worked for me – copied here (just in case):
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Using MRTG to monitor Dell EqualLogic

~ brandon

Alright – if you’re here you likely already know what the Dell EqualLogic is and what MRTG is typically used for. You likely also know that there’s a (free) download from Dell called EqualLogic SAN Headquarters that can give you a ton of good information about your SAN. It has everything from volume capacity, replica capacity, firmware versions and even I/O information for the group(s) you have. Unfortunately, there’s a level of granularity that’s missing from SAN HQ. If you want to know which volume or volumes are getting hammered on a daily basis, which ones have higher read or write I/Os – you’re basically out of luck. The same goes for using the standard Group Manager application.

Here’s an example of what I mean:
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HMH Access 21st Century, DEP and You!

~ brandon

Alright, if you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Access 21st Century yet – and most of you never will – then here’s a quick rundown.

First here’s the FAQ / Tech Notes page – you’re going to need it.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is the developer/publisher. Long story short with this application, is it provides a learning environment (computer based) for at risk kids. And that’s about the extent of my knowledge for what the product actually does. Sorry – I’m a systems administrator, not a teacher so going hands on in depth with the learning environment just isn’t part of the role.

Anyway, there’s a couple important things to know that may very well trip you up if you end up installing this platform for your district.

First: DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT trust the built in database backup utility in the application. I’m not sure what the story is with it – but 90% of the time it fails to provide a backup at all. When it does – you can bet that you’re going to try 9 or 10 times to get it to restore. So, by all means use the utility but have a backup plan! My personal method (after a nightmare of problems with the application today) is to stop the Access 21st Century service and take a copy of the data directory in program files. Yes, its a manual process, but I see no other option. I’ll continue backing up the VM, but these other two methods of app DB backup and data directory backup might be the only way to get the data restored. Speaking of – when you can’t restore the database properly – try this:

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How To Win The Tablet War Against The iPad

~ brandon

(link via @mikecane)

IMHO this is how you win the tablet war against Apple. Look at that price tag. Now, this is not for a brand new, never before seen device although it is the first time you could buy it WIFI only. The original Galaxy Tab shipped in November of 2010 making the actual device about 6 months old and definitely last year’s tech compared to the likes of the iPad 2, but let me ask you something:

Do you really think the average buyer who walks into a Best Buy looking for an iPad is going to care when they ask the sales person if there are cheaper options?
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