[RESOLVED] WUA - Restart pending?

galio · May 10, 2023 - 11:47

Hello,

I have several scientific machines whose Windows updates are managed by WAPT. Since these machines perform data acquisitions for several days at a time, it's important that they don't restart on their own and that they only perform updates via WAPT, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

I currently have one machine with the Windows icon displaying "restarting pending," even though the WAPT configuration is set to "install_at_shutdown=true."

The complete WAPT configuration is:

[waptwua]
default_allow=false
install_at_shutdown=true
enabled = true
download_scheduling = 1d
allowed_severities = Critical,Important
direct_download = false.

Have I missed something? Why is Windows still installing its updates automatically (and therefore scheduling restarts)?

Thank you.

May 10, 2023 - 11:57

Hello,

have any Windows Update installations been launched via the console? (Right-click and select "Run pending Windows Update installations")?

In Wapt, there's also: `wapt_status --> pending_reboot_reasons` which allows you to see the reason for a pending reboot (file replacement).

Or perhaps Windows Update managed to bypass the service deactivation...
In the new version, we've modified the service deactivation and added a setting that prevents the Windows Update service from running even after it's started.

To test this new setting in advance, you can install: https://wapt.tranquil.it/store/fr/tis-f ... ows-update

Simon

galio · May 10, 2023 - 1:58 PM

There was no manual installation, I'm sure of that.

Where can I find the "wapt_status --> pending_reboot_reasons" information? I haven't found it.

However, I checked on machines with WUA via Wapt and I do indeed have the Windows Update service set to "manual (trigger start)", and it's running on some of them. Is this the one that should be disabled?

Thanks.

Edit: Ah, I found pending_reboot_reasons in the hardware inventory. However, it's empty, while in the "Windows Updates" tab I have a red exclamation mark with the message "waiting for restart".

May 10, 2023 - 2:21 PM

galio wrote: ↑May 10, 2023 - 1:58 PM Edit: Ah, I found the pending_reboot_reasons in the hardware inventory. However, it's empty, while in the "Windows Updates" tab I have a red exclamation mark with the message "Waiting for a restart".

This is calculated using the pending_reboot_reasons function of setuphelpers, which reads registry keys, so it means the keys are empty...

galio wrote: ↑May 10, 2023 - 1:58 PM However, I checked on machines with WUA via WAPT and I do indeed have the Windows Update service set to "manual (trigger start)", and it's running on some of them. Is this the one that should be disabled?

Yes, absolutely
Another software might reactivate it, but otherwise, sometimes Microsoft is annoying and absolutely insists that Windows Update reactivate.

You can try the package https://wapt.tranquil.it/store/fr/tis-f...ows-update which cuts out different tasks, schedules services, etc...
To ensure it doesn't restart, we also set up a fake WSUS server to reject any updates that don't go through WAPT.

The latest tests with a fake wsus server are working here, Windows Update sometimes manages to reactivate but the scan does not work.

galio · May 10, 2023 - 3:47 PM

I've looked around a bit but I can't see what could reactivate this service; it's probably a Windows routine that does it in the background...

So I deployed the package you recommended, and I can see the service is disabled now.

I'll keep an eye on it, but it seems okay for now. Thanks for your help.

Have a good day.