Question

How to find Windows Updates on a remote computer using WUA and wsusscn2.cab

Asked by: john2885

Hello Experts,

I am trying to find security updates that are not installed on a remote PC.  I want to be able to do this offline using the wsusscn2.cab file as a search service (rather than Microsoft Update).  

Right now, I can use the Windows Update Agent (WUA) to tell the remote PC to search for updates *without* using the cab file (going back to Microsoft Update) and I can tell my local PC to search for updates both from Microsoft Update and using the cab file.  However, every time I try to perform a search on a remote PC I get error code -2145091564.

REM ************************************************************
REM Url to download the latest offline update cab file
REM http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=74689
REM ************************************************************
 
ON ERROR RESUME NEXT
 
' Here we connect to the remote PC
Set UpdateSession = CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.Session", "10.0.0.251")
 
Wscript.Echo "Error Number 0: " & Err.Number
Wscript.Echo "Error Description 0: " & Err.Description
 
' Get the service manager and point it at the cab file
Set UpdateServiceManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager")
Set UpdateService = UpdateServiceManager.AddScanPackageService("Offline Sync Service", "c:\downloads\Microsoft\wsusscn2.cab")
Set UpdateSearcher = UpdateSession.CreateUpdateSearcher()
 
Wscript.Echo "Error Number 1: " & Err.Number
Wscript.Echo "Error Description 1: " & Err.Description
 
' Inform the searcher that it is using a different server (cab file)
UpdateSearcher.ServerSelection = 3 ' ssOthers
UpdateSearcher.ServiceID = UpdateService.ServiceID
 
Set SearchResult = UpdateSearcher.Search("IsInstalled=0 and Type='Software'")
 
' HERE'S WHERE IT FAILS WHEN WE TRY TO CHECK A REMOTE COMPUTER WITH THE CAB FILE
Wscript.Echo "Error Number 2: " & Err.Number
Wscript.Echo "Error Description 2: " & Err.Description
 
Set Updates = SearchResult.Updates
 
If searchResult.Updates.Count = 0 Then
    WScript.Echo "There are no applicable updates."
    REM WScript.Quit
End If
 
Wscript.Echo "Total Updates: " & searchResult.Updates.Count & vbcrlf
if updates.Count > 0 then
    For I = 0 to searchResult.Updates.Count-1
        Set update = searchResult.Updates.Item(I)
        WScript.Echo vbcrlf & "Title: " & update.Title
        WScript.Echo "Type: " & update.Type
        Wscript.Echo "MsrcSeverity: " & update.MsrcSeverity & vbcrlf
        
    Next
end if

                                  
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Asked On
2009-08-25 at 12:03:16ID24681023
Tags

WMI

,

VBScript

,

WUA

,

wsusscn2.cab

Topics

VB Script

,

Scripting Languages

,

Miscellaneous Programming

Participating Experts
1
Points
0
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: purplepomegranitePosted on 2009-08-26 at 12:22:37ID: 25191218

You add the update file to use as "c:\downloads\Microsoft\wsusscn2.cab".  Is this file in that location on the remote computer?  If not, it won't work - you can't reference a file on your local computer this way, you need to give a path that the remote computer can use (it is that provider you are sending the commands to).

 

by: john2885Posted on 2009-08-26 at 19:57:34ID: 25194204

Thanks, I will try this ASAP.  By that rationale, should I also be able to access the file via a share as long as the remote PC has read permissions on it?  For what I'm doing, it probably is not going to be an option to try to push the file to the remote PC just prior to running the script since the cab file is 15 MB and growing.  So my plan would be to create a share on my PC and add the update file as \\MYPC\share\wsusscn2.cab

 

by: purplepomegranitePosted on 2009-08-27 at 01:26:22ID: 25195687

Yes, it should work on a share with the path updated accordingly (so long as permissions are fine).

 

by: john2885Posted on 2009-08-27 at 09:17:34ID: 25199930

Ok, I moved the file to the PC and tried having that PC access it locally.  It appears to be failing when creating the UpdateServiceManager and pointing it at the cab file.

I copied the script to the remote machine and ran it there and it worked just fine (pointed locally to D:\downloads\microsoft\wsusscn2.cab).  I'm going to try to hunt down more info on the AddScanPackageService function.

Set UpdateSession = CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.Session", "10.0.0.251")
 
Wscript.Echo "Error Number 0: " & Err.Number
Wscript.Echo "Error Description 0: " & Err.Description
 
' Get the service manager and point it at the cab file
Set UpdateServiceManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager")
 
Wscript.Echo "Error Number 1: " & Err.Number
Wscript.Echo "Error Description 1: " & Err.Description
 
Set UpdateService = UpdateServiceManager.AddScanPackageService("Offline Sync Service", "D:\downloads\Microsoft\wsusscn2.cab")
 
' THE FIRST ERROR I GET IS HERE
' ERROR CODE: -2147024875
Wscript.Echo "Error Number 1.1: " & Err.Number
Wscript.Echo "Error Description 1.1: " & Err.Description
 
Set UpdateSearcher = UpdateSession.CreateUpdateSearcher()
 
Wscript.Echo "Error Number 1.2: " & Err.Number
Wscript.Echo "Error Description 1.2: " & Err.Description

                                              
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by: john2885Posted on 2009-09-08 at 12:36:51ID: 25285386

Sorry for the delay in posts.  So far I've had no luck.  If I copy everything over to the remote machine and execute it there, everything is OK.  Right now I have the wsusscn2.cab file copied to the remote machine and I'm trying to run the script on my PC to tell the remote machine to check its cab file for updates.  It fails every time with error number -2147024894.  If you have any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong I'd be thrilled to hear them.

 

by: john2885Posted on 2009-09-23 at 12:20:39ID: 25406839

Posting our solution in case anyone encounters the same problem.  The only way we have found to get this to work is to perform the following steps:

1. Connect to ADMIN$ share on the remote machine
2. Copy the VBScript and cab file to ADMIN$
3. Connect to the remote PC with WMI, create a Win32_Process class and run the Win32_Process.Create method to call the VBScript copied in step 2, redirecting the output to a file.
4. Copy the output file generating in step 3 from the remote PC to the local PC
5. Disconnect from ADMIN$

 

by: purplepomegranitePosted on 2009-09-23 at 12:25:03ID: 25406882

Thanks for posting your solution, I'm glad you sorted the issue. :-)

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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