The last two weeks I was very busy deploying a specific update to several hundred servers. Besides the deployment I also spent some time answering questions about the process because some collegues didn’t understand why it took longer than expected.

Because I didn’t find the answers all in one place I decided to write this post. For myself, as a placeholder for recurring issues and for my collegues so they could understand the process a bit better.

Client Settings

When it comes to Software Update there are a few client settings that are important.

• Computer Agent – Disable deadline randomization
  When you set this to Yes the client starts with the installation as soon as the deadline is reached.
  When you set this to No there will be a random wait time of up to two hours.
• Computer Restart – Display notification/Display dialog box
  This specifies the restart behaviour. Your maintenance windows should be longer then those two periods combined.
• Software Updates – Software update scan schedule
  This specifies at which interval the client checks for new updates.

More information can be found here.

Error Codes

During the deployment I experienced several errors. Some related to SCCM but others a bit more general.

• 0x87D00692 – GPO conflict
  In some domains there were old WSUS GPO’s that conflicted with the WSUS settings that are generated by the SCCM client.
  Go to HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate and check your settings. There is a lot of information out there how you should configure your GPO’s.
• 0x87D00669 – Unable to download content
  This could also be related to the 0x87D00692 error. Check your content distribution.
• 0x87D0070C – Timeout
  When this error occurs the server took more then the default 10 minutes to install the update. Increase the maximum run time on the related update.
• 0x87000070 – Not enough disk space
  This is more a general error. But when I had this error the server didn’t have enough free space on the system disk.