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After recently transitioning to client side targeting two of my servers - both 2008 R2, built around the same time from the same VM template - are having difficulties remaining in their assigned groups.

Both servers will temporarily show up in WSUS (in the desired group as well as the all computer view) but not at the same time. Both boxes are domain joined and not experiencing any other problems so I don't think the problem is with the box GUID.

It sounds like an issue of having one account object being shared between both systems but I have no idea how that could have happened or how to correct it. I have looked in detail of the windowsupdate.log on both systems as well as our WSUS box.

EDIT - the behavior is a lot like having one account shared between both systems.. While one is actively using WSUS the other can not be and visa versa.

Tim Brigham
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  • Please elaborate on "...having one account object being shared between both systems..." – Vick Vega Jan 23 '12 at 18:56
  • Sounds a lot like [a problem I once had](http://serverfault.com/questions/170929/windows-xp-mode-confusing-wsus). Not sure if the suggestion there will help or not - I have moved on from there in the mean time, so I never actually got round to testing and figuring it out. – Ben Pilbrow Jan 23 '12 at 19:09

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The computer's unique ID isn't used for WSUS identification, another unique ID is generated (efficient, no?). If this ID had been generated by a WSUS client run on the template before the cloning, then this is the cause of the issue; the value isn't cleared by the sysprep that occurs as part of a VM template deploy.

Check in the registry if their HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\SusClientId values match - if they do, just clear the value on one and restart its Windows Update service.

Shane Madden
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