Can the computer connect to Microsoft's website to update the server? Check IE settings, make sure you have latest ActiveX updates installed etc.
 

Yes, this server is able to connect to the Windows Update site and install updates without any problems. ActiveX is updated to the latest version compatible with Windows Server 2003 R2. I'll go through the IE settings again to see if I possibly missed something, although I have done so about 4 or 5 times now; can't hurt to try again.

I'm had this problem - my event viewer was littered with the messgaes you are getting - and I bottled it by changing the Update Services service to use network admin creditianals when logging on as opposed to local system account.
 
Lemme know if this helps.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot and let you know how it turns out.

Well, I think that took care of it. Thanks for the tip, Arran.
 
My only concern is that the administrative password was required to be entered in and stored. Usually, that is something that I like to very much stray from. Are there any security issues with doing this that you have encountered or know of?

Actually, ixnay on that. The error is still showing up.

Yeah - that's weird.
 
I have found the same thing! After making the change - it seemed the WSUS server worked fine (without errors) for a week - and now the errors have returned. Same as you. Have you mangaged to get anywhere...?

Not yet. Honestly, this error message does not seem to be affecting anything, other than having the event appear in the logs. Synchronizations are all going through as scheduled and clients are receiving the updates. I'll let you know if I do happen to find anything out.

Yeah your right Myke - our system works as well - but it bugs me that something goes wrong every so often. I get the 13042 series of errors 5 or 6 times a day.

Well, I'm still having this error continuously pop up every 6 hours and it always seems to be paired up with a warning following immediately afterwards:
 
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Windows Server Update Services
Event Category: Clients
Event ID: 13031
Date: 12/5/2007
Time: 12:47:26 PM
User: N/A
Computer: [server_name]
Description:
Some client computers have not reported back to the server in the last 30 days. 9 have been detected so far.
 
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
 
I'm been spending some time trying to work this out, but my best leads always have a link pointing to this thread, ironically. I am pretty confident that the 9 machines the above warning is mentioning are old machines which have been taken off the network. Purging them from the WSUS would probably help rid me of this warning, but then I'm back to square one with the error message. The Help and Support Center doesn't offer much help at all, although it does claim the the product is .NET Framework.
 
Another thing I just now found out was that these errors started immediately after installation of WSUS 3.0
 
Anyone find anything out about this? As mentioned before by both Arran and myself, everything seems to work just fine; I just would love to see all white in my event viewer.

Noticed this error today but didn't get a chance to look at it. Hopefully I can sometime this week.
 
This is a fresh WSUS 3 install with only the software updates from the old server brought over, also installed on a new 2003 install so I know it's not caused by an upgrade over an older WSUS version.

Wow. I've been seeing this little issue for months and months, (since WSUS 3 actually) and it's nice to see I'm not alone. I wish I had something constructive to add.
 
I google this every few months just to see if anyone has found anything new about it, but I have yet to find anything that solves the problem.
 
I wonder if there aren't a lot more people experiencing this than this thread would indicate, but it's just that many don't examine their logs too closely so they don't notice, since this doesn't seem to impair WSUS function at all.
 
I am running WSUS 3.1 on Windows Server 2003 Standard R2.
Just to confirm, this is what happens:
 
Every 12 hours to 3 or 4 days (although since the last recent WSUS Service Pack it's been at least once a day) I get a string of errors in the Windows Application Event Log:
13042
12002
12012
12032
12022
12042
12052
each corresponding to a service that is "not working."
 
Then, exactly 10 minutes later, events:
13040
12000
12010
12030
12020
12040
12050
corresponding to events telling me each aforementioned service IS "working correctly."
 
I've also seen JUST the 13042/13040 combination a few times instead of all 7 services as well.
 
The only thing I haven't yet tried, and I always thought this might fix it, is to uninstall and reinstall IIS6 out from under WSUS 3, but I've been afraid I'd somehow bork the WSUS database in the process so I've been reluctant to try it. This seems like it's a problem somehow with IIS6, but I honestly have no idea.
 
As has been stated, this is somewhat academic since it doesn't seem to affect WSUS working properly at all. Everything works, all computers get the proper approved updates, synchronizations always work, etc etc.
 
But it still drives me nuts.
 
I like my logs clean, yeah, I'm OCD I know.
 
 

I hear you on keeping the logs clean. This is the only error message that is still plaguing this server's log. I've tried changing the credentials for the services and web site itself, but to no avail.
 
This isn't a top priority for me, as WSUS is still functioning properly. But I check up on this every other week to see if anyone has found a solution.

This solved this error for me:
 
http://eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=13042&eventno=8857&source=Windows%20Server%20Update%20Services&phase=1
 
I had default web site stopped.
 
event log is clean now
 
cheers

Hmmm. mrfac, you may just have earned a great deal of gratitude.
 
I just now tried your eventid link (I went there waaayy back in early 2007 when I first saw this problem and wasn't able to find much) and found something new.
 
Specifically, midway down the page:
 

Quote:Mihai Andrei (Last update 10/22/2007):From a newsgroup post: "Make sure the value for PortNumber under the "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Update Services\Server\Setup" key is set to the correct port (the one your WSUS site is on)".
 
I checked, and the value of PortNumber on my WSUS server was 8530. Well, the WSUS (default as well) website is on port 80, so I changed the PortNumber value to 80 (decimal) and restarted IIS. This didn't seem to clear anything up (I still saw the errors in the logs), but subsequently this past weekend I bounced the server due to some Windows Updates, and I have yet to see any problems so far after the reboot.
 
Still too early to tell, but I'm going on vacation for a week, and if when I get back the logs are still clean, I'll go ahead and say (looong-standing) problem solved!
 
Gonna cross my fingers here.
 
Thanks for the link and suggestion.

mrfac, thanks for bringing that link up again. I, too, visited that site quite some time ago and there was little then. Now, it's almost overbearing with how much is there.
 
I've tried a few of the tips suggested there, but none of them have worked for me. Specifically, I tried the above suggestion that Uberstein posted, but the correct port was already displayed; does it need the SSL port or regular one? I also changed the "Default Web Site" port to an un-used one (82), then started and stopped it, but that didn't help either.
 
Part of why it is a little tricky for me is that I have 5 web sites running on one machine, all of which are internal.

I'm encountering this same issue on a Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 and am adding a post here as I haven't seen reference yet to a post http://blogs.technet.com/sus/search.aspx?q=13042&p=1 dated June 16, 2008. This problem persists for me, though I have the additional issue of the server does NOT receive any notice of updates; that is, it said my server had no updates, but when I visit the Win Updates site, it says I have 14 priority updates for my server.
I did NOT try the script mentioned in the post I reference above because I'm not sure it addresses my issue.
Any thoughts?
Cincinnerdi

Thanks for the link, Cincinnerdi. I had not seen it until now.
 
The symptoms described in that article were extremely similar to the ones I am experiencing, so I decided to run the script. Unfortunately, the script did not work and I am continuing to receive this message, althouhg I am receiving all updates and the system continues to function normally.
 
Again, I appreciate the link you provided.

Aye as it turns out, the issue remains. Still get the 12012,12010 event combos seemingly randomly. 12002,12022,12032,12042 and 12052 also sometimes show up in the same string, but that's far rarer to see all 7 errors in a row, though after 10 minutes you get the corresponding "service is working properly" events. Every time.
 
Mostly it's 12012 (API Remoting Web Service) that is showing up by itself, then 10 minutes later the 12010 event to say it's working.
 
I've thought about completely removing WSUS and IIS, rebooting the server and starting over from scratch, but...that's a lot of work to do to fix errors that don't really have any effect on WSUS---everything works perfectly even with the errors.

Well, it's been a while since I got anywhere with this, but I caved in again and started digging around. The following sites might be of some help to anyone dealing with this.
 
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/conversation.aspx?messageid=30256762&threadid=30256762
Nothing here helped me, but who knows... it might work for you
 
http://forums.techarena.in/server-update-service/920891.htm
This thread talks about having the Selfupdate virtual directory in both the default (or whichever site uses port 80) and the WSUS site. I have it in both and am still getting the 13042 error. Since I have multiple (5) sites potentially running on this one server, do all need to have this virtual directory? Currently, only 3 of them have it: port 80, default (port 82), and WSUS (port 8530/SSL port 8531).
 
 
Those were the only different leads I found. Will post more if I find any.