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WSUS Operations Management

The Microsoft WSUS newsgroup often includes questions about database size, and storage size.  While Microsoft provides some high-level recommendations - each WSUS Administrator has a certain amount of control over how big the database grows, and how much disk space the updates consume.  We'll refer to this process as "Mowing the Grass":

First, always decline updates that aren't needed, updates that have expired, and updates that have been superseded (as appropriate).  Make sure to decline updates first - otherwise you won't free any space from your hard drive by running the tools mentioned below. 

Second, you should run the following two utilities on a regular basis (monthly is a good rule of thumb):

• WSUSUtil (with the deleteunneededrevisions switch)
• WSUSDebugTool (using the purgeunneededfiles tool)

WSUSUtil is installed on each WSUS server by default, and WSUSDebugTool is available for download on the main WSUS site (www.microsoft.com/wsus).

Note: Make sure to stop the WWW service on your WSUS box before running WSUSUtil.  You can restart it again after the utility completes.  WSUSDebugTool requires no such preparation/follow-up.

WSUSUtil:

Below is an overview of the WSUSUtil operation.  This operation takes three steps since you must stop the WWW service before running WSUSUtil.

Step1: Stop the WWW Service

Step 2: Run the WSUSUtil tool

Note: This step might take a while - especially the first time it is run.  If the utility times out and fails, simply run it again until it succeeds.

Step 3: Restart the WWW Service

That's it!  Your xMSDE or SQL database is now free of unneeded update revision metadata.

WSUSDebugTool:

Unlike the WSUSUtil tool above, the WSUSDebugTool actually reclaims space from your hard drive by removing declined update files.