WSUS 3.2 cleanup not deleting updates

windows-server-2003wsus

I've been trying to reclaim some of the 45+GB of cached updates in W2K3. I've manually audited and declined hundreds of updates and packages, and everytime I run Server Cleanup Wizard it's deletes 14MB.

I have also tried WSUSutil but doesn't seem to do anything.

How do I free up more space?

Best Answer

There are a few obvious and not-so-obvious causes of a large content folder, even after declining updates and running the Cleanup Wizard:

  • Downstream servers. If you have downstream servers, then you won't be able to get rid of the updates unless every single client on every single downstream server shows it as unneeded, regardless of approval status on the upstream server.
  • Express Installation Files. If you've enabled these (under Update Files and Languages), then your content folder will increase in size by a significant amount.
  • Other languages. If you have more than just English updates selected, then you'll see an increase in language-specific update files.
  • Forefront client updates - These are big. Really big.

How many updates do you have, by the way? For us, with about 1500 approved updates, the WsusContent folder is only about 16 GB. The SP and services folders are an additional 2.5 GB.

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