Error connecting to the Windows Server Update Services database

[gurvinder.nijjar]

Every time I connect to the WSUS admin console I get the following error
message:

Error connecting to the Windows Server Update Services database
There was an error connecting to the Windows Server Update Services
database. Either the database is not available or you do not have the
correct privileges to access the database.

If you believe you have received this message in error, please check with
your system administrator.

In event viewer I also get an error log with event id: 421.

The only thing i did on my server was change the server name and IP of the
server. I have changed the server back to its original server name and IP
address.

I have checked the services the Background intelligent service is running.
The SQLAgent$WSUS service is not running. Should this be running.

Is there anything else I can check.

 

[Lawrence Garvin \(MVP\)]

The SQLAgent$WSUS service should not be running on an (W)MSDE installation.
It /might/ be running on an SQL Server 2000 named instance installation if
you have used the Database Maintenance utilities to configure scheduled
maintenance or scheduled backups of the WSUS named instance.

Changing the server name and/or IP Address should not interfere with normal
WSUS operations, unless you have also configured IIS to use Host Headers
and/or specified IP Addresses, in which case they might not be able to
respond to the new name. If there are no host headers configured, and "All
Unassigned" is configured, then IIS should respond to any HTTP GET request
sent to the machine, regardless of the name resolution used to obtain the IP
Address.

However, there is also a registry key that identifies the location of the
database server. The key is located at:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Update Services\Server\Setup\



and it should contain a value "SQLServerName" with data pointing to your
WSUS instance. If this key has the actual name (or original name) of the
server (rather than (local) or localhost), this would account for the
inability to find the database server after renaming the WSUS server.

My default instance on SBS2003 is set to %computername%, so it's also
possible that an installation on a named instance would be
%computername%\WSUS (I don't have a named instance available to verify
against.) This could also be an issue if the environment variable
%computername% did not get properly redefined after changing the name of the
server.

 

[gurvinder.nijjar]

Thnaks for the feedback.

I am not using any host headers, and have been using unassigned Ip
addresses.

I have checked the registry key and it is set to %computername%\WSUS. So
everything seems normal.

Are there any ideas.

I have changed the server back to its original name.

Is ir worth reinstalling WSUS again.

 

[Lawrence Garvin \(MVP\)]

The cost of reinstalling WSUS is rather small, as you can retain the
database and content, and the uninstall/reinstall process takes less than 30
minutes.

If something has gotten out of kilter, a reinstall should rectify any such
issue.