Cant perform Guest Windows Update

[DougtheWee]

Hi there.

I am having problems on a ESXi 5.1 host running Windows 2008 R2 guest O/S in that the windows update fails with the error message

"An error occurred while checking for new updates for you computer"

with error code

Code 80072EFE

Googling this hasn't come up with much useful. I have a guest with VMware tools installed and another without. Same problem on both. The host running ESXi is part of a vcentre 5.1 cluster.

What is the obvious gotcha that i have missed 🙂

Thanks

[RParker]

This is a Windows OS issue not VMWare related.  My guess is either your services are not enabled for you need some additional programs installed to enable auto update.

I would suggest you visit Microsoft forums, the OS is running, so VMware will not be able to help you much.  Have you tried searching that error on MS forums?

Or maybe search for windows update windows (add your exact build \ version of windows) error

[DougtheWee]

Yes i have/am currently searching microsoft for a resolution of the issue. I thought I'd ask the question here first in case there was a know issue with this doing an update from a vmware cluster environment.

It's just strange that both a 2003 32 bit and 2008 R2 64bit guest O/S is having the same issue, the comon denominator is the VMware environment.

[RParker]

Actually the common denominator is Microsoft.. VMware just provides a container.

It would be a problem IF we all had the same issue with Microsoft on VMware.  I have physical hosts with the same issue with updates, there are different ways to diagnose them.

[a_p_]

Do you have a firewall or proxy server in place which may prevent the VMs from reaching the MS update site?

André

[DougtheWee]

I'm not trying to point the finger of blame for the fault, I was just trying to ascertain whether there was a vmware issue that I nneded to be aware of.

[DougtheWee]

Yes the VMs live behind a physical firewall, but it doesn't restrict outbound traffic. That was my first port of call.

[a_p_]

If nothing else blocks the connection to the MS update server, you may run a rootkit check on your systems (e.g. http://support.kaspersky.com/5350)

André

[joger972]

Hi all,

I have the same issue and ONLY on my vm 2008 servers. When I googled, pointing to this topic, I asked Microsoft tech support for the error. They say it is due to a serious problem with administrator rights on the eventlog service that is stopped.

You can find a way out, for thoses with the same issue or just want a clue, here