I am currently operating a WSUS server on a MS 2012 R2 machine. It is supposed to update all computers in an enterprise network.

At the moment I am facing the problem that only some computers and some servers successfully pull update from the server. Others fail to obtain the updates and create the following error logs you can find below. Furthermore all erroring computers are also not registered on the WSUS server/cannot be found in the list of registered computers.

2017-04-06  11:15:25:256    1076    340 Agent   ** START **  Agent: Finding updates [CallerId = AutomaticUpdates]
2017-04-06  11:15:25:256    1076    340 Agent   *********
2017-04-06  11:15:25:256    1076    340 Agent     * Online = Yes; Ignore download priority = No
2017-04-06  11:15:25:256    1076    340 Agent     * Criteria = "IsInstalled=0 and DeploymentAction='Installation' or IsPresent=1 and DeploymentAction='Uninstallation' or IsInstalled=1 and DeploymentAction='Installation' and RebootRequired=1 or IsInstalled=0 and DeploymentAction='Uninstallation' and RebootRequired=1"
2017-04-06  11:15:25:256    1076    340 Agent     * ServiceID = {3DA21691-E39D-4DA6-8A4B-B43877BCB1B7} Managed
2017-04-06  11:15:25:256    1076    340 Agent     * Search Scope = {Machine}
2017-04-06  11:15:25:257    1076    340 Setup   Checking for agent SelfUpdate
2017-04-06  11:15:25:257    1076    340 Setup   Client version: Core: 7.6.7601.23453  Aux: 7.6.7601.23453
2017-04-06  11:15:25:298    1076    340 Misc    WARNING: WinHttp: SendRequestToServerForFileInformation failed with 0x80190193
2017-04-06  11:15:25:298    1076    340 Misc    WARNING: WinHttp: ShouldFileBeDownloaded failed with 0x80190193
2017-04-06  11:15:25:298    1076    340 Misc    WARNING: DownloadFileInternal failed for http://servername.domain.de:8530/selfupdate/wuident.cab: error 0x80190193
2017-04-06  11:15:25:298    1076    340 Setup   FATAL: DownloadCab failed, err = 0x80190193
2017-04-06  11:15:25:298    1076    340 Setup   WARNING: SelfUpdate check failed to download package information, error = 0x80244018
2017-04-06  11:15:25:298    1076    340 Setup   FATAL: SelfUpdate check failed, err = 0x80244018
2017-04-06  11:15:25:299    1076    340 Agent     * WARNING: Skipping scan, self-update check returned 0x80244018
2017-04-06  11:15:25:299    1076    340 Agent     * WARNING: Exit code = 0x80244018
2017-04-06  11:15:25:299    1076    340 Agent   *********
2017-04-06  11:15:25:299    1076    340 Agent   **  END  **  Agent: Finding updates [CallerId = AutomaticUpdates]
2017-04-06  11:15:25:299    1076    340 Agent   *************
2017-04-06  11:15:25:299    1076    340 Agent   WARNING: WU client failed Searching for update with error 0x80244018
2017-04-06  11:15:25:300    1076    1940    AU  >>##  RESUMED  ## AU: Search for updates [CallId = {0A53A94C-53EA-41FA-8C59-948374CB3C99}]
2017-04-06  11:15:25:300    1076    1940    AU    # WARNING: Search callback failed, result = 0x80244018
2017-04-06  11:15:25:300    1076    1940    AU    # WARNING: Failed to find updates with error code 80244018
2017-04-06  11:15:25:300    1076    1940    AU  #########
2017-04-06  11:15:25:300    1076    1940    AU  ##  END  ##  AU: Search for updates [CallId = {0A53A94C-53EA-41FA-8C59-948374CB3C99}]
2017-04-06  11:15:25:300    1076    1940    AU  #############
2017-04-06  11:15:25:301    1076    1940    AU  Successfully wrote event for AU health state:0
2017-04-06  11:15:25:301    1076    1940    AU  AU setting next detection timeout to 2017-04-06 12:50:32
2017-04-06  11:15:25:302    1076    1940    AU  Setting AU scheduled install time to 2017-04-07 10:00:00
2017-04-06  11:15:25:302    1076    1940    AU  Successfully wrote event for AU health state:0
2017-04-06  11:15:25:303    1076    1940    AU  Successfully wrote event for AU health state:0
2017-04-06  11:15:28:342    1076    340 Report  REPORT EVENT: {330E68D8-2A4F-4CE2-BE80-DE664DD99254}    2017-04-06 11:15:23:342+0200    1   148 101 {D67661EB-2423-451D-BF5D-13199E37DF28}  1   80244018    SelfUpdate  Failure Software Synchronization    Windows Update Client failed to detect with error 0x80244018.
2017-04-06  11:15:28:342    1076    340 Report  REPORT EVENT: {2656CBA2-80CE-4BBA-957A-151199F6E93B}    2017-04-06 11:15:25:298+0200    1   148 101 {D67661EB-2423-451D-BF5D-13199E37DF28}  1   80244018    SelfUpdate  Failure Software Synchronization    Windows Update Client failed to detect with error 0x80244018.
2017-04-06  11:15:28:367    1076    340 Report  CWERReporter::HandleEvents - WER report upload completed with status 0x8
2017-04-06  11:15:28:367    1076    340 Report  WER Report sent: 7.6.7601.23453 0x80244018(0) 67661EB-2423-451D-BF5D-13199E37DF28 Scan 1 0 SelfUpdate {3DA21691-E39D-4DA6-8A4B-B43877BCB1B7} 0
2017-04-06  11:15:28:381    1076    340 Report  CWERReporter::HandleEvents - WER report upload completed with status 0x8
2017-04-06  11:15:28:381    1076    340 Report  WER Report sent: 7.6.7601.23453 0x80244018(0) 67661EB-2423-451D-BF5D-13199E37DF28 Scan 1 0 SelfUpdate {3DA21691-E39D-4DA6-8A4B-B43877BCB1B7} 0
2017-04-06  11:17:12:532    1076    340 PT  WARNING: Cached cookie has expired or new PID is available
2017-04-06  11:17:12:532    1076    340 PT  Initializing simple targeting cookie, clientId = 799543b3-e459-460a-9f6a-1f43b08beb43, target group = , DNS name = m341
2017-04-06  11:17:12:532    1076    340 PT    Server URL = http://servername.domain.de:8530/SimpleAuthWebService/SimpleAuth.asmx
2017-04-06  11:17:12:580    1076    340 PT  WARNING: GetAuthorizationCookie failure, error = 0x80244018, soap client error = 10, soap error code = 0, HTTP status code = 403
2017-04-06  11:17:12:580    1076    340 PT  WARNING: Failed to initialize Simple Targeting Cookie: 0x80244018
2017-04-06  11:17:12:580    1076    340 PT  WARNING: PopulateAuthCookies failed: 0x80244018
2017-04-06  11:17:12:580    1076    340 PT  WARNING: RefreshCookie failed: 0x80244018
2017-04-06  11:17:12:580    1076    340 PT  WARNING: RefreshPTState failed: 0x80244018
2017-04-06  11:17:12:580    1076    340 PT  WARNING: PTError: 0x80244018
2017-04-06  11:17:12:580    1076    340 Report  WARNING: Reporter failed to upload events with hr = 80244018.

Interesting I can successfully access the URL http://servername.domain.de:8530/SimpleAuthWebService/SimpleAuth.asmx from the affected machines using a simple web browser (Mozilla Firefox).

Solution

Client Side

Apparently one of the issues leading to the error described in the original question is apparently grounded in the proxy settings of the affected computers (as e.g. reported in [1]) (for more information regarding netsh and WinHTTP see [2]). According to the forum posts in [1] executing the following command is the first step to resolve the problem.

netsh winhttp reset proxy

After executing the command from either cmd oder ps the server has to be restarted. Subsequently the wuauclt tool [3] can be used to attempt to auto-configure the update on the affected machines:

wuauclt /detectnow /resetauthorization
wuauclt /reportnow

After carrying out these commands the Windows Update utility can be started to search for updates. At this point the client should successfully find updates. If an installation is attempted right now the update utitlity might return error code 80244017. To resolve this error some modifications have to be made to the WSUS-Server.

Server Side

Jeff Graves [4] could troubleshoot the error to be related to the incorrect assignment of access rights to the WSUS-server folder containing the updates. To remedy the error it has to be ensured that the user-group (the clients) have READ access (NFTS-rights) to the following folder (ROOT-DIR being the partition containing the underlying folder structure):

{ROOT-DIR}\WSUS\WsusContent

Here it is important that the rights are set for the folder WsusContent as only setting them for the WSUS directory has been found to be insufficient.

References

[1] https://www.administrator.de/frage/windows-update-fehler-code-0x80244018-exchange-2010-332674.html

[2] Microsoft Technet (2011) - Configure Proxy Settings for WinHTTP

[3] Microsoft Technet (2003) - Appendix H: The wuauclt Utility

[4] Jeff Graves (2012) - WSUS and Update Download Failure 0x80244017 - http://jeffgraves.me/2012/07/27/wsus-and-update-download-failure-80244017/