WSUS3 - Clients not Appearing in WSUS

Ok, I've got an odd one. I've got my WSUS Server out there running version
3. Things were happy and working.

I replaced a number of client machines with new ones. Put them in the
right OU and they get the group policies just fine. When I look at the
WindowsUpdate logfile, I see the server name in there and things look good.

However, only one or two of the machines appear in WSUS. They've been out
and deployed for about 4 weeks now. Hmmm.

I went in and deleted all the computers out of WSUS and all my servers and
staff machines came in. The IT machines didn't. Hmmm.

Things of possible interest.

Active Directory, Windows Server 2003 R2. One 32bit DC and one 64bit
DC.
Machines are dual boot WinXP and VISTA.
Machine names are OC-XP-USERNAME and OC-VISTA-USERNAME
Both VISTA and XP use the same ip address, since only one is booted at a
time.
All the clients having problems are running XP.

A client will appear in WSUS, and then when I look back, it's gone and a
new one is there.
All Machines have different SID's (verified with SysInternals).


Any suggestions ?

I hate Replying to myself. :

> I replaced a number of client machines with new ones. Put them in the
> right OU and they get the group policies just fine. When I look at the
> WindowsUpdate logfile, I see the server name in there and things look
> good.

> A client will appear in WSUS, and then when I look back, it's gone and
> a new one is there.
> All Machines have different SID's (verified with SysInternals).


http://www.wsuswiki.com/ClientFAQ

5. Imaged clients with a duplicate client ID will only appear once in the
WSUS Admin Console. Each AU client must have a unique id which is created
for each individual install. When imaging systems it is recommended always
to use SysPrep. The WSUS admin console will only display one client for each
unique ID. If you have multiple clients created from one image which are
sharing the same ID, only one will appear in the WSUS admin console. All
clients will check in and download updates, but only one will appear and
display status in the WSUS admin console. In cases where clients are not
checking in, and they were created from images without running SysPrep, the
following steps will reset the existing duplicative client IDs.
a. Run regedit and go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate
b. Delete the PingID, SUSClientID and the AccountDomainSID keys (or do they
just delete values or is it the same thing)
c. Stop and start the Wuauserv Service
d. From the command prompt run: wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow

or-


From the command line, once you are sure the AU client is properly
configured and not disabled, you could run a batch file (which might look
something like this sample) and get the same results:

rem Fixes problem with client machines not showing up on the server due to
imaging method

reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate /v
AccountDomainSid /f
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate /v
PingID /f
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate /v
SusClientId /f
cls
@echo Triggering detection after resetting WSUS client identity
net stop wuauserv
net start wuauserv
wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow