I've got a main WSUS server and two downstream replicas, and the replicas are no longer syncing - they'll reach 99%, then sit for a while and timeout with some database timeout error:
SqlException: Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.
at Microsoft.UpdateServices.DatabaseAccess.DBConnection.DrainObsoleteConnections(SqlException e)
at Microsoft.UpdateServices.DatabaseAccess.DBConnection.ExecuteReader()
at Microsoft.UpdateServices.Internal.DataAccess.HideUpdatesForReplicaSync(String xmlUpdateIds)
at Microsoft.UpdateServices.ServerSync.CatalogSyncAgentCore.ProcessHiddenUpdates(Guid[] hiddenUpdates)
at Microsoft.UpdateServices.ServerSync.CatalogSyncAgentCore.ReplicaSync()
at Microsoft.UpdateServices.ServerSync.CatalogSyncAgentCore.ExecuteSyncProtocol(Boolean allowRedirect)
This started happening a while back after what I can only assume was running the Server Cleanup Wizard on the main/ upstream server, since the timing of the sync failures coincidedes. Upstream WSUS was out of disk space so I ran the cleanup wizard with every available option selected, one at a time (because cleanup would fail if I tried them all at once, but I eventually got them all run).
I've tried a wsusutil /reset on one of the replicas, and when that didn't fix it (reset completed per the logs but still sync fails), I uninstalled/reinstalled the WSUS role. Now the sync history says it completed sucessfully the first time when it was manually run with the install of the role (35k updates pulled down), but now it won't sync again.
What would happen it I replaced the upstream server? There is another WSUS server provisioned that was never put into production (someone left us and never completed what they were working on) - would I have to go through and re-approve every update going back to the beginning of time (or rather, Windows 7 and Office 2010 for us)?
I inherited this setup from someone who quit and I really don't know much about WSUS so I apologize if these are dumb questions.