WSUS server clean up

Question

Hi I am new in WSUS, recently on the remote dedicated WSUS server when selecting option "Server Cleanup Wizard" to clean machines which have been replaced and no more on the network I get the error " An error occured when trying to perform a database operation.
This can happen if the database is very busy, if the database service is stopped, or if the connection to the database is lost. Please contact your system Administrator if the problem persists."
This problem comes just in the process to complete the task. I have restarted the server several times and I could not get solution.
what is wrong with this server.

Answer 1

Hi I am new in WSUS, recently on the remote dedicated WSUS server when selecting option "Server Cleanup Wizard" to clean machines which have been replaced and no more on the network I get the error " An error occured when trying to perform a database
operation. This can happen if the database is very busy, if the database service is stopped, or if the connection to the database is lost. Please contact your system Administrator if the problem persists."
This issue is most likely occuring as a result of the "Delete unneeded updates" step, and not while trying to delete old computer entries. Typically it occurs on long-standing systems where the SCW has not been previously used, or on systems with large database
sizes with higher-than-optimal disk defragmentation issues.
Please do the following:
Run the Server Cleanup Wizard with only the option Delete computers selected. By removing dead computers from the database, it significantly reduces the work required by the update scans because approval state and installation
status no longer need to be checked for those systems.
Decline ALL superseded updates reported as 100% Not Applicable.
Run the Server Cleanup Wizard with the Decline expired updates and
Decline superseded updates options selected. This task only changes data in the database and is rarely impacted by fragmentation issues. It will pick up any eligible stragglers that  you may have missed in Step 2.
Run the Server Cleanup Wizard with the Delete unused files option selected. While deleting unused files will not help with the database issues while deleting updates, it will help with the disk defragmentation you will be doing
in the next steps.
Stop the database service. Most likely this is the Windows Internal Database service.
Defragment the volume containing the SUSDB.MDF file. If you chose the installation defaults, this file is contained in C:\WSUS\UpdateServicesDBFiles. Most likely defragmentation will also require you to reboot the server, unless the \WSUS folder is on a
different volume.
Restart the database service (unless you had to reboot to defragment drive C:, in which case the database service should already be running).
Obtain the WSUS Database Maintenance script described in the section Reindex the WSUS Database found in the WSUS Operations Guide. Run
the script.
Run the Server Cleanup Wizard with the Delete unneeded updates option. This task should now complete with a defragmented and reindexed database.
Repeat steps  4 through 8 a second time to ensure optimal performance of the database after removal of these unneeded updates.
Continue to use the Server Cleanup Wizard monthly, in combination with removals of approvals from unneeded superseded updates to maintain optimal performance of your WSUS server.
Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA, MCSA
Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2011)
My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Lawrence.Garvin
My Blog: http://onsitechsolutions.spaces.live.com