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Windows Server in DMZ dosn't fetch Windows Updates

Dear community,

at present I'm looking for a solution for the following scenario:
I've got a Windows Server sitting in the DMZ.
For security reasons, direct I-net access is not allowed.

To allow Windows Update Downloads, I followed this KB article https://support.sophos.com/support/s/article/KB-000036981?language=en_US
by creating the needed exception.
But even when created and set to active, this doesn't seem to do the job.

When I start the Update process on the server, it displays some found Updates but doesn't download them
Instead it stays forever in the state "download pending".

Any help to resolve this is appreciated.

Best regards
ranX



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  • great. and post some lines of the logviewer if it does not work.

  • Well, still no luck.  To trigger update traffic on the windows host, I always do "net stop wuauserv" and "net start wuauserv".
    To be sure, the update service does a full refresh, I even delete the "SoftwareDistribution" folder.  
    On the machine the refresh of available update always works, but when it gets to the point, to download them, it's stuck at the state "download pending".

    At that time there is nothing to see on the Web Filter Log.
    On the Firewall log I see this, when I set the filter for entries of the respective Windows machine as can be seen in the upper corner.  
    I assume, these external IPs, the host tries to connect, are the microsoft update servers.
    But I got no idea, how to allow access, as I don't know their URLs and a reverse lookup only tells, these are Microsoft servers.

    Here the firewall log

  • the reason is invalid packet. also the traffic is not hit by any firewall rule (N/A).

    please create one rule with a NAT rule applying to the traffic and try again. in NAT select Masq

    Also please check the Web filter log - you'll see the URL path there (I hope).

  • Well, the funny thing is:
    I have a firewall rule and I have a NAT rule.

    When I don't filter for denied traffic, I see most of the outbound traffic from the DMZ going out and in as expected.
    If this were not the case, I wouldn't even see a refresh of the available updates on the Windows host.

    But for some strange reason, the routing of the packets seen on the screenshot goes wrong.
    As you see, they have no "out" Interface entry.
    I assume, this is, why they do not get masked and no rule is applied.
    As long as they are missing this attribute simply no rule will match.

  • Anybody with an idea, why some comunication to MS update servers works and other fails, as described above ?
    Any help is appreciated.

  • please show us your DMZ host object and according firewall rule. also show us the zone in which the server is.