This topic contains information to help troubleshoot issues that might occur when opening the System Center Updates Publisher console. It also includes the security requirements required before software updates can be exported, describes the log file used to help diagnose issues, and lists troubleshooting solutions for common issues.

Security Requirements

After the Updates Publisher has been installed, users can start the console if the following security requirements are met:

  • The user must have a SQL login created on the publishing tool database (mscuptdb) and be assigned System_Center_Updates_Publisher_User database role membership rights.

  • The user must, by default, have Read and Execute, List, Read, Write, and Modify file system rights on the installation folder, %ProgramFiles%\System Center Updates Publisher.

Log File

Updates Publisher writes information to the UpdatesPublisher.log file to help diagnose issues that might occur when opening and using the console. The log file is created in the temporary folder for the user opening the console, located by default at %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp.

Important
The Updates Publisher log files must be opened with a simple text editor, such as Notepad. Opening the log files in a full text editor might not display the contents of the log file correctly.

UpdatesPublisher.log

When the Updates Publisher Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in successfully opens, the following entry is written to UpdatesPublisher.log:

Updates Publisher Snap-in Initialized.

Updates Publisher then attempts to retrieve information from the Updates Publisher database, and if it is unsuccessful, additional log entries are written to UpdatesPublisher.log. Review this log file for error messages that might indicate what caused the failure when retrieving data from the database.

Common Updates Publisher Console Issues

The following sections list common issues that may occur when starting the Updates Publisher console, possible causes for the issues, and a list of possible solutions.

Unable to Connect to Database When Opening Updates Publisher

When starting the Updates Publisher console, the following error message displays:

Unable to establish a connection to the SQL server database. Please refer to the log file for more detailed information regarding the error condition  

Log file entries similar to the following are written to UpdatesPublisher.log:

An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)

Failed to connect to the database using the connection string [SERVER=<servername>\<instancename>;DATABASE = <database>; Integrated security=sspi;Connection Timeout=15].

An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)

Updates Publisher Snap-in shutting down.

When troubleshooting this error, verify the following:

  • Verify that the user starting Updates Publisher has a SQL login created. A SQL login that has System_Center_Updates_Publisher_User database role membership to the mscuptdb database must be created for the user.

  • Verify that the user starting Updates Publisher is an administrator on the local computer.

  • Verify that the Updates Publisher computer can connect to the remote computer running SQL Server.

Transport-Level Error When Opening Updates Publisher

When starting the Updates Publisher console, the following error message displays:

A transport-level error has occurred when sending the request to the server

The following log entry is written to UpdatesPublisher.log:

A DB exception occurred when retrieving the vendor list. A transport-level error has occurred when sending the request to the server.

When troubleshooting this error, verify the following:

  • Ensure that the SQL Server service is running on the computer that hosts the Updates Publisher database.

EXECUTE Permission Denied When Opening Updates Publisher

When starting the Updates Publisher console, the following error message displays:

EXECUTE permission denied on object 'usp_info_vendorlist', database 'mscuptdb', schema 'dbo'

When troubleshooting this error, verify the following:

  • The user starting the Updates Publisher has a SQL login created, and that the user also has the System_Center_Updates_Publisher_User database role membership to the mscuptdb database.

See Also