Failed to publish package to WSUS

I had a funny problem on a customer site today while deploying a Flexera CSI solution for third party patching. I integrated the solution with WSUS but had problems creating the agent package. The package failed to be published to WSUS.

The error was: Failed to publish package. Code: -2147467259. CreateDirectory failed.

Now I'm familiar with this error from my experience with System Center Updates Publisher. It's usually a permissions issue and that the logged on user does not have permissions to create a new folder in the UpdatesServicesPackages folder. Permissions was a good place to start troubleshooting.

I checked the NTFS permissions on the UpdatesServicesPackages folder but all looked normal

• Full Control: Administrators, SYSTEM, WSUS Administrators
• Read, Write: NETWORK SERVICE
• List Folder Contents, Read, Read & Execute: Users/Everyone

I then thought I'd verify that my user account was in fact a member of the local administrators group on the server. That looked a bit weird. My user account AND SID were listed. That didn't look right to me so I figured that I needed to look into the health of the server.

I ran the PoSH cmdlet test-computersecurechannel and the result was worrying

Operation failed. Unknown interface.

Mmm, now I was getting a little concerned. Next step was to check the services and I found the little problem. The Workstation service was stopped (I have no idea how or why). Starting the service solved the problem and all was good again.

I could successfully create the package.

I hope this helps someone who encounters a similar problem. Until next time.....