This post is more of a ‘note to self’ for troubleshooting IIS errors.
Recently I decided to remove the WSUS role from an SCCM distribution point as it was previously being used for patching during OSD, but now we patch only the reference image instead. After removing the WSUS role, I also did some cleanup including deleting the WSUS_Updates directory, the %Program Files%\Update Services directory and removing the WsusPool website and application pool from IIS.
After that, clients using that distribution point failed to get content for packages, returning an Http 500 error:
Checking the IIS log on the distribution point I found the following corresponding entry:
The error code is 500.19 which translates to ‘Internal Server Error / Configuration data is invalid‘ and is documented in more detail in this Microsoft article. A further clue is found in the 126 windows error code, which translates to ‘The specified module could not be found‘.
Browsing to the website directly, ie http://localhost/SMS_DP_SMSPKG$, gave the following information:
The error code 0x8007007e is the same as the windows error code 126 and also means ‘The specified module could not be found”. The module referenced in the error is the DynamicCompressionModule.
To get more detailed information on the error, I decided to enable Failed Request Tracing in IIS and log the 500.19 error. The process for enabling and using Failed Request Tracing is nicely summarised here as well as documented by Microsoft here. Using that, I found that a couple of modules were being referenced that were no longer present.
Following a hint from here, I checked the applicationHost.config file and found a reference to a dll in the %Program Files%\Update Services directory that was installed with WSUS and that I deleted after removing the WSUS role:
<scheme name="xpress" doStaticCompression="false" doDynamicCompression="true" dll="C:\Program Files\Update Services\WebServices\suscomp.dll" staticCompressionLevel="10" dynamicCompressionLevel="0" />
To remove the reference, I ran the following command as admin:
%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/httpCompression /-[name='xpress']
You can find more info on IIS modules and how to add/remove/disable/enable here.
After removing the reference to the xpress schema and restarting the W3SVC service, everything was back to normal 🙂
I fall on the same problem on an exchange server after remove Wsus.
Thanks a lot, you saved me
Great, let’s make a monument, you’ve diagnosed and solved a big problem for us too. Compliments.
Thank you for this article!
I owe you a pint, thanks very much
2 years on and this post saved me a ton of headaches. Trying to repurpose a defunct WSUS server into an intranet server and all sites returning this dreaded 500.19 error – thank you very much, you’ve really helped!
Brilliant. Thank you thank you thank you. You know how when you’re fighting a problem for three hours, taking screen shots, thinking “I’ll have to blog this when I’m done”? THIS is the article with the fix! I did blog it for future reference: https://www.mcbsys.com/blog/2021/06/http-500-19-error-after-removing-wsus/.
Cant thank you enough, was on the brink of nuking the DP, but found this, needless to say it saved me a lot of headache. Thanks Trevor.
Thanks very much, another saved day of frustration. I guess the lesson is, never install WSUS on a server that does anything else! And certainly never try and take it off again, nice one MS.