"Update Failed" Messages on Win XP

[KDibble]

Using Endpoint Protection 8.0.1603 on a Windows XP Pro SP3 box with VPS 150903-0. System/license is controlled by SOA 1.3.3.35 on a Windows 7 machine. Program updates are disabled in the SOA. NO firewalls are in use.

I see that this is not the current VPS. The SOA shows a green checkmark for this machine and says the last update was on September 3, and that all shields are running.

Every couple of hours for the past 2 days on this machine I have gotten an Avast pop-up claiming that Avast is unable to update successfully. However, the client says everything is up to date ("latest update received" today just a few minutes ago, even though the VPS is not current) and working fine. The last time the pop-up appeared, I clicked the "update now" link on it. Avast attempted to update but halted with a message saying something like "insufficient storage space to complete the operation".

The XP box has 420 GB free space; the Win 7 SOA box has nearly 1 TB of free space. Obviously this error is bogus.

I know: XP is old, etc. etc. etc. However, Avast claims to still support XP, and has issued no statements to the contrary.

Probably if I uninstall and reinstall the client I'll get an updated VPS.

However, I wanted to ask if anyone has seen this.

Thanks.

[drake127]

Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about it. If you update your VPS regularly, there is less chance for hitting this bug. You can use VPSUpd (https://www.avast.com/en-us/download-update) manually to fix it (for some time).

[KDibble]

Thank you.

I'm not sure what you mean about updating VPS regularly.

The SOA requests VPS updates from Avast every four hours. However, there is no pre-defined or custom "job" in the SOA that can force-push VPS updates from the SOA to the clients. The only job options relating to updates concern downloading updates from Avast's corporate servers to the machine that hosts the SOA. As a practical reality, then, workstations have to pull updates, and they only do that when they reboot.

If I have to have a special program to cause my managed Win XP client to update its VPS, I might as well just uninstall and reinstall the client.

[REDACTED]

Hi, I have got the same problem with many XP workstations. When I reinstall the client everithing is ok to the next Monday. Yes on Monday the problem appears again. What can I do? Please give some solution. We paid some money about it and Avast says "XP is supported OS"

[FStepJC]

I am having the same issue with some XP workstations.  Uninstalling/reinstalling works for a couple of days and then they're no longer able to update.

[avast@@dvantage77.com]

I have heard that this update is to be released this month, and we have exactly 2 weeks left in this month!

[REDACTED]

I like to add we're seeing the same problems on a random subset of our equipment. The "storage" referred to is RAM, not disk space.

This is a snippet out of the Setup.log files of an effected PC:

Code: [Select]

17.09.2015 16:00:52.000 1442520052 (null) GetFileWithRetry: vps_32-1140-113f.vpx downloaded  and verified
17.09.2015 16:00:52.000 1442520052 (null) DldPackage: C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast Business\Setup\vps_32-1140-113f.vpx, returned 0x00000000
17.09.2015 16:00:54.000 1442520054 (null) PerformPkgDiff: pPkgDiffStorage->m_pbtBufNew allocated 255477305
17.09.2015 16:00:58.000 1442520058 (null) PerformDiff: Ok
17.09.2015 16:00:58.000 1442520058 (null) HttpGetWinsock(http://192.168.250.14:16135/vps_32-1141-1140.vpx)
17.09.2015 16:00:58.000 1442520058 (null) Used server: http://192.168.250.14:16135
17.09.2015 16:00:58.000 1442520058 (null) GetFileWithRetry: vps_32-1141-1140.vpx downloaded  and verified
17.09.2015 16:00:58.000 1442520058 (null) DldPackage: C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast Business\Setup\vps_32-1141-1140.vpx, returned 0x00000000
17.09.2015 16:00:58.000 1442520058 (null) PerformPkgDiff: pPkgDiffStorage->m_pbtBufNew allocated 255563766
17.09.2015 16:00:58.000 1442520058 (null) ERROR PerformPkgDiff: pPkgDiffStorage->m_pbtBufNew == NULL
17.09.2015 16:00:58.000 1442520058 (null) PerformDiff: vps_32-1141-1140.vpx  Bad, error code 0x00000008
17.09.2015 16:00:58.000 1442520058 (null) Vpu: C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast Business\Setup\vps_32-1141-1140.vpx, size: 710682. md5: E583217B43A653AB5B3F51E45551D2EB, computemd5 returned 0x00000000, sig: 010F1232F13BBBE6D25C889C81DBB8ED82096E16421DA8687762A28C2E437A49C6CFABA4A2149374 returned 0x00000000
17.09.2015 16:00:58.000 1442520058 (null) PerformDiff( vps_32, 1140, 1141 ) failed 0x00000008
17.09.2015 16:00:58.000 1442520058 (null) Error:Not enough storage is available to process this command.

If I read this correctly, the problem appears to be that the updater tries to allocate two ~256 MB blocks of RAM and gets denied by the OS on the second block. This particular box has 3GB installed of which 1.5 GB was free at the time. The failure could be due to memory fragmentation, but even after a reboot, the update still fails.

(I guess it is time to update the stated "only 128MB RAM needed" in the minimum system requirements...)

[KDibble]

My XP box has 4 GB of RAM, so that's not likely to be a factor in my case.

[REDACTED]

I am also suffering from this issue, I do hope it will be fixed soon?

[REDACTED]

Getting this on PC's at several of my clients 

I've tried re-installing but after a few days updates stop happening with the usual insuffient storage error.

Other PC's are updating fine from the same SOA/Server.

[Jeff.S]

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to let you know that we are aware of the issue with XP devices getting this error. At this time you can update manually by downloading the updates from here:
https://www.avast.com/en-us/download-update

I have seen reports that this works for some and others it works for a few days then the error returns. We are working on a new release for the endpoint product line and should be ready this week or next from the last work I had.

Will try to keep you posted as more updates become available.

Thanks!

Jeff

[REDACTED]

Hi, the manual update method doesn't work for me. It runs, but says it's already up to date. When I check afterwards it still has the old definitions

[REDACTED]

I've been working on this issue since September 4th with Avast! Technical Support (most recently Che Johnson).

During the process of attempting to resolve this issue, it has been established that if an automatic or streaming virus definition update attempt occurs (and fails) prior to running running VPSUPD.EXE, the VPSUPD.EXE process will fail to install the updated virus definitions.

In order for VPSUPD.EXE to succeed, both automatic and streaming virus definition updates need to be disabled.

Here's a configuration that has worked for my organization:

• Configure a Computer Group in the Enterprise Administration Console^* with the following settings (NOTE: only those settings I changed from our standard settings are listed):
  
  Policies: avast! Antivirus / Updates
  
  • Update from: Second-level mirror: {any server name or IP address that is NOT a mirror}
  • VPS Update: Auto (prevents warnings in the Avast! GUI that Automatic Updates are disabled)
  • Program Update: Manual
  • UNCHECK "If mirror is unreachable, update from the Internet"
  
  Policies: avast! Antivirus / Updates Details
  Update Options:
  
  • UNCHECK "Show notification box after automatic update"
  • UNCHECK "Show notification box if an error occurs"
  
  Auto-update Interval:
  
  • Auto-update every: 30000 minutes
  
  Policies: avast! Antivirus / Cloud services
  Streaming Updates:
  
  • UNCHECK "Enable streaming updates"
  
  These settings prevent Avast! from automatically updating from local or Internet update sources.
  
  Policies: avast! Antivirus / Password
  Protected Areas:
  
  • CHECK "Update control"
  
  This setting prevents end-users from manually clicking "Update engine and virus definitions" (NOTE: This will only work if your configuration is set as password-protected to begin with!)
  
  
• Place your affected XP systems in this new Computer Group
  
  
• REBOOT all of the affected systems
  
  Since the affected systems have probably already tried to update automatically, they'll be in a "failed" state and will not update even if VPSUPD.EXE is manually run; a reboot ensures that the updates do not automatically take place.
  
  
• Apply VPSUPD.EXE either manually or via automated scripting/deployment system
  
  Since it's an executable, you might have to get creative in scripting the update if your deployment system doesn't handle executables well.
  
  
• Verify via EAC^* that the updates are being applied.
  
  In my experience, there have been several systems that refused to update even after taking all of these steps; usually, the systems that have failed manual VPSUPD.EXE updates all show multiple "YYMMDD##_stream" folders in %ProgramFiles%\AVAST Software\Avast\defs.  The only fix for those systems is a reinstall with an up-to-date installation package.

*: I have no idea if SOA contains these same features; modify as necessary to apply these settings via SOA.

YMMV.

--
Troy
Systems Administrator
Episcopal Community Services of San Francisco

[REDACTED]

Thanks for those detailed instructions, I'll give them a try tomorrow

[REDACTED]

Thanks for those detailed instructions, I'll give them a try tomorrow

Any luck with your configuration?

--
Troy