How To Collect Windows Update Logs From SCCM Client Remotely ConfigMgr CMPivot Query For Event Logs Error HTMD Blog

Let’s find out ConfigMgr CMPivot Query to Collect Windows Update Logs from SCCM Client Remotely. The ConfigMgr CMPivot is based on fast channel notification architecture.

The WindowsUpdate.log is part of event logs called WindowsUpdateClient with the latest versions of Windows.

Many organizations use SCCM (WSUS) and Intune (WUfB) to patch Windows 10 devices. Collecting Windows update logs (WindowsUpdate.log) from the SCCM client is important to troubleshoot Windows updates or patching issues.

ConfigMgr CMPivot query tool allows you to assess the state of devices quickly. When you run a query against a device collection, the CMPivot tool will run a query in real-time on all currently connected (online) devices in the selected collection.

WindowsUpdateClient Event Logs

You don’t have WindowsUpdate.log available out of the box with the latest version of Windows. Instead, you need to use the following PowerShell command to create WindowsUpdate.log. The Get-WindowsUpdateLog cmdlet merges and converts Windows Update .etl files into a single readable WindowsUpdate.log file.

Get-WindowsUpdateLog

How to Collect Windows Update Logs from SCCM Client

You can use the CMPivot query to collect Windows update logs from Windows devices. This is the best and easy way to get the error details from Windows Update Client event logs.

Navigate to the device collection against which you want to run the CMPivot query.
Select any device collection.
Right-Click on Device collection.
Select Start CMPivot.

NOTE! – In a production environment with more than many Windows devices, I don’t recommend using the All System collection. Instead, use the collection with a smaller number of devices to try out the query.

Launch SCCM CMPivot Query Tool How to Collect Windows Update Logs from SCCM Client — How to Collect Windows Update Logs from SCCM Client

ConfigMgr CMPivot Query for Event Logs

Let’s see how to find the ConfigMgr CMPivot query for event logs. It would be best to be mindful of the logs information that you query through CMPivot.

The following CMPivot query gives you the details of Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient/Operational event logs for the last one hour.

WinEvent('Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient/Operational', 1h)

The following CMPivot query gives you the details of Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient/Operational event logs for the last day.

WinEvent('Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient/Operational', 1d)

The following CMPivot query gives you the error and count of devices with a summary dashboard by querying Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient/ Operational event logs for the last day.

WinEvent('Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient/Operational', 1d)
| where LevelDisplayName =='Error'
| summarize count() by Device

How to Collect Windows Update Logs from SCCM Client Remotely ConfigMgr CMPivot Query for Event Logs

Export CMPivot Query Results

Let’s find out how to export CMPivot query results into a CSV file.

Click on Export button.
From the drop down menu, select Result to file.

Device	LevelDisplayName	DateTime	Message	ProviderName	ID
Prod-Win20	Information	07-02-2021 03:41	Windows Update successfully found 0 updates.	Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient	26

Sample Results

Resources

Author

Anoop C Nair is Microsoft MVP! He is a Device Management Admin with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. He writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc.

How to Collect Windows Update Logs from SCCM Client Remotely ConfigMgr CMPivot Query for Event Logs Error