Failed to publish package. Code: -2146233088 Publishing operation failed, too many locally published categories

[#1]

Symptoms:

Microsoft WSUS product category limit of 100 can cause issues with deploying packages using Software Vulnerability Manager. Error: “Failed to publish package. Code: -2146233088 Publishing operation failed, too many locally published categories” occurs when more than 100 different vendor packages are published to the WSUS server.

Diagnosis:

You are receiving an error “Failed to publish package. Code: -2146233088 Publishing operation failed, too many locally published categories”

• Log csi_pluginlog.txt will contain below error:

[04/09 11:08:06.391] Publishing package
[04/09 11:08:06.745] Failed to create package: : -2147352567 , In 'Publisher.invoke'
Code: -2146233088
Publishing operation failed, too many locally published categories.
 --> Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration.PackagePublisherTooManyCategoriesException: Publishing operation failed, too many locally published categories.
   at Microsoft.UpdateServices.Internal.BaseApi.Publisher.VerifyPackageRulesAndState()
   at Microsoft.UpdateServices.Internal.BaseApi.Publisher.PublishPackage(String sourcePath, String additionalSourcePath, String packageDirectoryName, Boolean dualSign, String httpTimeStamp)
   at Microsoft.UpdateServices.Internal.BaseApi.Publisher.PublishPackage(String sourcePath, String packageDirectoryName)
   at plugin.DotNetWrapper<Microsoft::UpdateServices::Administration::IPublisher>.invoke(DotNetWrapper<Microsoft::UpdateServices::Administration::IPublisher>* , PluginBstr* name, Arguments* args, PluginMarshal* marshal) 

• You can run Powershell script to get current number of your products in the WSUS. Edit script as required.

$server = Get-WsusServer -name WSUS.company.local -portnumber 8531 -usessl #Edit as required

$prods = Get-WsusProduct -UpdateServer $server

$prods.Product | ?{$_.UpdateSource -eq "Other"} |ForEach-Object -Begin { $index = 0 } -Process {Add-Member -InputObject $_ -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Number -Value (
++$index) -PassThru} | Format-Table Number, type, title -Autosize
Write-host "You have"$index "products" -BackgroundColor Black -ForegroundColor Yellow 

Cause:

This issue occurs due to Microsoft limitation of 100 categories in the WSUS for the 3^rd party products.  

Workaround:

Delete unwanted 3^rd party products from the WSUS. To delete product or vendor you can use Flexera WSUS Management Tool.

Method 1

1. Open Flexera WSUS Management Tool
2. Connect to your WSUS server to display available packages
3. Right click on selected update and click “Delete Selected Items”. It is possible to highlight multiple items by holding “Ctrl” and then delete all selected.
4. Once you have deleted updates from WSUS, run the WSUS Cleanup Wizard available from the Options node in WSUS

Method 2

1. Login to your Software Vulnerability Manager console
2. Go to Patching - WSUS / System Center - Available
3. Right click on unwanted package and select "Delete"
4. Once you have deleted updates from WSUS, run the WSUS Cleanup Wizard available from the Options node in WSUS