update collector flag "--collector.update.online=false" not working and returning error "failed to parse flags: unexpected false"

[WireGuyDebug]

Current Behavior

c:\Program Files\windows_exporter>windows_exporter.exe --collectors.enabled=update --collector.update.online=false --collector.update.scrape-interval=5m --log.level=debug
2025/10/01 15:09:11 ERROR Failed to load configuration err="failed to parse flags: unexpected false"

c:\Program Files\windows_exporter>windows_exporter.exe --collectors.enabled=update --collector.update.online=true --collector.update.scrape-interval=5m --log.level=debug
2025/10/01 15:09:26 ERROR Failed to load configuration err="failed to parse flags: unexpected true"

Expected Behavior

c:\Program Files\windows_exporter>windows_exporter.exe --collectors.enabled=update --collector.update.scrape-interval=5m --log.level=debug
time=2025-10-01T15:15:12.612-04:00 level=DEBUG source=main.go:150 msg="logging has Started"
time=2025-10-01T15:15:12.624-04:00 level=INFO source=update.go:112 msg="update collector is in an experimental state! The configuration and metrics may change in future. Please report any issues." collector=update
time=2025-10-01T15:15:12.654-04:00 level=INFO source=main.go:277 msg="Running as XXXXXXXXXXXX"
time=2025-10-01T15:15:12.654-04:00 level=INFO source=main.go:190 msg="Enabled collectors: update"
time=2025-10-01T15:15:12.655-04:00 level=INFO source=main.go:208 msg="starting windows_exporter in 43.1415ms" version=0.31.3 branch=HEAD revision=fcf21bb6008679edab438661a0e882c0c7f27386 goversion=go1.25.1 builddate=20250906-06:52:57 maxprocs=12
time=2025-10-01T15:15:12.657-04:00 level=INFO source=tls_config.go:347 msg="Listening on" address=[::]:9182
time=2025-10-01T15:15:12.658-04:00 level=INFO source=tls_config.go:350 msg="TLS is disabled." http2=false address=[::]:9182

Steps To Reproduce

run "c:\Program Files\windows_exporter\windows_exporter.exe" --collectors.enabled=update --collector.update.online=true --collector.update.scrape-interval=5m --log.level=debug

Environment

• windows_exporter Version: 0.31.3
• Windows Server Version: Windows Server 2019 build 17763.7678

windows_exporter logs

2025/10/01 15:09:11 ERROR Failed to load configuration err="failed to parse flags: unexpected false"

2025/10/01 15:09:26 ERROR Failed to load configuration err="failed to parse flags: unexpected true"

Anything else?

No response

[jkroepke]

Try --no-collector.update.online

[WireGuyDebug]

"--no-collector.update.online" does seem to work (see below).

1. Is "--no-collector.update.online" expected syntax?
2. Should both "--no-collector.update.online" and "--collector.update.online=true" work?
3. I do still get these errors on some Server 2019 servers: level=ERROR source=update.go:274 msg="failed to fetch updates" err="search for updates: Exception occurred. ()"

Results:

"c:\Program Files\windows_exporter\windows_exporter.exe" --collectors.enabled=update --no-collector.update.online --collector.update.scrape-interval=5m --log.level=debug
time=2025-10-02T09:55:13.645-04:00 level=DEBUG source=main.go:150 msg="logging has Started"
time=2025-10-02T09:55:13.657-04:00 level=INFO source=update.go:112 msg="update collector is in an experimental state! The configuration and metrics may change in future. Please report any issues." collector=update
time=2025-10-02T09:55:13.702-04:00 level=INFO source=main.go:277 msg="Running as XXXXXXXXXXX"
time=2025-10-02T09:55:13.702-04:00 level=INFO source=main.go:190 msg="Enabled collectors: update"
time=2025-10-02T09:55:13.703-04:00 level=INFO source=main.go:208 msg="starting windows_exporter in 58.9461ms" version=0.31.3 branch=HEAD revision=fcf21bb6008679edab438661a0e882c0c7f27386 goversion=go1.25.1 builddate=20250906-06:52:57 maxprocs=12
time=2025-10-02T09:55:13.707-04:00 level=INFO source=tls_config.go:347 msg="Listening on" address=[::]:9182
time=2025-10-02T09:55:13.707-04:00 level=INFO source=tls_config.go:350 msg="TLS is disabled." http2=false address=[::]:9182
time=2025-10-02T09:55:51.570-04:00 level=WARN source=collect.go:220 msg="collector update failed after 0s, resulting in 0 metrics" err="pending gather update metrics"
time=2025-10-02T09:57:17.201-04:00 level=WARN source=collect.go:220 msg="collector update failed after 515.7µs, resulting in 0 metrics" err="pending gather update metrics"
time=2025-10-02T09:58:01.999-04:00 level=ERROR source=update.go:274 msg="failed to fetch updates" err="search for updates: Exception occurred. ()"
time=2025-10-02T09:58:25.078-04:00 level=ERROR source=update.go:274 msg="failed to fetch updates" err="search for updates: Exception occurred. ()"

Thanks

[jkroepke]

1. Yes
2. No
3. It seems that the Windows Update Services on your system has some issues. In any case, windows_exporter has to search for update on the local database and the search fails for unknown reasons.

[WireGuyDebug]

Thanks!

Is there somewhere in the documentation that shares syntax? I am newer to all of this and I did not find this documentation.

Below is in the documentation for update collector (https://github.com/prometheus-community/windows_exporter/blob/master/docs/collector.update.md.)

--collector.updates.online
Whether to search for updates online. If set to false, the collector will only list updates that are already found by the Windows Update service. Set to true to search for updates online, which will take longer to complete.