Maintenance window recurrence pattern offset from a base day
Allow the recurrence pattern for maintenance windows to be scheduled with an offset from a base day.
Meaning, if we want a maintenance window on the Wednesday following the Second Tuesday of every month, we could configure a maintenance window for the Second Tuesday with a +1 offset.
(This would be similar to the offset option added to ADRs in 1802.)
Wes
shared this idea
18 comments
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David Guirl
commented
can we please allow use of a negative offset, so we can configure something to run the day before patch tuesday?
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Marcel Mulder
commented
Great idea I was thinking the same. However I would suggest that the offset days is just a little less than a month. Why? Quite simple our environment has a lot of servers and we have DTAP in place where we apply patches x days after patch Tuesday for DT servers and xx days after patch Tuesday for AP servers. That way we have enough time to tackle any updates with regard to patching before applying these onto Production.
Currently to allow for this setup we use our own created PowerShell script that calculates these dates and creates non-recurring maintenance window for a year. Once this is implemented things will be much easier because we can just create a recurring maintenance windows without using complex scripts. -
Ibrahim
commented
I think this idea is duplicated there is already similar idea
https://configurationmanager.uservoice.com/forums/300492-ideas/suggestions/9399159-maintenance-window-relative-to-patch-tuesday -
Ibrahim
commented
I would like to mention that current ADR offset day doesn't allows you to go beyond 4 for offset days when you select second tuesday and you only can go up to saturday only for offset we want it to go beyond that because we create maintenance windows on Sunday and Mondays following the second Tuesday. I guess if you make to be able to go to 6 days maximum that would be perfect because any thing beyond that is useless as it will hit third Tuesday.
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Ibrahim
commented
I would like to mention that current ADR offset day doesn't allows you to go beyond 4 for offset days and you only can go up to saturday only for offset we want it to go beyond that because we create maintenance windows on Sunday and Mondays following the second Tuesday. I guess if you make to be able to go to 6 days maximum that would be perfect because any thing beyond that is useless as it will hit third Tuesday.
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Jon Sowles
commented
We use a PS script to update all of our collections, but it would be much nicer to have this added to console since it was done for ADR's.
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Arthur Benedetti White
commented
Since they used offset days in ADR rules, does that mean they might be able to do the same for the Maintenance windows?
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Noam Salomon
commented
Just give us offset days like in the ADR's and we'll be able to build proper schedules. Nothing fancy is required.
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Russ Rimmerman
commented
It's nice to see the added Offset option to ADRs, but not having it available in Maintenance Windows as well still makes it tricky to use the ADR offset feature since the maintenance window doesn't have the same feature and may not align properly with the ADR two months out of the year unless we manually change the maintenance window those two months.
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Dennis
commented
The entire IT world revolves around patch Tuesday, and yet Microsoft's patching product has no way to scheduled tasks relative to this event. My conclusion is that no one associated with SCCM development has any experience actually patching servers in an enterprise. Microsoft appears to be indifferent that each individual customer must re-invent the wheel.
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Gordon Schillinger
commented
I had asked our PFE/DSE's for this for several years and explained how the current scheduling does not accommodate the month to month drift. Very happy to see this requested. Would be a huge time savings not to have to edit and set 30+ maintenance windows every month.
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Scott Williams
commented
One thing to keep in mind is that "patch Tuesday" is not the same in all timezones. In Australia it falls on a Wednesday, and if a Wednesday is the first day of the month then schedules relative to the 2nd Wednesday won't match up. "Patch Tuesday" would need to be a localised date.
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Harshal
commented
Yes this feature will make life easier for creating one time maintenance window for complete year. Thanks
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Nathan Nitzel
commented
The idea of having a logic type schedule may sound convoluted but it would be a huge help in automating things. Example logic: Patch this Device Collection on the 1st/2nd/3rd/4th *name of day* that occurs after *2nd Tuesday* + *Days/Hours* between the times of *1:00AM* and *5:00AM*. It could be something like how Outlook rules are setup with clickable drop downs for the different variables. I know this has been a huge struggle for us for getting testing done for 1 week then getting things patched within 30 days for things like PCI compliance.
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Paul Vasquez
commented
Here is what other patch management systems (shavlik) are using to allow MS tuesdays scheduling, this could be used as example to add this feature to SCCM so it will be costant to the numbers of days after patch tuesdays:
"Patch Tuesday + X (days) Scheduling
When scheduling console scans, you now have the ability to delay a recurring scan by a number of days to coincide with a regular event. For example, you might schedule a monthly patch scan to occur the day after Patch Tuesday by using the new Add delay (days) option."Hopefully this is useful to explain our need and possibilities
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Steve Thompson
commented
April 2016 is another month that this feature could help. Another technique would allow a maintenance window + n days from Patch Tuesday. This month (April) Maintenance Windows fails with a 2nd Saturday for a dev server collection, as the 2nd SAT is actually before Patch Tuesday. Jan 2016 is another month with the same issue.
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Paul Dupuis
commented
Agree
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Sean McHugh
commented
Maintenance window relative to patch Tuesday
It would be very helpful to be able to set maintenance windows to be relative to Patch Tuesday. For example, apply patches on the 1st Saturday after patch Tuesday, or the second Sunday after patch Tuesday. Since patch Tuesday changes each month, the current "second Saturday of the month" type options are not useful when Patch Tuesday could fall before or after that depending on the calendar.