KACE Systems Management Appliance 13.2 Common Documents - KACE Service Desk Administrator Guide

Review patch schedule details

When you configure a patching schedule, this page displays details about the schedule configuration and its status.

Go to the Patch Schedule Summary page:

Log in to the appliance Administrator Console, https://appliance_hostname/admin. Or, if the Show organization menu in admin header option is enabled in the appliance General Settings, select an organization in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page next to the login information.

On the left navigation bar, click Security, then click Patch Management.

On the Patch Management panel, click Schedules.

Click the name of a patch schedule.

Review the contents of the Configuration section.

Option

Description

Created

The date and time the schedule is created.

Modified

The date and time the schedule is last modified.

Last Run

The date and time the schedule is last run.

Name

The name of the schedule.

Action

The action associated with the schedule:

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Detect: Detects patches that are installed on, or missing from, managed devices. Detect-only actions are recommended when the Patch Download Settings are configured to download only . Running a detect-only action before the deploy creates a list of patch files to download before deployment begins.

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Detect and Stage: Detects patches that are installed or missing from managed devices, and downloads patch files to the agent device for later deployment.

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Detect and Deploy: Detects and deploys patches to managed devices. These types of actions are used when managing desktops and servers. Detect and Deploy patching jobs require a connection between the device and the appliance; they do not run offline. For more information about messaging protocol connections, see Configure Agent communication and log settings.

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Detect, Stage and On-demand Deploy: Detects patches that are installed or missing from managed devices, downloads patch files to the agent device, and causes the Windows system tray on the agent device to alert the user that the patches are ready for deployment. The user can then initiate the deployment process at their convenience.

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These schedules are only available for Windows devices with agents version 11.0 or later.

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The Agent Status Icon On Device option must be enabled in the agent communication settings. You can find these settings on the Organization Detail page, under Communication and Agent Settings (if one or more Organization components are enabled), or on the Communication Settings page (if you do not have an Organization component). For more information, see Configure Agent communication and log settings.

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Deploy: Deploys applicable patches to managed devices. This is useful when you know that specific patches need to be deployed to managed devices. A final Detect job runs either after the patch is deployed or, if a reboot is required, after the device reboots and the Agent reconnects to the appliance.

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Detect and Rollback: Detects and removes unwanted patches from managed devices. Rollbacks may not be available for some patches. See Determine whether a patch can be rolled back.

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Rollback: Removes unwanted patches from managed devices. Rollbacks may not be available for some patches. See Determine whether a patch can be rolled back.

Description

A brief description of the patch schedule.

Devices

This field only appears when the schedule is configured to apply to all devices.

Device Label

One or more Smart Labels associated with the devices against which the schedule runs. For more information, see Using Smart Labels for patching. This field only appears when the schedule is configured to apply to selected devices.

Device Name

One or more selected devices against which the schedule runs. This field only appears when the schedule is configured to apply to selected devices.

Patches to Detect

Detect schedules only. This field only appears when the schedule is configured to detect all patches.

Detect Label

Detect schedules only. One or more Smart Labels associated with the scheduled patches. For more information, see Using Smart Labels for patching. This field only appears when the schedule is configured to detect selected patches.

Patches to Deploy

Deploy schedules only. This field only appears when the schedule is configured to deploy all patches.

Deploy Label

Deploy schedules only. One or more Smart Labels associated with the scheduled patches. For more information, see Using Smart Labels for patching. This field only appears when the schedule is configured to deploy selected patches.

Patches to Rollback

Rollback schedules only. This field only appears when the schedule is configured to remove all patches.

Rollback Label

Rollback schedules only. One or more Smart Labels associated with the scheduled patches. For more information, see Using Smart Labels for patching. This field only appears when the schedule is configured to remove selected patches.

Alerts

Schedules without the Deploy action only. The alerts displayed to users when patch actions run:

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OK: Run immediately.

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Cancel: Cancel until the next scheduled run.

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Snooze: Prompt the user again after the Snooze Duration.

Reboot

Schedules without the Deploy action only. The options for rebooting the managed device:

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No Reboot: The device does not reboot even though a reboot might be required for the patch to take effect. This option is not recommended because deploying patches without rebooting when required can leave systems unstable. Further, patches that require reboots are only shown as deployed after the reboot.

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Prompt User: Waits for the user to accept the reboot before restarting the device. If the user snoozes or cancels the reboot, patching stops until a reboot occurs. Selecting a Snooze Duration in the agent dialog box that appears on the target device pauses the reboot prompt for the specified snooze interval.

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Force Reboot: Reboots as soon as a patch requiring it is deployed. Forced reboots cannot be canceled. Force Reboot works well for desktops and servers. You might not want to force reboot on laptops. Force Reboot works well with servers because they usually have no dedicated users. However, it is important to warn users that services will not be available when servers are being patched and re-booted. See Best practices for patching.

Schedule

The selected schedule details. Click View Task Schedule to see a detailed task scheduler. In the dialog box that appears, click a task to review the task details. For more information, see View task schedules.

Run on Next Connection in Offline

Indicates if the schedule runs the action the next time the managed device connects to the appliance, if the device is currently offline.

Delay Run After Reconnect

If configured, this option indicates the amount of time the schedule is delayed for. The time delay period begins when the patch action is scheduled to run.

End After

If configured, this option indicates the maximum amount of time the schedule can run for. When this time limit is reached, any patching tasks that are in progress are suspended.

In the Schedule Status section, review the overall patch schedule status on any of the following tabs:

Tab	Contents
By Machine	Devices selected for patching. Each entry displays the device name, its IP address, the patching status (see Patching status definitions), patch results, and the date the patching completed. You can expand a device node to view the applicable patches. Each patch entry shows the patch ID, associated Knowledge Base article number, patch name, and the current status (Patched, Not Patched, Staged, and Detect, Stage, or Deploy Failure).
By Patch	Patches selected for detection, staging, and deployment. Each entry displays the patch ID, associated Knowledge Base article number, patch name, and the numbers of devices that are patched, not patched, and those that encountered detect or deploy failures.
Patched	Patches successfully installed on devices. Each entry displays the patch ID, associated Knowledge Base article number, and the patch name. You can expand a patch node to view the devices on which the patch is installed.
Not Patched	Patches that are not installed on devices. Each entry displays the patch ID, associated Knowledge Base article number, and the patch name. You can expand a patch node to view the devices on which the patch is to be installed.
Staged	Patches that are staged for installation. Staging refers to patch files being copied to the agent device for later deployment. Each entry displays the patch ID, associated Knowledge Base article number, and the patch name. You can expand a patch node to view the devices on which the patch is to be installed.
Detect Failures	Incomplete patches that resulted in a detection failure. Each entry displays the patch ID, associated Knowledge Base, patch name, and the associated error code (see Error codes caused by patching and scripting). You can expand a patch node to view the devices on which the failure is encountered.
Stage Failures	Incomplete patches that resulted in a staging failure. Each entry displays the patch ID, associated Knowledge Base article number, patch name, and the associated error code (see Error codes caused by patching and scripting). You can expand a patch node to view the devices on which the failure is encountered.
Deploy Failures	Incomplete patches that resulted in a deployment failure. Each entry displays the patch ID, associated Knowledge Base, patch name, and the associated error code (see Error codes caused by patching and scripting). You can expand a patch node to view the devices on which the failure is encountered.

Optional. After reviewing the schedule details, you can perform any of the following actions:

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To edit the patching schedule, click Edit. For more information, see Configure patch schedules.

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To run the patching schedule, click Run Now.

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To make a copy of the patching schedule, click Duplicate.

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To delete the patching schedule, click Delete.

Patching status definitions

A patching status indicates the state of the current task. This information appears on the Patch Schedule Summary page, in the Schedule Status section. For more information, see Review patch schedule details.

Table 31. Patching status definitions
Patching status	Definition
alerting	Alert sent to user, waiting for confirmation.
cancelled	Task cancelled by user.
cleanup	Payload files from agent not accessed since last 90 days.
completed	Task completed.
connecting	Agent reconnecting after reboot.
deploy	Patch deployment in progress.
detect	Patch detection in progress.
downloading	Patch deployment waiting for packages to download.
error	Task not completed due to time out or other error.
not scheduled	Task not yet created for this device.
predetect	Pre-detection with the Agent in progress.
reboot pending	Patches deployed, reboot required to continue.
reboot snoozed	Patches deployed, reboot required to continue. After a configured interval the end user is reminded to reboot.
rolling-back	Patch rollback in progress.
scheduled	Task scheduled and is waiting to run.
snoozed	Task snoozed, user to be reminded after the configured snooze duration.
stage	Downloading files for later deployment.
suspended	Task suspended before reaching completion.
uploading logs	Uploading pre-detection, detection, deployment, verification, or rollback logs.
verifying	Post-deployment verification detection in progress.
version check	Task checking the patch version.
waiting on-demand deploy	Task waiting for the user action to deploy the schedule.
waiting to connect	Device disconnected.
waiting to schedule	Task waiting to schedule in the Agent's time zone.