Maintenance windows in System Center 2012
Configuration Manager provide a means by which administrative
users can define a time period when various Configuration Manager
operations can be carried out on members of a device collection.
You can use maintenance windows to help ensure that client
configuration changes occur during periods that do not affect the
productivity of the organization.
The following Configuration Manager operations support
maintenance windows:
- Software deployments
- Software update deployments
- Compliance settings deployment and
evaluation
- Operating system deployments
- Task sequence deployments
Maintenance windows are configured for a collection with a start
date, a start and finish time, and a recurrence pattern. Each
maintenance window must have a duration of less than 24 hours. By
default, computer restarts caused by a deployment are not allowed
outside of a maintenance window, but you can override the default
in the settings for each deployment. Maintenance windows affect
only the time when the deployment program runs; applications
configured to download and run locally can download content outside
of the maintenance window.
When a client computer is a member of a device collection that
has a maintenance window configured, a deployment program runs only
if the maximum allowed run time does not exceed the duration
configured for the maintenance window. If the program fails to run,
an alert is generated and the deployment is rerun during the next
scheduled maintenance window that has available time.
Using Multiple Maintenance Windows
When a client computer is a member of multiple device
collections that have configured maintenance windows, the following
rules apply:
- If the maintenance windows do not overlap,
they are treated as two independent maintenance windows.
- If the maintenance windows overlap, they are
treated as a single maintenance window encompassing the time period
covered by both maintenance windows. For example, if two
maintenance windows, each an hour in duration overlap by 30
minutes, the effective duration of the maintenance window would be
90 minutes.
When a user initiates an application installation from
Software Center, the application is installed immediately,
regardless of any configured maintenance windows.
If an application deployment with a purpose of
Required reaches its installation deadline during the
nonbusiness hours configured by a user in Software Center, it is
installed regardless of the configured nonbusiness hours.
How to configure maintenance
windows in Configuration Manager
-
In the Configuration Manager console, click Assets
and Compliance.
-
In the Assets and Compliance workspace, click
Device Collections.
-
In the Device Collections list, select the
collection for which you want to configure a maintenance
window.
-
On the Home tab, in the Properties group,
click Properties.
-
In the Maintenance Windows tab of the
<collection name>Properties dialog box, click
the New icon.
 Note |
| You cannot create maintenance windows for the All
Systems collection. |
-
In the <new> Schedule dialog box, specify
a name, a schedule, and a recurrence pattern for the maintenance
window. You can also enable the option to apply the schedule to
only task sequences.
-
For System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager only:
From the Apply this schedule to drop-down list, select
whether this maintenance window applies to all deployments, only
software updates, or only task sequences.
-
Click OK to close the <new>
Schedule dialog box and create the new maintenance window.
-
Close the <collection
name>Properties dialog box.
See Also
