In System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, maintenance windows (sometimes called service windows) provide administrators with a way to define a period of time that limits when changes can be made on the systems that are members of a collection. These windows restrict operating system advertisements, in addition to software update deployments and software distribution advertisements. When a maintenance window is applied to the collection, changes to collection member systems cannot typically be made outside of this time frame. This provides a safety net for administrators to ensure that client configuration changes occur only during periods when little or no impact to the organization will occur.
When maintenance windows are configured on collections that are targeted for software update deployments, you should consider the following:
- Each software update is given a default
setting of 20 minutes to install and restart, if necessary (60
minutes for service packs). When the available time left in a
maintenance window is less than this, the software update
installation does not start until the next maintenance window. When
you are planning a deployment to a collection with maintenance
windows, take these defaults into consideration. For example, if a
2-hour maintenance window is configured on the collection and there
are four software updates in a deployment, only three software
updates are installed during the first maintenance window and the
last update is installed during the second maintenance window.
- The following deployment settings affect how
software updates are installed on client computers that have
maintenance windows:
- Allow system restart outside of
maintenance windows: Specifies whether to allow system restarts
for both workstations and servers outside of configured maintenance
windows. By default, this setting is not enabled. This setting is
beneficial when you want your software update installation to be
completed on client computers as soon as possible. When this
setting is not specified, a system restart is not initiated if the
maintenance window ends in 10 minutes or less. This could prevent
the installation from being completed and leave the client computer
in a vulnerable state until the next maintenance window.
- Ignore maintenance windows and install
immediately at deadline: Specifies whether the software updates
in the deployment are installed at the deadline regardless of a
configured maintenance window. By default, this setting is not
enabled and is available only when there is a deadline configured
for the deployment. This setting is beneficial when there are
software updates that must be installed on client computers as soon
as possible, such as the updates in an expedited deployment.
- Allow system restart outside of
maintenance windows: Specifies whether to allow system restarts
for both workstations and servers outside of configured maintenance
windows. By default, this setting is not enabled. This setting is
beneficial when you want your software update installation to be
completed on client computers as soon as possible. When this
setting is not specified, a system restart is not initiated if the
maintenance window ends in 10 minutes or less. This could prevent
the installation from being completed and leave the client computer
in a vulnerable state until the next maintenance window.
 Important |
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| When you create an advertisement or deployment, you can set it to override the preset maintenance windows if the software update or advertised program is critical. |
Detailed information about maintenance windows is in the software distribution section, under Software Distribution Maintenance Windows. See the following topics:
About Software Distribution Maintenance Windows
About the Program Run Scenario Using Maintenance Windows