Maintenance windows settings

Software updates on Windows operating systems often require a computer restart. Create and assign a maintenance windows settings profile to schedule computer restarts outside of business hours and make sure updates apply as soon as possible without interrupting user work.

Maintenance windows are compatible with patch installation tasks.

For more information about the maintenance windows module, see:

Creating and managing settings profiles: Information about how to create, edit, delete, or assign settings profiles to the computers on your network.

Accessing, controlling, and monitoring the management console: Managing user accounts and assigning permissions.

Required permissions

Permission Access type

Configure maintenance windows

Create, edit, delete, copy, or assign maintenance windows settings profiles to computers.

View maintenance windows settings

View maintenance windows settings profiles.

Permissions required to access the maintenance windows settings

Creating a maintenance windows settings profile

Maintenance windows settings profiles support Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. All computers have a default settings profile assigned that you can use in Cytomic Patch scheduled tasks. See Download and install patches.

Maintenance windows have a start and end time to restart computers and finish applying updates. A computer restart can be delayed by these reasons:

  • The task that is applying the changes has not finished.

  • The maintenance notification time.

If the task that downloads and applies the changes and the notification time end when the maintenance window is already closed, the notification and the computer restart are postponed until the next scheduled time slot. See Maintenance window and computer restart configuration examples.

To create a maintenance windows settings profile:

  • From the top menu, select Settings. From the side menu, select Maintenance windows.

  • Click Add. The Add settings page opens.

  • In the Name text box, type a name for the settings profile. In the Description text box, type a description of the profile.

  • To select the computers you want to assign the settings profile to, click the No recipients selected link. A dialog box opens.

  • Click OK to save the settings profile and add recipients. The Recipients page opens.

  • To add computer groups:

    • In the Computer groups section, click the icon. The Add group dialog box opens.

    • From the group tree, select a group.

    • Click Add. The Add group dialog box closes, and the group appears in the Computer groups section.

    • To add more groups, repeat these steps.

  • To add individual computers:

    • In the Additional computers section, click the icon.  The Add computers dialog box opens and shows a list of computers that support maintenance windows settings profiles.

    • Use the pagination controls to find the computers you want to add.

    • To filter the list, in the Search text box, type a computer name or IP address.

    • Select the checkboxes for the computers you want to add.

    • Click Add. The Add computers dialog box closes, and the computers appear in the Additional computers section.

  • From the Frequency drop-down menu, select the days of the year when the Advanced EPDR task scheduler must open a maintenance window.

  • You can configure up to four time slots within the days specified in Frequency:

    • To add a new time slot, click the Add Time Slot icon.

    • In Start time and End time, specify the times when Advanced EPDR must open and close the maintenance window.

    • If the specified start time is earlier than the end time, the maintenance window occurs on the day specified in Frequency.

    • If the specified start time is later than the end time, the maintenance window starts on the day specified in Frequency at the time specified in Start time and ends the next day at the time specified in End time.

  • To specify the times based on the local time on the target computer, enable the Computer's local time toggle. If you do not enable this toggle, the times are based on Cytomic server time.

  • From the Show maintenance notification drop-down menu, select the time when the security software shows a notification to the user that indicates how much time remains before the computer restarts:

    • Do not notify: The user is not notified, and the computer restarts with no notice at the scheduled time.

    • 5 minutes before: The user is notified five minutes before the computer restarts.

    • 15 minutes before: The user is notified 15 minutes before the computer restarts.

  • Click Save. The settings profile is assigned to the selected computers and added to the list.

Maintenance window and computer restart configuration examples

Example 1: The configured notification occurs after the maintenance window has ended

  • Download task start: 15:00

  • Maintenance window start: 16:00

  • Maintenance window end: 17:00

  • Notification time: 15 minutes

  • Download and installation task duration: 1 hour and 50 minutes

The full process finishes after the end time of the maintenance window: download task start (15:00) + download and installation task (1 hour and 50 minutes) + notification time (15 minutes) = 17:10, which is after the maintenance window end time (17:00).

The notification occurs at 16:00 during the next maintenance window, and the restart at 16:15.

Example 2: The update download and installation occurs after the maintenance window has ended

  • Download task start: 16:30

  • Maintenance window start: 16:00

  • Maintenance window end: 17:00

  • Notification time: 15 minutes

  • Download and installation task duration: 35 minutes

The full process finishes after the end time of the maintenance window: download task start (16:30) + download and installation task (35 minutes) + notification time (15 minutes) = 17:20, which is after the maintenance window end time (17:00).

The notification occurs at 16:00 during the next maintenance window, and the restart at 16:15.

Example 3: The update download and installation occurs before the maintenance window has ended and no notification is configured

  • Download task start: 16:30

  • Maintenance window start: 16:00

  • Maintenance window end: 17:00

  • Notification time: Do not notify

  • Download and installation task duration: 25 minutes

The full process finishes before the end time of the maintenance window: download task start (16:30) + download and installation task (25 minutes)= 16:55, which is before the maintenance window end time (17:00).

The restart occurs at 16:55 during the current maintenance window.