How to prevent VM Window Server from rebooting after updates

Question

Hi all,

could you please help me understand why my win server has rebooted even when configured as "do not reboot"?

My scenario:

• Windows Server 2019 running in Azure 
• In "UPDATE" section directly under the VM, there was no "Schedule" configured (as it does not allow me to create any due to "Virtual machines are greyed out because they were not set with automatic patch orchestration"
• Patch orchestration is set to "Patch Orchestration: Automatic by OS"
• I use "AUTOMATION -> Update management" for configuring updates for Azure VMs
  • here I have "Deployment Schedule" configured with "Never reboot" option selected and the updates should be performed every "Saturday"

Now... I'm not sure whether it works properly as I can see that last night, there were updates installed (so not on SATRUDAY as configured) and the VM with the Deployment Schedule above assigned got restarted as well....  I have a critical app running on that VM so would like to have it as "download and install + restart manually"... I the schedule in automation even applies if patch orchestration is set to "Automatic by OS"??

I'm a bit confused with all the update management options in Azure :).... which to use to have more flexibility. I've just now tried to configure servers under "Update Management Center", I've changed patch orchestration for that VM here to "Azure Orchestrated" and created a "deployment" for that VM, which has restart set to "NEVER REBOOT" and Maintenance scope "Guest (Azure VM, Arc-enabled VMs".... Would this work now so that the server is not restarted?

Answer 1

Hi,

There is a GPO setting for this to prevent restart after the Azure Automate VM updates or by WSUS updates, I had configured this in our environment to prevent reboots after updates during working hours. https://admx.help/?Category=Windows_10_2016&Policy=Microsoft.Policies.WindowsUpdate::ActiveHours

Hope this helps.

JS

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