Need some clarification around SCCM Deadlines / Maintenance Windows / Software Update Schedules as I update my SCCM skillset (mecm)

Question

Hey all,

Just updating my SCCM (well now MECM) skillset --- and I'm just having a bit of trouble understanding deadlines and maintenance windows.

I was hoping someone could explain it in clear English as I'm struggling to understand what I'm seeing in my lab as opposed to what people say 'should' be happening on forums.

I have my software update group, I've deployed it to a manual collection with a single machine in it.
I can see the updates in the software center on the client machine (which is a server 2022 machine etc) - with the status of scheduled to install after x date.

x date is after the deadline expiry of 7 days. --- the default when I setup the deployment.

I can install these updates manually from the software center, I tested installing one of the viewable updates and it was fine so I believe it's sccm is setup right to do the install, it's just a matter of maintenance and deadlines that are throwing me now.

I.e
This is where I start to get confused.

I've set up daily maintenance windows of 12 hours for testing, but no updates are installing.
I thought the updates would install within these maintenance windows I set, as I had set the deployment to required, even though the deadline was a week later.

• but in my lab testing, the software updates do not install in the maintenance windows - and software center continues to report the scheduled install time to be after the deadline date.

Am I supposed to be setting deadline for deployment to immediately? - as I thought the deadline was used as a catchall if a server/client didn't process the update within one of the maintenance windows prior to the deadline. --- let me know.

I've confirmed the maintenance window I set was for software.
I've confirmed the client settings are what I believe to be correct.
I've confirmed there is enough time in the maintenance window to process the update time listed in the deployment packages updates etc.

But my test machine just continues to tell me its scheduled for after the deadline, even when I check and see it's in a current 12 hour maintenance window for software updates, it just does nothing.

I tried the test the other way around as I'm just to learn this scheduling anyway,

I changed the deadline of the deployment package containing updates to 'install immediately' but the software center changed the status to - deadline past due will be installed ---- and still did not do anything in my software maintenance window.

Hence my confusion, and that's left me at a bit of a loss - It doesn't seem that my test machine is doing 'anything' in my maintenance window and I can't determine why.

Was hoping someone may be able to point me as to what I may doing wrong or what I might not be understanding here.

Couple of more info points/queries:

I made sure the maintenance window was long enough for the minutes reported in all the updates on the software update group, with some extra time - 12 hours for my testing.

What could some of the other reasons be as to why no matter what my deployment times set to (immediately or deadline 7 days) that my test machine just sits there doing - nothing?

If a deadline is set 7 days in the future and your maintenance windows are before the deadline, is SCCM supposed to install updates in those maintenance windows prior to the deadline?

Or is SCCM only supposed to install updates in the maintenance windows after the deadline ? (I've not seen it work yet so I don't know the actual behaviour it's supposed to have and am a bit of a loss)

Am I supposed to be setting the deadline to immediately or 7 days in the future if I want the updates to install within the next maintenance window ?

My SCCM/MECM version in my lab that I am running is

Version 2111
Site Version 5.0.9068.1000

Any help is greatly appreciated all to get my understanding of this better!

Answer 1

If a deadline is set 7 days in the future and your maintenance windows are before the deadline, is SCCM supposed to install updates in those maintenance windows prior to the deadline?

No. ConfigMgr will not attempt to automatically enforce a deployment until after the deadline. Maintenance Windows do not change this; also, maintenance windows do not cause activity to happen, they simply restrict when automatic enforcement of an required deployment past its deadline can happen.

Am I supposed to be setting the deadline to immediately or 7 days in the future if I want the updates to install within the next maintenance window ?

That depends on what you want to do and when you want them to be enforced.

A lot more info at https://home.memftw.com/maintenance-windows-oh-maintenance-windows/ (note this is an older post I wrote and there are a few changes since I wrote it around MW types, but all of the other info is accurate).

Answer 2

Thank you, that cleared a hell of a lot up for me !