Manage pre and post events (preview)

Applies to: ✔️ Windows VMs ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ On-premises environment ✔️ Azure Arc-enabled servers.

Pre and post events allows you to execute user-defined actions before and after the schedule patch installation. This article describes on how to create, view, and cancel the pre and post events in Azure Update Manager.

Register your subscription for public preview

To self-register your subscription for public preview in Azure portal:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and select More services.

2. On the All services page, search for Preview features.

3. On the Preview Features page, search and select Pre and Post Events.

4. Select the feature and then select Register to register the subscription.

   

Timeline of schedules for pre and post events

We recommend you to go through the following table to understand the timeline of the schedule for pre and post events.

For example, if a maintenance schedule is set to start at 3:00 PM, with the maintenance window of 3 hours and 55 minutes for Guest maintenance scope, following are the details:

Time	Details
2:19 PM	You can edit the machines and/or dynamically scope the machines up to 40 minutes before a scheduled patch run with an associated pre event. If any changes are made to the resources attached to the schedule after this time, the resources will be included in the subsequent schedule run and not the current run. Note If you're creating a new schedule or editing an existing schedule with a pre event, you need at least 40 minutes prior to the maintenance window for the pre event to run. In this example, if you have set a schedule at 3:00 PM, you can modify the scope 40 mins before the set time that is at, 2.19 PM.
Between 2:20 to 2:30 PM	The pre event is triggered giving atleast 20 mins to complete before the patch installation begins to run. In this example, the pre event is initiated between 2:20 to 2:30 PM.
2:50 PM	The pre event has atleast 20 mins to complete before the patch installation begins to run. Note - If the pre event continues to run beyond 20 mins, the patch installation goes ahead irrespective of the pre event run status. - If you choose to cancel the current run, you can cancel using the cancelation API 10 mins before the schedule. In this example, by 2:50 PM you can cancel either from your script or Azure function code. If cancelation API fails to get invoked or hasn't been set up, the patch installation proceeds to run. In this example, the pre event should complete the tasks by 2:50 PM. If you choose to cancel the current run, the latest time that you can invoke the cancelation API is by 2:50 PM.
3:00 PM	As defined in the maintenance configuration, the schedule gets triggered at the specified time. In this example, the schedule is triggered at 3:00 PM.
6:55 PM	The post event gets triggered after the defined maintenance window completes. If you have defined a shorter maintenance window of 2 hrs, the post maintenance event will trigger after 2 hours and if the maintenance schedule is completed before the stipulated time of 2 hours that is, in 1 hr 50 mins, the post event will start. In this example, if the maintenance window is set to the maximum, then by 6:55 PM the patch installation process is complete and if you have a shorter maintenance window, the patch installation process is completed by 5:00 PM.
7:15 PM	After the patch installation, the post event runs for 20 mins. In this example, the post event is initiated at 6:55 PM and completed by 7:15 PM and if you have a shorter maintenance window, the post event is triggered at 5:00 PM and completed by 5:20 PM.

We recommend that you are watchful of the following:

• If you're creating a new schedule or editing an existing schedule with a pre event, you need at least 40 minutes prior to the start of maintenance window (3PM in the above example) for the pre event to run otherwise it will lead to auto-cancellation of the current scheduled run.
• Pre event is triggered 30 minutes before the scheduled patch run giving pre event atleast 20 minutes to complete.
• Post event runs immediately after the patch installation completes.
• To cancel the current patch run, use the cancellation API atleast 10 minutes before the schedule maintenance time.

Configure pre and post events on existing schedule

You can configure pre and post events on an existing schedule and can add multiple pre and post events to a single schedule. To add a pre and post event, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and go to Azure Update Manager.

2. Under Manage, select Machines, Maintenance Configurations.

3. On the Maintenance Configuration page, select the maintenance configuration to which you want to add a pre and post event.

4. On the selected Maintenance configuration page, under Settings, select Events. Alternatively, under the Overview, select the card Create a maintenance event.

   

5. Select +Event Subscription to create Pre/Post Maintenance Event.

   

6. On the Create Event Subscription page, enter the following details:

   • In the Event Subscription Details section, provide an appropriate name.

   • Keep the schema as Event Grid Schema.

   • In the Topic Details section, provide an appropriate name to the System Topic Name.

   • In the Event Types section, Filter to Event Types, select the event types that you want to get pushed to the endpoint or destination. You can select between Pre Maintenance Event and Post Maintenance Event.

   • In the Endpoint details section, select the endpoint where you want to receive the response from. It would help customers to trigger their pre or post event.

     

7. Select Create to configure the pre and post events on an existing schedule.

Note

• The pre and post event can only be created at a scheduled maintenance configuration level.
• System Topic gets automatically created per maintenance configuration and all event subscription are linked to the System Topic in the EventGrid.
• The pre and post event run falls outside of the schedule maintenance window.

View pre and post events

To view the pre and post events, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and go to Azure Update Manager.
2. Under Manage, select Machines, Maintenance Configurations.
3. On the Maintenance Configuration page, select the maintenance configuration to which you want to add a pre and post event.
4. Select Overview and check the Maintenance events.

   • Select Configure to set up one.

   • If the setup is already done, you can see the count of the pre and post events associated to the configuration in the Events page.

     

Delete pre and post event

To delete pre and post events, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal and go to Azure Update Manager.

2. Under Manage, select Machines, Maintenance Configurations.

3. On the Maintenance Configuration page, select the maintenance configuration to which you want to add a pre and post event.

4. On the selected Maintenance configuration page, under Settings, select Events. Alternatively, under the Overview, select the card Create a maintenance event.

5. Select the event Name you want to delete from the grid.

6. On the selected event page, select Delete.

   

Note

• If all the pre and post events are deleted from the maintenance configuration, System Topic gets automatically deleted from the EventGrid.
• We recommend that you avoid deleting the System Topic manually from the EventGrid service.

Cancel a schedule from a pre event

To cancel the schedule, you must call the cancelation API in your pre event to set up the cancelation process that is in your Runbook script or Azure function code. Here, you must define the criteria from when the schedule must be canceled. The system won't monitor and won't automatically cancels the schedule based on the status of the pre event.

There are two types of cancelations:

• Cancelation by user - when you invoke the cancelation API from your script or code.
• Cancelation by system - when the system invokes the cancelation API due to an internal error. This is done only if the system is unable to send the pre event to the customer's end point that is 30 minutes before the scheduled patching job.

Note

If the cancelation is done by the system, the upcoming scheduled patching job will be canceled due to the failure of running the pre events by the sytem.

Important

If the scheduled maintenance job is cancelled by the user using cancelation API or by the system due to any internal failure, post event if subscribed, will be sent to the endpoint configured by the user.

View the cancelation status

To view the cancelation status, follow these steps:

1. In Azure Update Manager home page, go to History

2. Select by the Maintenance run ID and choose the run ID for which you want to view the status.

   

You can view the cancelation status from the error message in the JSON. The JSON can be obtained from the Azure Resource Graph (ARG). The corresponding maintenance configuration would be canceled using the Cancelation API.

The following query allows you to view the list of VMs for a given schedule or a maintenance configuration:

maintenanceresources  
| where type =~ "microsoft.maintenance/maintenanceconfigurations/applyupdates"  
| where properties.correlationId has "/subscriptions/your-s-id/resourcegroups/your-rg-id/providers/microsoft.maintenance/maintenanceconfigurations/mc-name/providers/microsoft.maintenance/applyupdates/"  
| order by name desc

• your-s-id : Subscription ID in which maintenance configuration with Pre or post event is created
• your-rg-id : Resource Group Name in which maintenance configuration is created
• mc-name : Name of maintenance configuration in pre event is created

If the maintenance job is canceled by the system due to any reason, the error message in the JSON is obtained from the Azure Resource Graph for the corresponding maintenance configuration would be Maintenance schedule canceled due to internal platform failure.

Invoke the Cancelation API

 C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin\ARMClient.exe put https://management.azure.com/<your-c-id-obtained-from-above>?api-version=2023-09-01-preview "{\"Properties\":{\"Status\": \"Cancel\"}}" -Verbose 

Note

You must replace the Correlation ID received from the above ARG query and replace it in the Cancelation API.

Example

  C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin\ARMClient.exe put https://management.azure.com/subscriptions/eee2cef4-bc47-4278-b4f8-cfc65f25dfd8/resourcegroups/fp02centraluseuap/providers/microsoft.maintenance/maintenanceconfigurations/prepostdemo7/providers/microsoft.maintenance/applyupdates/20230810085400?api-version=2023-09-01-preview "{\"Properties\":{\"Status\": \"Cancel\"}}" -Verbose

Next steps

• For issues and workarounds, see troubleshoot
• For an overview on pre and post scenarios
• Learn on the common scenarios of pre and post events