Thanks Jason. Just needed that extra clarification. *sighs at bogus blogger info*
From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [mssms] Business Hours and MWs as related to patching servers Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2014 19:06:24 +0000 That blog post is completely wrong. As mentioned, once a deadline hits, the business hours are not used. It's a super easy test though to verify in your own mind. In fact, you've already got business hours, they are set by default on all client agents. Has this ever stopped you from deploying anything required? J From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of s kissel <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, February 5, 2014 12:48 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [mssms] Business Hours and MWs as related to patching servers Jason, Thank you for the reply. I understand that they are different and how MWs work. I've also read over that blog several times. In fact, CSS even referred the client to it. However, the following blog has an opposing view on it, and thus the question as to who is right?: http://nuttyrat.blogspot.com/2013/07/sccm-2012-maintenance-windows-and.html Paragraph's 3 and 4. I'm more inclined to believe the product team over another blogger (who hopefully isn't posting wrong information), but in regards to a few thousand production servers, this is a question that needs a crystal clear answer. Thanks, -S From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [mssms] Business Hours and MWs as related to patching servers Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2014 18:27:57 +0000 Business hours and maintenance windows are two completely different things. MWs restrict when things can run and can only be set on the ConfigMgr server side. MWs also only come into play after a deadline is reached when a deployment thus becomes mandatory. BHs cause things to run automatically before a deadline is reached based on a user's preference. They in no way restrict when deployments are executed and once a deadline is reached, BH's are not considered at all. There's a great blog post from the product Team (Dave Randall specifically) on this that goes into more details: http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2012/03/28/business-hours-vs-maintenance-windows-with-system-center-2012-configuration-manager.aspx J From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of s kissel <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, February 5, 2014 10:26 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [mssms] Business Hours and MWs as related to patching servers Environment is SCCM 2012 R2. Client has a couple thousand servers spread out through various patch collections having a maintenance window for each collection, but the maintenance window is different from collection to collection. Furthermore, the server owners are able to move their servers from one MW collection to another using a web interface, but that shouldn't be overly related. Knowing how MWs work and that they work the same as in CM07, what's to stop a server owner from entering the Software Center and setting their business hours From 12:00 AM through 12:00 AM for all days, AND checking the box "Automatically install or uninstall required software and restart the computer only outside of the specified business hours? Would that mean that the server would never get patched. Is this an accurate assumption, or am I missing something? I realize there are powershell and vb scripts that can set the business hours, but am curious how others are patching servers and dealing with the business hours. Thanks, -S
