Updates / Patches

[manamaga2512]

When do you update your servers with windows updates / patches etc? I work from 07:30 to 15:30, school finishes for students at 14:30, this gives me an hour at the end of each day to do updates when required. However, there are staff still in school and complain when certain services are not available because the server is rebooting following an update. Do you update during school time and within your own working hours, or do you do it "out of hours"? Bearing in mind that I don't get paid overtime! LOL

 

Ta very much.

[FN-GM]

When do you update your servers with windows updates / patches etc? I work from 07:30 to 15:30, school finishes for students at 14:30, this gives me an hour at the end of each day to do updates when required. However, there are staff still in school and complain when certain services are not available because the server is rebooting following an update. Do you update during school time and within your own working hours, or do you do it "out of hours"? Bearing in mind that I don't get paid overtime! LOL

 

Ta very much.

 

Can you schedule general Windows Updates to be done out of hours?

[manamaga2512]

Can you schedule general Windows Updates to be done out of hours?

 

Yeah could do. I just like to be around, just in case anything goes amiss. Scheduled Windows updates might be the only option being as staff think their access to services is much more important than network security.

[FN-GM]

Something has to give, it doesn't look like you will be able to get the ideal scenario.

[bossman]

@manamaga2512

 

Speak to your line manager or SLT and explain the situation to them as I did, what they then decided was that under no circumstances did they want any downtime during the week even when students had left as Staff required access to the systems, so they decided with my input that the best time would be on a weekend on an evening remotely and they would pay me my overtime.

 

It has worked very well for me as I can log in remotely and run the updates manually and be certain that I can sort any problems out without impacting too much on the Staff and Students.

 

Win! Win! for both parties.

[KevinB]

We schedule all updates that might cause disruption, be they Windows, Sims, whatever, for weekends; usually Saturday evenings when the fewest people are working remotely. We advertise a maintenance window in advance so that nobody can complain that "It went off half way through saving this vital document without which my Year 11 will fail their Maths and of which I obviously don't have a backup." I work flexi so it doesn't cost school anything and I get to go home early occasionally in return.