Maintenance Windows

• 2 min to read •

Maintenance Windows are time intervals during which you want to complete tasks that take time and/or need a reboot (typically out of office hours). This feature allows you to schedule both silent installations of new software and patching of the existing one.

You can configure as many maintenance windows as you want in the corresponding tab, and create scanning, patching, deployment, and remediation tasks within them, not to interrupt the working process of your colleagues. Editing the deployment schedule of a maintenance window will in turn modify the deployment schedule of all associated tasks.

Maintenance windows can also be scheduled around many different requirements, like Microsoft's Patch Tuesday or the day of the week or month.

Within the main Maintenance Windows page, there is a sidebar which can be organized into folder structures. These folders in turn can contain Maintenance Windows which relate to the folder structure they exist within. 

Beyond simply making New Folder and Maintenance Windows, you can also edit, delete, copy or move existing Maintenance Windows. The same can be done for folders. Finally, you can also disable all Maintenance Windows within the console by selecting the Disabled/Enabled toggle.

Important Information

Maintenance Windows can be enabled or disabled globally and also on an individual basis.

Maintenance Windows can be used for a single schedule; however, they are primarily used for repeated tasks.

Maintenance Windows should only be assigned to one task at a time.

Prerequisites 

An account with the 'Patch Manager' permissions

Discovery: Maintenance Windows EditorDiscovery: Maintenance Windows Editor

Config

Click 'Add' to create a new maintenance window or double-click the existing one to configure the details. The configuration window will appear.Drop-down TitleDrop-down Title

Name

Name of the maintenance window. Generally, we recommend naming Maintenance Windows on a convention associated with the endpoints the window will be targeted against.

For example, if you plan on using this maintenance window to schedule weekly patching work against a site named 'Office A – End User Devices', an appropriate Maintenance Window name would be 'Office A – End User Devices – Weekly Maintenance'

Starts at

Set the start time to open the maintenance window. This time is on a 24-hour clock.

For example, if you want to start the window at 3 PM, the Starts At value would be 15.

Duration

Set the length of time the maintenance window is open.

The window duration is measured in hours. 

Timezone

The timezone the maintenance window is activated. 

Deployments are scheduled on console time, and not local time to the device.

Restart task again until window ends Specifies if the task should be assigned to the maintenance window restart as long as the window is still open. 
Use local time Allows to run Cortex Workflow in a local timezone  Video
Recurrence

Weekly - Repeat on a specific day per week

Monthly - Repeat on a specific date per month

Last day of each month - Repeat monthly 

Patch Tuesday - Allows setting reoccurring maintenance windows according to Microsoft's monthly release of patches. Two options are available:

  • X days after Patch Tuesday 
  • A specific day of the week after Patch Tuesday

To verify the run dates in Maintenance windows general listing check 'Next Run' column.

 Blackout hours

According to the local time on the device, the task can be stopped from running.

Example: Exclude each weekday between 4 pm and 5 pm

Video Tutorial: Create Maintenance WindowVideo Tutorial: Create Maintenance Window

Watch one of our  Video How to create a Maintenance Window

Last Update: July, 2024

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