Helpdesk

Introduction

The nightly Automatic Software Update Services provided within the Human Genetics Department is aimed towards patching a large number of workstations and servers on the same day the patches are released.

Pre-requisites

In order to participate, you need to be running one of these systems: Windows 2000-based servers and Windows 2003-based servers as well as desktop computers running Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP Professional.

Your system will also have to have group policy configured so it will know where to pull the updates. Computers set up by the IT office will have this feature enabled.

Update Process

1. New updates/security patches are released by Microsoft.
2. The IT office approves the updates.
3. Workstations configured to use this service download the approved list of updates from our server and apply them.
4. If a reboot is necessary, the workstation reboots if no user is currently logged in. If a user is logged in, a message will come up asking the user to reboot the machine at his/her earliest convenience.

Update Time Window

The AutoUpdate runs nightly at 2:00am, 3:00am or 4:00am. Therefore, to ensure that your patches are installed properly and the system can reboot, you're advised to log off nightly, without shutting down your computer, so the process can complete.

If the computer cannot reboot, patches that require a reboot to activate will have no effects in the mean time.