How can action(s) be programmed to patch server A only if server B, server C, and server D have been successfully patched w/in the same allocated patching window?
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In normal operation, you can’t. Each client has no awareness of what another client is doing.
One way to do this programatically is to use the REST API to submit the actions, periodically poll the results, and submit other actions based on the result statuses of the first action set.
If you’re licensed for BigFix Lifecycle, the “Server Automation” site has some content for automating this. Server Automation uses a process like I describe, where one systems actions can depend on the results of another system’s action results. It does this by using a “workplan” that you configure to create actions on-the-fly. Useful for things like Cluster Patching, where a Workplan can look something like “migrate cluster resources to Node B; Patch Node A with all baselines from Site X; Reboot node A; migrate cluster resources to Node A; patch Node B with all baselines from Site X; reboot node B; distribute cluster resources between Node A and Node B”.
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