We currently have a large Windows estate and a relativly small patch window so I want to be able to download the patches prior to the contraints action time.
Now I thought, great, I can just use the “Start client downloads before constraints are satisfied” but I believe this will try and push the patches at any time, my question is therefore, is there anyway to control this and only puch out the patches overnight prior to being installed?
Use the “Start client downloads before constraints are satisfied” option, but set the “start time” of the action to be near the beginning of your window. The actions will not start before the start time, but I believe the downloads will.
I am looking into doing something very similar at the moment. Our network constraints are very tight to some of the relays but we could open a ‘download window’ in the wee-hours. Then we could allow the downloads to partially complete over the course of days (or weeks on the slowest links). then, when all the downloads are complete, the patch/software distribution task can execute…
So far throttling does not quite provide the solution
I MIGHT have a solution for this, but I’m not certain yet.
Also, I was wondering: Do you have relays behind every WAN link? What size are your relay caches typically? What size are you client download caches typically? Which OSes are you typically patching with these constraints?
Take a look at the File Pre-Cache Wizard in the console (All Content > Wizards > All Wizards > File Pre-Cache Wizard)
This allows you to take action at the day/time you specify to pre-cache patch downloads to your relays.
You will want to ensure that the your relay’s cache sizes have been expanded to provide plenty of room for all the patches and software packages that need to be ready and waiting on the relay, otherwise, secondary downloads would occur at the time the client is requesting a patch that could not fit into the parent relay cache at the time of the pre-caching.
