How it works
The update window
You choose the days, a start time on the hour or half hour, and a time zone. The default is every day at 03:00 UTC. On those days, Raff Guardian starts installing within an hour of the start time when:- Windows Update reports updates waiting, from a check in the last 48 hours,
- no update install is already open, and
- no install was started in the last 20 hours.
Install now on the Updates section starts the same steps at any time.
1. Protect the server
Before it installs anything, Raff Guardian takes a snapshot of the server’s disk, namedguardian-pre-update- followed by the date. On a server that uses Raff Backups, disk snapshots are not possible, so the backups protect the server instead.
If the snapshot cannot be taken, nothing is installed. Raff Guardian tries again during the window, and Activity says so, for example “Not installed today: Raff Guardian could not take a snapshot first (3 tries).“
2. Install
Raff Guardian installs the waiting updates through Windows Update and shows each step in the Queue, for example “Downloading 5 updates · step 3 of 7”.- Driver updates are left to you.
- Updates with a known issue that Microsoft lists are held back until the fix they need is on the server. They show under Held back.
3. Restart
If the updates need a restart, Raff Guardian restarts the server, whatever the Restart the server setting says. Remote Desktop sessions end during the restart.4. Check
After the restart, Raff Guardian checks that the server reports again from the new boot and that Remote Desktop is running. Activity: “Raff Guardian checked your server afterwards: it came back healthy.” The snapshot is then deleted. If the check does not pass within 25 minutes, Raff Guardian opens the finding Server not healthy after updates and proposes Restore the pre-update snapshot in the Queue. A restore stops the server, puts its disk back to the snapshot and starts it again: anything written to the disk since then is lost, so this always asks, in every mode.Restarts outside an update install
Windows can need a restart outside an install Raff Guardian made. That shows as Restart needed to finish updates and follows Restart the server: on Auto, Raff Guardian restarts during your update window, at most once a day; outside the window, or on Ask me, it asks you.When to use it
- Put the window in the hours your server is least used: the restart ends Remote Desktop sessions.
- Use Ask me on servers where someone must be ready when the server restarts.
- Use Install now when a security update is urgent.
Trade-offs / limits
- The pre-update snapshot is an ordinary snapshot in the server’s Snapshots tab while it exists, and is billed like one. See Pricing.
- Raff Guardian does not install driver updates.
- An install and a restart never start while the other is still open.
Related
Schedule Windows updates
Days, time, time zone and Install now.
Snapshots vs backups
How snapshots and Raff Backups differ.