Patch Status is shown as failed showing it missing Security Only updates

Last Modified

Thu Oct 17 14:31 GMT 2019

Description

  • Windows patching in N-able N-central is showing a lot of Security Only updates are not installed.
  • Locally on the device nothing is related to those updates being missing.

Environment

  • N-able N-central

Solution

  • Security Only patches are exclusive with Security Monthly Quality Rollups, which are not detected with Windows Update directly.
    • The Security Only patches are effectively superseded by the Monthly Rollups despite no such flag from Microsoft.
    • We handle this through N-able N-central 's evaluation of the patch.
  • This is because they are intended for Administrators to use via advanced methods only (such as N-able N-central, WSUS, manual download, etc).
  • We created a method to display the Security Only patches through Patch Management.
  • To fix the issue, decline through Patch Management, Security Only or Rollup patches, whichever the customer prefers or fits the demand.