Monitoring patches

The Patch Status service v2 provides a summary of the patch updates on a device. This is different than the original Patch Status service, which reported how many patches were missing on a device.

The Patch Status service v2 monitors scheduled Maintenance Windows to assist in determining missing patches. This new service will no longer report a Failed state when a patch has been detected but has not yet completed its install and reboot cycle.

Unlike other N-able N-central services, the Patch Status service v2 does not run at regular time intervals; rather, it is event-based. The Patch Status service v2 updates its status:

  • after every Detection/Installation Maintenance Window event,
  • by events in the agent, or
  • by selecting Scan Now.

The Patch Status service queries the Windows Update agent (WUA) on the device to determine the Microsoft and third-party application patches that are missing to create the report.

  1. Click Views > All Devices and click the name of the device.
  2. Click Monitoring > Status and click Patch Status v2.
  3. Use the tabs to view the information on approved and not approved patches for the device.

When Patch Manager is disabled, the Patch Status service considers everything Microsoft provides as needed as a missing patch. When Patch Manager is enabled, the Patch Status service considers the missing patches are only the patches that have been approved.

For devices with Windows 10 installed, the number of updates shown in N-able N-central may not match the list in Windows Update. Windows 10 does not show all available updates, only the updates that are applicable to most Windows 10 computers. This means that if there are updates that are specific to a device, such as driver updates, the Windows Update screen will not list them.

When N-able N-central pulls the list of needed patches, it displays the full list of patches regardless if they are specific to the device or not.

You can also view the Patch Status on the device overview page in the Patch Summary widget.

For more information on the patch service, see Patch Status service v2.