New: November 1, 2020

Patch reboot on demand

Patch reboot on demand gives you the ability to schedule a single reboot window that occurs and then self-deletes, similar to the Patch On Demand reboot window. Reboot sequence is only executed if Patch Reboot flag is present on the device, otherwise no action is taken during the PRoD window.

The current patch reboot window allows for a recurring configuration, which you then need to remove after it executes, which you can forget and later cause an unexpected reboot later.

Patch reboot on demand requires Windows Agent version 2021.1 or higher. Options for creating this window is disabled for incompatible devices within device details view.

  1. Click Views > All Devices and select one or more devices.
  2. Click Add Task > Patch Management > Patch Reboot On Demand.

    3. You can also access this feature from the Active Issues view.

  3. Enter a name for the task.
  4. Select Reboot Method to provide the user with the option to delay the re-start process.

  5. The option Allow user to postpone reboot beyond the maintenance window, means that the end-user can continually delay the reboot. Once past the four hour time frame, the reboot request is ignored.

  6. Select Place device in downtime during reboot to transition the selected devices to a Downtime state while it is being re-started.
  7. For Force device out of downtime specify the maximum number of minutes the device can remain in downtime before restarting if the agent has not checked in.

    8. This option enables N-able N-central to alert you if the reboot has failed or otherwise taken longer than expected. If the reboot fails, the device will remain in downtime the maximum time that you specify. After the maximum time elapses, the device will come out of downtime and if the agent has not checked in, notifications will be triggered.

  8. Set a message that appears on the user's screen to inform them that a reboot will occur, to give them time to save their work.
  9. Click Save.

At the scheduled time, N-able N-central reboots the device. After the reboot window has completed, N-able N-central deleted deletes the reboot window.

The reboot window execution is visible in Audit trail, and includes information on whether the reboot was carried out during the window or not.