Every month Microsoft sends out updates to their Windows Operating System.  Most of us with our home PC's happily will let windows download and install these updates in the background.  This week's tip looks at how those updates can affect Manitou in a server environment.

We've all seen it, logging into our computers; a tooltip that comes up in our taskbar saying "Windows Updates are ready to install."  On servers like a Manitou system automatic updates can cause unintended issues.  In a best case scenario running the automatic updates will usually just reboot the server, at 3:00 am.  This usually ends with a call to either a central station supervisor, or Bold emergency support to get Manitou up and running again.  Things can get worse depending on what updates get installed as well.  Take for example the recent .net 4.0 updates that have just been released.  Manitou components have not yet been certified to work with .net 4.0 so installing those updates could lead to the system being down for an extended period while a technician works with you to roll your servers back to a compatible version.  As we all know, with Manitou and life safety, every minute a system is down has potential for disastrous results.

We at Bold Technologies will always make sure to disable automatic updates when setting up new systems but now you know a bit of the reasoning behind this practice.  To check for yourself whether or not your machine is set to update you can look at the "windows update" control panel on your system.  The best way to run updates on your system is to  run the windows updates on one of your backup servers only.  This ensures that the system will not go down during a reboot and that we can quickly recover should something go wrong.  After your backup server has been updated, do a controlled failover to that machine and test to make sure everything works correctly.  If there are no problems, run the updates on your remaining servers.

Feel free to connect with any of us here at Bold Technologies should you have any questions!

Eric Schmitt

erics@boldgroup.com