6. Windows Autopatch – Release Management, Reports and Notifications

In this last section, I want to discuss Release Management, Reports, and Email and Message notifications. These are all must-know sections when you are planning on deploying Autopatch.

1. Release Management
   1. Where to find this?
2. Windows Feature Management explained
   1. Release Statuses
   2. Phase Statuses
3. Release Announcements
4. Release Settings
5. Autopatch Groups
6. Planning for a New Release (Custom Release)
7. Setting the Release Phase
8. Notifications – Email and Portal Messages
   1. Quality Update Schedule for the month
   2. Quality Update Summary
9. Portal Messages
10. Reports
11. Wrapping Up

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Release Management

Microsoft already managing the release. This is mainly our understanding of what is happening under the hood and also gives us the opportunity to create custom releases if needed.

In the Release Management section, there are four sections. Release schedule, Release announcements, Release settings, Autopatch groups

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Where to find this?

Intune Portal > Devices > Release Management under Windows Autopatch

Release Schedule – This shows you the current update deployment schedule for Windows Auality and Feature updates.

Check the Quality Updates section to understand the release dates and completion dates according to the Rings

Here you have the option of Pausing and Resuming if you need to stop the deployment

The goal completion date of a phase is calculated using the following formula:

<First Deployment Date> + (<Number of gradual rollout groups> – 1) * Days in between groups (7) + Deadline for feature updates (5 days) + Grace Period (2 days).

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Windows Feature Management explained

The below tables are straight from the Microsoft Learn documents, I thought to add them so everything will be in one place.

Window Autopatch deploys the minimum Windows OS version currently serviced by the Windows servicing channels. You can create a custom release to specify a different Windows OS version

Status	Description
Release name	Name of the release
Version to deploy	Version to deploy for the applicable release or phase
Status	Status of the applicable release or phase:ScheduledActiveInactivePausedCanceled
First deployment	The date the deployment for the applicable release or phase will begin.Feature update policy for Windows 10 and later is created 24 hours prior to the first deployment date. The service automation runs twice a day at 4:00AM and 4:00PM (UTC).Not all devices within a phase will be offered the feature update on the same date when using gradual rollout.
Goal completion date	The date the devices within the release or phases are expected to finish updating. The completion date is calculated using the following formula:<First deployment date> + (<Number of gradual rollout groups> - 1) * Days in between groups (7) + Deadline for feature updates (5) + Grace Period (2)

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Release Statuses

Release status	Definition	Options
Scheduled	Release is scheduled and not all phases have yet created its Windows feature update policies	Releases with the Scheduled status can’t be canceled but can have its deployment cadence edited as not all phases have yet created its Windows feature update policies.Autopatch groups and its deployment rings that belong to a Scheduled release can’t be assigned to another release.
Active	All phases in the release are active. This means all phases have reached their first deployment date, which created the Windows feature update policies.	Release can be paused but can’t be edited or canceled since the Windows feature update policy was already created for its phases.Autopatch groups and their deployment rings can be assigned to another release.
Inactive	All the Autopatch groups within the release have been assigned to a new release. As a result, the Windows feature update policies were unassigned from all phases from within the release.	Release can be viewed as a historical record.Releases can’t be deleted, edited, or canceled.
Paused	All phases in the release are paused. The release will remain paused until you resume it.	Releases with Paused status can’t be edited or canceled since the Windows feature update policy was already created for its phases.Release can be resumed.
Canceled	All phases in the release are canceled.	Releases with Canceled status can’t be edited or canceled since the Windows feature update policy wasn’t created for its phases.Canceled release can’t be deleted.

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Phase Statuses

Phase status	Definition
Scheduled	The phase is scheduled but hasn’t reached its first deployment date yet. The Windows feature update policy hasn’t been created for the respective phase yet.
Active	The first deployment date has been reached. The Windows feature update policy has been created for the respective phase.
Inactive	All Autopatch groups within the phase were re-assigned to a new release. All Windows feature update policies were unassigned from the Autopatch groups.
Paused	Phase is paused. You must resume the phase.
Canceled	Phase is canceled. All Autopatch groups within the phase can be used with a new release. A phase that’s canceled can’t be deleted.

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Release Announcements

Gives you the information in the KB files. Here you have the option to go into the KB file info

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Release Settings

These settings configure the way the Windows Autopatch service deploys updates for devices in your tenant

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Autopatch Groups

Autopatch groups allow you to better control how software updates are rolled out to your devices.

I have discussed the Custom Groups that can be created in the previous blog post. You can find more there on this one.

If you click on the Name, (in this case Windows Autopatch (default), you can see all the groups created for this process for update rings.

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Planning for a New Release (Custom Release)

Go to the release type (Quality or Feature) and click on New release

Create the new release

Add the Autopatch Group

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Setting the Release Phase

Edit the Phases from 1 through to 5 if you need to edit the automatically set Rings

Now that this is a custom release, you have to set your own First deployment dates for the phases.

And finally, create the release.

The release info will be shown below

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Notifications – Email and Portal Messages

To the Admin contacts (email address) you created during the Autopatch tenant onboarding, Microsoft will now send you the updates on the deployment.

Below are some you will receive from the email address do_not_reply_windowsautopatch@microsoft.com

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Quality Update Schedule for the month

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Quality Update Summary

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Portal Messages

The same notifications will be received within the Intune portal

Tenant Administration > Messages (under Windows Autopatch)

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Reports

Windows Autopatch has some good reporting and summary capabilities at the moment.

Intune Portal > Reports > Windows quality updates or Windows feature updates (under Windows Autopatch)

And if you go to the Reports tab

And more information can be taken to the device level

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Wrapping Up

With this, I believe I have covered all the aspects of Windows Autopatch. I hope this guide will help you to plan your deployment correctly and understand the features in and out.

Going back to the deployment journey planner. If you stick to this, chances are you’ll make less to no errors as this has all the major milestones mentioned.