Overview
SMB Solutions applies Microsoft operating system updates through a staged, human-supervised process that keeps your servers secure without exposing your business to the risk of a faulty update.
Microsoft releases security and quality updates on the second Tuesday of each month, known as “Patch Tuesday”. Installing those updates everywhere on the day they are released risks a problem affecting many servers at once. Delaying them indefinitely leaves known vulnerabilities open. Our process sits between the two: we test first, gather evidence, approve deliberately, and deploy at a quiet time.
This document explains each stage, what you can expect as a customer, and answers the questions we are most often asked. It applies to servers only: Windows Server operating system updates on servers in our hosted environments. It does not cover workstations or other end-user devices.
What this means for you
Customer servers are updated on the third Saturday of the month at 9 PM server local time. Please ask your users to save their work and sign out before 9 PM on that Saturday.
Our approach at a glance
Every monthly update cycle follows the same five stages, with experienced engineers making the decision at each gate.
1. Early Deployment
New Patch Tuesday updates go onto our own busy internal servers in all three regions as soon as they are released.
2. Stability Monitoring
We watch for problems through internal feedback, Ninja RMM patch sentiment analysis and other industry intelligence.
3. Scan and Approval
On the second Saturday, we scan all servers for the updates they need, and approve deployment only if testing has gone well and no major issues have been reported.
4. Deployment
We install approved updates on the third Saturday at 9PM, in each server’s local time.
5. Verification
Our engineers and automated monitoring confirm that servers and services have come back as expected.
Stage 1: Early deployment on our own servers
We install each month’s Patch Tuesday updates as soon as they are released on a group of our own servers spread across all three regions we operate in: Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific, Germany & Europe, and the United States.
These are not idle test machines. They are active servers used constantly by SMB Solutions team members for real daily work. Real use exercises real software, so problems tend to show up quickly and are reported by the people who depend on those servers.
Spreading these servers across regions means that region-specific issues, such as those related to location, language or network, have a chance to surface before any customer server is touched.
Stage 2: Monitoring update stability
Between release and approval, no customer server receives the new updates while we gather evidence from several sources.
- Our own experience. Feedback and any issues reported by the team members using the early deployment servers.
- Ninja RMM patch sentiment analysis. Aggregated feedback from other IT administrators on how each update is behaving in the field.
- Other industry intelligence. We draw on additional sources of information about update stability and known issues, and we do not rely on any single one.
No single source decides the outcome. Our engineers weigh all of this evidence together, using their experience of our hosting environment and the software our customers run.
Stage 3: Scan and approval
On the second Saturday, we scan all servers to identify the updates each one needs. The scan only checks what is required and does not install anything.
An experienced engineer then decides whether to approve the updates for deployment. We approve only when our testing has gone successfully, and no major issues have been reported in the meantime. If a problem has been identified, the update is not approved until we are satisfied it is safe to proceed.
This is a deliberate human decision rather than an automatic one, because the right call often depends on context that no automated score captures.
Stage 4: Deployment on the third Saturday
Approved updates are deployed on the third Saturday of the month at 9 PM, based on each server’s own core time zone.
Because the window follows the server’s local time, a server in Brisbane, a server in Munich and a server in the United States are each updated on a Saturday evening in their own time zone, and not at the same moment. A Saturday evening start keeps the work outside normal business hours for most customers.
Reboots and logged-in users
Servers restart automatically to complete the installation of updates, and any user still signed in at that point will be restarted with them after a short warning.
- If users are signed in when the restart is due, they receive an on-screen warning.
- The restart is then scheduled for 5 minutes later, giving users time to save their work and sign out.
- If users have not signed out when the 5 minutes end, the server restarts anyway.
Work that has not been saved when a forced restart occurs may be lost. To avoid this, we recommend that your users save their work and sign out before 9 PM on the third Saturday of the month.
Stage 5: Verification after patching
Once servers have restarted, our engineers carry out a series of manual checks to confirm that services have started as expected, using standard Windows Server tools.
These checks work alongside our automated service monitoring, which continues to watch your servers and alerts our team if a service does not behave as it should. Combining a human check with continuous automated monitoring means that a problem is more likely to be caught by one or the other.
If you notice anything unusual after an update window, please contact our support team using the details at the end of this document.
Monthly Schedule
Under our standard schedule, customer servers are updated once each month, on the third Saturday.
| When | What happens | Customer servers affected |
| Patch Tuesday | New updates installed on our own internal servers in all three regions | No |
| After Patch Tuesday | Stability monitoring using internal feedback, Ninja RMM patch sentiment and other intelligence | No |
| Second Saturday | All servers scanned for needed updates; engineers decide whether to approve | No, scan only |
| Third Saturday, 9 PM server local time | Approved updates installed; servers restart automatically | Yes |
| After deployment | Manual checks and automated service monitoring | Checked, not changed |
What you can do and how to reach us
Three simple steps help your team get the most from this process.
- Ask users to save their work and sign out before 9 PM on the third Saturday of the month.
- Tell us in advance about business-critical periods or Saturday evening work so we can discuss them with you.
- Contact us promptly if anything looks unusual after an update window.
SMB Solutions support is available by email at support@smbsolutions.com.au, which automatically creates a support ticket, or by phone:
| Region | Phone |
| Australia | +61 1300 442 059 |
| New Zealand | +64 9 974 9196 |
| USA | +1 800 241 3213 |
| UK / Ireland | +44 20 3005 2737 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why don’t you install updates as soon as Microsoft releases them?
A faulty update installed everywhere at once could affect all of our customers together. Testing first on our own servers, and watching how the wider industry experiences each update, means problems are usually found before they reach yours.
Doesn’t waiting leave my servers exposed?
The waiting period is deliberate and kept as short as is sensible. It is a trade-off between the risk of a faulty update and the risk of delay, and our engineers manage that balance every month using their experience of our environment.
Why is the process manually supervised rather than fully automated?
Automation helps us gather information and monitor services, but the decision to approve updates is made by experienced people. They can take into account context, such as a known issue with a particular update or a vendor advisory, that an automated rule would miss.
What happens to users who are signed in during the update?
They receive a warning, and the restart is scheduled for 5 minutes later. If they have not signed out by then, the restart goes ahead. Please ask users to save their work and sign out before 9 PM on the third Saturday.
Will the update happen at a time that suits my business?
The standard window is Saturday at 9 PM in your server’s local time, which suits most businesses. If your users regularly work on Saturday evenings, or you have a business-critical period such as a financial year-end, please tell our support team so we can discuss it with you.
Will every server be updated at the same moment?
No. Each server is updated at 9PM in its own time zone, so servers in different regions are updated at different times.
What if an update causes a problem?
Our engineers check services after every deployment, and our monitoring runs continuously. If you notice a problem, contact support and we will investigate.
Does this process cover my business applications, such as SAP Business One?
No. This document describes our operating system update process only.
