Approve Update Service

1 Open the list

Open the Patches menu in the top bar to see the Approve Update Service interface.

The list shows every update service that has been deployed to a test collection and has not been approved yet. Each update service appears once. An update service must be approved before it can run again and find new patches.

Approve Update Service list with two update services, Windows 10 and Windows 7. Each row shows Required Patches, Installed Patches and Failed Count, and the more, Approve and Rerun buttons. The right panel shows the tip and the Approve button. — Earlier version: the list with the columns **Name**, **Required Patches**, **Installed Patches**, **Failed Count**, **more**, **Approve** and **Rerun**, and the panel on the right with the tip **Tip: Cancel a job by clicking it** and the **Approve** button. The columns are the same in the current interface; the picture itself is older.

Your site The top bar has a Select site box. The list shows the update services of the site you select there.

2 Read the counts and buttons

Each row gives three counts for the patches in the update service, and three buttons.

Column	What it tells you
Required Patches	How many patches in the deployment are required by the client.
Installed Patches	How many of the patches are installed.
Failed Count	How many of the patches have failed to install.

Button	What it does
more	Opens the details window for the deployment. See Details of a deployment.
Approve (green tick)	Moves the update service to the Approve list in the panel on the right. Nothing is approved until you click the Approve button at the bottom of the panel.
Rerun (blue arrows)	Moves the update service to the Rerun list in the panel on the right. Nothing is rerun until you click the Approve button at the bottom of the panel.

3 Approve an update service

When the test deployment has completed with success, and the patches are ready to be deployed to the target collection, click the green tick (Approve) in the row.

The update service moves to the Approve list in the panel on the right. Click the Approve button at the bottom of the panel. A new update service with the same patches is created for the target collection.

To take an update service back out of the list, click it in the panel. The tip reads Tip: Cancel a job by clicking it.

One button for the whole list The Approve button at the bottom runs the whole panel at once: the queued reruns first, then the queued approvals. Check both lists before you click it.

4 Rerun an update service

If some or all of the patches have failed, run the update service again. Click the blue arrows (Rerun) in the row, then click the Approve button at the bottom of the panel.

A rerun creates a new test deployment with the same patches for the test collection. It also asks the computers in the test collection to refresh their policy, so they pick up the deployment sooner.

5 Details of a deployment

Click more on a row. A new window opens with a chart of the deployment.

Update Service Details window with a pie chart of the patch statuses, the fields Time created, Deadline, Collection effected and Patches in assignment, and the checkboxes Show unkown updates and Show not required updates. — Earlier version: the **Update Service Details** window. The fields and checkboxes are the same in the current interface. The values in this picture are masked.

The chart shows how many patches are in each status. Under the chart the window shows the deployment information:

Field	What it shows
Time created	When the update service was created.
Deadline	The deadline of the deployment.
Collection effected	The collection the deployment affects: the test collection, or the target collection after approval.
Patches in assignment	How many patches the update service contains.

Patches whose status is unknown, or that are not required, are left out of the chart by default. To add them, tick the checkboxes under the chart:

Checkbox	What it adds to the chart
Show unkown updates	Patches whose status is unknown. The label is spelled this way in the product.
Show not required updates	Patches that are not required on the clients.

6 Status of the patches

Click a part of the pie chart to see which clients and patches have that status. The tip in the window reads Tip: Click on a part of the pie chart to see more information for the status.

Window listing the updates with one status for a resource, with the columns Resource Name and Update Name, and a Cancel button. The values in the picture are masked. — Earlier version: the list window opened from a part of the chart. It has the columns **Resource Name** and **Update Name**, grouped by resource, and a **Cancel** button. The values in this picture are masked.

7 Best practice

Look at the failed count before you approve. Approving copies the same patches to the target collection, so a failure on the test collection is likely to appear there too.
Rerun first when the cause is a client that was offline. A rerun asks the test computers to refresh their policy, which is often enough to pick up a missed deployment.
Check both lists in the panel before you click Approve. One click runs the reruns and the approvals together, and nothing is sent before that click.
Leave the two checkboxes off for the normal view. Turn on Show unkown updates or Show not required updates only when you need to see why a patch is not in the chart.
Sign out and sign in again if an update service is missing. The list is kept in your web session, so it can stay out of date until the session is renewed.

8 Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	What to do
The list is empty, with the text No updates have to be approved	No update service is waiting for approval. Either none has been deployed to a test collection, or all of them are already approved.	Create or manage the update service in Manage Update Service. It appears here once it has been deployed to the test collection.
The status window shows No updates to show.	No patch on the selected resource has that status.	Click another part of the chart, or tick Show unkown updates or Show not required updates.