Forum Discussion
How do you handle off-hours patching in small environments with no HA?
In smaller IT environments without high availability (HA) setups, managing updates and patches, especially during off-hours, can be tricky. Without redundancy or failover systems, patching often involves planned downtime, making it critical to schedule and execute updates efficiently to avoid disrupting operations.
If you don't have coverage, do you stick to late-night or weekend patching windows? How do you communicate expected downtime with users ? What is your rollback plan if a patch causes issues ? Do you take snapshots/backup before patching ? How do you factor in security urgency vs operational impact ?
3 Replies
In my small, non-HA environment, I schedule patching during late nights or weekends to minimize disruption. I always send out a clear downtime notice to users in advance, take a backup or snapshot before applying updates, and keep a rollback plan ready in case something goes wrong. For critical security patches, I weigh the urgency against operational impact, but generally prioritize applying them quickly while still ensuring I can recover fast if needed.
Should be the same as any server...monthly patching window after hours as you'll need to factor in both the server level OS patches as well as Exchange patches. Rollback...you'll need to follow the supported options available...although there are a lot of organisations that do use snapshots as a roll back. If you do use snapshots, make sure the snapshot is of an Exchange server that is in maintenance mode.
I schedule updates during the least disruptive periods mostly late nights or weekends. I also maintain a recurring patch window so users know when to expect downtime. This usually preceded with advance notices through internal messaging, at least 48 hours before patching, outlining scope
