Azure Workbooks for Update Compliance reporting is now available! You can now easily monitor Windows Updates and patch compliance by enabling this newly available public preview. Specifically, access our Overview, Quality, and Feature Update experiences directly from the Microsoft 365 admin center or through the Azure Monitor Workbooks Gallery. Additionally, upcoming insights will soon help you diagnose and monitor the performance of driver and firmware updates, as well as the effectiveness of delivery optimization in your organization.
This post provides important context for Update Compliance, new opportunities and benefits of Azure Workbooks, and finally ways you can more easily enable this experience for your organization today. We are excited for you to try the preview today, in preparation for this experience to replace the current solution in the coming months.
Update Compliance context and goals
Over the past 5 years of Update Compliance, we have learned a lot from your experience and feedback. For example, if you use Update Compliance, you most likely associate with one of the three major types of work:
- You may be considered a generalist if you are regularly interested in only top-level adoption of Windows updates.
- You may be an IT specialist if you want to drill into the details and take action with respect to diagnostic data.
- You might be a builder or a solution provider if you seek to tailor existing reports or build custom reports on the underlying data.
The public preview of Azure Workbooks is specifically geared at the first two types of individuals who use Update Compliance, but we are working actively on future Update Compliance solutions for those of you who identify most strongly with the third type of work. The value builders can get from this preview is using our new Log Analytics tables directly, in the same way Update Compliance has always enabled you, or by using Workbooks as a starting point to further tailor reports to your individual needs.
Meet Azure Workbooks
Our goal for Update Compliance Workbooks is to make the solution more responsive to your needs and therefore more valued for everyday use. We are intentional in providing a simpler and more consistent product, while also establishing a framework that allows for rapid iteration and the ability for you to tailor experiences to your unique business needs. To achieve these goals, we've reimagined our admin experiences and integrated our reporting services more deeply within Azure AD.
Note: Update Compliance is powered by the Windows diagnostic data processor configuration, and usage of this preview is subject to those requirements.
As Update Compliance has grown and evolved, the need for a new information architecture has emerged. When you interact with Update Compliance in public preview, a hub-and-spoke navigation model awaits you. Let's take a closer look!
The overview experience
Our top-level "Overview" experience looks across your estate and provides top-line insights into your organization. Insights into quality updates, feature updates, and more will be readily available for you to identify where you are performing well and where action may be required. From there, you can quickly drill into specific workflows based on goals and opportunities you have identified.
For example, in the Quality updates tab, review or sort your devices by their OS version, the target build, its release date, the total progress of the update, the alert count if any, the security or non-security update that is being installed, and the total number of devices in each category (see image below).
View the alerts for a target build by clicking on the corresponding count number in the Alerts column. From the Alerts interface, read the issue details and recommendations by clicking through the list of alert names. Each alert is assigned a name, a classification, an error code, a type, and the number of affected devices. The latter is also clickable to enter the device list alert view with further details.
The KPI format view
Within each Workbook, you will find a familiar top-line KPIs format to quickly assess the current state of your organization. It includes charts emphasizing performance on core industry metrics and a detailed breakdown of your current state. The view can be pivoted on either the updates being installed or the devices being managed. Use further drill downs to quickly and easily analyze your estate, identify devices with common problems, and decide on the relevant action to take to resolve these issues.
Azure AD integration
All these experiences are integrated with Azure AD, which forms the foundation of Update Compliance moving forward. Soon you'll no longer need to explicitly configure every device within your estate to be included in reports. Moving forward, you can simply enroll your organization in Update Compliance, and all Azure AD domain-joined devices (including hybrid Azure AD joined) will automatically send telemetry. This will allow Update Compliance to continue to integrate more seamlessly across the Microsoft 365 ecosystems and simplify workflows across Windows Update for Business, Microsoft Endpoint Manager, and more.
IMPORTANT! As announced in May, Azure AD will be required for all tenants, and devices must be Azure AD Joined by October 15, 2022. In preparation for this change and to avoid disruption to your service, we recommend you enroll today. Please note that devices that are not Azure AD domain joined (for example, devices that are Azure AD registered, also known as Workplace Join), are not supported. CommercialID will no longer be required.
Enable the public preview today
There is a simple way in which you can enable the public preview today: through the Microsoft 365 admin center. The Microsoft 365 admin center offers you a user-friendly view that is powered by Update Compliance, so you can be confident the data and reports will be consistent. It is also a useful entry point to drill into the details within Update Compliance.
To enroll your tenant through the Microsoft 365 admin center, follow the links and the screenshot below:
- Enable Update Compliance if you haven't already.
- In the Microsoft 365 admin center, navigate to Software Updates, under Health.
- Choose the "Windows" tab.
- Select the "Configure settings" button.
- Choose the Azure subscription and workspace you currently use with Update Compliance.
What's next
Once you're in, you can access our Hub, Quality, and Feature Update experiences directly from the Microsoft 365 admin center or through the Azure Monitor Workbooks Gallery. In either case, locate the Update Compliance button or workbook template. The image below shows the path to locate the Update Compliance template from the main Azure gallery and navigating to Workbooks from the left-hand menu. This path will likely change as we work on improving the navigation flow in the coming months.
Whether you identify most as a generalist or an IT specialist, the Update Compliance Workbooks are designed for your update monitoring and reporting needs. Try today's public preview for an experience that is even more dynamic, easier for development, and more customizable to your business. As we work on further improvements and to assist builders and solution providers more, there will be a follow-up blog post for sure!
In the meantime, as you are using these Workbooks, we'd love to hear from you and understand what is working well and where we can do better. Please reach out and share your experiences inside the workbook via the smiley face icon on the top navigation menu (see image below). Thanks for your trust and feedback as we prepare to transition to this reporting solution!
Additional resources
Interested in learning more? Take a look at our product documentation on Update Compliance Workbooks and the new data models that support these experiences:
- Get started with Update Compliance
- Azure Workbooks Overview
- Update Compliance documentation for the preview version: