What do the numbers under the System Name represent?

[BurseyC]

Hi Folks,

 

My first post,  please be gentle.

When I look at the Systems, on my mobile app or via the web interface, you get something like this, if the machine is online:

Craig - HP

Windows 10 Pro(21H2)

5 days, 0 hours, 44 minutes

I am interpreting this to mean the length of the time the system has been turned on.  I had users who has 30-60-100 as their days number.  I sent an email to all users, please reboot your computer every day or two, this will make sure the software updates are done in a timely manner.  Two users responded, they turn their computer off every night, but their "days" numbers are  showing 12 and 17.  

I checked the manual and it did not say what the Days, Hours and Minute numbers represent.

Please enlighten me?

 

Thanks,

 

Craig

[Jamie Taylor]

Hey @BurseyC, I have raised a ticket for your query. Our team will contact you and clarify this for you. Thank you!

[Mark G38]

@BurseyC It's 100% the system uptime. 

#1 rule, Never trust an end user.  They don't enough to be able to accurately say one way or the other in most cases. To an end user, turning their computer off every night could mean sleep mode, hibernation, logging out, or turning off the monitor. 

#2. In Windows 10, a shutdown doesn't actually clear the system up time if Fast Startup is enabled (which is the default setting).  Only restarts clear the uptime in this scenario.  You can disable this or force reboots. 

 

[BurseyC]

Thanks Mark,

 

This client does not want me rebooting the computers to apply updates because it might disrupt the Users.  My idea was to use the System Up Time as a quick visual gauge, are users getting & applying updates on a regular basis by the uptime being under 3 days.  I realize that the quick visual gauge was no guarantee of no patching errors, but good to know that users are rebooting / shutting down their computers every few days. 

Looks like that is not going to work so It's either:   Patch Management - History  OR  Reporting - Templates - Patching - Sample: Patching for All Systems   

Thanks Jamie and Mark, appreciate the effort.

Craig

 

[Mark G38]

@BurseyC Not sure your exact situation, but this seems like you should be able to work around their concerns. I have some clients the same way.  I have my patching setup for workstations, to patch but not reboot.  I then have a reboot task set up for these clients that reboots their workstations at a specified time that they agreed would not interrupt anyone.  Usually something like 1 AM for most. I have one that wants it a little earlier due to an overnight crew.  Just set the reboot tasks on schedule and never think about it again.  

I don't know how big you are, but IMO having to manually check patching at any scale other than maybe a couple, is really a pain and not ideal.  

I've personally also set up a custom event log alert in which I have a PowerShell script I wrote check for updates on the machine, but also check when the last update was (filtering out Defender definition updates since they happen multiple times a day and it's not in use anyway) and it it finds the last update date was 7+ days ago, it will write an error to the event log, which I then have set up in Pulseway to trigger an alert notification.  I also have it populating a custom field with the last update date for my reference. It took some work, but it does work.  I'm sure it's not 100% as there are probably some edge cases, but between that and the patch schedules and scheduled reboots, it's been pretty great so far.