Windows_update_settings Resource

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Use the windows_update_settings resource to manage the various Windows Update patching options.

New in Chef Infra Client 17.3.

Syntax

The full syntax for all of the properties that are available to the windows_update_settings resource is:

windows_update_settings 'name' do
  automatic_update_option                  Integer, Symbol # default value: :download_and_schedule
  automatically_install_minor_updates      true, false # default value: false
  block_windows_update_website             true, false # default value: false
  custom_detection_frequency               Integer # default value: 22
  disable_automatic_updates                true, false # default value: false
  disable_os_upgrades                      true, false # default value: false
  elevate_non_admins                       true, false # default value: true
  enable_detection_frequency               true, false # default value: false
  no_reboot_with_users_logged_on           true, false # default value: true
  scheduled_install_day                    String # default value: "Everyday"
  scheduled_install_hour                   Integer
  target_wsus_group_name                   String
  update_other_ms_products                 true, false # default value: true
  wsus_server_url                          String
  action                                   Symbol # defaults to :set if not specified
end

where:

windows_update_settings is the resource.
name is the name given to the resource block.
action identifies which steps Chef Infra Client will take to bring the node into the desired state.
automatic_update_option, automatically_install_minor_updates, block_windows_update_website, custom_detection_frequency, disable_automatic_updates, disable_os_upgrades, elevate_non_admins, enable_detection_frequency, no_reboot_with_users_logged_on, scheduled_install_day, scheduled_install_hour, target_wsus_group_name, update_other_ms_products, and wsus_server_url are the properties available to this resource.

Actions

The windows_update_settings resource has the following actions:

:nothing: This resource block does not act unless notified by another resource to take action. Once notified, this resource block either runs immediately or is queued up to run at the end of a Chef Infra Client run.
:set: Set Windows Update settings. (default)

Properties

The windows_update_settings resource has the following properties:

automatic_update_option: Ruby Type: Integer, Symbol | Default Value: :download_and_schedule Allowed Values: :download_and_notify, :download_and_schedule, :local_admin_decides, :notify
Control what to do when updates are found. This allows you to notify, automatically download and notify to install, automatically download and schedule the install, or let the local admin decide what action to take.

automatically_install_minor_updates: Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false
Automatically install minor updates.

block_windows_update_website: Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false
Block accessing the Windows Update website.

custom_detection_frequency: Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value: 22
If you decided to override the OS default detection frequency, specify your choice here. Valid choices are 0 - 22

disable_automatic_updates: Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false
Disable Windows Update.

disable_os_upgrades: Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false
Disable OS upgrades.

elevate_non_admins: Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: true
Allow normal user accounts to temporarily be elevated to install patches.

enable_detection_frequency: Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false
Used to override the OS default of how often to check for updates

no_reboot_with_users_logged_on: Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: true
Prevents the OS from rebooting while someone is on the console.

scheduled_install_day: Ruby Type: String | Default Value: Everyday Allowed Values: "Everyday", "Friday", "Monday", "Saturday", "Sunday", "Thursday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday"
A day of the week to tell Windows when to install updates.

scheduled_install_hour: Ruby Type: Integer
If you chose a scheduled day to install, then choose an hour on that day for you installation

target_wsus_group_name: Ruby Type: String
Add the node to a WSUS Target Group.

update_other_ms_products: Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: true
Allows for other Microsoft products to get updates too

wsus_server_url: Ruby Type: String
The URL of your WSUS server if you use one.

Common Resource Functionality

Chef resources include common properties, notifications, and resource guards.

Common Properties

The following properties are common to every resource:

compile_time

Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false

Control the phase during which the resource is run on the node. Set to true to run while the resource collection is being built (the compile phase). Set to false to run while Chef Infra Client is configuring the node (the converge phase).

ignore_failure

Ruby Type: true, false, :quiet | Default Value: false

Continue running a recipe if a resource fails for any reason. :quiet will not display the full stack trace and the recipe will continue to run if a resource fails.

retries

Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value: 0

The number of attempts to catch exceptions and retry the resource.

retry_delay

Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value: 2

The delay in seconds between retry attempts.

sensitive

Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false

Ensure that sensitive resource data is not logged by Chef Infra Client.

Notifications

notifies

Ruby Type: Symbol, 'Chef::Resource[String]'

A resource may notify another resource to take action when its state changes. Specify a 'resource[name]', the :action that resource should take, and then the :timer for that action. A resource may notify more than one resource; use a notifies statement for each resource to be notified.

If the referenced resource does not exist, an error is raised. In contrast, subscribes will not fail if the source resource is not found.

A timer specifies the point during a Chef Infra Client run at which a notification is run. The following timers are available:

:before: Specifies that the action on a notified resource should be run before processing the resource block in which the notification is located.
:delayed: Default. Specifies that a notification should be queued up, and then executed at the end of a Chef Infra Client run.
:immediate, :immediately: Specifies that a notification should be run immediately, per resource notified.

The syntax for notifies is:

notifies :action, 'resource[name]', :timer

subscribes: Ruby Type: Symbol, 'Chef::Resource[String]'

A resource may listen to another resource, and then take action if the state of the resource being listened to changes. Specify a 'resource[name]', the :action to be taken, and then the :timer for that action.

Note that subscribes does not apply the specified action to the resource that it listens to - for example:

file '/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt' do
  mode '0600'
  owner 'root'
end

service 'nginx' do
  subscribes :reload, 'file[/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt]', :immediately
end

In this case the subscribes property reloads the nginx service whenever its certificate file, located under /etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt, is updated. subscribes does not make any changes to the certificate file itself, it merely listens for a change to the file, and executes the :reload action for its resource (in this example nginx) when a change is detected.

If the other resource does not exist, the subscription will not raise an error. Contrast this with the stricter semantics of notifies, which will raise an error if the other resource does not exist.

A timer specifies the point during a Chef Infra Client run at which a notification is run. The following timers are available:

:before: Specifies that the action on a notified resource should be run before processing the resource block in which the notification is located.
:delayed: Default. Specifies that a notification should be queued up, and then executed at the end of a Chef Infra Client run.
:immediate, :immediately: Specifies that a notification should be run immediately, per resource notified.

The syntax for subscribes is:

subscribes :action, 'resource[name]', :timer

Guards

A guard property can be used to evaluate the state of a node during the execution phase of a Chef Infra Client run. Based on the results of this evaluation, a guard property is then used to tell Chef Infra Client if it should continue executing a resource. A guard property accepts either a string value or a Ruby block value:

A string is executed as a shell command. If the command returns 0, the guard is applied. If the command returns any other value, then the guard property is not applied. String guards in a powershell_script run Windows PowerShell commands and may return true in addition to 0.
A block is executed as Ruby code that must return either true or false. If the block returns true, the guard property is applied. If the block returns false, the guard property is not applied.

A guard property is useful for ensuring that a resource is idempotent by allowing that resource to test for the desired state as it is being executed, and then if the desired state is present, for Chef Infra Client to do nothing.

Properties

The following properties can be used to define a guard that is evaluated during the execution phase of a Chef Infra Client run:

not_if: Prevent a resource from executing when the condition returns true.
only_if: Allow a resource to execute only if the condition returns true.

Examples

The following examples demonstrate various approaches for using the windows_update_settings resource in recipes:

Set Windows Update settings:

windows_update_settings 'Settings to Configure Windows Nodes to automatically receive updates' do
  disable_os_upgrades true
  elevate_non_admins true
  block_windows_update_website true
  automatically_install_minor_updates true
  scheduled_install_day 'Friday'
  scheduled_install_hour 18
  update_other_ms_products true
  action :enable
end

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