Atera’s Patch Management and IT Automation lets you perform a variety of crucial support tasks including patching, software bundle installation, Windows version upgrades, disk management, maintenance, and automated scripting. An automation profile containing any (or all) of the above-mentioned tasks can be scheduled as multiple, flexible, one-time, weekly, and/or monthly automation. 

Create an automation profile

The first step is to create an automation profile.

To create an automation profile:

1. From Admin (on the sidebar), click Patch Management and IT Automation.

The Patch management and IT automation page appears.

2. Click Add profile.

3. Enter a name for the profile. Then click Save.

The profile has been created, and the Profile page appears.

Schedule the automation profile

To schedule the automation profile:

The next step is to add the desired automation schedules.
Note: The following scheduling instructions apply to the creation of new automation profiles only. 

1. Click on + Add schedule and set the frequency applicable day/date/time. Then click Save (next to the schedule).

Note:

• You can add as many schedules to the automation profile as you want.
• A schedule can be edited by clicking the edit icon (), or deleted by clicking the delete icon () next to the schedule.
• A schedule can be run immediately by clicking Run Now.

To automatically run the profile upon new agent installation:

Check the checkbox next to Run the profile on newly installed agents 

Note: Having multiple profiles with the option "Run the profile on newly installed agents", on the same customer, can create conflicts when the profile runs on a newly installed agent. Make sure to use tasks that do not conflict with each other. In case you have scripts on each profile, make sure that both can run at the same time.

Select patch and automation tasks

Next, you'll need to select your desired patch and automation tasks.

To select automation tasks:

1. Select the patches you wish to install and the automation you wish to include.

Categories include:

• OS Patch Management (Includes critical, security, service packs, drivers and tools, native Windows updates, and Mac OS updates). Note: Any updates hidden on Windows OS will not be installed by Atera (even when selecting the 'Install all Windows patch updates' option.
• OS Excluded Patches (You can exclude certain OS patches). Learn more
• Software Patch Management (Software patches are installed via Chocolatey for Windows and Homebrew for Mac package managers. Learn more)
• Software Excluded Patches (You can exclude certain software patches).
• Software Bundle (You can attach a software bundle, for automated installation. Learn more)
• Upgrades (upgrades to the latest Windows 10 version).
• Disk Management (Defragment or run Checkdisk).
• Maintenance (Create a system restore point, delete temp files or internet history, reboot, or shut down).
• Scripts (You can attach scripts, to have them run with the automation profile. Additionally, you can edit variable values (when applicable), enabling you to run the same script with different variables).

Note:

• If you wish to schedule the automated Reboot or Shutdown (under Maintenance), we strongly recommend creating separate automation profiles for these, as they may disrupt other selected actions on a profile.
• You can exclude certain patches. It can be used for excluding problematic patches after trying them out on a demo or test environment for several days. For more information, refer to the article, How Can I Exclude Patches From The Automation Profile
• The Create System Restore Point option will not work, as long as System Restore is turned off on the local machine.
• Configuration Policies override the "Reboot if needed" option found in IT Automation profiles. For example, if you have set up a Configuration Policy with "Restart outside of active hours", the agent will reboot only after working hours have ended.
• The Delete Temp Files option will remove files from "C:\Windows\Temp" and "C:\Users\Dragos\AppData\Local\Temp"

2. Optionally, you can add email addresses (technicians/end users) to receive detailed reports of patch installation success (or failure), each time, after an automation runs.  

3. Select Save to save your newly updated automation profile.

Notes:

• Patch automation will run at the time set up in Atera under Admin > Settings > General >Time zone.
• You can also specify certain settings to apply to all automation profiles, in addition to the settings you've applied to the individual profile.

Apply automation profile

Once you've completed the IT Automation profile, you'll need to apply it to your customer(s) or a specific agent in order for it to take effect. 

For users of the Atera for IT Department's platform, follow these instructions to apply the IT Automation profile to your sites and agents.

See a report on the most recently-run profile

You can see the Patch and Automation Feedback report on the latest-run automation profile by clicking the icon () on automation profile pages.