Schedule an IT Automation (IT Departments)

This article provides instructions for the Atera for IT Departments platform.

Atera’s Patch Management and IT Automation enables you to perform a variety of crucial support tasks including patching, software bundle installation, Windows version upgrades, disk management, maintenance, and automated scripting.

The automation profile containing any (or all) of the above-mentioned tasks can be scheduled as multiple, flexible, one-time, weekly and/or monthly automations. This article explains how to:

Create an Automation Profile
Schedule the Automation Profile
Select Patch and Automation Tasks
Apply Automation Profile
See a report on the most recently-run profile

Create an Automation Profile

The first step is to create an automation profile.

To create a profile:

1. From Admin, click on Patch Management and IT Automation

The Patch Management and IT Automation page appears.

2. Click Add Profile

3. Enter a name for the profile, and click Apply

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

Schedule the Automation Profile

The next step is to add the desired automation schedule(s).

Note: The following scheduling instructions apply to the creation of new automation profiles only. Existing profiles retain the older scheduling design.

To schedule: Click on +Add Schedule, set the frequency and applicable day/date/time, then click Save (next to the schedule).

Notes:

You can add as many schedules to the automation profile as you wish to add.
A schedule can be edited by clicking on the icon, or deleted by clicking the icon next to the schedule.
A schedule can be run immediately by clicking Run Now, at the upper, right of the screen.

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 site, 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:

1. Select the patches you wish to install and the automations 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 shutdown).
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).

Notes:

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 turner off on the local machine.

2. Optionally, you can add email addresses (technician's/end user's) 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 setup 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.