Beekeeper 5.2.0 Release Notes

The latest version of our Beekeeper patching automation software for System Center brings great new features like parallel patching, SQL Availability Group compatibility, daily scheduling, and more.
 

What’s New

• New Patching Progress blades on the dashboard showing completed job status, Active Sequential Patching, and Active Parallel Patching.
• Parallel Patching

• Application Groups
• All Nodes in the Application Group can be parallel patched at the same time
•  Use “Continue on Failure” options to not stop patching

• Exchange DAGs
• Replica-Only Nodes are parallel patched first
• Mounted-Only Nodes are parallel patched second
• Mounted and Replica Nodes are sequentially patch to assure active mailbox databases are not taken offline

• Windows Failover Clusters
• Consider the hosted roles and node resources when setting the number of nodes to parallel patch
• Recommendation is N – 2
• SQL Availability Group Patching
• SQL Availability Groups are now a server type of its own.  SQL Availability Group members are patched sequentially, one at a time, to keep databases online
• Allowing daily patching schedules.
• “Details” Button on patch progress indicator view individual update status
• History log adds which type of patching is used for that execution job.
• Added testing option to SMTP settings in Administration/Settings
• Updated licensing to use the new Code Signing Certificate.
• Fixed issue with Dashboard menu items to expand and compress appropriately.
   

New Dashboard View

The new Patching Dashboard blade shows recent jobs and how they saved maintenance window time using Parallel Patching.The comparison is made whether the job was executed by Sequential Patching or Parallel Patching.

Parallel Patching

You can set Parallel Patching for Application Groups, Exchange DAGs, and Windows Failover Clusters.

Application Groups have the Parallel Patching option at the bottom of the dialog box:

Exchange DAGs and Windows Failover Clusters use a similar dialog box that queries the number of nodes when you click to enable Parallel Patching:

SQL Availability Group

Expanding the Server and Cluster menu shows that SQL Availability Groups are a new type:

When adding a SQL Availability Group, you supply the Windows Failover Cluster Network Name and appropriate options. Parallel Patching is not available for SQL Availability Groups.

Daily Schedule

A daily schedule can be created using the reoccurring method:

Detail Button

When viewing the Patching Status, you can expand the group to show the individual nodes and press the Detail button to see the status of the individual patches.

When the software updates are being installed, the Evaluation State and Compliance State will show the appropriate information, such as “Wait Install”, “Installing”, “Pending SoftReboot”, or “None”.
 

History shows patching type

The History log shows which type of patching was set on the execution job:

Testing SMTP Settings

By filling in the “Test SMTP Settings” field with the recipient address, you can press the “Send Test Email” button to make sure the SMTP settings are correct.

The new version of Beekeeper is scheduled to be released at the end of June 2020. Some of the details in the User Interface may change at release.

Want to learn more? Read about Beekeeper or drop us a line to talk to a consultant about how it can help you with patching efficiency and compliance.