How Update Rings Are Created
Explains how Update Rings are created in Patch My PC Cloud
Update Rings in Patch My PC (PMPC) Cloud provide two different implementations, both of which depend on the start time of the relevant deployment and how you have your Sync Schedule configured:
Delayed Update Rings
The Delayed option works as follows:
The first Update Ring is created immediately and the software is deployed to the assigned test users/devices (usually known as a pilot group).
After waiting for any configured delay (to allow testing to be performed), the next Update Ring is created, and the software is deployed to the assigned users/devices (usually a bigger group/all assigned users/devices).
Step 2 is repeated until all Update Rings have been created and the software has been deployed to all users/devices requiring it.
Advantages
The advantage of the delayed option is:
As the next ring (and therefore the next set of assignments) has not been created, if the software causes an issue that is detected in the first ring, the issue cannot propagate to other rings as they haven’t been created.
Disadvantages
The disadvantages of the delayed option are:
Your Sync Schedule configuration can impact both when the initial rings are created and when the Sync Schedule runs, which will update your rings and their assignments, including promoting a new version to your relevant rings.
For example, let’s assume you only run your Sync Schedule monthly on the 16th. You create a deployment and enable Update Rings with configured delays of 0, 5, and 15 days. When you deploy, the first ring will be created immediately (since it is 0 days). However, the next two rings will not be created until the 16th of the following month.
You cannot edit a deployment that uses delayed Update Rings until all of the rings have been created. If you try, you will see the Error - Editing is not allowed until all rings are created after the configured delay.
Immediate Update Rings
The Immediate options works as follows:
All Update Rings are created immediately with their relevant delays and assignments.
Assignments from all of the Update Rings will be applied to the version of the app you created the deployment with.
Update Rings will not begin to work until the next version (current plus one or n+1) of the software is released. At this point, the assignments from the previous version are moved to the latest version and Update Rings start to function as configured.
Advantages
The advantages of the immediate option are:
All rings are created and configured once.
The deployment can be edited and adjusted as required.
Disadvantages
The disadvantages of the immediate option are:
If the software in one ring causes an issue, if the admin forgets to pause the deployment or remove any additional rings, the issue could be spread to the next ring, even if a delay between rings is configured.
All assignments from all Update Rings are applied to the same version of the application the deployment was created with. However, this is only true for the initial creation of the Update Rings. All of the other functionality of Update Rings will work as normal for any new versions of the app.
Note
You cannot mix standard deployments (that don’t use Update Rings) and Update Rings in a single deployment.
See How Update Rings Handle New Versions for more information about how update rings handle new versions, including worked examples.
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