1 Where you can schedule
Software deployments and operating system deployments can be scheduled for a later time instead of running at once. You do it from the interface you would normally deploy from.
| Interface | How you schedule |
|---|---|
| Manage Software (single resource and multiple resources) | Tick Enable Schedule, pick the start date and time, and click the small settings icon for Job Name, Schedule End, Use Wake-On-Lan and Ignore maintenance windows. See Scheduled Deployments. |
| Manage Software tab in Device Manager and User Manager, Reinstall, and the deployment wizard in Application Management | Tick Enable Schedule just above the button that applies your changes. A Schedule Settings block opens with a job name (optional), a start date and time, an end date and time, Use Wake-On-Lan and Ignore maintenance windows. Not offered for Intune-managed devices. |
| Deployment Manager | In the Schedule step of a deployment job choose Create a Schedule instead of Run Immediately, then fill in Job may start from, Latest job run time, Use Wake-On-Lan and Ignore Maintenance Windows. Both date fields are required. Phased deployments cannot be scheduled. |
If your administrator has switched on Disable schedule under Settings › Interface Settings, scheduling is hidden or greyed out in all of these interfaces.
A scheduled software deployment shows up in Manage Software with the text Scheduled Deployment - Starts after and the date, and you can remove it there. You can see and edit every scheduled deployment in Edit Schedule.
2 What happens behind the scenes
A schedule is a separate collection plus a deployment with a start and an end time. Nothing is sent to the computers until the start time.
- SoftwareCentral creates a new collection next to the normal install or removal collection. Its name is the original collection name followed by - SWCSchedule - Run at and the start date. If that name is taken, a number is added, for example SWCSchedule (2).
- The selected computers or users are added to this SWCSchedule collection instead of the normal collection. The collection variables of the original collection are copied to it.
- The software (or task sequence) is deployed to the SWCSchedule collection, available from the start time and expiring at the end time. The end time is the latest run time: a computer that is still off or unreachable after it will not run the job.
- If you give no end time, it is the start time plus 7 days. If you give no job name, SoftwareCentral makes one, for example Software Deployment of 2 packages to 5 computers.
Clean-up of old schedules
Every day SoftwareCentral deletes scheduled collections whose latest run time passed more than a number of days ago. Before deleting one, it moves any computers still in it to the normal install or removal collection. The number of days is set in Settings › Collections as Delete scheduled collections after latest run time (in days); the default is 30. The delay is deliberate: the deployment status messages must stay available for a while after the schedule has run.
Time zones
Times you enter and times shown in Edit Schedule are in your own time zone as set in SoftwareCentral (the web server’s time zone if none is set). They are stored and sent to Configuration Manager as UTC. A computer in another time zone therefore runs the job at the same moment, not at the same clock time.
3 Change or cancel a schedule
- Scheduled Deployments – how to set the start time, name, end time, Wake-On-Lan and maintenance windows, and how to remove a scheduled item from Manage Software.
- Edit Schedule – change the times, push a schedule to run now, or delete it.
4 Best practice
- Name important schedules. A clear Job Name is what you search for later in Edit Schedule and Deployment Manager.
- Leave room between start and end. The default of 7 days lets computers that are switched off at the start time catch up; a very short window means they miss the job.
- Use Use Wake-On-Lan for planned out-of-hours work, and Ignore maintenance windows only when the work must not wait for the next window.
- Do not delete or edit SWCSchedule collections in the Configuration Manager console. Use Edit Schedule, so SoftwareCentral keeps its own record in step.
- Review upcoming schedules in Edit Schedule before a change window, and push or delete what you no longer want.