Windows Update Details Test

Microsoft regularly releases various Windows updates to enhance and protect a Windows system. These updates fix newly discovered security holes and bugs, add malware definitions to Windows Defender and Security Essentials utilities, strengthen Office security and add new features/enhancements to the system. By installing these updates regularly, you can keep your system highly secure, reliable and stable, and can maintain the performance of the system at peak. If the Windows system is not updated regularly, the critical bugs and security errors may increase vulnerabilities of the system. These vulnerabilities can be exploited by the malware or hackers, thus exposing your system to malicious attacks and degrading the system's performance. To avoid such eventualities, you should regularly check whether the system is up-to-date or not. This check can be easily done using the Windows Update Details test.

This test continuously monitors the Windows system and reports the current status of the Windows updates on the system. Besides, this test indicates whether any update is pending on the system and whether the system is rebooted or not. In the process, this test also reports the total number updates to be installed for the system and the number of Windows updates of different types at regular intervals.

This test is disabled by default. To enable the test, go to the enable / disable tests page using the menu sequence : Agents -> Tests -> Enable/Disable, pick Microsoft Windows as the desired Component type, set Performance as the Test type, choose the test from the disabled tests list, and click on the < button to move the test to the ENABLED TESTS list. Finally, click the Update button.

Target of the test : A Windows System

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Windows system being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
  1. TEST PERIOD - How often should the test be executed
  2. Host - The host for which the test is to be configured
  3. Port - The port to which the specified host listens.

  4. DD For Total Updates – In large environments where hundreds of Windows systems have been deployed, the frequent collection of detailed diagnosis information related to the update details of the systems may increase the processing overheads of the eG agent, and may even choke the eG database. To avoid this, by default, the DD For Total Updates flag is set to No indicating that this test will not report the detailed diagnostics for the Total Updates Available measure. However, you can set this flag to Yes if you want to collect the detailed diagnostics of the Total Updates Available measure.

  5. DD Frequency - Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD frequency.

  6. Detailed Diagnosis - To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

    The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

    • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
    • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Are pending updates available?

Indicates whether/not the updates are pending.

 

The values that this measure can report and the numeric values they indicate have been listed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
No 0
Yes 1

Note:

By default, this measure can report the Measure Values mentioned above while indicating whether/not the updates are available. However, the graph of this measure is indicated using the numeric equivalents.

Is a system reboot pending?

Indicates whether the Windows system is rebooted or not.

 

The values that this measure can report and the numeric values they indicate have been listed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
No 0
Yes 1

Note:

By default, this measure can report the Measure Values mentioned above while indicating whether the system is rebooted or not. However, the graph of this measure is indicated using the numeric equivalents.

Windows update service status

Indicates the current status of the Windows update service.

 

The values that this measure can report and the numeric values they indicate have been listed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Unknown 0
Running 1
Start pending 2
Continue pending 3
Pause pending 4
Stop pending 5
Paused 6
Stopped 7

Note:

By default, this measure can report the Measure Values mentioned above while indicating the current status of each Windows update service. However, the graph of this measure is indicated using the numeric equivalents.

Total updates available

Indicates the total number of Windows updates available for the system.

Number

The detailed diagnosis of this measure, if enabled, lists the Windows updates available for the system and the categories of the available updates.

Critical updates available

Indicates the number of critical updates available for the system.

Number

A critical update is a widely and frequently released update that deals with the specific, non-security related, critical bugs. If these bugs are not fixed quickly, they can cause serious performance degradation, interoperability malfunction or disturb application compatibility.

Important updates available

Indicates the number of important updates available for the system.

Number

The important updates help fixing the vulnerabilities using which malware/hackers can exploit the system resources or steal data. This in tun may leave the confidentiality and integrity of the system defenseless and make the user data unavailable.

Moderate updates available

Indicates the number of moderate security updates available for the system.

Number

The moderate updates fix a vulnerability whose exploitation can be mitigated to a significant degree by default configuration, auditing, or difficulty of exploitation.

Low updates available

Indicates the number of low security updates available for the system.

Number

These updates fix the vulnerability whose exploitation is extremely difficult.

Optional updates available

Indicates the number of optional updates available for the system.

Number

An optional update includes Feature Pack and standard Updates, and does not have a severity rating.