Hello, If it is not recommended to ever put any of the following servers/objects into Maintenance Mode (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946426), then what is the recommended best practice in regards to the usage of the Maintenance Mode feature when comes to patching these servers using SCCM? Root Management Server Management Server Secondary Management Server Collection Server Contained objects on a RMS server Gateway Server Health Service Health Service Watcher Site Management Server Thanks, Larry

Never put the RMS, any management server or gateway into maintenance mode. That's the best/only practice. Push the patches out via SCCM and reboot, it's that simple. Yes, you'll get some alerts and things, but that's the way it goes."Fear disturbs your concentration"

Hi, You can also refer to the following article: SCCM patching and opsmgr maintenance mode: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/steverac/archive/2010/02/06/sccm-patching-and-opsmgr-maintenance-mode.aspxPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hello Andy, After further internal discussion, I am now wondering if the KB article mentioned above actually applies in this case, as SCCM does not technically leverage OpsMgr’s Maintenance Mode functionality, but rather simply pauses the HealthService service of the targeted server. Is there a distinction (i.e. MM vs. paused service), or should we not leverage the SCCM Disable Operations Manager alerts while software updates run feature for our management servers? I am asking as not leveraging the feature does create a considerable amount of additional administrative overhead for our SCCM folks. The service is apparently only paused during the patch deployment & installation window. Looking forward to the feedback, Larry

If it pauses Health Service, then it's likely that you'll get a heartbeat failure for the system. (do NOT do this on the RMS) but I don't see it hurting anything."Fear disturbs your concentration"

Hello, I have received Microsoft's blessing to leverage SCCM's Disable Operations Manager alerts while software updates run feature against our OpsMgr infrastructure servers as SCCM does not implement OpsMgr's Maintenance Mode (MM) feature per se, but rather simply pauses the target server's HealthService. There is a crucial distinction between both methods, as SCCM, an external entity, maintains control over the state of the targeted server's HealthService. MM on the other hand, requires that the RMS be fully functional, as the workflows responsible for taking things out of MM are hosted by the RMS! Regards, Larry