How to Report on Patch Failure Root Causes Without a Dedicated Analytics Tool. Why do patches fail, and what causes them? Here’s how to identify, diagnose, and report on the root causes of patch failures without the need for a dedicated analytics tool. Before we begin, be sure to subscribe to NinjaOne’s IT video hub and our YouTube channel for more tech content like this. The Importance of Reporting Patch Failure Root Causes. In patch management, administrators need to ensure that all patches are deployed succesfully, or they risk security breaches, compliance violations, and other operational disruptions. Thus, when a patch fails to deploy, administrators need to identify the root cause and document it clearly. Usually, third-party tools are employed, but these platforms can be expensive or too broad to identify the exact root cause. Fortunately, there are native Windows-based methods that admins can use without third-party tools. Defining Common Root Cause Categories. Before that, however, you need to familiarize yourself with the common root causes per category. This will help create a standardized remediation and reporting process for each potential cause. They can vary from disk space issues to service conflicts, dependency failures, reboot requirements, and network-related issues. You can check out the chart outlining each root cause and its indicators in our blog post. Now, let’s explore each method for identifying, logging, and reporting patch failures. Five Methods to Report on Patch Failure Root Causes Without Tools. Gather failure logs with PowerShell and Event Log queries. The first method is to gather failure logs using PowerShell and Event Log queries. Here are scripts to query failed updates on Windows Event ID 20. check for reboot requirements. collect the last five failed security updates. and collect the last five failed security updates, respectively. Use CMD to pull update logs and errors. The second method is to use Command Prompt to retrieve update logs and error messages. Here are commands to check Windows Update logs, scan for update errors, confirm that required services are running, and list pending file renames, respectively. Store root cause metadata in the Registry for reporting. The third method is to store root cause metadata in the Registry for reporting. In PowerShell, run this script to write categorized root-cause values to the Registry for RMM polling on failure. Then, input this script to log or export the audit data to a file for reporting. Afterwards, check using this on Command Prompt. Automate failure reporting with scheduled tasks. The fourth method is to automate failure reporting using scheduled tasks. Run this PowerShell script to schedule a scan-and-tag task. Use Group Policy to preempt common failure scenarios. And, the fifth and final method is to use Group Policy to preempt common failure scenarios. Run this PowerShell script to force WUA and MSI logging. Then, in Group Policy Editor, navigate to Computer Configuration, Windows Update, No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations. Prevent reboot deferral by enabling Wake-up option and Wake Timers and configuring Task Scheduler settings. Knowing and reporting the root causes of patch failure is an essential step in patch management. For more information, check out our official blog post on How to Report on Patch Failure Root Causes Without Third-party Tools, linked in the description below.