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Office 365 updates - Deployment process

This document traces the procedure that ManageEngine uses to deploy Office 365 updates. There are 2 ways in which these updates can be installed using ManageEngine's patch management solutions

  1. Office Deployment Tool (ODT) installation
  2. Direct Installation

Below is the detailed explanation of the process involved in these 2 methods

Office Deployment Tool (ODT) installation: This method of silent installation of the Office 365 updates is the normal/usual flow followed across environments except cloud, roaming agents, and customers using the Direct download of patches option. The method is as follows:

  • With the dependency patch (which is nothing but the deployment tool) and the Office 365 configuration XMLs, related files for the Office 365 update is downloaded in the Server. Download Cmd : setup.exe /download config.xml
  • The patch installer files get downloaded as zip files (Ex: {dependency_patch_id}-O365.zip) and is stored at the Server patch store location. This process happens in the background while downloading the Office 365 patches in the server.
  • During patch deployment, the patch installer exe and the zip files get copied to the target agent machine and the patch installer exe starts executing in the target agent machine.
  • The installer checks for some pre-requisite conditions and initiates the installation using cmd: setup.exe /configure config.xml

Direct Installation: In this method a separate patch for Office 365 online installation which is downloaded directly and deployed in the agent machines. As only the necessary files are downloaded and installed in the agent machine, this method consumes lesser bandwidth than the normal Office 365 patch. To enable this direct installation of Office 365 patches, follow the steps below:

Add the following value to the hive registry mentioned below. Once this is done, the Office 365 online installer patch is detected in the manchine

  • Hive : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AdventNet\DesktopCentral\DCAgent\Patch
  • ValueName : OFFICE_365_ONLINE_INSTALLATION
  • ValueData : 1
  • Alternately you can also run the following custom script configuration, if you are using Desktop Central:
    REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AdventNet\DesktopCentral\DCAgent\Patch" /v OFFICE_365_ONLINE_INSTALLATION /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /reg:32 /f

If you are using ManageEngine's patch management for updating office 365, then it automatically disables the update option in the office 365 console. This is how it is disabled, the update URL is changed to patch store location and 'UpdatesEnabled' is set to false in the registry key given below:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration - UpdateUrl : {PatchStoreLocation}
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration - UpdatesEnabled : False

If you wish to enable it back, change the registry key as shown below:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration - UpdateUrl : {PatchStoreLocation}. Delete this UpdateURL value
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration - UpdatesEnabled : True

You cannot deploy the office 365 updates when office 365 applications (Word, Excel, etc,.) are in use. This is the default behaviour. If you deploy the patch at such times, it will fail with the remark, "Patch update delayed since the application is used by another process".
In this case, follow the resolution mentioned in this article: Resolution for patch update delayed.