WorkSpace maintenance - Amazon WorkSpaces
Maintenance windows for AlwaysOn WorkSpacesMaintenance windows for AutoStop WorkSpacesManual maintenance
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

WorkSpace maintenance

We recommend that you maintain your WorkSpaces on a regular basis. WorkSpaces schedules default maintenance windows for your WorkSpaces. During the maintenance window, the WorkSpace installs important updates from Amazon WorkSpaces and reboots as necessary. If available, operating system updates are also installed from the OS update server that the WorkSpace is configured to use. During maintenance, your WorkSpaces might be unavailable.

By default, your Windows WorkSpaces are configured to receive updates from Windows Update. To configure your own automatic update mechanisms for Windows, see the documentation for Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) and Configuration Manager.

Requirement

Your WorkSpaces must have access to the internet so that you can install updates to the operating system and deploy applications. For more information, see Provide internet access from your WorkSpace.

Maintenance windows for AlwaysOn WorkSpaces

For AlwaysOn WorkSpaces, the maintenance window is determined by operating system settings. The default is a four-hour period from 00h00 to 04h00, in the time zone of the WorkSpace, each Sunday morning. By default, the time zone of an AlwaysOn WorkSpace is the time zone of the Amazon Region for the WorkSpace. However, if you connect from another Region and time zone redirection is enabled, and then you disconnect, the time zone of the WorkSpace is updated to the time zone of the Region that you connected from.

You can disable time zone redirection for Windows WorkSpaces using Group Policy. You can disable time zone redirection for Linux WorkSpaces by using the PCoIP Agent conf.

For Windows WorkSpaces, you can configure the maintenance window using Group Policy; see Configure Group Policy Settings for Automatic Updates. You cannot configure the maintenance window for Linux WorkSpaces.

Maintenance windows for AutoStop WorkSpaces

AutoStop WorkSpaces are started automatically once a month in order to install important updates. Beginning on the third Monday of the month, and for up to two weeks, the maintenance window is open each day from about 00h00 to 05h00, in the time zone of the Amazon Region for the WorkSpace. The WorkSpace can be maintained on any one day in the maintenance window. During this window, only WorkSpaces older than 7 days are maintained.

During the time period when the WorkSpace is undergoing maintenance, the state of the WorkSpace is set to MAINTENANCE.

Although you cannot modify the time zone that is used for maintaining AutoStop WorkSpaces, you can disable the maintenance window for your AutoStop WorkSpaces as follows. If you disable maintenance mode, your WorkSpaces are not rebooted and do not enter the MAINTENANCE state.

To disable maintenance mode

  1. Open the WorkSpaces console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/workspaces/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Directories.

  3. Select your directory, and choose Actions, Update Details.

  4. Expand Maintenance Mode.

  5. To enable automatic updates, choose Enabled. If you prefer to manage updates manually, choose Disabled.

  6. Choose Update and Exit.

Manual maintenance

If you prefer, you can maintain your WorkSpaces on your own schedule. When you perform maintenance tasks, we recommend that you change the state of the WorkSpace to Maintenance. When you are finished, change the state of the WorkSpace to Available.

When a WorkSpace is in Maintenance state, the following behaviors occur:

  • The WorkSpace does not respond to requests to reboot, stop, start, or rebuild.

  • Users cannot log in to the WorkSpace.

  • An AutoStop WorkSpace is not hibernated.

To change the state of the WorkSpace using the console
Note

To change the state of a WorkSpace, the WorkSpace must be in the Available state. The Modify state setting is not available when a WorkSpace is not in the Available state.

  1. Open the WorkSpaces console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/workspaces/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose WorkSpaces.

  3. Select your WorkSpace, and choose Actions, Modify state.

  4. Under Modify state, choose Available or Maintenance.

  5. Choose Save.

To change the state of the WorkSpace using the Amazon CLI

Use the modify-workspace-state command.