Maintenance Windows
Organization administrators can configure when Rescale applies operating system security updates to License Hosts and Company License Proxies, controlling when required reboots occur.
Rescale applies operating system security updates to your License Hosts and Company License Proxies on a recurring weekly schedule. Some of these updates require the underlying instance to reboot, which briefly interrupts the license service running on it. A maintenance window lets you choose the day and hour when Rescale is allowed to begin that work, so required patching lands at a time that suits your team rather than at an arbitrary hour.
Every License Host and Company License Proxy can have a maintenance window. You choose when it falls.
- For License Hosts, maintenance windows are optional but recommended.
- For Company License Proxies, they are required for FedRAMP Moderate organizations and optional for all others.
Highlights
- Choose the day and hour: Select the day of the week and the hour (UTC) when maintenance may begin on each License Host or Proxy, set independently per instance.
- Stagger multiple instances: If you have several License Hosts or Proxies, consider scheduling their windows at different times so they are not all patched simultaneously.
- Defaults to Sunday at 06:00 UTC: The default schedule falls outside standard working hours in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.
- Reboots only when needed: A reboot does not happen every week — it happens only when the updates being applied that week require one.
- No advance notification: Rescale does not send notifications before a maintenance reboot. Choose your window with that in mind.
Set or change your maintenance window
To change when maintenance may begin on a License Host or Company License Proxy:
- From the organization admin portal, go to Integrations → License Hosting (for License Hosts) or Integrations → License Proxy (for Company License Proxies) and select the instance you want to configure.
- Find the Maintenance Window Schedule section on the details page.
- Click Edit.
- Select the day of the week and the hour at which maintenance may begin. Times are in 24-hour format and are always UTC, not your local time zone.
- Click Update at the bottom of the page to save your change.
Your new schedule takes effect at the next occurrence of the day and hour you selected.
Maintenance windows are scheduled to the hour. You cannot specify minutes.
Once you configure a maintenance window, you can change its day and hour at any time, but you cannot remove it.
What happens during a maintenance window
The day and hour you choose is when Rescale may begin maintenance. It is not a guarantee of when maintenance will finish, and it is not a guarantee that anything will happen at all:
- If no updates are pending for your License Host or Proxy at the scheduled time, nothing happens and the window passes without any interruption.
- If updates are pending, they are applied. Some updates require the instance to reboot, which stops and restarts the license service on it.
- Rescale does not send a notification before a maintenance reboot. Choose your window with that in mind.
Because a reboot can interrupt license checkouts, jobs that are actively using the License Host or Proxy at that moment may be affected. How severely depends on the licensed application:
- Many applications retry for a period after losing contact with a license server and recover on their own.
- Some applications fail immediately on a lost license and will terminate the run.
If your simulation software does not tolerate a brief loss of license connectivity, schedule your maintenance window for a period when you do not expect jobs to be running.
Choosing a good window
- Pick an hour when you do not normally have long-running licensed jobs in flight.
- Remember the value is UTC. Convert from your local time before selecting, and account for daylight saving changes in your own region — the UTC value does not shift with them.
- If your organization runs jobs around the clock, favor the hour with your lowest submission volume.
- If you have several License Hosts or Proxies, consider staggering their windows so they are not all patched in the same hour.
License bindings and reboots
Vendor license files are often bound to properties of the machine the license server runs on. A maintenance reboot restarts the existing instance and preserves its network interface, so licenses bound to a MAC address are not affected:
If you have questions about how a specific vendor license behaves on your License Host or Proxy, contact Rescale Support.
Special considerations for SSH Tunnel mode
If you run a Company License Proxy in SSH Tunnel mode, a maintenance reboot drops your SSH tunnel. The tunnel is initiated from a machine inside your network, so when the proxy reboots the connection is lost and nothing on the Rescale side can restore it.
Before you rely on your maintenance window, set up automatic reconnection. See the SSH Tunnel mode documentation for Windows Task Scheduler and Linux systemd recipes.
A reboot preserves your proxy's public IP address. Only terminating and relaunching a proxy changes it, so you do not need to update firewall rules because of routine maintenance.
FAQ
Can I turn my maintenance window off?
No. Every License Host and Company License Proxy has a maintenance window because security updates must be applied. You can change the day and hour whenever you like, but the window cannot be removed once configured.
Does my License Host or Proxy reboot every week?
No. A maintenance window is an opportunity to apply updates, not a scheduled reboot. Whether a reboot occurs depends on which updates are pending that week.
Will I be notified before a maintenance reboot?
No. There is no advance notification today, which is why the window you choose matters: it is the mechanism you use to control when interruptions can occur.
What time zone is the schedule in?
Always UTC. The schedule does not follow your local time zone and does not adjust for daylight saving time.
Can I schedule maintenance for a specific calendar date?
No. A maintenance window is a recurring weekly day and hour. One-off dates and schedules further out than the coming week are not supported.
My jobs failed around my maintenance window. What should I do?
Check whether your licensed application tolerates a brief interruption in license connectivity. If it does not, move your window to a quieter period. If job failures persist outside the window, contact Rescale Support.
Pricing
Maintenance windows are included with License Hosting and Company License Proxy services at no additional cost.
Related
- License Hosting for setting up and managing Rescale-hosted license servers.
- CLP Overview for connecting to on-premises license servers through a Company License Proxy.
- Release Notes: Scheduled Maintenance Windows for the feature announcement.