UPDATE 19.04.2018: Excel Sheet is now available with English day names. Thank you for the feedback Fadi
When you configure your Automatic Deployment Rule (ADR) for the monthly Patchday, then you have to specify multiple times and timespans. Sometimes it is not so easy to check and verify these settings. I created a Patchday calculator sheet to get all deployment dates for all pilot and production groups in a year and to have a Gant-chart overview.
The calculated deployment dates can also be used for creating a change request:
All these Information can be calculated by filling out a few parameters:
The following parameters are available (blue background):
- Year – For which year would you like to calculate the deployment dates?
- ADR Delay to MS Patchday(Days) – When should I execute the Automatic Deployment Rule?
I prefer to plan the execution directly on the evening of the second Tuesday. If you choose another “second weekday” in the month, it could happen, that it will be before the second Tuesday. If you would like to start the ADR later, then I switch to a “third weekday”. In my time planer Excel sheet, I call this delay “ADR Delay to MS Patchday(Days)”. It can be entered in days. - Collection Name – You can customize the collection names (In my example prefixed with SUM) in the first column to meet your requirements
- Available from Execution (Hours) – Her you have to specify the minutes between the ADR execution and the availability time of the deployment.
- Deadline from Available Time (Hours) – These values should be the delay in hours between the Availability Time and the planned deadline of the deployment.
As you can see, you will get a nice documentation and you can verfy your settings in a few seconds. You can download the Excel Sheet here.
Feedback is welcome! 
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2 Comments
Ronnie · April 30, 2020 at 14:55
This is a very handy time planer for ADR’s thanks very much and like to chart gives a good overall view.
I do have a question.
So the Evaluation Schedule runs lets say at 20:30 GMT on the 2nd Tuesday of every month does your formula take that into account?
Reason for asking is that I normally deploy updates on a Thursday after patch Tuesday but not able change the numbers in blue to reflect this.
Is there a way I can change the forumla?
Many Thanks again
Thomas Kurth · May 2, 2020 at 15:21
Hello Ronnie, You should be able to change all numbers in blue. Is that not the case on your side?
I just created a new version where you should also be able to specify the execution time of the ADR. 🙂 Please try it out:
https://github.com/ThomasKur/ModernAndSecureWorkplace/tree/master/ConfigMgr/PatchDayCalculator