Live Updates

Live Updates is a real-time monitoring feature that automatically refreshes client status information.

Live Updates

Live Updates is a real-time monitoring feature that automatically refreshes client status information, allowing you to watch deployments progress without manually refreshing the page.

What Are Live Updates?

Live Updates enable automatic, periodic refreshing of client data in the Client Manager. When enabled:

  • Client status updates automatically
  • No need to manually refresh the page
  • Real-time visibility into ongoing deployments
  • Immediate notification when deployments complete
  • Automatic polling at regular intervals

When to Use Live Updates

Ideal Scenarios

During Active Deployments:

  • Monitoring clients currently updating
  • Watching multiple deployments in progress
  • Tracking deployment completion times

For Critical Updates:

  • Emergency security patches
  • High-priority deployments
  • Time-sensitive updates

During Maintenance Windows:

  • Scheduled update periods
  • Bulk update operations
  • Schedule group deployments

For Troubleshooting:

  • Monitoring clients with intermittent issues
  • Watching retry attempts
  • Tracking status changes

When NOT to Use Live Updates

Extended Periods Without Activity:

  • No deployments scheduled
  • Just browsing client information
  • Planning future updates

Resource-Constrained Situations:

  • Slow network connections
  • Limited bandwidth
  • Browser performance issues

Long-Term Monitoring:

  • Overnight deployments (use scheduled checks instead)
  • Multi-hour maintenance windows (check periodically)

Enabling Live Updates

Step 1: Locate the Live Updates Control

The Live Updates toggle is typically located:

  • Top right of the Client Manager page
  • Near the filter controls
  • In the toolbar or action bar

Look for:

  • A checkbox labeled “Live Updates” or “Auto Refresh”
  • A toggle switch
  • An icon (refresh/sync icon)

Step 2: Enable Live Updates

Click the checkbox or toggle to enable:

  • ☐ Live Updates Off → ☑ Live Updates On

Step 3: Verify It’s Working

When enabled, you should see:

  • A periodic refresh indicator (spinning icon, pulse animation)
  • Status information updating automatically
  • Timestamp showing last update time (if displayed)

Refresh Scopes

Live Updates may offer different refresh scopes, determining which clients get updated automatically:

1. Active Clients Only

What It Refreshes:

  • Only clients with status “Updating” or “Pending”
  • Clients actively involved in deployments
  • Reduces unnecessary refresh of stable clients

Best For:

  • Monitoring specific ongoing deployments
  • Minimal network traffic
  • Focused monitoring

Example: You have 100 clients total, but only 5 are currently updating. Only those 5 clients refresh automatically.

2. Current Page Only

What It Refreshes:

  • All clients visible on the current page
  • Respects pagination (e.g., first 25 clients)
  • Does not refresh other pages

Best For:

  • Filtered views (specific region, version, etc.)
  • When you’re focused on a subset of clients
  • Moderate network traffic

Example: You’ve filtered to show 30 clients in us-east-1. All 30 visible clients refresh, but clients on other pages do not.

3. All Clients

What It Refreshes:

  • Every client in the system
  • Across all pages
  • Full data refresh

Best For:

  • Comprehensive monitoring
  • When many clients are updating simultaneously
  • When you need complete visibility

Considerations:

  • Higher network traffic
  • May impact performance with large client counts
  • Best for smaller deployments or high-capacity networks

Example: All 500 clients in the system refresh, even those not visible on the current page.

Selecting Refresh Scope

If your Live Updates feature offers scope selection:

  1. Enable Live Updates
  2. Open the scope dropdown or settings
  3. Select: Active, Current Page, or All
  4. Scope applies immediately

Refresh Interval

Default Interval

Live Updates typically refresh every:

  • 30 seconds - Standard interval
  • 15 seconds - Fast interval (if configurable)
  • 60 seconds - Slow interval (if configurable)

The specific interval depends on your system configuration.

Adjusting Interval (if supported)

Some systems allow interval customization:

  1. Open Live Updates settings or preferences
  2. Select refresh interval (e.g., 15s, 30s, 60s)
  3. Apply changes
  4. Refresh rate updates immediately

Considerations:

  • Faster = more real-time, but higher network usage
  • Slower = less network usage, but less immediate updates
  • Balance based on your monitoring needs

Understanding Live Update Indicators

Visual Indicators

When Live Updates is active, you may see:

Refresh Indicator:

  • Spinning icon in toolbar
  • Pulsing animation
  • “Refreshing…” text

Last Updated Timestamp:

  • “Last updated: 10 seconds ago”
  • “Next refresh in: 20 seconds”
  • Helps you know data freshness

Status Change Highlights:

  • Rows that changed may flash or highlight
  • Color changes when status updates
  • Animation on recently updated items

Monitoring Status Changes

Watch for these changes during live updates:

Deployment Starting:

  • Status: Pending → Updating
  • Indicates scheduled deployment has begun

Deployment Completing:

  • Status: Updating → Success (or Failed)
  • Deployment has finished

Time Updates:

  • “Last Run” updates with completion time
  • “Next Update” may clear or update

Version Changes:

  • Current version updates to target version
  • Confirms successful deployment

Learn more: Understanding Statuses

Best Practices

1. Enable Only When Needed

Don’t leave Live Updates on indefinitely:

  • Enable when monitoring active deployments
  • Disable when not actively monitoring
  • Saves network bandwidth and system resources

2. Choose Appropriate Scope

Match scope to your needs:

  • Active Only for focused monitoring
  • Current Page for filtered views
  • All Clients only when necessary

3. Use with Filters

Combine Live Updates with filters:

  1. Filter by Status: Updating
  2. Enable Live Updates with Active scope
  3. See only updating clients, refreshing automatically

Learn more: Filtering and Search

4. Monitor Network Performance

If you experience:

  • Slow page loading
  • Browser lag
  • High network usage

Consider:

  • Reducing refresh scope
  • Increasing refresh interval
  • Disabling Live Updates when not monitoring

5. Keep Browser Tab Active

For best results:

  • Keep the Client Manager tab in focus
  • Some browsers throttle background tab updates
  • Active tabs receive updates more reliably

Troubleshooting

Live Updates Not Working

Problem: Status doesn’t update automatically after enabling

Solutions:

  1. Verify Live Updates checkbox is checked
  2. Refresh the page and re-enable
  3. Check browser console for errors
  4. Verify network connectivity
  5. Try a different browser or clear cache

Updates Very Slow

Problem: Status updates lag behind actual deployment state

Solutions:

  • Check selected refresh interval (may be too slow)
  • Verify network speed and latency
  • Reduce refresh scope
  • Check system load on server

Browser Performance Issues

Problem: Browser becomes slow or unresponsive with Live Updates enabled

Solutions:

  1. Reduce refresh scope (use Active Only)
  2. Increase refresh interval (slower updates)
  3. Filter to show fewer clients
  4. Close other browser tabs
  5. Disable Live Updates and manually refresh

Status Changes Missed

Problem: Status changed but you didn’t see it update

Solutions:

  • Verify refresh interval hasn’t expired
  • Check that browser tab is active
  • Review Last Updated timestamp
  • Manually refresh to verify current state

Performance Considerations

System Impact

Live Updates affect:

  • Browser: CPU and memory usage increases
  • Network: Periodic API calls consume bandwidth
  • Server: More frequent data queries

Optimization Tips

For Large Deployments:

  • Use Active Only scope
  • Increase refresh interval
  • Filter to specific regions or groups

For Many Clients:

  • Avoid All Clients scope with hundreds of clients
  • Use Current Page scope with pagination
  • Filter before enabling Live Updates

For Slow Networks:

  • Use slower refresh intervals (60s)
  • Minimize refresh scope
  • Manually refresh instead of live updates

Common Workflows

Workflow 1: Monitoring Single Deployment

Scenario: Watching one critical client update

Steps:

  1. Filter or search for the specific client
  2. Enable Live Updates with Active scope
  3. Watch status change: Pending → Updating → Success/Failed
  4. Disable Live Updates after completion

Workflow 2: Bulk Update Monitoring

Scenario: Monitoring 20 clients updating simultaneously

Steps:

  1. Select and schedule updates for 20 clients
  2. Filter by Status: Updating or Pending
  3. Enable Live Updates with Current Page scope
  4. Watch all 20 clients progress in real-time
  5. Disable when all complete

Workflow 3: Schedule Group Deployment

Scenario: Watching a schedule group update

Steps:

  1. Filter by Update Group: [group name]
  2. Filter by Status: Updating
  3. Enable Live Updates with Current Page scope
  4. Monitor group-wide deployment progress
  5. Review results when all complete

Workflow 4: Failed Deployment Recovery

Scenario: Monitoring retry after failed deployment

Steps:

  1. Fix issue causing failure
  2. Schedule retry update
  3. Enable Live Updates with Active scope
  4. Watch status closely: Pending → Updating → Success
  5. Check deployment logs to confirm success

Learn more: Viewing Deployment Logs

Live Updates vs. Manual Refresh

When to Use Live Updates

  • Actively monitoring ongoing deployments
  • Multiple deployments happening simultaneously
  • Time-sensitive situations requiring immediate updates
  • During scheduled maintenance windows

When to Use Manual Refresh

  • Periodic checks throughout the day
  • Planning updates (no active deployments)
  • Slow network or resource constraints
  • Long-term monitoring (hours or overnight)

Combining Both

You can switch between modes:

  • Start with Live Updates during active deployment
  • Switch to manual refresh once deployments stabilize
  • Re-enable Live Updates if issues arise

Advanced Tips

Tip 1: Combine with Multiple Browser Tabs

Open multiple Client Manager tabs with different filters:

  • Tab 1: Live Updates on Active clients
  • Tab 2: Live Updates on Failed clients (catches failures immediately)
  • Tab 3: Manual refresh for overall view

Tip 2: Use with Browser Notifications

Some browsers support notifications:

  • Keep Client Manager tab open
  • Watch for status changes
  • Get alerted when deployments complete (if system supports)

Tip 3: Pair with Deployment Logs

  • Enable Live Updates in main view
  • Open Deployment Logs in a separate modal or tab
  • Monitor both real-time status and detailed logs

Tip 4: Schedule Checks Around Live Updates

For long maintenance windows:

  • Enable Live Updates at deployment start
  • Check periodically (every 30 minutes)
  • Re-enable Live Updates near expected completion

Summary

Live Updates is a powerful monitoring tool that:

  • Provides real-time visibility into deployments
  • Eliminates manual page refreshing
  • Offers flexible scope and interval options
  • Improves monitoring efficiency

Key Takeaways:

  • Enable Live Updates when actively monitoring deployments
  • Choose the appropriate refresh scope for your needs
  • Disable when not needed to conserve resources
  • Combine with filters for focused monitoring
  • Adjust settings based on network and system performance

Next Steps

Now that you understand Live Updates:

For questions about Live Updates configuration or troubleshooting, contact your system administrator.