Server patching, how do you do it?

Ok, where I work, we use SCCM to advertise and install. Of course we can't just reboot servers, so they have to go through change management (ITIL and all that).
My issue is, the changes for patching and rebooting have to be approved by the server "owners ", and sometimes they deny approval, meaning their servers fall out of compliance and have to be patched manually.
How do other companies approach this issue?
I reckon we are being a bit too soft and need to take more of a "we are doing this" attitude, rather than "can we do this ".
Thoughts, opinions?

TIA

 

I think the best practice would be to set up a mutually agreeable time and date for all patches, updates, and reboots to occur. You could agree to say, 3:30 a.m. every Sunday. Send an email to all clients of Friday and Saturday to remind them and then send one an hour before.

At our company we get an email telling us "system maintenance" will be conducted on Sunday at 10:00a.m. and to anticipate an hour of downtime.

No one will ever be happy with the date and time you pick but it has to be done.

Mitch

 

Thanks for the reply. I'd like something along those lines, but ITIL pretty much forces us to get "approval" from the business owners before each monthly reboot. Not a nice situation!