Automatic cPanel updates result in: Upgrade to the next build is blocked in order to gradually distribute upgrades over multiple days.

Symptoms

An automatic cPanel update resulted in the following warning, where 11.xxx is the next major version of cPanel & WHM. For example, 11.108.

W NOTE: A system upgrade was not possible due to the following blockers:
W [INFO] - Upgrade to the next 11.xxx build is blocked in order to gradually distribute
upgrades over multiple days. If you wish to upgrade now, you can do so by executing
‘/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/upcp --force’ via SSH or ‘WHM → Home → Server Configuration → Terminal’

Description 

If the RELEASE or STABLE tier was selected in "Update Preferences," updates to the next major version of cPanel & WHM will not always occur automatically. The system will apply a delay of several business days before the automatic update to the next major version of cPanel & WHM executes. The system randomly selects the length of the delay. This delay is not applied if the EDGE, CURRENT, or LTS tier was selected.

To determine the length of the delay or when automatic updates will resume, you can check the modify time, or 'mtime' of the /var/cpanel/upgrade_deferred file by running the following command from the command line as the 'root' user.

stat -c %y /var/cpanel/upgrade_deferred

Workaround

1. Access the server's command line as the 'root' user via SSH or "Terminal" in WHM.
2. Run the following command.

   /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/upcp --force

Additional resources

cPanel & WHM Documentation - Update Preferences