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Over the weekend, as the first test
in a series I'm planning to do, I built
a fresh installation of XP RTM in a VPC virtual machine, to test the
responsiveness and performance of my WSUS Server, as well as to get a
definitive list of what would be installed by the AU v5.8 client, given all
available updates to choose from.
Here are the GP settings I used for
the test:
"Allow Automatic Updates immediate installation" = ENABLED
"Allow non-administrators to receive update notifications" = NOT CONFIGURED
"Automatic Updates detection frequency" = 1 hour
"Configure Automatic Updates" = Option #4/Scheduled Install Time:0000
"Delay Restart for scheduled installations" = ENABLED
"Do not adjust default option..." = NOT CONFIGURED
"Do not display ... option ..." = NOT CONFIGURED
"Enable client-side targeting" = ENABLED/TargetGroup:UnderConstruction
"No auto-restart..." = DISABLED
"Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations" = NOT CONFIGURED
"Reschedule Automatic Updates scheduled installations" = ENABLED/Delay:1
minute
In addition, all updates in the
"Under Construction" group are configured with an expired deadline. The deadline
is configured at the time of approval on the target group approvals dialog box
and the date is set in the past so that it is already expired. It is the expired
deadline which forces the updates to be installed at the moment of detection,
rather than being scheduled for installation at a later time.
Here is the timeline and updates installed from this process. The T+ time is
the actual elapsed time and the time in parenthesis is the actual clock
time. The actual times include a two hour delay caused by an issue I
encountered where my host ran out of disk space on the drive I hold my VHDs
on. Seems that an XP RTM installing all necessary updates can actually grow
a VHD > 4GB, even though the actual installed image never exceeded 2.6GB.)
Only one anomaly came out of this experiment. Of the three pre-SP2 updates
identified for installation, only two of them actually logged as installed.
The third, KB840987, never logged as installed, although it was logged as
successfully downloaded. It's last log entry reports it as requiring
administrator assistance to install. This message is misleading, though, as
all updates that are pending installation while a mandatory update is
pending, are reported in this manner. The last log entry for KB840987 occurred
while Service Pack 2 was being installed.
T+0:00 (13:13) - downloaded WU client from windowsupdate.com to activate
installed wuau22.msi
manually restarted Automatic Updates service
T+0:02 (13:15) - completed selfupdate to v5.8 client
AU client sets next detection cycle to 'now'
T+0:05 (13:18) - AU client finds 6 updates eligible for installation,
detects 2 as mandatory updates; next detection @ 14:13
begins download of "Windows Installer 3.1 Beta"
begins download of "Update for Background Intelligent
Transfer
Service (BITS) 2.0 and WinHTTP 5.1 (KB842773)"
T+0:06 (13:19) - AU clients completes detection cycle
download of "Windows Installer 3.1 beta" completed
download of "Update for ... BITS ... (KB842773)"
completed
initiated install of "Windows Installer 3.1 beta"
T+0:08 (13:21) - Install of "Windows Installer 3.1 beta" completed
AU client initiates restart
T+0:10 (13:23) - System restarts
T+0:12 (13:25) - AU client completes detection cycle
finds 5 updates eligible for installation, detects 1 as
mandatory
initiated install of "Update for ... BITS ...
(KB842773)"
T+0:13 (13:26) - Completed install of "Update for ... BITS ... (KB842773)"
AU client initiates restart
T+0:15 (13:28) - System restarts
T+0:16 (13:29) - AU client completes detection cycle
finds 4 updates eligible for installation
begins download of "Critical Update for Windows XP
(KB887822)"
begins download of "Cumulative Security Update for IE 6
(KB834707)"
begins download of "Security Update for Windows XP
(KB840987)"
begins download of "Windows XP Service Pack 2 (WUS
Install)"
completed download of "Critical Update for Windows XP
(KB887822)"
T+0:17 (13:30) - AU client begins install of "Critical Update for Windows XP
(KB887822)"
T+0:19 (13:32) - Completed install of "Critical Update for Windows XP
(KB887822)"
T+0:36 (13:49) - Completed download of "Cumulative Security Update for IE 6
(KB834707)"
T+0:37 (13:50) - AU client begins install of "Cumulative Security Update for IE
6
(KB834707)"
T+0:39 (13:52) - Completed download of "Security Update for Windows XP
(KB840987)"
T+0:50 (14:03) - Completed installation of "Cumulative Security Update for IE 6
(KB834707)"
T+0:51 (14:04) - Download of "Windows XP Service Pack 2 (WUS Install)" fails for
undetermined reason
AU client reinitiates download of "Windows XP Service
Pack 2
(WUS Install)"
AU client initiates system restart
T+0:53 (14:06) - System restarts
T+1:01 (14:14) - Last log entry/VPC pauses VM on or after this moment due to
insufficient disk space
T+1:02 (16:05) - Disk space issue resolved; system restarted
AU client reports that all pending downloads are
complete
begins installation of "Windows XP Service Pack 2 (WUS
Install)"
T+1:03 (16:06) - AU detection finds 2 updates not installed; next detection @
17:04
T+2:04 (17:07) - AU client finds 15 updates not installed; detects 1 as
manadatory;
next detection @ 17:58
begins download of "Windows Installer 3.1 Release
Candidate"
T+2:05 (17:08) - Completed download of "Windows Installer 3.1 Release
Candidate"
T+2:19 (17:22) - Completed installation of "Windows XP Service Pack 2 (WUS
Install)"
T+2:20 (17:23) - AU client initiates system restart
T+2:22 (17:25) - System restarts
AU client completes detection cycle
finds 15 updates eligible for installation
T+2:26 (17:29) - AU client initiates installation of "Windows Installer 3.1
Release
Candidate"
T+2:29 (17:32) - Completed installation of "Windows Installer 3.1 Release
Candidate"
T+2:30 (17:33) - AU client initiates system restart
T+2:32 (17:35) - System restarts
T+2:33 (17:36) - AU client completes detection cycle
finds 14 updates eligible for installation
begins download of "Critical Update for Windows XP
(KB886185)"
begins download of "Security Update for Windows XP
(KB888302)"
begins download of "Security Update for Windows XP
(KB890047)"
begins download of "Security Update for Windows XP
(KB873333)"
begins download of "Cumulative Security Update for
Internet
Explorer for Windows XP (KB867282)"
begins download of "Security Update for Windows XP
(KB891781)"
begins download of "Security Update for Windows
Messenger
(KB887472)"
begins download of "Update for Windows XP (KB887742)"
begins download of "Security Update for Windows XP
(KB888113)"
begins download of "Security Update for Windows XP
(KB873339)"
begins download of "Security Update for Windows XP
(KB885250)"
begins download of "Security Update for Windows XP
(KB890175)"
begins download of "Security Update for Windows XP
(KB885836)"
begins download of "Security Update for Windows XP
(KB885835)"
T+2:34 (17:37) - Completed download of KB886185 and initiated installation
T+2:36 (17:39) - Completed installation of KB886185
T+2:37 (17:40) - AU client initiates system restart
T+2:39 (17:42) - System restarts
T+2:41 (17:44) - Completed download of KB888302 and initiated installation
T+2:42 (17:45) - Completed download of KB867282
Completed download of KB873333
Completed download of KB888113
T+2:43 (17:46) - Completed download of KB887742
Completed download of KB891781
Completed installation of KB888302
T+2:44 (17:47) - AU client initiates system restart
T+2:46 (17:49) - System restarts
T+2:49 (17:52) - Completed download for KB890047
T+2:50 (17:53) - Completed download for KB887472
Completed download for KB873339
Completed download for KB885250
T+2:51 (17:54) - Completed download for KB890175
Completed download for KB885836
T+2:52 (17:55) - Completed download for KB885835
Completed installation of KB890047
T+2:53 (17:56) - AU client initiates system restart
T+2:55 (17:58) - System restarts
AU clients completes detection cycle
finds 11 updates eligible for installation; next
detection @ 18:58
T+2:57 (18:00) - Completed installation of KB873333
T+2:58 (18:01) - Completed installation of KB867282
T+2:59 (18:02) - Completed installation of KB891781
Completed installation of KB887472
Completed installation of KB887742
T+3:00 (18:03) - Completed installation of KB888113
Completed installation of KB873339
Completed installation of KB885250
T+3:01 (18:04) - Completed installation of KB890175
Completed installation of KB885836
Completed installation of KB885835
T+3:02 (18:05) - AU client initiates system restart
T+3:04 (18:07) - System restarts
So, if you actually read this far, now you get the bonus. The above is
actually a worst case scenario... why?
Well, here's the testing environment.
Desktop:
128Mb RAM Virtual Machine
running on Pentium II/450 with 384Mb RAM installed
VHD sitting on 5400rpm ATA-66 disk drive.
Server:
128Mb RAM Windows Server 2003 DC/DNS WSUS Server RC
Network:
802.11b Wireless (10Mbit/sec)
Plain and simple.. it don't get any slower that that. On a 100MBit/sec
network, you can save a half hour right off the top for the time it took to
transfer the XP Service Pack 2 file. Plus, a faster machine will provide for
much faster restarts. Save another 8-10 minutes in restart time. Plus,
overall, a newer system with a faster hard drive, cpu, and more ram will
result in faster installation times for the updates. I'm guesstimating that
the entire update process can easily be compressed to less than two hours.
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