Stop the "Windows update madness" on WS2016!
Dear Microsoft Windows Server team. We would like _complete control_ over when we would like our our WS2016 to install windows updates! No more slow / timeconsuming server restarts because of "Getting Windows ready. Do not turn off your computer" messages when we just would like a quick restart of a production server.. No more TiWorker.exe using 100% of a CPU core during "*********" and so on.. And please fix the issues with '2017-08 Update for Windows Server 2016 for x64-based Systems (KB4035631)' asap. Thank you.
KjB
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25 comments
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Anonymous
commented
Good grief Microsoft... Cumulative updates on 2016 are ridiculous and take FOREVER. They fail OVER AND OVER AGAIN. After a dozen reboots and several attempts AND HOURS AND HOURS to get things patched then the restart takes 20-30 minutes. Im using fully patched and up to date VMWare 6.5 and Windows Server 2016 Std Ed. and running on G8 HP Proliant hardware, this seems to be a deadly combination for patching and staying up to date. Make Windows Server great again.. PLEASE... Fix the slow update problem. You'll be a hero to THOUSANDS of admins that dont have time for this stuff anyway.
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Karl W-E.
commented
Patrick I hear you, let's hope that Server 2019 will be better. Infact Server 2016 is a bit like vista and technically old, based on Windows 10 1607, which was not their best release base anyway.
I have good hopes for Windows 10 1809 / Server 2019
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Patrick
commented
Truly a madness.
I manage about 200 Servers myself, 50% 2016 now.
Better go with VMware as a host in the future since MS doesn’t care anymore. You can see this with the massive bugs in 2016:
- DC on 2012R2 backup errors
- 2016 Cluster Crashes because of nics
- Defender and HyperV Replica Bluescreen
etc...We have a lot more MS cases opened with 2016 but they solve nothing, it’s like jumping from one 1st Level to the next 1st Level ... without solutions
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Chris Bailiss
commented
Windows Server has definitely taken a step backwards with 2016 in terms of performance of system updates. Taking more than an hour prior to reboot, then a further hour for reboot and update completion, is poor.
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Karl W-E.
commented
^^ they probably know but don't have the personel and time to do that. Still I think it has become easier with Windows 10 and 201x Server
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Anonymous
commented
I can't believe there are so many people who do not know how to control patch management. What a shame.
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Karl W-E.
commented
I also recommend to install the most recent SSU first before installing any other CU or update.
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Karl W-E.
commented
Steve I absolutely agree I am sure that Server 2016 won't be addressed and MS will focus to fix this in Server 2019 aka 1809 and which is probably also the next LTSB.
This is a sad thing but I doubt they will can handle this using a servcing stack update. BTW have you installed the Servicing stack update on any 2016 Server yet to test if this ease the process? There was a very unknown advisory in the Update History.
Prerequisite: When installing both the servicing stack update (SSU) (KB4132216) and the latest cumulative update (LCU) from the Microsoft Update Catalog, install the SSU before installing the LCU.
Note these SSU (servicing stack update do not come automatically to any Windows Version, neither 1507 (and LTSC), 1511, 1607 (and Server and LTSC), 1703. 1709 and 1803 are not affectedhttps://support.microsoft.com/en-ushelp/4132216
Please give it a try if this fixes your issues.
On my behalf MS should automatically deploy these to anyone needed and code a prerequisite check. Cannot be that hard Microsoft, can it?
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Steve
commented
Dear Microsoft updates team,
First and foremost, the blind eye that is turned on this issue is VERY poorly received by the community, I work for a larger company with a huge Microsoft server OS contingent 9000+ Microsoft servers 40+ domains and hundreds of thousands of clients, and thousands of admins, patching 2016 VIA WSUS, by using deadlines to auto patch servers, we have the deadlines setup to patch various servers within a system to avoid complete outages, since 2016 has been introduced we can no longer use the patching windows that were initially established, but the push was not a half an hour, it's more along the lines of 3 hours to avoid the service outages, because servers can and will do strange things, like be unavailable, or when they restart they take 20+ minutes to complete the updating windows at startup, the growth of the WSUS database is also problematic, since it is in excess of 500 GB now, going from singular patches to rollups has added a lot of volume to the process and longer patching times, but a rollup applied to a 2012 machine completes in 1/4th the time the same cycle rollup applied to a 2016 machine, I get that the OS is different, but these issues do not go unnoticed by us (your customer) or by our customer, because it introduces a productivity hit to my customer, my co-workers, and all of this is generated by what appears to be a poor patch handling within the 2016 architecture.
I would say that the rollup process for companies that are heavily security minded, might point out that one patch within a rollup that requires an entire rollup to be backed out causes a greater security risk just removing a single patch to correct the issue, but that voice I think has spoken up a few times.
My own PFE told me that he had never heard this before, when we have been talking about it after every patch cycle, which is disparaging to say the least.
Thanks for your attention in this matter
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Kerry
commented
Just had to do updates on a server. One of the VMs failed the same update 4 times, I have had to remove the VMs NIC to get the VM to finally update. 14 hours for updates on the physical box and 2 VMs later and I am annoyed.
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DepressiveUser
commented
Windows 2016 update horrible. BareMetal ... VMs ... doesnt matter, runs for hours. Microsoft, why make all more worse, than it is anyway. Year after year. We pay for this software, its not linux where **** is free (and you know, linux is not ohnly ****). I think every customer could expect a little of value for the money. Its the same over years now: 66% of what you doing ... is scrap. Features, nobody wants. AppStore on a Server, and so on ... ARGHHHHH. Sorry, but thats the truth. Slowly i'm beginning to hate you, and a long time ago I was really pleased about your products. Unforunately you've lost the sense for what a customer stands and what your role is in that game. And mor unfortunaly there is no real way out of this misery ...
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DScholle
commented
I have been having a problem with the update database becoming corrupted. So, the updates install slowly, the server reboots slowly, then the server needs to rollback slowly and reboot (slowly) again. Then I have to intervene to fix the update database. What a headache!!!
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PhilS
commented
I have to agree with all of the comments here. I have several 2016 Hyper-V hosts running 2016 VM's. To patch a single host and 4 VMs can take more than a full day. Why?
The build process has now become impossibly long. It now takes two days to build a 2016HV host, and deploy 2 or 4 VM's on it. Most of that time is waiting for patches to install. -
Davide
commented
The era of Windows Server (with a GUI) end with 2012 R2.
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Karl W-E.
commented
David, Update log is available only via Powershell. This is a change.
Anonymous try to enable software vGPU on ESX / Hyper-V this should heal your GUI slowness and greatly improve the performance on Citrix for free.On the topic I am sad that Server 2016 does not offer Edge, as a substitute to IE as IE is still loading while other products are already ready.
So my plea is: faster updates (better utiliziation and GPOs to steer dism / installer worker)
implement Edge on Servers, please. -
David Saphier
commented
Give us back out WindowsUpdate log as well.
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Anonymous
commented
Agree with other people comments here.
Brand new install 2016 servers and then get an update that takes over 2 hours to install and then machine reboots and takes another 35-40 minutes.
We also notice the graphical interface on 2016 as very slow compared to previous - is this why Microsoft is pushing Powershell and nano-server as the GUI is hopelessly poor at performance on 2016. During all the patching etc, CPU, disk usage are barely noticeable -
Anonymous
commented
Really sick of waiting 2 hours every month to apply these updates. I have a 3 node Hyper-v cluster, (which freaks out when you use Cluster Aware Updating) and doing one node at a time means 6 hours of applying updates.
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Anonymous
commented
Microsoft needs to give us more control over windows update scheduling (ie monthly reboots) and also make these updates install quicker. 3 hours I've been staring at the Getting Windows ready. Don't turn off your computer screen with 2% CPU and 1gb memory being consumed. What is actually going on? Probably nothing but to **** us off.
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Anonymous
commented
I agree with Matt, the more I use WS2016, the more I hate it as a server because of the Windows Update problem. Every month I have to wait for it to download updates from WSUS (also a WS2016 server) and while the download from WSUS isn't too bad, it's the super long install of the cumulative updates with the extra long reboot of the server that's a glaring huge problem.
As we continue to replace our older Windows servers with WS2016, updates become more and more time sensitive and while Microsoft may find this hard to believe, we and many, many, other organizations don't have the budget for a fleet of servers with redundancy to the Nth degree to be able to afford to have the downtime imposed by the Windows Update madness that's going on. If we're going to be forced to spend the money on the computing resources to be able to house all those servers, we may as well start deploying more Linux servers where we have FULL CONTROL over what the server does.
The cost of the extra computing power to have all the server redundancy can be easily funneled into converting things over to Linux, and I'm sure Microsoft is already painfully aware that there are likely more public facing servers on the Internet that run other OS's that aren't Windows based.