Windows Server 2016 Updates slow!

Sign in to vote

Hi,

I want to confirm with you which step takes long time:
1. Check/download update.
2. Install/configure update.

If system built-in Windows Update takes long time to complete, please confirm that if manually download and install update will have same problem.

Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 update history:
https://support.microsoft.com/id-id/help/4000825/windows-10-windows-server-2016-update-history

Best Regards,
Eve Wang

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com.

Proposed as answer by Eve WangMicrosoft contingent staff Friday, March 30, 2018 1:42 AM
Marked as answer by Hamid Sadeghpour SalehMVP Thursday, September 5, 2019 8:52 AM

Monday, March 26, 2018 9:20 AM

Sign in to vote

Hi,

How things are going there on this issue?

Please let me know if you would like further assistance.

Best Regards,
Eve Wang

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018 3:08 AM

Sign in to vote

Hi,

Is there any update?

Please click “Mark as answer” if the reply is helpful. It would make this reply to the top and easier to be found for other people who has the similar problem.

Best Regards,
Eve Wang

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com.

Friday, March 30, 2018 1:43 AM

Sign in to vote

Dear Eve,

That's what we do at the moment.

Windows Server 2016 displays the updates, we download them and apply them by hand.

In that way we have more control over the update.

However it still takes a long time installing the update.

Regards,

Adam

Saturday, March 31, 2018 4:28 AM

Sign in to vote

Hi,

>However it still takes a long time installing the update.
So, Windows Update installation process will takes a long period of time.

If possible, try to re-start system in Clean Boot(do not manually start any 3rd party process) and try to install update and check the result.

Perform a clean startup to determine whether background programs are interfering with your game or program:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/331796/perform-a-clean-startup-to-determine-whether-background-programs-are-i

Best Regards,
Eve Wang

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com.

Monday, April 2, 2018 11:17 AM

Sign in to vote

Dear Eve,

We have 20+ windows server systems and they are all different (CPU, memory, motherboard, configuration).

No third party processes running.

Maybe you just have to admid that's it's different from Windows Server 2012/R2.

However we are not allowed to go back (SPLA agreement)

Regards,

Adam

Monday, April 2, 2018 2:54 PM

Sign in to vote

Hi,

If same problem happens on multi OS, with different hardware configuration. I will post such problem to product group, and thank you for your feedback.

Also, you can post your feedback by yourself via Windows Server – General Feedback forum:
https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/295047-general-feedback

Best Regards,
Eve Wang

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com.

Edited by Eve WangMicrosoft contingent staff Tuesday, April 3, 2018 11:08 AM

Tuesday, April 3, 2018 11:08 AM

17

Sign in to vote

There is something wrong here. I have always had my servers apply updates at 4:00am(it gives backups a chance to finish and still will complete the reboots and come back online before 8:00am) With Server 2016, I am forced to use gpedit to control the different days of the week(I cannot simply use a maintenance window of 4:00 for all of my servers to reboot at the same time on the same day), but I am now having issues with Server 2016. We always tell our servers to reboot for updates when needed(so they do not hang out and wait for a user to reconnect to a session and then that user logs out of a session in the middle of a business day, then it decides it can finally reboot)

So at 4:00:09am I get event ID 43-WindowsUpdateClient has started installing the following update..." and then the server finally reboots 4+ hours later. I have no issues with 2008r2, 2012r2, but I do with 2016.

Dave

Edited by DaveBryan37 Monday, April 23, 2018 5:22 PM

Monday, April 23, 2018 5:22 PM

11

Sign in to vote

I've done 3 2016 servers now. All updates very sluggish. Including ones right after a clean installation of the OS.

Latest example...had to manually download Security Update for Windows (KB4103723) because it wouldn't finish the download process on it's own.

Then started applying it at 5:39am. Still running at 6:57am. Looks to be maybe 20% complete. Can't really tell because the update process gives us really no useful information on estimated time.

I've been working on Microsoft servers since LAN Man and I've gotta say that this is probably the worst mess for updating I've ever experienced.

Monday, May 14, 2018 12:02 PM

Sign in to vote

I can confirm that the problem exists.

I've just downloaded a latest Windows Server 2016 Standard Version 10.0.14393 from Microsoft Volume License Portal and trying to update it with latest updated from Microsoft Update site

The "preparing to install" phase in extremely slow and looks like process (Windows Modules Installer Worker) consumes only 1 CORE.

When this behavior gonna be fixed, Microsoft?

Friday, May 18, 2018 9:53 AM

12

Sign in to vote

I can confirm that the problem exists.

And another "same here". Hours and HOURS to apply updates, sometimes an hour to restart too. No 3rd party AV solution to blame. Disappointed to see this has been a known problem for some time with no official word from Microsoft on a resolution. Time for a slashdot article maybe?

Sunday, May 20, 2018 9:50 PM

10

Sign in to vote

Complaints from all around the world. Why no fix yet??

Tuesday, May 22, 2018 6:35 PM

9

Sign in to vote

I can confirm that the problem exists.

And another "same here". Hours and HOURS to apply updates, sometimes an hour to restart too. No 3rd party AV solution to blame. Disappointed to see this has been a known problem for some time with no official word from Microsoft on a resolution. Time for a slashdot article maybe?

The problem definatly exists, we need a fix to this asap.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018 11:43 PM

5

Sign in to vote

This is a similar response that you had with posts dating back in 2017. Can we get an update on the direction of Microsoft on this issue? Clearly, there is information out there that could be provided to us so we can quit going to message boards talking about how bad this is. Is there a chance that Win 2016 throttles bandwidth on updates to the point of running out of time?

Wednesday, May 23, 2018 12:15 AM

Sign in to vote

Please upvote the OP in this post if you are affected by this. I have some hope maybe that will flag this to someone...

Wednesday, May 23, 2018 9:01 PM

14

Sign in to vote

It's has become a real nightmare updating Windows Server 2016.

Updates take forever to complete.

Agreed Windows Server 2016 has gone backwards for the update process.

It taking MUCH longer and failing much more.

The more 2016 servers we deploy the more I'm feeling my monthly updates taking much longer and becoming more painful.

I had 3 x 2012 R2 servers this morning took 20 mins for the May updates. 1 x 2016 server took 2.5 hours.

Microsoft need to do something.

Thursday, May 24, 2018 3:33 AM

Sign in to vote

"Upvote the OP" ???

How do I do that?

Friday, May 25, 2018 6:49 AM

5

Sign in to vote

Up at the top. Not sure if it does help as the other thread I linked at the top has 11 votes.

Monday, May 28, 2018 6:34 PM

11

Sign in to vote

Upvote to help get the story posted on /.

https://slashdot.org/submission/8244004/windows-server-2016-has-an-updating-problem

Wednesday, May 30, 2018 8:59 PM

Sign in to vote

Hi,

Same thing.
Very slow when installing updates ....

greetings
Michael

Friday, June 1, 2018 1:27 PM

Sign in to vote

We experienced similar issues after upgrading to Windows 2016 Domain Controllers. Windows updates on our DCs were taking 4-5 hours to perform the monthly rollup when pushing them manually. The majority of our servers are updated via a WSUS but our DCs were excluded from the WSUS policy because we wanted to control when updates were applied and when the DCs were restarted.

The servers being updated by the WSUS were not being affected because we were not pushing KB890830 (Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool). The DCs on the other hand were receiving this update. What we witness when checking our update status the following was occurring:

2018/05/31 13:37:10.6235744 7164 6620 Handler CBS called Progress with state=2, ticks=10, total=1000

This step during the update process was taking 2-3 hours. Now for the real odd thing, we run two VM environments Windows Hyper-V and Nutanix Acropolis. This update was being pushed to all DCs. THe DCs running on Acropolis did not experience the same slowness when installing this update. I am still investigating why that is. I hope this helps others that may be experiencing similar issues.

Friday, June 1, 2018 1:39 PM

Sign in to vote

This is a real issue with Server 2016. It's not individual systems. This issue occurs on every Server 2016 host and VM that I manage.

The update timescale is just way too long. It's got to the point where there is not enough time to backup all of our VM's, then update them all, in a night. Who wants to spend all night nursing a HV host through updates anyway.

Come on Microsoft. you need to sort this out or I will I send you my overtime bill.

Friday, June 1, 2018 2:22 PM

11

Sign in to vote

I can confirm this problem. Happens on physical and virtual Windows 2016 servers, Standard and Datacenter with GUI.

Saturday, June 2, 2018 12:18 AM

Sign in to vote

After disabling Windows Defender before updating updates take about one and a half hour instead of almost four hours.

So part of the problem is Microsofts own feature which is enabled by default..

Wednesday, June 6, 2018 11:16 AM

https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/295047-general-feedback/suggestions/32121229-stop-the-windows-update-madness-on-ws2016

Sign in to vote

Hi all,

vote uservoice or comment under:

Friday, June 8, 2018 6:31 AM

7

Sign in to vote

Just to share my experience: I updated 4 physical nodes cluster (2012R2) with last Tuesday patch in about two hours.

Now I'm updating a 4 nodes physical cluster (2016) and the first node is still updating for over two hours...

All nodes are 24 core / 192GB RAM: almost no CPU usage nor disk activity...

Very disappointed...

Wednesday, June 20, 2018 8:31 PM

Sign in to vote

I have 8 servers I am responsible for.

I install all the Microsoft Updates every month.

All 6(six) 2012 servers download and install the June updates in 5-10 minutes, and 2-3 minutes to reboot.

The two 2016 servers failed repeatedly when attempting to even check for updates. So I rebooted both servers, was finally able to check for updates from Microsoft. Then it takes about 30 minutes to download and install.

Then I actually timed the first one and it took 34 minutes to reboot back to the logon screen.

Why, why, why does a "new and improved" Server O/S take 3 times as long to download and install updates and 10 times as long to reboot (and finish installing)? This is really, really bad.

Edited by Scottster2000 Thursday, June 21, 2018 12:16 AM

Thursday, June 21, 2018 12:13 AM

Sign in to vote

Just to share my experience: I updated 4 physical nodes cluster (2012R2) with last Tuesday patch in about two hours.

Now I'm updating a 4 nodes physical cluster (2016) and the first node is still updating for over two hours...

All nodes are 24 core / 192GB RAM: almost no CPU usage nor disk activity...

Very disappointed...

Quick update: using the 'interactive' installation (no WSUS) has sped the things up, for sure... despite multiple reboots due to failed patch installation. I had to install the KB4284880 twice on every single node...

Friday, June 22, 2018 7:31 AM

Sign in to vote

Currently waiting about an hour or more on multiple VMs using "sconfig" to install updates on 2016. CPU fluctuates and is never really idle, and definitely not being maxed out. Watching for a little the average CPU is 25% max. Most VMs are 4 CPUs and 8gb of memory.

Why the hell does it take so long to do updates? Has anyone ever put in a ticket with Microsoft so we know they are at least aware of the problem? I've been on a few forums and tons of people are having this problem. Out of about 8 2016 VMs, I think I had one install at 5am on it's own... and it took a while to install/reboot.

Very frustrating.

Wednesday, July 11, 2018 5:25 PM

Sign in to vote

Yes windows server 2016 has a real issue with updates. half the time, it fails to install and tells you to try again later. Then once it is installing, it sometimes can't completed it and you need to try again later. To make things even worse, it takes forever to install updates. We can't have people waiting around for hours to install an update. What is going on here with updates compared to other version of servers like 2008 and 2012 being quick and normal to install updates?

Sunday, July 22, 2018 5:06 PM

Sign in to vote

I agree.

I found a rule that gives some relieve:

Do not combine a "malicious software removal" with a cumulative update.

First install the cumulative update: download from windows catalog and install by hand.

After reboot install the "malicious software removal" with Settings -> Windows Update.

Sunday, July 22, 2018 9:33 PM

Sign in to vote

Added something to uservoice for those interested:

https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/295047-general-feedback/suggestions/34907032-windows-updates-shouldn-t-fail-constantly-or-take

Monday, July 23, 2018 5:14 PM

Sign in to vote

Server systems using NLB (Network Load Balancing) fail on autoupdate or update with user interface. Manual installation cumulative update works ok.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018 9:16 PM

Sign in to vote

Welcome to the club. One noticeable improvement was when I prevented the Anti Virus from on file access scanning the c:\windows\softwareDistribution folder.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018 9:30 PM

Sign in to vote

How many of you have delta updates enabled on WSUS? I've read that seems to mess up the updates on 2016. I'm going to try next month without and see what happens. I doubt it is going to make a big difference.

Wednesday, August 22, 2018 11:57 AM

Sign in to vote

Some updates installed on one of my Terminal Servers running Server 2016 this morning, kicking out all the users logged on that particular server... Rebooted on the "preparing updates" screen. Stayed there for 25 minutes and then rebooted again. Came back to the "installing updates" screen for another 30 minutes and rebooted again! Came back again to the "installing updates for another 15 minutes and finally came back online!

I have some servers still running Server 2008 and those are much faster to update. I greatly regret throwing away my Citrix farm infrastructure running on Server 2008 for these Windows Server 2016 terminal servers. Lot of issues with processor and RAM ressources, freezes etc.

Microsoft should look at the English definition of the word "upgrade" because moving from 2008 to 2016 was definitely not an upgrade in many aspects.

We can clearly live and experience what can a monopolistic empire can do to customer care and service...

Tuesday, September 4, 2018 2:33 PM

Sign in to vote

Same issues here: 2016 server takes forever to install updates, seems to be stuck already in "Preparing windows" after clicking on "restart" to install the update.

No such problems on 2012 (R2) or SBS2011 (before it was migrated to 2016)

Monday, September 24, 2018 1:37 PM

Sign in to vote

Another "me too"!

Stand-Alone Hardware, fresh install Server 2016 Standard (2 x CPU E5-2620 v4 @ 2.10GHz, 16 Cores, 64GB RAM, 2 x 480GB SSDs RAID1), getting updates from our local WSUS. KB4462917 from 2018-10 takes 56,57 minutes from clicking on "check for updates" until OS is rebooted. It makes no difference, if updates are installed directly via Windows Update or manually...

Is it possilble to get some kind of useful Information from Microsoft concerning slow 2016 Server updates?

Edited by J. Juergen Friday, October 19, 2018 11:36 AM

Wednesday, October 10, 2018 12:59 PM

Sign in to vote

Sadly, I came upon this post whilst searching for a reason why a CLEAN install of Windows Server 2016 took (a) 4 hours to apply stage 1 of updates, then (b) over an hour "booting" - "Getting Windows ready - don't turn off your computer". Whilst waiting for the server to boot - applying updates - the server is useless, no services running. This creates a problem going forward: do you take the risk of installing updates at all? If you do, you risk your server being "unavailable" for several hours - during which time users of those services are beginning to complain. The puzzling thing is, the Server 2016 machines have really high specs - fast SSD boot disks, fast SSD NAS, plenty GB of RAM, multiple core CPUs. Is it time to go Linux?

Sunday, October 28, 2018 10:42 AM

Sign in to vote

I can confirm as well. New physical 2016 install on SSD in an HP DL160 Gen 8. Windows updates are running on a single logical processor of the 24 available (2x Xeon E5-2620) . KB4462917 ran about half an hour, got stuck at 64%, then failed. I hit retry, stuck at 55% at the moment. We see this on our other servers with completely different hardware as well.

I just tried update KB4462928 on an IBM Blade server with 96GB of RAM and 16 logical processors physical machine on Samsung 850 Pro SSDs. Same exact behavior. Only 1 logical of the 16 is engaged (Xeon E5520). Neither of these systems is doing anything but installing Windows Updates. No other loads.

Therefore, at least from my vantage point, Windows Updates on Server 2016 would be much faster if they used more than one logical processor.

Edited by K5555212 Friday, November 2, 2018 7:23 PM minor edits

Friday, November 2, 2018 7:15 PM

Sign in to vote

Upvoted. This is a serous problem that is wasting serious time=money. Window Server 2016 is now in "Preparing to install updates 72%" for >10 minutes. I finished updating 2012R2 servers hours ago.

Friday, November 2, 2018 7:51 PM

Sign in to vote

Hi hifly,

It is annoying.

What I did to speed things up is:

Download the CU (KB) from Microsoft Catalog.

Exclude the following folders in Defender:

C:\Windows\CbsTemp

C:\Windows\Logs\CBS

C:\Windows\SofwareDistribution

You can do this with Powershell command Add-MpPreference.

Add / remove the defender exclusions before / after rolling out the CU.

Make sure you roll out the Malicous Software Removal (MSR) KB after all other updates.

Often MSR starts and shortly after that the CU starts. That's a bad combination to run.

Friday, November 2, 2018 8:41 PM

Sign in to vote

Before running the latest CU, read this from Microsoft.

Install KB4465659 first!!!

Microsoft strongly recommends you install the latest servicing stack update (SSU) for your operating system before installing the latest cumulative update (LCU). SSUs improve the reliability of the update process to mitigate potential issues while installing the LCU and applying Microsoft security fixes. For more information, see Servicing stack updates.

If you are using Windows Update, the latest SSU (KB4465659) will be offered to you automatically. To get the stand-alone package for the latest SSU, go to the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018 7:41 AM

Sign in to vote

I added an extra exclusion for Windows Defender

C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp

It helps, however CU is still a lengthy process.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018 3:20 PM

Sign in to vote

Windows Server 2016 or Windows 10 ?

Tuesday, November 27, 2018 7:49 PM

Sign in to vote

The problem is Microsoft is a cheap SOB that makes your 2016 install check every file with the cloud so it can determine how much to download. Its all about saving CPU and bandwidth on your end. Its a cluster.

Saturday, December 1, 2018 1:49 AM

Sign in to vote

I'm having the same issue with many of my updates on server standard 2016. They seem to take about 1-2 hours on average, This is costing small businesses who contract IT work a lot of money in management.

Edited by Benjimonster Saturday, December 8, 2018 8:12 AM

Saturday, December 8, 2018 8:11 AM

Sign in to vote

This is driving me crazy. 30 update fails later, I am now desperately trying to find a way to get my update to even work. Learning from this thread that manually updating apparently helps, I am now 3 hours into a CU from May..... I really hope this doesn't mean I have to do this for every month up till now.

Why the radio silence from Microsoft on this? This is a massive issue.

Thursday, December 27, 2018 2:14 AM

Sign in to vote

We are having the same random issues with Windows 2016. One patch wouldn't install thru Windows Update but it did install thru a manual process

Friday, December 28, 2018 1:23 PM

Sign in to vote

Another "me too"..... It took a whopping 12 hours yesterday to install updates on 4 hyper V Vm's and 2 hosts. All running server 2016. Today I'm in yet another 4 hour hell installing CU11 for Exchange and all it's prerequisites. To say this is getting out of hand is the understatement of the year.

Monday, December 31, 2018 1:02 AM

Sign in to vote

About Exchange CU: Windows Defender must be disabled in order to complete the installation in a reasonable amount of time. I ran in the same situation and disabling it saved me several hours.

Monday, December 31, 2018 9:52 AM

Sign in to vote

Make sure you roll out the Malicous Software Removal (MSR) KB after all other updates.

Often MSR starts and shortly after that the CU starts. That's a bad combination to run.

Monday, December 31, 2018 2:19 PM

Sign in to vote

Did you try to be selective?

Exclude the following folders in Defender:

C:\Windows\CbsTemp

C:\Windows\Logs\CBS

C:\Windows\SofwareDistribution

You can do this with Powershell command Add-MpPreference.

Add / remove the defender exclusions before / after rolling out the CU.

Monday, December 31, 2018 2:20 PM

7

Sign in to vote

Can you see why people are frustrated? Standard corporate blame game on the little guy with no say in what they have to provide?

We are NOT thick. We have been doing this for longer than some of your own employees, so give us some credit.

Livelihoods at stake because questions are asked of US, not you Mr Microsoft Sir...

Small businesses and schools relying on your products, because our leaders don't know any better and think Microsoft are the only solution. Downtime is not an option for us, we have no resilient server farm.

Your stuff has got to be more end user friendly, not just your desktop OS.

Come on Microsoft. Either fix the problem or take responsibility publicly so we are not FIRED.

Tuesday, January 8, 2019 7:56 AM

Sign in to vote

This month with KB4480961 we have seen a couple of failures on a couple of our servers. To me it seems like an issue with the trustedinstaller perhaps timing out while shutting down, we have to manually download the patch and it finally went thru on some of these. Are there any hotfixes for these issues on Windows 2016?

Thanks in advanced

Tuesday, January 15, 2019 12:57 PM

Sign in to vote

This month we had no failures.

However, we use WSUS, approve one update and roll out one update.

We repeat this process a number of days until all updates are applied.

I always start with the "malicious software removal tool".

Next day I pick up the CU.

Tuesday, January 15, 2019 1:29 PM

Sign in to vote

I've finally given up and just disabled Windows Update and the Module installer service. I've had 6 servers max out CPU and RAM trying to download/install updates. On is 'just' a DC with nothing else going on.

I'll do manual installs at some point when it's convenient.

Andrew www.pursuittechnology.co.uk

Wednesday, January 23, 2019 9:28 AM

Sign in to vote

Has anyone tested Windows server 2019 to see if it is better for patch install times?

Friday, January 25, 2019 3:41 PM

Sign in to vote

I was just wondering the same thing. I'd hate to have to migrate everything back to 2012 R2. It hasn't been slow for several months until just recently.

Thursday, February 14, 2019 3:28 PM

Sign in to vote

In our environment, Windows Server 2019 doesn´t show the slow update behavior like Server 2016. We´ve tested this on the last 3 patchdays…

But be carefull with Server 2019, there are still some things that need to be fixed. One example, when you deploy SharePoint 2016 on Server 2019 (which lists as "supported" combination), SharePoint Search doesn´t deliver any hits…

regards

Juergen

Edited by J. Juergen Friday, February 15, 2019 1:25 PM

Friday, February 15, 2019 8:59 AM

Sign in to vote

and it still is, we should advocate for a working product

Video via Onedrive for evidence Please share video / post until fixed.
https://1drv.ms/v/s!ApTx3d3fhinPgpkfpt3eIZ6rVJZwaw

Setting:
Windows 10 19H1 Hyper-V
Test: Server Patches 2016 LTSC vs 2019 LTSC GUI.
"Baremetal" installation

2 vCore - Host i7700k @ 4,8 GHz
32 GB RAM
2x NVMe 970 EVO 1 TB (Storage Spaces, Mirror, Thin Provisioning)

Server 2019 LTSC GUI
Search Updates > 11 secs
Download Updates > 21 secs
Install Updates > 3 mins 16 secs
Restart / Apply Updates + Logon > 52 sec
Total Patch Time 02-2019 CU + .net > 4 mins 40 sec

Server 2016 LTSC GUI
Download / (install*) Updates > 22 minutes 10 secs
install Updates > 7 mins 7 seconds + 20 secs another search
Restart / Apply Updates + Logon > 14 mins 50 secs

Total Patch Time 02-2019 CU
without .net patches available > 44 mins 28 secs

this translates to storage with no NVME to patch times of several hours as reported in uservoice

*the progress bar is wrong altogether on W2016 it reports to download but is already installing for minutes as there is no network traffic and tiworker is consuming a whole core

if you imagine to patch 20-100 servers on VMWare or Hyper-V you can literally feel the CPU pressure and time consumed comparing to Server 2019.

https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/295047-general-feedback/suggestions/32121229-stop-the-windows-update-madness-on-ws2016

https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/295047-general-feedback/suggestions/34907032-windows-updates-shouldn-t-fail-constantly-or-take?tracking_code=015caca917f09b0643782e67710de796

MCP Windows Server, MCSA Windows 2008 / 2012, MCITP Hyper-V SCCM

Saturday, February 16, 2019 2:52 AM

Sign in to vote

There have been discussions that the reason is Defender or that 2019 has only 1/10 of update size comparingly to 2016 Server GUI / Core.

I have dealt this feedback and can provide you that update size alone is not the matter. Comparing Server 2016 LTSC Core 1607 vs Server 2016 SAC Core 1809 shows the matter:

Definitely though, I defend, that the update size and OS age is not the reason for a slow patching LTSC 1607.

It is in the code.

Watch yourself: https://1drv.ms/v/s!ApTx3d3fhinPgpk-2l8Vku1C26Pz7A

Patching Server 2016 LTSC Core 1607 vs Server 2016 SAC Core 1803 + 2 installations from scratch (each about 3 minutes)

Server 2016 LTSC Core 1607
Size 1393,5 MB
Search Updates > 13 sec
“downloading” Updates > aborted after 28 minutes

Server 2016 SAC Core 1803
Size 835,8 MB + SSU 1,2 MB + Delta Update 287,6 MB
Search Updates > 19 sec
Downloading Updates > 2 min
Installing Updates > 2 min 45 sec
Reboot / Applying Updates / logon > 48 sec (typo password measured 57)
Total Patch Times > 6 min 56 sec

If I am able to install a server in a time of 3 minutes the system cannot be powerless enough to patch anything within a reasonable time.
Just for fun we could install a second 2016 server from scratch to make the sillyness of this bug obvious.

I could literally setup 15 servers + patch them – in a timeframe where one of these 2016 1607 would be completed patching, or more depending if GUI or not.

Showing this a complete clean installation should remove all doubts the issue is by design, and MSFT has fixed it in later code.

MCP Windows Server, MCSA Windows 2008 / 2012, MCITP Hyper-V SCCM

Saturday, February 23, 2019 10:26 AM

Sign in to vote

Hello Ansjovis,

If your'e in a domain environment configure it from Group Policy to directly connect to an update server in your environment such as WSUS Server.

Or with gpedit.msc command in RUN or in start panel you can configure how download and install updates.

Mark it as answer if your question has solved. MCT Regional Lead. x2 MCSE-MCSA Exchange Server & Windows Server

Saturday, February 23, 2019 10:28 AM

Sign in to vote

Dear Hamid, I appreciate your reply, but the issue has nothing todo with WU or WSUS, nor is this a single point of failure at the customer in general.

Please check the statistics above and videos.

MCP Windows Server, MCSA Windows 2008 / 2012, MCITP Hyper-V SCCM

Edited by K. Wester-Ebbinghaus Saturday, February 23, 2019 10:31 AM

Saturday, February 23, 2019 10:30 AM

Sign in to vote

Just wondering if there has been any updates to why Windows 2016 are so slow to update. If anyone has any updates, please post to this thread.

Wednesday, March 20, 2019 11:33 AM

Sign in to vote

Fresh install of Server 2016 Essentials after four days of failed/failing updates in spite of all repairs I could find.

Tried standalone installs of SSU updates from update catalog - one failed, the other said "not applicable" - OK, let's try it your way MS.

Windows update (installed build 14393.1884 from DVD) runs for ~2 hours then fails with 0x800705b4 error. Could find nothing pointing to a cause so did the DISM repair, SFC /scannow, and now running sconfig.

First pass - downloaded updates, reboot required. (Windows update says updates ready to install - I don't trust it)

Run sconfig again - list of applicable items on machine (including Silverlight - REALLY??!!). Now says installing updates and has been sitting there for ~3 hours now.

Luckily this is not a production server...yet.

Why can't you get this fixed MS? These problems are WELL DOCUMENTED since 2018 yet nothing you've done has resolved the matter.

Wednesday, March 20, 2019 10:24 PM

Sign in to vote

On our 2016 servers, they all stall at 95% downloading when pulling from Windows Updates. Started downloading updates from microsoft update catalog site & installed manually & they still take a very long time but at least they succeed. Never seen any server version update this poorly! When is SP1 coming to fix this?! We've started creating servers with 2019 & they work flawlessly!

Friday, April 19, 2019 2:59 AM

Sign in to vote

Ok its happening right now to one of my windows 2016 servers!. I have been sitting here waiting to get RDP access to the server (and wanting to go home!!!) so I can ensure its all fine after applying updates as several times in the past I have run into problems on this mission critical server after updates. It has taken over two hours with no response although the web server was up for all the time bar a minute of downtime in the last few mins while it rebooted. There has still been no explanation from MS as to why the download is really very very slow and then installation of updates is also very very slow. This is all exceptionally annoying and good motivation for not using windows in a web server environment.

Friday, April 19, 2019 5:20 PM

Sign in to vote

Has anyone checked to see if installing this update, rebooting, and they doing other updates makes Windows Updates on 2016 any better?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4485447/servicing-stack-update-for-windows-10

Monday, April 22, 2019 7:03 PM

Sign in to vote

I've done 3 2016 servers now. All updates very sluggish. Including ones right after a clean installation of the OS.

Latest example...had to manually download Security Update for Windows (KB4103723) because it wouldn't finish the download process on it's own.

Then started applying it at 5:39am. Still running at 6:57am. Looks to be maybe 20% complete. Can't really tell because the update process gives us really no useful information on estimated time.

I've been working on Microsoft servers since LAN Man and I've gotta say that this is probably the worst mess for updating I've ever experienced.

:-)

Wednesday, May 1, 2019 1:02 PM

Sign in to vote

Just upgrade your servers to server 2019 this is faster dan installing updates on a 2016 machine.

In place upgrade just works like an W10 update to the newer builds.

microsoft should give us a free update license !

Wednesday, May 1, 2019 5:23 PM

Sign in to vote

Just upgrade your servers to server 2019 this is faster dan installing updates on a 2016 machine.

In place upgrade just works like an W10 update to the newer builds.

microsoft should give us a free update license !

Haha, ok yes I have seen Server 2019 geting the updates faster, but give it some time eh? Also really I do not like doing inplace upgrades on production server. But hey maybe I am just old skool hey?

Wednesday, May 1, 2019 9:14 PM

Sign in to vote

Just upgrade your servers to server 2019 this is faster dan installing updates on a 2016 machine.

In place upgrade just works like an W10 update to the newer builds.

microsoft should give us a free update license !

Haha, ok yes I have seen Server 2019 geting the updates faster, but give it some time eh? Also really I do not like doing inplace upgrades on production server. But hey maybe I am just old skool hey?

Great to hear that 2019 is slightly faster than 2016, which was just pure pain updating imo.

Friday, May 3, 2019 1:59 AM

Sign in to vote

Why on Earth would this be marked as a solution to the problem?

Wednesday, May 15, 2019 8:37 PM

Sign in to vote

Clean boot is the proposed answer to nearly every issue on the Technet forums...Why? Is an AI bot answering these?

Wednesday, May 15, 2019 8:41 PM

Sign in to vote

Just upgrade your servers to server 2019 this is faster dan installing updates on a 2016 machine.

In place upgrade just works like an W10 update to the newer builds.

microsoft should give us a free update license !

Haha, ok yes I have seen Server 2019 geting the updates faster, but give it some time eh? Also really I do not like doing inplace upgrades on production server. But hey maybe I am just old skool hey?
Great to hear that 2019 is slightly faster than 2016, which was just pure pain updating imo.

2019 is no better in my experience. I am trying to update a fresh physical member server with June MSR, Adobe Flash Player and June CU (KB4503327). so far it has been "downloading" for over 2hrs 30 mins and delaying my DCPROMO process. I hear Hollio's frustrations and had a chuckle to myself. Microsoft really need to focus their customers or one day they will regret it. I have trained my whole career in their products and it now makes me feel I have to re-train, unacceptable.

Edited by Alan ORiordan Wednesday, June 12, 2019 12:32 PM

Wednesday, June 12, 2019 12:29 PM

Sign in to vote

Same problem, using WSUS without problems with Windows server 2008R2, migrated to wsus with 2k16 with clients included (new vms), and the problems begin, never works as expected, very slow to download from wsus, very slow to install, very slow for everything, these are the kind of things that makes me hate Windows!

Thursday, June 20, 2019 6:15 PM

Sign in to vote

Similar problem here - freshly provisioned Server 2016 vm's on ESXi 6.0 with vmware tools installed using vmxnet3 network adapters require hours to download and apply updates. This is prior to joining a domain so WSUS is not involved and without antivirus deployed to eliminate those from consideration. Server 2003/2008/2012 updating was never fast either compared to non-microsoft OS but the wait time on 2016 is greatly exceeding those on the same hardware and network connection. Any suggestions on how to speed this up are appreciated. Found more commentary @ https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2162701-cumulative-patches-for-server-2016-take-hours-to-install

Thursday, June 20, 2019 6:42 PM

Sign in to vote

I'm piling on this thread. I've been a system admin for 15+ years, and WU on Server 2016 is by far the most broken thing out of many broken things I've seen on Windows. Years on Server 2012, we never had issues like this. Since migrating to Server 2016 a couple years back, updates have been an endless nightmare every month - stuck on "Downloading Updates..." for hours, stuck on "Installing Updates..." for hours, no progress, seemingly doing nothing. Cumulative updates every month, taking hours/days to install. Systems almost unusable for hours. I can't even gracefully stop the Windows Update service on some of these! It just hangs at Stopping. The whole thing is a joke.

We're stuck on 2016 for now due to needing CIS benchmarks. As soon as they have one for 2019, we're done with 2016.

Proposed as answer by FatSchrapnel Thursday, June 27, 2019 7:48 PM
Unproposed as answer by FatSchrapnel Thursday, June 27, 2019 7:48 PM

Monday, June 24, 2019 2:39 PM

Sign in to vote

I have been following this thread for a while. I too have the same complaints/issue with Server 2016. I have found some relief by doing the updates via this method.

Fresh reboot of the server.

use sconfig to bring up the CLI and choose the update options (option 5 I believe)

during the searching and installing updates status I periodically hit ctrl-c (Once) to see if that refreshes things on the screen. If you hit ctrl-c twice in a row it closes the CLI and you have to start over.

I have taken considerable time out of the update process by switching to this method and not using the GUI. Still slow as S^%$...but better.

I also have figured out how to force stop the frozen TIworker process service that hangs for an hour before finally releasing and letting the server reboot. Who sets a time out of an hour....an hour!!!!...come on Microsoft!!!

I use remote process viewer from lizard systems (from another domain joined machine)to look at the services running and stuck on the server. You can kill or restart the services using this tool...or you can use remote process explorer to get the PID of the stuck process and then use powershell to remotely kill the process.

I agree with other post's that Microsoft should offer a "free" upgrade to the 2019 OS.

I am also wondering if it might be time for class action lawsuit against microsoft for lost productivity due to this horrible update system they have inflicted on us.

Edited by FatSchrapnel Thursday, June 27, 2019 8:00 PM

Thursday, June 27, 2019 7:57 PM

Sign in to vote

As an engineer I have been using Microsoft products since DOS 1.1 and have a very hard time understanding WHAT Windows Server 2016 is spending hours chewing-up 25%-50% of the CPU doing??? Windows Modules Installer Worker runs for hours and hours. What on Earth is Microsoft doing to our systems??

This is completely unacceptable for production servers! And Microsoft seems unwilling to do anything about it. The behavior is utterly unjustifiable. There's no process that needs to be doing whatever it is they're doing for that long.

Given Microsoft has quietly gotten UCC laws changed across the country over the last 25 years they have made themselves almost impossible to sue. And in the current political climate I doubt the government would do anything to stop Microsoft's monopolistic, overbearing and intrusive practices.

Wednesday, July 3, 2019 3:30 PM

Sign in to vote

This is astounding ... have a brand new Amazon Windows Server 2016 with SQL Server installed. Started it on July 3rd. Added a Task Scheduler task to shutdown the VM at 11:00 PM with conditions that include "Start the task only if the computer is idle for 10 mins.".

It has been running 5 solid days without shutting down! It is never idle long enough for the condition to be satisfied. At this moment that VM is 25%-50% consumed running Antimalware Service Executable and a Host Process that's executed a bunch of system stuff. It's averaging 40% busy.

How on Earth can a server operating system continue to consume 40% of the CPU and be of any use in production?? And what is it doing???

Edited by DVIWonk Monday, July 8, 2019 4:07 PM

Monday, July 8, 2019 4:02 PM

Sign in to vote

I hope this answer reaches the masses.

The problem was bad enough for us (2016 servers were taking 3-5 hours to 'install' patches, then would fail after reboot. We'd repeat the process 2 or 3 times before success. Total patch time was 12+ hours) that I called Microsoft for support.

During the call the MS support rep was understanding but not really helpful. However, she did suggest something that we finally tried last week. In the WSUS MMC, under Options, in "Update Files and Languages", check the box for "Download express installation files".

The warning that it will take up more space is no lie. A typical "cumulative update" of 300 MB is about 1 GB when using Express Updates. They, obviously, take longer to download so you'll need to plan accordingly for space and timing with any Group Policy being used to push updates.

That all said, we've been testing the 'express updates' for a bit over a week now and are THRILLED with the results. The longest it's taken for a single patch cycle was 3.5 hours (still way too long but better than 12 hours) and the updates were successful on the first attempt. Also, with the July 2019 patches (released yesterday) our 2016 servers were completely patched and rebooted in less than 45 minutes!!! These are servers in our test environment - production systems but non-critical (KMS, Print Servers, etc.).

We'll be testing the "express updates" with high-production systems next week and critical production the week after that. As a 24-hour manufacturing facility we have been VERY concerned about lengthy outages for patching and cautious about migrating systems from 2008 to 2016 due to the slow patching. The Express Update option (so far) seems to have resolved this issue.

I don't know why Microsoft isn't screaming from the mountain tops to use this as a solution. Maybe we've just been lucky so far but given the number of people experiencing this problem I wanted to get our results out there for others to test.

BEST OF LUCK!
~Dan in Rapids

Proposed as answer by M0shM4n Wednesday, July 10, 2019 2:44 PM

Wednesday, July 10, 2019 2:41 PM

Sign in to vote

One thing to keep in mind with Express is that it consumes an enormous amount of disk space which becomes relevant if your running it on a SAN it can get costly.

Wednesday, July 10, 2019 8:59 PM

Sign in to vote

We have several 2016 servers and usually they install without issue and is done via SCCM software updates. I typically don't have to manually install updates but there are several servers that require it. I do notice longer update times on 2016 in comparison with older OS versions. I run updates on Server 2012 R2 and 2016 side by side on the ones I do manually atm. Sometimes 2016 servers aren't that bad and update fairly quickly. Not sure what factor is causing the slowness randomly.

There are other issues that can occur that cause the download or install to hang but I believe that is not within the scope of this post. If you are having that issue there are resolutions to it outside this thread.

Edited by PRAMAG Sunday, July 14, 2019 11:20 AM

Sunday, July 14, 2019 10:59 AM

Sign in to vote

Just here to pile on.

This is still an issue in July 2019.

All of my 2016 servers take hours to process updates.

Everything else is normally done in under 30 minutes.

The 2016 reboots are so long that I was sure the servers were locked up the first few times through.

Good to know that this is just the new, terrible normal.

Chris

Wednesday, July 24, 2019 3:10 AM

Sign in to vote

It is 1am. I would really like to get some sleep. I've been updating a single Win 2016 server for FOUR HOURS now, for two updates. What the hell, Microsoft?

Saturday, August 10, 2019 8:13 AM

Sign in to vote

Same here !!! This is getting ridiculous ! 4 hours (more... still not completed) to install 2 CU on Windows server 2016 >:( And this is only the download !!!!

Chantal

Wednesday, August 21, 2019 3:53 PM

Sign in to vote

The same is just going on here on a Hyperv-Host and its guests, both with Server 2019 Standard.

Download of cumulative update takes forever (even with high bandwidth), installation takes a while, preparing Windows lets you fall on sleep (just got a second cumulative update after surviving first reboots).

Best greetings from Germany
Olaf

Friday, August 30, 2019 10:11 PM

Sign in to vote

Hello Everyone,

I had this exact problem windows server 2016 took multiple hours to update, following several resources i created this guide for slip streaming the iso. While i understand this isn't a solution it is a usable work around.

Install the windows development kit: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/windows-10-sdk

create the directories you are going to need

mkdir c:\windowsServer2016Staging
mkdir c:\windowsServer2016Staging\baseIso
mkdir c:\windowsServer2016Staging\newIso
mkdir c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\extracted
mkdir c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount
mkdir c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\patches

Download a windows server 2016 iso (here is the link to the trial version iso): 2016 Evaluation Iso and place it in the base iso path

Extract the iso to the extracted path

Download the following KBs to the patches directory
KB4103720
KB4509091
KB4507459
KB4512495

In an administrative command prompt run the following:

Mount-WindowsImage -Path c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount  -ImagePath c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\extracted\sources\install.wim -Index 2
Add-WindowsPackage -Path c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount -packagePath c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\patches\[KB4103720_PATH]
Add-WindowsPackage -Path c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount -packagePath c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\patches\[KB4509091_PATH]
Add-WindowsPackage -Path c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount -packagePath c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\patches\[KB4507459_PATH]
Add-WindowsPackage -Path c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount -packagePath c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\patches\[KB4512495_PATH]
Dismount-windowsImage -Path c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\mount -Save
& 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\amd64\Oscdimg\oscdimg.exe' -bootdata:"2#p0,e,bboot\Etfsboot.com#pEF,e,befi\Microsoft\boot\Efisys.bin" -u1 -udfver102 c:\WindowsServer2016Staging\extracted c:\windowsServer2016Staging\newIso\WS_2016_Updated.iso

I hope this helps.

Edited by BrianMMiller Wednesday, September 4, 2019 12:34 PM

Wednesday, September 4, 2019 12:33 PM

Sign in to vote

Same nightmare here. It's just a ploy to get us to move our stuff to Azure.

Thursday, September 5, 2019 3:48 AM

Sign in to vote

Just spent an entire weekend (on & off) battling with my Windows 2016 root controller to get CU KB4512495 installed. Ended up having to leave it overnight Sunday (8th Sept 2019) to download the update. After two failed install attempts I had to go through the process of purging SoftwareDistribution\Downloads, if there's a failure, the update(s) being installed/failed are (quite rightly) re-downloaded.

As of now (Monday 9th Sept 2019), I have a root controller waiting to have KB4512495 installed at the next maintenance window. What took the time? DOWNLOADING AT A PATHETIC 208kbps max!!!!!!!!!! This update is 1.42GB in size. And before anyone asks, there are no download speed restrictions in place on any of my servers. I don't know if Microsoft is throttling at their end or there is something in the code on Server 2016.

I see ALL my Windows Server 2016 servers downloading Cumulative Updates at kbps, non-CU updates seem to be OK! A fresh install of Server 2019 on a new backup system 3 weeks ago was fully updated within an hour!.

Monday, September 9, 2019 9:47 AM

Sign in to vote

Andrew, my update experience with 2019 is pure joy. From fresh install (done August 2019) to fully updated, done in less than an hour!!!

Monday, September 9, 2019 9:49 AM

Sign in to vote

Windows updates are completely broken at this point. I've got servers with massive CPU, Memory, and SSD's that are taking hours to install a cumulative update. It's not the download, it's just EXTREMELY crappy programming on behalf of Microsoft. I can't wait until I can dump all Windows and just run Linux.... But still have Line of Business apps that require it. Despite Microsoft's "commitment to quality" updates are getting worse and worse. It's gross incompetence.

Thursday, September 12, 2019 4:39 PM

Sign in to vote

This does not just effect Server 2016. It effects every OS that is built on 1607 (14393). I have multiple LTSB 2016 machines that have the same issue. It's complete dog shit.

Edited by DanC84 Saturday, September 14, 2019 1:42 AM

Saturday, September 14, 2019 1:41 AM

Sign in to vote

LTSB 1607 is horrific for updating. Takes forever.

LTSC 1809 is much better.

Saturday, September 14, 2019 2:06 AM

Sign in to vote

If you completely disable Windows Defender and reboot updates install way faster. Its night and day.

For example I just did a clean install of 2016 LTSB on a VM with 2 cores and 4 GB ram. I manually installed the latest servicing stack and rebooted. I manually installed the latest cumulative update and rebooted. I let Windows update do the rest. Took less then 30 minutes.

Edited by DanC84 Saturday, September 14, 2019 2:44 AM

Saturday, September 14, 2019 2:42 AM

Sign in to vote

Andrew, my update experience with 2019 is pure joy. From fresh install (done August 2019) to fully updated, done in less than an hour!!!

Same here.

Does Microsoft have any plans on optimizing this on Server 2016, or should we just upgrade OS?

Monday, September 23, 2019 10:34 AM

Sign in to vote

Just to update everyone in here with if this has been fixed. It has not been fixed.

Server 2016 takes an incredible amount of time when Preparing to install updates.. Here's an example, I was tasked to update a server at 2AM with a window of 2 hours (usually more then I would ever need for an update)

I am looking in shock that over 4 hours later it has moved from 50% to 55% on a Server with no users logged in, Intel Gold Xeon CPU, 32GB DDR4 RAM. I know its a Cumulative update but this is just not right how an update can take this long to install.

Lawd have mercy !

Wednesday, September 25, 2019 10:35 PM

Sign in to vote

Yes 2018 is great updates are fast

But if you don't want a DC but a workgroup and <g class="gr_ gr_71 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" data-gr-id="71" id="71">rdp</g> User <g class="gr_ gr_108 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling" data-gr-id="108" id="108">cals</g> it will never <g class="gr_ gr_150 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Style multiReplace" data-gr-id="150" id="150">work !</g>

It will give you 60 minutes timeout on license failures

So the 100's customers who we have with workgroup 2006 that don't have or want

a DC and DC backup and WANT <g class="gr_ gr_518 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" data-gr-id="518" id="518">rdp</g> Our only choice is 2012R2 till Jan. 10, 2023

or face 2016 update reboot bad time. thank's <g class="gr_ gr_606 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Style multiReplace" data-gr-id="606" id="606">MS !</g>

Thursday, September 26, 2019 8:56 AM

Sign in to vote

Hi, I'm so glad you've shared where to view the latest updates for windows server 2016. Do you think you could link the page where I could also download it, instead of just the version name and things?

Thanks you in advance!!

Friday, September 27, 2019 12:57 AM

Sign in to vote

Windows 2019 has the same problem .. it is best not to update. I will stay in 2012 for a long time, 2016 and 2019 are disgusting

Sunday, October 6, 2019 11:07 AM

Sign in to vote

been on 94% for 3 hours now.

"Downloading updates 94%"....ya right on 100Mb connection

Monday, October 7, 2019 8:20 PM

Sign in to vote

and i thought always is was just me.... taking so long is horrible.

A new setup is quicker, Linux is quicker Win 2012 is quicker. 2016 you think, its stalling.

I wonder how comes, such things are never changed, I understand the bad QoS MS has, as their people are waiting for updates instead of checking quality of product.

nightmare, really.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 10:59 PM

Sign in to vote

Good job mods mark a confirmation post as an answer. It's not an answer, there apparently is no answer and never will be an answer. Been dealing with slow updates on 2016 for a while now. What a waste of time for the systems I have to manually update.

Paul

Sunday, October 20, 2019 10:23 AM

Sign in to vote

I ran into this issue and found an answer on a Microsoft posting.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4103720/windows-10-update-kb4103720

Important 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.

Of course Windows update does them in the wrong order.

Tuesday, November 5, 2019 12:17 AM

Sign in to vote

Excuse me for necroposting and bad English. May be, this will help someone who have to update lots of Windows 2016 installations manually to save some time. Based on the https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/295047-general-feedback/suggestions/32121229-stop-the-windows-update-madness-on-ws2016 solution.

Before installing the updates, you may do this even days and weeks before, run this command: %SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup This will prepare windows image by removing unneeded versions of updated binary components and may take from few minutes if run recently to some hours for the first time. Most important, it will dramatically shorten the most annoying thing - long reboot time with the "Getting Windows ready..." message, then you don't have any control of the server and services are down. You don't have to run this command before each and any update, but it seems to be useful at least once in each few months. It does not interfere too much with normal server workload and can be started even in production hours, because it usually does not use more then one CPU core. Only one downside I found - you can't start any software or Windows components installation in parallel, it will wait until the end of cleanup and most likely fail. As far as I can understand, this command by default should exist and run as a sheduled system task, but on server systems something went wrong.
Then installing the updates, ignore "download" and "installing" messages - they are missleading. Actual installation begins in the download phase, you may find it youself by monitoring processes in the task manager. Unfortunatelly, update installation usually don't consume more than one CPU core, and I was unable to find any solution to this. So adding resources to the server usually don't speed up the process. Relax and wait, you have nothing to do with this.
Upgrade to the Windows 2019 at the first possibility. This is the only ultimate solution.

Documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/clean-up-the-winsxs-folder

Using the /StartComponentCleanup parameter of Dism.exe on a running version of Windows 10 gives you similar results to running the StartComponentCleanup task in Task Scheduler, except previous versions of updated components will be immediately deleted (without a 30 day grace period) and you will not have a 1-hour timeout limitation.

Disclaimer: this will not help a lot. This will definitely don't help if some of the system files are damaged, use the full command set from the first link then:

"%SystemRoot%\System32\sfc.exe" /scannow
"%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe" /online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore
"%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe" /online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
"%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe" /online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
"%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe" /online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:WIM:<your install.wim location and index>
"%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe" /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

Optional: "%SystemRoot%\System32\Dism.exe" /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /resetbase

Из ослиного гнезда ... :)

Sunday, November 17, 2019 6:05 PM

Sign in to vote

2019 is fine for us. We only see this issue with 2016. We are upgrading to 2019 anywhere possible.

Saturday, November 23, 2019 2:41 AM

Sign in to vote

The commands above do help but they also may take hours and consume a lot of single core performance.

These action should be weighted and cannot be executed over dozends or hundreds of servers at a time, at least not unorchestrated. Also it cuts anyone off to uninstall updates from the time of execution.

I appreaciate your workaround, but found that the next or next after CU will underly the same complications as if we did not do this.
Applying this every months is beyond reasonability and ressource consumption.

The dism process in 1607, Server and client is broken. Period.
It was fixed in 1703 this includes later Server 2016 SAC (core) releases.

From some disclosed internal information it is very unlikely the issue will be fixed as this would require deep impacts on the servicing / dism which disagrees with the LTSC policy. At the time we cannot expect a backport of the fix in 1703/1709/180x coming to 1607 before it mainstream end of support and unlikely even outside in extended support phase.

I can encourage everyone (to use Software Assurance) to upgrade to 1809 or later releases. This makes a major change also for update sizes.

Another rumour was that update size is the matter for this roughly 1.2 GB for 1607 atm. I can disprove this by intensive test Later releases as said above have the same update size and are working very much faster.

A second rumour was that 1809 was only that fast patching because it was new and would raise consequently over months. This is not true either, or at least not in the relative amount as we thought.

Best regards,

Karl Wester-Ebbinghaus
@tweet_alqamar

MCP Windows Server, MCSA Windows 2008 / 2012, MCITP Hyper-V SCCM

Edited by K. Wester-Ebbinghaus Sunday, January 12, 2020 11:59 PM

Sunday, January 12, 2020 11:57 PM

Sign in to vote

Really? Is this the answer to the problem? Wow!

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 11:40 PM