Windows Updates at snailpace on Server 2016

[Hayabusa1989]

I am having an issue with windows updates on a mission critical Server 2016 Server. We do not run a WSUS Update server and just directly get our updates from microsoft. 

The server was update and rebooting and it has currently not rebooted as updates are on 24% then 20 minutes later 25% then 20 minutes later 26%. 

I think it was accidentally update and restarted as i was not the one who personally restarted. 

 

This server is a SQL Navision Server 
Spec Below 

is there anyway to speed it up ? 

 

 

Should note that the Windows update service and Trusted Installer Service have both stopped. 

[leadeater]

Sadly no, Windows just needs to do it's thing and it'll do it as fast as it can. The speed at which it's applying the updates is rather slow though, what's the actual stage it's at? Downloading updates, installing, installed and started reboot, installed and rebooted so system is now finishing off updates?

[Hayabusa1989]

Has not yet rebooted : 

[Hayabusa1989]

8 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Sadly no, Windows just needs to do it's thing and it'll do it as fast as it can. The speed at which it's applying the updates is rather slow though, what's the actual stage it's at? Downloading updates, installing, installed and started reboot, installed and rebooted so system is now finishing off updates?

Now its moved to 87% after we restarted the Windows Update Service, Will keep posted incase of further issue also Thank You will mark your answer as solution when this is all over

[leadeater]

6 minutes ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

Has not yet rebooted : 

Right so only phase one of the reboot & update process. Going to have to just wait it out I'm afraid. How long since it was last patched?

 

I've got 6 HPE DL380 Gen9 running Server 2016 that update nice and fast, I did have an issue where they wouldn't pick up updates from our WSUS server at all until I manually applied the security rollup but after that they were fine.

[Hayabusa1989]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

Right so only phase one of the reboot & update process. Going to have to just wait it out I'm afraid. How long since it was last patched?

 

I've got 6 HPE DL380 Gen9 running Server 2016 that update nice and fast, I did have an issue where they wouldn't pick up updates from our WSUS server at all until I manually applied the security rollup but after that they were fine.

Last reboot was on the 16th however it could have been far longer since updates were installed on reflection. 

[leadeater]

4 minutes ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

Now its moved to 87% after we restarted the Windows Update Service, Will keep posted incase of further issue also Thank You will mark your answer as solution when this is all over

Awesome, kind of surprised you were able to restart the service. Sometimes when I have an OS in that state I can't remotely manage it at all.

[Hayabusa1989]

Server is now Back Online - Assessing any issues now.  

[Hayabusa1989]

2 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Awesome, kind of surprised you were able to restart the service. Sometimes when I have an OS in that state I can't remotely manage it at all.

Should also add that we restarted the SQL Service, Could it have been that the SQL was eating all of the memory ? 

[Ashleyyyy]

19 minutes ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

Should also add that we restarted the SQL Service, Could it have been that the SQL was eating all of the memory ? 

128gb of it? can't imagine... 

[leadeater]

39 minutes ago, Hayabusa1989 said:

Should also add that we restarted the SQL Service, Could it have been that the SQL was eating all of the memory ? 

I'd say the restarting of the Windows Update service fixed it

[leadeater]

20 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

128gb of it? can't imagine... 

SQL will reserve/allocate almost all the ram in the server, default is like 90%. We've got SQL servers that have 230GB of ram used, it's all SQL cache really so it doesn't have to pull data off disk unless it really has to.

[Ashleyyyy]

Just now, leadeater said:

SQL will reserve/allocate almost all the ram in the server, default is like 90%. We've got SQL servers that have 230GB of ram used, it's all SQL cache really so it doesn't have to pull data off disk unless it really has to.

oh okay. i'm not familiar with that stuff. nevermind then. 

[leadeater]

4 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

oh okay. i'm not familiar with that stuff. nevermind then. 

It's not every day you get to see a single OS chewing up that kind of memory .

 

It looks impressive but really it's just SQL being SQL, I tend to configure a lower memory limit on SQL for lower resourced systems since your train of thought is actually on the money for servers with 32GB or less ram. Letting SQL just eat all of it and leaving nothing for the OS makes everything perform like ass.

[Ashleyyyy]

2 minutes ago, leadeater said:

It's not every day you get to see a single OS chewing up that kind of memory .

 

It looks impressive but really it's just SQL being SQL, I tend to configure a lower memory limit on SQL for lower resourced systems since your train of thought is actually on the money for servers with 32GB or less ram. Letting SQL just eat all of it and leaving nothing for the OS makes everything perform like ass.

can't you reserve a bit of ram for the OS? just tell SQL to leave 20GB alone?

[leadeater]

4 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

can't you reserve a bit of ram for the OS? just tell SQL to gtfo your ram basically?

Yes, in SQL you can set a maximum memory amount. For Server 2008 R2 I leave a minimum of 2GB for the OS and Server 2012 R2/2016 a minimum of 4GB.

[Ashleyyyy]

Windows 10 uses nearly 6GB for me when it's updating. that could be the reason it went so slowly..