CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Experience with Windows Vista at CERN

Rafal OttoInternet Services Group

IT DepartmentCERN

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Outline

• Current Deployment Status• Service Pack 1

– Changes– Deployment

• Plans for the nearest future– Vista deployment policy change– x64

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Vista Deployment

• Currently – Vista is proposed only on selected models of PCs and Laptops– Windows XP is still the default OS

• If a computer is running Windows XP, it is possible to perform Vista Readiness check

Vista Supported Desktop Models

Windows Aero

HP dc7700 √HP dc7600 √HP dc5750 √HP dc5850 √HP dc7800 √Elonex ProSentia

√

Elonex Xelium √Elonex Elium √Elonex Elix √

Vista SupportedLaptop Models

Windows Aero

HP Compaq 2510p √HP Compaq 6910p √HP Compaq 8510p √HP Compaq nc6400

√

HP Compaq nc6220NEC Versa P550 √NEC Versa P570 √NEC Versa M360 √

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Deployment Progress

23/08

/2007

31/08

/2007

08/09

/2007

16/09

/2007

24/09

/2007

02/10

/2007

10/10

/2007

18/10

/2007

26/10

/2007

03/11

/2007

11/11

/2007

19/11

/2007

27/11

/2007

05/12

/2007

13/12

/2007

21/12

/2007

29/12

/2007

06/01

/2008

14/01

/2008

22/01

/2008

30/01

/2008

07/02

/2008

15/02

/2008

23/02

/2008

02/03

/2008

10/03

/2008

18/03

/2008

26/03

/2008

03/04

/2008

11/04

/2008

19/04

/2008

27/04

/2008

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Number of Vista Computers in the CERN domain

Today 5% of all Windows workstations at CERN run Vista

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Service Pack 1 – Introduction

• Service Pack 1 has been released on 15th of February 2008– It is already May and preparations for the upgrade are not

finished– Very heavy

• Installation might take even 2 hours• 3 reboots are needed

– Strong prerequisites • Several other updates needs to be installed first (KB949939,

KB937287, KB935509, KB938371 and eventually KB938759)• Several drivers are not compatible with SP1 (KB948343)

• Once installed– Performance and reliability are improved– No new feature

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Vista SP1 Main Changes• Includes 300+ bug fixes!• Windows Explorer performance improvements

– Copying files is faster• 25% faster when copying files locally on the same disk on the same machine• 45% faster when copying files from a remote non-Windows Vista system to a SP1 system• 50% faster when copying files from a remote SP1 system to a local SP1 system

– uses less bandwidth while browsing network shares– Copy progress estimation when copying files is fast now

• Internet Explorer performance improvements– Especially improved for pages with a lot of JavaScript

• Group Policy Management Console– Replaced by Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)

• Reduced Functionality Mode (RFM) removed– Instead system will continuously popup the user to activate once the

grace period is passed– It allows us to get rid of complicated activation schema and rely only on

the KMS• Drivers architecture

– Several drivers which worked with Vista RTM do not work with SP1!

Source: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/005f921e-f706-401e-abb5-eec42ea0a03e1033.mspx

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Vista vs. Vista SP1

Source: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2273203,00.asp PCMark Vantage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/pcmarkvantage/testsuites/

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Vista vs. Vista SP1 (2)

Source: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2273203,00.asp PCMark Vantage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/pcmarkvantage/testsuites/

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Vista vs. XP Report by Principled Technologies:Responsiveness of Windows Vista ™, Windows Vista ™ SP1, and Windows XP ™ on common business tasks http://principledtechnologies.com/Clients/Reports/Microsoft/VistaSP1XPVistaBusResp0208.pdf

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Vista vs. XP

Source: http://exo-blog.blogspot.com/2007/11/update-re-testing-vista-w2gb-ram-office.html

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

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First Year Security Report

http://blogs.technet.com/security/archive/2008/01/23/download-windows-vista-one-year-vulnerability-report.aspx

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

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SP1 Installation Options

Usage Download Size (x86) Standalone Package

• PCs without internet access

• System administrators

• About 450 MB (5 Language package)

• About 550 MB (Full 36 language package)

Windows Update

• Most home users

• Many business customers

• About 65 MB

Integrated DVD

• New PCs • N/A

Source: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/005f921e-f706-401e-abb5-eec42ea0a03e1033.mspx

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

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SP1 Deployment at CERN

• New PCs– SP1 is integrated into the network distribution since 8th of April

• Existing PCs– We would prefer to use local instance of the Windows Server

Update Services (WSUS) package• Package is lighter• All prerequisites are verified and when they are not met SP1 is not

applicable on a PC– SP1 is still not available on WSUS! Hopefully should be soon

there!– Standalone package is available on DFS for impatient users

• Progress– Currently 20% of Vista computers are running Vista SP1

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Plan for the nearest future

• Vista Readiness Check will run during the network installation wizard – If computer is not compliant with recommendations but on the list

of supported models• Windows XP is proposed by default but Windows Vista remains as an option

– If computer is fully compliant with our recommendations• Windows Vista is proposed by default but Windows XP remains as an option

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Deployment Predictions

30/12

/1899

02/09

/1903

02/05

/1907

02/01

/1911

02/09

/1914

02/05

/1918

02/01

/1922

02/09

/1925

02/05

/1929

02/01

/1933

02/09

/1936

02/05

/1940

02/01

/1944

02/09

/1947

02/05

/1951

02/01

/1955

02/09

/1958

02/05

/1962

02/01

/1966

02/09

/1969

02/05

/1973

02/01

/1977

02/09

/1980

02/05

/1984

02/01

/1988

02/09

/1991

02/05

/1995

02/01

/1999

02/09

/2002

02/05

/2006

02/01

/2010

02/09

/2013

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

14.04.2009(end of mainstream XP support)

08.04.2014(end of extended XP support)

Only security hotfixes for XP

No Policy Change

Vista by defaulton new PCs

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Vista x64

• Memory requirements are constantly growing– 32 bit OS can accept up to 4 GB of physical

memory installed– 64 bit OS has a limit of 128 GB

• Already most of the CAD applications on the market support Windows Vista

• No point in starting support for 64 bits on old desktop OS (Windows XP)– we start directly with Vista

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Vista 32-bit vs. 64-bit

Sources: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2280808,00.asp PCMark Vantage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/pcmarkvantage/testsuites/

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Summary

• Vista Deployment Policy– Do not force people to run Vista if they do not

want– Encourage people who could run Vista to try and

to run it• allows smoothly increase number of Vista computers

before XP will have to be phased out

• Vista SP1 brings performance and reliability improvements, however requires significant effort to deploy

• Vista x64 will soon be available at CERN

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

CD player story – episode 2

DON’T STAY WITH OLD TECHNOLOGY

TOO LONG!!!

CERN IT Department

CH-1211 Genève 23

Switzerlandwww.cern.ch/

it

Thank You!