Experience with Windows Vista at CERN

1. Experience with Windows Vista at CERN Rafal Otto Internet Services Group IT Department CERN

2. Outline • Current Deployment Status • Service Pack 1 • Changes • Deployment • Plans for the nearest future • Vista deployment policy change • x64

3. 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

4. Deployment Progress • Today 5% of all Windows workstations at CERN run Vista

5. 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

6. 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

7. Vista vs. Vista SP1 Source:http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2273203,00.aspPCMark Vantage:http://www.futuremark.com/products/pcmarkvantage/testsuites/

8. Vista vs. Vista SP1 (2) Source:http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2273203,00.aspPCMark Vantage:http://www.futuremark.com/products/pcmarkvantage/testsuites/

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

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

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

12. SP1 Installation Options Source:http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/005f921e-f706-401e-abb5-eec42ea0a03e1033.mspx

13. 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

14. 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

15. Deployment Predictions Onlysecurityhotfixes for XP Vista by defaulton new PCs No Policy Change 14.04.2009(end of mainstream XP support) 08.04.2014(end of extended XP support)

16. 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

17. Vista 32-bit vs. 64-bit Sources:http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2280808,00.aspPCMark Vantage:http://www.futuremark.com/products/pcmarkvantage/testsuites/

18. 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

19. CD player story – episode 2 DON’T STAY WITH OLD TECHNOLOGY TOO LONG!!!

20. Thank You!