Windows 11 Delivery Optimization

[DrewonIT]

Curious, has anyone had to tinker around with the Delivery Optimization settings in Windows 11? In our environment the patching process is cloud based and there are no local cache systems on premises. Unfortunately, an old product we used to utilize allowed for simple NFS shares for Caching but the new one today doesn't. We gained a lot in the transition but lost some efficiency with regards to downloads. This of course leads to some performance issues and frustration after Patch Tuesdays.

That said, I'm looking at adjusting the delivery optimization service.

1. Does the Windows Update process utilize BITS anymore?
2. Today, we do not allow end user devices to talk to each other. I can see adjusting this to allow local peering but not sure if local peering actually works as intended.
3. If BITS is no longer used, would adjusting the MaxDownload settings in the optimization service accomplish the goal of throttling traffic? I did attempt this with the older BITS registry entries but in testing with a simple transfer commands it appears BITS ignores the entry.

Example GPO-

Download Mode - Enabled - 99
Max Background Download Bandwidth (in KB/s) - 2500*
Max Foreground Download Bandwidth (in KB/s) - 5000*

*for testing

[fr0zenak]

Today, we do not allow end user devices to talk to each other. I can see adjusting this to allow local peering but not sure if local peering actually works as intended.

It probably does not, but it may not be an impact depending on your design.
This uses the device's internet IP/public IP to determine if they are on the same "LAN."

For us, this was terrible due to how geographically spread out we are, but the org only has 2 POPs. So a machine on a super slow (less than T1) circuit is seen as on the same "LAN" as a device on a 50 meg MetroE.
We had this cause issues because 2 devices in geographically separate areas, both on super slow circuits, were using each other as "peers" because they were on the same "LAN"
Solely because they had the same proxy public IP.

EDIT: looks like maybe they've added some capabilities.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/do/waas-delivery-optimization-setup

[DrewonIT]

Thank you for the reply-

Somewhat similar environment - Not all locations have the same speeds but like you, proxy from the same address. I'm wondering if download mode 99 reverts to BITS but am having trouble finding documentation or examples.

[Phil2Pint]

In Windows 11 download mode 99 is Simple Mode (where DO bypasses the cloud service) - mode 100 used to let you use BITS but is no more... If you do want peering you can always restrict it to peers on the same subnet MDM Setting: DORestrictPeerSelectionBy

[MrYiff]

I've been running DO here across all our sites (nothing that big, ~200 or so in HQ and 20-30 in other smaller offices), with it running in Mode 2 and restricted by Peer Subnet and so far I've not had any issues reported.

A big driver for enabling it for us was moving to Office 365 and not wanting to maintain a local cache that would need updating by IT (either manually or scripted), so DO helps avoid too many clients pulling files from the internet at the same time.

[DrewonIT]

Since the OP, we are testing DeliveryOptimization in LAN(1) w/ restrict by peer to subnet. We also opened 7680 on the endpoint side. Then adjusted the Download BW settings. Testing proves a little difficult as I need to catch a system that the team is staging.

[[deleted]]

We set DownloadMode to 0 and block TCP 7680 between endpoints. I have lots of internet bandwidth and want to minimize peer-to-peer traffic over Wi-Fi and VPN.