Hi, I was testing multicast and I see the following in a test lab: PC1 multicast takes 10 minutes PC2 multicast takes 10 minutes PC1 and PC2 together multicast takes 20-30 minutes During the deployment it says downloading using multicast but it seems as if it is not downloading via multicast. In the smsts.log I can see all multicast entries as expected. Any idea ? Is this a normal autocast behaviour ?

If both PC's do not have the same NIC speed, then multicast will slow down to the speed of the lowest card. If one PC is "sleeping", it will slow down also. Other factors, hubs, routers etc... Multicast is a PIA, I gave up on it working properly.

I use two identical VM's. What I have noticed, when two machines are busy, the Outgoing Packets/Second drop down significant.

I use two identical VM's. What I have noticed, when two machines are busy, the Outgoing Packets/Second drop down significant.

Why do you think that it is not downloading with Multicast? Although Multicast means send packages to multiple PCs, the data package still need multiple copies for multiple PCs. That means if you have more computers the data transfer needs more time. But data transfers to PCs will complete nearly at the same time. Therefore this behavior is normal.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Why do you think that it is not downloading with Multicast? Although Multicast means send packages to multiple PCs, the data package still need multiple copies for multiple PCs. That means if you have more computers the data transfer needs more time. But data transfers to PCs will complete nearly at the same time. Therefore this behavior is normal.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

I can see it is sent with multicast but it takes more time for each extra PC. It should not matter how many PC's you have, the download time must be the same for 1 or 1000 PC's. That what I have always expireinced with Symantec Ghost. "Multicast uses network infrastructure efficiently by requiring the source to send a packet only once, even if it needs to be delivered to a large number of receivers. The nodes in the network take care of replicating the packet to reach multiple receivers only when necessary." Why do I see that outgoing packets on the server drop down ? It should have nothing to do with a number of clients.

I can see it is sent with multicast but it takes more time for each extra PC. It should not matter how many PC's you have, the download time must be the same for 1 or 1000 PC's. That what I have always expireinced with Symantec Ghost. "Multicast uses network infrastructure efficiently by requiring the source to send a packet only once, even if it needs to be delivered to a large number of receivers. The nodes in the network take care of replicating the packet to reach multiple receivers only when necessary." Why do I see that outgoing packets on the server drop down ? It should have nothing to do with a number of clients.