Baseline deployment takes forever. Intended?

Question

I have a Configuration Baseline comprised of just a couple dozen Group Policy queries (registry).   
Whether I choose to "Monitor" or "Remediate", it takes forever. 
I deployed the baseline with Remediate set to a test collection of 1 computer, 5 hours ago, and it's still in an "unknown" status on the Summary of that deployment. That computer has been powered on and online all day. I have also issued several
Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycles to it about twice an hour, and still, the SCCM 2012 console is reporting nothing done to that machine. It's actually not even showing up in the tabs as "Unknown", but from the preview pane on the Monitoring
> Deployments workspace, it shows 1 asset as being in an unknown state.
Does it normally take this long? 
I did check it to even deploy outside of maintenance windows, even though I currently have NO maintenance windows configured. 

Answer 1

Here's another case where I'll recommend trying to learn the feature via a TechNet virtual lab. Until you guys all try that first, you are going to keep hearing it in my responses :-)
No, it does not normally take five hours. But some comments for you.
Obviously you start with creating configuration items, which are then added to a configuration baseline. You then deploy the configuration baseline to members of a collection. The maintenance window option for the deployment only has to do with remediation
of the baseline, so if the CI is not configured to remediate, or the deployment is not, then the maintenance window option has no meaning here.
So the deployment is targeted to a collection (so make sure the computer is a member of the collection and is listed as a client in the collection (not just a resource)). Then the computer needs to retrieve policies (which apparently you've done numerous
times). Configuration Manager has a built-in randomization before evaluating any baselines (an hour if I remember, could be two hours). But you said it has been five, so you should be past that. To verify, check the Configurations tab on the client's Configuration
Manager Properties to see if the baseline appears, and if so, has a status.
Then, the client sends state messages to the MP (which happens every 15 minutes by default). From there, the MP forwards to the site server, and gets processed.
You then have to execute a Run Summarization cycle on the deployment to see updated status.
All this is covered in the Settings Management lab on TechNet - that is a great way to see the feature work end to end in a virtual environment - and with the lab doc and commentary - to learn the feature before trying on your own :-)
Wally Mead