Error while executing an automated script from azure pipeline - azure

Question

We have a script which was written in Protractor using node.js and grunt.
We have built an azure pipeline to execute that automated script by fetching it from github. Please see the commands we have written in yml file.
pool:
vmImage: 'vs2017-win2016'
steps:
- task: NodeTool#0
inputs:
versionSpec: '8.x'
displayName: 'Install Node.js'
- script: |
node --version
npm install
npm install -g grunt-cli
npm install grunt-cli
npm install grunt --save-dev
displayName: 'npm install and run grunt'
- script: |
npm install webdriver-manager -g
npm install protractor -g
webdriver-manager update
webdriver-manager start
displayName: 'Webdriver install'
- task: CmdLine#2
inputs:
script: |
cd resources
grunt
Question1: The script executes in 5 mins whereas with azure pipeline it takes 15 to 20 mins to run. Is it really worth to install all packages everytime and execute script through azure.
Question2: the command webdriver-manager start is a mandatory step for execution of the script(This is to make the selenium hub up and running), but while running the yml file, this particular step is throwing error and gets skipped.
Please see the error below.
[12:36:53] I/launcher - Running 1 instances of WebDriver
2018-12-18T12:36:53.4831548Z [12:36:53] I/hosted - Using the selenium server at http://localhost:4444/wd/hub
2018-12-18T12:36:54.2436510Z [12:36:54] E/launcher - Error code: 135
2018-12-18T12:36:54.2436720Z [12:36:54] E/launcher - Error message: ECONNREFUSED connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:4444
2018-12-18T12:36:54.2436826Z [12:36:54] E/launcher - Error: ECONNREFUSED connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:4444
2018-12-18T12:36:54.2441705Z [12:36:54] E/launcher - Process exited with error code 135
2018-12-18T12:36:54.2532843Z ‌>> ‌
2018-12-18T12:36:54.2537675Z ‌Warning: Tests failed, protractor exited with code: 135 Use --force to continue.‌
2018-12-18T12:36:54.2608988Z
2018-12-18T12:36:54.2609215Z ‌Aborted due to warnings.‌
2018-12-18T12:36:54.3660216Z ##[error]Cmd.exe exited with code '135'.
We have tried another way to execute the script, by hardcoding the selenium hub address in config.js (instead of localhost, ip address is provided) like this
seleniumAddress: 'http://<ipaddress>:4444/wd/hub',
but we see a different error as shown below.
2018-12-18T12:23:06.4867590Z ‌Running "protractor:e2e_tests" (protractor) task‌
2018-12-18T12:23:07.0061140Z I/launcher - Running 1 instances of WebDriver
2018-12-18T12:23:07.0061367Z I/hosted - Using the selenium server at http://:4444/wd/hub
2018-12-18T12:23:28.0555423Z E/launcher - ETIMEDOUT connect ETIMEDOUT :4444
2018-12-18T12:23:28.0556179Z E/launcher - Error: ETIMEDOUT connect ETIMEDOUT :4444
2018-12-18T12:23:28.0571368Z E/launcher - Process exited with error code 199
2018-12-18T12:23:28.0635055Z ‌>> ‌
2018-12-18T12:23:28.0635654Z ‌Warning: Tests failed, protractor exited with code: 199 Use --force to continue.‌
2018-12-18T12:23:28.0668847Z
2018-12-18T12:23:28.0688725Z ‌Aborted due to warnings.‌
2018-12-18T12:23:28.1695155Z ##[error]Cmd.exe exited with code '199'.
Any help will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!