Content management in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 relies on the infrastructure of the distribution point site role. This section provides configuration information for creating the distribution point site role, configuring the distribution point properties, and creating distribution point groups.
.gif) Important |
|---|
| Planning the distribution point infrastructure is an important first step in your content management strategy. For more information about planning for content management in your hierarchy, see Planning for Content Management in Configuration Manager 2012. |
Install and Configure the Distribution Point
You must first designate a site system as a distribution point before content can be made available to client computers. You can add the distribution point site role to a new site system or by add the site role to an existing site system. Use one of the following procedures to add the distribution point site role to an existing or new site server.
To add the distribution point site role to an existing server
-
In the Configuration Manager console, click Administration.
-
In the Administration workspace, expand Site Operations, and then click Servers and Site System Roles.
-
Click the server in which you want to install the distribution point site role. When you click a server, a list of the site system roles that are already installed on the server are displayed in the details pane.
-
On the Home tab, in the Server group, click Add Site System Role. The Create Roles Wizard opens.
-
On the General page, specify the general settings.
-
On the System Role Selection page, select Distribution point from the list of available roles, and then click Next.
-
Configure the distribution point settings on the following pages of the wizard:
- Distribution Point page
Configure the general distribution point settings.
- Install and configure IIS if required by
Configuration Manager: Select this setting to allow
Configuration Manager 2012 to install and configure IIS
on the server if it is not already installed. IIS must be installed
on all distribution points and you must select this setting to
continue in the wizard.
- Configure how client devices communicate with
the distribution point and what certificate the distribution point
will use to communicate with the management point.
- Enable this distribution point for prestaged
content: Select this setting to enable the distribution point for
prestaged content. When this setting is selected, you can configure
distribution behavior when you distribute content. You can choose
whether you will always prestage the content on the distribution
point, prestage the initial content for the package but use the
normal content distribution process when there are updates to the
content, or always use the normal content distribution process for
the content in the package.
- Install and configure IIS if required by
Configuration Manager: Select this setting to allow
Configuration Manager 2012 to install and configure IIS
on the server if it is not already installed. IIS must be installed
on all distribution points and you must select this setting to
continue in the wizard.
- Drive Settings page
You can configure up to two disk drives for the content library and two drives for the package share, although Configuration Manager 2012 can use additional drives when required. The drive settings page configures the priority for the disk drives and the amount of free disk space that should remain on each disk drive.
- Drive space reserve (MB): The value that you configure for this
setting determines the amount of free space on a drive before
Configuration Manager 2012 chooses a different drive and
continues the copy process to that drive. Content files can span
multiple drives.
- Content Locations: Specify the content locations for the
content library and package share.
Configuration Manager 2012 will copy content to the
primary content location until the amount of free space reaches the
value specified for Drive space reserve (MB). By default the
content locations are set to Automatic and the primary content
location will be set to the disk drive that has the most disk space
at installation and the secondary location assigned the disk drive
that has the second most free disk space. When the primary and
secondary drives reach the drive space reserve, Configuration
Manager will select another available drive with the most free disk
space and continue the copy process.
- Drive space reserve (MB): The value that you configure for this
setting determines the amount of free space on a drive before
Configuration Manager 2012 chooses a different drive and
continues the copy process to that drive. Content files can span
multiple drives.
- PXE and Multicast pages
Configure whether to enable PXE and multicast, and if enabled, configure the settings.
- Content Validation page
The content validation process verifies the integrity of content files on the distribution point. When you enable content validation on a schedule, Configuration Manager will initiate the process at the scheduled time, and all content on the distribution point is verified. You can also configure the content validation priority. To view the results of the content validation process, go to the Monitoring workspace, expand Distribution Status, and click the Content Status node. The content for each package type (for example, Application, Software Update Package, and Boot Image) is displayed.
- Boundary Group page
The distribution point can be assigned with boundary groups. The distribution point is considered protected for the clients that are on boundaries that are associated with the boundary group. During a content deployment, only the clients that are in an assigned boundary group can use the distribution point as a content location source. You can select Allow a client outside these boundary groups to fall back and use this site system as a source location for content to allow clients not in the assigned boundary groups to use the distribution point if another distribution point is not available to the client.
After you complete the wizard, the distribution point site role is added to the site system server.
- Distribution Point page
To add the distribution point site role to a new server
-
In the Configuration Manager console, click Administration.
-
In the Administration workspace, expand Site Operations and click Servers and Site System Roles.
On the Home tab, in the Create group, click Create Site System Server. The Create Server Wizard opens.
-
On the General page, specify the general settings.
-
On the System Role Selection page, select Distribution point from the list of available roles, and then click Next.
-
Configure the distribution point settings on the following pages of the wizard:
- Distribution Point page
Configure the general distribution point settings.
- Install and configure IIS if required by
Configuration Manager: Select this setting to allow
Configuration Manager 2012 to install and configure IIS
on the server if it is not already installed. IIS is required on
all distribution points and you must select this setting to
continue in the wizard.
- Configure how client devices communicate with
the distribution point and what certificate the distribution point
will use to communicate with the management point.
- Enable this distribution point for prestaged
content: Select this setting to enable the distribution point for
prestaged content. When this setting is selected, you can configure
distribution behavior when you distribute content. You can choose
whether you will always prestage the content on the distribution
point, prestage the initial content for the package but use the
normal content distribution process when there are updates to the
content, or always use the normal content distribution process for
the content in the package.
- Install and configure IIS if required by
Configuration Manager: Select this setting to allow
Configuration Manager 2012 to install and configure IIS
on the server if it is not already installed. IIS is required on
all distribution points and you must select this setting to
continue in the wizard.
- Drive Settings page
You can configure up to two disk drives for the content library and two drives for the package share. The drive settings page configures the priority for the disk drives and the amount of free disk space that should remain on the disk drive before switching to the secondary location.
- Drive space reserve (MB): The value that you configure for this
setting determines the amount of free space on a drive before
Configuration Manager 2012 chooses a different drive and
continues the copy process to that drive. Content files can span
multiple drives.
- Content Locations: Specify the content locations for the
content library and package share.
Configuration Manager 2012 will copy content to the
primary content location until the amount of free space reaches the
value specified for Drive space reserve (MB). By default the
content locations are set to Automatic and the primary content
location will be set to the disk drive that has the most disk space
at installation and the secondary location assigned the disk drive
that has the second most free disk space. When the primary and
secondary drives reach the drive space reserve, Configuration
Manager will select another available drive with the most free disk
space and continue the copy process.
- Drive space reserve (MB): The value that you configure for this
setting determines the amount of free space on a drive before
Configuration Manager 2012 chooses a different drive and
continues the copy process to that drive. Content files can span
multiple drives.
- PXE and Multicast pages
Configure whether to enable PXE and multicast, and if enabled, configure the settings.
- Content Validation page
The content validation process verifies the integrity of content files on the distribution point. When you enable content validation on a schedule, Configuration Manager will initiate the process at the scheduled time, and all content on the distribution point is verified. You can also configure the content validation priority. To view the results of the content validation process, go to the Monitoring workspace, expand Distribution Status, and click the Content Status node. The content for each package type (for example, Application, Software Update Package, and Boot Image) is displayed.
- Boundary Group page
The distribution point can be assigned with boundary groups. The distribution point is considered protected for the clients that are on boundaries that are associated with the boundary group. During a content deployment, only the clients that are in an assigned boundary group can use the distribution point as a content location source. You can select Allow a client outside these boundary groups to fall back and use this site system as a source location for content to allow clients not in the assigned boundary groups to use the distribution point if another distribution point is not available to the client.
After you complete the wizard, the distribution point site role is added to the site system server.
- Distribution Point page
Configure Distribution Point Groups
Distribution point groups provide a logical grouping of distribution points and collections for content distribution. When you distribute content to a distribution point group, all distribution points that are members of the distribution point group receive the content. When a new distribution point is added to a distribution point group, it receives all content that has been previously distributed to it. You can also associate collections to the distribution point group. When you distribute content, you can target a collection and the distribution points that are members of all distribution point groups with an association to the collection receive the content.
| Important |
|---|
| After you distribute content to a collection, and then associate the collection to a new distribution point group, you must redistribute the content to the collection before the content will be distributed to the new distribution point group. |
To create and configure a new distribution point group
-
In the Configuration Manager console, click Administration.
-
In the Administration workspace, click Distribution Point Groups.
-
On the Home tab, in the Create group, click Create Group.
-
Enter the name and description for the distribution point group.
-
On the Collections tab, click Add, select the collections that you want to associate with the distribution point group, and then click OK.
-
On the Members tab, click Add, select the distribution points that you want to add as members of the distribution point group, and then click OK.
-
Click OK to create the distribution point group.
To add distribution points and associate collections to an existing distribution point group
-
In the Configuration Manager console, click Administration.
-
In the Administration workspace, click Distribution Point Groups, and then select the distribution point group in which you want to modify members.
-
On the Home tab, in the Properties group, click Properties.
-
On the Collections tab, click Add to select the collections that you want to associate with the distribution point group, and then click OK.
-
On the Members tab, click Add to select the distribution points that you want to add as members of the distribution point group, and then click OK.
-
Click OK to save changes to the distribution point group.
To add selected distribution points to a new distribution point group
-
In the Configuration Manager console, click Administration.
-
In the Administration workspace, click Distribution Points, and then select the distribution points in which you want to add to the new distribution point group.
-
On the Home tab, in the Distribution Point group, expand Add Selected Items, and then click Add Selected Items to New Distribution Point Group.
-
Enter the name and description for the distribution point group.
-
On the Collections tab, click Add to select the collections that you want to associate with the distribution point group, and then click OK.
-
On the Members tab, verify that the distribution points listed should be added as members of the distribution point group. Click Add to modify the distribution points that you want to add as members of the distribution point group, and then click OK.
-
Click OK to create the distribution point group.
To add selected distribution points to existing distribution point groups
-
In the Configuration Manager console, click Administration.
-
In the Administration workspace, click Distribution Points, and then select the distribution points in which you want to add to the new distribution point group.
-
On the Home tab, in the Distribution Point group, expand Add Selected Items, and then click Add Selected Items to Existing Distribution Point Groups.
-
In the Available distribution point groups, select the distribution point groups in which the selected distribution points will be added as members, and then click OK.