This scenario demonstrates how data moves within a Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 site for software distribution.
The accounting department has just purchased a new line-of-business application and wants it installed on all accounting computers as soon as possible. Kim uses the software distribution feature of Configuration Manager 2007 to send the new software only to computers in the accounting department based on their membership in an Active Directory security group.
- Kim enables Active Directory Security Group Discovery. Every
day, Configuration Manager 2007 queries Active Directory for all
computers that are members of the Accounting security group.
- Kim creates a query in the Configuration Manager 2007 console
to find all members of the Accounting security group.
- Kim creates a collection based on the query to find all members
of the Accounting security group. If the Active Directory
administrator adds a new computer to the Accounting security group,
the next time Active Directory Security Group Discovery runs it
will add the new computer to the Configuration Manager 2007
database. The next time the Accounting collection is evaluated, the
query will find the new computer in the database and it will be
added to the collection.
- Kim enables the Advertised Programs Client Agent, so that all
clients in his site will be able to receive software distribution
packages.
- Kim creates several distribution points in each site. If he
configured only one per site, it might not be able to service all
of the clients in that site.
- Kim creates a package for the accounting application. He
configures the package to read the source files from the CD and
create a local copy of the package, because disks in his office
sometimes disappear without his permission.
- The application has a tool to create a customized Windows
Installer file that will install the software with no user
intervention and using all of the accounting department's preferred
defaults. Kim creates one program to run the customized Windows
Installer and he creates a second program to uninstall the
accounting application, just in case. Both programs are configured
to run whether or not a user is logged on, and both will run with
administrative rights even if the logged on user is not currently
an administrator, even if the client computer is running Windows
Vista with User Access Control enabled.
- The default package access accounts allow all users to read the
package. Because only accounting members should have access, Kim
removes the Users package access account and adds an account for
the accounting group.
- Kim copies the package to all distribution points in his site.
He also copies the package to all distribution points in all child
sites because there are some members of accounting in every
site.
- As soon as Kim completes the distribution point wizard, the
site server immediately begins copying the files to the
distribution points in his site. Kim purposefully waited until the
end of the day to run the distribution point wizard so the network
would be less busy. The sender controls the bandwidth utilization
to the child sites, so it doesn't matter when Kim runs the
distribution point wizard. The sender from the parent site copies
the package to the child site in small chunks and verifies each
chunk before sending the next one. After the entire package is
successfully received at the child site, the child site server
copies the package to all distribution points in that site.
- After Kim has verified in the package status that the package
has been distributed to all of his distribution points, he creates
an advertisement. He configures the advertisement to use the
accounting package and the program to run the customized Windows
Installer file. He sets the advertisement to send the package and
program to the accounting collection. He configures the
advertisement to run next Wednesday at 4 pm in the client's time
zone. He could have configured it to run at 4 pm UTC but some of
the sites in other countries do not have local administrators and
Kim doesn't want to get troubleshooting calls in the middle of the
night if 4 pm in his site is midnight in a different site. Even
though the application is rather large, Kim configures the
advertisement to run even if the client computer is connected to a
slow network boundary; this means that accounting users who work
from home and connect using a VPN will still have to install the
program. Kim makes a note to send out an e-mail to the home-based
workers to let them know the large package is coming.
- As soon as Kim completes the advertisement wizard,
Configuration Manager 2007 creates a policy and sends it to the
management points for all the sites. For the management points at
the child sites, the sender at the parent site copies the policy to
the site server at the child site and the child site server sends
it to the site management point.
- The clients in all the sites have been configured to poll for
new policy every two hours because it provides a nice balance
between getting software out quickly enough but not saturating the
network with policy requests.
- The next time a client in the Accounting collection polls the
management point, it is told that it has software advertised to it.
It asks for the location of the content and is given a list of
distribution points in the site. The client sorts the list and
finds three distribution points on the same subnet, so it picks one
at random. The client connects to the selected distribution point
and downloads the content into a local cache and then runs the
program from the cache to install the accounting software.
- After the software is installed, the client sends a status
message indicating success.
- Kim creates a report to show which clients have successfully
installed the accounting software.