Function of Collection Update Schedules

Question

I am having trouble getting SCCM to update collections only when scheduled.  It seems that any time a change is made to a limiting collection that triggers all collections that are dependant on that collection to refresh immediatlely.  I would
like to make a change to a limiting collection and have the collecitons that are limited by that collection not update until they are scheduled to update.
I have a Collection "Main" limited by collection "Limit".  If I add a computer to collection "Limit"  and it meets the query requirements of collection "Main" the client gets added to "Main"
immediately instead of waiting until the scheduled time for collection "Main" to be updated.  I would like to add clients to the "Limit" collection and have the "Main" collection not update until it is scheduled to update.
Any way to achieve this?

Answer 1

My business case doesn't say that all software should only be installed at 3:00AM.  My business case says that particularly intrusive applications should install in the overnight hours.  Stuff with no/low impact can install in the middle of the
day.
Envision this... I am asked to deploy some package to a list of 20 machines over night.  Then the next day I am asked to deploy the same software to 30 different machines, also overnight,  then 100 more the next day, then 1000 more the next day,
then 10000 more the next day.  like a phased rollout. 
I could build a new collection for each of these distinct collections of machines and build an advertisement for them also, and that sure would deploy a package to a those collections at the correct time. 
The problem is that I'd need 6 collection and six advertisements, when I could easily get away with two collections and just rely on the colleciton update to make the package available for a certain time.  I dont wanna build all those collections and
all those advertisements.  I just want to make my collection get wider and wider, and I want to do it in the daytime, but not have it take affect until later.
Maitenance windows don't work for many instances.  I don't believe Wake on LAN takes MWs into account.  Laptops that are usually off don't work well with maintenance windows.  Plenty of machines are never on during their maintenance windows,
and if you set software to deploy outside of maintenace windows after a deadline, then you have defeated the maintenance window.  A week from now the deadline is past and now the software installs as soon as it is discovered.  Set the deadline
into the future, and machine that are not on during their maintenance window never install the software.  Maintenance windows are no panecea.  It would work to create a new advertisement every time the collection was expanded, but that's unneccessary
work.
My method is more like a step function.  You know?  New machines get added to the standing collection with an advertisement in the past once a day at 3:00AM and the software installs at the next client policy refresh after that time. Simple and
easy.  Hey here's 100 more machines that need the software.  No problem, dump them into the limiter collection and then when the main collection refreshes, those new systems are added to the main collection.
The reason I do this is that I don't want to wake up at 3:00AM to drop those clients into the collection. I stage them in a pre-deployment collection and then they get added to the advertisement target collection when the collection evaluation runs on schedule. 
Anyway, this worked fine in 2007, a change was made in 2012 to break it, and now I have a nice workaround in place, it is not too complicated, so problem solved.