Pull Distribution Point Requirements (BITS?)

We have recently migrated to all SCCM 2012 infrastructure. All of our recent deployments are Server 2012 but we have a lot of Server 2008 R2 64bit. There is a lot of documentation online and some say BITS is required for DPs and some say not. Our packages
have been struggling to reach our DPs and Pull DPs. Does anyone have any opinion if BITS should be installed on DPs or Pull DPs. I know I have read that BITS is not required on Server 2012 however it states nothing about Server 2008 R2 64bit. Any opinion or
experience would be helpful.

Nothing specific to Pull DP...
Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg682077.aspx#BKMK_Win2k12SiteSystemPrereqs
With System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, the distribution point site system role does not require Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). When BITS is configured on the distribution point computer, BITS on the distribution point computer is
not used to facilitate the download of content by clients that use BITS
A pull-distribution point is considered to be a client when it accesses another distribution point to obtain content.

Similar Messages

Server 2012 Distribution Point - Is BITS Required ?

Hi All,
I have deployed a Distribution Point on Server 2012, i went through the documentation and there was no mention of BITS being a prerequsite...
So my Question is - Do we still need to install BITS as a prereq for the Distribution Point Role on a Server 2012 box.
Cheers

There still seems to be some contradictions on whether you are supposed to install BITS or not when setting up a Distribution Point.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg712264.aspx under the section
"To install Internet Information Services (IIS) on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 computers"
clearly shows for Windows Server 2008 R2, select the
Background Intelligent Transfer Services (BITS) check box.
If you look at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg682077.aspx#BKMK_SiteSystemRolePrereqs under the Distribution Point prerequisites, there
is no mention of installing BITS unless we are to assume the statement "You can use the default IIS configuration" means to select BITS as described above?
Plus the following note under Additional prerequisites is as clear as mud.
Note
With System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, the distribution point site system role does not require Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). When BITS is configured on the distribution point computer, BITS on the distribution point
computer is not used to facilitate the download of content by clients that use BITS.
Most of us understand the client facilitates the BITS downloads but is there still a need for the
BITS Server Extensions and the only way to get those on a Server 2008 R2 box is to select the
Background Intelligent Transfer Services (BITS) check box?

Pull Distribution Points - Any views?

We are about to embark on a project to upgrade to 2012. We have a lot of branch locations (>250 and rising) and traditionally these locations hosted secondary sites. What is currently being proposed is to have a primary with two secondary sites under
that and an even distribution of DPs underneath the secondaries in place of the old 2007 secondary sites. The purpose of the secondary sites in this instance is to alleviate the 250 DP limit load per site.
With SP1, there are pull DPs that might be an alternative to this approach, allowing us to do away with the secondary sites. If this were the case I'd probably look at having three standard DPs coming off the primary and the pull DPs set to get their content
from these 'randomly'. I put the word in inverted commas, as according to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/gg712321.aspx:
If there are multiple source distribution points with the same priority, the pull-distribution point nondeterministically selects one
of the source distribution points that share that priority.
What is meant by nondeterministically?
One assumes this would mean randomly but is this the case? Has anyone got any experience of this and pull DPs in general? Do they work as well as traditional DPs? Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks

Non-deterministically can be equate to random. It effectively means there's no (publically) defined way that they choose.
There is no difference between a PullDP and a normal DP from the client's perspective -- they have no way to know the difference and no reason to know the difference because they are in fact the same as far as making content available to clients.
The only actual difference with Pull DPs is how they acquire their own content. PullDPs use BITS and use the same logic (and code even to my knowledge) that clients themselves do (they don't require the actual client agent though). There have been a lot
of improvements in PullDPs in R2 as well as some of the CUs. There was even a KB for a hotfix released in the past couple of weeks that discussed a registry tweak to help PullDPs along.
PullDPs, in general, work quite well and there is no specific reason to avoid them. They do require a bit of extra care and feeding, but to my knowledge, nearly all of the kinks with them have been worked out.
Have you considered using BranchCache as an alternative (or one of the third-party ACPs) though? Not trying to make your decision harder or recommend one over the other, just making sure you knew about other options that could address your challenge.
Jason | http://blog.configmgrftw.com | @jasonsandys

SCCM 2012 - Pull distribution point and target PKI or HTTPS DPs

I have spent several days researching this and so far have found only a single page that even takes a stab at offering a solution.
Problem:
Trying to target an HTTPS DP when creating a pull distribution point in SCCM 2012 R2. The link that I'm referring to that does offer a workaround is here(guess I can't post a link, but it ends with the following, how-to-set-an-https-distribution-point-as-a-source-dp-for-pull-dps)
I have several problems with the proposed solution.
Is a script really the only way to proceed with something that has up till now been a built in feature with the rest of the product.
You have to provision the DP to use a self signed cert initially for it to even work, then supposedly you can add the private key to the DP later.
Does that mean I have to unbind the cert from both the pull and target/source push DP in IIS?
Powershell which would be a logical way to go, doesn't seem to make any head way(Mr. Snover I know you don't oversee configman but please push for more documentation, you've taught me to live and die by get-help. A single example for a command as large
as set-cmdistributionpoint or add-cmdistributionpoint is a shame. Perhaps my update help just didn't finish properly and I'm talking prematurely. If that is the case then I apologize!)
Is there no other solution other than build the DP with a self signed cert then run this VB script and then switch the private key later? I have read through a lot of the pull DP documentation and it makes mention of leveraging the SDK but I haven't seen
anything definitive. I would like to at the very least convert this from VB to powershell(if that script is the only option) and I know how to convert the portions where it's interacting with the site's WMI namespace (smsprovider if I'm not mistaken).
What I don't know how to do, rather don't have the chops for is what comes after. The site control file piece, I see it's also WMI and I could spend the time stepping through the different piece and just might to learn more about SCCM in the lab anyhow. I've
spent the last year getting to know powershell and have spent next to no time with VB. I know enough to recognize what a script is doing.
The environment:
The reason this is important for me is I'm about to start the production build(been all lab up till now) that is going to have just under 300 DPs in the field connected via T1 lines. They were all 07 secondary sites. I was thinking about migrating them using
the migration tool but considering the amount of work its going to take if that link is the ONLY path to target a HTTPS DP then I might as well just spend the time and manually uninstall and reinstall the field DPs. The client count in the field is an average
of 50 machines per site where there are on-prem devices... Total client count is around 25k. The primary site in the datacenter will house the majority of the site roles unless I start running into resource issues, at which time I will begin offloading site
roles to one of two more servers that I have slated for the project. No CAS, no Secondaries. SQL is co-located on the primary.
Ramblings:
I'm sure there are more people out there using PKI, and using pull DPs. How have you managed to target your HTTPS enabled DPs? Security wants this to be a HTTPS only environment, and up until now I have successfully done that. If someone could please point
me in the direction of some more thorough documentation I would be very grateful. I understand that this is a somewhat new feature, but there has to be an easier way. Perhaps powershell can cleanly do it with the set-cmdistribution point...but when I update
help and do showwindow for the command I only get one example and so far haven't found any other stories like mine with the exception of the link I posted in the beginning.
While I'm rambling, Wally there are a lot of us in the community that are going to miss your presence at Microsoft and should you read this I wish you luck with your new position. But that is a whole different topic. Thanks in advance for any links or help
you can provide. -K.R.

Yes, this is the only way, from
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg712321.aspx#BKMK_PlanPullDps: "However, you can use the Configuration Manager SDK to specify a source distribution point that is configured for HTTPS. To use a source distribution point that is configured
for HTTPS, the pull-distribution point must be co-located on a computer that runs the Configuration Manager client. "
Does "why" really matter , who cares? It just is. Whether it was an oversight, a coding bug, or an act of God doesn't change anything. Why does there "have to be" an easier way? And what's wrong with using the VBScripts others have
written? A script is a script is a script particularly if you've been given it already. Just because the hammer is pink doesn't mean it can't hammer the nail in.
Jason | http://blog.configmgrftw.com | @jasonsandys

SCCM 2012 R2 & Pull Distribution Point Casuing 0 Byte amd64 folders

Experiencing an extremely frustrating problem.
ENVIRONMENT:
1 Primary Site Server / DP (Main Office)
40 DP's (Remote School Locations)
- Hosted on a file server VM
- Contains 3 partitions: C: (System), E: (Data), I: (PKG share)
OS: Server 2008 R2 (Primary Site Server and File Servers / DP's)
SCCM Version: SCCM 2012 R2
We recently upgrade to SCCM 2012 R2. I have confirmed that this has not caused the problem I am about to describe. The only other change that has occurred recently is that we configured all of our DP's at each of our 40 sites to be pull distribution points.
While this seems to be working fine we are now seeing a whole bunch of 0 Byte alpha numeric folders with a 0 Byte amd64 subfolder. These folders seem to attach to the E: drive on all of our File server distribution points....for the life of me I cannot figure
out why and this occurred as soon as we switched to pull distribution points. While this does not seem to be having an erroneous effect on our environment, it is annoying and somewhat disconcerting as I have not been able to ascertain what is causing it. Any
SCCM admins out their ever encountered this?
Thanks

Yes, I have examined the logs using cmtrace and done a search for the amd64 string to see if any of the logs indicate its creation as part of the pull dp process. I have not found anything as of yet.
Thanks

Pull Distribution Point on updates removing

(1)When you distribute packages, you can use Pull Distribution Point. By this way, "SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER" component can do more Jobs. OK.
(2)My question is about the process of updates removing. SCCM Site takes long time to remove expired updates from DP. Is this action managed by "SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER" or SCCM Site notifies Pull DP to remove updates like (1)

distmgr is not involved when it comes to pull DPs. So assumption (1) is wrong. All actions are done by the pull DP after it was "notified" by the site.
Torsten Meringer | http://www.mssccmfaq.de

Reassign Shared Distribution Point - Required free space

Hi All,
I’m working on the migration from SCCM 2007 R3 to SCCM 2012 R2 CU1 for our customer and currently I would to reassign our SCCM 2007 Secondary Sites to SCCM 2012 Distribution Points.
The “Reassign Shared Distribution Point Wizard” states that I need approximately twice the space of required content for the conversion:
... but in the following Technet article I read that the conversion requires available free disk space equal to the size of the largest package that is stored on the distribution point (see the extract below):
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg712275.aspx
To upgrade a distribution point from within the Configuration Manager console, the Configuration Manager 2007 site system server must meet the following conditions:
The      distribution point configuration and location must be eligible for      upgrade.
The      distribution point computer must have sufficient disk space for the      content to be converted from the
Configuration Manager 2007 content      storage format to the single instance store format. For      System Center 2012 Configuration Manager with no service      pack, this conversion
requires available free disk space equal to two      times the size of the existing data on the distribution point.
Beginning with      System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 and      System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager, this conversion requires
available free disk space equal to the size of the largest package that is      stored on the distribution point.
Considering that the environment version is SCCM 2012 R2 CU1 (version: 5.0.7958.1203)
I do not know if it is
better to trust to MS article or to the Reassign DP Wizard statement. Is it really needed
all that free space in my DP in order to complete the migration?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks a lot.
Andrea

In my experience with R2 migrations you do not need double the space as was the case with RTM version.
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SCCM 2012 Distribution Point without IIS

Hello. My environment is SCCM 2012 SP1. I need to set up distribution points on several Windows Server 2003 machines. These machines have certain security requirements. One of which is no IIS. In SCCM 2007, I was able to create DPs without installing IIS.
This prevented the use of BITS extensions but was acceptable. I cannot seemed to do the same with SCCM 2012.
As a test, I performed three steps to test a DP without IIS on a Windows Server 2003 machine 1) Made the primary server a local administrator on the Windows Server 2003 machine, 2) Installed RDC using the msrdcoob_x86.exe file, 3) in the admin console, I
created a new site system server with the distribution point role. I did not check allow it to install IIS to install/configure during the setup. The distribution point reports a successful installation status but I get three errors when I try to distribute
a package. The first error message is Failed to create virtual directory on the defined share or volume of the distribution point. The second error is Distribution Manager failed to connect the the distribution point. The third error is Distribution Manager
failed to process package "Package Name". I know that installing IIS with BITS extensions and WebDav support would fix this problem. However, I would like to use the DP without IIS like I did in SCCM 2007.
Looking at the supported configurations, I see the below. This leads me to below that it is possible. Does anyone know if this is possible? If so, what I am missing in my steps.
With System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, the distribution point site system role does not require Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). When BITS is configured on the distribution point computer, BITS on the distribution
point computer is not used to facilitate the download of content by clients that use BITS

BITS is a client side technology and has nothing to do with the server side of a DP or IIS and thus is irrelevant.
WebDAV was built into the relevant components of ConfigMgr obviating the need for the Windows Server WebDAV component so that's not needed for 2012 at all and thus N/A.
Ultimately, no, this is not possible. IIS is required on a DP in ConfigMgr 2012. This is clearly listed at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg682077.aspx#BKMK_SiteSystemRolePrereqs.
Jason | http://blog.configmgrftw.com

Is there a way to avoid having a content library on a site server when the Distribution Point role is not installed on that server (disk cost issue)?

Hello,
I don't think it is possible, but my goal is to start a discussion about content libraries and maybe suggest something for a future release or version of Configuration Manager.
Actually, based on Configuration Manager Technet documentation, Configuration Manager creates a content library on each site server and on each distribution point.
Often, when designing the architecture, people will offload the distribution point role from the site server to an external server (and add the role to other servers too for redundancy). They could also do the same for the Management Point role, but this
is not related to content library. The idea is to save the site server from having to deal with clients for software distribution (applications, software updates, OS, etc.), this is especially true for organizations having a large number of clients and/or
primary site servers involved in a hierarchy. Doing so will allow more resources on the site server to deal with the database and also replication in the case of a hierarchy.
When doing that, you still have to maintain a content library on the site server and the thing is this library will usually become huge, especially for organizations having more than 1000 applications (add also OS images to this). Will the content library
on the site server become as huge as the one for a distribution point having a copy of all content? I guess the answer is yes.
I know that Pull distribution points will help offloading the task from the site server to distribute content to distribution points, but, correct me if I'm wrong, you still have to maintain a content library on the site server when using them, and they
will not make the content library smaller on the site server. Also, I don't like the fact that you lose the rate limits feature with Pull DPs, but this is another story.
Storage cost is high and in this scenario, it hurts to have to pay this cost for a content library not used by the clients, but only to distribute content to DPs.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the key component here is Distribution Manager on the site server; this is the one which has to maintain a content library to do its job.
It would be nice if we could have a way to elect a specific distribution point (not on the site server) as the Distribution Manager for a site, that main DP would hold a copy of all content by default, but would be used to distribute content to other DPs
and avoid the content library on the site server. Said differently, the Distribution Manager component would become a site system role that could be transferred outside the site server.
Tnx for comments, answers or suggestions.
Patrick

There is no way to avoid that the contentlib will be placed on the site server.
I don‘t agree that storage cost is high. It might be true for fast storage, but that‘s not needed for it.
Torsten Meringer | http://www.mssccmfaq.de

Pull Ditrbuation Point

Hi i have one primary site and One Secondary site and one Pull Distribution point the source of Pull DP is the secondary site now my question is what happened if i need to distribute package to the Pull DP without distribute it to the secondary site DP?
is this package will be pulled or will be distributed from the primary site?
Thanks,
Ahmed Ali

okay good so if i want to distribute packages to the PULL DP only i have to add the primary site DP as source DP for this Pull DP.
now what will happened if i want to distribute package to PULL DP and this package already presented on the primary and secondary site DP which DP will be used as source DP however that Primary and Secondary are considered as source DPs.
Thanks
Ahmed Ali

Deploying operating system and applications to branch distribution points

Dears,
Is there a way to distribute the content of an operating system image or an application package manually to a branch distribution point to overcome network bandwidth limitation and let SCCM know it is distributed there or you still need to distribute
content via SCCM console?
Regards,

You will always need to perform action via the console (or do something similar via PowerShell). I think the options of prestaging content, or a pull distribution point could be beneficial for you. Have a look here for more information:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg682083.aspx
My Blog: http://www.petervanderwoude.nl/
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Change to BITS-enabled Distribution Point

Hi guys,
Sub: Change to BITS-enabled Distribution Point
Let say the DP was not BIT-enabled, and I want to enabled BITS on that DP now.
Q: Do I need to refresh/update packages inside the DP?
OR do I need to clear cache content on client e.g C:\Windows\system32\CCM\cache?
Any concerns on changing to enabled BITS on DP that I should be aware of?
Many thanks in advanced!!
---Pat

Looks like i have found the answer at least i have got it to work.
Once i install .Net Framework 3.5.1 Feature on the server, i was able to boot succesfully into SCCM Task Sequence Wizard.
I also was successfull installing the the PXE DP role from the console succesfully without having to install WDS first.
So i guess that .Net Framework 3.5.1 is required for PXE DP role on Windows 2008 R2. (but i can't see that mentioned anywhere here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c1e93ef9-761f-4f60-8372-df9bf5009be0#BKMK_SiteSystemRolePrereqs)

Is the distribution point role required on an SCCM 2012 site server?

I am wondering if the distribution point role is required on an SCCM 2012 site server.
We have an installation of SCCM 2012 SP1 with a site server, and two remote DPs.
I would like to remove the DP role from the site server, and stand up another server (2012) at the same location, making it a DP and also have it hold the WSUS content.
I was successful in creating the DP on the new server. I distributed all of our packages to the new server.
I then removed the packages from the DP on the site server, and removed the DP role from the site server.
After making these changes, we lost the ability to deploy packages, either from the new DP server, or from the previously existing DPs that were at other locations.
Deployment status in the SCCM console showed that clients were “waiting for content”.
I found that adding the DP role back to the site server, and distributing packages to it corrected the problem.
Deployment resumed after doing that. Is it necessary to have packages on a DP on the site server?
We want to virtualize the server, and would like to make it as small as possible to facility restores.

Hi,
Have you checked the log file distmgr.log? Maybe it can give us some clues.
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Is the client/agent required on distribution points?

For license reasons we are advised to uninstall the agent on a bunch of servers. All our distribution point servers are amongst these. I can't find out if the config mgr client is actually required on the DPs or not. Anyone here know this?

No, it's not required.

Ports Required for SCCM Distribution point

Hi All,
Can anybody tell me the ports required for distribution point. as in I have a site server with distribution point in HO, i want to have a distribution point server on a remote site. i went through the microsoft document which says u require port 445 open between site server and distribution point and it says u only require port 80 or 443 open between distribution point and branch distribution point. little confused!!!. which ports i require to be open between site server with distribution and remote site distribution point.
Cheers.

Hi,
Regarding the doc here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632618.aspx
Site Server -- > Distribution Point
SMB 445 TCP
RPC Endpoint Mapper 135 UDP and TCP
RPC dynamic TCP
Site Server < -- > Site Server
SMB 445 TCP
Point to Point Tunneling Protocal (PPTP) 1723 TCP
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Pull Distribution Point Requirements (BITS?)

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