A little documented feature in SCCM 2012 is that the client push process will utilise any available DP’s as a source location for the client install package.
Previously in SCCM 2007 the client files always were pushed from the site server initiating the push. This isnt always a practical scenario where there are slow or costly network links.
In SCCM 2012, only the initial ccmsetup files are pushed to the client. From there, during ccmsetup.exe process it will perform a content location request, in the same way that normal software distribution does. If the client package has been distributed to a DP that is inside the target client’s boundary, it will be used for the installation source.
Here are some pre-requisites for this to work.
- Target device must be in a defined boundary
- SCCM package must be distributed to a DP within that boundary
- Target device machine account must have read permissions to the SMS_DP$ share (because ccmsetup.exe runs as local system)
To verify this has worked, inspect the CCMSETUP.log file
you should see a line like the below where the content location request is initiated:
Sending message body ‘
This line indicates a valid DP has been located:
Found local location ‘http://DP1.DOMAIN.LOCAL/SMS_DP_SMSPKG$/PRI00002’
Discovered 1 local DP locations.
This line indicates shows the authentication attempt :
PROPFIND ‘http://DP1.DOMAIN.LOCAL/SMS_DP_SMSPKG$/PRI00002′
if the DP is located and authenticated and passes all checks, this line will be present
Using DP location ‘http://DP1.DOMAIN.LOCAL/SMS_DP_SMSPKG$/PRI00002
This is a really neat feature that adds alot of flexibility to client push in larger site configurations