Overlapping Boundaries and ConfigMgr 2012

In ConfigMgr 2007 everybody’s first reaction about overlapping boundaries was “don’t do it!”, but is that the same in ConfigMgr 2012? Well, the answer on that differs per situation. In this post I will describe the three different situations/ scenario’s about overlapping boundaries and ConfigMgr 2012.

  • Scenario 1 – Overlapping boundaries for automatic site assignment: NOT supported! The site to which the client will assign is still unpredictable when there are multiple boundary groups that includes the current network location of the client (and of course, the boundary groups are assigned to different sites).
  • Scenario 2 – Overlapping boundaries for content locations: Supported! It will enable the client to get a list of all the content locations that are connected with a boundary group that includes the current network location of the client. So it creates a sort of fallback scenario.
  • Scenario 3 – Overlapping boundaries across a ConfigMgr 2012 and a ConfigMgr 2007 hierarchy (specific for automatic site assignment):
    • Supported for ConfigMgr 2012 –clients. ConfigMgr 2012 –clients are able to check the version of the CofigMgr –site and they can’t assign to a ConfigMgr 2007 –site.
    • Not supported for ConfigMgr 2007 –clients. ConfigMgr 2007 –clients are not able to check the version of the CofigMgr –site and they can incorrectly assign to a ConfigMgr 2012 –site.

BoundaryGroupSo how can we prevent to get into one of these situations? Well, that actually easier then we might think. For ConfigMgr 2012 –sites it is possible to add a boundary to multiple boundary groups.  Also it’s possible to use a boundary group only for site assignment (red square in the picture), or only for content locations (green square in the picture). So this makes it possible to use a set of boundary groups for automatic site assignment and a different set of boundary groups for content locations. This can help to avoid the overlapping boundaries for automatic site assignment.

Besides that it’s almost not possible to avoid the overlapping boundaries between the different hierarchies… The only thing that can done to stop the problems, is to stop automatic site assignment for ConfigMgr 2007 –clients. This avoids the ConfigMgr 2007 –clients from automatic assigning to the wrong site and the ConfigMgr 2012 –clients will keep on assigning to their own site.

See for more information: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg712679.aspx

8 thoughts on “Overlapping Boundaries and ConfigMgr 2012”

  1. Thank you for this article, lots of useful information. But I would like to ask a question if I may.

    If I have a single boundary in a boundary group with a protected DP, have you ever seen the system not list that DP in the location.log? For some reason I have a few boundary groups that are doing this. This site was using a single boundary group for site assignment, but it also contained all the 2007 converted site servers in that group as content locations. This was causing my clients to pull packages from various corners of the state. Once those were removed and the groups were set to assign their on site settings, this issue started showing up.

    Thanks in advance.

    Reply
  2. hi Peter,

    We have a SCCM environment and two boundaries defined in it based on our two AD sites.
    I need to install another SCCM instance in the same domain, which will be used for testing purpose. I have two questions pertaining to this situation
    1. Is it ok to install another SCCM instance in the same domain? Could this new installation use the same “system management” container (and we just grant the new SCCM server account permission to the existing container)
    2. We have boundaries defined in our existing SCCM based on our two AD sites. Could I define boundaries in the new SCCM environment based on the same AD sites.

    We wont be pushing agents from the new environment on to the machines which have agents reporting to the old environment

    Reply
    • Hi Amar,

      If you’re only manually installing agents for that test environment, you don’t need to do anything with the AD as you can provide the required information during the client installation.

      Peter

      Reply
  3. Hi peter

    I’m going to do a side by side migration from 2012 to current branch when I migrate the boundaries I noticed on the 2012 the site assignment is not checked I thought I had to uncheck it when I migrate the boundaries to CB to have the clients go to new site when I upgrade them is there a best practice ? I’m a noob and nervous

    Reply
      • Thank you Peter for the response really helps to know guys like you were out there to help guys like me

        So my plan is to migrate the boundaries remove the site Assigment away from the old environment enable on the new then upgrade the clients it’s about 3000 or so in phases does that sound OK

        Reply
        • Hi Anthony,
          That sounds fine. Site assignment is used during the installation of a client, so for installing clients in the old environment you can still specify the site information in the parameters.
          Regards, Peter

          Reply

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