Compatibility of different types of Distribution Points

I noticed that it can be handy to know which types of Distribution Points are compatible with each other. For example, if you want to setup Multicast you can NOT use a Server Share. There is documentation about this, but for me it was hard to find. This is why I posted the most important part of this article (the compatibility table) in this post.   Server Server Share Branch Standard BITS-Enabled Protected Mobile Device Support Internet Based Clients Streaming Multicast Server N/A No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Server Share No N/A No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Branch Yes No N/A No No Yes No No Yes No Standard Yes No No N/A Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes …

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Distribution Point Groups in ConfigMgr 2007

This time I want to devote a post to Distribution Point Groups in ConfigMgr 2007. The most important thing to understand is that Distribution Point Groups are NOT meant to balance the load. Distribution Point Groups are meant to facilitate the processes of copying packages to Distribution Points (DP). Packages can then be sent to a Group of DP’s rather than to a single DP. One important thing to remember is that if you add a DP to an existing Group of DP’s, the new DP does not automatically receive packages that are previously copied to that Group. Create a Distribution Point Group by following the next steps: Open the Configuration Manager console and browse to System Center Configuration Manager > Site Database > Site …

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ConfigMgr 2007, USMT 4.0 and using Hard-Links

One of the coolest new functions of USMT 4.0 is the new hard-link migration store (only for computer-refresh scenarios). These migration stores are stored locally on the computer that is being refreshed and can migrate user accounts, files and settings. This way it will save time and space during a computer-refresh (and you do not need a State Migration Point!). When you create a default Task Sequence it will create the steps Request User State Storage and Release User State Storage. These steps are needed to interact with the State Migration Point (SMP) to get available space and to tell that the action completed successfully. So these steps are not needed anymore when you are using hard-links! This is why these steps are grayed out …

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Copy logs from a failed Task Sequence in ConfigMgr 2007

I like to do multiple things at a time… So I don’t like to wait on my Task Sequence, after I made a a few changes, to see if it doesn’t fail. This is why I searched for some sort of error catching in a Task Sequence. During this search I found this great article of Steve Raichu: http://blogs.msdn.com/steverac/archive/2008/07/15/capturing-logs-during-failed-task-sequence-execution.aspx In this article he explains the following important steps that are needed for an automatic error catching: Use a top group in a Task Sequence that is set to Continue on error. The rest of your functioning Task Sequence has to be added under this group. In this way the Task Sequence will continue to the following group if a part of the Task Sequence has …

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Remote Distribution Points in ConfigMgr 2007

This post will be a short follow-up on a previous post about How a client chooses a Distribution Point. In that post I tried to explain how a client picks a (Remote) Distribution Point (DP). In this post I will try to take away some more confusion about Remote DP’s. Let’s start with when a DP is considered a Remote DP. ConfigMgr looks at this from the clients perspective. If a client is within a Fast Network Boundary, then the DP(‘s) that is in the same Boundary will be marked as a Local DP. All the other DP’s are marked as Remote DP’s. The important part here is that a client has to be within the correct Boundary and that you are the only one who …

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