What is smsdpusage.exe?

smsdpusage_exe_thumb3This time I’ve got another short post, which could be seen as a sort of follow-up on last weeks post. As this post is also about an executable that is used within a scheduled task. Since ConfigMgr 2012 R2 there is a new built-in report named Distribution point usage summary. This report can be used to view details about how individual distribution points are utilized, including how many unique clients access the distribution point, how many request are processed by the distribution point and how much data is send from the distribution point.

To generate content for these reports there is a new executable named smsdpusage.exe. This executable starts the distribution point usage process. When this process starts, it evaluates the IIS logs, of the previous day, and generates a report of distribution point usage. That report is sent to the management point for processing into the database.

Usage

This executable is only used on one way by ConfigMgr. During the provisioning of a distribution point a new scheduled task, named Content Usage, is created (see smsdpprov.log). This scheduled task will run smsdpusage.exe once every day at 12.00AM. 

Also good to know is that smsdpusage.exe can also be started manually, by simply right-clicking smsdpusage.exe and selecting Run as administrator (or by triggering the scheduled task). This will run another distribution point usage process, but this process will always check the IIS logs of the previous day. That means that even though it’s possible to run this process again, or on a different time, it doesn’t add any new information. The most recent information will always be of the previous day.

Result

To follow the results of the distribution point usage process there is a log file, named smsdpusage.log, that lists all the activities of smsdpusage.exe. Here is an example of how a successful distribution point usage process looks like, followed by an example of a report that shows what happens after running smsdpusage.exe twice:smsdpusage_log_thumb7

smsdpusage_report_thumb3

3 thoughts on “What is smsdpusage.exe?”

  1. Peter, have you run into any issues with smsdpusage.log ? We have 3 DPs, but 1 is failing in sending smsdpusage data. The errors i get are ‘socket connect failed; 8007274c’ and ‘sending with winhttp failed; 80072ee2’

    the final log entry says: error sending DP state message to site server from remote DP xyz. Code 0x80072ee2

    Thanks for any insight you can offer

    Reply

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