CONTENT IN SCCM

1. Content 2. Content
Management Library
 SCCM uses Content for Applications,
packages, software updates and OS
deployments all need content

CONTENT This content stores on both site servers

and Distribution Point s
MANAGEMENT

This content requires a large amount of

network bandwidth when it's being
transferred between different locations
 Content Management

• Accounts used for content management

What are the available • Network Access Account
options and configurations • Package Access Account
• Bandwidth throttling and scheduling
in content management • Both throttling and scheduling are options
infrastructure to that help you control when content is
distributed from a site server to Distribution
effectively sent or Point s. These capabilities are similar but not
directly related to bandwidth controls for
download site-to-site file-based replication.
 Applications always use binary differential
replication
Packages need to configure Manually

CONTENT Configuration Manager supports up to five incremental

MANAGEMENT versions of a content set before it resends the entire
content set. After the fifth update, the next change to
------------------ the content set causes the site to create a new version
Binary Differential / Delta of the content set. Configuration Manager then
Replication (BDR, RDC) distributes the new version of the content set to replace
the previous set and any of its incremental versions

Pull-Distribution Point s and cloud Distribution

Point s don't support BDR to transfer content.
Pull-Distribution Point s support file-level deltas,
transferring new files, but not blocks within a file.
 WINDOWS LOW EXTRA DELAY BACKGROUND TRANSPORT (LEDBAT) IS A NETWORK CONGESTION CONTROL FEATURE OF
WINDOWS SERVER TO HELP MANAGE BACKGROUND NETWORK TRANSFERS.
• CONFIGURATION MANAGER VERSION 1806 (GENERAL RELEASE)
• WINDOWS SERVER, VERSION 1709 OR LATER
•
CONTENT •
WINDOWS SERVER 2016 WITH UPDATES KB4132216 AND KB4284833
WINDOWS SERVER 2019

MANAGEMENT| # SCRIPT TO ENABLE

WINDOWS #ENABLE LEDBAT

SET-NETTCPSETTING -SETTINGNAME INTERNETCUSTOM -CONGESTIONPROVIDER LEDBAT

LOW EXTRA #CONFIGURE LEDBAT FOR PORTS 80 AND 443

DELAY NEW-NETTRANSPORTFILTER -SETTINGNAME INTERNETCUSTOM -LOCALPORTSTART 80 -LOCALPORTEND 80 -REMOTEPORTSTART 0 -

REMOTEPORTEND 65535
BACKGROUND NEW-NETTRANSPORTFILTER -SETTINGNAME INTERNETCUSTOM -LOCALPORTSTART 443 -LOCALPORTEND 443 -REMOTEPORTSTART 0 -
TRANSPORT REMOTEPORTEND 65535

(LEDBAT) SCCM Distribution Point that throttles the downloads of packages to 50% of the available bandwidth to its clients. In this scenario, you'll
only ever use 50% of the bandwidth even if 100% is available -- you've set a maximum amount that cannot be exceeded under any
circumstance. As a result, your client downloads could take 2x as long! Even worse, user traffic may require more than 50% of the overall
bandwidth -- in such scenarios, the bandwidth set aside for background transfers would interfere with the user experience.
 PEER CACHE

Starting in version 1806, client peer cache

sources can divide content into parts. These parts
minimize the network transfer to reduce WAN
utilization. The management point provides more
detailed tracking of the content parts. It tries to
eliminate more than one download of the same
content per boundary group.
WINDOWS PE PEER CACHE

Consider a scenario with a branch office that does not have a

Distribution Point but does have several clients enabled to use
windows PE peer cache. You deploy the task sequence configured
to use peer cache to several clients that are configured to be part
of the peer cache source. The first client to run the task sequence
broadcasts a request for a peer with the content. It doesn't find
one so it gets the content from a Distribution Point across the
WAN. The client installs the new image and then stores the
content in its configuration manager client cache so it can
function as a peer cache source to other clients. When the next
client runs the task sequence, it broadcasts a request on the
subnet for a peer cache source, and that first client responds and
makes its cached content available.
 SCCM CLIENT LOCATIONS
Distribution Point s can
use HTTP or HTTPs.

Intranet (on-premises):
Only use a cloud
Distribution Point for
fallback when on-
premises Distribution
Point s aren't available.
Client locations
Requires internet-
facing Distribution Point
s to accept HTTPS.
The following are
locations that clients Internet:
access content from:
Can use a cloud
Distribution Point .

Requires Distribution
Point s to accept
HTTPS.
Workgroup:

Can use a cloud

Distribution Point .
 CONTENT SOURCE PRIORITY

The Distribution Point A peer source in the A Distribution Point in A peer source in the A Distribution Point in
on the same Computer same network subnet the same Network same Boundary Group the current Boundary
as the client Subnet Group

A Distribution Point in A Distribution Point in

A cloud Distribution An internet-facing The windows update the default site a neighbour Boundary
Point in Azure Distribution Point Cloud service Boundary Group Group configured for
Fallback
 DISTRIBUTION POINTS

Distribution Pull- Cloud Distribution

Points distribution Distribution Point
Point Point Groups

Distribution
Point Fallback
Priority
 DISTRIBUTION POINTS

Configuration manager uses distribution points

to store files that are required for software to
run on client computers. Clients must have
access to at least one distribution point from
which they can download the files for content
that you deploy.
 • Standard Distribution Points support a range of configurations and
features:
• Use controls such as schedules or bandwidth throttling to help control
this transfer.
• Use other options, including prestaged content, and Pull-Distribution
STANDARD Points to minimize and control network consumption.

DISTRIBUTION • Branchcache, peer cache, and delivery optimization are peer-to-peer

technologies to reduce the network bandwidth that's used when you
POINT deploy content.
• There are different configurations for OS Deployments, such
as PXE and Multicast
• Options for mobile devices
PULL-
DISTRIBUTION
POINT
• Pull-distribution point A variation of a Distribution Point
where the Distribution Point obtains content from another
Distribution Point (a source Distribution Point). This process is
similar to how clients download content from Distribution
Points. Pull-Distribution points can help you avoid network
bandwidth bottlenecks that occur when the site server must
directly distribute content to each Distribution Point.
Pull DP2
 • A cloud distribution point is a configuration manager distribution
point that is hosted as platform-as-a-service (PaaS) in Microsoft
Azure. This service supports the following scenarios:
• Provide software content to internet-based clients without
CLOUD additional on-premises infrastructure
DISTRIBUTION • Cloud-enable your content distribution system
POINT
• Reduce the need for traditional distribution points
• The implementation for sharing content from Azure has changed.
Use a content-enabled cloud management gateway by enabling
the option to Allow CMG to function as a cloud distribution point
and serve content from Azure storage
 DISTRIBUTION POINT
GROUPS
Distribution point groups are logical groupings of
distribution points that can simplify content
distribution.
Distribution Point Priority

The distribution point priority value is based on how long it

took to transfer previous deployments to that distribution
point.
Pull-distribution points also use a concept of priority to order
the sequence of their source distribution points.
FALLBACK
FOR
• Clients that can't find content from A Distribution Point that's associated with
DISTRIBUTION their current Boundary Group Fall Back to use content source locations
POINTS / associated with neighbor Boundary Groups. To be used for fallback, A
CONTENT neighbor Boundary Group must have A defined relationship with the client’s
current Boundary Group. This relationship includes A configured time that must
pass before A client that can't find content locally includes content sources from
the neighbor Boundary Group as part of its search.
NETWORK
BANDWIDTH • Prestaged content: transferring content to a Distribution Point without
distributing the content across the network.
• Scheduling and throttling: configurations that help you control when and how
content is distributed to Distribution Points.
 • To enable this setting for a deployment, enable: distribute the content
for this package to preferred Distribution Points.
• When you enable this option for a deployment, and a client requests
that content but the content isn't available on any of the client's
ON-DEMAND preferred Distribution Points, configuration manager automatically

CONTENT distributes that content to the client's preferred distribution points.

• Although this triggers configuration manager to automatically distribute
DISTRIBUTION the content to that client's preferred Distribution Points, the client might
obtain that content from other Distribution Points before the preferred
distribution points for the client receive the deployment. When this
behaviour occurs, the content will then be present on that Distribution
Point for use by the next client that seeks that deployment
PACKAGE TRANSFER MANAGER

• Package transfer manager is a component of the

SMS_EXECUTIVE service that manages the transfer of
content from a site server computer to remote distribution
points in a site. (A remote distribution point is one that is not
located on the site server computer.)
• Package transfer manager logs its actions in
the pkgxfermgr.Log file on the site server. The log file is
the only location where you can view the activities of the
package transfer manager.
 PRESTAGE CONTENT

• PRESTAGING CONTENT IS A PROCESS OF

TRANSFERRING CONTENT TO A
DISTRIBUTION POINT WITHOUT
DISTRIBUTING THE CONTENT ACROSS THE
NETWORK.
 The Content Library is a single-
instance store of content in
configuration manager. The site
uses it to reduce the overall size
CONTENT of the combined body of
LIBRARY content that you distribute. The
content library stores all content
files for software deployments,
for example: software updates,
applications, and OS
deployments.
 Content Library is stored on the root of a drive in a folder
called SCCMContentLib. This folder is shared by default as SCCMContentLib$

The package library

(PkgLib folder): Information about
what packages are present on the
distribution point.
CONTENT The data library (DataLib folder):
LIBRARY Information about the original
structure of the packages.
The file library (FileLib folder):
The original files in the package.
This folder is typically what uses
the bulk of the storage.
Package library
The package library folder, PkgLib, includes one file for each package distributed to the distribution point. The file name is the package ID, for
example, ABC00001.INI. In this file under the [Packages] section is a list of content IDs that are part of the package, as well as other information
such as the version. For example, ABC00001 is a legacy package at version 1. The content ID in this file is ABC00001.1.

Data library
The data library folder, DataLib, includes one file and one folder for each of the contents in each package. For example, this file and folder are
named ABC00001.1.INI and ABC00001.1, respectively. The file includes information for validation. The folder recreates the folder structure from
the original package.

The files in the data library are replaced by INI files with the name of the original file in the package. For example, MyFile.exe.INI. These files
include information about the original file, such as the size, time modified, and the hash. Use the first four characters of the hash to locate the
original file in the file library. For example, the hash in MyFile.exe.INI is DEF98765, and the first four characters are DEF9.

File library
If the content library spans across multiple drives, the package files could be in the file library folder, FileLib, on any of these drives.

Locate a specific file using the first four characters from the hash found in the data library. Inside the file library folder are many folders, each
with a four-character name. Find the folder that matches the first four characters from the hash. Once you find this folder, it includes one or more
sets of three files. These files share the same name, but one has the extension INI, one has the extension SIG, and one has no file extension. The
original file is the one with no extension whose name is equal to the hash from the data library.

For example, folder DEF9 includes DEF98765.INI, DEF98765.SIG, and DEF98765. DEF98765 is the original MyFile.exe. The INI file includes a list
of "users" or content IDs that share the same file. The site doesn't remove a file unless all of these contents are also removed.
 The file library (FileLib folder): The original
files in the package. This folder is typically
what uses the bulk of the storage.

The data library (DataLib folder): Information

about the original structure of the packages.

The package library (PkgLib folder): Information

about what packages are present on the
distribution point.
 Content Library Explorer Features

You can use this

tool to explore You can copy You can also
the content packages, files validate
library on a and folders out packages on
specific of the content remote
distribution point. library. distribution points

Fantastic tool to Easily redistribute

troubleshoot packages to the
issues with the distribution point.
content library.