In this post,I will get some information about Distribution Points and content locations when you Distribute Packages and what happens and Tips .

1.How to set Drive Settings when installing Sec site DP role ?

2.How to avoid selecting the most disk space drive as Content location(DP) ?

3.How to check what are the next available Drives for Content location ?

4.How to remove DP role,Verify it is removed and reinstall the Role ?

when you install SCCM 2012 Secondary Site from primary ,Management point and Distribution Point roles will be added by Default and you choose the settings in installation Process.

When you are at Drive Settings for the Distribution Point Role,you need to cautious in choosing the drive letters for Content library location and package share location as primary and secondary because you can not change them at later stages AFAIK.

Below is the screen shot what am talking about you see when installing secondary Site.

Drive space reserve (MB): The Disk space reserved(MB) you configure determines the amount of free space on a drive before Configuration Manager 2012 chooses a different drive and continues the copy process to that drive. Content files can span multiple drives.If the current DP drive free space reaches 1024,it choose another drive(Max Disk space) as DP drive.

This reserve space is applicable to both Content library and package share location.

Content Locations:

Primary/Secondary Content Library Location: SCCM 2012 will copy the content to Primary content location (First Priority) until the amount of free space reaches the value specified for Drive space reserve (MB).

By default the content locations are set to Automatic and the primary content location will be set to the disk drive that has the most disk space at installation and the secondary location assigned the disk drive that has the second most free disk space.

Note : To Avoid selecting the most disk space drive as Content location,Place NO_SMS_ON_DRIVE.SMS in the root of drive.

When the primary and secondary drives reach the drive space reserve, Configuration Manager will select another available drive with the most free disk space and continue the copy process.

If you specify the Drive location and later if you want to change,You will have to remove the DP role and Install it.

How to check what are the Drives that available to be configured(selected) as Next Content Locations ?

go to administration Node—>Distribution Points—>click on secondary Site.

On the bottom ,you see drives wit list available and their priority.

If you see any other drives which u don’t want to be here,place NO_SMS_ON_DRIVE.SMS in the root of the drive.

so back to the error :

Primary site started Distributing the packages to sec site server to H drive as given in drive settings but there is no H drive on the server. So it started throwing error

“Cannot create SCCMCOntentLib” on H drive Error:67,Network Path Not found.

I looked at secondary Site Registry if I can remove the H drive to make it work .Below are the registry settings path where you see the above selected settings.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SMS\DP\ContentLibUsableDrives

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SMS\DP\UsablePackageShareDrives

In my Case,server selected H (Primary) ,G(Secondary),E(Next Secondary) drive for DP.

removal of Drive and restart DP Component manager did not solve the issue.

What Next ?

Either Add missing Drive to copy the content or Remove the DP role and install it to get the drive settings Option.

Removal of DP Role :

Go to administration node—>site Configuration->servers and site System Roles

How to check DP role is removed or not ?

1) you can check from Registry on Secondary site server Registry path: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SMS\DP .You will not see any entries from here

2)Go to administration node—Distribution Points—>Secondary site.

In the drive tab,you see no drives available.

I added the DP role for the secondary Site system and get option to select the content library /Package library locations.

When my G Drive is free space reached 1024MB,it chooses nextmost disk space available (In this case,I have only this drive as DP).

lets Verify this :

as you see,my Primary content library and Package share locations are G drive.

This time,packages went well with No Issues.

Until Next!

SCCM 2007 has three basic types of distribution points i.e Standard, Server Share and Branch Distribution Points.  Each role had benefits, but there was not always one type that met all the administrator requirements.

This concept is now changed in SCCM 2012 and had come with one Role which is standard distribution point which merges Standard, Branch and Server Share distribution points.

This Distribution Point now has a new storage format called the Content Library.  The Content Library replaces SMSPKG shares as the default folder structure to host content.  The Content Library now stores all content on the distribution point in a single instance storage, this means each unique file is only stored once on the distribution point, regardless of how many times it is referenced by a package.  It also stores the file once on the distribution point even if it is contained in multiple packages!

For more information about Distribution Point Role changes in configmgr 2012 http://blogs.technet.com/b/inside_osd/archive/2011/03/28/configuration-manager-2012-distribution-points-and-pxe-services.aspx

How to install Distribution Point Role on Windows 8 workstation in Configmgr 2012  .

Before you proceed with installing and configuring role on windows 8 machine,ensure you all prerequisisites.

Add the site system Computer (Primary or secondary site) as local administrator on Windows 8 Computer to install DP role.

From SCCM configmgr 2012 SP1 console,right click on Servers and Site system roles

Choose the Right Site here and this site computer name should be added member of Local administrators group workstation.

You have only Distribution Role to configure.

since we do not have WDS on windows 8 workstation,nothing to do in PXE Settings

also No Multicast settings

if you need to validate the Content on a Schedule basis ,configure it

Add the Windows 8 workstation to right Boundary Group. More information about Boundary Group http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg699359.aspx

Start monitoring the Distribution Point role from monitoring Node–>Distribution Status—>Distribution Point configuration Status

also you can start monitoring the distmgr.log from secondary site Since the Win8 is assigned to Secondary site.

Which you can also monitor from Details summary on the DP.

also you can verify on Windows 8 Machine if the Folders are created or not.

To Distribute the Content to win8 DP,you can either add the Site to Distribution Point Group so that it takes all the packages which are part of this DP group will be distributed.

To monitor the package status on windows 8 machine,take a look at Distmgr.log from secondary site which will send the packages to Windows 8‘

Here are the entries from IIS to check if the content is available or not.

Dell Safranka Recently posted Nice Article on Configmgr 2012 DP and how Single Instance Store works and how to notice them but it is in Hungarian Language ,I try to post the content in English here.

The Configuration Manager 2012, the distribution points for the more efficient use of disk space to a single method of storage for file-level, single instance store. It is somewhat more difficult to check whether a particular package includes all right lejutott the distribution points. Here are the steps I want to present in this post:

The installation kits for each of the folders that contain the source files to the Deployment Type to specify the Location of the Content separate:

You can check the contents of this how to has a DP from content status in the following way:

We know the application (Application). To do this, in the console, under the Monitoring of the Status of the Distribution Content Statust application and look for the description of the part and look at the "Package ID":

Then, the distribution point, the "SCCMContentLib" folder, navigate to the "PkgLib" folder and then open the Package ID to.INI file. In this we find the Application Deployment Type-r content identifiers ("<számok> Content_)

You can then navigate to the "SCCMContentLib" folder in the "DataLib" folder and open it in looking for "belonging to the Deplyoment Content_ Type" folder. It contains the original source folder structure and files, once again, a description of the .INI FILE:

Then open the a file in the INI file and look at the file’s Hash and write down the first four characters:

You can then navigate to the "SCCMContentLib" folder in the "" folder and FileLib open file hash for the first four characters. (hint: use the Windows Explorer browser, because the sort order can be confusing). The contents of the open folder:

Then, find the file, in this case, the real has the "Setup.exe" file data (and hash verification):

This change is due to the introduction of the file adatduplikáció at the level of the ConfigMgr for 2012 was required, thereby increasing the distribution points use the mass storage. Note that the hash of the count, just CPU resources can enter into. The added benefit is that it is possible to leelenőrizzük that are actually valid content in the distribution points. This or manually in the Administration\Distribution Points by selecting the DP under the Properties tab and then click the "Content" tab in the "Validate" button, or by using the application evaluates Content Locations "tab" in the "Validate" button allows you to:

Or you can check out the content automatically perform scheduled installations (not recommended, only if a particular case is going to be "suspicious" DP thing). To do this, the Administration\Distribution Points by selecting the DP, under the Properties tab and then click on the "Content Validation" tab.

Original Post :http://blogs.technet.com/b/scm/archive/2012/11/13/configuration-manager-2012-dp-k-233-s-single-instance-store.aspx

Another interesting package replication problem.John Marcum posted solution on his blog with DB edit but that did not solve my problem though package issue is similar.

I have to do couple of more things to fix the issue what John said in his blog. Am not going to explain more about why it happens etc. If you interested,Read Johns Blog.

When you do Preload for Bulk number of PCK file,Sometimes you may not succeeded in decompressing all the files and arise issues like below from distmgr.log .

From the console,if you look at package status,you end up with Install pending .

The error message from distmgr.log :

“A newer version (21) of package xxx000C1 has already arrived, delete the replication file F:\SMS\inboxes\distmgr.box\INCOMING\4EE5A01M.PCK for version 19”

Tried refreshing the package ,removing from DP and Reading ,did not help.

In order to fix this error,i have to do couple of things . 1) Edit the Database 2) Delete the files from pkginfo.box,distmgr.box

Note : Directly editing the DB is not supported unless you really know what you are doing else do not proceed. and ensure you have Database Backup before you do this.

1) Edit DB to change the PCK Source Version to 0.

Update PkgStatus

Set Status = ’2′, SourceVersion = ’0′

Where ID = ‘P01005DC’ and sitecode=P01′ and type=’1′

If this is child site and reporting to another Site,Do the same procedure until you reach Central site.

As per John Article,After refreshing the package,it did not succeded and it still gives me the same error .If John procedure works, Well and Good else Follow the below step to fix it.

2) Next delete the package files from pkginfo.box(ICO,NAL,PKG) and distmgr.box(PKG) for the specific package.

Now Refresh the package from central/Primary where it is created and monitor Distmgr.log file on problem site.

You see something like below after package refresh replication to problem site.

Updated Replicated package server 

Updated replicate package program info for package

Successfully processed .PKG file

Also you see something like below

The compressed files for package P01XXXXX hasnt arrived from the site P01 Yet, will try later

Preload the latest PCK file now using Preloadpkgonsite tool, You will see the decompress of the package

SCCM Inbox Folders plays Vital Role in troubleshooting problems with different components. You should keep an Eye on the inbox folders for a backlog of files that wait to be processed.

There are various methods to monitor the inbox folders (tools/Scripts etc). This Post is going to be focus on Despooler.Box\Receive and clean up files residing older than 30 days.

Despooler.box\Receive stores the data that is received from a child site or a parent site and process it accordingly.Typically, files are processed and moved as soon as Configuration Manager 2007 receives the instruction file (.ins file).

In Short about what despooler does is  Despooler component receives the data and hands it off to Replication Manager component then Replication Manager hands the data to the appropriate component to process further.

But Due to some Reasons,Packages which are sending from hierarchy to child sites stuck and breaks the thread and it again starts sending from beginning.Because of this,files remains in Receive folder without being processed for longer time.

If you are in small environment (less than 10 sites or so) you can check it manually by looking at Despooler.Box\Receive what files are Old based on modified date and remove them.

Here is simple VB script that looks for the folder name and get file name,Size and modifieddate. If the Despooler is receiving any files from its parent, you get current date.

Set fso = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
Set objinputfile=fso.OpenTextFile(“C:\Scripts\Servers.txt”,1,True)
Set objoutputfile=fso.OpenTextFile(“C:\Scripts\Results.csv”,2,True)
Do While Not objinputfile.AtEndOfStream
strcomputer=objinputfile.ReadLine
Set recive = fso.GetFolder(“\\” & strComputer & “\Driveletter$\SCCM\inboxes\despoolr.box\receive“)
Set colFiles = recive.Files
For Each objFile in colFiles

objoutputfile.WriteLine strComputer & vbTab & objFile.Name & vbTab & objFile.size & vbTab & objFile.DateLastModified

Next
loop
msgbox(“done”)

Note : If you have sccm installed on different Drives with different folder names without unique ,this script may not be helpful to you.

Provide all the site names to servers.txt and results will be piped to results.csv file.

Once you get the results,you can sort it with File Size and Modifieddate to take further action.

I would prefer to delete the files from receive folder older than month.

Here you go with the script to delete files from despoolr.box\receive older than 30 days:

Set fso = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
Set objinputfile=fso.OpenTextFile(“C:\Scripts\desplooer-servers.txt”,1,True)
Set objoutputfile=fso.OpenTextFile(“C:\Scripts\despooler-results.csv”,2,True)
Do While Not objinputfile.AtEndOfStream
strcomputer=objinputfile.ReadLine

Set objWMIService = GetObject(“winmgmts:\\” & strComputer)
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
objoutputfile.WriteLine (strcomputer & ” is not Up or problem in connecting to WMI”)
Err.Clear
Else
strDays= 30
Set recive = fso.GetFolder(“\\” & strComputer & “\f$\SMS\inboxes\despoolr.box\receive”)
Set colFiles = recive.Files
For Each objFile in colFiles
If DateDiff(“d”, objFile.DateLastModified, Date) > strDays Then
fso.DeleteFile(objFile)
objoutputfile.WriteLine strComputer & vbTab & “Deleted”
end if

Next
end if
loop
msgbox(“done”)

Until then !

The way SCCM Configmgr 2012 object information stored is changed from CM07 with respect to tables/views.

In SCCM Configmgr 2012,Status of content stored in dbo.vSMS_DistributionDPStatus view.This view basically contains information about packageID,content status,objectTypeID like what type of package is it(boot image or package/Application etc) and status message ID.

These status Message IDs and State Message IDs are translated here in more description way which will help you to take necessary action to fix them.

What is status messages and State Messages : status messages provide information about component behavior and data flow, whereas state messages provide a snapshot of the state of a process at a specific time. To know more about state messages,read here

Based on these status Message IDs,you can write customized SSRS report to know the status of package. (note: package can be treated as application,Boot images,SU packages etc).

You can use Case Statement while using these Status Messages Ids to put the description filed in reports.

Message State IDs from dbo.vSMS_DistributionDPStatus  :

 here is the case statement for the status Message ID’s:

select PackageID, Name, StatusMessage =
CASE MessageID
WHEN ’2384′ THEN ‘Content hash has been successfully verified’
WHEN ’2330′ THEN ‘Content was distributed to distribution point’
WHEN ’2303′ THEN ‘Content was successfully refreshed’
WHEN ’2323′ THEN ‘Failed to initialize NAL’
WHEN ’2324′ THEN ‘Failed to access or create the content share’
WHEN ’2354′ THEN ‘Failed to validate content status file’
WHEN ’2357′ THEN ‘Content transfer manager was instructed to send content to Distribution Point’
WHEN ’2360′ THEN ‘Status message 2360 unknown’
WHEN ’2370′ THEN ‘Failed to install distribution point’
WHEN ’2371′ THEN ‘Waiting for prestaged content’
WHEN ’2372′ THEN ‘Waiting for content’
WHEN ’2380′ THEN ‘Content evaluation has started’
WHEN ’2381′ THEN ‘An evaluation task is running. Content was added to Queue’
WHEN ’2382′ THEN ‘Content hash is invalid’
WHEN ’2383′ THEN ‘Failed to validate content hash’
WHEN ’2391′ THEN ‘Failed to connect to remote distribution point’
WHEN ’2398′ THEN ‘Content Status not found’
WHEN ’8203′ THEN ‘Failed to update package’
WHEN ’8204′ THEN ‘Content is being distributed to the distribution Point’
WHEN ’8211′ THEN ‘Failed to update package’
ELSE ‘I dont know this MessageID’
END, LastUpdateDate, Status_at_LastUpdateDate =
CASE MessageState
WHEN ’1′ THEN ‘Success’
WHEN ’2′ THEN ‘In Progress’
WHEN ’4′ THEN ‘Failed’
ELSE ‘I dont know this MessageState’
END
from dbo.vSMS_DistributionDPStatus
ORDER BY PackageID;

—-Reference Via danrichings Blog

Long ago ,written SCCM report to list packages not used for 6 months as part of Package Archival process http://eskonr.com/2012/11/sccm-configmgr-package-archival-process-cleanup-activity/ .This report tells you to take further action to clean or move to Archive folder to wait for some more months before it goes for Deletion.

What next ? Delete these packages from Assigned DPs to get some disk space ?

You may find several scripts to do this task on the internet but, i  find this is easy for me to get this activity done.

Identify list of package which you want to remove ,pipe them to notepad .You can do more customizations if needed.

‘Script to delete packages from its assigned Distribution Points.

strComputer =inputBox("Please Enter the SMS provider OR Site where the packages are created" , "SCCM Server name")
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set packages=fso.OpenTextFile("C:\PACKAGESTODELETE.txt",1,true)
Set objoutputfile=fso.OpenTextFile("C:\DP_results.txt",2,true)

Do While packages.AtEndOfLine <> True
    ‘read the next line
    package = packages.Readline

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\SMS\site_CEN")
if err.number<>0 then
    msgbox "server connection failed"
    wscript.quit
end if
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM SMS_DistributionPoint where packageid=’" & Package & "’")
For Each objItem in colItems
        ‘Wscript.Echo "ServerNALPath: " & objItem.ServerNALPath
objoutputfile.WriteLine ( package & vbTab & " will be deleteting from" & VBTAB & objItem.ServerNALPath)

objitem.Delete_

If Err.number <> 0 Then

objoutputfile.WriteLine ( "Failed to delete" & vbTab & package & "from" &  vbTab & objItem.ServerNALPath)
      End If
    Next

loop

msgbox "Done"

Note: Please Replace the quotes.

Various tools,scripts are available to add,delete and refresh packages(Standard software Packages only) on the Distribution Points but i feel this is easy to compare with others what i have seen so far in Configuration Manager 2007.

If you have single package to do any specific action like add,delete ,refresh ,you can do it Via Console but what if you build new site and you are required to add the bunch of packages in SCCM 2007,do it Via Console or Script based ?

I will be using tool called dpmod written by Bernard White in a batch script with the help of excel sheet.

This process requires 3 files to be in one folder. 1)dpmod.exe 2)add.bat and 3) run_add.bat

–> Download the installer file,Run it to get dpmod.exe.

–> For a single package to take action,you can do with command line:

dpmod.exe  -addpkg PRI00001 \\INCHDP01 -sdk INHYCM01

PRI00001=PackageID

INCHDP01=Target site to receive Packages.

INHYCM01=Central Site where packages Created.

3.For multiple packages,you can not add line by line to the batch file as we did above

How to achieve it in simple way?

You can Download the excel sheet from here and change the values for PackageID,Target Site and Central /Primary Site to get batch script.

If you have multiple packages for multiple sites,you can add them to excel sheet .

Take the last column “batch script results” and paste it into add.bat

Create 3rd file which is run_add.bat with following command:

cd D:\Tools\Dpmod

D:

add.bat >>.\add.log

You are done now. when you execute run_add.bat ,it will create log file for you with results which package has been added and which not.

You can also do the same for refresh package,delete package for multiple packages on multiple sites at one Go.

SCCM Configmgr Script Tool Add Delete Refresh packages on Distribution Points is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Testing the basic Functions of Newly Build Configuration Manager 2012 primary and Secondary Sites by its SCCM clients to see if they work or not.

Have installed Configuration manager client on windows 7,windows 8 and server OS .Created Configmgr 2007 toolkit V2 package,distributed to DP’s and deployed to these machines.

Did Machine Policy on the clients,new application shown in Software Center,till now everything is good as expected.

When i look at the status of this app from Software Center,it failed.Why ? Download of Content did not happen.

Next is to look at DataTransferService.log records all BITS communication OR Package Access relation issues.

I find something in Red Color.

Error sending DAV request. HTTP code 600, status ”

GetDirectoryList_HTTP mapping original error 0x80072efe to 0x800704cf.

failed in winhttpreceiveresponse API Errorcode=0x2efe

successfully sent location services HTTP failure message

What does the above error codes mean?

0x80072efe/0x2efe:The connection with the server was terminated abnormally

0x800704cf:The network location cannot be reached. For information about network troubleshooting, see Windows Help.

With the above error codes,we can predict ,client had some issues connecting to DP server to download the content.

Note:I am  using Custom port (CCMHTTPPORT:port that the client should use when communicating over HTTP to site system servers) rather default port 80 while installing SCCM client.

I did telnet from client to DP server to see if it works (by default telnet is not enabled win 7 and later OS,you will need to enable it from programs and features) but failed to do so. Tried self telnet on DP server,it works.

Issue seems to be Firewall which is blocking the communication on custom port from clients.

Solution:

You will have to add the custom port (ccmhttp) to the firewall (if it is enabled) on windows server to allow communication from clients.

Follow the TechNet Guide how to add port to windows firewall http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175043.aspx

If you are running on windows server 2012,Use the batch script to fix it.

@echo =========  ccmhttpport  ===================
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name = "ccmhttpport 800" dir = in protocol = tcp action = allow localport = 800 profile = DOMAIN

Telnet works good now.

Back to Client workstation,,Control panel,Configuration Manager applet–>Trigger Application Deployment Evaluation Cycle

Run the application now from Software Center, It ran.

Long Story but Simple Fix

SCCM Configmgr 2012 Clients failed to download Content using Custom Port “Error sending DAV request. HTTP code 600” is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

In My Previous post,I blogged about SCCM Report list packages that do not use UNC path (i.e package Uses local Drive) and this is not good if you are migrating the packages from SCCM 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012.

After you get list of packages that use local drive,you will have to change them to UNC .

Note: This script will change the source path from Local drive(D:) to UNC path(\\servername\) for all the list of given packages at one Go.

For ex: Current pkg source path: D:\applications\adobe 9.2 Eng ,change to UNC: \\servername\applications\Adobe 9.2 Eng

If you have different UNC path for each package and not same what i have, modify the script.

You can either use custom Tools like package source changer from coretech OR Powershell or other scripts.

I wrote Simple Script that works only for Standard Software Distribution Packages but not for Software Update /OSD/ Driver packages.

Pipe the list of packages from the report to pkgs.txt.

strComputer = "SCCM Server name"

Set objfso = CreateObject ("Scripting.filesystemObject")
Set pkgs = objfso.OpenTextFile ("C:\pkgs.txt", 1)
Set outputList = objfso.OpenTextFile ("C:\outputList.txt", 2, True)

Do While Not pkgs.AtEndOfStream
pkgName = pkgs.ReadLine

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\SMS\site_CEN")

Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery( _
    "SELECT * FROM SMS_Package WHERE PackageID = ‘" & pkgName & "’")

For Each objItem in colItems
‘        Wscript.Echo "PkgSourcePath: " & objItem.PkgSourcePath
outputList.WriteLine pkgName & vbTab & "Old Path"& vbTab & objItem.PkgSourcePath

tmp = replace((objItem.PkgSourcePath),"D:", "\\servername") 
objItem.PkgSourcePath = tmp
  objItem.put_

outputList.WriteLine pkgName & vbTab & "New Path" & vbTab & objItem.PkgSourcePath

Next

loop

After you change the package source path,packages will start updating on all the Sites where ever it was targeted previously.So please be careful while doing this task because of network traffic.

Hope it helps!

SCCM Configmgr 2007 Replace Source Package path from Local Drive to UNC path for list of packages is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Did you ever get into disk Space Issues while copying,Decompressing PCK files in Configuration Manager 2007 ? Packages are failed due to not enough disk space ?

couple of options to get out of it are 1) Add Extra Drives or Increase the Disk on the Drive if you are into VM 2) manage with the existing disk by doing some alteration to it like moving the PCK files or Delete them.

OR Move to Configuration manager 2012 which no longer use PCK storage and uses Single Instance Storage ,More about why should move from CM07 to CM12 http://eskonr.com/2013/01/why-should-we-move-from-sccm-configmgr-2007-to-2012/ and

Single Instance Storage http://blogs.technet.com/b/hhoy/archive/2012/05/31/an-adventure-in-the-sccmcontentlib-single-instance-store.aspx

If you want to move the PCK files to different drive rather deleting them,Please refer this post http://eskonr.com/2012/10/how-to-move-pck-files-to-different-drive/, For Deletion,continue reading.

As We all Know,The PCK files are stored on the drive letter that you specify in the hierarchy settings—>software Distribution.

If you found ,the PCK drive do not have enough disk,try to change the Drive letter to different drive which has more disk space and creating NO_SMS_ON_DRIVE.SMS on the root of the drive to not use for decompressing of the packages,and moving forward,You will no longer have PCK file issues.

But if you are having Many Packages that are not updated since years,probably it is good Idea delete the PCK for these packages.

Note:If you later update these packages,Entire PCK files will get copied over the network to the site server,Please pay attention on it.

I Wrote a Script that checks all the drives if smspkg share exists or not ,If so check the PCK modifiedDate and then Delete if older than 2 Years.

‘ Author:               Eswar Koneti
‘ Title: Script to Delete the PCK files on all the exisiting Drives that are older than 2 Years (730 Days)

Set objfso = CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set servers = objfso.OpenTextFile ("C:\Scripts\servers.txt", 1)
Set objoutputfile = objfso.OpenTextFile ("C:\Scripts\PCKResults.txt", 2, True)
do While Not servers.AtEndOfStream
strcomputer=servers.readline
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer)
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
    objoutputfile.WriteLine (strcomputer & " is not Up or something went wrong with WMI")
    Err.Clear
   Else
    strDays= 500
    Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_LogicalDisk")
           For Each objdrive in colItems
        drive=left(objDrive.caption,1)
    If (objfso.FolderExists("\\" & strComputer & "\"+Drive &"$\smspkg\")) Then   
        set recive = objfso.GetFolder("\\" & strComputer & "\"+Drive &"$\smspkg\")
         Set colFiles = recive.Files
            For Each objFile in colFiles
            filename=objfile
            if (right(FileName, 4) = ".PCK") then
                     If DateDiff("d", objFile.DateLastModified, Date) > strDays Then
                    objoutputfile.WriteLine objfile & vbtab & "exist on "& vbtab & strComputer & vbtab & "modified date:" & vbtab & objFile.DateLastModified & vbtab & "Size (MB):" & vbtab & int(objFile.Size/1048576)
              objfso.DeleteFile objfile,TRUE
              objoutputfile.WriteLine strComputer & vbTab & "Deleted"
                end if
            end if
            Next
        End if
Next
end if
loop
msgbox "script is completed"

Change the quotes as they converted to Fancy by Blog OR use the script from RSS Feeds.

Until next,

SCCM 2007 Script to Delete Old PCK files from SMSPKG folder Avoid Disk Space issues is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Reporting in CM12 is Replaced with SSRS with more features and little complicated if you are not used to it.

To know the Status of content (Packages) ,you can look at monitoring Node—>Distribution Status—>Content But somehow i did not like this to go Every time (I feel it takes much time to load all the packages) if i want to know the Compliance Status of all created packages in CM12.

I then created simple SQL Query which you can use to create SSRS report in nice format or Run it from SQL Server management Studio.

What you get from this : Software Name,PackageID,Package Type ,Targeted,Installed,Not Installed,Compliance,Manufacturer,Source Size in MB,Source Version.

SELECT  distinct v_Package.Name [Software], PSD.PackageID,
Case v_Package.PackageType
When 0 Then ‘Package’
When 3 Then ‘Driver’
When 4 Then ‘Task Sequence’
When 5 Then ‘software Update’
When 7 Then ‘Virtual’
When 8 Then ‘Application’
When 257 Then ‘Image’
When 258 Then ‘Boot Image’
When 259 Then ‘OS’
Else ‘ ‘
END AS ‘Type’,
PSR.Targeted ,PSR.Installed,(psr.Failed+psr.Retrying) as [Not Installed],
ROUND((100 * psr.installed/PSR.Targeted),2) as ‘Compliance’,
v_Package.Manufacturer, SMSPackages.SourceSize / 1000 AS [Size (MB)]
                    ,v_Package.SourceVersion
FROM         v_PackageStatusDistPointsSumm PSD
INNER JOIN v_Package ON PSD.PackageID = v_Package.PackageID
INNER JOIN SMSPackages ON v_Package.PackageID = SMSPackages.PkgID
inner JOIN v_PackageStatusRootSummarizer PSR ON PSR.PackageID=PSD.PackageID 
group by v_Package.Name,psd.PackageID,v_Package.PackageType,psr.Targeted,PSR.Installed,v_Package.Manufacturer,SMSPackages.SourceSize,v_Package.SourceVersion,
PSR.Failed,PSR.Retrying
ORDER BY 7

More fields,customize it.

Next post,will be SSRS SQL report :Status of Failed Packages on what Distribution Points.This can be linked to above report nice way for Troubleshooting.

SCCM Configmgr SSRS SQL report:Status of All Packages with Targeted,Installed ,Compliance % is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Quick Post:

You have created an Application in Configmgr 2012 and distributed to Distribution Points.Later for reason,you have decided to add/change/Update the files to the package source location.

In Configmgr 2007,we do this by right click package, Update the package,which will take the changes to All Distributed Sites.

In Configmgr 2012,The option is replaced with deployment Type means ,you can have multiple deployment types (Both Local install and Virtual package) for single application.

Go to your application in Configmgr console,Click on the application,Underneath you see the options like summary,deployment types and deployments

choose what deployment you made changes, Right click on the deployment type and select update Content

Monitor Distmgr.log to know the progress

Move to Monitoring node—>Distribution Status—>content Status

After sometime,you would see the changes on the Distribution Points.

Each time,you do the changes to the application,Configmgr will take snapshot of it to restore it later if you need. These changes you can see it from Revision History.

Note:Redistribute of the application to the Distribution Points will not update the content changes you made.

SCCM Configmgr 2012 : How do I Refresh the Application after change in source Files or source Location is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Powershell Scripting made things lot more easier in Configuration Manager 2012.You can automate console operations by using Windows PowerShell cmdlets.For list of Configmgr SP1 cmdlets,refer http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj821831(v=sc.10).aspx

Manually Refresh of the Distribution Points for a specific package in Configmgr 2012 is not easy as it was in CM07.

Started using the Powershell script for simple tasks such as refreshing,updating,adding Distribution points.

Use the below script to refresh failed package on Multiple Distribution Points.

import-module F:\sccm\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1
$SiteCode = "ESK"
$DPserver =GC "C:\Script\Servers.txt"
foreach ($Server in $DPserver)
{
    $PackageID = "ESK00001"
    $distpoints = Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\SMS\Site_$($SiteCode)" -Query "Select * From SMS_DistributionPoint WHERE PackageID=’$PackageID’ and serverNALPath like ‘%$Server%’"
       foreach ($dp in $distpoints)
                { 
            $dp.RefreshNow = $true 
           $dp.Put()
          "Pkg:" + $PackageID + " "+ "Refreshed On" + " "+ "Server:" +$server | Out-File -FilePath C:C:\Script\refresh-results.txt -Append    
              }
}

Monitor distmgr.log(if the package is refreshed or not),sender.log on the primary site (if your DP is secondary),pkgXfermgr.log (If your DP is remote DP) for any errors.

Note:Replace the Quotes when you copy the Code.

More Scripts coming on the way

SCCM Configmgr Powershell Script: Refresh package on Multiple Distribution Points is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

In my previous blog post,i talked about how to compare 2 distribution points to see if they both have any applications mismatch.This blog post talks about how to distribute the missing apps to the Distribution Point.

I have used basic inbuilt Configmgr powershell commands for this activity,more via here

Note:Use the package names as input file rather Package ID’s.

Below powershell script works for applications,packages,driver packages,boot images and OS images.You need to remove the # tag(to uncomment) to distribute specific package type.

#change the path of psd1
import-module F:\sccm\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1
#Change the site Code
cd P01:
$SiteCode = “P01”
#provide the path for list of applications to be distributed
$packages =GC “C:\users\eswar\desktop\pkglist.txt”
$server=‘DPname.eskonr.com’
foreach ($packagename in $packages)
{
#for applications
#Start-CMContentDistribution -ApplicationName  “$packagename” -DistributionPointName “$server”

#For packages
#Start-CMContentDistribution -PackageName  “$packagename” -DistributionPointName “$server”

#For Driverpackage names
#Start-CMContentDistribution -DriverPackageName  “$packagename” -DistributionPointName “$server”

#For Bootimages
#Start-CMContentDistribution -BootImageName  “$packagename” -DistributionPointName “$server”

#For OSImages
#Start-CMContentDistribution –OperatingSystemImageName  “$packagename” -DistributionPointName “$server”

#output results

“Pkg:” + $packagename + ” “+ “distributed to” + ” “+ “Server:” +$server | Out-File -FilePath C:\users\eswar\desktop\server-distribute-results.txt -Append
}

download the powershell script from technet Gallery

How to refresh package on many DP’s : http://eskonr.com/2013/09/sccm-configmgr-powershell-script-refresh-package-on-multiple-distribution-points/

Configmgr 2012:Powershell script add packages, applications,Drivers to Distribution Point is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Long Ago, I posted blog on “How do i know what packages are transferring from specific site to Distribution Points and what is the % of content left and completed using tool called sender analyzer ,More info here .

Sender Analyzer basically analyses the sender.log for the Site you connect from the Tool and DPJobmgr.exe basically analyzes pkgxfermgr.log on the Site that you connect,I think this tool can be called as ‘package transfer analyzer’ tool

Due to the changes in Configmgr 2012,the above tool no more support and haven’t see any other tool that gets the similar information.

Configmgr 2012 R2 toolkit bring out some nice tools which really helps troubleshooting day to day activities .One of the new tools which was added into R2 Toolkit is Distribution Point Job Queue Manager (DPJobMgr.exe) which helps troubleshooting and managing ongoing content distribution jobs to Distribution Points also it be easy for us to know how many min/hrs/days it takes to send complete package.

In this post,i will walk though the features and how to use this Tool.

The tool displays the list of jobs that the package transfer manager component has in its queue as well as the status of the jobs (ready to be executed(Pipeline which you can see from inbox folder, running or retrying).

This tool also allows manipulation of the jobs in the queue, moving jobs higher on the list, cancelling or even kick start running a job manually.

Note:This tool do not support to connect to CAS OR Secondary Site to know what packages are sending to its child Sites .It works only to know the content sending from Primary Site.

lets run the tool (dpjobmgr.exe),Enter the primary Site server name,click connect

Note:Full administration permission is required to make the connection

Once the connection is successfully established ,You can see a notification at the bottom of the tool that confirms that the tool is connected to the site server saying ‘connect to Site server was successful’.

This tool Consists of 5 tabs,will go through each one except Help button

Overview Tab:

This tab Shows the summary of all the jobs on all distribution points(this tool do not display primary or secondary sites,shows only DP’s).

After sometime,I added package to the DP.Refresh the Overview Tab

All the nodes are self explanatory here.

1. Distribution Point: Lists the names of the distribution points

2. Running Jobs: Shows the number of concurrent jobs that are running on a particular distribution point.

Note: Number of concurrent software distributions is a setting that can be modified in Software Distribution Component Properties.

3. Total Jobs: Shows the number of all the jobs that are targeted to a particular distribution point. This number includes the jobs that are running, retrying, or waiting to be executed.

4. Total Retries: Shows the number of times jobs have been retrying in a particular distribution point. Higher number may represent a general problem in that particular distribution point.

Refresh—>To refresh the Overview tab which gets the updated information(if there are any jobs added to the queue while you are on this tool)

Start Auto Refresh—>Refresh this tab automatically to know if there are any new jobs added to the package transfer queue(Default is 2 min).

Distribution Point Info Tab:

This tab Shows the list of all the distribution points under the particular site(P01) that the tool is connected to. (keep in mind,only DP’s but not secondary sites).

List of all the distribution points can be seen on the left hand side pane, you can select which distribution points you want to see the status of current running jobs.You can also select all Distributions if you want.

The right hand pane will show the jobs only for the selected distribution points.

From the above screenshot,i have one job running which is Windows 8 image.

For each Distribution Point,you would see 8 columns and i think they are all self explanatory like software name,package ID,Size of the package,what is the progress %,start/restart time,no of retries and DP name.

If you are sending BIG packages like OS images or other apps,it takes time to get the the progress (%) of the completion and shown under “Progress” column .

Note:Each column can be sorted either by descending or ascending order.

Manage Jobs Tab:

Shows list of all the jobs and their status in one view.

This tab also Contains the same eight columns as the “Distribution Point Info” tab, but now all the jobs can be right clicked to perform certain actions like cancel the package,retry etc.

Right click actions are described below:

1. Run: Kick starts a job that is in any state other than running

2. Move To Top: Moves one or multiple jobs to the top of the queue, this may result in this jobs to start running immediately. A lower priority job can pause running as a consequence of this action.

3. Move Up: Moves a particular job one row above, a lower priority job can pause running as a consequence of this action.

4. Move Down: Moves a particular job one row below.

5. Move To Bottom: Moves one or multiple jobs to the bottom of the queue.

6. Cancel: Tries to cancel one or multiple jobs.

Note :Jobs that are near their final completion time or jobs that are on site server (if the site server is also a distribution point) cannot be cancelled.

From the above screenshot,you can the job running.By mistake,you distributed the BIG packages to unwanted DP’s and you want to cancel the process before it completes,right click on the package and say cancel.

You get prompted with below screen asking for confirmation.

If you click on Yes,it will send the package notification instruction (.pkn)to cancel the thread which you can see from pkgxfermgr.log file.

Nice to have such cool tools for content troubleshooting.

Configmgr 2012 R2 Toolkit: DP Job Queue manager (DPJobmgr.exe) pkgxfermgr.log Analyzer is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Quick post on the Distribution Point availability Error.Primary Site cannot check the availability of the Remote Distribution Point servers and Sitestat.log generating error messages continuously for DP servers

“omGetServerRoleAvailabilityState could not read from the registry on CMDP01.eskonr.com; error = 6:”

“Failed to get the Availability State on server CMDP01.eskonr.com for role SMS Distribution Point.”

How to Fix this ?

Create a DWord Registry key with name ‘Availability State’ and value=0 on the problem DP servers.

Path to create DW Registry name and value:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\Operations Management\SMS Server Role\SMS Distribution Point

After sometime, site server polls the Remote DP servers,it will check the availability and update the information in the Database.

you see something like this.

if you are running this issue on large number of servers,use the below VB script.

ON ERROR RESUME NEXT
Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
Set objfso = CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set servers = objfso.OpenTextFile ("servers.txt", 1)
Set outputList = objfso.OpenTextFile ("outputList.txt", 2, True)
do While Not servers.AtEndOfStream
strcomputer=servers.readline
   Set oReg=GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv")
   strKeyPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\Operations Management\SMS Server Role\SMS Distribution Point"
   oreg.setDWORDValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,strkeypath, "Availability State" , "0"
if err=0 then
outputList.WriteLine "Registry added onto" & vbTab & strcomputer
else
outputList.WriteLine "Registry not added onto" & vbTab & strcomputer
end if
loop
   msgbox "Done"

Configmgr 2012:Failed to get the Availability State on server for role SMS Distribution Point Error:6 sitestat.log is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

In my previous blog post,i talked about how to compare 2 distribution points to see if they both have any applications mismatch.This blog post talks about how to distribute the missing apps to the Distribution Point.

I have used basic inbuilt Configmgr PowerShell commands for this activity,more via here

Get a list of applications,packages,drivers,Boot images ,OS images missing using SQL query from my previous blog or you can your own queries to get packages and server names.

Export the results into CSV file format which will be the input for our script to these apps to multiple Distribution Points.

Your csv file format should look like this:

Note:You do not need to install excel on the server from ,where you run the script.it is just csv ,works with notepad.

Below powershell script works for applications,packages,driver packages,boot images and OS images.

import-module F:\sccm\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1

#Change the site Code
$SiteCode = "P01"

#Change File Location
Import-Csv C:\Users\eswar\Desktop\add-packages.csv |`
    ForEach-Object {
        $PackageType = $_.PackageType
        $PackageName = $_.PackageName
        $ServerName = $_.ServerName
       
           
            #For packages
            If($PackageType -eq "Package")
            {
                #echo "This is a Package"
                start-CMContentDistribution -PackageName  "$PackageName" -DistributionPointName "$ServerName"
            }
               
            #For applications
            If($PackageType -eq "Application")
            {
                #echo "This is an Application"
                start-CMContentDistribution -ApplicationName  "$PackageName" -DistributionPointName "$ServerName"
            }
           
            #For Driverpackages
            If($PackageType -eq "Driver")
            {
                #echo "This is a Driver"
                Start-CMContentDistribution -DriverPackageName  "$PackageName" -DistributionPointName "$ServerName"
            }
           

            #For BootImages
            If($PackageType -eq "BootImage")
            {
                #echo "This is a BootImage"
                Start-CMContentDistribution -BootImageName  "$packagename" -DistributionPointName "$server"

            }
           
            #For OSImage
            If($PackageType -eq "OSImage")
            {
                #echo "This is a OSimage"
                Start-CMContentDistribution –OperatingSystemImageName  "$packagename" -DistributionPointName "$server"
             }

            }

         
   

How to refresh package on many DP’s : http://eskonr.com/2013/09/sccm-configmgr-powershell-script-refresh-package-on-multiple-distribution-points/

Configmgr 2012:Updated PowerShell script add packages, applications,Drivers to Distribution Point is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Content Prestage in Configmgr 2012 is a new/Updated feature from its previous Version Configmgr 2007(Preloading).Content Prestaging is mainly used for the sites which has Slow or costly network connectivity.

When you are creating new site Distribution Point at remote location with Slow connectivity,you cannot distribute the missing packages due to bandwidth constraints.Configmgr 2012 allows you to create Prestage Content means,You can Export the content from One DP (Note: Only DPs under this particular Site could be Primary or Secondary will be listed but not from Other sites) ,copy to Disk,ship it and then import to the newly configured DP.

To know more about how to export content,Import Content using ExtractContent.exe refer TechNet  and Kent’s blog.

Lets jump into the Issue Now.As usual,configured New DP,copied the exported content (.pkgx) to ship,imported the content to newly Created server and started prestaging the content using ExtractContent.exe.

As  I have hundreds of packages to prestage,I created batch script and leave the server for day to complete the process. Next day,I ran query to see how many packages missing on the server ,report show few of them though the prestage is successfully done. I took one random package,do the prestage on the newly configured DP manually using command:extractcontent.exe /P:J:\Compressed_Packages\P0100035.pkgx /F to see its progress.

Monitor J:\SMS_DP$\sms\logs\PrestageContent.log for progress,it says “Sent P0100035.3 package state message to site”.

Immediately look into distmgr.log on the Site server(primary or Secondary where the DP is created attached ),search with package ID ‘P0100035’ ,found below message.

Will reject STA for DP ["Display=\\INSCCM1.eskonr.com\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=P01"]\\INSCCM1.eskonr.com\ as it does not exist in the PkgServers table

Will not process this invalid package status file from remote DP ["Display=\\INSCCM1.eskonr.com\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=P01"]\\INSCCM1.eskonr.com\, delete F:\SCCM\inboxes\distmgr.box\INCOMING\Q01XWOHT.STA

The error says,the prestaged package do not exist in ‘PkgServers’ table thus,site system cannot accept the STA file to process it.this leads me to think about, I have not added any of the imported packages to this DP prior running ExtractContent.exe

and why is it giving error only for few packages ? Question Remains ?

How do I make sure the content is available on the server without utilizing the WAN link ?

Get list of packages (mix of all package types like apps,OSD,Packages,drivers etc) that are having issue with prestaging,use the script to available here to distribute to DP.

On the DP server,do prestage content for missing packages using :extractcontent.exe /P:J:\Compressed_Packages\P0100035.pkgx /F

Monitor distmgr.log on Primary/Secondary ,you will see package being processed processed and content will not send over the WAN as site already received status message(.STA) saying package is already installed.

I have also seen other issues with content prestaging from distmgr.log like ‘Discarding old status update for package P01003BE for distribution point ["Display=\\INSCCM1.eskonr.com\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=P01"]\\INSCCM1.eskonr.com\.’

which means,the prestaging file version(for ex: 10)  is older than the version (Ex:11) that exist on the Primary site.For this ,you will have to either export the updated content or let the content transfer via WAN link.

Conclusion: It is good practice to have all the production packages assigned to DP group(DP group contains list of all DPs).So ,If you build New DP,you don’t have to target packages individually instead,you can DP to DP Group.

hope it helps!

Configmgr 2012 Content Prestage Error from distmgr log -Will reject STA for DP as it does not exist in the PkgServers table is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Since few months ,Microsoft publishing some great guides (deep dive) on SCCM Configmgr understanding and troubleshooting process ,tips and tricks that will help Configmgr administrators in solving issues.

It is really hard to find these useful links through search engines when needed for reference and to  send it internally for the team to go through .

I have tracked all the useful links in my OneNote and I have decided to let it go out for public incase for reference.

This blog post will be updating now and then ,when there is new content available.

1. Understanding and Troubleshooting Content Distribution in Microsoft Configuration Manager: This guide helps administrators understand the content distribution process and serves to build a foundation for diagnosing and resolving general content distribution related problems

2.Software Updates in Configuration Manager Current Branch Deep Dive – Client Operations

3.Troubleshooting the Database Replication Service in Microsoft Configuration Manager: This guide helps determine the type of DRS problem you are experiencing, explains how the processes work and offers troubleshooting suggestions for some of the most common problems.

4.Troubleshoot the Install Application task sequence in Microsoft Configuration Manager: This guide helps you understand the Install Application task sequence process and troubleshoot common problems that may occur. The Install Application task sequence step issued to install applications as part of the overall task sequence.

5.Troubleshooting PXE boot issues in Configuration Manager 2012:Helps administrators diagnose and resolve PXE boot failures in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager(ConfigMgr 2012 or ConfigMgr 2012 R2).

6.Software Update Management Troubleshooting in Configuration Manager: This guide helps you troubleshoot the software update management process in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, including client software update scanning, synchronization issues and detection problems with specific updates.

7.Configuring Software Update synchronization in System Center Configuration Manager: This guide explains the System Center Configuration Manager software update synchronization process from start to finish. Each step in the process is explained, including the various settings that control how update retrieval and synchronization are performed, common problems seen with each step in the process, as well as general troubleshooting tips.

8.complete guide to Microsoft WSUS and Configuration Manager SUP maintenance

9.Flowchart - Update replication for System Center Configuration Manager :These data flows display the process by which an in-console update you select to install replicates to additional sites. These flows also display the process of extracting the update to run prerequisite checks and to install updates at a central administration site and at primary sites.

See you all in the next post!