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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Plan, design, and deploy System Center Configuration Manager 1706 like never before, regardless of how complex your infrastructure is
About This Book
- The most up-to-date resource on deploying or migrating to System Center Configuration Manager 1706 within your IT infrastructure
- Plan, design, and deploy ConfigMgr 1706 with ease, both on primary and multiple-hierarchy sites
- Master the new features of ConfigMgr 1706, including Windows 10 support
Who This Book Is For
If you are a system engineer or an administrator planning to deploy Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 1706, then this book is for you. This book will also benefit system administrators who are responsible for designing and deploying one or more System CenterConfiguration Manager 1706 sites in their new or existing systems.
What You Will Learn
- Install ConfigMgr servers and the necessary roles
- Design and scale ConfigMgr environments
- Configure and administrate essential ConfigMgr roles and features
- Create software packages using .msi and .exe files
- Deliver detailed reports with an automatic patching process
- Apply proper hardening on your deployment and secure workstations
- Deploy operating systems and updates leveraging ConfigMgr mechanisms
- Create high-availability components using the built-in mechanism for backup and recovery
In Detail
It becomes important to plan, design, and deploy configurations when administrators know that Configuration Manager interacts with a number of infrastructure components such as Active Directory Domain Services, network protocols, Windows Server services, and so on.
Via real-world-world deployment scenarios, this book will help you implement a single primary site or multiples sites. You will be able to efficiently plan and deploy a multiple-site hierarchy such as central administration site. Next, you will learn various methods to plan and deploy Configuration Manager clients, secure them and make the most of new features offered through ConfigMgr 1706 like compliance, deploying updates operating systems to the endpoints. Then, this book will show you how to install, configure, and run SQL reports to extract information. Lastly, you will also learn how to create and manage users access in an ConfigMgr environment
By the end of this book, you will have learned to use the built-in mechanism to back up and restore data and also design maintenance plan.
Style and approach
This step-by-step guide teaches you cool ways to plan, deploy, and configure ConfigMgr 1706. This tutorial, which complements the release of ConfigMgr 1706 with a refreshing new approach and expert guidance, will teach you everything you need to know about the essentials of server.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
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Deploying Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
Copyright © 2017 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: September 2017
Production reference: 1130917
ISBN 978-1-78588-101-5
www.packtpub.com
Credits
Authors
Jacek Doktor
Pawel Jarosz
Copy Editors
Stuti Srivastava
Madhusudan Uchil
Reviewers
Rafael Delgado
Rafal Kubiciel
Ronni Pedersen
Project Coordinator
Virginia Dias
Commissioning Editor
Kartikey Pandey
Proofreader
Safis Editing
Acquisition Editor
Heramb Bhavsar
Indexer
Aishwarya Gangawane
Content Development Editor
Sweeny Dias
Graphics
Kirk D'Penha
Technical Editor
Khushbu Sutar
Production Coordinator
Aparna Bhagat
About the Authors
Jacek Doktor is a Microsoft Certified Trainer. From 2008 to 2015, he held the Most Valuable Professional title in Enterprise Client Management granted by Microsoft. Apart from leading training sessions on System Center/Active Directory, he also performs IT system implementations and provides support to clients. His main scope of operation is Configuration Manager and all related technologies. He works for large Polish companies, and participates in projects led by Microsoft Poland. Apart from System Center, Jacek has enormous experience in Windows 10 deployment, migrations to Windows 10, and ConfigMgr report data usage.
Pawel Jarosz is an IT engineer with experience in various IT fields and platforms, including Microsoft Exchange and ConfigMgr. He is a Microsoft Exchange expert with experience in designing and maintaining hybrid infrastructures. Pawel is a cofounder of the Polish PowerShell User Group, and is passionate about automation, building monitoring solutions, and system integration. He runs the paweljarosz blog on Wordpress, where with a good dose of humor he shares his daily IT experiences. Pawel believes that the most stunning projects comes not from the brain, but directly from the heart.
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Table of Contents
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Downloading the color images of this book
Errata
Piracy
Questions
Design Planning
System Center Configuration Manager
When planning an upgrade
ConfigMgr hierarchy planning
Possible on-premise scenarios
Primary site
Primary site with secondary site
Central administration site with primary sites and secondary sites
Important servers roles
Management point server role
Distribution point server role
MS SQL Server role in ConfigMgr environment
Sizing and scaling of ConfigMgr
Site types
Central administration site
Primary site
Secondary site
Supported number of clients
ConfigMgr in Azure
ConfigMgr as a VM in Azure
Cloud-based distribution points
Planning for high availability with ConfigMgr
Reporting
Summary
Installing Configuration Manager
Configuration Manager installation process
System Center Configuration Manager 1706 requirements
Prerequisites for System Center Configuration Manager 1706
Environmental components
Granting permissions to the System container
Extending the Active Directory schema
Installing operating system components
Installing MS SQL Server
Installing Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit
ConfigMgr server installation
Checkouts after installation
Summary
Configure Sites and Boundaries
ConfigMgr server role types
Default roles
Optional roles
Roles installed during server deployment
Site server
Site system
Site database server
Service connection point
Distribution point
Management point
Methods of installing server roles
Create site system server
Add site system role
Fundamental optional server roles
Fallback status point
Reporting service point
Application Catalog
ConfigMgr server settings
Hierarchy site settings
Primary site settings
Discovery Methods
Active Directory Discovery Methods
Active Directory Forest Discovery
Active Directory User Discovery
Active Directory System Discovery
Active Directory Group Discovery
Heartbeat Discovery
Boundary and boundary groups
Configuring boundaries
Manually created boundaries
Automatically created boundaries
Configuring boundary groups
Default boundary group
Manual creation of boundary groups
Summary
Configuration Manager Agent Installation
Operating systems requirements
ConfigMgr client installation
Installation methods
Client push
Installing from the console
Manual installation on the operating system
Other installation methods
ConfigMgr client installation checkout
Troubleshooting client connectivity
Summary
Creating Client Settings for Servers and Workstations
Client settings
Default Client Settings
Creating custom settings for a device
Creating custom settings for a user
Assigning to a collection
Checkout of client settings
Collection settings
Summary
Compliance Settings
Compliance feature
Compliance Settings
Compliance Configuration Items
Compliance Configuration Baselines
Configuration Pack
Common tasks for managing compliance
Client setting for compliance
Deploying the compliance baseline
Viewing compliance results
Client reporting
Console reporting
Creating collections based on the compliance result
Managing resource and data access
Remote Connection Profiles
Company Resource Access
User Data and Profiles configuration
Summary
Software Distributions
Applications versus packages
Software distribution server roles
Application management features
Creating applications
Automatic application creation
Manual application creation
Global condition
Configuring application features
Supersedence
Application Catalog
References
Revision history
Deployment Types
Detection Method
Dependencies
Requirements
Application deployment
Simulating a deployment
Available deployments
Required deployments
Triggering an installation
Reporting
Invoking scripts on devices
Summary
Software Update Management
Software update features
Initial requirements
Server requirements
Client requirements
Client settings
Preparing ConfigMgr site for software updates
Installing WSUS
Software update point
The process of updates deployment
The process of synchronizing data with the WSUS server
The process of scanning for compliance
Scanning statuses
Updates deployment process
Integrating ConfigMgr server with Windows Update for Business and Windows 10
Supporting non-Microsoft Updates
Maintenance setting on collection
Update search
Server group
Deploying software updates
Deployment preparation
Manual update deployment
Windows 10 as a service
Office 365 Client Management
Monitoring software deployment
Software Update Reports
Software Update Dashboard
Summary
Endpoint Protection
Understanding Endpoint Protection
Endpoint Protection point
Client Settings for Endpoint Protection
Configuring a software update point for Endpoint Protection
Antimalware policies
Firewall policies
Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection
Monitoring Endpoint Protection status
Endpoint Protection state
Endpoint Protection alerts
Summary
Operating System Deployment
Operating system deployment
Operating system deployment terminology
Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit
Windows PE
Operating system image
Deployment Image Servicing and Management
Windows System Image Manager
Windows image file format
System Preparation Tool
Windows Deployment Service
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012
User State Migration Tool
Packages during operating system deployment
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
Operating system deployment scenarios
Bare-metal installation
Operating system refresh
In-place upgrade
Side-by-side migration
Task sequences
Task sequence creation
Drivers
Installation of imported drivers
Driver installation using packages
Deployment types
Windows 10 servicing
Servicing plan
Windows Update for Business policies
Upgrade Readiness
Summary
Configuration Manager Assets
Data collection
Queries
Reports
Hardware inventory
Software inventory
Asset Intelligence
Collection queries
Console queries
Console reports
Summary
Role-Based Administration and Security
Introducing role-based administration and security
Hardening the infrastructure
Access to the console
Security scopes
Security roles
Granting permissions to the ConfigMgr console
Service accounts
Remote Tools
Client Settings
Securing remote control
Summary
Site Server Maintenance Tasks
Maintenance tasks
ConfigMgr backup
ConfigMgr server recovery
Other ConfigMgr server maintenance tasks
Environment monitoring
Summary
Preface
This book might differ from other publications related to System Center Configuration Manager. It is not strictly for administrators and operators as we do not go very deep into the details of the configuration and administration of individual system components. In this book we put the emphasis on understanding what circumstances ConfigMgr can be used in, what kinds of function it may play in the environment, and what goals can be achieved. ConfigMgr is not only a system used to deploy operating systems, updates, and other software, but it is also a system of much wider scope and usage--and this is what we intended to cover.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Design Planning, covers basic topics regarding designing and deploying a single ConfigMgr server as well as environments with more than one server. You'll learn what important factors should be taken into consideration while deploying a ConfigMgr server and its roles.
Chapter 2, Installing Configuration Manager, presents the process of preparing the environment for a ConfigMgr server as well as the installation itself.
Chapter 3, Configure Sites and Boundaries, covers topics related to boundaries and boundary groups as well as the configuration of roles typically used in deployments.
Chapter 4, Configuration Manager Agent Installation, presents the ConfigMgr client installation process, available installation methods, and information about checkouts if installation goes successfully.
Chapter 5, Creating Client Settings for Servers and Workstations, covers creating your own custom settings for ConfigMgr clients.
Chapter 6, Compliance Settings, discusses how ConfigMgr can be used to verify computers' compliance with company standards.
Chapter 7, Software Distributions, covers topics related to software deployment.
Chapter 8, Software Update Management, presents the process of scanning, the installation of updates, and the management of this process.
Chapter 9, Endpoint Protection, contains topics related to the deployment and management of Endpoint Protection in order to better secure the environment against malware.
Chapter 10, Operating System Deployment, covers basic concepts for operating system deployment.
Chapter 11, Configuration Manager Assets, presents the process of collecting data from clients, and many possible ways of using this data.
Chapter 12, Role-Based Administration and Security, discusses the configuration of access to the ConfigMgr console.
Chapter 13, Site Server Maintenance Tasks, covers the topic of protecting the ConfigMgr server against failure and administrative tasks related to daily monitoring.
What you need for this book
In order to practice the scenarios from this book, you need the following software:
Operating system:
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server
2016
Software:
SQL Server 2016 Standard edition
System Center Configuration Manager 2701
Windows ADK 10 1607 version
Active Directory
Who this book is for
If you are a systems engineer and administrator planning to deploy Microsoft System Center 2016 Configuration Manager, then this book is for you. This book will also benefit system administrators who are responsible for designing and deploying one or more System Center 2016 Configuration Manager sites in their new or existing systems. It is also a book for those who would like to know about the ConfigMgr possibilities and what benefits it can bring to the organization.
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning. Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "New items can be created under Asset and Compliance\Compliance Settings\Configuration Items on the ConfigMgr console."
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "The Remediate noncompliant rules when supported and Allow remediation outside the maintenance window options enable the repair of configuration drift by the server."
Reader feedback
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book-what you liked or disliked. Reader feedback is important for us as it helps us develop titles that you will really get the most out of. To send us general feedback, simply email [email protected], and mention the book's title in the subject of your message. If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide at www.packtpub.com/authors.
Customer support
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
Downloading the color images of this book
We also provide you with a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. The color images will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file from https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/DeployingMicrosoftSystemCenterConfigurationManager_ColorImages.pdf.
Errata
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books-maybe a mistake in the text or the code-we would be grateful if you could report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded to our website or added to any list of existing errata under the Errata section of that title. To view the previously submitted errata, go to https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/support and enter the name of the book in the search field. The required information will appear under the Errata section.
Piracy
Piracy of copyrighted material on the internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy. Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the suspected pirated material. We appreciate your help in protecting our authors and our ability to bring you valuable content.
Questions
If you have a problem with any aspect of this book, you can contact us at [email protected], and we will do our best to address the problem.
Design Planning
Delivering services for an enterprise data center is a focal point of all System Center family applications. The main idea is to ease maintaining the systems in each stage of the life cycle.
To gain as much as possible from each solution, it is crucial to understand that there is no such thing as one supported or preferred configuration. Having a solution properly planned and well tailored to your needs will bring much more value than a generic installation without proper planning and designing, which may later bounce with an infrastructure hiccup.
This is the same as with a house, where a foundation is the most crucial part. When badly planned or, for instance, if a construction project doesn't have enough details and, as a result the house is not diligently enough isolated, the repercussions might be really serious. Sometimes, you even need to cut the house from the foundations in order to repair what has been done wrong during the construction phase.
This chapter covers the fundamental topics related to architecture design on ConfigMgr:
Why a well-prepared design is the most important part of each deployment
What the features of the ConfigMgr server
are
Conditions and requirements when planning an upgrade to ConfigMgr 1706
ConfigMgr hierarchy types
Conditions that determine which hierarchy should be applied
Security for the ConfigMgr server
MS SQL Server roles in ConfigMgr deployments
What the functions of distribution and management points in ConfigMgr deployments
are
System Center Configuration Manager
The history of managing operating systems reaches way back to 1994, when Microsoft released Systems Management Server 1.1 version. Since that time, Microsoft has systematically developed this tool until now. After the first one--SMS 1.1 version, other system versions that showed up were SMS 2.0, SMS 2003, ConfigMgr 2007, and ConfigMgr 2012. Additionally, three service packs were prepared (R2 and the one and only in Microsoft history: R3) and an endless number of cumulative updates and patches.
In the last 20 years, ConfigMgr has changed a lot, and it has been subject to a real upturn. Earlier, it used to be called a slow message system because of many limitations, which caused it to be slow and problematic.
Starting from ConfigMgr 2012, the server became really stable and efficient and there were no huge problems as with the legacy versions. A lot of changes were implemented, including the following:
Console build using .NET: previously it was based on Microsoft Management Console 3.0. The console works faster and more firmly and provides much more data than the previous ones.
Functional enhancements for many components such as the data synchronization of software update data between the servers.
Saving data in the SQL database for each type of ConfigMgr server. This has radically improved efficiency and the speed of synchronization between the servers.
Introducing the application mode to natively support
.msi
files.
An endless number of updates for old features and introducing a large scope of new features.
The possibility to install ConfigMgr clients on macOS, Linux/Unix.
The possibility of managing mobile systems with Windows, iOS, and Android.
The ability to install applications on non-Windows systems.
ConfigMgr 2012 R2 and R3 were the next system versions where already existing features underwent development and changes. One of the changes that did not have an impact on functionality was the naming convention change. All versions beyond ConfigMgr 2012 R3 were named after the year and month of the release date. The first version that had this naming convention was ConfigMgr 1511, which signifies that it was released in November 2015.
ConfigMgr 1511, when compared to ConfigMgr 2012 R2, had many important changes.
The most significant changes were as follows:
Windows 10 servicing
Side loading app for Windows 10
Compliance settings for Windows 10
Preferred management point
Primary site support up to 150k clients
Support for SQL Server Always On
Native support for deploying updates for Office 365
Task sequences in-place upgrade for Windows 10
Multiple automatic deployment rules
Deploy Windows Update for Business
The current, and newest, version is 1706.
ConfigMgr brings the following significant changes:
Changes in managing updates
Improved clean up for old updates
Introducing Data Warehouse service point role
OMS connector
The ability to assign software update points to boundary groups
New compliance settings for iOS
Hardware inventory collects UEFI information
Converting BIOS to UEFI during in-place upgrade
Deploying Office 365 apps to clients
Managing express installation files for Windows 10 media
Support for Android for work
Note that it is always best and safest to use current branch versions instead of the technical preview ones. Using the current branch version ensures you get proper support from the vendor as well as from the community--so you can actually get some support not only from your paid MS subscription, but also from other engineers on the forums (and available MSFT engineers who are often on these forums as well) on the internet.
When planning an upgrade
If you plan to upgrade servers ConfigMgr 1607 to 1706, first ensure that all of the site servers the across the hierarchy run the same version of ConfigMgr. The versions supported for upgrade to 1706 are 1602, 1606, and 1610.
Along with 1706 ConfigMgr, version support for a few systems got deprecated:
SQL Server 2008 R2 for site database servers
Windows Server 2008 R2 for site system servers and most site system roles
Windows Server 2008 for site system servers and most site system roles
Windows XP Embedded as a client operating system
ConfigMgr installer automatically installs .NET 4.5.2 on each machine if it is not installed already:
Enrollment proxy point
Enrollment point
Management point
Service connection point
Apart from the prerequisites related to the operating system and .NET 4.5.2, other important points are as follows:
Remember to install all critical and security updates on the machines
Remember to review the status of your
Software Assurance
(
SA
) agreement because, if you plan to upgrade to/install ConfigMgr 1706, this needs to be active
If you plan to deploy workstations, remember to ensure that Windows
Assessment and Deployment Kit
(
ADK
) for Windows 10 is at least at version 1703
Check your hierarchy for any ongoing issues and fix them before upgrading to 1706
Ensure that replication between sites works without issues; to check it, you might use Replication Link Analyzer
ConfigMgr hierarchy planning
As mentioned earlier, spending some time on planning and analyzing your business may significantly help you in building a solution that will meet the requirements without being an overkill. It is always good to include some growth in your design plans, but there is a significant difference between planned overhead and overkill in achieving the goal.
With ConfigMgr 2007 still in your environment, the administrator would need to go through an upgrade process to migrate to the 1706 version. For 2012, there is an in-place upgrade possibility. Note that upgrade process topics won't be covered in this book.
When it comes to hierarchy planning, ConfigMgr gives a few possible options. Since ConfigMgr 1511, Microsoft has supported running ConfigMgr on the cloud.
SMS 2003 servers and ConfigMgr 2007 were supporting hierarchies made of many levels. It was causing a lot more issues related to data synchronization between servers. In ConfigMgr 2012, Microsoft introduced some significant changes. Hierarchy might consist of only three levels, and data synchronization is made directly between SQL Servers, which is a significant factor in improving the functioning of the entire system.
Possible on-premise scenarios
When designing a ConfigMgr deployment, we may choose between a few server types, and we also have the ability to combine these few servers together.
An important thing to keep in mind is that there is, in fact, the possibility of changing the environment after the deployment. The administrator might start with one server, and have a few of them at the end, or the other way--the number of servers might go down.
ConfigMgr is a scalable solution, so it can be changed and might grow together with the organization.
Primary site
Primary site is a fundamental ConfigMgr server type that manages the clients. We start each deployment by installing this server. As you can see, the smallest possible implementation is a single standalone server. This solution is often chosen, not only by small and average sized companies, but also by big firms with a dozen or so branches.
Even when you don't have the best connection between offices, you may use a distribution point that will be a local repository for clients; the idea of distribution points will be described later in this chapter.
In this scenario, all clients report to one single ConfigMgr server. So, simplified administrations here are an undisputed benefit for both administrators and workstations that have one point to report to. Having only one server eliminates the need to replicate the database.
When installing the standalone/primary site server, the complete version of the SQL database server is required. Being a primary site server, the machine participates in database replication:
Primary site with secondary site
This scenario goes a step further. With a secondary site, we tell the clients in satellite offices/branches to report to the secondary site instead of the primary one. The reason we want a secondary site is that our primary site has very bad wide area network (WAN) connections with branches; additionally, during the day, we prefer not to fill this link with ConfigMgr traffic.
Imagine a situation where we have New York, which is our primary site, and Philadelphia, where we have an office with approximately 5,000 computers, and we have a really slow WAN link between these two offices (which may be considered any link slower than 10 MB) in addition to some latency issues. Having computers reported to New York might be a real bottleneck, not just for workstation to ConfigMgr communications, but it will surely impact applications that try to send data over this WAN link, so it may have serious repercussions for your business. Secondary sites come into play when one of the following factors is important:
Traffic compression between sites
Scheduling time for data exchange between the primary and secondary site
Usually, you won't need a secondary site; as I mentioned, even in global enterprise deployments, people often choose to have one primary site with distribution points in satellite offices:
Central administration site with primary sites and secondary sites
This is the most complex scenario we can get. A central administration site may coexist with one or more primary sites--it is the top-level site in the hierarchy. You may consider using central administration if you have two or more very big sites (where the sum of Windows clients, for instance, might be bigger than 150,000), or you would like to separate clients from each site from each other--the legal factor might come into play in this case:
A central administration site does not play any role in managing the clients in terms of actually having some clients assigned to it. You are not able to assign any clients here. It does not process any client data; it just saves data about the whole hierarchy.
Server central administrations might be added to the primary site at any time. There is no need to install the central administration site as the first server in the hierarchy.
With the central administration site and two primary servers connected to it, it is possible--in the case of failure of one of them--to switch endpoints to report to the working one. This feature is the easiest form of high availability provided for endpoints. However, this switch does not happen automatically, and it needs to be triggered from the server console.
Important servers roles
The most important roles, which need to be considered when designing the environment, are management point and distribution point.
If these roles are properly designed and deployed, the environment will work swiftly, firmly, and in accordance with expectations.
Management point server role
Management point is the most important server role that needs to be deployed in the ConfigMgr environment as it provides communication between the ConfigMgr server and the clients. If the mentioned role is not functioning correctly, clients will be unable to communicate with the server, which results in an immediate break in managing the environment. It makes communication on both sides impossible and clients won't be able to send any data to the ConfigMgr server.
Clients choose the management point they will connect to, based on the boundary group, which will be described in more detail in Chapter 3, Configure Sites and Boundaries. Incorrectly designed infrastructure, resulting in a badly chosen management point by clients, might cause many unpredictable effects; for instance, clients won't perform installations, won't send data to the ConfigMgr server, or will connect and communicate with the wrong management point.
For better and more efficient usage of the network between the central office and company branches, it is possible to place the primary site server or simply a management point in these branches. In this scenario, all data targeting clients will be sent only once--from the primary site server to the management point from which clients will download the data using the local network.
This happens on the other side as well. When clients are making a hardware inventory, they send all pieces of data to the management point server; it aggregates the data and sends it at once to the ConfigMgr server. In this way, the administrator is able to significantly lower the amount of information sent over the network in the ConfigMgr environment.
