In this blog, I will install & configure SCCM Distribution point on a system installed with Server Operating System 2019. I will demonstrate installing new DP on server name DP01. For installation of Distribution point, there are few prerequisites to be met before continuing:

Pre-requisites to install SCCM Distribution Point

  1. Following Windows Server roles and features are required:

Windows Server roles and features

  • Remote Differential Compression

IIS configuration

  • Application Development:
    • ISAPI Extensions
  • Security:
    • Windows Authentication
  • IIS 6 Management Compatibility:
    • IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility
    • IIS 6 WMI Compatibility

Note: As part of DP Role installation, these roles and features can be installed automatically if missing. You can further check DP Prereqs.

  • Site Server Computer Account should be member of local Administrators group.

Login to the server DP01 and launch Local Users and Groups (alternatively, you can use lusrmgr.msc to launch it). Navigate to Groups and double click Administrators. Add Site Server Computer name, ie. SCCM01 in our case.

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  • Firewall Inbound rule “File and Printer Sharing (SMB-In)” to be enabled as we might need to copy the files to configure the distribution point by installing IIS role and other stuff. If not configured, you will get following error in distmgr.log:
Failed to find a valid drive on the distribution point
Could not find a valid drive. Error = 15

This can be enabled through GPO, however I am enabling it manually.

Login to the server DP01, launch Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security, and navigate to Inbound Rules. Enable following rules:

  • File and Printer Sharing (SMB-In)
  • File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request – ICMPv4-In)

(Not mandate, but enabling it so that I can get ping response whenever required for testing)

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  • Firewall inbound rule “Windows Management Instrumentation (DCOM-In)” & Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI-In) to be enabled, to avoid 0x801901F4 error while client trying to download the content. Can find more details here.
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Create Site System Server (to install DP role)

Launch SCCM console, navigate to \Administration\Overview\Site Configuration\Servers and Site System Roles. Select Servers and Site System Roles and click on Create Site System Server from Home ribbon.

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Under Create Site System Server Wizard, provide Server name where you want to install distribution point. Also select Site Code. We will use site server’s computer account to install this site system, hence no other changes required. Click on Next.

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Under page Specify Internet proxy server, click on next without making any changes as we are not looking for internet connectivity or any specific role where we need connectivity. Click on Next.

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Under page Specify roles for this server, select Distribution point to install the specific role. Click on Next.

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Under page Specify distribution point settings, select Install and configure IIS if required by Configuration Manager. This will install all perquisites and mentioned in point#1.

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Selecting this option will run following command line to install the roles and features:

'dism.exe /online /norestart /enable-feature /ignorecheck /featurename:"IIS-WebServerRole" /featurename:"IIS-WebServer" /featurename:"IIS-CommonHttpFeatures" /featurename:"IIS-StaticContent" /featurename:"IIS-DefaultDocument" /featurename:"IIS-DirectoryBrowsing" /featurename:"IIS-HttpErrors" /featurename:"IIS-HttpRedirect" /featurename:"IIS-WebServerManagementTools" /featurename:"IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility"  /featurename:"IIS-Metabase" /featurename:"IIS-WindowsAuthentication"  /featurename:"IIS-WMICompatibility"  /featurename:"IIS-ISAPIExtensions" /featurename:"IIS-ManagementScriptingTools" /featurename:"MSRDC-Infrastructure" /featurename:"IIS-ManagementService" '

Under page Communication, lets go with the default option as we are using http communication.

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Under page Drive Settings, you can specify the Drive space reserve and location for following:

Primary content library location
Secondary content library location
Primary package share location
Secondary package share location

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Incase you want to specify different drive to host the content library, you can do that.

Under Pull Distribution Point page, we can specify the source distribution point to pull the content in case we have slow link between existing DP and source library. We will leave as it is. Click Next.

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Under PXE Settings page, we can configure the existing Distribution point to use as a PXE server to support operating system deployment, which will install Windows Deployment services. We will go with default option by not selecting it. Click Next.

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Under Multicast page, we can enable multicast option to deploy multiple images at a time. Click Next.

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Under Content Validation page, we can select the option to validate the content on weekly basis or any other schedule of our choice. Click Next.

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Under Boundary Groups page, we can select the Boundary group to serve this DP as a content location. This can be configured at later stage as well. Click Next.

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Under Summary page, verify all settings you have specified. Click Next.

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Under Completion page, you will the task executes and which can be monitored through logs. Click close to exit the wizard.

Verify Installation through distmgr.log

We can see the installation status on Site server by checking the log distmgr.log.

Finished updating DP setting from SCF to DP machine, configure branchcache, LEDBAT, DOINC - DP01.MANBAN.COM
Successfully updated configuration settings on server - DP01.MANBAN.COM
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Verify Installation status through hman.log

Hman.log can be verified for new Distribution point role. We can see following:

Server Info of site MAN has changed. Update the DPInfo table in the database.
Distribution Points of site MAN have changed. Update the DistributionPoints table in the database.
Inserted DP ["Display=\\DP01.MANBAN.COM\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=MAN"]\\DP01.MANBAN.COM\. CRC:353A2B20,PDP:0,PullDP:0
Publish Client Packages To New DP. DP's SiteCode is MAN, this site is MAN. DP Reports to SecondarySite = 0. Publish the client package
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Verify Distribution Point folder structure

Following folders will be created on Distribution point:

  • SCCMContentLib (This is a content library folder which further consists of DataLib, FileLib and PkgLib)
  • SMS_DP$
  • SMSPKGC$
  • SMSSIG$
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