1. Configure your boundaries like a champ, distribute software from peers
Kerim Hanif
Senior Program Manager
Microsoft Corporation
Jason Sandys
Consultant
Coretech
blog.configmgrftw.com j

2. Kerim Hanif Jason Sandys @kerimhanif @JasonSandys Survived 2 children
8 time MVP
20 years industry, 14 years MS
20+ years j
Love cooking, travelling, scuba
Glory glory Man United

3. AGENDA Boundary Group Improvements Client Peer Cache
Distribution Points
Software Update Points
Caveats/Tips
Future plans
Client Peer Cache
History
Today
Real word examples
Q&A j

4. Boundary Group improvements - DP
Allows you to create relationships between boundary groups
Allows predictability to failover scenarios
Works for Distribution Points 1610 onwards k

5. Default-Site-Boundary-Group<DBJ>
New Concepts, changes
9/18/ :18 PM
Default-Site-Boundary-Group<DBJ>
DPD1
DPD2
No more fast/slow distribution points
“Default-Site-Boundary-Group” (per site)
“Current” boundary group
“Neighbor” boundary groups
No more “allow fallback” setting per DP
Configure relationships to achieve protection to your DPs
Implicit fallback time for the Default-Site- Boundary-Group
Can be overridden by explicit relationship
Now clients will try next distribution point in ~10 min (used to be 2 hours)
After upgrade NO new configuration is needed
120 min
Redmond
DPR1
DPR2
50 min
90 min k
San Diego
DPS1
DPS2
Bellevue
DPB1
DPB2
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

6. Site-Default-Boundary-Group<DBJ>
Example
Site-Default-Boundary-Group<DBJ>
DPD1
DPD2
Client begins searching for content in its current boundary group Redmond. Tries each of these pool of valid content locations ~10 min in the order of:
DPR1, DPR2, DPR1, DPR2, DPR1
If failed after 50 min adds Bellevue to its pool and keeps Redmond in case if it can find it in its fastest location. Tries ~10 min each in order of:
DPR1, DPR2, DPB1, DPB2, DPR1, DPR2, DPB1…cont..
If failed after 40 additional min (total 90 min) adds San Diego still keeping the others, so the pool becomes:
DPR1, DPR2, DPB1, DPB2, DPS1, DPS2, DPR1 ..cont..
If failed after another 30 additional min (total of 120 min), it adds Site-Default-Boundary-Group for its assigned site and continues until default timeout:
DPR1, DPR2, DPB1, DPB2, DPS1, DPS2, DPD1, DPD2, DPR1, DPR2, DPB1, DPB2…cont..
NOTE: You can still use deployment settings to prevent 2, 3 (neighbor) or 4 (site default) from happening.
120 min
Redmond
DPR1
DPR2
50 min
90 min k
San Diego
Bellevue
DPS1
DPS2
DPB1
DPB2

7. Caveats, Tips
Now, intranet clients can favor Cloud DPs since they can be associated with boundary groups.
Internet clients don’t make use of boundaries.
MP only returns peer cache sources for the requesting client’s current boundary group, no neighbors.
Clients that don’t fall under any boundary will always fall back to Default-Site- Boundary-Group.
You can override implicit “Default-Site-Boundary-Group” fallback time by explicitly adding a relationship. k

8. How to override implicit relationship
Even though no relationship it listed, all boundary groups have an implicit relationship to the Default-Site-Boundary-Group
You can explicitly add Default-Site-Boundary-Group to a boundary group’s relationship tab and override this if needed
Or change the “Default Behavior” tab to impact all boundary groups’ implicit relationships k

9. Update to current branch from sp2 or r2sp1
Default-Site-Boundary-Group<PS1>
For each primary site
Including unprotected DPs and Cloud DPs
Original boundary group name-<Boundary Group ID>
For boundary groups with slow DPs
A fallback link of 0 fallback time added
Secondary-Site-Neighbor--Tmp<SS1>
For boundary groups with secondary site DPs
Including secondary site unprotected DPs k

10. Upgrade DP3 (S) (AF) DP3 (S) (AF) DP2 (F) (NF)
9/18/ :18 PM
Upgrade
DP3 (S) (AF)
DP3 (S) (AF)
DP2 (F) (NF)
BG1-<Boundary Group ID>
BG1
DP1 (F) (AF)
DP1 (F) (AF)
DP4 (S) (NF)
120 k
Default-Site-Boundary-Group<RED>
AF: Allow fallback
NF: No fallback allowed
S: Slow
F: Fast
DP5 (AF)
Cloud DP
© 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

11. Upgrade (Secondary Site)
DP1 (AF)
DP1 (AF)
Secondary-Site-Neighbor-Tmp<SEC>
SBG1
DP2 (NF) k
AF: Allow fallback
NF: No fallback allowed
DP3 (AF)

12. Boundary Group improvements - SUP
Allows you to create relationships between boundary groups
Allows predictability to failover scenarios
Works for Configuration Manager 1702 onwards J

13. Software Update Points Today
Default Site Boundary Group
Software Update Points Today
DP Default
SUPs are hierarchy based, can’t be assigned to a boundary group
Clients can choose any SUP in hierarchy
No affinity can be created with a boundary group
120 min
SUP
Default
Redmond BG
DP Redmond
SUP
Redmond
SUP
Bellevue j
20 min
Bellevue BG
DP Bellevue

14. Default Site Boundary Group
After Upgrade
Default Site Boundary Group
DP Default
SUP
Default
SUP
Bellevue
SUP
Redmond
Everything continues to work as it was before upgrade
We move all SUPs to the “Default Site Boundary Group” since we don’t know which boundary they should be associated with
Clients continue using their existing SUPs
Fallback time remains to be 2 hours
120 min
Redmond BG
DP Redmond j
20 min
Bellevue BG
DP Bellevue

15. Default Site Boundary Group
After Admin Edits
Default Site Boundary Group
DP Default
SUP
Default
We recommend all admins to move SUPs to their desired location and assign them to the boundary groups
ConfigMgr clients needs to be upgraded (to 1702) to take advantage of the boundary group affinity
Clients still continue to use their existing SUP
Clients will move to new SUP under two circumstances:
They can’t reach and timeout on their existing SUP
Admins manually select “Client Notification -> Switch to next software update point”. This can be done collection based
120 min
Redmond BG
DP Redmond
SUP
Redmond j
20 min
Bellevue BG
DP Bellevue
SUP
Bellevue

16. MP_Location.log j

17. Client Peer cache History
Peer Cache is an OS-independent, 100% native ConfigMgr solution to accomplish peer-to-peer content sharing “in” and “across” subnets.
Extension of the existing “Windows PE Peer Cache” solution
Now ConfigMgr full client can share its content cache to its peers.
Absolutely no goal to compete with partners (internal and external) j

18. Configuration Peer Cache Source PCs Collection New York MP
I am a now a Peer Cache Source
Here is my network, boundary info
Here is what I currently have in my cache
Redmond
Primary
SQL k
Boston

19. Content location Order (INTRANET Client)
Client on DP
Peer in the same subnet
DP in the same subnet
Peer in the same AD site
DP in the same AD site
Peer in the same boundary group
DP in current boundary group
DP in neighboring boundary group
DP in Default Site Boundary Group
Windows Update
Internet Facing DP
Cloud DP J

20. New York Boundary Group
You need to install “Contoso.exe”
here are all the locations
where it is available.
Client1 [BOUNDARYGROUP]
Client2 [BOUNDARYGROUP]
DP2 [NEIGBORBOUNDARYGROUP]
Client2 MP
Redmond
New York Boundary Group
Contoso.exe
Redmond BG
Primary
DP2
Contoso.exe
Client1 j
This is an example where there are no DPs in the boundary group NY, the only DP is in the neighbor boundary group
So when the client in NY wakes up and asks the MP what it needs to do (this is a regular request) MP now sends peer sources along with DPs as a response
Client then decides where to get the content from
If there are peers in its current boundary group, it will get the content from them.
It will randomly select which one if there are more than one with the same content.
Contoso.exe
What do you have for me?

21. New York Boundary Group
You need to install “Contoso.exe”
here are all the locations
where it is available.
Client1 [BOUNDARYGROUP]
Client2 [BOUNDARYGROUP]
DP1 [BOUNDARYGROUP]
DP2 [NEIGHBORBOUNDARYGROUP]
Client2 MP
DP1
Redmond
New York Boundary Group
Contoso.exe
Contoso.exe
Redmond BG
Primary
DP2
Contoso.exe
Client1 J
This is an example where there are DPs in the current boundary group NY
So the MP returns that DP’s name along with peer sources
But if both DP and peer is available in the current boundary group the logic is that they have the same priority.
So DP is NOT higher priority then a peer source.
In this case it will again randomly select a source to pull from, it may very well select DP or Client2 as well as Client1, I just used Client1 as an example here.
Contoso.exe
What do you have for me?

22. New York Boundary Group
Subnet 2
You need to install “Contoso.exe”
here are all the locations
where it is available.
Client1 [BOUNDARYGROUP][Subnet1]
Client2 [BOUNDARYGROUP][Subnet2]
DP1 [BOUNDARYGROUP][Subnet1]
DP2 [NEIGHBORBOUNDARYGROUP]
Subnet2 MP
Client2
Redmond
Contoso.exe
New York Boundary Group
Redmond
Primary
DP2
Contoso.exe
DP1
Subnet1
Client1
Contoso.exe J
This is an example where there are DPs in the current boundary group NY
So the MP returns that DP’s name along with peer sources
But if both DP and peer is available in the current boundary group the logic is that they have the same priority.
So DP is NOT higher priority then a peer source.
In this case it will again randomly select a source to pull from, it may very well select DP or Client2 as well as Client1, I just used Client1 as an example here.
Contoso.exe
What do you have for me?

23. New York Boundary Group
You need to install “Contoso.exe”
here are all the locations
where it is available.
Cloud DP [BOUNDARYGROUP]
DP2 [NEIGHBORBOUNDARYGROUP]
Cloud DP MP
Contoso.exe
Redmond
New York Boundary Group
Redmond BG
Primary
DP2
Cloud DP
(Association)
Contoso.exe K
This is an example where there are DPs in the current boundary group NY
So the MP returns that DP’s name along with peer sources
But if both DP and peer is available in the current boundary group the logic is that they have the same priority.
So DP is NOT higher priority then a peer source.
In this case it will again randomly select a source to pull from, it may very well select DP or Client2 as well as Client1, I just used Client1 as an example here.
What do you have for me?

24. Content location Order (Internet Client)
Fallback based on failures NOT boundaries
Windows Update
Internet Facing DP
Cloud DP K

25. Client data sources dashboardK

26. What’s new in 1702 Peer Cache Boundary Groups Rejection
Peer cache sources can reject serving clients if they are busy
Is in low battery mode.
CPU load exceeds 80% at the time the content is requested.
Disk I/O has an AvgDiskQueueLength that exceeds 10.
There are no more available connections to the computer.
Boundary Groups
Software Update Points are added J

27. Reports 1610 1702 Client data sources
Peer cache source content rejection
Peer cache source content rejection by condition
Peer cache source content rejection details
Check known issues here: design/hierarchy/client-peer-cache K

28. Reports K

29. future Boundaries Client Peer Cache Management Points
State Migration Points
Client Peer Cache
Support for Window express files
Support for O365 delta files
Fixes for the reporting issues K

30. Real world Upgrade example – It Just Worked
Datacenter A
Site System A
MP, DP, SUP
~100 Remote DPs
Fallback
Primary Site Server
Datacenter B
Site System B
MP, DP, SUP

31. Client Peer Cache – Product team stress test1
500
250 9
Primary Site
Server
Actually used
as a Source
Most number of
times used
Total clients*
Application deployment, no content pre-caching
* All Peer Cache Sources (Not recommended, 10%, 20% is recommended)

32. Client Peer Cache – Product team stress test1
500 2 12
Primary Site
Server
Hours between available
and deadline times
Most peer sources
at one time
Total clients*
Application deployment, no content pre-caching
* All Peer Cache Sources
(Not recommended, 10%, 20% is recommended)

33. Deadline Randomization is Peer Cache’s Friend
Activation Randomization
Deadline Randomization
Applications
Packages …
Enabled
2 hours (by default *)
Software Updates
DISABLED by default **
* Only changeable directly in the Site Control File
** Changeable in Client Settings