Need help with SCCM Setup

[Equinox55]

Hello all!! Hoping someone can give me a hand. I have completed a course on SCCM and now want to deploy it to our company just need some help with site setups.

 

A little bit about our company. We are based out of Canada and have offices across Canada, with Calgary being our main data center. We have about 4700 clients across Canada.

 

BC – 16 offices - 5 large offices

 

AB – 20 offices - 7 large offices

 

SK – 13 offices - 5 large offices

 

MB – 13 offices - 3 large office

 

ON – 14 offices - 6 large offices

 

QB – 2 offices - 1 large office

 

The large offices are anywhere from 40 to 150 people per office and the smaller sites have less than 30 per site with most of the small sites begin around 15-30 people. There is roughly two larger offices per province.

 

Each office is on its own subnet with relatively fast connections between all offices. Some of the smaller offices (10-20 people) have slower connections. Also almost each site has a domain controller, file server, terminal server unless that office is a Citrix only site.

 

What we plan to use SCCM for is, inventorying, endpoint, WSUS, and WDS.

 

I need some help/recommendations with where to put a CAS(if needed - don't think I need one), primary sites, secondary sites and distributions points.

 

This is my current plan a Primary site in Calgary and then secondary sites in 2-3 of the larger offices in each province and then the rest of the offices just pull over the wire from the secondary sites. What do you think of this?

 

My other question is should I but SQL on a separate server and let our dedicated SQL administrator look after it, or install it on the same server vm as the SCCM install and I look after it.

 

Also what should I give my servers for resources (1. If SCCM and SQL are together. And 2. If they are on separate VM's)

 

I want to set this up correctly the first time. In the course we only did small scale (2 offices) so that is why I need some help.

 

[kingbuzzo]

I would go with a CAS as it sounds like you are large enough to justify.

 

Don't forget you can put the Distribution Point on any Windows Server (even a desktop) so you shouldn't have to pull anything over-the-wire frequently.

 

My instructor recommended to put the SQL on the SCCM server but it depends on politics. If you end up going this way just ensure you monitor the maintenance/backup tasks and try to procure as much hardware as the budget allows.

 

If you need any help with the MB orifice, and can be onsite!

 

[Peter van der Woude]

Don't go for a CAS! You should only think about using a CAS when you've got more than a 100k of clients to manage.

[Equinox55]

Thanks for the replies.

 

I am thinking I will do a Primary in Calgary and then lets take Manitoba. A secondary site in Brandon and Winnipeg and then the other smaller sites like Dauphin, Portage, Deloraine as distribution points? Would this work well?

[GarthMJ]

I hate to say it but it is really hard to answer questions like this in a forum. There are just too many vars., except is very rare cases, NO CAS!

 

Take Brandon:

What create a secondary in Brandon, MB? (BTW I have been there and Virden MB too! Hi from Ottawa)

• How any users/computers are there?
• What is the network like? (is it slow, do we need to protect the site, if so why? etc.)
• Are there any techs there?
• How much bandwidth is there?
• Is there anything special about this site?
• What SLA do you have in Place?
• How are you planning on do patching?
• What percentage are you clients model?
• What OS is installed at these sites?
• Etc.

 

For CM12

• How often are you preform HW inventory?
• What about upgrading OS?
• Etc.

 

 

CM12 is a huge product and I would personally recommend that you hire a consultant with experience, work with them to create the design. The key is work with them more as a mentor than a contractor.

 

 

That is my two Canadian cents.