How can I setup a Distribution Point in ConfigMgr 2012 on a Windows 7 computer?

[Dietmar]

Hi! Yesterday I tried to create a distribution point on a Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 x86 machine because on SCCM 2007 we have about 110 small locations with a BDP. So we need this feature in 2012, too. I clicked through the wizard to add a new site system but on the Windows 7 machine nothing happens. The client is already installed and everything else works fine. I configured the site server and network access account as domain admin. The client push installation also works fine.

 

What's wrong? On the Technet Library for SCCM 2012 I could'nt find any solution. Did anyone (or anyweb :-) tried this and got this working? Has the DP machine to have a x64 architecture?

 

Thanks for help.

[Peter van der Woude]

There is no BDP anymore... There is only one type of Distribution Point left.

[Dietmar]

Yes, I know. However, the Distribution Point can be on a Windows 7 machine. But I cannot get this working.

[Peter van der Woude]

Then what is failling? What errors do you see?

 

Also for small location you might whant to consider BranchCache, as it's now fully supported bij ConfigMgr 2012

[Dietmar]

I can see no errors. Nothing happens on the Windows 7 machine. No special logs, no folders, nothing. Strange. We know about branch cache but we also want to use distribution points.

[anyweb]

This is a good question so I've modified your original topic to make it more descriptive and i'm pinning this.

 

Recommended reading:-

 

Site System Requirements:- Technet

 

Unlike other site system roles, distribution points are supported on some 32-bit operating systems. Distribution points also support several different configurations that each have different requirements and in some cases support installation not only on servers, but on client operating systems. For more information about the options available for distribution points, see Prerequisites for Content Management in Configuration Manager in the Deploying Software and Operating Systems in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager book.

 

 

Note that you cannot enable PXE or Multicast support on your Windows 7 Distribution Point.

 

 

To troubleshoot your distribution point creation on the Windows 7 box, on your ConfigMgr site server, what does the distrmgr.log file tell you about the problem, if it's complaining about being unable to connect, then you could have firewall issues and/or wmi problems related to the fact that you have a firewall in place and/or IIS is not installed on the Windows 7 computer or doesn't have the following IIS features installed:

 

* IIS 6 WMI compatibility Feature

* IIS 6 Management compatibility feature

 

so verify the firewall settings, and then verify that you installed IIS on the Windows 7 computer..

 

For more information about this requirement, see the Prerequisites for Site System Roles section in the Supported Configurations for Configuration Manager topic.

When you install a distribution point, Configuration Manager can install and configure IIS if it is not installed. If IIS is already installed, Configuration Manager will configure it to support required operations. Configuration Manager will not change settings that have been configured as part of an IIS template.

 

 

Next verify that you added the ConfigMgr site server computer account to the Local Administrators group on the windows 7 box. The screenshot below is from the Windows 7 computer. Once you've added the account to the Local Administrators group,

 

Note: You must reboot the Windows 7 box before installing the DP role otherwise IIS may not get installed automatically.

 

 

Installing the Distribution Point Role

 

To start the installation of the Distribution Point role on the Windows 7 box, select Servers and Site System Roles from Site Configuration in the in the Administration part of the ConfigMgr Console.

 

 

In the Ribbon, click on Create Site System Server, when the wizard appears, type in the FQDN of your Windows 7 computer and select your site code that it will be connected to from the drop down menu.

 

 

For Site System Installation account you have the option of specifying a service account or the site server computer account, whichever one you use must be a member of the Local Administrators group on your Windows 7 computer. Click Next

 

Select Distribution Point from the list of available roles

 

 

specify if you want IIS installed automatically or not (Install and configure IIS if required by Configuration Manager)

 

 

specify drive settings...

 

 

Do NOT enable PXE support (as this is a Windows 7 box and Windows Deployment Services is not available on Windows 7), just click Next

 

 

Do NOT enable Multicast (as above)

 

 

If you want to validate content on a schedule select the box, otherwise click next

 

 

click next, then for Specify the Boundary Groups to associate with this Site System, click Add and select your boundary from those listed

 

 

click next through to completion of the Wizard.

 

 

 

Monitoring the Distribution Point Role Installation

 

to see how your distribution point installation is progressing, you can monitor it in the ConfigMgr console, check the Distribution Point Configuration Status in Monitoring. Click on the machine name, then select the Details tab underneath, what does it say for your Windows 7 machine, you can even click on More Details in the ribbon to see if it provides more details about your issue.

 

 

once it's done installing the Distribution Point role you'll see it reports it successfully and creates the needed folder structure on your windows 7 box.

 

 

if you forgot to install IIS then install it on your Windows 7 box (you don't need to reinstall the distribution point role)

 

 

once again, monitor the status of your dp again, it should refresh to all Green (ok) and finally, it's all done and working and content is being copied to your new distribution point.

 

[Dietmar]

Hallo! Thanks for your solution! Now it works. I set the checkbox for installing IIS on remote machine. I didn't know that this do not work on windows 7. Thank you very much. This is a very important feature in our company!

[tmiller_hockey]

Very helpful post, this would work well for our environment as well, 13 locations with a DP at each for imaging!

[anyweb]

remember: Note that you cannot enable PXE or Multicast support on your Windows 7 Distribution Point.

[dgendera]

Hi,

I've been struggeling with this to get this setup, I've followed the steps in the LAB as suggested, machine account added to local administrator group, IIS Installed/configured, temporarily disabled the firewall (only for testing), however when I try to install the DP, I keep getting error message :

 

CWmi::Connect(): ConnectServer(Namespace) failed. - 0x800706ba SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 23/02/2012 17:43:04 3836 (0x0EFC)

Translated server name bru-proxy02.eu.pg.com to eu.pg.com\bru-proxy02.eu.pg.com. SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 23/02/2012 17:43:04 3836 (0x0EFC)

CWmi::Connect(): ConnectServer(Namespace) failed. - 0x800706ba SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 23/02/2012 17:43:04 3836 (0x0EFC)

CWmi::Connect() failed to connect to \\bru-proxy02.eu.pg.com\root\default. Error = 0x800706BA SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 23/02/2012 17:43:04 3836 (0x0EFC)

STATMSG: ID=2391 SEV=E LEV=M SOURCE="SMS Server" COMP="SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER" SYS=DEV-PRI001.eu.pg.com SITE=BIC PID=2100 TID=3836 GMTDATE=Thu Feb 23 16:43:04.152 2012 ISTR0="["Display=\\bru-proxy02.eu.pg.com\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=BIC"]\\bru-proxy02.eu.pg.com\" ISTR1="" ISTR2="" ISTR3="" ISTR4="" ISTR5="" ISTR6="" ISTR7="" ISTR8="" ISTR9="" NUMATTRS=1 AID0=404 AVAL0="["Display=\\bru-proxy02.eu.pg.com\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=BIC"]\\bru-proxy02.eu.pg.com\" SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 23/02/2012 17:43:04 3836 (0x0EFC)

GetWMIObject - Failed to connect to root\default on ["Display=\\bru-proxy02.eu.pg.com\"]MSWNET:["SMS_SITE=BIC"]\\bru-proxy02.eu.pg.com\. Error code: 0x800706BA SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 23/02/2012 17:43:04 3836 (0x0EFC)

CDistributionManager::SetDpRegistry failed; 0x800706ba SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 23/02/2012 17:43:04 3836 (0x0EFC)

CWmi::Connect(): ConnectServer(Namespace) failed. - 0x800706ba SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 23/02/2012 17:43:04 3836 (0x0EFC)

From the logs it looks like WMI Issue. I've done following:

- Try to connect remotely from anotehr machine to the WMI namespace that works

- If I try the same from Win2k8R2 server (which is my primary server in the lab) it fails !!!!!

 

THe machine I'm trying to install Windows 7 SP1 x32, we would have around 50 of those machines in our environemnt, it's important that I get this to work.

Any advice suggestion, let me know.

 

Q.

Is it required that the SCCM Client is instatled prior to installing the DP Role on that machine? I've had the client installed, but did not make any difference.