SCCM 2012 Hierarchy

[ConfigMGR]

Hi,

 

I have been looking all over for better information on SCCM 2012 Hierarchy. I am working on building/ designing an SCCM 2012 Hierarchy for a client with multiple sites, but they have less than 1000 machines total. I have read through a number of posts and I have not come across any posts that break down the Hierarchy relationships between site servers (such as dependencies). I was contemplating having 1 primary site server and 2 management points, 2 distribution points with one external SQL database server. What are the pros and cons between having 1 site server vs. multiple site servers? The client has 4 different sites located in different states. They also plan on using all of the available functions with SCCM 2012. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. If this information has already been posted somewhere, please point me in that direction. Side note – Has anyone read (Mastering System Center 2012 – Configuration Manager) or any other configmgr 2012 books that they would recommend?

[willisj318]

I have this information in my beta book. I will look through it and try to post it sometime today. With what you stated I think I would do one primary, and a dp at every location, you say that they want to use every feature. Putting a DP on a server OS at each of the 4 sites gives them the content locally as well as imaging capabilities. Even if they dont need imaging you can put a DP on a $200 win 7 box now. I dont think you need two MPs. I always like to spread out the roles if possible onto multiple servers as well.

[willisj318]

Hopefully this helps.

[ConfigMGR]

Is there any documentation that you have come across for best practices for site system roles, I have not been able to locate any? I was thinking about maybe adding a secondary site server to manage some of the roles (Application Catalog, System Health Validator point, Fallback status point, State migration Point, system health Validator Point, Out of band service point, END Point Protection) or would splitting them up between the Primary site and the Distribution Points work just as good?

[willisj318]

I personally have not seen anything official, but every environment is different. Your fallback status point should be a seperate server from your main MP. I personally like to have SQL and the DP seperate sine they get hit a lot. In our 2007 we hav SQL on the primary box and its fine.

[ConfigMGR]

So in your experience would setting up a secondary site server with the roles for (Fallback status, State migration Point, Out of band service point, System Health Validator point & END Point Protection) be a good idea? Then having the primary site server with (Application Catalog, MP & SUP) with an external Database server, perform optimally without overloading any one server? Based on your information I am thinking about having 1 Primary Site server, 1 Secondary site server, 1 database server and 3 DP's.

[tmiller_hockey]

I'm in sort of the same scenario, I have 13 different campus locations and want to create another DP. Question is, should I enable PXE on that DP or not? I'd be putting the DP in one of the campuses that's furthest away from our Data Center. BTW we have a 10Gb link between here and that campus.

[ConfigMGR]

I finally located a document (Planning for Site Systems in Configuration Manager) that will help with the planning of roles. If anyone else is looking for the same information take a look at this Microsoft link

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg712282.aspx

[anyweb]

and that link (amongst others) is already included in Part 1 of my new series underneath Technet Recommended Reading, f.y.i

 

 

cheers

niall

[ConfigMGR]

Thanks Anyweb, I have that link bookmarked now.