Configuration Manager uses terminology that is unique
and specific to its management infrastructure and the actions it can
carry out among its clients; these clients can be servers, workstations,
or mobile devices such as PDAs and smartphones. The next sections describe site, hierarchy, and role terms, providing a
foundation to understand how these objects interact with one another,
ConfigMgr clients, and the infrastructure.
Site Servers
The site server
is a site system role assigned to the server where the Configuration
Manager setup program runs. By definition, each ConfigMgr site has at
least one site server. This system has the ConfigMgr binary files
installed on it, and can have clients assigned to it for management
purposes. The site server manages all components belonging to its site,
including management points and distribution points.
Site servers are divided out into two types:
Primary site servers
Secondary site servers
Although both are types of
site servers, there are significant differences between the two,
differences you will need to understand to place them properly in your
organization. The next sections discuss these differences.
Primary Site Servers
Primary site servers
reference a SQL Server installation and store their configurations,
client inventories, statuses, and other attributes in a SQL Server site
database. SQL Server is typically installed locally, and Microsoft
recommends this as a best practice. A local database installation
provides the following advantages:
Simplified management
Reduced chance of resource contention
Allows implementing the most secure and simple installation of SQL Server, thus safeguarding the client’s inventory data
Primary
site servers can scale to approximately 100,000 clients per server,
although political or organizational reasons may mandate more than one
site server and a lower client count per site. Primary site servers
require a Microsoft Configuration Manager 2007 license for each site.
Every Configuration Manager implementation has a minimum of one primary site, also known as the central site.
The central site is the top primary site in the hierarchy. Whether
there is one Configuration Manager site or multiple sites, the top of
the hierarchy is always the central site. All inventory rolls up the
hierarchy, making this site server the central repository for all client
configuration data in the enterprise.
Scalability in
ConfigMgr 2007 has increased substantially from SMS 2003 to support some
of the largest and most complex enterprise environments around the
world. Because ConfigMgr has so many unique roles, each of them has its
own respective scalability limits due to the type of traffic involved.
Microsoft made public the scalability figures listed in Table 1 at the 2008 Microsoft Management Summit.
Table 1. Scalability Numbers for Configuration Manager 2007
| Site Role | Maximum Number of Client Systems |
|---|
| Hierarchy (central site) | 200,000 |
| Primary site | 100,000 |
| System Health Validator | 200,000 |
| Management point | 25,000 |
| Distribution point (non-OSD) | 4,000 |
| Distribution point (OSD) | Limited by network and disk I/O |
| State migration point | Limited by network and disk I/O |
| Software update point (WSUS) | 25,000 |
| Fallback status point | 100,000 |
| Branch distribution point | Limited by OS license, network, and disk I/O |
To achieve numbers in the ranges listed in Table 2.2,
you must perform proper sizing of the ConfigMgr hardware and allocation
of ConfigMgr resources. A great difference exists between the types of
traffic, such as patch management, application distribution, and OS
deployments.
Secondary Site Servers
Given the capabilities of a primary site server, what is the role of a secondary site server?
A secondary site does not have a SQL Server database.
A secondary site server can only be a child of a primary site.
Secondary site servers typically are used to manage a large amount of client data over WAN links.
Here are some examples when you may want to use secondary site servers:
If you
are concerned about network traffic between the clients and the
Configuration Manager hierarchy, secondary sites can host a Distribution
Point role and then throttle and limit when packages are updated on
that DP.
Let’s say
you have a large number of clients at a remote location and desire to
cache client inventories and upload them to their primary site server at
a more opportune time. This capability requires leveraging the proxy
management point to have the secondary site server cache, compress, and
then upload the data to the primary, while complying with a rate limit
and schedule defined on the server’s address.
You perform
secondary site server administration through the parent site or some
other site higher in the hierarchy, such as the parent’s parent. In
essence, a secondary site server can reduce the load on its parent
primary site server, and it is more efficient with network bandwidth
usage during peak times over a WAN link.
Tip: Distribution Points on Secondary Site Servers
Over the years, many
SMS administrators have implemented distribution points on secondary
site servers without configuring the SMS address for the sender, used by
SMS to communicate with the site system. This results in a more complex
architecture with no real benefit. If you do not configure bandwidth
throttling, there is no point in having the DP belong to the secondary
site.
Site Systems
Site systems
are servers, and in some cases workstations, that host roles for the
Configuration Manager infrastructure. Site systems include the
following:
Component server—
A computer with ConfigMgr software installed on it. A component server
is a ConfigMgr server that has had the ConfigMgr setup run on it locally
and ConfigMgr software installed.
Site database server— Required for primary sites only. This is the server running SQL Server and hosting the site database.
SMS provider— Required for primary sites only. The provider is the WMI layer sitting between the ConfigMgr console and site database.
Management point—
Used for client and policy download. This is a location where
Configuration Manager computer and device clients can exchange data with
the ConfigMgr site services. ConfigMgr clients and the site server do
not communicate directly with each other; all communication is
facilitated via the management point. There must be at least one default
management point for every ConfigMgr hierarchy.
Distribution point— A
distribution point is a share containing ConfigMgr packages for clients
that will download them for installation. DPs are used with software
distribution, software updates, and OSD. DPs do not require an
additional ConfigMgr license.
Branch distribution point—
A branch distribution point allows a distribution point to be defined
as a workstation. This is ideal for remote locations with fewer than 10
workstations, removing the need to install a secondary site server. (New
with ConfigMgr 2007.)
Server locator point—
Used when the AD schema is not extended or when managing clients in
workgroups or untrusted AD forests. The SLP helps clients find
management points when they cannot find that information through AD and
informs clients which MP to access to install the client software,
completing client site assignment on the intranet.
Software update point—
The software update point (SUP) is assigned to the computer running
WSUS, and is only required if using the Software Updates capability. New
with ConfigMgr 2007 is its integration with WSUS and thus the SUP. WSUS
enables administrators to deploy Microsoft updates to computers running
the Windows operating system, leveraging built-in Automatic Updates
technology. ConfigMgr now uses this role to distribute various updates
to Microsoft client systems.
State migration point—
OSD uses the state migration point when migrating user state and
settings from one computer OS load to another as part of operating
system image deployment. The SMP can be used in both Refresh PC and
Replace PC deployment scenarios. The state migration point requires
Internet Information Services (IIS). You can use the state migration
point for other functions, such as automating backup of the user’s state
to the network.
Fallback status point—
The fallback status point (FSP) is used to help administrators monitor
client deployment and identify any problems encountered during
installation or assignment. It also helps to identify clients that are
unmanaged because they have problems communicating with their MP, which
is particularly relevant when operating in native mode. (New with
ConfigMgr 2007.)
Reporting point—
Hosts the Report Viewer component that provides web-based reporting
functionality. The reporting point is only required if reports are run
on a particular primary site.
PXE service point—
Responds to Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) requests from computers
requesting operating system deployment. (New with ConfigMgr 2007.)
Device management point—
An extension to the management point or proxy management point. The
device management point allows mobile devices to connect to ConfigMgr
servers and receive policy and configuration settings.
Out of Band service point—
Used to enable out of band management for clients; can only be
installed on primary site servers. (New with ConfigMgr 2007 SP 1.)
Reporting Services point— Delivers integration with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. (New with ConfigMgr 2007 R2.)
System Health Validator point— Assigned
to the computer running the Network Policy service. Only required if
the Network Access Protection feature is being used. (New with ConfigMgr
2007.)
Site systems should
always reside in the same AD forest as the site server. Spanning Active
Directory forests with Configuration Manager sites is not recommended
because you would span the Active Directory security boundary by
allowing administration from a different forest.
Although not recommended, it is possible to have the following site systems in a remote forest:
Site Hierarchy
Site hierarchies exist
when there are more than one Configuration Manager site server and the
servers have a parent/child relationship defined between them.
Hierarchies can be very simple and flat or complex and deep to support
an organization’s requirements for systems management.
A parent ConfigMgr site
implies there is at least one child site. A parent site can have many
children, and those children can have children. Secondary sites cannot
have child sites, and the parent of a secondary site is always a primary
parent site, because secondary sites do not have their own database.
Only the PMP and DP roles
can leverage the sender that the secondary site relies on for
communication to the parent primary site.
A common hierarchical
model is for a central site to manage servers and a child primary to
manage workstations. This architecture provides a structure for the
server administrators to manage their systems and the workstation
administrators to manage their systems while segregating the management
of those systems, the features enabled, schedules, and so on. Figure 1 illustrates an example of a three-tiered hierarchy with two branches, one of which is two-tiered.
