Control the location for SMSPKG$ share

SMS & SCCM distribution point by default will always look for the most free disk space drive and create the SMSPKG$ share resided on the drive. If you did not manage it properly, the SMSPKG$ share may exist on multiple drive and those shared content might content different package source and it is very hard for you to consolidate those content into single location.

Some of you may asking is that possible to dedicate a specific location and prevent the distribution point from creating the shared everywhere? Answer is Yes, we can do that. Below are the simple steps to accomplish the task:

1. On the target drive (where you would like to store the distribution package), create a shared folder and grant permission for SCCM service account & machine account.
2. In ConfigMgr console, browse to site system, then create a server share.
   
3. Specify the server share as distribution point, and then remove the default distribution point (If you perform this in production envinronment, make sure you backup all your distribution packages first).

After the above action been done, you will notice that the SMSPKG$ will only create under the shared folder you specified.

Backup SCCM Site

If you want to backup your SCCM site, you may make use of SCCM Site Server Maintenance Task to accomplish this. Below is the steps to configure the SCCM Backup job:

1. In the SCCM console, navigate to System Center Configuration Manager / Site Database / Site Management / <site name> / Site Settings / Site Maintenance / Tasks.

2. Right-click the Backup Site Server task, and click Properties.

3. Specify how frequent you would like to backup your site in the the backup task properties, and click OK. Ensure that you schedule the backup task to run at an appropriate time.

Try to make use of SCCM native backup method. My 2 cents... :)

How to customize SCCM 2007 Software Metering data collection timing

If Software Metering Client Agent is enable in your desktop management environment, some of the administrators may wonder where to customize the schedule for software metering data collection timing? and how frequent the software metering run for data collection?

Well, in SMS 2003 and SCCM 2007, there is a Predefined Maintenance Task for data collection and database maintenance. In this predefined maintenance task, you can specific the schedule for Software Metering data collection time. There are under:

Summarize Software Metering File Usage Data
Default Schedule: Runs daily, between midnight and 5:00 A.M.
Function of this task: Software metering collect the daily usage for the metered applications and store it inside the database.

Summarize Software Metering Monthly Usage Data
Default Schedule: Runs daily, between midnight and 5:00 A.M.
Function of this task: Software metering summarized the data's more than one month old.