Hey Folks,

Till Now we have completed understanding on below points.

Today I will share  you the some inputs on when to use Distribution point sharing and Distribution point reassignment while Running Migration Jobs between Source and Destination Hierarchy. There are a few important points to understand before we choose these one of these options. Below I will provide 2 scenarios where I will Distribution point Sharing and Distribution point Reassignment.

Scenario 1: Distribution point Sharing.

Once Data Migration from Source hierarchy to a destination hierarchy is completed and we have following metadata for packages, Applications etc in destination hierarchy along with the Source that we have copied to new package source in destination hierarchy. So we have almost every thing ready for Client Migration to destination migration, except for the distribution points that will serve the content to client devices. If we are planning to use the same distribution points for both source and destination hierarchy then we can enable the distribution point sharing in the destination hierarchy. Distribution points that we share must meet the prerequisites for shared distribution points.

  • To successfully share any distribution points from a source site, at least one primary site or the central administration site in the destination hierarchy must use the same port numbers for client requests as the source site. ( Client -- > Distribution point  ports like HTTP port 80 or HTTPS port 443) ex: If source server is using a port 80 for client to distribution point communication then we must configure port 80 for Client to distribution point communication in destination hierarchy.

  • For each source site, only the distribution points that are installed on site system servers that are configured with a FQDN can be shared.

  • To share a distribution point from source site, the Source Site Account (which accesses the SMS Provider for the source site server), must have Modify permissions to the Site object on the source site. You grant this permission to the account by using role-based administration. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/core/understand/fundamentals-of-role-based-administration.

Important note : 

Distribution points sharing has following limitations, while the distribution points are shared between source and destination hierarchy, We cannot use the PXE option both hierarchies.

Distribution points sharing only enables the Clients in destination hierarchy to use the content that is already existing on shared Distribution point, Destination site cannot distribute any content to the shared distribution Point.

Scenario 2: Distribution point Reassignment

We can use distribution point reassignment in system center configuration manager Migration and it can also be utilized in a scenario that does not involve any Migrations or what can can call as existing hierarchy example Many customers have large Configuration Manager infrastructures, and are reducing primary or secondary sites to simplify environment still retain distribution points at branch office locations to serve content to managed clients. These distribution points often contain multiple terabytes or more of content. This content is costly in terms of time and network bandwidth to distribute to these remote servers.Starting in version 1802, this feature lets you reassign a distribution point to another primary site without redistributing the content. This action updates the site system assignment while persisting all of the content on the server.

Important Note: The target server can only host the distribution point role. If the site system server hosts another Configuration Manager server role, such as the state migration point, you cannot reassign the distribution point. Also we cannot reassign a cloud distribution point.

Before reassigning a distribution point, add the computer account of the destination site server to the local Administrator group on the target distribution point server.

Follow these steps to reassign a distribution point that belongs to Source site and point it to destination Hierarchy.

Go to the Administration work space and select Migration node and select Source Hierarchy, now go to shared distribution point tab at the bottom of the pane, here you can see list all distribution points that are available in source site also we can find the information weather the shared distribution point is eligible for reassignment or not.

Now Right click on the Distribution point and Select the reassign distribution point option.

Now in the General Tab, Distribution point name will be populated automatically, Select the Site code for which we want the distribution point to be assigned and Select the option Use the site server’s computer account to install this site system and Click on Next, remember that we have added the computer account of the destination site server to the local Administrator group on the target distribution point server.

Now provide the description as the location name where the distribution point is physically located. Also specify how clients communicate to distribution point in the hierarchy using HTTP or HTTPS depending on your environment. Select create a self-signed certificate and click Next.

All the values for drive settings will be auto populated in, Click next.