DP Content Migration - CM 2207 Preview

Introduction

Are you needing to replace a Distribution Point server with another server? Are you concerned that your Cloud Distribution Point (CDP), hosted on Azure classic services, needs a content transfer to another distribution point - because it will be deprecated in 2024?  Or do you need your package content, hosted on your CMG v1, migrated to another distribution point because of the coming deprecation of CMG on *.cloudapp.net?  

The Start-CMDistributionPointMigration PowerShell cmdlet, released in CM 2207 preview edition, will help you with any of the above migration needs.  The new distribution point server, or the distribution point server receiving the package/application content will need to be up and running, before you run this migration cmdlet.

In this post I will test a simple scenario. The existing DP, whose netbios name is server3, has one legacy package and one application distributed to it.  I have created a new DP on my DC, called server1, and have not deployed any packages or applications to it.  I will run the Start-CMDistributionPointMigration cmdlet to start the content migration. I will run the Get-CMDistributionPointMigrationStatus cmdlet to determine when the migration has completed.

The Application and the Package

I have created a PowerShell Deployment Toolkit application to deploy the Microsoft Account Lockout Status tool.  As can be seen it is only distributed to one DP.

I have deployed the User State Migration Tool (USMT) legacy package to the same DP.

The PowerShell DP Migration Commands

In the SCCM console I click on the top left hand down arrow and select Connect via Windows PowerShell.

In the Powershell console I enter the following command:

start-cmdistributionpointmigration -sourcedistributionpointname server3.domain1.lab.tst -destinationdistributionpointname server1.domain1.lab.tst

After pressing Enter the migration begins.

Monitoring the DP Content Migration

In the SCCM console I can see that the new DP has been added to the USMT legacy package and that the distribution is in progress.

I can see also that the additional DP has been added to my Account Lockout Status application and that it has distributed.

Twice I run the following PowerShell monitoring command:

get-cmdistributionpointmigrationstatus -sourcedistributionpointname server3.domain1.lab.tst -destinationdistributionpointname server1.domain1.lab.tst

The first time I run the command I can see that the migration is in progress.  A few minutes later I run it again and confirm that the migration has completed.

Conclusion

In the past I would have achieved a similar operation by writing a vbs script with dozens of lines and some complex logic.  But now, as we have seen, a one line PowerShell command will achieve the package and application content migration from one DP to another.  I hope you enjoyed this article and I wish you similar testing success in your SCCM Technical Preview 2207 environment.