Understanding & Configuring Peer cache for configuration manager clients

2. OVERVIEW
 ABOUT PEER CACHE
 CONSIDERATION OF ENABLING PEER CACHE
 REQUIREMENTS FOR ENABLING PEER CACHE CLIENT
 CLIENT SETTING FOR PEER CACHE
 CONFIGURING PEER CACHE CLIENT(PEER CACHE SOURCE)
CLIENT SETTING DEPLOYMENT & REPORTING
APPLICATION DEPLOYMENT
REPORTING ACTIVE CONTENT STATUS TO CONFIGMGR
 APPLICATION DEPLOYMENT TO ADDITIONAL CLIENTS

3. About Peer Cache
Pre-release feature
in 1602
Full Feature in 1710
100% Configuration
Manager Solution
Enables Peer cache clients to share content with other clients in the current boundary
group
(OS images, Driver Packages, Application, Packages and Boot Images)

4. Consideration of enabling peer cache
 High availability of
Content
 Number of Workstations
 Connection speed to
Distribution point

5. Requirement for Enabling Peer Cache clients as a peer
source
Create custom report to decide Peer Cache Client based on the below criteria.
Ex:
OS version (Like %Windows% NOT like %Server%)
Ethernet connection (Adaptertype0) = ‘Ethernet 802.3’
IPAddress0 like ‘%.%.%.%’ (Not Null)
Free space on system drive is > 45 GB
CCM Client is Active
Client version is 5.00.8325.1000 or later
Chassis type in (3,6,7) – Desktop, Min Tower, or Tower
 Must be domain joined
 Must be a member of the current boundary
group
 Supported CCM client
version
 CCM Client is Active and
online
 Recommended to have Desktop, Min Tower, or
Tower

6. Conditions to reject content
• Is in low battery mode.
• CPU load exceeds 80% at the time the content is
requested.
• Disk I/O has an AvgDiskQueueLength that exceeds
10.
• There are no more available connections to the
computer

8. Client setting for peer cache
Server - Feature enabled by default in
CB1710
Server - Peer cache settings
in Client settings

9. Server - Custom Client setting
deployment
Client - Peer cache setting in
WMI

10. CAS.log
Statemessage.l
og
CccmMessaging.log

11. Stored Procedure & SQL
Table

12. Application Deployment

13. Reporting Active content status
Statemessage.
log
CCMMessaging.
log
Statmgr.lo

14. Stored Procedure & SQL
Table

15. Application deployment to additional client
Locationservices
.log
DataTransferService
.log

16. Monitoring – Client data source Dashboard

17. BranchCache Peer Cache
Possibilities BranchCache works with any content that is accessed
via HTTP or SMB. Other users of the content get the
benefit of branch cache.
Peer cache only works with SCCM content.
Sharing BranchCache clients can share content with each other
only if they are in the same subnet.
Peer cache clients can share content with each other
even if they are not in the same subnet.
BranchCache works at a block/segment level. The unit
of download is blocks, which is typically just a portion
of a file. Blocks are identified by their hashes and not
by their association to any file. This allows a client to
share content even if it only has portions of it. This
also makes it is difficult to know which client has
which content.
Peer cache works at SCCM package level. The unit of
download is an SCCM package. An SCCM peer cache
client can only start sharing content if it has
completely downloaded the entire package. You can
also tell which client has which content.
Cache BranchCache uses its own cache which is separate
from the actual content. There is essentially two
copies of the content on the client.
Peer cache only has one copy of the content, all in the
ccmcache.
WinPE BranchCache does not work with WinPE clients. Peer cache works with WinPE clients. WinPE clients can
get content from peer cache clients in full OS.
Discovery BranchCache discovers content by broadcasting the
hash of a block, and the clients that have the block
will respond. This is why clients have to be on the
same subnet for this method to work.
Peer cache discovers content by asking the SCCM MP
for the location of packages. WinPE clients also
performs a broadcast on the subnet, in addition to the
MP look-up.

18. Reference links
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/core/plan-design/hierarchy/client-
peer-cache
• https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/setprice/2016/06/29/pe-peer-cache-
custom-reporting-examples/
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/sccm/core/servers/deploy/configure/monitor-content-you-have-
distributed#client-data-sources-dashboard
• https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/swisspfe/2018/01/25/branch-cache-vs-
peer-cache/
• https://2pintsoftware.com/configmgr-peer-cache-branchcache/
• https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/umairkhan/2017/06/12/configmgr-1702-
the-case-of-unexplained-client-peer-cache-not-getting-disabled-even-after-