Allow Client To Download Delta Content When Available !FULL!
Clarabella Doom
The documentation here ( -us/mem/configmgr/core/clients/deploy/about-client-settings#allow-clients-to-download-delta-content-when-available) says that before enabling "Allow clients to download delta content when available" (which this new feature does automatically), "ensure Delivery Optimization is configured appropriately for your environment."
For many customers, a successful path to getting and staying current with Windows monthly updates starts with a good content distribution strategy using Configuration Manager. The size of the monthly quality updates can be a cause of concern for large organizations. There are a few technologies available that are intended to help reduce bandwidth and network load to optimize update delivery. This article explains these technologies, compares them, and provides recommendations to help you make decisions on which one to use.
Windows quality update downloads can be large. Every package contains all previously released fixes to ensure consistency and simplicity. Microsoft has been able to reduce the size of Windows update content that each client downloads with a feature called express. Express is used today by millions of devices that pull updates directly from the Windows Update service and significantly reduces the download size. This benefit is also available to customers whose clients don't directly download from the Windows Update service.
The express version content is considerably larger than the full-file version. An express installation file contains all of the possible variations for each file it's meant to update. As a result, the required amount of disk space increases for updates in the update package source and on distribution points when you enable express support in Configuration Manager. Even though the disk space requirement on the distribution points increases, the content size that clients download from these distribution points decreases. Clients only download the bits they require (deltas) but not the whole update.
Even though clients download only the parts of the content that they require, expedite Windows updates in your environment by utilizing peer-to-peer content distribution. Leveraging peers as a download source for quality updates can be beneficial for environments where local distribution points aren't present in remote offices. This behavior prevents the need for all clients to download content from a remote distribution point across a slow WAN link. Using peers can also be beneficial when clients fallback to the Windows Update service. Only one peer is needed to download update content from the cloud before making it available to other devices.
Delivery Optimization is the main download technology and peer-to-peer distribution method built into Windows 10 and later. Windows clients can get content from other devices on their local network that download the same updates. Using the Windows options available for Delivery Optimization, you can configure clients into groups. This grouping allows your organization to identify devices that are possibly the best candidates to fulfill peer-to-peer requests. Delivery Optimization significantly reduces the overall bandwidth that's used to keep devices up-to-date while speeding up the download time.
Manually configuring these Group IDs is challenging when clients roam across different networks. Configuration Manager version 1802 added a new feature to simplify management of this process by integrating boundary groups with Delivery Optimization. When a client wakes up, it talks to its management point to get policies, and provides its network and boundary group information. Configuration Manager creates a unique ID for every boundary group. The site uses the client's location information to automatically configure the client's Delivery Optimization Group ID with the Configuration Manager boundary ID. When the client roams to another boundary group, it talks to its management point, and is automatically reconfigured with a new boundary group ID. With this integration, Delivery Optimization can utilize the Configuration Manager boundary group information to find a peer from which to download updates.
With Configuration Manager, you can use Delivery Optimization for the distribution of all Windows update content for clients running Windows 10 version 1709 or later, not just express installation files.
Delivery Optimization can't be used for Microsoft 365 Apps client updates if Office COM is enabled. Office COM is used by Configuration Manager to manage updates for Microsoft 365 Apps clients. You can deregister Office COM to allow the use of Delivery Optimization for Microsoft 365 Apps updates. When Office COM is disabled, software updates for Microsoft 365 Apps are managed by the default Office Automatic Updates 2.0 scheduled task. This means that Configuration Manager doesn't dictate or monitor the installation process for Microsoft 365 Apps updates. Configuration Manager will continue to collect information from hardware inventory to populate Office 365 Client Management Dashboard in the console. For information about how to deregister Office COM, see Enable Office 365 clients to receive updates from the Office CDN instead of Configuration Manager.
When the Allow clients to download delta content when available client setting is enabled on clients for software update content, there are limitations in the distribution point fallback behavior. To ensure these clients can properly download software update content, we recommend the following configurations:
If either of the above options aren't viable, Allow clients to download delta content when available can be disabled in the client settings to allow fallbacks functionality. Delivery Optimization peering won't be leveraged in this case since the client won't use the delta channel.
Starting in Configuration Manager version 2010, if delta content is unavailable from distribution points in the current boundary group, you can immediately fallback to a neighbor or the site default. For more information, see Client settings for software updates.
Peer cache is a feature of Configuration Manager that enables clients to share with other clients content directly from their local Configuration Manager cache. Peer cache doesn't replace the use of other peer caching solutions like Windows BranchCache. It works together with them to provide more options for extending traditional content deployment solutions such as distribution points. Peer cache doesn't rely upon BranchCache. If you don't enable or use BranchCache, peer cache still works.
BranchCache is a bandwidth optimization technology in Windows. Each client has a cache, and acts as an alternate source for content. Devices on the same network can request this content. Configuration Manager can use BranchCache to allow peers to source content from each other versus always having to contact a distribution point. Using BranchCache, files are cached on each individual client, and other clients can retrieve them as needed. This approach distributes the cache rather than having a single point of retrieval. This behavior saves a significant amount of bandwidth, while reducing the time for clients to receive the requested content.
Microsoft recommends that you optimize Windows 10 or later quality update delivery using Configuration Manager with express installation files and a peer caching technology, as needed. This approach should alleviate the challenges associated with Windows devices downloading large content for installing quality updates. Keeping Windows devices current by deploying quality updates each month is also recommended. This practice reduces the delta of quality update content needed by devices each month. Reducing this content delta causes smaller size downloads from distribution points or peer sources.
The Configuration Manager client tells WUA to download the update content. When WUA initiates an express download, it first downloads a stub (for example, Windows10.0-KB1234567--express.cab), which is part of the express package.
If Delivery Optimization is enabled and peers are discovered to have the needed ranges, the client will download from peers independently of the ConfigMgr client. If Delivery Optimization is disabled or no peers have the needed ranges, the ConfigMgr client will download these ranges from a local distribution point (or a peer or Microsoft Update). The ranges are passed to the Windows Update Agent which makes them available to CBS to apply the ranges.
Manage all client settings in the Configuration Manager console from the Client Settings node in the Administration workspace. Configuration Manager comes with a set of default settings. When you change the default client settings, these settings are applied to all clients in the hierarchy. You can also configure custom client settings, which override the default client settings when you assign them to collections. For more information, see How to configure client settings.
Port for content download from peer (default TCP 8003): Configuration Manager automatically configures Windows Firewall rules to allow this traffic. If you use a different firewall, you must manually configure rules to allow this traffic.
Specify the minimum time for the Configuration Manager client to keep cached content. This client setting defines the minimum amount of time Configuration Manager agent should wait before it can remove content from the cache in case more space is needed.
This setting gives you greater control over the client cache on different types of devices. You might reduce the value on clients that have small hard drives and don't need to keep existing content before another deployment runs.
By default, this setting is disabled. Even if you enable user policies, the client disables them by default on any device that allows multiple concurrent active user sessions. For example, terminal servers or Windows Enterprise multi-session in Azure Virtual Desktop.
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