Distribution Points and mystery of it’s folders

When a DP Role Enabled we can see at least four folders.

 

1.SMSPKG ==>.PCK & *.DLX *.DLT.x
2.SMSPKGX$ ==> Packages Folders & Source
3.SMSPKGSIG ==> Contains .Tar files
4.SMSSIG$  Contains .Tar files

Move or delete SMSPKGSIG folder: -

SCCM2007 creates a folder "SMSPKGSIG" on the drive where the SCCM ProgramFiles are installed.
To move the folder to another drive, you have to do the following steps:

• Stop all SCCM related services (or at least SMS_EXECUTIVE, SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER, SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER)
• Edit the registry key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\Components\SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER\Signature Manager\SignatureRepository = <NewDrive>:\SMSPKGSIG
• Move the folder SMSPKGSIG to the new drive
• Start the SCCM services (SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER, SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER, SMS_EXECUTIVE, SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER)

Note: Do not move the "SMSSIG$" folder, this procedure is only for the "SMSPKGSIG" folder...
Caution: This is not an official/supported procedure... implementation at your own risk .

How can I move the SMSPKG folder? If smspkg folder fileld with low disk space?

- under Site Settings, Component Configuration, Software Distribution, "Location of stored packages", change it to (in your case) E:\

- Update a package (which doesn't have a .pkg in c:\smspkg already). If I didn't miss any steps, you should get an smspkg on E:\, and it'll store any new compressed files there from now on.

- When you are comfortable doing so, delete the c:\smspkg folder & files.

Monitor Site Status, component status, sms_distribution_manager for any errors, etc.

What Happens if Package Source version not changing? Targeted stays at “1”, Installed goes to “0”, and Retrying probably goes to “1” but Source Version will still stay the same?

Resolution :

a. To resolve the problem now the PCK files need to be manually copied from the parent server (\\<serverName>\sms_cpsg$\<PKG ID>.pck) to the target server (using the same sms_cpsg$ share). 

b.Once the PCK file is back on the server(s) the package can be updated again and everything should be fine. 

Note: only the PCK file needs to be copied, all files with the *.DLT and *.DLT.x extension can be ignored. 

SMSPKG folder on the Primary/Secondary sites contains the compressed PCK files for all the package that were push to them. SMS/SCCM copies these PCK files to sites first and then extracts them on the distribution point.

Yes it is true that it may not be really efficient with disk space, but this is how SMS/SCCM are designed and I guess this was designed like this to save the network bandwidth and to use delta replication.

If there any package that you are sure you will never ever update, then you can delete the PCK files for those package from the sites. Do not remove the PCK files of the packages that may need to be updated.