Know about Primary Sites in SCCM

As we know, Configuration manager 2012 hierarchy starts from the Central Administration site that is used for administration and reporting. All file level processing happens at the primary sites. When you install a Central Administration site, you must install at least one Primary site for managing users and devices. Additional Primary sites can also be installed to manage more devices and users and to control network bandwidth when devices are in different geographical locations.

When the first site installed is a Primary site instead of a Central Administration site, you can’t installadditional primary sites. However, you can install secondary sites to extend the primary site for managing devices that have slow network connectivity to the primary site.

This is the primary site where all clients are assigned to in well-connected networks.

Unlike Configuration Manager 2007, primary sites can’t be installed as child of another primary site in Configuration Manager 2012. Primary sites can only support child secondary sites.

Always consider SQL replication before installing a new primary site. When you have more than one Configuration Manager 2012 site in your hierarchy, Configuration Manager uses database replication to transfer data and other changes with other sites in the hierarchy. If there is only one Primary site, and no other site, database replication is not used. Database replication is enabled when a Primary site reports to a Central Administration site or when a Secondary site is connected to a Primary site.

A central administration site can have up to 25 child primary site and each primary site can support up to 250 secondary sites.

Any child primary site can support up to 50,000 clients if SQL Server is installed on the same computer as the site server. But if SQL Server is installed on a remote computer other than site server, maximum clients supported by the child primary site would be 100,000.

Why do you need a Primary Site?

·         For managing any clients

·         Additional primary site for:

o   Redundancy or fault tolerance

o   Scalability if more than 100,000 clients

o   Local point of connectivity for administration

o   Content regulation

o   Political reasons

Earlier versions of Configuration Manager forced organizations to deploy primary sites for various reasons. For example, separate primary sites for servers versus desktops. Separate primary sites for different language support etc. Configuration Manager 2012 has eliminated these challenges, resulting in saving by deploying fewer primary sites.

Configuration Manager 2007: Require Unique Primary site for:	Configuration Manager 2012 solutions (No Unique Primary site):
Decentralized administration	Role-based administration
Client settings (separate primary sites for desktops versus servers)	Client settings for the hierarchy and unique collection
Language support	Language packs
Content routing	Secondary sites or distribution points