Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Fix for Dell Server Deployment Pack Driver Package where it is required to distribute to DP share multiple times.

If you have the issue I talked about in these two previous posts, listed below, where you import Dell Server Driver Packages and then you have to run Distribute Content and then a second Update Distribution Points to get the driver package to fully distribute, there is a fix now.

http://bradsjumpbag.blogspot.com/2015/05/sccm-driver-package-contents-do-not.html
http://bradsjumpbag.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-to-import-server-driver-packages.html

After updating to ConfigMgr 2012 R2 SP1, I found that the above issue was resolved if you manually import driver packages when I was importing packages from other vendors, but not if you use the Dell Server Deployment Pack v3.0.  With some research into the issue I found that the "RefreshDPs value" was set to "false" in DSDPv3.0.  In the new SP1 for ConfigMgr 2012 R2, that box was removed in the Driver Import Wizard and checked by default.

The initial fix was just to check that box for the DSDP wizard.  This then caused another issue which caused the driver import to refresh the DPs after every driver.  That made the import take a very long time.  From a normal import time of a couple minutes to nearly an hour.  So we made another change and now it all works correctly.  Driver Package import time is back to normal, driver package is created on the DPs the beginning of the import process and then refreshed once at the very end of the import.  So you will see a driver package version of 2 in the Distmgr.log at the end of the import.

Then you can check the box in the properties of the driver package to "Copy the content in this package to a package share on distribution points".  Then you can right click and Distribute Content one time and your package will show up fully on your DP in the SMSPKGDrive$ folder.

This fix will not help with Driver Packages that have already been imported because they were imported with the RefreshDPs box unchecked.  Those already imported driver packages will still have to be distributed to the DP share twice.  But any new driver package that is imported after installing the new DLLs will be able to be distributed once.

Since this is not a major issue and can be worked around, this patch will be included in the next version of DSDP.  If you need it before the next version is available, please call Dell and open a case.  Tell them you need the Configuration Manger DSDP Driver Package Import fix.  Your call should be transferred by the call director to the high complexity team, who you can then tell to contact me, Brad Goodman, directly for the patch.

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