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System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Client Network Traffic Estimates (Series, Part 1 of 3)

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The following information is for example purposes only. Do not rely on this information for a production deployment. These are meant to show the areas you should test for when evaluating ConfigMgr client activity impact on your network before going into production. The results are specific to the below ConfigMgr configuration and may vary from environment to environment.

This blog is an update of my System Center Configuration Manager 2007 blog post (available here: https://blogs.technet.com/b/manageabilityguys/archive/2009/11/19/client-network-traffic-tests.aspx) to System Center 2012. This post will provide the results, the other two posts will provide how to do this manually using Excel with more context and the other post will provide an example PowerShell script that helps (let me know via the comments which of the two you'd prefer and I'll use that to prioritise things J). In a change from the 2007 blog post, I've gone to using IIS logs instead of NetMon. While this does mean that there is a small amount of traffic lost (IP headers, TCP headers) the benefit is that the data can be easily reviewed in Excel if you know what you're looking for or parsed with PowerShell (or whatever programming language you prefer).

To perform this sort of testing you need to enable a few things in IIS logging. Basically, the process is:

  • Change IIS log settings to include sc-bytes and cs-bytes (server to client and client to server bytes respectively)
  • Perform Activity using the client control panel applet, making note of the timings
  • Review the log files

 Here are the results from the testing:

Activity

Type

Average Total Bytes

HTTP Requests Counted

Average Client to Server Bytes

Average Server to Client Bytes

Policy Polling Request

(Note: 1 HTTP request/client poll)

MP

5,217

25

242

4,975

Software Update Scan (Regular/On-going)

MP

Varies based on WU/MU/WSUS update metadata

Software Update Scan (Regular/On-going)

SUP

Software Update Scan (Fresh AU DB)

 

(Note: single client refresh, including re-sync of state messages)

MP

11,626

5

9,977

1,649

Software Update Scan (Fresh AU DB) (Note: single client refresh)

SUP

8,941,583

45

356,298

8,585,285

Hardware Inventory (Delta)

 

(Note: This is heavily variable. In this example, the delta was run immediately following the re-sync.)

MP

6,274

3

2,561

672

Hardware Inventory

(Re-sync)

MP

60,814

7

59,334

1480

Hardware Inventory (Full)

MP

61,007

3

60,334

673

Software Inventory (Full)

(Note: Single client tested, with*.dll & *.exe rules, including the Windows directory)

MP

1,332,003

4

1,331,125

878

Software Inventory (Delta)

 

(Note: heavily variable. In this example, the delta was run immediately following the re-sync)

MP

6,072

3

5,399

673

Software Distribution Policy Poll (Advert Download)

 

(Note: not tested for 2012, for reference)

MP

14,452

1

6,161

8,291

Application Management Policy Retrieval

 

(Note: Single Client Requesting Single Application)

MP

50,000

66

16,109

33,897

BGB (1 HTTP request/client/5 minutes)

 

(Note: only applies when BGB TCP port is not available)

MP

1,424

570

1,105

319

 

Notes on Test Configuration that may impact results

  • Application Management test software:
    • App-V 5.0 install
    • Single DT, script/setup.exe type
    • No dependencies
  • Software Inventory Configuration:
    • Inventory Rules: *.exe, *.dll (Exclude Windows directory was disabled, therefore the Windows directory was included)
  • Hardware Inventory Configuration:
    • Standard SMS_DEF.MOF --> All AI configurations turned on
  • Software Updates Configuration:
    • Last Synched: 22/04/2013, 00:20 (GMT/UTC+1)
    • Products
      • All Developer Tools, Runtimes, and Redistributables
      • Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 (Note: for SCEP definitions)
      • Office 2010
      • CAPICOM
      • Silverlight
      • Skype for Windows
      • Microsoft SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2
      • System Center 2012 products (not SP1)
      • Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012,
    • Classifications
      • Critical Updates
      • Definition Updates
      • Security Updates
      • Service Packs
      • Update Rollups
  • Client Configuration:
    • Windows 8
    • Office 2013 Professional (Note: that this product was not configured in SUP/WSUS at the time of testing)
    • Programs Registered in Add/Remove Programs: 11
    • Updates Registered in Add/Remove Programs: 6

 

 

Hopefully this post helps you get your Configuration Manager rollout moving. The other posts in this series should be coming along in the next couple of weeks (but I do have a day job and customers to keep happyJ).

Saud  

This post was contributed by Saud Al-Mishari, a Premier Field Engineer with Microsoft Premier Field Engineering, UK.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Great write-up. Where can I find parts 2 and 3? Don't pull a Harper Lee on us and wait 55 years!

  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2013
    Great job Saud. Really helpful! I am very interested by the Excel spreadsheet.

  • Anonymous
    May 31, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 10, 2013
    Hi Saud,            This is really interesting. Appreciate you can share on part II & III? Try to learn up on how to capture the network traffic to avoid any potential network floods when upgrading to 2012. Regards, ytlaw

  • Anonymous
    February 25, 2014
    Hi All,
    This post is meant as a reference to additional content for those that attended our TechDay

  • Anonymous
    May 21, 2014
    Pingback from Notes from TechEd 2014 | IT Consultant Everyday Notes

  • Anonymous
    May 29, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 29, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 29, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 29, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 12, 2014
    where is the location of excel sheet blog please direct me to that

  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2014
    has part 2, 3 been published?

  • Anonymous
    January 15, 2015
    Saud - Useful article. Thank you so much !

    can you publish the part2 and part3 for this.

  • Anonymous
    May 01, 2016
    Can;t find a link to the other parts of the series

  • Anonymous
    June 27, 2017
    Do you have linkes to part 2 and 3 of this series? Also, have you found this data to still be accurate with Current Branch?