I am running on a SCCM 2012 R2 CU1 environment and distributing content via powershell has some quirks...

I have been poking around forums and reading official technet articles about the Start-CMContentdistribution command.

This command returns the error of "No valid collection, distribution point, or distribution point group was specified."  When only specifying a distribution point group name.  I have tried using the groupID, Name, removed spaces from the name and changed the name in SCCM 2012 console.  I have yet to locate documentation that states a collection is required.

****Note****

I installed the CU1 on Friday. Prior to the update when running the same command i would get a message of "Warning no collection specified"  but this was only a yellow message.  Content was not added to the distribution point

Chris, you mentioned you're using R2 CU1. Try running the cmdlet with -Verbose as this should (in most cases) provide more details about the underlying WMI queries that are being run. This can in some cases give you a better idea of what's going on behind the scenes.

If you're experiencing issues with the cmdlets I strongly recommend filing feedback on Connect at https://connect.microsoft.com/ConfigurationManagervnext. Items that get filed there go directly into our bug database.

Thank you for the response Adam,

I ran the verbose switch and i was able to get some more information and from what I can tell the WMI Query to retrieve the DP has a syntax error.  It looks like the query is missing something.  I will head over to that link you provided and file a bug report.  Would you like me to mark this topic as answered or wait until I have additional information to update this for the next person to find?

PS CEN:\Application>  start-CMContentDistribution -ApplicationName "Risa 3D" -DistributionPointGroupName "Design Tech Content" -Verbose
VERBOSE: Executing WQL query: SELECT * FROM SMS_ApplicationLatest WHERE (LocalizedDisplayName='Risa 3D' ) 
VERBOSE: Query returned 1 results.
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Start" on target "ContentDistribution: ".
VERBOSE: Executing WQL query: Select * From SMS_PackageContentServerInfo 
                                  Where ObjectID In ('ScopeId_5A7DE43E-E8DF-45F6-8A1E-85B3827401A0/Application_41db5b80-2650-4b45-a4b6-9c734a64abf6') Order By ContentServerID
VERBOSE: Query returned 0 results.
VERBOSE: Executing WQL query: Select * From SMS_DistributionPointGroup Where GroupID  In ('') AND  Name ='Design Tech Content' Order By Name
VERBOSE: Query returned 0 results.
start-CMContentDistribution : No valid collection, distribution point, or distribution point group was specified.
At line:1 char:2
+  start-CMContentDistribution -ApplicationName "Risa 3D" -DistributionPointGroupN ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidResult: (Microsoft.Confi...ributionCommand:StartContentDistributionCommand) [Start-CMContentDistribution], InvalidOperationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnknownError,Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.Cmdlets.Sum.Commands.StartContentDistributionCommand

Thanks for the details. I'll look for the feedback on Connect so we can investigate this further. The Connect feedback item can be used to track the progress of any work done on this.

Thanks again!

Here is a link to the feedback item.

https://connect.microsoft.com/ConfigurationManagervnext/feedback/details/853067/start-cmcontentdistribution-distributionpointgroupname 

Hi Chris,

can you please update the fix for this issue? because I'm also facing the same issue, i'm unable to access the above Connect link. It will be very much helpful for me.

Regards,

Jay

Hey,

Same issue here, any Updates? The Link to the feedback Item leads to a "Site not found" Error. 

Does http://www.mssccmfaq.de/2015/04/15/system-center-configuration-manager-cmdlet-library/ help?