I wonder what the impact will be and which services will be available and unavailable if certain roles are no longer active. I don't seem to find an official document however so if someone can help me out it would be greatly appreciated ... Some scenario's: 1. In our design we will have secondary site servers at remote locations. This server will host all the required roles (PMP, DP, SUP, ...). Now I wonder what would happen if the network link to the primary site (where the SQL database is also located) goes down. I understand there is some sort of caching for policies, but this is using a TTL approach so I believe policy download will no longer work as there is no connection to the SQL server. But will the clients be able to install software packages from the local distribution points if the program was already advertised in the past, in other words: is the package location stored somewhere on the secondary site server or client or does this require a connection to the SQL database or central site server? 2. At the central site we will have a central site server and a second site system server hosting all the roles (MP,DP, SUP, RP, ..) What would work/no longer work if the central site server goes down? What would work/no longer work if the site system server hosting the MP goes down? What would work/no longer work if the SQL server is down? Decato

Hi, In general a secondary site always requires access to the primary site. If the MP goes down, clients will not be able to receive any new policies or upload invenotry/status information. I have a backup/restore document which also contains my own Service Continuity Plan drop me a mail and I will send it to you kea[at]coretech[dot]dkKent Agerlund | http://scug.dk/ | The Danish community for System Center products

1. If the link goes down the secondary site's clients would no longer be able to retrieve policies. If a client has already retrieved it's policy it can still access it's packages and report back to the secondary site server which will wait for the primary to come online before transferring status messages. 2. If any of the site systems you mention go down nothing would work. They all depend on each other to perform their functions. The exception is the same as above.

Thanks Erik, I received a very helpfull document from Kent (Thanks a lot, Kent!) but it somehow contradicts with what you are saying in one location (if I understand correctly) Kent told me that this is what would happen if the SQL server is offline (= if the network link is down) "Clients will be able to run programs only if they have already been detected and the associated source files are already cached locally at the client." If I understand correctly this would mean that non-manadatory packages, like those available to install on-demand for everybody, will not work if the network link is down as they will not be locally cached. Is this correct? Decato

You understood correctly. When you try to run an application from RAP a content location request is made adn when the site server is down the client will not get a response and therefore not be able to find the package.

Hi, There is a section in technet to understand the effects of site failure: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb681058.aspx Julien

Thanks all, I will suggest to create advertisements with a mandatory assingment in the far future if they require those packages to be available for on-demand installation even if there is no connectivity. This would ensure that all targeted clients pre-cache the content. I understand this might impact the client cache and an increase of the original 5GB might be required.Decato