Hi Team,

In SCCM 2012 SP1 environment I have the following hierarchy :

1 CAS

2 Primary

5 Secondary under each Primary

Secondary Server has 3 partitions C ( 100 GB ), D ( 50 GB ) and E ( 500 GB ).

C has the OS

D has the SCCM installed + SQL Express

E has the Software Content Library, Patches, SCCM backup etc....

Now when the SCCM Secondary server was installed, During the DP role installation, I chose E drive for Software Lib and package share ( Primary option ) and Secondary as Automatic in both the cases. Based on this configuration, Software Lib and package share  ( SMSPKGE$ ) got created in E Drive as expected. But SMSPKG folder got created in D Drive which we do not want.

Now whenever we distribute big package e.g 15GB OS image to Secondary server DPs, it uses D drive SMSPKG folder for the PCK file and fails due to insufficient space in D Drive. 

What we want is....... that SMSPKG folder should be created and used on E drive which has ample space and should not use SMSPKG folder on D Drive.

Please let me know if you need any further details in this regard.

Thanks in Advance for your help

Mike

Hi,

If you create an empty text file called NO_SMS_ON_DRIVE.SMS in the root of drive D: then SCCM will not use that drive. Note that the file must be present before you add the DP role for SCCM to ignore that disk.

Regards,
Jrgen

here is a Little more information on the NO_SMS_ON_DRIVE.sms file and other "secret" ConfigMgr files http://blogs.technet.com/b/configurationmgr/archive/2012/09/17/controlling-configuration-manager-2012-using-hidden-files.aspx

Hi Jorgen,

Thanks for your reply. 

That stage has gone as the installation was done 1 month back without NO_SMS_ON_DRIVE.SMS file at that time and now we are facing this space issue. Also, I have already tried below options with NO Success :

1.  Remove DP role from Secondary server, created NO_SMS_ON_DRIVE.SMS file and then again created the DP role back. When the package was pushed to Secondary server DP, it again created and  SMSPKG folder in D drive, ignoring the .SMS file.

2. With DP role in-place,  created NO_SMS_ON_DRIVE.SMS file and again pushed the package. Same result as above..... used the SMSPKG folder on D Drive, ignoring the .SMS file.

3. Under the Windows shares, removed SMS_CPSC$ share mapped to C:\SMSPKG and created SMS_CPSD$ share with same permission level and mapped that to newly created D:\SMSPKG, but no fun... when I pushed the package, it again created SMS_CPSC$ share mapped to C:\SMSPKG and used it.

4. Used Contentlibrarytransfer.exe ( available in R2 toolkit ) to move the SMSPKG folder to E Drive.... it did but when I pushed a package again..... it created SMSPKG folder in D drive and started using it.

5. Under the Windows shares, used the same SMS_CPSC$ share and mapped that to D:\SMSPKG , but no fun... when I pushed the package, it replacedD:\SMSPKG to C:\SMSPKG and used it.

In SCCM 2007 we used to have a very simple option to specify the Drive letter where we want to keep the compressed files.... which I see missing in SCCM 2012....or I'm not able to find it.

Please suggest.

Regards,

Mike

Hi,

After I dig this issue deeper, SMSPKG folder might cannot be moved and I haven't seen any official document about that. I'll record it.

Best Regards,

Jo

Hi Joyce,

Thanks for your reply..... Thats strange.... not sure why MS removed that option in SCCM 2012 which was there in SCCM 2007 to control this.

Kent / Jorgen,

Can you please confirm if you have the same thought, or is there a workaround to move the SMSPKG folder on E Drive.

Please suggest.

Thanks,

Mike

Hi Mike,

I have come across these issues. 

I still can't figure this out how to resolve this issues.. But I just followed a work around by using Junction.exe tool from Microsoft. Which can be used to route the files from drive to drive.

In your case, you can create a junction box on D drive to route the files to E drive. once you done that, the PCK files will be stored on E drive SMSPKG folder physically. Though you can see on D drive SMSPKG folder.

This is what I did as workaround.

Hint: While installing DP, the setup wizard would ask for primary content location and secondary content location which can change this way of SMSPKG folder creation. But, I am not sure on this.