We have a 4 tiered SCCM heirarchy. The 2nd Level SCCM is having difficulties (old hardware) and will not be replaced in future. I was going to change the 3rd level SCCM Site server parent from the 2nd level SCCM site server to the top level SCCM Central Site. To make it a bit more difficult the 2nd level SCCM Site server at one time was the top level site central site which has most of the packages and all of the 2009 and older software updates. I am not concerend about the Software Packages but I am concerned about the Software updates (security patches) since we use the WSUS built into SCCM 2007. My guess would be to re-create these Software update lists & packages and make them available at the top level. Do I need to delete the other software updates at the 2nd level first? I am looking for any gotcha's before I move ahead. Thanks

That's definitely something that you should try in a testlab first ... You have to recreate all objects that were created at the level 2 site and deleting level-2-objects *should* not be necessary, because they will get unlocked after changing the parent site for the level 3 site. Removing them from the level-2 site first is a better way, because you most likely won't run into issue with objects not being unlocked. YMMV, because that's definitely not an easy scenario.

To add to more problems the 1st and 2nd level are in different domains than the 3rd and 4th level. So a testlab is out of the question. Another option is to cut off from the 1st and 2nd level and have the 3rd level a Central Site that way control is back to our group. Lot's of political infighting at the top level sites. If I use this scenario could I not just delete all the packages and software updates, after the link is broken? The Software Updates existed on the DPs and also there is .pck files that I am not sure if you can delete without causing issues? Plus these packages are taking up alot of disk space. Thanks

Yes, you could delete all objects after disconnecting without too much worries. You could then reconnect to the 2nd level if it has its hardware replaced. Or not connect at all depending on the political battle. Sorry, I don't advise on politics"Everyone is an expert at something" Kim Oppalfens Configmgr expert for lack of any other expertise. http://www.scug.be/blogs/sccm

Thanks Kim One more option if the 2nd looses out on the political battle - I was going to remove the 2nd Level and have the third level connect directly to the 1st level Central Site as long as most of the Software Updates and packages existed. Afterwards if I can no longer attach to the 2nd level (security permissions) all the packages and software updates would exist still on the 3rd level. Would the lock go away and I could delete uneccassary duplicate packages.