All package servers with the option "Package Servers automatically with manual prestaging" enabled still receive unnecessary packages

Products

• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

On the SMP server, you have set up the "Windows Patch Remediation Settings>Packages tab" option to "Package Server automatically with manual pre-staging":

You are expecting a package to only be download to the SMP Site and not to be distributed to any Package Server (PS) outside of this Site, as there are no clients requiring or requesting this particular package (no Policies are set to Target machines out of this Site). But this package gets assigned to all Package Servers.

This seems to be reproducible in a simple environment, even with a new Software Package (no policy) created being is assigned right away to 2nd Site (with no clients).

Steps to Reproduce this issue

On the SMP server, with the Remediation settings set for the package of "Package Servers automatically with manual prestaging" download any non-used Bulletin, without creating a policy of SWD delivery. The package by default is assigned to all Sites. 

The expectation is that this package after being downloaded to the SMP server will be then assigned the package only to the SMP Site Package server, and it would only be sent to remote Site Package Servers where there are clients available that require this package (based on a policy).

NOTE: The initial idea is to get the product to work where remote Site Package Servers would not get packages that the clients it serves would never require. For example, you might have a Site with Server OS machines only, and another Site with Client OS machines only - so the expectation would be that the Server OS Site Package Server would only have Server Bulletins while the Client OS Site would only receive Client bulletins. The current state is that both Sites receive both types of packages (consuming more disk space than needed).

Environment

ITMS 8.x

 

Cause

Default package assignments for Patch Management and Software Management Solution are set in this way - by default any "Site" with a remote Package Server isn't checked so any newly downloaded Patch update package or imported Software Package will not be automatically downloaded by the remote Package Server.

Verified that any already downloaded Patch Update package is now distributed in the Patch policy and the client receives this policy and tried to download this Patch update package, only after the remote Package Server on 'policy refresh' will download this Patch update package and share it for its clients. The same behavior happens for imported new Software packages.

We have done some testing for Patch Update packages downloading without distributing in Patch policies and the Software release import without the creation of Quick Delivery tasks or Managed Delivery policies - the remote Package Server doesn't automatically download new packages and will only download if there will be policies created and the agent will ask for such packages downloading or Quick Delivery task executing on the client-side, then the Package Server will download these packages and offer to download it for clients.

Found a case where a client, not from the Package Server subnet is targeted to a Patch policy, but if this client is "Manually Assigned" to this Package Server on the Site Server Management page, then the Package Server will download these packages for this client, even if the client is not in the same subnet with the Package Server. But this manual assignment doesn't cause packages to be downloaded by a Package Server if the Patch package was just downloaded without a Patch policy creation or a Software package was just imported and included in a Managed Delivery policy.

Resolution

If on a Package Server selection, for package distributions, you have selected the Package Server Site, the package will be sent there regardless of the Drop-Down menu setting of "Package Servers automatically with manual prestaging".

The "manual pre-staging" setting applies later if a client on this Site will request this package - only then will the package be force-downloaded to the Package Server.