When preparing for our session a TechED 2014 in Barcelona on Community Tools, we found this nice little tool that adds BranchCache support in WinPE, which means that during OS deployment the client can download the content from a client on the local network instead of pulling it from a DP, this is great for small branch offices for instance without a DP. It can be found here: http://2pintsoftware.com/portfolio-items/branchcache-for-osd-toolkit/ At TechED 2014 Europe it was also announced that BranchCache support will be added in WinPE in ConfigMgr vNext as well, so this is a technology that is coming.
I created an OSD Task sequence,updated the boot image, enabled BranchCache and added the tools and steps from the toolkit to my Task Sequence. To prestage the data on another client in the network I created a check in the start of the Task Sequence to see if the “Prestage” variable was set to TRUE, if so the Task Sequence will not install anything on the client but it will download all the content and add it to the BranchCache on the client.
Then I deployed the task sequence with the option “download all content locally before starting the Task Sequence” remember to make sure that the content will fit in the CCMCache.
After that I deployed a client and it used the BranchCache from the client on the same network, really cool! We like free stuff
The reporting is awesome as well be sure to check it out!
Here is a short video from 2Pint Software as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HcRRb-ayW4
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