Slave servers vs. distribution points

[ak01]

We have some sites with max. a few thousand computers and have slave servers installed on each site. The problem is that all these slave servers have to be managed and updated and some parts are not inherited to the slave servers (e.g. installation packages -> have to be manually created on each slave server). We would like to solve that with distribution points for these sites in order to only manage one KSC server. Is this recommended for such sites (a few thousand computers, not more than 5000)? What are the disadvantages of distribution points compared to slave servers?

[Nikolay Arinchev]

Hi, In your case the main disadvantage is, that if you use Distribution points all events from few thousands of hosts will be stored at one DB. Also please notise, that you can distribute installation packages over slave servers. Please refer to the article - https://help.kaspersky.com/KSC/11/en-US/6383.htm Thank you!

[ak01]

So a distribution point can handle this amount of computers (about 5000) without a problem? However, I would use an existing windows server as distribution point (not a desktop pc). The aim is to have everything within one KSC including all events and all management (and not to maintain and update several KSC servers). On the other side, the WAN connections should not transmit all the data of all the computers (updates, installation packages, …).

[ak01]

You recommend to automatically assign distribution points, but I would rather do this manually (especially with sites with a few thousand clients, network segmentation, …). In that case, I can prevent for example that on the site, where the main KSC is installed, a distribution point is selected. Is it necessary to use multicasting with distribution points? What about sites which have several ip subnets/VLANs (segmentation) and no multicast routing enabled? Can a distribution point also work with unicasting?

[Nikolay Arinchev]

Is it necessary to use multicasting with distribution points?

No, it`s not necessary. Distribution points would use another algotithms if multicasting unavaliable.

Can a distribution point also work with unicasting?

Yes, it could.