Question about Intune endpoints downloading scheduled content

[DBarr6543]

This is more of an Intune behavior question.  We are manually stepping through deploying some PMPC patches manually throughout our enterprise of 4000 Intune systems.

We split up the groups of devices to 500 systems each.  In Intune we went to a patch (Adobe), and configured the groups with delayed deadlines that were out into next week.  The "available" setting was set to as soon as possible.

Crud started to hit the fan, as all 4000 Intune clients were downloading the patches at once.  Took down our VPN and caused major issues.

We unassigned the groups, and deleted the patch, but it was still an hour before our network calmed down.  Right now, I have the Intune part of PMPC shut off.

So how does the downloading of patch and program work?  If the "availability" option is set for a week out, would it wait a week to download the content?

Also, does Intune have any tools to restrict network congestion?

Thanks,
Dave

[Hugo Marinho (Patch My PC)]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for reaching out and providing detailed information.

To answer your first question, when you set the "Availability" option to "As soon as possible," it essentially makes the update available immediately for devices in the targeted group. However, this does not delay the download itself. The update is pushed out to devices as soon as they check in with Intune, which in your case, resulted in all 4000 systems downloading the update simultaneously and causing network congestion.

If you want to delay the download, the key settings are both "Available" and "Deadline". "Deadline" is the date and time when Intune will enforce the installation of the update. If the "Availability" setting is set to "As soon as possible" but the "Deadline" is set for a week out, the devices will still attempt to download the update immediately but will only install it once the deadline has been reached. So, you may want to adjust the "Availability" to "Application availability: Publishing date plus XXXX (whatever amount of days you want to use for delay, see printscreen attached)" if you need better control over when the update becomes accessible.


Regarding your second question, while Intune does not have native tools specifically labelled as "network congestion control", it does offer tools like Delivery Optimization and bandwidth throttling that can help manage how updates are delivered across your devices:

• Delivery Optimization: This feature enables peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing of updates across devices on the same network, which helps reduce the overall impact on your bandwidth. Devices that have already downloaded the update can share it with others, minimizing the need for repeated downloads.
• Bandwidth Throttling: You can configure Windows Update for Business and Delivery Optimization settings within Intune to set bandwidth limits on how much network usage is allowed for updates. This can help control when and how updates are downloaded, preventing congestion during peak usage times.

These features work together to better manage your network load when deploying updates to a large number of devices.

Once you're ready to re-enable the "Intune Apps" or "Intune Updates" within Patch My PC, I would recommend adjusting the settings to control download schedules and stagger the updates further.

Hope this helps!