Controlling Concurrent Package Distribution

Controlling Concurrent Package Distribution in Configuration Manager

If your SCCM/ConfigMgr environment has multiple remote distribution points, pushing a large package out to all of them at once can saturate WAN links between sites — especially over slower branch-office connections. Controlling how many distribution points update concurrently is one of the simplest ways to avoid this. In the Configuration Manager console, concurrent distribution behaviour is controlled at the package/content level:

1. Go to Software Library, locate the package or application, and open its properties.
2. On the Distribution Settings tab, you can control the priority and, depending on your Configuration Manager version, throttling behaviour for how content is sent to distribution points.

For finer control over WAN usage during distribution, look at the rate limits and scheduled windows configured on each distribution point’s own properties (Administration > Distribution Points), which let you cap bandwidth or restrict content transfer to off-peak hours on a per-site basis — this is usually the more effective lever for genuinely bandwidth-constrained branch offices, rather than trying to throttle from the package side alone.

Still the Right Place to Look on Current Configuration Manager (Updated for 2026)

Confirmed against Microsoft’s current documentation: this is unchanged on current Configuration Manager (2603). Per-distribution-point throttling still lives under Administration > Distribution Points > [DP] Properties, split across a Schedule tab (Open for all priorities / Allow medium and high priority / Allow high priority only / Closed, configurable per time block, based on the sending site’s time zone) and a Rate Limits tab (Unlimited / Pulse mode / Limited to a specified maximum transfer rate by hour) — both only available once a distribution point is installed remote from the site server. One environment-specific caveat worth knowing: if any of your distribution points are Cloud Management Gateway-based cloud DPs, they don’t support PXE or multicast-enabled deployments, so bandwidth planning for those needs to account for that limitation separately from the on-prem rate-limiting approach above.