Nomad features by release
Summary
A list of the Tachyon features organized by the release they were implemented in. Links through to the features have been provided for convenience.
New features in Nomad 8.1
This release introduces the following new and enhanced features:
Platform
Insights on how Nomad enhances user experience - with the rapid shift to a Work From Anywhere (WFA) workforce and an increased focus on the Digital End-User eXperience, Nomad on Tachyon Platform now provides insights into how it helps to ensure a great user eXperience. With the introduction of Nomad's Bandwidth Protection Reporting, you can now see how Nomad is preventing end-user disruption due to software and update deployments. Bandwidth Protection Reporting will allow you to see the positive impact Nomad is having across the organization, to individual sites, subnets, all the way down to a single client.
Support for Cloud-based content in Task Sequences- cloud-based services to support Work From Anywhere (WFA) users are becoming more critical to the way enterprises work, there is an increased reliance on Cloud Distribution Points for distributing content.
Feature improvements - as Configuration Manager evolves and new features are released, Nomad on Tachyon Platform is being continuously maintained to ensure it works seamlessly with new releases.
Content Distribution service no longer uses SQL Linked Server to connect to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.
Client
NomadBranch 8.1 client is the Nomad module in 1E Client 8.1
Support for Cloud-based content in Task Sequences - cloud-based services to support Work From Anywhere (WFA) users are becoming more critical to the way enterprises work, there is an increased reliance on Cloud Distribution Points for distributing content.
Enhancements:
Improvements to the Certificate Selection criteria to authenticate with a DP (or any download source)
Download reporting now includes back-off data, for Bandwdith Protection Reporting.
Tools
Nomad AdminUI Console Extensions now require .NET Framework 4.8
Cloud infrastructure support
Enhancements:
Provide a way for SCCM Console users to use alternate credentials to authenticate with ContentDistribution/Platform
PlatformUrl validation is improved, by logging a warning during installation. In UI mode users have the option of continuing with the installation.
Released in Nomad 8.0
Platform
Works with Tachyon Platform 8.0
Enhancements:
Task Sequence support for Windows feature updates
Automatic grooming of the Content Distribution database
Support for Windows Authentication between Background Channel and Content Distribution API
Tachyon Setup: Nomad screen has improved authentication options
Improving performance of the dashboards
API versioning using Tachyon SDK.
Client
NomadBranch 8.0 client is the Nomad module in 1E Client 8.0
New registry setting SiteSSDMinPackageSizeKBto set the minimum size of content before making SSD request
Installer changes:
Enable Nomad FanOut as a default - default value of SpecialNetSharehas changed to 0x2060 (8288)
Platform features enabled by using the BackgroundChannelUrl instead of PlatformURL
Enhancements to CacheCleaner functionality to better support remote users as part of the Working From Anywhere initiative.
Tools
A single combined installer called Nomad Branch Tools containing both OSD Tools and Nomad Configuration Manager console extensions.
Released in Nomad 7.1
Platform
Works with Tachyon Platform 5.2
Modernized backend infrastructure - Nomad requires a back-end server, which was previously the legacy ActiveEfficiency platform, this has been replaced by the Tachyon Platform to provide Single-Site download, Pre-caching and a new Dashboard. For customers moving to Modern Management, Nomad provides visibility and control of Delivery Optimization, which is used by Intune, MS store and MS update.
Leverage the Tachyon Platform and 1E Client - with the Tachyon Platform you can enable further features including Experience, User Sentiment, Guaranteed State and Patch Success, as well as opening up real-time management to any task by acquiring the appropriate license.
Content Distribution - Content Distribution is a new component of the Tachyon Platform that provides control and visibility on content deployments and delivery in an organization
Replaces ActiveEfficiency features, maintaining support during upgrade for legacy Nomad clients (versions earlier than Nomad 7.1 in 1E Client 5.2)
Nomad 7.1 clients now connect to Tachyon Response Stack components (Switch and Background Channel) which act as a proxy for Content Distribution, and legacy clients continue to connect directly to Content Distribution.
Nomad app - the user interface for Content Distribution, provides real-time visibility of what content is downloading or available in each location, subnet and client, see how much WAN traffic is being saved overall and each day
Delivery Optimization (DO) Visibility - visibility of Delivery Optimization downloads and content availability in each location, subnet and device
Delivery Optimization (DO) and Windows Update Agent (WUA) monitoring - track Windows download or Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager deployments on clients being downloaded via Delivery Optimization in real time, their peer to peer downloads efficiency, sources of the downloaded content and see this reported in the Nomad app dashboards
Overview page - gives a high-level view of the current status of content throughout the entire network
Content page - provides a Content-centric view of content distributed throughout your network
Task Sequences page - provides that visibility by grouping the reference content for each Task Sequence into a single view, so you can see which content is cached and which is not
Devices page - lists all Devices that have sent Nomad device registration events and have sent download events within a selected time period, links through to Device View
Nomad Sites page - shows how the network is being used for content distribution in different locations
Client Health page - shows information from two Integrated Product Packs provided with the Tachyon Platform.
Client
NomadBranch 7.1 client is the Nomad module in 1E Client 5.2
ActiveEfficiency features are now provided by Content Distribution on Tachyon Platform 5.2
Client status messages are sent via Tachyon event policy system - Content Distribution uses these instead of StatusMsgEvents using Configuration Manager
New client settings:
DeliveryOptimizationReportingEnabled - monitoring of Delivery Optimization downloads and reporting them to Content Distribution - disabled by default
SupportWPAD - provides support for Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol (WPAD) - disabled by default.
Tools
ActiveEfficiency features are now provided by Content Distribution on Tachyon Platform 5.2.
Released in Nomad 7.0.200
Certificate-based client authentication . Nomad peers can now use client authentication certificates to authenticate peer-to-peer communications, as an alternative to the default Windows authentication using the local SMSNomadP2P& account that the Nomad service creates and manages. When you enable this option, Nomad will not create the local account and you no longer need to allow the local account to access the computer from the network. This feature is supported in the full OS, in Windows PE and for Peer Backup Assistant. This enables organizations to implement Nomad in conjunction with best practice security policies.
Configuration Manager Enhanced HTTP Support . Microsoft introduced Enhanced HTTP in CM1810 to allow organizations that struggled to manage PKI certificates to use secure communication between clients and DP without the need for PKI-generated certificates. Enhanced HTTP also allows administrators to remove the Network Access Account as it implements a new token-based authentication endpoint on DPs and MPs that do not require Windows authentication. Nomad is now able to communicate with this token-based endpoint and download content from a DP when Enhanced HTTP has been enabled. In this scenario the Network Access account can also be removed. Refer to the Microsoft Configuration Manager documentation for more details on Enhanced HTTP and the Network Access Account
Support for multiple Certificate Authorities . When configuring Nomad to use HTTPS when communicating with a DP or for P2P communication, the Nomad CertIssuer registry setting defines the issuing Certificate Authority (CA). Nomad now allows multiple CAs to be defined and also supports sub-string matching (for example, if you have ROOTCA1 and ROOTCA2, you can specify ROOTCA as the CertIssuer and Nomad will be able to use a certificate from either ROOTCA1 or ROOTCA2).
Improved PKI client certificate selection logic . When using HTTPS for communication with HTTPS CM Site Systems or P2P communication using PKI client certificates and the CM client is using PKI client certiicates, Nomad will use the same certificate that CM uses. If CM is using self-signed certificates (or is not present at all) then in most cases Nomad will be able to select an appropriate certificate from the local computer personal store without additional configuration.
VMWare Workspace One support. Nomad 7.0.200 includes updates that will enable VMWare Workspace One clients to download and share content using Nomad. This will be supported in an upcoming VMWare Workspace One release.
Improved handling of updated Software Updates . If the source for a Software Update is updated after it has been distributed to one or more clients, Nomad clients may get into a situation where they get into a loop downloading an invalid LsZ file from peers that have the older version of the content. Improvements have been made that can be enabled through the CompatibilityFlags.
Option to turn off or reduce election notifications in Nomad log. By default, Nomad logs all election responses when elections occur. In large subnets this can result in the logs filling up and rolling over. You can now turn off or limit the number of election responses that are logged.
1E Client telemetry for Nomad feature usage. To help 1E understand how customers are using and configuring our products, a telemetry feature has been implemented in Tachyon Platform 5.1. When the Tachyon Platform is implemented, the 1E Client sends telemetry data relating to enabled Nomad features to the Tachyon server. This data will be forwarded to 1E if you enable email and telemetry in Tachyon Setup. If telemetry is not enabled in the platform, the data can be manually exported and may be requested by 1E Support when troubleshooting issues.
The Nomad 7.0.100 maintenance release was implemented as the Nomad module in 1E Client 5.0. This release included rolled up hotfixes but did not introduce any new features.
The main Nomad 7.0 release contained the following features:
NomadBranch 7.0 client is the Nomad module in 1E Client 4.1 - refer to Installing and upgrading for more details on how to install/upgrade Nomad 7.0
Support for NomadBranchTools installation on remote SMS Providers - NomadBranchTools can now be installed on remote SMS Providers without the manual steps that were required previously.
Support for Windows 10 Express File Updates - 1E Client 4.1 supports download of express installation files deployed through Configuration Manager. To use this feature in Nomad, you must first configure Delivery Optimization Download Mode to 0 on all clients. For new installations, the feature is enabled by default and for upgrades it can be enabled in 1E Client 4.1 by setting bit 26 (0x4000000, 67108864 in decimal) of the CompatibilityFlags registry value.
Support for downloading content for CM Software Updates from Microsoft Update - if you deploy Software Updates, including regular updates, Windows 10 express updates and Office 365 updates with Configuration Manager and in the deployment settings select the option If software updates are not available on distribution points in current, neighbor or site boundary groups, download content from Microsoft Updates, Nomad will be used to download that content from Microsoft Update if it is not available from a DP or local Nomad peers. (Please refer to CompatibilityFlags bits 27 and 28 for further details).
Enhancements:
SSD optimizations
Large Configuration Manager deployments and downloads to 30K or more machines could result in significant traffic spike from 1E Client to an ActiveEfficiency server that may result in IIS 503 Overload errors, this has been optimized.
When Local SSD is enabled to support networks where broadcasts are disabled, it is not used when a Nomad master detects broadcasts. This allows the same SSD setting to be used by all clients in a mixed network environment.
Improved resilience of content registration - a Content Registration Cycle mechanism has been introduced that registers the pending and failed content registrations with ActiveEfficiency.
Support for TLS 1.1/1.2 in environments where TLS 1.0 is disabled.
Summary
A list of the Tachyon features organized by the release they were implemented in. Links through to the features have been provided for convenience.
New features in Nomad 8.1
This release introduces the following new and enhanced features:
Platform
Insights on how Nomad enhances user experience - with the rapid shift to a Work From Anywhere (WFA) workforce and an increased focus on the Digital End-User eXperience, Nomad on Tachyon Platform now provides insights into how it helps to ensure a great user eXperience. With the introduction of Nomad's Bandwidth Protection Reporting, you can now see how Nomad is preventing end-user disruption due to software and update deployments. Bandwidth Protection Reporting will allow you to see the positive impact Nomad is having across the organization, to individual sites, subnets, all the way down to a single client.
Support for Cloud-based content in Task Sequences- cloud-based services to support Work From Anywhere (WFA) users are becoming more critical to the way enterprises work, there is an increased reliance on Cloud Distribution Points for distributing content.
Feature improvements - as Configuration Manager evolves and new features are released, Nomad on Tachyon Platform is being continuously maintained to ensure it works seamlessly with new releases.
Content Distribution service no longer uses SQL Linked Server to connect to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.
Client
NomadBranch 8.1 client is the Nomad module in 1E Client 8.1
Support for Cloud-based content in Task Sequences - cloud-based services to support Work From Anywhere (WFA) users are becoming more critical to the way enterprises work, there is an increased reliance on Cloud Distribution Points for distributing content.
Enhancements:
Improvements to the Certificate Selection criteria to authenticate with a DP (or any download source)
Download reporting now includes back-off data, for Bandwdith Protection Reporting.
Tools
Nomad AdminUI Console Extensions now require .NET Framework 4.8
Cloud infrastructure support
Enhancements:
Provide a way for SCCM Console users to use alternate credentials to authenticate with ContentDistribution/Platform
PlatformUrl validation is improved, by logging a warning during installation. In UI mode users have the option of continuing with the installation.
Released in Nomad 8.0
Platform
Works with Tachyon Platform 8.0
Enhancements:
Task Sequence support for Windows feature updates
Automatic grooming of the Content Distribution database
Support for Windows Authentication between Background Channel and Content Distribution API
Tachyon Setup: Nomad screen has improved authentication options
Improving performance of the dashboards
API versioning using Tachyon SDK.
Client
NomadBranch 8.0 client is the Nomad module in 1E Client 8.0
New registry setting SiteSSDMinPackageSizeKBto set the minimum size of content before making SSD request
Installer changes:
Enable Nomad FanOut as a default - default value of SpecialNetSharehas changed to 0x2060 (8288)
Platform features enabled by using the BackgroundChannelUrl instead of PlatformURL
Enhancements to CacheCleaner functionality to better support remote users as part of the Working From Anywhere initiative.
Tools
A single combined installer called Nomad Branch Tools containing both OSD Tools and Nomad Configuration Manager console extensions.
Released in Nomad 7.1
Platform
Works with Tachyon Platform 5.2
Modernized backend infrastructure - Nomad requires a back-end server, which was previously the legacy ActiveEfficiency platform, this has been replaced by the Tachyon Platform to provide Single-Site download, Pre-caching and a new Dashboard. For customers moving to Modern Management, Nomad provides visibility and control of Delivery Optimization, which is used by Intune, MS store and MS update.
Leverage the Tachyon Platform and 1E Client - with the Tachyon Platform you can enable further features including Experience, User Sentiment, Guaranteed State and Patch Success, as well as opening up real-time management to any task by acquiring the appropriate license.
Content Distribution - Content Distribution is a new component of the Tachyon Platform that provides control and visibility on content deployments and delivery in an organization
Replaces ActiveEfficiency features, maintaining support during upgrade for legacy Nomad clients (versions earlier than Nomad 7.1 in 1E Client 5.2)
Nomad 7.1 clients now connect to Tachyon Response Stack components (Switch and Background Channel) which act as a proxy for Content Distribution, and legacy clients continue to connect directly to Content Distribution.
Nomad app - the user interface for Content Distribution, provides real-time visibility of what content is downloading or available in each location, subnet and client, see how much WAN traffic is being saved overall and each day
Delivery Optimization (DO) Visibility - visibility of Delivery Optimization downloads and content availability in each location, subnet and device
Delivery Optimization (DO) and Windows Update Agent (WUA) monitoring - track Windows download or Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager deployments on clients being downloaded via Delivery Optimization in real time, their peer to peer downloads efficiency, sources of the downloaded content and see this reported in the Nomad app dashboards
Overview page - gives a high-level view of the current status of content throughout the entire network
Content page - provides a Content-centric view of content distributed throughout your network
Task Sequences page - provides that visibility by grouping the reference content for each Task Sequence into a single view, so you can see which content is cached and which is not
Devices page - lists all Devices that have sent Nomad device registration events and have sent download events within a selected time period, links through to Device View
Nomad Sites page - shows how the network is being used for content distribution in different locations
Client Health page - shows information from two Integrated Product Packs provided with the Tachyon Platform.
Client
NomadBranch 7.1 client is the Nomad module in 1E Client 5.2
ActiveEfficiency features are now provided by Content Distribution on Tachyon Platform 5.2
Client status messages are sent via Tachyon event policy system - Content Distribution uses these instead of StatusMsgEvents using Configuration Manager
New client settings:
DeliveryOptimizationReportingEnabled - monitoring of Delivery Optimization downloads and reporting them to Content Distribution - disabled by default
SupportWPAD - provides support for Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol (WPAD) - disabled by default.
Tools
ActiveEfficiency features are now provided by Content Distribution on Tachyon Platform 5.2.
Released in Nomad 7.0.200
Certificate-based client authentication . Nomad peers can now use client authentication certificates to authenticate peer-to-peer communications, as an alternative to the default Windows authentication using the local SMSNomadP2P& account that the Nomad service creates and manages. When you enable this option, Nomad will not create the local account and you no longer need to allow the local account to access the computer from the network. This feature is supported in the full OS, in Windows PE and for Peer Backup Assistant. This enables organizations to implement Nomad in conjunction with best practice security policies.
Configuration Manager Enhanced HTTP Support . Microsoft introduced Enhanced HTTP in CM1810 to allow organizations that struggled to manage PKI certificates to use secure communication between clients and DP without the need for PKI-generated certificates. Enhanced HTTP also allows administrators to remove the Network Access Account as it implements a new token-based authentication endpoint on DPs and MPs that do not require Windows authentication. Nomad is now able to communicate with this token-based endpoint and download content from a DP when Enhanced HTTP has been enabled. In this scenario the Network Access account can also be removed. Refer to the Microsoft Configuration Manager documentation for more details on Enhanced HTTP and the Network Access Account
Support for multiple Certificate Authorities . When configuring Nomad to use HTTPS when communicating with a DP or for P2P communication, the Nomad CertIssuer registry setting defines the issuing Certificate Authority (CA). Nomad now allows multiple CAs to be defined and also supports sub-string matching (for example, if you have ROOTCA1 and ROOTCA2, you can specify ROOTCA as the CertIssuer and Nomad will be able to use a certificate from either ROOTCA1 or ROOTCA2).
Improved PKI client certificate selection logic . When using HTTPS for communication with HTTPS CM Site Systems or P2P communication using PKI client certificates and the CM client is using PKI client certiicates, Nomad will use the same certificate that CM uses. If CM is using self-signed certificates (or is not present at all) then in most cases Nomad will be able to select an appropriate certificate from the local computer personal store without additional configuration.
VMWare Workspace One support. Nomad 7.0.200 includes updates that will enable VMWare Workspace One clients to download and share content using Nomad. This will be supported in an upcoming VMWare Workspace One release.
Improved handling of updated Software Updates . If the source for a Software Update is updated after it has been distributed to one or more clients, Nomad clients may get into a situation where they get into a loop downloading an invalid LsZ file from peers that have the older version of the content. Improvements have been made that can be enabled through the CompatibilityFlags.
Option to turn off or reduce election notifications in Nomad log. By default, Nomad logs all election responses when elections occur. In large subnets this can result in the logs filling up and rolling over. You can now turn off or limit the number of election responses that are logged.
1E Client telemetry for Nomad feature usage. To help 1E understand how customers are using and configuring our products, a telemetry feature has been implemented in Tachyon Platform 5.1. When the Tachyon Platform is implemented, the 1E Client sends telemetry data relating to enabled Nomad features to the Tachyon server. This data will be forwarded to 1E if you enable email and telemetry in Tachyon Setup. If telemetry is not enabled in the platform, the data can be manually exported and may be requested by 1E Support when troubleshooting issues.
The Nomad 7.0.100 maintenance release was implemented as the Nomad module in 1E Client 5.0. This release included rolled up hotfixes but did not introduce any new features.
The main Nomad 7.0 release contained the following features:
NomadBranch 7.0 client is the Nomad module in 1E Client 4.1 - refer to Installing and upgrading for more details on how to install/upgrade Nomad 7.0
Support for NomadBranchTools installation on remote SMS Providers - NomadBranchTools can now be installed on remote SMS Providers without the manual steps that were required previously.
Support for Windows 10 Express File Updates - 1E Client 4.1 supports download of express installation files deployed through Configuration Manager. To use this feature in Nomad, you must first configure Delivery Optimization Download Mode to 0 on all clients. For new installations, the feature is enabled by default and for upgrades it can be enabled in 1E Client 4.1 by setting bit 26 (0x4000000, 67108864 in decimal) of the CompatibilityFlags registry value.
Support for downloading content for CM Software Updates from Microsoft Update - if you deploy Software Updates, including regular updates, Windows 10 express updates and Office 365 updates with Configuration Manager and in the deployment settings select the option If software updates are not available on distribution points in current, neighbor or site boundary groups, download content from Microsoft Updates, Nomad will be used to download that content from Microsoft Update if it is not available from a DP or local Nomad peers. (Please refer to CompatibilityFlags bits 27 and 28 for further details).
Enhancements:
SSD optimizations
Large Configuration Manager deployments and downloads to 30K or more machines could result in significant traffic spike from 1E Client to an ActiveEfficiency server that may result in IIS 503 Overload errors, this has been optimized.
When Local SSD is enabled to support networks where broadcasts are disabled, it is not used when a Nomad master detects broadcasts. This allows the same SSD setting to be used by all clients in a mixed network environment.
Improved resilience of content registration - a Content Registration Cycle mechanism has been introduced that registers the pending and failed content registrations with ActiveEfficiency.
Support for TLS 1.1/1.2 in environments where TLS 1.0 is disabled.