1E 8.1 (on-premises)

Download Mode is set to 1

On Windows 10 Enterprise and Education, Download Mode is set to 1 (LAN) by default. This will allow peers within the same network (including all clients sharing a public Internet address through NAT) to share content. The default value for other editions is 3 (Internet) allowing clients to get content from other peers on the Internet.

Download Mode is set to 2 (Group)

Setting Download Mode to 2 (Group) will by default enable peers within the same AD site (or if not in a defined AS Site, the same AD Domain) to share content. You can use other methods to define the group, including DHCP Scope Option, DNS suffix or Azure AAD Tenant ID, refer to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/deployment/update/waas-delivery-optimization-reference#select-the-source-of-group-ids for details.

If you enable the Configuration Manager Client setting Use Configuration Manager Boundary Groups for Delivery Optimization Group ID, Download Mode will be set to 2 (Group) and peers within the same CM Boundary Group can share content. In this scenario the CM client sets the Group ID on each client using a unique identifier for the CM Boundary Group that the client is in.

Download Mode to 0 (HTTP only)

You can turn off Delivery Optimization peer-to-peer content distribution by setting Download Mode to 0 (HTTP only). This will result in Nomad downloading all byte ranges, but will prevent DO from sharing other content. (e.g. Microsoft Store, Microsoft Updates outside of CM or Intune Win32 apps) with peers. We do not recommend turning off DO peer-to-peer if you are using or planning to use these Microsoft features.

Download Mode = 99 (bypass)

This option is only relevant on clients if you use WSUS (outside of CM) and prefer to use BranchCache rather than DO. If you are using CM and Nomad for software updates then this option is not needed and can prevent updates from successfully downloading.

Express installation file support.

Express installation files are supported on Configuration Manager Current Branch 1802 (with hotfix KB4163547) and CB 1806 or later, and Windows 10 versions 1703, 1709 and 1803 or later. Delta content for updates is supported in CM CB 1910 onward.

Nomad does not send status messages for downloads of express installation file or delta content for updates.

Nomad does not send status messages for downloads of express installation file or delta content for updates as there is no way for Nomad to determine if all the required byte ranges have been downloaded for a given update. Nomad is simply obtaining byte ranges as they are requested and notifies the CM Content Transfer Manager as it completes each download.

Deploying updates using express installation files typically takes longer to install.

Deploying updates using express installation files typically takes a lot longer to install compared to traditional full updates as a lot of processing is required on the client to calculate what byte ranges are required.

As an example, a typical Windows 10 Express CU may take over 1 hour to download over even a fast 1GBs Network connection, where a copy of the same full update would typically take only a couple of minutes.

The Install Software Updates step in an OS Deployment Task Sequence may become unresponsive.

The Install Software Updates step in an OS Deployment Task Sequence may become unresponsive for several hours.

As examples, a Windows 10 "Wipe and load" Task Sequence might fall back to using full versions of the software updates after several retries and an in-place upgrade, fail to initialize the Delta download startup task and hang at a "install Software Updates" step, meaning OS Deployment task sequences, may take some additional hours than normal to complete.