(Originally posted 10/1/2013. Reposting for reference)

Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager includes built-in migration tools, and one of the key features of the migration tools is the ability to use Shared Distribution Points.  This allows for a smoother transition between environments by allowing the new ConfigMgr 2012 site to use existing Distribution Points in the old site (ConfigMgr 2012 or SCCM 2007) as content locations while clients in the old site continue to function normally.  Moreover, once the clients that use an SCCM 2007 DP are upgraded, the DP can be upgraded to a full ConfigMgr 2012 DP and all of the content in the CM07 distribution share is copied into the CM12 content libary, alleviating the need to redistributed massive amounts of content across the network.  All that is required to enable this great feature is a simple check box when the Source Hierarchy is identified:

With that as a major component of most migration strategies, configuring a Source Hierarchy for migration only to discover that none of the Distribution Points show up can be a show stopper.  Consider this example where an SCCM 2007 site was configured:

There is only one server that appears after the data gather, and it’s the Primary Site Server (the Primary has the Distribution Point role assigned, but note that it is not eligible to be upgraded).  When we look in the CM07 console though, we see there is another server in the site: a Distribution Point that we would really like to leverage between both environments.

So why aren’t we seeing our Distribution Point as an option for a Shared DP?

Buried in the TechNet migration prerequisites documentation is a single line in the “Shared distribution points” section that makes all the difference:

    For each source site, only the distribution points that are installed on site system servers that are configured with a FQDN are shared.

So let’s add the FQDN of the server to the properties…

…and tell ConfigMgr 2012 to Gather Data Now.

Now when we refresh, we see that our DP shows up under Shared Distribution Points and is available for upgrading:

While it is generally not common practice to omit the FQDN from site server roles in SCCM 2007, there are some environments where this is done for various reasons so it’s important to plan for adding this configuration setting prior to migration activities if Shared Distribution Points are a major part of the migration strategy.