When deploying Office 365 ProPlus (2016) via SCCM, it’s necessary to instruct the installer to utilize locally downloaded (via setup.exe /download) copies of the source files. This is a requirement for your Distribution Point infrastructure to work correctly, and is necessary to prevent random NAPs (Network Admin Panics). Instructions for downloading and configuring Office 365 ProPlus via ODT (XML!) can be found at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219424.aspx and https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219426.aspx.

However, the Deployment Tool is more than happy to go out to the internet and re-download the bits for this installer if the correct commands are not specified in the XML. In the TechNet article titled Deploy Office 365 ProPlus By Using System Center Configuration Manager (available at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn708063.aspx), Microsoft says: “It's important that you don't include the SourcePath attribute in the Add section of your configuration.xml file”. While this used to be the case, as of the Office Deployment Tool 2016, version 16.0.7118.5775, the behavior appears to have changed. If you simply leave the SourcePath out of the XML as instructed:

The ODT will re-download the installation bits! (And yes, my internet connection really is that righteous. Thanks, Charter!)

The trick is to use <SourcePath=””>, as follows:

You may find that the installer still fails. Check %temp% for the log generated at the time of running setup.exe. In this case, rename the cab file in the Office\Data folder of your Office ProPlus download directory, to simply “v32” or “v64”, depending on the bitness (lol) of your installation:

This article is current as of 7/18/2016. If you find that this behavior has changed, contact me at Justin@Cantrell.co and let me know! Happy deploying!