SMS 2003 Basics -(Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003)
What is MS- SMS 2003 Server?
Microsoft Systems Management Server provides the following features,
- • Centrally managed software deployment
- • Software and hardware inventory
- • Software metering
- • Remote tools
- • Web based Reporting tools
- • Windows Integration & Active Directory integration
Background
SMS uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), It is Microsoft’s implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), a standard-based system management interface.
WMI debuted with Microsoft Windows 2000, but it can be installed on Windows NT 4 and Windows 9x machines as well. It’s a powerful tool that makes it easy to retrieve (Query) system information.
CIM (Common Information Model), A standardized framework for WBEM. It is an object oriented set of schemas for crossplatform network management. Some of these objects include computer systems, devices .
Features
- Reduce hardware and software costs
- Manage license compliance
- Software & Patch Deployment
- Centralized Management Console
- Extensive web based reporting
- Audit Hardware & Software assets
- Remote tools
- Windows Management Services Integration
Version History
•1994 — Microsoft Systems Management Server 1.0
•1995 — Microsoft Systems Management Server 1.1
•1996 — Microsoft Systems Management Server 1.2
•1999 — Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0
•2003 — Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003
•2006 — Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 R2
SMS 2003 Pre-requisits
Windows 2000 Server SP3 or later
NTFS partition
Internet Information Services (IIS) is installed
Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) Server Extensions are installed
MDAC is at least version 2.8
2 GB of available hard disk space on a Windows NT file system (NTFS) partition
Required Services
- Distributed Transaction Coordinator
- Task Scheduler
- Windows Management Instrumentation
- World Wide Publishing Service (and Default Web site available on port 80) GB
OS Platform requirment - SMS 2003 Server
•Windows 2000 Server
•Windows 2000 Advanced Server
•Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
•(All Windows 2000 platforms require SP2 or later)
•Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
•Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition
•Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
•Other Requirements for Site Servers
• Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 SP3 or later
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP3 or later (required for the primary site server in advanced security mode).
OS Platform requirment - SMS 2003 Clients
Advanced Clients - Windows 2000, XP, 2003
Legacy Clients - Windows 98,NT
What are Site System Roles available in SMS 2003?
The Site Server can contain one or all of these roles and also contains the SMS 2003 database.
Management point
Advanced Clients communicate with the default management point. Management points provide a location where remote clients exchange data with SMS site services.
To be a management point, the system must have IIS installed and enabled, The Task Scheduler and Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) services must be enabled.
Server locator point (SLP)
The server locator point locates CAPs for Legacy Clients and management points for Advanced Clients. The server locator point is mostly used in client installation
To be a server locator point, the site system server must have IIS installed and enabled.
Client access points (CAPs)
To be a client access point (CAP), the site system that you want to configure as a CAP must have at least one NTFS partition available. SMS 2003 does not support CAPs on non-NTFS partitions.
Distribution point
To use the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), the site server and distribution point must have Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) installed and enabled. You must also enable WebDAV extensions for IIS for Windows Server 2003.
Reporting point
To be a reporting point, the site system server must have IIS installed and enabled. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 SP2 or later must be installed on any server or client that uses Report Viewer. To use graphs in the reports, Office Web Components (Microsoft Office 2000 SP2 or Microsoft Office XP) must be installed. The reporting point also requires that Active Server Pages be enabled.
SMS 2003 Site Hierarchy
Primary (Central) Site
This site sever manages the information store in the SQL Server database. All secondary site servers that report up to this site derive their configuration and policy from the settings held here. Parent site is the top level site in an SMS hierarchy and is a Primary Site.
Secondary Site
This site server acts as a low-maintenance remote proxy for managed
systems. Primary site servers send instructions to the secondary site servers for the clients managed by such secondary sites.
Child Site
It feeds information up to a parent site and can be either a primary or
secondary site.
Types of SMS Installation modes
Standard security mode allows SMS 2003 to function like 2.0 for organization that have not yet implemented Active Directory(AD). Standard security relies on regular user accounts to run services, make changes to computers and connected computers
Advanced Security mode is available only if all SMS server computers within active directory and AD is available to all network locations.
It eliminated the need for SMS to create user accounts and SMS administrators to manage these accounts and AD users accounts are used for secure communication between servers. Active Directory is required for advanced security mode and AD schema extensions are required for global roaming.
SMS 2003 Discovery Methods
- Network Discovery
- Heartbeat Discovery
- Windows User Account Discovery
- Windows User Group Discovery
- Active Directory System Discovery
- Active Directory User Discovery
- Active Directory System Group Discovery
SMS 2003 Client Installation Methods
Client Push Installation
We can use Client Push Installation to install the Advanced Client or Legacy Client on individual computers or SMS collections
Manual Client Installation
SMS administrator initiates Smsman.exe to install a Legacy Client or Ccmsetup.exe
Client installation using Software Distribution
Advertising an Advanced Client installation program and then running that program.
Important log files in SMS 2003
Management point setup logs are located in the SMS\Logs folder
- MPMSI.log
- MPSetup.log
- MPControl.log
- SMSExec.log
- Management point functional logs are located in the SMS_CCM\Logs folder
- Ccmexec.log – SMS Agent Host service
- MP_function.log – processing Advanced Client data, such as MP_Ddr.log and MP_Hinv.log
The above content provides quick short notes on SMS 2003 basics for System engineers and System Administrators.
