Part III: Software and Package Management
Part III discusses what is probably an SMS administrator’s primary reason for purchasing SMS 2003—the distribution of software and other packages to client systems through the network with little or no
user
intervention and the management of that software once it’s installed. This part is divided into four areas of concern. Chapter 11, “Collections,” explains the concept of a collection in SMS 2003 and describes how collections are created and
maintained
. Chapter 12, “Package Distribution and Management,” describes the package distribution process, including creating packages and programs, identifying package recipients through collections, and executing package commands at the client system. Chapter 13, “Patch Management,” discusses the newest feature of SMS 2003-software update management. This feature provides you with a mechanism to automatically roll out patches and other software updates to your SMS
clients
through SMS. Chapter 14, “Microsoft Systems Management Server Installer,” illustrates the use of SMS Installer to script an installation process and make it
potentially
invisible to the user. Chapter 15, “Software Metering,” discusses a feature introduced in SMS 2.0 and completely rewritten for SMS 2003: software metering. This feature enables you to monitor and report on software usage on client systems.
Part IV: Site Database Maintenance, Recovery, and Upgrade
Part IV covers a wide variety of topics related to the SMS 2003 database. Because the database itself must be
maintained
on a server running SQL Server 7.0 or 2000, this part approaches database management from two perspectives: management and reporting from within the SMS 2003 Administrator console and maintenance and events related directly to SQL Server. In Chapter 16, 'Queries and Reports,' you'll learn how to query for and report on information kept in the database from within the SMS Administrator Console. In Chapter 17, 'Security,' we'll look at securing access through Windows and through custom consoles, and in Chapter 18, 'Disaster Recovery,' we'll examine disaster recovery techniques. Chapter 19, 'Maintaining the Database Through Microsoft SQL Server,' covers SQL Server topics, including event triggers, SQL Server resources and
components
used by SMS 2003, maintenance and optimization techniques, and SQL Server backup and restore
methods
. These chapters aren't intended to be a primer for SQL Server; instead, they're designed to provide the SMS administrator with a basic understanding of SQL Server-
related
maintenance
tasks
. Chapter 20, 'Migration Issues,' identifies planning considerations, discusses postmigration issues, and describes client handling and upgrading as well as supporting mixed SMS environments.
Appendixes
This book contains two appendixes:
-
Appendix A: Backup Control File
Contains the text for the backup control file used by the SMS Site Backup service when performing a site server backup scheduled through the SMS Administrator Console, as discussed in Chapter 18.
-
Appendix B: Recommended Web Sites
Lists some of the Internet sites that the author considers particularly useful for gathering additional information about or obtaining support for SMS 2003, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, and SQL Server.