Using Systems Management Server 2.0 to Deploy Windows 2000

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In this section, we'll explore Windows 2000 deployment strategies using the features of SMS 2.0 that have been covered throughout this book. The process of rolling out and implementing Windows 2000 within your network is hardly a trivial operation; it can be just as complex as the development of an SMS hierarchy or the migration of an SMS 1.2 environment to SMS 2.0. A successful deployment of Windows 2000 requires planning, testing, and personnel. SMS 2.0 has the tools to assist you with this process. Let's take a look at how you can leverage your SMS 2.0 site hierarchy to smooth your rollout of Windows 2000.

As mentioned, deploying Windows 2000 on a large-scale basis requires a great deal of thought and planning. Your checklist of tasks should include the following items:

  • Outlining your current and expected network infrastructure, including assessing network traffic and determining the site and domain structure
  • Assessing hardware and software requirements, including identifying computers for hardware and software upgrades
  • Defining organizational units, including locating users and computers
  • Upgrading computers where appropriate, including upgrading servers to Windows 2000 and upgrading workstations to Windows 2000 Professional
  • Monitoring status and generating documentation

As you can see, SMS 2.0 fits in well as a means to facilitate the planning process—in fact, it can be used quite effectively to accomplish most of the tasks listed here. For example, SMS 2.0 can help you gather information about network infrastructure, estimate hardware and software requirements, determine off-peak hours for performing the upgrade, and so on. In this section, we'll look at some of the ways SMS features can assist you as you develop an upgrade strategy for Windows 2000.

Outlining Network Infrastructure

The Network Discovery method in SMS 2.0 gathers information about network resources and infrastructure. This information will help you determine where your computers—and users—are located and how your network is subnetted, including the location of routers, hubs, switches, and so on. Combined with data gathered using a tool such as Network Monitor, this data can help pinpoint areas of potential concern in network traffic patterns.

The Network Trace utility can be used to develop a graphical picture of the network, including locating subnets and computers, as discussed in Chapter 6. Network Trace can show at a glance whether workstations and servers are accessible and through what routes.

Network Monitor can be used to determine traffic patterns and periods of peak usage. As with SMS sites, Microsoft recommends that Windows 2000 sites not extend across slow WAN links. Also, the Windows 2000 Active Directory requires the use of the TCP/IP protocol. Network Monitor can help you determine which computers may need to have TCP/IP installed.

You'll recall from Chapter 6 that SMS 2.0 adds experts and monitors to Network Monitor to aid in your analysis of network traffic. For example, the Top Users Expert identifies the senders and recipients of frames that generated the most traffic during the capture session. This information can help you identify potential network bottlenecks and periods of peak usage. The IP Router Monitor alerts you when a specified router fails to respond, helping you identify possible weak links in your infrastructure.

Used together, these tools can help you map out a Windows 2000 site and domain structure that conforms to your network's needs and activity. They may also point out the need to restructure your network so that implementation of Windows 2000 sites is made easier.

Assessing Hardware and Software Requirements

Computers running Windows 2000 require a 32-bit, Intel-based processor rated 166 MHz or higher or an Alpha-based processor rated 200 MHz or higher. Windows 2000 Professional requires at least 32 MB of RAM (64 MB recommended) and 300 MB of available disk space. Windows 2000 requires a minimum 64 MB of RAM (128 MB recommended) for domain controllers and at least 500 MB of available disk space. Similar requirements are made for client computers. The inventory process certainly provides the data you need to determine which computers can support Windows 2000 in their current configuration and which computers need to be upgraded.

You can use an SMS predefined query or create your own query to generate lists of clients that meet Windows 2000 hardware requirements, as well as identify those that do not. These clients can be grouped into collections, using SMS queries to keep the collections dynamically updated. Refer to Chapter 15 for a detailed discussion about creating queries. As clients are upgraded, they will automatically be placed into the appropriate collection to facilitate the rollout of Windows 2000 software.

The software inventory can help to identify computers running applications that may not be supported by Windows 2000, as well as servers that may require Windows NT service pack upgrades prior to installing Windows 2000. For example, Windows NT 3.51 requires that Service Pack 5 be applied, and Windows NT 4.0 requires Service Pack 4.

Windows 2000 does support some MS-DOS-based and 16-bit applications, but those really should be tested for compatibility before you upgrade them to Windows 2000. Software inventory can help target those computers as well. Through the use of queries and collections, computers requiring upgraded or replacement software can be easily targeted with packages and advertisements.

SMS queries can be an essential and helpful tool throughout the migration process. As we've seen, collections whose membership rules are based on queries are periodically reevaluated and updated. If you use SMS 2.0 to actually deploy and initiate the Windows 2000 upgrade, it would make sense to advertise the program to appropriately configured computers. A collection that weeds out inappropriate computers—those that do not meet the prerequisites for supporting Windows 2000—would be ideal. This collection should be based on a query so that as computers are upgraded to meet the prerequisites, they can be added to the collection automatically, and as they are upgraded to Windows 2000, they are removed from the collection.

Figure 20-7 shows an example of one such query. This query looks for Windows NT computers that have Service Pack 4 applied, have at least 64 MB of RAM and a 166 MHz Pentium processor, and have at least 500 MB of disk space—the requirements for installing Windows 2000 on a server. The query will screen out any computer that does not meet these prerequisites, and it will remove the computer from the collection after the upgrade occurs. You can create other collections by creating variations on this query.

Figure 20-7. Sample query to locate computers that meet Windows 2000 prerequisites.

Defining Organizational Units

By enabling the Windows NT User Account Discovery and Windows NT User Group Discovery methods in SMS 2.0, you will be able to generate a list of all the users and domain groups in your network. This list, along with the information gathered using the Network Discovery method and hardware and software inventory, will make it possible for you to identify where your users are located and how they are organized. This data is essential in helping you define organizational units for your Windows 2000 Active Directory structure.

Through the intelligent use of collections to group your users, you can begin to identify which organizational units you need to create and then use the collection membership as a template for moving users into their appropriate organizational units. This same strategy can also be used for organizing client computers as you deploy Windows 2000 upgrades.

Upgrading Computers

One of the primary functions of SMS 2.0 is to distribute packages to targeted client computers. It is logical, then, to use that feature of SMS 2.0 to upgrade, remove, or install new software on potential Windows 2000 clients to make them compatible for the Windows 2000 upgrade. SMS Installer can be used to generate unattended installation scripts to get the software installed properly either before or after or even as part of the Windows 2000 upgrade process.

SMS 2.0 can also be used to initiate the actual upgrade to Windows 2000. Included with SMS 2.0 are program definition files for both Windows 2000 Professional and Windows 2000 Server. These files contain programs for manual and automated upgrades on both the Alpha and X86 platforms. Figure 20-8 shows a sample package created using the package definition file for Windows 2000 Professional. Notice that the program command line is specified for an automated upgrade on an X86 platform. You will need to supply the source files for the package, of course. For details about package distribution, refer to Chapter 12.

click to view at full size.

Figure 20-8. Sample Windows 2000 Professional package.

You will also need to identify appropriate distribution points for the Windows 2000 package. Given the size of this package, it would be appropriate to choose distribution points that are local to the computers that will be upgraded. Although package files are compressed before they are sent from one site to another, they are not compressed when they are copied to distribution points.

Also, although you can specify when and how often distribution points are refreshed, the package files are initially copied at the time you identify the distribution point. Therefore, you will want to perform the distribution point identification at a time when network traffic will be least affected.

You must also advertise the package program to the collections you created. Advertisements can be scheduled to be made available and to run at specified times. Using the data gathered through Network Monitor, you should schedule the upgrade to run at a time when network traffic will be least affected. If the target computers can select from several distribution points to initiate the upgrade, the server load will be more evenly distributed.

Monitoring Status and Generating Documentation

Through every step of the process outlined here, SMS components generate status messages and, if configured, log files. You can use the Status Message Viewer to monitor the status of the upgrade, watching the advertisement status messages in particular. Recall from Chapters 5 and 12 that status messages are generated for both package distribution and advertisements. You can identify easily which computers were upgraded and which were not, for whatever reason, and perform troubleshooting if necessary.

If you have enabled logging for your SMS site, you can use SMS Trace to view the progress of the upgrade through the log files written by the SMS components involved. For example, Distribution Manager writes its logging information to SMS\Logs\Distmgr.log. The information in the log file is generally more detailed and thread-oriented than status messages and can sometimes provide the extra detail needed to troubleshoot a problem.

Crystal Info can also be used to generate reports to help in the documentation process. In fact, as we discussed in Chapter 15, any reporting program that can access the SMS database through Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and ODBC can be used to generate supporting documentation for your upgrade.

Whatever your choice of tools, be sure to incorporate a documentation and reporting scheme into your overall upgrade strategy. As we've seen, SMS 2.0 can be helpful in providing system documentation for both the preupgrade and post-upgrade environments.



Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Administrator's Companion
Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Administrators Companion (IT-Administrators Companion)
ISBN: 0735608342
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 1999
Pages: 167

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