Server Modifications After Installation

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The SMS 2.0 Setup program makes several modifications to your Windows NT Server upon completion. It automatically installs the SMS client software components in the \MS\SMS folder it creates in the operating system root, including installing and starting any default client agents that have been enabled, such as the Hardware Inventory Client Agent or Remote Tools. It loads and starts the SMS Client Service, which in turn starts additional client processes and modifies the registry accordingly. The client installation process for the primary site is essentially the same as for any other 32-bit SMS client and is discussed in detail in Chapter 8.

Additional modifications are made in the following areas:

• Program group
• Services
• Directory
• Shares
• Windows NT Registry

In this section, we'll look at each of these areas of modification in detail.

Program Group

After the primary site server installation is complete, the Setup Wizard adds the Systems Management Server program group to the Start menu. The shortcuts created and displayed in the Systems Management Server program group will vary depending on the components you chose to install. Table 2-4 describes the program group shortcuts that are created in an Express installation and represents the most common entries created.

Table 2-4. Systems Management Server program group shortcuts

Shortcut	Description
Network Monitor	Launches the Network Monitor utility, which is used to track and analyze network traffic and usage.
Network Monitor Control Tool	Launches the Network Monitor Control Tool, which allows you to set custom network tracking tools to identify and alert certain network events.
SMS Administrator Console	Launches the SMS Administrator Console, which is used to access and administer the SMS database and its site components.
SMS Administrator Guide	Launches the online version of the Systems Management Server Administrator's Guide, which contains the same material in searchable format as the print version that comes boxed with the SMS 2.0 CD.
SMS Release Notes	Launches the Microsoft Systems Management Server Version 2.0 Release Notes, additional reference notes, workarounds, and technical pointers that supplement and correct the Systems Management Server Administrator's Guide.
SMS Setup	Launches the SMS 2.0 Setup Wizard, through which you can modify and reset site settings, such as the service account name and password, and remove SMS.
SMS Courier Sender	Launches the SMS Courier Sender Manager, which creates and receives parcels from packages using the Courier Sender. The Courier Sender can be used to send packages between sites that have slow or unreliable network links, although it is not meant to be used exclusively in place of other network connections.

TIP

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After you install your SMS 2.0 primary site server, be sure to print out the 86 pages of Microsoft Systems Management Server Version 2.0 Release Notes and read through them. Not only is it a terrific cure for insomnia, but it is also an invaluable source of additional information about and corrections to the Systems Management Server Administrator's Guide. This book incorporates the most significant entries.

Services

During the SMS installation, SMS services, or processes, are installed and enabled. By default, the SMS Setup program will load and start five new services on a primary site server: SMS Executive, SMS Site Component Manager, SMS SQL Monitor, SMS Site Backup, and Windows Management Service (if WMI has not been previously installed). If you installed Crystal Info as an option, Setup will also load and start three Crystal Info services: Info Agent, Info APS, and Info Sentinel. These services run in the background; to view their running status, select Services in the Control Panel in Windows NT.

The SMS Executive is the primary SMS service—sort of like the CIO for the SMS site. It accesses and updates the database, and it manages up to 42 different process threads, depending on the components installed. These process threads are listed here:

• Client Configuration Manager
• Client Install Data Manager
• Collection Evaluator
• Courier Sender Confirmation
• Despooler
• Discovery agents

• NetWare Bindery Logon Discovery
• NetWare NDS Logon Discovery
• Network Discovery
• Windows NT Logon Discovery
• Windows NT Server Discovery
• Windows NT User Account Discovery
• Windows NT User Group Discovery

• Discovery managers

• NetWare Bindery Logon Manager
• NetWare NDS Logon Manager
• Windows NT Logon Manager

• Discovery Data Manager
• Distribution Manager
• Hierarchy Manager
• Inbox Manager
• Inbox Manager Assistant
• Inventory Data Loader
• Inventory Processor
• Installation managers

• NetWare Bindery Installation Manager
• NetWare NDS Installation Manager
• Windows NT Logon Installation Manager

• License Metering
• License Server Manager
• Offer Manager
• Replication Manager
• Scheduler
• Senders

• Asynchronous RAS Sender
• Courier Sender
• ISDN RAS Sender
• SNA RAS Sender
• Standard Sender
• X.25 RAS Sender

• Site Control Manager
• Status summarizers

• Advertisement Status Summarizer
• Component Status Summarizer
• Site System Status Summarizer

• Software Inventory Processor
• Status Manager

You'll learn about the significance of each of these process threads as we encounter them in future chapters.

The Site Component Manager carries out site configuration requests posted in the database and written to the site's site control file. This service is similar to the Site Configuration Manager service installed in SMS 1.2.

The SMS SQL Monitor acts as a wake-up service for the SMS Executive and its process threads. Based on SQL event triggers and stored procedures, the SMS SQL Monitor writes a wake-up file to the inbox of the SMS process that needs to carry out a specific task. Through this service, SMS 2.0 becomes event-driven rather than cycle-driven, as in earlier versions of SMS.

The Windows Management Service manages the WMI CIM repository and gives access to any WMI providers and agents.

The three Crystal Info services are specific to Crystal Info's function. Info Agent uses the most recent instance of a report to send back data to Crystal Info. Info APS manages the configuration, scheduling, creation, and security of reports generated by Crystal Info. Info Sentinel maintains communication between the Crystal Info components and the SMS database.

REAL WORLD  What If the Info APS Service Fails to Start?

The Info APS service is set to start up automatically when a system boots, and it uses the SMS Service account as its service account. However, you will find that instead of starting up, it times out (after several minutes) and causes Windows NT to display the familiar "Service or Dependency Failed to Start" message. (This problem no longer occurs if you have installed SMS 2.0 Service Pack 1.) During the time-out period, the SMS Administrator Console will be delayed in connecting to the SMS database, and the Windows NT service database will be locked. A further review of the Windows NT Event Viewer will reveal that a Service Control Manager error with event ID 7000 is generated with a description, as shown in Figure 2-46.

Figure 2-46. The Event Detail dialog box.

In the initial release of SMS 2.0, the Info APS service includes a shipping bug that causes this error. Officially, the workaround is to manually start the service after rebooting. In practice, you may have to try starting it a couple times before it actually starts. This, of course is not always practical, especially if your servers are not easily accessible. The good news, perhaps, is that the Info APS service affects only Crystal Info—and nothing else.

Here is another workaround. The Info APS service has three dependencies—that is, it depends on three other services starting before it can start: EventLog, Info Sentinel, and NM. (NM is the Network Monitor agent that SMS 2.0 installs for remote monitoring of computer systems using Network Monitor.) However, when Info APS is installed, it fails to add the NM dependency to the list. Consequently, Info APS times out because it tries to start before the third dependency service NM has itself started up. To modify the Info APS service dependencies, follow these steps:

1. Start the Windows NT Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Find the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Crystal Info APS.
3. Find the DependOnService value, and double-click on it. The Multi-String Editor dialog box will appear, containing two entries: EventLog and Crystal Info Sentinel.
4. Add NM at the end of the list, as shown in Figure 2-47, and click OK.



Figure 2-47. Adding NM in the Multi-String Editor dialog box.

5. Close the Windows NT Registry Editor.

After you restart your server, the Info APS service will start up just fine.

Directory Structure and Shares

When you run the SMS Setup program, it creates the registry, shares, and services needed to make configuration changes. Among the items created are two SMS directories: \SMS and \CAP_sitecode. The \SMS directory is the main SMS installation directory. It contains all the site component files, inboxes, system files, data files, and so forth needed to maintain and service the SMS site. It is shared as SMS_sitecode, where sitecode represents the three-character site code you assigned to the site.

The \CAP_sitecode directory is created on every site system configured as a CAP. The site server becomes a CAP by default. This directory contains all the client component configuration files, advertisements, site assignment lists, component inboxes for client data, and any other instruction files the client might require. It is shared as CAP_sitecode.

If the site server is configured as a logon point, as it would be automatically if you performed an Express installation and the site server were also a domain controller, Setup would create the \Smslogon directory and share, which would contain the site list, site assignment list, CAP list, and client configuration files. In this scenario, the Winnt\System32\Repl\Export\Scripts directory is shared as REPL$ (if directory replication is not already enabled on the server) for use in replicating discovery and client installation files to all domain controllers.

The Setup program also shares the SMS\Inboxes\Despoolr.box\Receive directory as SMS_site. SMS site servers use this share to connect to another site and to copy package information and other data to that site. If Crystal Info has been installed, the directory containing its support files for creating, scheduling, and running reports—\SMS\CInfo—is shared as CInfo.

Suffice it to say that the Setup program creates no superfluous directories. Every SMS component and thread has its directory or directories, and every directory has its component or thread.

Windows NT Registry

The Setup program creates and configures four main areas of the Windows NT registry—specifically in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree. Setup adds the Network Access Layer (NAL) and SMS keys to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft in the registry. The NAL key contains information relating to logical disk and network providers used by SMS, connection account information, and CAP lists. The SMS key contains all the site configuration and control information, including components installed, site parameters, SQL information, and so on. If Setup installs WMI, it adds a Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) key as well, which contains the configuration and access information needed by Windows Management. Additionally, Setup will add the appropriate service-related keys to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services.

As always, it is possible, and sometimes necessary for you, the SMS administrator, to modify SMS site and component settings through the Windows NT Registry Editor. As always, please use due caution when making changes. Before browsing the registry to look up current settings or to determine whether a change should or could be made, it would be wise to set the Registry Editor to read-only mode. This precaution will prevent you from accidentally modifying an existing entry, adding an incorrect entry, or deleting a significant entry from the registry—the results of which could range from minor annoyance to critical disaster. This is not a lesson you want to learn the hard way.