Navigating the SMS Administrator Console

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The SMS Administrator Console is actually a snap-in to the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) version 1.1. As you are probably aware, MMC is a productivity utility that enables you to customize management tools for your environment. The idea is to have all your management tools accessible through a single interface. So you can add in the snap-ins you need or display only the functionality of the snap-in you require. SMS 2.0 third-party utilities will largely be available as snap-ins to the SMS Administrator Console.

The SMS Administrator Console, like any MMC, can be run in Author mode. To run the SMS Administrator Console in Author mode, right-click on the console's title bar, choose User Options, and check the Always Open Console Files In Author Mode option. You will need to close the SMS Administrator Console and reopen it to enable Author mode. Author mode lets you customize the console. For example, SQL Server 7.0 also uses MMC to run the SQL Server 7.0 Enterprise Manager. To simplify your administrative tasks, you might decide to add the SQL Server 7.0 Enterprise Manager to the SMS Administrator Console. We'll spend more time on the subject of customizing and securing the SMS Administrator Console in Chapter 16. The purpose of this section is to familiarize you with the SMS Administrator Console and how to navigate it.

The SMS Administrator Console is installed to run with Author mode turned off by default. It is launched from the Systems Management Server program group, or by choosing Start from the taskbar, choosing Run, and then entering d:\SMS\Bin\platform\Sms.msc, where d represents the drive on which SMS was installed on, and platform is either i386 for Intel or Alpha.

As shown in Figure 2-48, the SMS Administrator Console looks very much like an Windows Explorer window. Objects that can be accessed and managed by the SMS administrator are displayed in the left pane, which is also called the console tree. As you select each object in the left pane, the contents of that object are displayed in the right pane. These contents generally consist of additional objects that can be accessed and maintained.

Notice that highlighting the Collections object in the left pane displays the twelve default collections that SMS 2.0 created during setup in the right pane. Refer back to Table 1-1 for descriptions of each top-level object.

Figure 2-48. The default SMS Administrator Console, displaying all top-level objects that can be accessed by the SMS administrator.

You navigate through the objects as you would navigate through the Windows Explorer screen—the same keyboard shortcuts apply. For example, click on a plus sign or a minus sign to expand or collapse an object or a folder. Or double-click on the object or folder name to expand or collapse it. Press the Tab key to move between panes, or to move from entry to entry in a dialog box.

The SMS Administrator Console has two menus: Action and View. Selecting an object and choosing the Action menu will display the Action menu options for that object. These options may include opening the item (same as double-clicking on it), refreshing the object (updating its contents or properties), deleting the object, or performing some additional task such as displaying messages or launching a tool. Most objects have Properties windows in which you can view and change an object's attributes. Right-clicking on an object displays the object's context menu, which lists the same options as the Action menu.

The View menu is active only if the SMS Administrator is run in Author mode. This menu lets you customize how the console appears. For example, you can show or hide the description bar, status bar, or console tree and you can decide which toolbars to display, including menus or buttons from other snap-ins.

In addition to the two menus, the SMS Administrator Console provides six toolbar buttons, shown in Figure 2-49. The blue left and right arrows are jump buttons that switch you backward and forward through the last console tree selections you made. The yellow folder with the up arrow lets you navigate up one object or folder level from where your cursor is currently placed. The list with an arrow next to it toggles the left pane on and off for easier reading of the right pane. The white paper with revolving green arrows is the Refresh button. Because the SMS Administrator Console is not dynamically updated, remember to refresh your screen to view new and updated data. You can also refresh any object by highlighting it and pressing F5 on the keyboard, or by right-clicking on the object and then choosing Refresh. Of course, there is also the Help button—the one with the yellow question mark. This button invokes SMS help for whichever object you have highlighted.

This seems like an ideal opportunity to put in a plug for SMS 2.0's help engine. Compared to other help products you may have used (even from Microsoft), this one is really quite good. Combined with the online Systems Management Server Administrator's Guide and the Microsoft Systems Management Server Version 2.0 Release Notes, you will have the resources you need to answer the majority of your questions about SMS. Get yourself the SMS 2.0 Resource Kit which is located in the \Support\Reskit directory in the SMS 2.0 CD and the Software Development Kit (SDK) through the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) program, and you'll be on your way to becoming an SMS guru. For more information on the MSDN program, please check the Web site at http://msdn.microsoft.com.

That's all there is to it. Navigating the SMS Administrator Console is actually quite easy once you get used to it. The hardest part is finding out where to look for various SMS component settings. If you come from a current SMS 1.2 environment, you might find yourself becoming a little frustrated at first because you will be so used to the old SMS Administrator utility. Give yourself a little extra time to become comfortable with the new MMC. After a while, you'll wonder how you got along without it. Indeed, going back to the old SMS Administrator utility may seem like going back to File Manager after using Windows Explorer.