Defining Package Distribution

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The package distribution process is often misunderstood or mislabeled somehow by SMS administrators and users. It's important to remember that SMS 2.0 is fundamentally a package delivery tool. Basically, SMS is designed to make a package that you create available to a specified target or targets. The key here is that you are responsible for creating the package. You are also responsible for ensuring that the package will execute as intended when it reaches its target. SMS will get it there for you, but SMS will not "error-correct" it for you—nor should it be expected to.

Look at it this way. Suppose you are sending a bicycle to your nephew. You box it up carefully, go to your nearest package delivery service office, fill out the appropriate forms, pay the appropriate fees, and hand over the box. The responsibility of the package delivery service now is to get the box containing the bicycle to your nephew's house within the time frame you specified and paid for. Once the package arrives at your nephew's house, the delivery person may be kind enough to open the box and take the bicycle out but is under no obligation to do so. Nor is the delivery person expected to assemble the bicycle or teach your nephew how to ride it.

SMS works in much the same way. You, the SMS administrator, are responsible for creating the package and ensuring that all the appropriate pieces are assembled: source files, scripts, executables, command switches, and so on. You identify where the package must go and who should receive it. SMS carries out your instructions, and even "opens" the package when it arrives at the target. However, the ability of the package to execute—or the user's ability to use the application, for that matter—are not SMS's responsibility.

Terminology

This description of the basic package distribution process uses some terms that you are probably familiar with. Let's take a moment here to review these terms in more detail.

An SMS package generally represents a software application that needs to be installed on an SMS client computer. However, a package might also contain update programs or software patches, single files such as a virus update file, or no files at all—just a command to execute a program already resident on the client. You need to identify to SMS exactly what the package consists of.

Every package must contain at least one program. An SMS program identifies what should occur on the client when the package is received. Perhaps a setup routine is executed, or a virus scan is performed, or a file is copied to a particular directory. Perhaps the user needs to supply information such as the program directory, or perhaps no user intervention is required at all. A package may have several programs associated with it, allowing for the application to be run in a variety of ways on different clients. Consider your Microsoft Office 2000 installation. You can choose to perform a Typical, Custom, or Laptop installation of the software. If this software were an SMS package—and it could be—you would have to include a program for each of these installation methods if you intended to use them. Once again, you must define the program to SMS and include any and all appropriate references to script files or command switches. The program also defines the platform and environment within which the package can run. For instance, can the package run on any platform, or only on Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 computers with Service Pack 4 installed? Can the program be executed by any user, or can it run only in an administrator context?

Some applications include predefined scripts called package definition files (PDFs) that can be used with SMS. PDFs contain all the package and program information required for SMS to successfully distribute the package and, usually, to deploy it. PDFs often come with the application's source file, or they can be obtained from the developer. You can also create PDFs using various tools and utilities from Microsoft. We'll return to PDFs in the section "Creating a Package from a Definition File" later in this chapter.

An advertisement makes the program and package available to a specified collection. Recall from Chapter 11 that collections can contain not only SMS client computers, but also Windows NT users and groups. This means that a program can be advertised to clients as well as to users and groups. So before you create the advertisement, you will need to have created the appropriate collections.

Advertisements are often used to schedule when a program runs and to specify whether the user can reschedule the program. Advertisements can also be configured to recur—that is, to make a program available on a recurring basis. For example, if you distribute virus update files on a monthly basis, you might create a virus update package and program and then an advertisement that makes the virus update file available on a monthly basis.

The Advertised Programs Client Agent (also sometimes referred to as the Advertised Programs Agent) is installed and started on the SMS client. As with other client agents, this agent is optional and must be configured and enabled by the SMS administrator. The Advertised Programs Client Agent's job is to monitor the client access point (CAP) for available advertised programs that target the client or the user at the client. When an advertisement is found and the program is ready to be run, the agent connects to an available distribution point—as defined in the package details—to execute the program. If the program runs an existing file on the client, the agent executes the program appropriately.

Two SMS site systems, in addition to the site server, are involved in the package distribution process: CAPs and distribution points. The CAP is always the point of interchange between the site server and the SMS clients. In this exchange, package detail information and advertisements are copied to the CAP for access by the Advertised Programs Client Agent on the client. The actual source files that constitute the package are copied to distribution points. Both CAPs and distribution points need to have been assigned before you can distribute any packages. Remember that the site server becomes a CAP and a distribution point by default when you install SMS 2.0. (The role of site systems and how they are assigned is discussed in Chapter 3.)

Preparing for Package Distribution

As you can see from the previous section, many components are involved in package distribution. Before we continue our discussion of package distribution, let's outline the actions required for the distribution process:

  • Define your CAPs and distribution points for the package
  • Create appropriate collections
  • Gather all source files, setup routines, scripts, and so on needed for the package
  • Create the SMS package
  • Define at least one program for the package
  • Advertise the programs to one or more collections
  • Distribute the package to the distribution points
  • Execute the advertised program on the client

After reviewing these elements of the distribution process, you'll have a solid foundation to build on. The following sections of this chapter will cover how to configure various components for package distribution.



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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