What s Changed Since System Management Server 2.0?

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What’s Changed Since System Management Server 2.0?

SMS 2003 differs from SMS 2.0 in several key areas. SMS 2003 is capable of leveraging your existing Active Directory structure. This means that you can model your SMS structure and manage your SMS resources without having to create and maintain a separate hierarchical structure. In addition, using the functionality of Active Directory and the new Advanced Client allows for exceptional manageability of so-called mobile client computers, most notably portable computers.

Security Modes

This difference is manifested in two installation modes now available for SMS 2003: standard security and advanced security. If you choose to implement standard security, for example, because your network still consists of some Windows NT 4.0 servers or hasn’t been upgraded to Active Directory native mode, or because you are upgrading an existing SMS 2.0 site, the installation will effectively result in an SMS site that functions not much differently from the way SMS 2.0 sites did. For example, SMS 2003 will still create a slew of internal accounts and use them to manage connections between clients and servers and the functioning of SMS services and components.

However, if you choose to implement advanced security, for example, because your network is a fully implemented native mode Active Directory network, or because all your SMS component servers are running Windows 2000 or later and are registered in Active Directory, you’ll be able to take advantage of the features of SMS 2003 designed to use Active Directory functionality. You can enable one or more of the three new Active Directory discovery methods mentioned earlier in this chapter and assign and use the new management point site system role that’s used to manage Advanced Clients. Important for resource management, advanced security relies on the use of local system context to run services and components and computer accounts rather than user accounts to manage communication between servers.

SMS Component Changes

As you read earlier in this chapter, several additions and enhancements have been made to existing SMS components. The most notable of these include the ability to base SMS site boundaries on your Active Directory sites as well as IP addresses, the ability to use the enhanced features of the MMC, the full integration and reconfiguration of software metering, the extended functionality of package distribution to support Advanced Clients, and the ability to audit inventoried software based on specific file names and wildcards.

Here are some of the notable enhancements made to the package distribution process:

• SMS 2003 can use BITS to make more efficient use of network bandwidth and to transfer files from BITS-enabled distribution points and any management point.

• You can restart a package download if it’s interrupted at the point it left off by beginning with the last file being downloaded if BITS has been started. BITS is set to manual by default.

• Only delta updates to packages between sites need to be sent rather than resending the entire package.

• Clients can receive packages from any distribution point rather than just from distribution points in their assigned sites.

• SMS 2003 packages can be created from Windows Installer packages and existing SMS 2.0 packages can be converted to Windows Installer compatible packages.

• Packages are now published to Add Or Remove Programs in Control Panel.

Backup and Recovery

SMS 2.0 included a fully automated backup routine for primary site servers that you could schedule through the SMS Administrator Console. This backup process captured the SMS database and related databases; SMS-specific registry keys and related registry keys, such as SQL keys; the entire SMS installation directory structure; and the site control file. In other words, it backed up every possible bit of information related to the site in case it might be needed for recovery. In addition, Microsoft provided an interactive online Recovery Expert that would essentially “ask” you a series of questions regarding the site and what you need to recover and then generate a comprehensive checklist of steps the administrator should take to recover the site.

SMS 2003 builds on these recovery features in the following ways:

• You can now automate the backup of secondary sites.

• The backup process now backs up only what’s necessary to restore the site in an effort to reduce the backup time and storage space required.

• The SMS Recovery Expert is now available on the SMS CD and can be executed from the SMS setup menu.

• The often reported, but heretofore unavailable, SMS Site Repair Wizard is now integrated into the SMS site server installation and can be executed from the SMS startup menu. The SMS Site Repair Wizard allows you to automate many of the tasks outlined in the SMS Recovery Expert checklist, and it’s integrated into the SMS Recovery Expert as well.

• You can use these tools as effectively for your SMS 2.0 sites as well.

Unsupported Features

Of course, when Microsoft “giveth” functionality, it sometimes must also “taketh” away. In order to keep the program size and processing requirements of SMS 2003 to reasonable levels, as well as to address changing operating system and support trends—both as stated within Microsoft and as noted within the networking market—some features of SMS 2.0 are indeed no longer supported under SMS 2003. Table 1.3 lists these unsupported features.

Table 1.3: SMS 2.0 features no longer supported

Feature	Heads Up!
Any Windows operating system client running Windows 95 or earlier, Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me) or MS DOS.	If you have any of these legacy systems around, you’ll need to upgrade them or retain one or more SMS 2.0 sites in your SMS hierarchy to manage them. Of course, if you still have some of these systems around, you have other issues to deal with….
Novell NetWare Client and Server support	Be sure to remove any SMS 2.0 site systems roles assigned to NetWare servers before you upgrade. If you don’t, you’ll face the prospect of having to manually remove SMS components from those servers. Unless uninstalled before upgrading from SMS 2.0, these clients will become orphaned and will deinstall in 60 days as part of the regular client maintenance cycle.
IPX site boundaries	Any clients that use IPX to define their site boundaries (usually NetWare or Alpha clients) will become orphaned and eventually uninstalled as part of the client’s regular maintenance cycle.
Alpha-based system support	Like NetWare clients, Alpha-based clients will become orphaned after upgrading to SMS 2003.
Crystal Reports	Microsoft has replaced this old warhorse with a new reporting solution. No, your old reports will not be portable.
Logon Discovery, logon installation, and logon points	The concept of discovering and installing SMS clients through the use of an SMS logon script is now passé (although clients can be discovered when users log on when using CAP-based or manual installation). If you don’t disable the Windows NT Logon Discovery and Installation methods so that SMS can remove those components from domain controllers, the domain controllers will, in effect, become “orphaned,” and you’ll need to manually remove those components.
Software Metering Servers	Although software metering hasn’t been completely removed, it has been significantly reworked, as indicated earlier in this chapter, and the Software Metering site system role is no longer supported. As with logon points, you should remove the Software Metering role from all assigned servers before upgrading to SMS 2003.

Caution 

The automatic uninstall process referred to in Table 1.3 isn’t what one would call a “clean” uninstall. This means that a variety of “stuff” will remain on the client. For example, the SMS registry keys aren’t fully removed, nor are any internal accounts deleted. Be sure to uninstall these affected clients yourself before upgrading your SMS 2.0 site to insure that the uninstall process is complete, perhaps by sending out a package to do so.

Client Changes

On the client side, aside from streamlining the way client agents run, the most notable change is the added support for portable computers and any other computer that changes location frequently in your network called Advanced Client. Advanced Client support will be discussed in detail in Chapter 13, “Patch Management.” In brief, Advanced Clients use Server Locator Points to receive component updates and advertisements. Because SMS 2003 leverages Active Directory, these clients don’t need to be connected to their “home” subnet to be managed. For example, they can receive packages from any available distribution point. In addition, any Windows 2000 or later computer can take advantage of Advanced Client functionality—not just portable computers. This gives the SMS administrator significantly greater control over the management of SMS clients than in the past.

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