Before you begin to install and configure the Systems Management Server, you should understand the concepts and terminology that SMS uses. SMS uses the same items that you have probably used before, but defined differently. Let's review those terms.
Sites are a group of computers that you may want to manage as a separate group. Each site is its own entity within the SMS and is distinguished with its unique three-character site code. Each site also requires a Site Server where you install the SMS
software and Services. This server has the primary responsibility for managing the site. Within each site are one or more domains.
A domain is also a group of computers. This group consists of the type of computers that are to be managed or inventoried (as you will later find out). This is a somewhat misunderstood term and needs to be defined properly. In doing so, I would like to
draw upon your NT knowledge to define domains.
The Networking Environment includes NT or LAN Manager domains, as well as Novell or NetWare Servers, or NetWare Networks as they may be known to some of you CNEs out there. A domain in the NT environment is one wherein a group of computers share a
common user database to provide networking security and networking functions. If the SMS is installed on the NT Domain Controller, that Domain automatically becomes part of the SMS site. In SMS terms, it is the site's domain. You can add Domains to sites
or assign a site to part of a domain, thereby gathering a group on computers in multiple NT domains to be a part of the SMS site. In Novell networks, there is no concept of a domain, and users log on to the server themselves and are not managed centrally.
For NetWare networks, artificial domains can be created, and Novell servers and client computers can be added to the domain. This can all be done by the SMS itself through the SMS Administrator. You administer a site through an SMS Administrator utility,
and you Administer an NT Domain through NT utilities such as User Manager for Domains or Server Manager.
SMS has four types of servers; all these servers operate within a site:
Because the site server is the NT Domain Controller on which the SMS is originally installed, it is the server where everything to do with SMS is installed—the file and print services of SMS, for example. The distribution servers are distribution
points for the software for the clients. The distribution servers also play an important role in software sharing and in company rollouts of new software. If a company decided to go with Windows 95 as its operating System on every desktop for every
employee, for example, the entire procedure could be done using SMS and its distribution server. (For further information, refer to my SMS Survival Guide by SAMS publishing.) The helpers do just what their name says—they help in network
administration of SMS Services and administration. These servers are designed to ease the load of some SMS Services to other controllers.
Clients are the computers that are going to be managed by SMS Server. These clients are the following
Microsoft’s Systems Management Server provides centralized administration of computers in an enterprise network. The SMS has four major functions:
Distributing and Installing Software is a function of the Systems Management Server and gives the administrator the ability to install software unattended. It also helps in planning Operating Systems rollout of the organization.
Collecting Hardware and Software Inventory Information is also a function of the Systems Management Server and is the one that is arguably the one most used. It is a collection of Systems Management Server methods and processes for
organizing and querying inventory data.
Sharing Network Application is a unique function that operates on a user’s membership in a user group to generate program groups for network applications.
Troubleshooting Hardware and Software Problems is a group of network utilities that help in monitoring and troubleshooting network problems. Examples of such utilities are the Network Monitor diagnostic utility and the Help Desk
utility, which enables remote control of Windows for Workgroups and MS DOS-based clients.
In SMS version 1.2, the Help Desk utility is scheduled to include remote control of Windows 95 and Windows NT clients. As yet, these clients are not supported only in the Help Desk environment.
In Systems Management Server, automatic inventory collection is enabled at the site server. The SMS can be configured to automatically scan the hardware and software information on all computers managed by SMS as users log on the network. This
information is called inventory and is stored in a Microsoft SQL Server database at the site server. This database can then be queried by the administrator for specific information, including which computer has a certain software installed or the number of
computers in the network with Pentium as processors. This process can be started either from the SMS Server or the client.
One important use of the inventory collection function is that it can also be used to collect files such as CONFIG.SYS from inventoried computers. This enables the network administrator to troubleshoot the client computer rights from one location.
Shared Application Management is used to distribute and install Network Applications to distribution servers. These applications can then be used by SMS clients. When an application is set up on the network, groups can be specified that have certain
rights to use or administer the network. The servers to be used as distribution points can also be specified. The desktop on the clients is automatically built, and the client or user can start to use the application. Upon execution, the application is run
from the distribution server. If the distribution server is down or not available, the client continues to run the application from other distribution servers if specified. This process is transparent to the user. The shared applications are supported for
the Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows NT operating systems.
The software management server uses packages and jobs to distribute and install software. The package consists of software and instructions for distributing and installing software, or for carrying out a command. A package contains one or more of the
following:
A package therefore includes multiple sets of instructions for a particular software to be installed. It also contains installation instructions or deinstallation instructions, as the case may be. A job specifies which client receives and which clients
do not receive the package. SMS also enables the administrator to appoint which servers will serve as the distribution servers for the software or the entire network.
The diagnostic utilities are there to troubleshoot and support not only Systems Management Server but also the entire network.
Some preinstallation considerations include recognizing that SMS is not just software that can be installed by itself. It works only on the Windows NT server operating system, which must be installed as a Domain Controller—either a Primary or
Backup Domain Controller. For this to take place, the NT server 3.51 must meet the hardware compatibility list.
The SMS stores information it collects from the network in a database that can then be queried. SQL Server for Microsoft Windows NT is the only database supported by the Systems Management Server. SMS version 1.1 supports either SQL Server 4.21a or 6.0.
Although SMS is a SQL Server client, no client licenses are required. If the SQL Server is configured with its own standard security, you must have an SQL login ID to create and access an SMS database one. For this, a new SQL account can be created, or the
existing SQL sa account can also be used. However, if SQL is configured for integrated accounts security, Windows NT accounts can be used.
Creating devices on the SQL Server for an SMS database varies depending upon whether the SQL Server is the same computer that has the Systems Management Server Software installed as well. A SQL device is nothing more than preallocated space on the hard
disk. SMS requires two devices: one for the site database and the other for the transaction log. The latter is used to recover the SMS Server in case of system failure and to store before and after images of data changed in the database.
If the Systems Management Server and SQL are installed on the same computer, the SMS Setup program can create the database and the log devices.
If the two server softwares are on two separate computers, SMS Setup requires that SQL devices have already been created on the SQL Server. The SQL administrator is responsible for this task. It can be achieved using the SQL Enterprise Manager.
Although new devices are not required, they are highly recommended. You can specify existing SQL devices on the SQL Server Machine, but during installation, the SMS setup program deletes any and all databases existing on those devices before creating the database required for the SMS usage. It does so because SMS uses all the space available in the SQL devices assigned to the SMS Software.
The following options are recommended for configuration of the SQL Server to be used with Systems Management Server.
In addition to these parameters, if the SQL and the SMS Servers are not the same computer, the administrator must take care to synchronize the clocks of these two computers. The Systems Management Server uses the clock of the SQL Server to schedule
tasks. This could become very troublesome if the computers are not synchronized. For some computer installations, this is not an issue.
Systems Management Server is installed on the Windows NT Domain Controller machine as a set of services running in the background. Therefore, it requires a Windows NT account that enables it to run in this fashion. This account is referred to as the SMS
Services Account. The Services account must have the Log on as a Service user right and must also have administrative privileges.
The following are minimum requirements. By this, I mean they are bare essentials. Remember—the more the merrier.
SMS is compatible only with the Windows NT Server 3.5x operating system and Microsoft SQL Server database program and nothing else.
For installing SMS, you should run the SETUP.BAT from the SMSSETUP directory on the Systems Management Server CDROM. This program automatically detects the type of hardware platform (Intel, MIPS, DEC ALPHA) and installs the appropriate version (see
Figure 35.1).
FIGURE 35.1. This screen shows the various Systems Management Server software installation options that are available.
This program has two modes: Default and Custom.
Default is synonymous with the Express mode of Microsoft products and installs Systems Management Server with typical defaults for the most common Windows NT environment. The Custom mode enables the administrator to install optional products, such as
BOOKS ONLINE, as well as to include and exclude optional components, such as Network Monitor and the platform upon which the SMS is being installed. The platform includes Intel and MIPS (Motorola based CPU’s).
After the SMS installation, the screen in Figure 35.2 appears. The SQL Server should already be installed and the SMS Setup program needs the information about what type of account to log in as and the database name to create. It also requires the
device name on which to create the SMS database.
FIGURE 35.2. The SMS Setup program requiring information about the SQL Server account and the name of the database device to create.
After the SQL information has been supplied and verified by SMS Setup, the Primary Site configuration screen appears (see Figure 35.3). This screen requires a three-character site code to identify this site. This must be unique in the entire
organization within the SMS hierarchy. This is followed by a site name, which is a name used to refer to this site. Think of it as an alias for the site number.
FIGURE 35.3. Primary Site Configuration Information for the Systems Management Server. This requires the Service Account for SMS logon.
SMS is installed on the Windows NT computer as Services. The following Service monitors the SMS database for configuration changes and updates SMS with the completed changes:
SMS_HIERARCHY_MANAGER
This Service is important because it implements configuration changes and installs secondary sites:
SMS_SITE_CONFIG_MANAGER
The following manages a number of SMS processes, which are sometimes referred to as Services. These SMS Services are not managed by the Window NT Service Manager or by Windows NT in any fashion:
SMS_EXECUTIVE
This is the primary service agent responsible for collecting inventory at the Site Server:
SMS_INVENTORY_AGENT_NT
These Services can be viewed from the control panel and can be configured or even stopped and started as desired.
Generally, a client computer is added to a site through inventory collection. This is done in four steps. First, the administrator puts the information about the client to be installed in a package. This package is then put on the distribution server.
As the client logs on, the SMS client is installed on its machine and the inventory is collected and passed to the logon on servers. This is then processed into the database, and the administrator can query the database for further review. The SMS clients
use an SMS.INI file to configure themselves. This file is installed on all clients during the client software installation program.
SMS is designed to report events and logs back to the administrator. This reporting is done to both the SMS database as well as to Windows NT logs. When an application is reporting a significant event or an error, it gets written in two places:
The majority of the time, SMS Setup failure is due to SQL Server, disk, or security problems. During installation, while SMSSETUP is running, events are written in c:\SMSMSETUP.LOG. This can be viewed to find out where the failure occurred during SMS
Setup.
This section describes a basic process of secondary site installation. Briefly, the secondary sites do not have or maintain their own SQL Server database. The secondary sites also use the SMS Administrator program to install secondary sites instead of
the Setup program on the SMS CD. These are also the primary differences between the primary site and the secondary site.
The basic steps are as follows:
Because the secondary sites have no database, they must report their inventory collections and other services backups to the primary site, also known as their parent site, which does have a database.
FIGURE 35.4. Secondary Site installation screen requiring information for installation of the secondary site.
As shown in the figure, the Secondary Site dialog box requires specific information about the new site. The following are required:
You just learned how to install secondary sites. You have yet to explore how it is actually done through the two sites. The concepts of the process are described in this section. Use Figure 35.5 as a guide.
FIGURE 35.5. Steps outlining the installation of the secondary sites..
Let's trace through the above steps to better understand the process.
Step 1. In this step, you complete the New Secondary dialog box, which updates the SQL Database in the primary site of the SMS system.
Step 2. The SMS Hierarchy Manager (a Service) checks on the SQL database and finds a new site configuration. In this step, the Hierarchy Manager updates the site’s information so that it can communicate with the secondary site. All this
takes place on the primary site.
Step 3. Part of this step is performed on the primary site and is referred to as Phase 1. In this, the Hierarchy Manager in the primary site creates a job to create the SMS installation directory (also specified in the New Site dialog box) and
starts the BOOTSTRAP Program in the secondary site. This eventually enables the sites to communicate.
Step 4. Now that the BOOTSTRAP is installed so that the communication is established, you have most of your job done. Once the BOOTSTRAP program is installed, the Hierarchy Manager creates the SMS site package containing the files necessary to
install the secondary site. The site package is created using the information in the SYSTEM.MAP file.
Step 5. This and the next step are usually done together at the primary site by the Hierarchy Manager. In this step, the Hierarchy Manager creates a second job to send and install the site package. This is labeled Site Install Job. This process
is Phase 2 of the entire process.
Step 6. This step follows step 5 very quickly. Here, the Hierarchy Manager creates a third job to send the secondary configuration file. The job is labeled Site Control Job. The configuration file is created by SMS with the name of _INIT.CT1.
This is called Phase 3 of the secondary site installation process.
Step 7. In this step, most of the work is done by the BOOTSTRAP program in the secondary site. The BOOTSTRAP program receives the configuration file, verifies the packages, decompresses the packages, and creates the SMS directories as specified
in the dialog box (as that same information was put in to the package in step 4). Finally, the BOOTSTRAP program starts the site configuration manager before stopping itself. The work for the BOOTSTRAP program is now over.
Step 8. The Configure Manager uses the _INIT.ct1 configuration file to complete the installation and start the SMS Services on the new site. A new file is created with the extension of CT2, which is returned to the primary site for confirmation.
Step 9. At the primary site, the SMS Hierarchy Manager receives the CT2 file and sees it as a confirmation of this entire process. Thus, it now knows that the information that was updated in the SQL database through the New Site dialog box has
been processed correctly. It reads the information of the CT2 file and updates the SQL database on the primary site permanently (until another change is requested).
The same procedure is followed if a change is requested in the SQL database regarding its own primary site or the newly installed secondary site. For example, after installation, if any change in the configuration of the secondary site needs to be done, it will go through the same process. The administrator will make the desired request in the SQL database, which then follows the nine steps until the CT2 file is received back at the primary site. Then it makes the requested change in the SQL database permanent.
The initial installation verifies that the server to be used as the site server is a Windows NT primary or backup Domain Controller. It is important to synchronize the time on all the servers and the clients to ensure that the times set by the SMS are
identical on all computers.
When you install the secondary site, the information is stored in SMS’s SQL database. The Hierarchy Manager reads this information and crates a package and a job to send and install the BOOTSTRAP program. When the BOOTSTRAP program is running, the
Hierarchy Manager then creates another job to send the site files and the job control file CT1 to the secondary site. The secondary site server BOOTSTRAP program receives the package, verifies it, decompresses it, and installs the Site Server Manager to
complete the installation. Upon completion, the Site Configuration Manager creates a site control file CT2 that the primary site Hierarchy Manager uses to update the Systems Management Server's SQL database.
The Automatically Detect Logon Server option in the New Site dialog box, when checked, causes the SMS site to include all the servers detected as logon servers. If unchecked, it includes only the site server as the logon server.
