Services that Manage Your Network Resources
PART 2
Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) is a big topic. I discussed its basics and talked about strategies and implementation principles that you could use with it in Part 1 in the October issue of Windows NT Magazine. Now, let's talk about the capabilities of SMS, how you can use it, and what you can expect if you implement it for your enterprise.
Registration
The ability to register hardware across your network may be justification enough for purchasing SMS. With it, the administrator can automatically inventory hardware and operating system software (see Screen 1) based on each user's preferred configuration and collect it automatically, at regular time intervals, or at logon. SMS can locate and collect information on the specific hardware drivers located on a particular workstation by creating a query, packaging it, and scheduling it. SMS supports these types of inventory registration on MS-DOS, Windows and Windows for Workgroups (WFW), Windows NT, OS/2, and Macintosh clients.
You can also inventory or audit software across the network, but it's not nearly so automatic. The administrator must use queries and packages to collect specific data about software installed on client machines. Although software-tracking tools are available within SMS, you should consider how appropriate it is to use them. Administrators should gather only the information they need and not fill their databases with unnecessary client-software tracking data. The mechanism and tools for collecting this information for every program on every workstation are available, but the optimal implementation only inquires about needed data.
Distribution
Another key feature of SMS is its ability to distribute updates to drivers or fixes to applications; this capability makes distributed workstation management a reality. One of SMS's key advantages over other software installation products is its querying ability (see Screen 2). For example, you can "test" an operating-system version level to determine whether a particular fix has been applied to a client machine before distributing a fix for a defective executable. (You should run individual queries manually before packaging them; you can also concatenate complicated query "test" procedures for software distribution.)
You can use this feature to distribute full software installations, as well as updates and patches (see Screen 3). SMS enables you to install software using packages (wrappers bundled around a normal setup or install procedure), which can be located in a source directory anywhere on the network. An install procedure could copy files to a user's hard drive, run local setup programs, create shared network installations, and add program items and groups to the Program Manager. SMS also enables you to use a batch file for these purposes, and it has lots of scheduling options--defined when the job is created--for delivering software packages. For example, a package could be scheduled for either optional or mandatory delivery to workstations at night or at some other convenient time.
If you use the distribution feature, you're likely to find the Program Definition Files (PDFs) very useful (see Screen 4). PDFs are templates, similar to the INF files of Windows applications, that help you create custom packages to install software quickly. You can edit these files, if you wish, to customize them further. The documentation for the distribution feature includes information on all but one of these mechanisms: The generation of batch files to customize and automate software installation is barely mentioned.
Help Desk Support and Remote Control
SMS can help hardware technicians to troubleshoot hardware conflicts. It enables you to take a hardware inventory, catalog hardware driver versions, and perform tasks via remote control. Taking control of the user's keyboard, mouse, and monitor over the network can dramatically decrease the time and cost required to determine the cause of hardware problems; it can also reduce the amount of user downtime. The real-time memory-allocation maps for DOS and Windows applications are especially useful. And you can access information on hooked interrupt vectors and more.
SMS's remote-control features can provide the core of your Help desk support (see Screen 5). In addition to gathering historical hardware and software information, you can test real-time workstation object allocation to levels as deep as Windows memory usage via hooked interrupt vectors. You can take control of the user's desktop over the network and, for example, walk that user through the process of using a new Excel macro to help generate a monthly report. All the while, the user is watching the process, perhaps listening over the phone. Help desk calls can be resolved more quickly if you can reproduce the users' problems right in front of them on their own PCs.
Network Analysis
Probably the most significant and under-marketed feature of SMS is its Network Analyzer (see Screen 6). This protocol analyzer is as full-featured as any you've ever used. And it's integrated with the NT Performance Monitor, providing an easy-to-use tool that can quickly track down network problems without additional hardware. SMS is not a physical network-management product, but it does contain that type of functionality.
Large companies have the means to perform traditional network-management tasks from a central site to the ends of their WAN circuits. Smaller companies often do not. However, if you already have a network that has protocol analyzers or if you work with a communications group that does, I'd recommend that you use the SMS Network Analyzer as well. Its ease of use, integration with NT, and distributed software may provide benefits, even over more traditional network-analysis tools.