SMS 1.2

Few Windows NT-related tools are as useful as Systems Management Server (SMS), Microsoft's solution for administrating networked PCs. SMS has made its name by addressing day-to-day computing problems, including inventory management, software distribution, network monitoring, and Help Desk remote control. Before I jump in and explain what SMS is, let me say what SMS isn't. SMS is not a network manager, but it can intercept Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps, and it works with third-party network management software such as HP's OpenView (for an overview of OpenView, see the sidebar, "What is HP OpenView?"). SMS is also not a fault manager, but it can aid products such as Computer Associates (CA) Unicenter TNG in this task (for information about Unicenter TNG, see Joel Sloss, " Unicenter TNG.")

According to Michael Emanuel, SMS product manager at Microsoft, "SMS is happy to manage the desktop and does a very good job of it." I decided to examine that assertion by testing SMS on two tasks (software distribution and remote control of the desktop) that are an absolute must for successfully managing the desktop.

Software Distribution
For network administrators, nothing ties stomachs in knots and sends coffee bills into triple digits quite like the impending rollout of a new software suite. We've all uttered such words as, "If I could just automate this procedure to distribute the software one time and let the users install it." This need to simplify often leads us to try various means of software distribution such as email attachments, network install points, diskettes, and even CD-ROMs. In the end, we usually pick a competent person in the targeted department, buy that person lunch, promise a faster computer on the desktop, and beg that person to go from computer to computer supervising the software installation. Sometimes this approach works, but usually it doesn't. You and your staff have to go and correct user problems, which is not an efficient use of your time. To address the need for streamlining such tasks, SMS promises unattended software distribution--even if your users don't log on to their computers regularly.

Installing SMS
Desktop management is not a trivial process--and neither is installing SMS. Before you begin, make sure you have a good understanding of NT's replication service and security (specifically User Manager for Domains and Server Manager administrative tools). In addition to requiring you to learn these tools, SMS throws a few more at you, such as SMS Trace (for monitoring SMS's actions), setgug (for configuring SMS), and sendcode (for sending codes to the SMS service).

You also need a pretty husky machine. The ideal configuration is to install SMS and SQL Server on a Backup Domain Controller (BDC). SMS needs to access user account information, and Microsoft recommends this configuration to eliminate some of the network overhead. I used an HP NetServer LX Pro 4x 200MHz Pentium Pro with 512MB of RAM and a 2GB hard disk running NT Server 4.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2). I had plenty of memory and computing power, but to my surprise, I ran out of hard disk space.

Before you install SMS, you must install SQL Server (SMS stores its information in SQL Server tables). I took the easy approach when I installed SQL Server and accepted all the default prompts.

You will want to give your SMS installation serious thought. You need to provide a site code (a three-character unique identifier) and specify whether you have more than one domain (who doesn't?). You also need to decide whether to manage your domains as one SMS site or as several individual sites. The SMS manual does a good job of explaining the differences among site configurations, but not the complexity involved. I chose to manage two domains as one SMS site. I installed SMS on the Windows NT Magazine Lab's NTLABS domain and set up 10 clients running NT Workstation on the Lab's CLIENT domain. Between both domains, I was managing about 25 clients, with a mix of fictitious users and some potential problem users (the Windows NT Magazine Lab staff).

After I installed SMS, I made sure all the SMS services were running and waited for my domains to show up on the SMS Administrator screen, as shown in Screen 1. Several minutes passed and nothing appeared. I fired up the SMS Trace utility and watched as line after line of user names went scrolling by while SMS seemingly went through my entire user list. I didn't think too much about SMS's approach until I noticed SMS was listing users on other domains outside the two domains I specified for use with SMS. SMS adds only the clients and logon servers on the domains that you specify, but it will snoop around every domain it can find. I tried to turn this feature off, but with no luck. You can use the setgug.exe file to change how often SMS enumerates clients, but you can't limit SMS's discovery to only certain domains. After about 90 minutes, SMS discovered approximately 200 machines and several domains across several routers.

For SMS to work, you need to install client software on each workstation in the SMS site. You can install this software manually, or you can configure SMS to automatically install the software on the clients as they log on. I chose the latter option because I didn't like the idea of having to hoof it to each machine.