Chapter 1 - Introducing Systems Management Server
Installing and maintaining software is a major cost to corporations with locations across a wide geographical area. In fact, most of the cost of maintaining a corporate computer system comes from the software installation, support, and maintenance—not from the initial licensing of the software itself.
If your corporation already has a distributed network in place, it makes sense to take advantage of its wide-area connectivity for managing software for the entire corporation. But before software can be installed over the network, you must know where it's going. Before software can be maintained, you must know where it is.
To manage computers effectively, you need to know what computers are on the network, and you need to know information about the computers so that you can install or maintain your software correctly. You need to know what hardware they have, what software is already installed, and how the computers are configured. You need an inventory.
If you have many computers, you also need a logical way to group them so that you can recognize them more easily—by location or configuration, for example. You need a structured way to look at the entire corporate network.
Microsoft® Systems Management Server is an easy-to-use system that is part of the Microsoft BackOffice® family of business products. Systems Management Server provides the following benefits:
| • | It lets you maintain an inventory of the hardware, software, and configuration of computers across your corporate network. |
| • | It lets you distribute, install, and update software and files to your servers and clients. |
| • | It lets you manage applications run over the network from servers. |
| • | It provides integrated support utilities that enable you to view diagnostic information for remote clients and take direct control of clients. |
| • | It provides an integrated network monitoring utility that lets you capture and analyze network data. |
| • | It provides integration between Systems Management Server events, the Microsoft Windows NT® operating system–based events, and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps. |
| • | It helps you manage remote Web sites and lets you use the Internet as a communications link between Systems Management Server sites and as a new avenue for publishing systems management information. |
All these tasks can be done centrally with the Systems Management Server Administrator at a Windows NT-based computer. The Systems Management Server system maintains a database containing system information and inventory, carries out distribution and installation jobs, monitors the progress of these jobs, and alerts you to important system events.
Systems Management Server enables you to centrally manage your entire organization. Using Systems Management Server, you can distribute and install software on clients and servers across your corporate network, set up Systems Management Server network applications, automatically collect and maintain hardware and software inventory, provide direct support to clients, and monitor your network.
Getting to know Systems Management Server
Systems Management Server provides a number of tools for administrators and for users of the Systems Management Server system. The administrative tools let you manage the system and perform administrative tasks such as distributing software or collecting and viewing inventory. The client programs let users perform the Systems Management Server tasks that you have requested of them. For example, they can install software, provide customized inventory information, and so on.
For more information about Systems Management Server basics, see Chapter 2, "Getting to Know Systems Management Server."
Managing sites
Systems Management Server lets you organize your existing organizational structure into logical groupings of computers and domains called sites. Sites can be arranged into a hierarchy to reflect the management of your corporate network. From the topmost site, you can centrally administer your entire network. Sites can be arranged so that sites without administrators can be managed by sites with administrators. You can add more sites, domains, and computers as your company grows and your needs change.
For more information about sites and domains, see Chapter 3, "Understanding Sites." For information about creating and maintaining sites, see Chapter 4, "Managing Sites."
Managing inventory
Systems Management Server can collect and maintain hardware and software inventory for your entire organization. Inventory is collected at each site and forwarded to the site above it in the site hierarchy. The database at the topmost site contains inventory information for the entire system. From this site, you can use the Systems Management Server Administrator to view the inventory for any computer at any site in your Systems Management Server system.
You can run queries against the inventory information in the database to learn more about the computers on your network. For instance, you can run queries to determine which computers have a specific processor type, operating system, or software package installed.
For more information about managing inventory, see Chapter 5, "Managing Inventory."
Managing software
Systems Management Server lets you distribute and install software on clients and servers. Using the Systems Management Server Administrator, you can:
| • | Send software from your site to other sites. |
| • | Place software on selected distribution servers. |
| • | Install software on clients and servers. |
| • | Configure software on servers to be used by Systems Management Server clients. |
When you send software to other sites, Systems Management Server compresses the software and runs special services that guarantee the successful transfer of the software. You can also schedule times for sending software to minimize the impact on your system.
When you distribute software to a site, the software is distributed to designated servers at the site called distribution servers. From these distribution servers, users can access and install the software on their clients. Or you can set up an Systems Management Server network application for shared use by groups of users. When you set up an Systems Management Server network application, you distribute software to distribution servers and specify which groups of users have access to the Systems Management Server network application. The program item for the Systems Management Server network application is automatically set up on the users' computers. When users choose the application, the Systems Management Server network application is run from one of the distribution servers.
For more information about managing software, see Chapter 6, "Managing Software."
Troubleshooting
Systems Management Server provides several features for monitoring and reporting the status of your system, and several troubleshooting utilities to diagnose and solve problems.
Alerts
You can create alerts to detect specific conditions in your system and to specify the actions that should take place when the alert occurs.
Events
Systems Management Server automatically monitors Systems Management Server system information, errors, and warnings, and logs them into both the database and the Windows NT event log. You can also define alerts to generate events.
SNMP Traps
Systems Management Server can translate Windows NT events into SNMP traps, and can receive SNMP traps in the Systems Management Server Administrator.
Remote troubleshooting utilities
Systems Management Server provides the Help Desk and Diagnostics utilities, which let you directly control and monitor remote computers. The Diagnostics utilities let you view the computer's current configuration. The Help Desk utilities provide direct access to the computer.
Network Monitor
Systems Management Server provides a powerful diagnostic component that lets you identify and analyze problems on your network.
For more information about the diagnostic and troubleshooting tools offered in Systems Management Server, see Chapter 7, "Troubleshooting."
