Re: OT Microsoft System Management Server

["Paul Gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

A few other things which might be useful to know in an interview:

There are different "types" of SMS servers in an SMS enterprise,
I don't
think I know them all, but for example, there are SMS Site servers, and
there are distribution servers, and so on. Not *all* types of SMS server
require SQL to be installed on them locally.

There are hierarchical relationships set up between various types of SMS
server, so that you can for instance set up an SMS server in a branch
office
that may be at the end of a slow WAN link, - the workstations at that
branch
report all their asset information to that local server, which can then
upload it to a central server overnight... There can be multiple layers in
this kind of arrangement, with each SMS server uploading to the next level
up the tree... Thus you can design SMS topologies that are optimised for
any
given LAN/WAN topology...

All of the clients need an SMS agent component installed on them in order
to
participate, which is typicaly loaded from the logon script, so there's no
way for a "naughty" user to avoid having it loaded and thus get
round the
policies the network Nazi^H^H^H^H administrator imposes....

SMS 2.0 *IS* a component part of MS Backoffice Server 2000....

Oh, and also, SMS includes some network management features as well, - it
contains the full version of the packet sniffer that is included with
certain versions of windows. - the freebie Windows versions only allow
viewing/capture of packets to/from the host machine, whereas the SMS
version
is a proper "promsicuous" one that can view/capture all packets
on the
wire...

HTH.

Paul G.


>
>Stuart,
>
>I'm *NO* expert on SMS, but I can tell you the following:
>
>It is an enterprise system management product encompassing areas such
as:
>
>Asset management
>Software metering
>Remote control
>Software distribution
>
>With it, you can create hierarchichal views of an enterprise network,
and
>view the properties of all the windows PC's connected to that network.
You
>can view detailed hardware inventories for those PC's, and also
detailed
>software inventories, This includes servers as well as workstations.
You
>can
>distribute software packages for automatic installation on any of those
>machines. Once all this info is gathered into the SMS database (which
uses
>SQL server as the back end), you can the set up any number of reports
and
>queries, so you can get answers to questions like: "What PC's on
my network
>meet the hardware requirements for an upgrade to Windows XP?" Once
that
>report has been created, the machines which match can then be grouped
into
>a
>seperate view, and the XP upgrade could be installed on them
automatically.
>Conversely, you could ask "what PC's don't meet the hardware
requirements,
>and in each case, what hardware is lacking" - thus producing a
"things to
>buy" list to upgrade all the remaining PC's. You can also use it
to control
>software useage on your network - for example only allowing
"quake.exe" to
>run at certain times of the day...
>
>This is a *VERY* simplistic view of what I understand the product to
be,
>but
>like I said, it's not my forte...
>
>HTH.
>
>Paul G.
>
>
>
> >From: "Stuart Whyte" <lists@xxxxxxx>
> >Reply-To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> >To: "UKHA" <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
> >Subject: [ukha_d] OT Microsoft System Management Server
> >Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2002 19:43:06 -0000
> >
> >Gents
> >
> >I have an interview for a job next week (FINALLY!) which I have
all the
> >necessary skills/experience for, except one thing:  Microsoft
System
> >Management Server.  Could any one give me a brief overview of what
it is,
> >what it does, and if its one of the BackOffice programs that you
set up
>and
> >pretty much leave it to itself, or do I really need to know it
well
>enough
> >not to be able to blag it with books.
> >
> >Thanks in advance
> >
> >Stuart
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>Paul G.
>
>
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
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>




Paul G.




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