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Improvements to Existing Features
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Easier Admin access to Disabling/Re-enabling Advertisements and
sending advertisements again. All available in SMS 2.0 (see Operations
guide on Service Pack CD). This is done by clicking advertisement and
selecting All Tasks.
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Estimated time to run and alert user when program runs 15
minutes longer than estimated is now replaced with a single entry for Max time
to run. If execution exceeds the Maximum time SMS 2003 simply stops
monitoring it. It is not terminated and the user sees no
information. SMS will generate a status message, indicating that SMS
stopped monitoring the program, because it exceeded the maximum allowed run
time. Note that the estimated disk size was never enforced by SMS but was
just for informational purposes so the user could see how much space was
required before launching execution.
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Mandatory countdown has been changed to start from the moment the
advertisement was scheduled to run and not preceding it. This means the
user sees no evidence of a scheduled install before it's due.
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Status Message support has been improved for advertisements and
contains new messages to support software distribution on mobile clients.
Features removed from SMS 2.0
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Ability to remove program when no longer advertised has been
withdrawn because nobody understood how to configure it and seldom used it.
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Ability to specify and use a Software Installation account remains
only for the Standard SMS 2003 client. This solved the problem where an
elevated privileges install (using smsCliToknAcct&) required connection
to one or more additional servers and consequently failed as the
smsCliToknAcct& could not make network connections. This is not
available for the Mobile client which uses the Local System (elevated
privileges) or the currently logged on user. Mobile clients can be
configured to use the Mobile Client Network Access account to be able to access
Advertisements and Distribution Points in an environment that does not have
Active Directory domains. This account acts as an alternative to the
machine$ account which would otherwise be unusable for network
connections. By specifying this account for software distribution
installs on mobile clients it also can act to solve the problem of an install
requiring network access to one or more additional servers where the context is
local system.
Features new in SMS 2003
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Active Directory Resource discovery exposes OU, Domain, Site and
security group memberships for computers which can in turn be used for Software
Distribution targeting. Active Directory user discovery similarly exposes
OU, Domain and security group membership. Groups supported are Global,
nested and non-security. System Resource data can be associated with
Inventory data for collection membership rules whereas User resource data
cannot.
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Supported platforms list to include XP (Already available for SMS 2.0
Sp3 Hotfix see Q308271)
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Suppress program notifications checkbox on a per program basis
prevents the appearance of the pop-up message advising a new advertisement is
available and also the countdown.
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Display an SMS advertisement via Control Panel Add/Remove programs
like an intellimirror advertisement. Users cannot tell which type of
advertisement is being presented and will only see the SMS ad when the
scheduled time is reached. Users may also use the Run Advertised Program
wizard as before but may prefer the method they are used to from Win2k.
This must be an msi install. Control Panel Add/remove programs supports
the concept of program categories to make displaying available programs
easier. SMS also can categorize its advertisements for grouped display in
CP.
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Delta file replication allows only the changes to a Software
Distribution source to be transmitted to SMS 2003 child sites instead of the
whole source. This is useful for patches and minor file updates. In
a mixed sms2.0/SMS 2003 hierarchy the SMS 2003 server will send whole source to
sms2.0 sites and delta source to SMS 2003 sites. The default behaviour is
to track up to 5 changes to the source, configurable by direct modification of
the site control file. This means if a SMS 2003 child site is at version
x and the parent is at version x+6, the whole source is re-transmitted.
This process is also used to support self healing of corrupted source delivery
as controlled by the Despooler. Deltas are decided based on file level
not byte level. Deltas also handle removing files from the source.
An instruction is sent to all child sites to remove the surplus file.
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The SMS Installer can output msi files directly without having to
create *.ipf and step up.
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An MSI file can be used instead of a pdf or sms file to automatically
create an SMS Package definition.
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SMS 2003 supports normal msi elevated privileges mechanism (local
system).
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Command lines in SMS 2003 are limited to 127 characters
Mobile Clients
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Policy polling interval defaults to 60mins and can be configured to a
minimum of 5.
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Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) allows clients to do
byte wise checkpoints for downloading software in case communication is
interrupted or deferred. BITS allows bandwidth control to ensure sufficient
bandwidth is available for other processes. BITS allows download and
execute. The size and location of the download and execute cache is set
via control Panel and defaults to WINNT\System 32\CCM\Cache directory, 500
MB. The program is guaranteed to be available from this cache for 24hrs
but afterwards may be deleted to make room for others. If not it may
remain for up to 30 days if being periodically used by the client - say to
install additional features). The Distribution Point must be running
IIS5.x and have been configured to support BITS. [NB BITS is not
available for the Standard Client because of a conscious decision not to change
the client from the SMS 2.0 model]
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Roaming mobile clients will locate their nearest Management Point by
querying Active Directory (per Site). From the MP a client learns of its
nearest DP and whether it is enabled for BITS and whether the software source
is available. The client reads its policies (advertisements included)
from its original assigned site using MSMQ, but obtains its software from a
local DP using BITS). In this way problems associated with slow network
links are avoided. MSMQ is part of the OS and uses TCP/IP and not SMB.
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Advertisements can be configured so that installation decisions based
on how to behave if no local DP is available, can be configured. If the
install is very big, even using BITS, it may be undesirable to run this from a
remote DP. When a local DP is available because the client has roamed to
a new site, then the install proceeds.
Miscellaneous
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No support for customized Pop-up message advising arrival of
advertisements.
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If a user dismisses an advertisement notification it will not be
popped-up again. However the advertisement icon remains in the task bar
at the bottom of the screen
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There are three ways to remote control a client. First using the
traditional SMS Remote Control tool. Second you can start a terminal
Services client session if your admin console is installed on a terminal
services enabled client. Lastly you can use XP remote assistance if your
admin console is on an XP machine.
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A value Pack utility will allow scheduled updates of distribution
points if some are on poor wan links.
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