SMS 2003 SP2 Administrator Console Updates

  • Article

SMS 2003 SP2 introduces the following changes to the SMS Administrator Console:

  • SMS 2003 SP2 client systems can locate management points and distribution points by Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) rather than by NetBIOS only. On the General tab of the Site System Properties dialog box, you can select Specify a Fully Qualified Domain Name to configure the site server name to be published to Active Directory.

  • In the Sender Properties dialog box, instead of the previously required 15-character NetBIOS computer name, you can now enter an FQDN value for site server name.

  • The Active Directory Security Group Discovery method has been added under Discovery Methods in the SMS Administrator console. This method offers the following advantages:

    • You can discover groups from Active Directory without having to use either the Active Directory User Discovery method or the Active Directory System Group Discovery method.

    • Collection objects are the group names and not the individual members, which lets you to target a group without having to update the group membership for individual users or computers.

    • The new All Active Directory Security Groups collection and the new All Active Directory Security Groups query have been added to display the groups discovered by the Active Directory Security Group Discovery method. The results can also be found in a new log file, Adsgdis.log.

    • This method can be configured to discover any groups that are nested.

  • The Software Updates node now allows the creation of folders for easier management and grouping of software updates, and you can move existing items into the new folders.

  • The SMS Advanced Client Upgrade package definition file now includes three programs: one each for IA64, x64, and x86. Supported platforms for software distribution now include the following:

    • All IA64 Windows Server 2003 and IA64 Windows Server 2003 SP1

    • All x64 Windows Server 2003, x64 Windows Server 2003 SP1, and x64 Windows Server 2003 R2

    • All x64 Windows XP Professional and x64 Windows XP Professional SP1

    • x64 Windows Server 2003 R2 original release (SP1)

    • x86 Windows Server 2003 R2 original release (SP1)

  • Refreshes and updates of the SMS Administrator Console occur much faster than in previous versions.

  • The Network Trace tool has been removed from the SMS Administrator Console.