ICP Design

At a minimum, your ICP deployment design might include preparatory tasks such as:

• Analyzing the ICP to understand the changes it introduces and any required prerequisites. For more information about analyzing the ICP, see the "ICP Requirements" section later in this chapter.

• Analyzing your environment to determine if the deployment will create problems for your users.

• Scheduling the project, including when each site is upgraded and the roles and responsibilities of staff members who assist you.

• Communicating relevant details about the ICP deployment to all interested parties, such as users of SMS services, management, other SMS administrators, and technical staff.

• Preparing to monitor the deployment to ensure that it is successful. For more information about preparing to monitor the deployment, see the "Planning to Monitor" section later in this chapter.

• Preparing the sites, as described in the "Preparing SMS Sites" section later in this chapter.

You will repeat most of these tasks in each of the project phases, including design, testing, and deployment.

On This Page

ICP Requirements
Site Server ICP Installation Phases
Planning to Monitor
Using SMS Version and Upgrade Information
Preparing SMS Sites

ICP Requirements

ICPs include release notes that must be carefully reviewed because they describe prerequisites for the ICP, and they address known problems that the ICP does not solve. When you read the release notes, consider your answers to the following questions:

• Are there any prerequisites that must be implemented before you apply this ICP? Generally, the only prerequisite for an ICP site server installation is that is must be installed on an English-language operating system. However, other requirements might be listed.

• Does this ICP change SMS enough so that you must notify other people who are affected by this change? The people who need notification might include other SMS administrators, managers, technical staff, people responsible for the files and security of the domain controllers, people who monitor bandwidth usage, people who use the SMS services, and the end users.

• Does deploying this ICP cause additional load on the network, servers, or clients? If so, then planning the deployment of the service pack can minimize this effect.

• Is your environment large enough or complex enough to warrant treating the deployment of this ICP as a formal project?

• Do you have problems with clients that might prevent a successful upgrade? If so, you must resolve these issues before upgrading your clients.

• How large are the client upgrade components? To determine the size of your upgrade, see the "Determine the size of client component upgrades" section later in this chapter.

Checking versions

ICPs are released in numbered versions including ICP1 and ICP2. Each version supports a greater number of client operating system languages, including the operating system languages of the earlier version.

When you install an ICP on a U.S. English site, the ICP version must be compatible with a previously installed SMS service pack version. For example, you must use the SMS SP1 version of ICP2 if U.S. English SMS SP1 is installed on the site server. You cannot install the SP2 version of the ICP on a U.S. English SP1 site.

After an ICP is installed, you must be aware of the timing of subsequent ICP releases. ICPs are released shortly after each service pack. When a new service pack is released you must wait for the subsequent ICP release before installing the service pack. After you have obtained the ICP, install the service pack, and then install the ICP. This ensures that Clicore.exe, SMSman.exe, and the other ICP files are placed on CAPs as quickly as possible. Consider disabling any new client installation processes until CAPs are fully updated. This also prevents Legacy Clients from downloading Clicore.exe and SMSman.exe twice - once for the service pack, and again for the ICP.

If you are concerned about the stability of the site after you install the service pack, you can wait for the service pack installation to stabilize before you install the ICP. However, when you later install the localized Legacy Client files on your CAPs, your network will be affected again. Additionally, your international clients will have an older version of the localized client files until the ICP is installed.

Applying updates

To apply client hotfixes, also called product updates, to an ICP site, you must obtain a hotfixed version of the ICP you have installed. You can identify service pack, ICP, and hotfix numbers from the version number. These minor releases and revisions are the last four digits of the Systems Management Server version number.

You can determine whether an ICP is installed by checking for multiple language folders, such as the 00000409 folder for English and the 00000407 folder for German on the site server. There is a folder for each client language supported by that ICP. The language folders reside in the \SMS\BIN\I386\<language_id> folders on the Legacy Client.

The first digit of the fourth part of the version number, such as x in x000, is the service pack release number. For example, 2.50.2485.2000 denotes SP2. If the SMS version number is 2.50.2485.3000 or higher, then the service pack is SP3.

Additionally, ICP1 has a 4 as the third-to-last digit. For example, 2.50.2485.2400 indicates SP2 ICP1, and 2.50.2485.3400 indicates SP3 ICP1. Likewise, ICP2 has a 7 as the third-to-last digit. For example, 2.50.2485.3700 indicates SP3 ICP2.

The last three digits are the hotfix version number, which can range from .0001 to .0299.

If you apply SMS SP2 ICP1 to an SMS SP2 U.S. English site that has had several hotfixes installed after SP2 was installed, and files with the same name are included in ICP1, then ICP1 overwrites the newer files because the files in ICP1 do not contain the bug fixes. If the ICP overwrites new files, whatever problems caused you to apply the hotfixes might reappear. For example, you might have previously applied a hotfix to prevent SMSAPM32 from using the CPU at 100 percent. Later you apply ICP1, which does not contain the hotfix. After ICP1 installation, your site server CPU usage is back to 100 percent. To prevent this from occurring, contact Microsoft Product Support Services and obtain the version of the hotfix that correctly matches the ICP you intend to install before ICP installation. Then, after you install the ICP, immediately install the hotfixes that were released later than the ICP.

Caution

• Ensure that you install an ICP and ICP hotfixes that correspond to a previously applied SMS service pack and post service pack hotfixes.

Because ICPs are cumulative and are released as they become available, you might need to plan the deployment of language-specific versions of SMS server and client software when the ICP you need becomes available. ICPs have their own setup program and can be installed sequentially onto a site server without any change to the existing clients. All new clients can install in any of the languages from the most recently installed ICP.

Consider the size of the ICPs in relation to the available bandwidth of your network. Later versions of ICPs are larger because each consecutive version contains the languages of the previous versions. Plan the deployment of any language client pack for light network usage periods to minimize degradation of network performance for your users.

Microsoft often releases service packs and client packs on the Web, so that the latest updates can be made available to customers as quickly as possible. The ICPs released by Microsoft contain the current service pack files, in addition to the ICP files, to reduce the number of required installations. These releases are available at https://www.microsoft.com/smserver/default.asp.

Site Server ICP Installation Phases

Installation of SMS ICP occurs in three phases:

Installing an ICP on the site server Installing an ICP starts with running the ICP setup program on a site server. When the site server is upgraded with the ICP, it automatically upgrades the client source files.

Installing an ICP on the CAP and management point The client files on the CAPs and management points are automatically upgraded.

Installing an ICP on a client The Legacy Clients upgrade within 25 hours of the time the CAPs are upgraded, when the Client Configuration Installation Manager (CCIM) on each client runs its maintenance cycle.

Table D.5 Site Component ICP Installation Methods

Primary site server ICP installation

The ICP setup program runs on the site server. It stops all components on the site system, copies the client files to the site server, and then restarts all site components on the site system. You can monitor the progress of the setup program with the progress dialog boxes that appear on the site server screen, in the site component manager log, and in the SMSsetup.log, which is in the root of the system drive.

If you use an advertisement to distribute the ICP setup program, ensure that you monitor the status of the advertisement until the ICP installation is complete.

The ICP does not install if Terminal Services is running in execute mode on the site server. The following error message appears when Terminal Services is running in execute mode on the site server:

"Systems Management Server Setup cannot continue because of the following error: Setup has detected that Windows Terminal Server is running on this computer and the current user session is in the execute mode. You must set the current user session to the install mode in order to run SMS Setup."

For Setup to proceed in this case, you must change the user mode to install mode at the command prompt by typing change user /install.

Note

• If you currently use ICP2 at an existing SMS 2.0 SP4 site and you want to upgrade the site to SMS 2003, you must upgrade to the U.S. English version of SMS 2003 and then apply SMS 2003 ICP2. You do not need to apply ICP1 before you apply ICP2.

Secondary site server ICP installation

You can upgrade secondary sites by using the Upgrade Secondary Site Wizard. The Upgrade Secondary Site Wizard is used to upgrade multiple sites at the same time. You can initiate the Upgrade Secondary Site Wizard from the SMS Administrator console by selecting the Upgrade Secondary Sites option from the Action menu when a site is selected. The Upgrade Secondary Site Wizard can transfer the necessary files, in an approximately 63-MB package for ICP1, to each site over your WAN. Transferring the files over the WAN can take a long time, depending on the link capacity that is available, so you might want to make the SMS software available at the site on CD.

If you have many sites to upgrade with the ICP, then you might want to consider automating their upgrades. This is described in the "Automating the installation" section later in this chapter.

The CAP upgrade process

All CAPs on the site server are upgraded when you install the ICP. When you install an ICP to a site, it typically takes less than 15 minutes to copy the files to the relevant site directories, restart the services, and copy the updated files to a CAP and logon point over a 100 MB. Table D.6 shows the network traffic required to apply ICPs to a CAP in various scenarios.

Table D.6 Network Traffic Required for CAP Installation

Client ICP installation

The SMS Legacy Client ICP installation process involves installing the base components and the optional components. The base components are upgraded during the first occurrence of the following conditions:

• System startup

• CCIM cycle, which occurs every 25 hours

When the base components are upgraded, Clicore.exe is copied from the site server, runs, and is then recorded in the Ccim32.log and the Clicore.log. The optional components are installed within 60 minutes, and the appropriate files are copied from the CAP.

The base components are contained in Clicore.exe and are installed by CCIM at system startup, or during the next CCIM cycle. All clients, regardless of operating system language version, receive the same version of Clicore.exe. However, when Clicore.exe is run by the CCIM cycle, it detects the language version of the operating system. Then Clicore.exe extracts only the files necessary to support that language into the ms\sms\core\bin folder. All clients install the locally detected installed operating system language plus the U.S. English files. If the local operating system version is not supported by the version of Clicore.exe that has been copied, then the U.S. English files are used. This activity is recorded in the Clicore.log on the client.

During the client base component phase of the upgrade, the effect on the client and the network consist primarily of copying Clicore.exe, and the unpacking process. This occurs when the local operating system language version is detected. Files are then installed on the client. This process can take a little over a minute to run. Table D.7 shows the size of Clicore.exe for each of the ICP versions.

Table D.7 Clicore.exe File Size per ICP Version

When a client starts its upgrade with a new ICP version, you can check the client status by clicking Systems Management in Control Panel. The Components tab of Systems Management indicates that the based components have changed to an install pending state. The versions of the client agents change to a pending state with a status of repair pending.

The base components take several minutes to install. The optional components take up to 60 minutes for full deployment.

Note

• After the ICP is installed on the client, it is normal for optional component versions to differ from the base component versions.

As an example of the network traffic required to deploy the ICP updates to a single client, Table D.8 lists the traffic for different SMS ICPs.

Table D.8 Network Traffic for Client ICP Installation

Client computers running Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 SP6a, Windows 2000, or Windows XP Professional do not need administrative credentials to successfully install the Legacy Client components because the installation process runs in the context of the Client Service account, which has sufficient privileges. Computers running Windows 98 run in the security context of the logged-on user.

When Legacy Clients running localized operating systems run a logon script, the client is automatically installed with localized client files. There is no need to install ICPs on localized clients.

Normally, Advanced Clients are upgraded by using the same methods that are used to install them. However, Client Push Installation does not automatically upgrade existing Advanced Clients.

Planning to Monitor

You must plan to monitor the deployment to ensure that the project is proceeding successfully. Isolate and resolve problems while they are still small. Design and test reporting solutions during the early phases of your project and use them before you start the deployment in a production environment.

Using SMS Version and Upgrade Information

SMS version data is available from several different sources, and you can use it by employing a variety of techniques. You can choose from among the following techniques those that are appropriate to your situation:

• Try to use reporting-based monitoring techniques if you have many computers or sites, or if you want to monitor the deployment closely.

• Collect version numbers as part of hardware inventory collection if you want to enhance your reporting options, or you could check the registry entries they are stored in.

• Check file versions on random computers, if appropriate.

If you develop reports, then create reports that address the following questions:

• Which sites have been upgraded?

• What percentage of site servers has been successfully upgraded?

• What percentage of CAPs has been successfully upgraded?

• What percentage of Legacy Clients has been successfully upgraded?

• Which site servers were not upgraded?

• Which CAPs were not upgraded?

• Which clients were not upgraded?

The classes listed in Table D.9 provide the version data required by these reports. Techniques for producing these reports are described in this section.

To enhance your reporting options, you can collect client component version numbers during hardware inventory collection. For more information, see the "Check the client component versions" section later in this chapter.

To determine the version of a file

1. Find the file by using Windows Explorer.

2. Right-click the file and choose Properties.

3. On the Version tab of the Properties dialog box, read the Product Version property.

For troubleshooting assistance, view the server logs at the sites during your upgrade.

Note

• The ICP setup program records its activities in the SMSSetup.log file. You can find this file at the root of your system drive.

Preparing SMS Sites

Before you deploy an ICP at any site, consider performing a backup. For additional information about backing up your site, see Chapter 15, "Backup and Recovery." Whether you perform a backup at the site or not is determined by:

• The risk that the ICP installation poses to the site. In the early stages of the deployment the risk is higher than in later stages, especially if you do not thoroughly test the ICP deployment.

• The cost involved in restoring a site to a backup, or rebuilding the site, or if the ICP causes irreparable problems. This varies by site and includes the cost of the work itself and of the lack of SMS services. The most costly site to lose is typically your central site, and the least costly site to lose is a small site at the lowest levels of your hierarchy. The cost also relates to your business dependence on SMS at that site.

The only other preparations required for each site are those required by your project plan or those required by the ICP itself.

For More Information

Did you find this information useful? Please send your suggestions and comments about the documentation to smsdocs@microsoft.com.