Share via


Upgrade Questions

The first flowchart, shown in Figure 1.2, lists questions to ask that help you determine whether you need to upgrade an existing installation of SMS, and what kind of installation is appropriate.

Note

  • All down arrows in each flowchart represent a positive response to a question box. All right arrows represent a negative response to a question box.

Figure 1.2 Upgrade questions flowchart

ops_001_002c

Do you have an existing SMS deployment?

The first question to consider as you plan your SMS 2003 deployment is whether you have an existing SMS deployment in your organization. If you do not have an existing SMS installation, then you are deploying SMS 2003 as a new installation. In this case, see the "Active Directory Questions" section later in this chapter.

You can also choose to remove your existing SMS installation altogether. In this case, remove SMS first, and then see the "Active Directory Questions" section later in this chapter. See the documentation for your previous version of SMS for details about how to remove SMS.

If you choose to remove SMS and your SMS hierarchy consists of several SMS sites, you must remove SMS from every site. It is recommended that you begin with the lowest level sites in the hierarchy first, ending with the central site. At a minimum, you need to have performed the following steps:

  • Remove the SMS site from the existing hierarchy.

  • Remove all clients that are assigned to the SMS site.

  • Remove all client software from client computers.

  • Remove all SMS site system roles from servers.

  • Remove SMS site server software by running SMS Setup.

  • Remove all SMS-specific registry keys from the SMS site server. For more information, see article 217044 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at https://support.microsoft.com.

  • Remove all SMS-specific accounts from the local SMS site server and from the site's Windows domain unless you want to reuse those accounts for the new SMS 2003 site.

One way that you can remove all clients assigned to a site in addition to all client software from client computers is to remove all site boundaries, and then wait one day (23 hours) for the clients to initiate the uninstall process.

Note

  • You must account for clients that are offline when you remove the site boundaries. These will not begin the uninstall process until they are online again.

If you have an existing installation of SMS, and you plan to migrate SMS clients from the existing installation to SMS 2003, you must familiarize yourself with the relevant interoperability considerations related to SMS 2.0 and SMS 2003 sites, and with planning issues relating to an upgrade from SMS 2.0 to SMS 2003.

Resources 2

Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Concepts, Planning, and Deployment Guide

For a detailed discussion of interoperability issues with SMS 2.0:

Chapter 6

Interoperability of SMS 2.0 Features with SMS 2003 Features

For a detailed discussion of general planning issues related to upgrading from SMS 2.0:

Chapter 11

Entire chapter recommended

Are you upgrading your existing infrastructure?

This question has two considerations. You must consider whether to use the existing SMS site infrastructure or whether you intend to modify the number and assignment of site system roles. Site system roles include client access point (CAP), distribution point, management point, server locator point, reporting point, and site server.

You also need to decide whether you want to use your existing server hardware to support SMS 2003, or whether you want to use new hardware. If you choose to use the existing hardware, you are performing an in-place upgrade.

If your existing SMS hierarchy consists of many SMS sites, consider whether you should consolidate those sites. It might be appropriate to develop a new design for your SMS hierarchy. You might also consider upgrading your existing hardware or using new hardware to support your SMS servers. If you plan to use new hardware, consolidate your existing site, or design a new site hierarchy as part of your upgrade strategy, you might be performing an in-place upgrade or a side-by side upgrade.

Resources 3

Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Concepts, Planning, and Deployment Guide

For detailed information about how to design your site and plan your hardware choices:

Chapter 7

Entire chapter recommended

Chapter 8

Entire chapter recommended

Chapter 9

Entire chapter recommended

Chapter 11

Entire chapter recommended

For More Information

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