Understanding SMS Features

  • Article

This chapter describes how the primary features of Microsoft® Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 work and how you can use each of those features to benefit your organization. After explaining each feature individually, this chapter describes how features are integrated to perform common tasks in an organization.

This chapter introduces several primary features of SMS, such as software and hardware inventory. It also includes features that help monitor the activity of SMS and maintain healthy SMS sites, such as backup and recovery.

The implementation of some features on the Advanced Client is different than on the Legacy Client, specifically taking advantage of the Advanced Client architecture. This chapter describes those differences for each primary feature.

In This Chapter

  • Collections and Queries

  • Hardware and Software Inventory

  • Software Distribution

  • Software Update Management

  • Software Metering

  • Remote Tools

  • Reporting

  • Product Compliance

  • Status System

  • Backup and Recovery

  • Network Monitoring Tools

  • Integrating Features

This chapter assumes that you are familiar with SMS hierarchies, site systems, and SMS clients. For information about SMS hierarchies and site systems, see Chapter 2, "Understanding SMS Sites." For information about SMS clients, see Chapter 4, "Understanding SMS Clients," and Chapter 17, "Discovering Resources and Deploying Clients."

For more information about the features introduced in this chapter, see the respective chapters in the Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Operations Guide.

For More Information

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