Troubleshooting Tools

  • Article

Published : June 8, 2005

The SMS 2003 Toolkit 2, available from the Microsoft Web site at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=25444, contains downloadable tools to help you deploy and troubleshoot SMS 2003. The following tools in SMS 2003 Toolkit 2 are especially useful when you troubleshoot management points.

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SMS Trace
Management Point Troubleshooter
Management Point Spy

SMS Trace

SMS Trace allows you to view and monitor all SMS log files, including log files in SMS or CCM format and plain ASCII or Unicode text files, such as Windows Installer logs. The tool also simplifies reading and helps you analyze log files by highlighting, filtering, and performing error lookups.

Management Point Troubleshooter

The Management Point Troubleshooter is a tool that checks a computer system before and after a management point installation to help ensure that the installation meets the requirements for management points. The tool indicates whether numerous management point dependencies, which are not obvious during installation, are met. The tool runs a number of tests to help ensure that the management point will run. You can use the tool to run numerous tests after a management point is installed to help ensure that the management point is operational.

The results of the tests are straightforward, indicating any action you must take to help ensure that the management point functions properly. For example, assume that you have recently upgraded from Windows 2000 Server to Windows Server 2003 on the computer where the management point is installed and that, subsequently, your Advanced Clients do not operate properly. In this case, the Default Web site is stopped by default and the management point is not functional. Running the tool would indicate that the Default Web site is disabled.

Management Point Spy

Management Point Spy verifies that a management point is functional and is returning policies. The tool connects with the SMS site database, retrieves all policies, and then displays them with policy versions. The tool also sends HTTP requests to the management point to view the policy. The management point can also be queried for the management point certificate.