Installing SMS Client Software

Installation of the SMS client software is the process of installing the core SMS client components on computers to allow communication with other systems in the SMS site. You must install core SMS client components so that SMS can manage those computers and so that SMS can later use client agents to support SMS primary features such as software distribution and inventory.

On Advanced Clients, the client software installation phase includes installation of both the core SMS client components and the SMS client agents. On Legacy Clients, installation of client agents is a separate process, which occurs after the installation of the core SMS client components.

The Advanced Client is installed from a Windows Installer package. This allows the Advanced Client installation program to use the installation properties that are supported by Windows Installer. For example, the SMS 2003 client installation can be completely reversed if the installation fails before it is completed. This ensures that the computer is left in a safe state even if the client installation fails. When installing Advanced Clients, you also have several options for specifying the configuration details for each client. For example, you can specify that the Advanced Client is installed only on laptops, the site to which the Advanced Client should be assigned, or that the Advanced Client is installed only on computers with a specified registry value.

Note:

• When installing an Advanced Client on a computer with the Legacy Client software installed, the Advanced Client installation program first uninstalls the Legacy Client from the computer. If the Advanced Client installation later fails, the Legacy Client cannot be reinstalled when the computer is reversed to its preinstallation state.

Typically, there are many computers in a site. SMS supports several client installation techniques, which you can use to automatically and efficiently install client components on all computers.

By default, the core SMS client components are installed in the %windir%\MS\SMS directory on Legacy Clients and the %SystemRoot%\System32\CCM directory on Advanced Clients.

The various client software installation techniques are further described in the following sections.

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