TIP 4: Delete Unused History Files
When SMS deletes machine records from its database, it does not delete the associated history files in the sms\site.srv\inventry.box\history directory. Because many SMS processes scan all the files in this directory, unused files can slow some SMS services. Unused files also waste disk space. Thus, to improve SMS's performance and increase disk space, you can determine whether the history files in this directory correspond to current inventory records.
SMS updates history files every time it updates an inventory record, so if a file is more than a few months old, SMS probably doesn't use it anymore. You can delete such unused files. Each file in this directory corresponds to a unique machine record and will have that machine's unique SMSID as its name. To be certain that the file is not unused, look for this SMSID in the inventory and, if you don't find it, delete the file. Be sure to stop the SMS services on the Site Server before removing the files.
TIP 5: Adjust Scheduled Inventories
When you set SMS's inventory frequency, you need to consider your hardware and software configurations. In most companies, a machine's hardware configuration is relatively stable. Setting SMS to conduct a hardware inventory every logon will yield few changes and, hence, little benefit. But you can benefit from periodic hardware inventories to account for hardware upgrades or replacements and IP address changes. Periodic hardware inventories can also help you prepare monthly reports. Having SMS conduct a hardware inventory every 11 days is a good starting point because that setting is longer than one week and shorter than two weeks. You can then make adjustments as necessary. For hardware inventories, you might want a shorter interval immediately before, during, and after a hardware or software upgrade project and a longer interval when you are between projects.
Software configurations change more frequently than hardware configurations. The rate of change depends on many factors, including type of business, type of users, and whether you lock down the desktop. A software inventory can add significant time to the logon process if you configure the inventory to search for many different packages. Once again, having SMS conduct a software inventory every 11 days is a good starting point. As with hardware inventories, you can adjust the software inventory frequency to accommodate your needs. You can find the hardware and software inventory settings on the Inventory page of the Site Properties dialog box, as Screen 1 shows.
In large sites, you must consider the combined effect of the hardware and software inventories on the network. For example, if you set both inventories to run every Monday morning, you will have a lot of inventory traffic slowing your network's performance. You can minimize negative effects by staggering the hardware and software inventories. For example, when you initially schedule the inventories, you can start the hardware inventory cycle on a Tuesday and start the software inventory cycle on a Thursday.
You can use the SKIPINV program in BORK, Part Two to determine when to take inventory. The SKIPINV program returns an error-level code that specifies one of three situations: you need to take hardware or software inventory, you don't need to take hardware or software inventory, or you have a problem with the sms.ini file.
When the SKIPINV results specify that you don't need to take inventory, you can improve user logon times by skipping any or all parts of the SMS client script (smsls.bat or runsms.bat). This script has two functions: installing and maintaining the SMS client--depending on the client operating system (OS), CLI_DOS, CLI_NT, or CLI_OS2 executes this function--and taking and reporting client inventory--depending on the client OS, either INVDOS, INVWIN32, or INVOS2 executes this function.
If you place skipinv.exe before the client configuration program, you can stop SMS from executing the entire SMS client script. Listing 3, page 150, shows an excerpt from an smsls.bat file modified to skip the script completely. If you bypass the entire file, the client upgrades required by an SMS service pack or upgrade will not occur.
If you place skipinv.exe between the configuration and inventory programs, SMS will run the script, except for the script's inventory program. Listing 4, page 150, shows an excerpt from an smsls.bat file modified to skip the inventory program. The highlighted lines in Listing 3, Listing 4, and Listing 5, page 151, are from the standard smsls.bat file. The other lines are from SKIPINV or CHECKRAS.
For maximum benefit, copy skipinv.exe to the client computer. You can use the logon script, send an SMS job, or modify the CL_x.MOD files (on new computers) to copy this program.
TIP 6: Detect RAS Clients
Different companies have different requirements for SMS and RAS. In many companies, users connect to the LAN most of the time, dialing in occasionally. If you have infrequent RAS users, the best solution is to bypass the SMS client script completely when they are dialing in.
How can you determine when users are connecting to the network with RAS so that you can bypass the SMS client script? You can use another BORK program, CHECKRAS, to determine whether the client is using RAS to communicate. The CHECKRAS program returns an error-level code of 1 if the client is using RAS and a code of 0 if not. If the client is using RAS, you can use checkras.exe to bypass the entire SMS client script. Listing 5 shows an excerpt from smsls.bat that uses checkras.exe to bypass the SMS client script when the client is using a RAS connection.
Some companies have users that often use Dial-Up Networking (DUN), so bypassing RAS might not be an option. Yet, limited bandwidth can make running the SMS client script painful for these users. If you have frequent RAS users, you can combine checkras.exe and skipinv.exe to skip parts of the script.
Occasionally, some companies custom install NT or Win95 without RAS components. If you choose this alternative, checkras.exe will return an error message, even though the error-level code will be set to the proper value (0). For this reason, you need to redirect CHECKRAS to NUL (CHECKRAS > NUL).
The CHECKRAS program isn't the only method you can use to detect DUN users. If you have configured your RAS server to provide an address from a dedicated IP address range, you can detect the client IP address and determine whether it is from the dial-up address range. Or you can run a batch file in the Startup group to create a marker file that you can detect in the logon script. For RAS users, the batch file creates the marker file before the logon script executes. For LAN users, the logon script executes before the batch file creates the marker file. (Be sure to delete the marker file in autoexec.bat.)
TIP 7: Optimize SMS Administrator
The SMS Administrator carries out SMS management, Help Desk, and other functions. Here are two ways to ensure that the SMS Administrator performs effectively and efficiently.
Give the SMS Administrator machines lots of RAM. The machines running SMS Administrator need a lot of memory. The SMS Administrator software requires 2MB of RAM. In addition, each machine record returned requires 726 bytes of RAM. So, for a site with 5000 inventoried computers, you need about 5.5MB of RAM.
By default, SMS Administrator queries the SQL Server database for all machines in the hierarchy. This query happens in the background, so you can perform other tasks while the query is running. SMS Administrator caches the returned information and uses it to populate the contents of the right pane of the Sites window.
If you refresh the data, SMS Administrator executes the query again. Both the original query and the refresh use the full 5.5MB of RAM. If you perform an ad hoc query while the original query or the refresh is running in the background, the memory requirement will double.
If SMS Administrator workstation memory is an issue, you can disable the Background Query in Sites option in Preferences under the Options menu. If you disable this option, SMS Administrator performs a foreground query for the machines in the domain selected. Because the query takes place in the foreground, you must wait for the query to complete before you can perform another task.
Place the SMS Administrator machines close to the SQL Server machine. From SMS's perspective, the SMS Administrator and various SMS services are the only SQL Server users. Most SMS Administrator tasks query SQL Server for information. Sometimes SQL Server returns a large amount of data across the network. Thus, to improve performance, you need to use fast connections between the SMS Administrator machines and the SQL Server machine and keep them as close together as possible to avoid flooding other segments of the network with this data.
Roll Up Your Sleeves
If you properly set up, maintain, and optimize the various SMS components, SMS can provide tremendous advantages in the battle to control total cost of ownership (TCO). By following these seven tips, you can make sure that your current installation performs effectively. So roll up your sleeves and start optimizing your SMS system.
End of Article
Prev. page
1
[2]
next page -->
