Systems Management Server Tracing and Log Capabilities (122055)

SUMMARY

Because Microsoft Systems Management Server is based on a sophisticated set of transactions that are processed throughout the site hierarchy, it is often difficult to predict the time in which a command will complete. These commands can range from a package distribution to a logon server configuration update. Systems Management Server builds in to each Windows NT service component the ability to write status and diagnostic information to log files for historical or interactive review. There are also several client-side log files created by Program Group Control, AppStart, and so on.

It is strongly recommended that tracing remain active; however, for performance tuning, you may disable trace logging with Systems Management Server Service Manager, and activate tracing during diagnostics and setup/upgrade. This feature is on by default so that any recent problems will be recorded.

MORE INFORMATION

Along with the ability to write log information to a file, Systems Management Server includes the Server Service Manager (SMSVCMGR.EXE) and Trace (SMSTRACE.EXE) that you can use to control and display and review these diagnostic log files.

By default, tracing (the process of writing to the log files) will be enabled for the Windows NT service components of Systems Management Server but can easily be deactivated (for performance improvements) with the SMS Service Manager. Once activated for a particular component, you can use SMS Trace (run from SITE.SRV\<ARCHITECTURE>.BIN\SMSTRACE.EXE) to open the log file and monitor it in real time.

Log files are located in the SMS\LOGS directory by default. You can use Systems Management Server Service Manager to set log file locations and maximum sizes. Following is a list of Systems Management Server components and the relevant log files:

Site Configuration Manager:   SCMAN.LOG
Hierarchy Manager:            HMAN.LOG
Inventory Agent NT:           INVAGENT.LOG
PCM Service:                  PACMAN.LOG
SMS_Executive:                SMSEXEC.LOG
Alerter:                      ALERTER.LOG
Applications Manager:         APPMAN.LOG
Inventory Data Loader:        DATALODR.LOG
Despooler:                    DESPOOL.LOG
Inventory Processor:          INVPROC.LOG
Senders:                      LANSEND.LOG, RASASYNC.LOG, and so on
Maintenance Manager:          MAINTMAN.LOG
Job Scheduler:                SCHED.LOG
Site Reporter:                SITEREPT.LOG
Package Command Manager:      No log file used; see note below.
Program Group Controller:     <WINROOT>\SMSLOG.TXT
AppStart:                     <WINROOT>\SMSLOG.TXT

Information included in a log file usually includes the time of day, error codes, a description, and identification of the component and thread ID. Because of the specialization of each component, each log file contains slightly different text. If you need to see what is happening with a particular task, and there is insufficient information reported by Systems Management Server Administrator, you can check the log files to see how things are progressing.

NOTE: The Package Command Manager does not use a log file; instead, it can be run with a /debug switch that causes PCM to write diagnostic information to a special window up to a maximum of 64 kilobytes (K).