SMS: Splitting One Domain Across Multiple SMS Sites (185343)

SUMMARY

The use of Systems Management Server in certain domain structures can sometimes lead to confusion about its capabilities and limitations. This is especially true when Systems Management Server is used in a wide area network (WAN) consisting of a single domain separated by routers. In this situation, special consideration must be given to site type and placement and logon script configuration, as well as package distribution techniques.

The example below goes into more detail.

MORE INFORMATION

Consider a typical retail company utilizing a primary domain controller (PDC) at the corporate office, and a backup domain controller (BDC) at each outlet (to perform logon validation locally) linked to each other by 19.2- kilobyte per second (KBps) routed links.

In this situation, Systems Management Server should be implemented as follows:

Install a Central site at the corporate office.
Install the outlet sites as either primary or secondary Systems Management Server sites. Although there are many factors to consider when planning your site hierarchy, one key point to keep in mind is that each primary site requires a Systems Management Server administrator and a SQL Server computer for the Systems Management Server database.
Establish the needed parent-child assignments and addresses.
If logon scripts are to be used, ensure that replication is set up at the PDC and all BDCs.
Ensure that the Use All Detected Servers option is not enabled by any Systems Management Server site in the domain.
Ensure that the Automatically Configure Logon Scripts option is not enabled by any Systems Management Server site in the domain.

For example, each client at outlet xyz will have a site-domain assignment such as xyz:corpdom, and clients at the corporate office will have an assignment such as abc:corpdom (these assignments will be used again later). Systems Management Server makes the ownership distinction based on the combination of the three-letter site code combined with the domain name.

If logon scripts are to be used, manually assign a script to each user account (through multi-select in User Manager) and ensure that the needed script files are copied into the Repl$\Scripts directory on the export server (usually the PDC).

For more information, consult the Systems Management Server 1.2 "Concepts and Planning Guide," available in the Systems Management Server Books Online.