SMS: Discovery Data Record Is Not Being Processed If a Serial Number Is Not Synchronized (288407)

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256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SYMPTOMS

Discovery Data records (DDRs) in a secondary site are not processed if a parent site has a lower Discovery Data Manager (DDM) serial number. The Ddm.log file from the secondary site may have the following error message:

CDiscoveryDataManager::ProcessDDRs_SS - serial number on this file is older than the current data. Skipping this file. SMS_DISCOVERY_DATA_MANAGER

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because the value at a parent site must be higher than the value at any child secondary sites.

The DDM serial number for a site is incremented each time that the site processes a DDR. After recovering a primary site, the DDM serial number of the recovering site will probably be lower than it should be because you have restored an old value from backup. If this is the case, the recovering site ignores DDRs from its secondary sites if their serial number is higher.

WORKAROUND

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

To make sure that all secondary site DDM serial numbers are the same or lower than those of the primary site, set all secondary site DDM serial numbers to zero. If you have many secondary sites, or not all of your secondary sites are accessible, you may instead increase the DDM serial number at the recovered primary site to ensure that it is higher than all secondary site DDM serial numbers.

Before you change the DDM serial number in the registry, be sure to stop the Site Component Manager and SMS Executive services, which you can restart after you complete the registry change.

The DDM serial number is stored in the registry of the site server under the following key:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SMS\Components\SMS_Discovery_Data_Manager\Serial number

MORE INFORMATION

Discovery Data Manager is a thread component of the SMS Executive service that:

Processes discovery data records that are gathered through the various discovery methods and loads the data into the SMS site database.
Creates site assignment rules that are based on the site boundaries as specified in the site control file. It then forwards the site assignment rules to secondary sites.
Creates Client Configuration Request (CCR) files for discovered Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and Microsoft Windows 2000 clients if you have enabled Windows Remote Client Installation.