Advanced Clients cannot download and install programs that are made available by optional advertisements in Systems Management Server 2003 (886117)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003

SYMPTOMS

After you create both optional and mandatory program advertisements for your Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 site, you may experience the following symptoms:
  • Advanced Client computers cannot download and install programs that are made available by optional advertisements. However, Advanced Client computers can download and install programs that are made available by mandatory advertisements.
  • You find entries that are similar to the following in the DataTransferService.log file on the SMS 2003 Advanced Client computer:Error sending DAV request. HTTP code 401, status 'Access Denied'
  • You find entries that are similar to the following in the Execmgr.log file on the SMS 2003 Advanced Client computer:<![LOG[Content Access error 0x80008601 encountered for program ProgramName]LOG]!><time=time date=date component="execmgr" context="" type="1" thread=threadID file="executionrequest.cpp:2515">
  • You find status messages that are similar to the following in the SMS Administrator console on a site server:The program for advertisement AdvertisementID has failed because content download for the package AdvertisementID - PackageID has failed.
    Possible cause: The content can not be found on the network, or the content could not be accessed.
    Solution: Check to ensure this content has been made available on a distribution point. Check to ensure the access control list allows this program to be accessed. Check to make sure that the file system path for the content, including the path to the cache directory, is not greater than 255 characters.
    This operation will be retried.
Note On computers that serve as management points, Advanced Client log files are located in the Sms_Ccm\Logs folder. On all other computers, Advanced Client log files are located in the %Windir%\System32\Ccm\Logs folder.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when all the following are true:
  • You have blocked server message block (SMB) protocol access to the distribution point.
  • The advertisement is optional.
  • The user account that logs on to the Advanced Client computer does not have permission to access the distribution point.
  • You do not specify an Advanced Client Network Access Account or the Advanced Client Network Access Account does not have permission to access the distribution point.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, follow these steps to modify the optional advertisement so that it becomes a mandatory advertisement:
  1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Systems Management Server, and then click SMS Administrator Console.
  2. Expand Site Database (SiteCode - SiteName), and then click Advertisements.
  3. Right-click the advertisement that you want to modify, and then click Properties.
  4. On the Schedule tab, right-click the Mandatory Assignments box, and then click New.
  5. In the Assignment Schedule dialog box, click to select Assign to the following schedule, and then click Schedule.
  6. In the Time box, type a date and time that is two or more years in the future.
  7. Click to select None in the Recurrence pattern box, and then click OK three times.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

MORE INFORMATION

An SMS 2003 Advanced Client tries to download mandatory advertised programs from a distribution point under the security context of the local computer's system account. On a computer that has joined your domain, the system account is a member of the domain. Therefore, the download of the advertised program succeeds when the advertisement is mandatory.

When an advertised program is optional, the SMS 2003 Advanced Client first tries to connect to the distribution point under the security context of the user who is logged on. If this does not succeed, the SMS 2003 Advanced Client will then use the Advanced Client network access account.

A Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)-enabled distribution point can download programs to Advanced Client computers in small pieces by using the HTTP protocol. This can be of great assistance to client computers that are connected by slow links and to client computers that are not always on the network, such as portable computers.

If you block SMB access to the distribution point, the Advanced Client can access the distribution point using HTTP only if you have enabled BITS on the distribution point.

For additional information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

826844 Overview of advertisements in Systems Management Server 2003

830619 You cannot use Background Intelligence Transfer Service to download an advertised package

842309 An update is available for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 2.0 for Windows XP

For additional information about how to manage SMS accounts, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3d81b520-a203-4376-a72d-fd34a6c4a44c

For additional information about software distribution, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sms/sms2003/techfaq/tfaq07.mspx

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:9/12/2005
Keywords:kbtshoot kbSMSPackage kbSMSDistribution kbSMSClients kbMgmtServices kbprb KB886117 kbAudITPRO
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