How the Systems Management Server 2003 Advanced Client manages its cache

This article describes how the Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Advanced Client uses the settings for the temporary program download folder, or cache. This article also describes how SMS tries to allocate disk space when the Advanced Client sends a request to download package source files. To do this, SMS 2003 manages its cache in combination with the cache settings on the Advanced Client.

When you distribute software, you can set the Advanced Client to download package source files from a distribution point to a cache on the Advanced Client computer before the program runs. When the program runs, it uses the source files in the cache instead of the source files on the distribution point.

In SMS 2003, the Advanced Client uses the ContentAccess component to manage the size and the location of its cache. However, a user who has administrative credentials on the Advanced Client computer can manually change the location and the size of the cache. A user who has administrative credentials can also delete the cache contents. By default, the cache is the \System32\Ccm\Cache folder in the system Windows folder. If the Advanced Client is also an SMS management point, its default cache is the \SMS_CCM\Cache folder. You can review the \System32\Ccm\Logs\CAS.log file or the \SMS_CCM\Logs\CAS.log file to troubleshoot the ContentAccess component.

When SMS 2003 processes a request to download a package, SMS manages its cache in combination with the Advanced Client settings to try to allocate space. When an Advanced Client where the source files are set to be downloaded runs an advertisement, the ContentAccess component first determines if the package content is smaller than the cache. If the package content is not smaller than the cache, the download request will not be honored, and the following error-level status message is generated:If the package content is smaller than the cache, the ContentAccess component determines if the cache has sufficient free space. If the cache does not have sufficient free space, the following warning-level status message is generated:By default, when this problem occurs, SMS tries to distribute the software every 4 hours until it has tried 18 times.

Package content remains in the cache for at least 24 hours. Content in the cache is deleted only if new content requires its disk space. Therefore, the available space may be much less than the configured cache size.

When the cache has no space available, SMS 2003 typically recovers when the content in the cache expires or when more drive space is made available. However, if the cache is too small, an administrator must increase the available space before the package source files can be sent to the Advanced Client computer. You can increase the space either by using the Systems Management item in Control Panel or by using a script. You can schedule the job to run again after you increase the cache size. For additional information about how to reschedule advertisements in SMS 2003, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

When you use the Ccmsetup.exe program to install the SMS 2003 Advanced Client, you can define the default cache properties by using the smscachesize and smscachedir command-line options. For additional information about smscachesize, smscachedir, and related options, see "Chapter 17 - Discovering Resources and Deploying Clients" in the Systems Management Server 2003 Concepts, Planning, and Deployment Guide.

Follow these steps to adjust the size of the cache, to modify the location of the cache, or to remove all cache content:

1. On the SMS 2003 Advanced Client computer, click Start, click Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click System Management.
3. In System Management Properties, click the Advanced tab.
4. Follow one or more of the following steps:
   • To adjust the size of the cache, under Temporary Program Download Folder, click the slider bar to change the Amount of disk space to use setting.
   • To modify the location of the cache, click Change Location, and then specify a new folder.
   • To remove all cache content, click Delete Files.

To modify the Advanced Client cache settings for the whole SMS 2003 site, we recommend that you use a script. You can deploy a script by using an advertisement, by using Group Policy, or as part of the logon process. For more information about programmatically modifying these cache settings and for sample scripts, search the SMS 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK) for "CacheInfo." To obtain the SMS 2003 SDK, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

For additional information, see "Chapter 3 - Understanding SMS Features" and "Chapter 4 - Understanding SMS Clients" in the Systems Management Server 2003 Concepts, Planning, and Deployment Guide. To obtain this guide, visit the following Microsoft Web site: