SMS: Administrator Console Does Not Connect to Windows NT 4.0 Site Server

When you use a Systems Management Server (SMS) 2.0 Administrator console that is running on a Windows 2000-based computer, you may be unable to connect to a remote SMS 2.0 site server that is running on a Windows NT 4.0-based computer.

Other Administrator consoles that are running on remote Windows NT 4.0-based computers can connect properly to the same site server.

If Wbemtest.exe is used from the same Windows 2000-based computer to the Windows NT 4.0 SMS site server, a remote procedure call (RPC) connection failure message is displayed.

This behavior occurs because of a mismatch in the negotiated protocols. The default protocol for Distributed COM communications for Windows 2000 is Connection Oriented TCP/IP, whereas the default protocol for Distributed COM communications for Windows NT 4.0 is the Datagram UDP/IP.

To work around this behavior, change the display order for protocols on the Windows NT 4.0 SMS site Server by using the Dcomcnfg.exe tool:

• On the SMS site server, click Start, and then click Run.
• Type dcomcnfg.exe, and then click OK.
• On the Default Protocols tab, move Connection Oriented TCP/IP to the top of the list.
• Restart the SMS site server to make the change effective.

Remote computers that are running Windows 2000 should now be able to connect to the SMS site server through the SMS Administrator console.

If any of the remote Windows NT 4.0 workstations with the SMS 2.0 Administrator console are affected by this change on the Windows NT 4.0 SMS site server, you may want to consider ensuring that Distributed COM (DCOM) is able to negotiate a common protocol datagram. You can do this by moving the Connection Oriented TCP/IP protocol to the top of the list in the Protocols tab of the Dcomcnfg.exe tools on each of the remote Windows NT 4.0-based computers.