How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you use SMS 2.0 or SMS 2003 to advertise programs to SMS clients

Advertisements in Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2.0 and SMS 2003 are objects that make programs available to clients. You must advertise a program before clients can run the program. Programs can be advertised to systems, to user accounts, and to user groups.

Overview of advertisements in Systems Management Server

Before you can distribute a program to SMS clients, you must create a software distribution package and a program. Then, you must advertise the program to the SMS clients. Typically, you apply advertisements to a specific collection that contains SMS clients. You define and populate collections by setting membership rules for each collection. SMS uses membership rules to decide whether a resource is a member of a particular collection. A membership rule can be query-based or resource-based. A query-based rule includes the results that are returned by a query. A resource-based rule can include a list of systems, of users, or of user groups.

SMS advertisements contain the following information:

• The program to run on the client.
• The target collection of systems, of users, or user groups that will receive the program.
• The schedule that specifies when the program is available to the collection.

In SMS 2003, you can use Windows User Account Discovery or Active Directory User Discovery to locate user accounts. There are important differences between Windows User Group Discovery and Active Directory User Discovery. The General tab on the All User Groups Collection Properties page contains the following comment:If you turn on only the Active Directory User Discovery method, and you want to send the advertisement to a specific user group or to a specific computer group, you must create a new collection and use membership rules to add users and computers to that collection.

The Available Programs Manager on SMS 2.0 and SMS 2003 Legacy Clients and the SMS Software Distribution Client Agent on SMS 2003 Advanced Clients perform most of the software distribution-related tasks on the client computers. These components permit client computers to receive and run programs that are advertised. When you enable the Advertised Programs Client Agent, SMS installs the appropriate agent on the clients.

When you create a package and advertise a program, SMS stores information about the package, the program, and the advertisement on Client Access Points (CAPs). SMS 2003 also stores this information for the Advanced Clients on management points.

On the SMS 2.0 and SMS 2003 Legacy Client computer, the Offer Data Provider (ODP) checks for advertisements that are valid for the client computer, for the logged-on user, or for the logged-on user's group memberships. The Available Programs Manager runs assigned programs automatically and maintains a list of the programs that are not assigned. A user can run individual programs by using the Advertised Programs Wizard and by using the Add or Remove Programs tool in Control Panel. The Advertised Programs Manager can monitor the program on the client. Microsoft Windows NT-based clients contain the following two component files:

• The Odpsys32.exe file searches for advertisements for the computer.
• The Odpusr32.exe file searches for advertisements for the user or for user group memberships.

SMS 2003 Advanced Clients obtain client information from SMS management points. Management points provide policy files, configuration details, and advertisements to SMS Advanced Clients. Additionally, management points receive inventory, software metering, and status information from Advanced Clients.

For assigned advertised programs where SMS 2003 automatically installs the program on the SMS 2003 client computer. The SMS 2003 Software Distribution Agent runs the assigned advertised program and maintains a list of the programs that are not assigned. Because of this behavior, you can run the programs at your convenience by using the Run Advertised Programs tool or by using the Add or Remove Programs tool in Control Panel.

You can configure Advanced Clients to download package source files to the local computer before you run a program that requires those files. When the program runs, it obtains the files from the local computer instead of from a distribution point. When Advanced Clients download package source files in advance, the package source files are stored in the download cache on the Advanced Client. Only an administrator can modify the location and the size of the Advanced Client's download cache. SMS 2003 uses these settings with its cache management logistics to try to allocate sufficient space when new requests to download packages arrive.

You can turn on Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) on distribution points. BITS lets SMS 2003 incrementally download package files from the distribution point to the client. If a file transfer is stopped unexpectedly, BITS can resume the file transfer from the point where it was stopped. BITS throttles file downloads so that they do not interfere with local programs that are using the network. Because BITS uses HTTP, the Advanced Client can send and receive files in any situation where an HTTP link can be established. If a roaming Advanced Client requires files for programs that are advertised to it, and those files are available from any local distribution point, the Advanced Client can use a local distribution point to access those files without changing the client’s site assignment. This scenario reduces the Advanced Client’s use of the wide area network (WAN).

Troubleshooting problems that occur when you advertise programs

When you use Systems Management Server (SMS) 2.0 and SMS 2003 to advertise programs to SMS clients, the advertisement may not appear on the client, or the advertisement may not run correctly. This article describes methods that you can use to troubleshoot these problems.

Make sure that the Advertised Programs Client Agent is turned on

SMS clients cannot receive advertised programs until you turn on the Advertised Programs Client Agent for the site. To make sure that the Advertised Programs Client Agent is turned on, follow these steps:

1. In the SMS Administrator console, locate the Site Database\Site Hierarchy\your site\Site Settings node.
2. Click Client Agents.
3. Double-click Advertised Programs Client Agent.
4. Make sure that the Enable software distribution to clients setting is turned on, and then click OK.

Make sure that the advertised program is configured correctly

1. In the SMS Administrator console, double-click Packages.
2. Double-click the package that you want to review, and then click Programs.
3. In the details pane, double-click the program.
4. If the This program can run only on specified client platforms option is selected on the Requirements tab, click to select the check boxes for all the client computers that you want to receive the package.
5. On the Environment tab, make sure you have correctly configured the Program can run option for the clients that you want.

Use the SMS Status System

When you detect a problem, you can start SMS Status Message Viewer to help identify and troubleshoot the problem. As SMS components perform their tasks, the components use status messages to report their status. The status messages that are contained in the SMS Administrator console tree provide a snapshot of the health of the SMS site, of the components, of the packages, and of the advertisements. Advertisement status messages are generated by the following actions:

• Advertisements succeed or fail.
• Programs start.
• Programs succeed or fail.

Use the SMS Status System to confirm that the package was successfully distributed to at least one distribution point. To review the status messages for your packages, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Systems Management Server, and then click SMS Administrator console.
2. Double-click System Status.
3. Double-click Package Status.
4. Click the package that you want to review.
   
   The details pane lists how many distribution points received the package. The details pane also shows if any failures occurred.
5. In the details pane, right-click a status, point to Show Messages, and then click the type of status messages that you want to review in SMS Status Message Viewer.
6. Double-click a status message to review the information.

Review the advertisement status

Review the advertisement status in the SMS Administrator console to find the clients that have received the advertisement and the clients that have rejected the advertisement. To review status messages for your advertisements, follow these steps:

1. In the SMS Administrator console, double-click System Status.
2. Double-click Advertisement Status.
3. Click the advertisement that was not completed.
4. 
   The details pane lists the number of clients who received the advertisement, the number of clients who did not receive the advertisement, the number of program successes, and the number of program errors.
5. In the details pane, right-click the status, point to Show Messages, and then click the type of status messages that you want to review in SMS Status Message Viewer.
6. Double-click a status message to review the information.
   

Note To obtain a complete list of all the status messages that are generated by SMS 2003, see the Systems Management Server 2003 Status Message Documentation. To download this documentation, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Make sure that the time is synchronized on the client computer and on the server computer

Make sure that the SMS client computer and the SMS site server computer have the correct time. Use the Date and Time tool in Control Panel on each computer to correct the time. You can also use the net time command in a logon script to synchronize the time on all the computers that are in the domain.

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

SMS 2.0 and SMS 2003 Legacy Clients

On Microsoft Windows 95 clients and Windows 98 clients, the Odpwin9x.exe file performs all the ODP functions. The SMS 2.0 and SMS Legacy Client logs, including the ODP logs, are located in the \%Winroot%\MS\SMS\Logs folder on the client computer. The following table provides more information about these logs.The ODP finds the correct instruction files in the SitecodeSystm.lkp file, in the SitecodeUser.lkp file, and in the sitecodeUsrgp.lkp file, based on the system GUID, based on the user name, or based on the group membership. These lookup files are located in the \\CLIENT_ACCESS_POINT_SERVER\CAP_sitecode\Offerinf.box folder on the CAP. The instruction file contains the Advertisement (offer) IDs and the destination Collection ID. The ODP loads the advertisements from the .ofr files that are listed in the .ins file, and then sends them to the Advertised Programs Manager.

Note In a scenario where an advertisement is targeted to a user account or to a user group, and the same user account is logged on to multiple computers at the same time, if the Odpusr32.exe file runs at its scheduled interval, the advertisement runs at each location. By default, the Odpusr.32.exe file runs every 60 minutes. Because advertisement information is stored locally on the computer, each computer runs the program for a particular user account, even if the program was run on a different computer for the same account. Therefore, it may be better to target systems instead of users or groups, or to create a query that looks for both the user and the computer designation. When you target systems instead of users or groups, or you create a query that looks for both the user and the computer designation, advertisements can be presented only when that user is at a specific computer.

Review the Available Programs Manager (APM) log file, Smsapm32.log, on the client computer to make sure that APM can connect to the distribution point. APM must connect to the distribution point to read the package files and to run the program.

If the Program Execution Manager tries to run the program based on the information that is provided by the Advertised Programs Manager, and then the program fails, the offer may still appear available because the process was not completed. Make sure that the package is configured correctly, and that you can run the program manually at the client by connecting to the SMS package share.

SMS 2003 Advanced Clients

The Client Configuration Manager (CCM) Policy Agent performs the following functions on the SMS Advanced Client:

• Requests and receives policy assignments from the MP
• Evaluates policy assignments
• Requests and receives policies from the management point
• Stores policies and settings

If advertised programs do not run correctly on SMS 2003 Advanced Clients, review the following logs in the %Windir%\System32\CCM\Logs folder on the client computer:

• CAS.log. This file shows the status of the local package cache.
• DataTransferService.log. This file shows the policies that are downloaded from the management point.
• Execmgr.log. This file shows the execution of all advertisements.
• PolicyAgent.log. This file shows policy requests by the Data Transfer Service.
• PolicyEvaluator.log. This file records new policy settings.
• LocationServices.log. This file shows how to locate management points and distribution points.
• ContentTransferManager.log. This file shows when BITS or server message block (SMB) is used to download or access packages.
• FileBits.log. This file shows download and content retrieval activity.

For additional information about software distribution and Advanced Clients in SMS 2003 see Chapter 3, "Understanding SMS Features" and Chapter 4, "Understanding SMS Clients" in SMS 2003 Concepts, Planning, and Deployment Guide. To download this guide, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
For more information about software distribution and advertisement data flow in SMS 2003, download Systems Management Server 2003 troubleshooting flowcharts. To do this, visit the following Microsoft Web site: