Client Discovery Failure

[rodaniel]

Some of the PCs shown in my All Systems Collection show a status of "No" under the Client and Assigned fields and the Domain and Site Code fields are blank. I've visited these PCs and found that they all have the SMS client and the components are show a status of "Installed."

The only way I get them to be fully discovered, however, is to manually re-install the client by running [tt]SMSMAN.EXE[/tt]. Any suggestions on why some PCs don't discover fully? Rob O'Daniel
Information Technologies Dept
Medical Center Hospital

http://www.mchodessa.com

 

[rodaniel]

- Follow-up to previous post -

This problem is a bit more involved than I indicated at first. On about 10% of my client PCs (a semi-equal mix of WinNT & Win2k) I'm encountering an issue where the SMS Admin console shows the PC, but indicates "No" under the Client column, but the client components look fine on the workstation end. Alternatively, some workstations will show up in the SMS Admin console with "No" in both columns although there is a Systems Management icon in the workstation's Control Panel - but no site is listed and no client components have been installed.

I have tried the trick of copying the affected user's SMSDISC.DDR file from the C:\WINNT\MS\SMS\Core\Data directory into the SMSlogon\Ddr.box\ directory on my LP/CAP server and it processes within a few seconds. I have had limited success with this workaround - it has worked sometimes, but not in every case. In other instances, manually running SMSMAN.EXE has resolved one or both of these issues, but again not in every case...

On a few PCs, I've scrubbed the SMS client (with the 20CLICLN.BAT) & re-run SMSMAN.EXE (or SMSLS.BAT) several times with no luck. On most of these, the site shows up in the Service Mgmt applet in the Control Panel, but no Components will install. And the "Update Site" button is either grayed out or I get a failure notice if I click it.

By the way, I'm doing a manual discovery & SMSLS.BAT client install that is triggered by group membership (via login script). This gives me more control over who gets the client than any of the other discovery/installation methods that I am aware of. Rob O'Daniel
Information Technologies Dept
Medical Center Hospital

http://www.mchodessa.com

rodaniel@echd.org

 

[djameson]

I have the same issue with the client PCs discovered having a status of "No".

Is it possible to use the login script to get users to run the smsman.exe when they log in if you use the command:

smsman /q

(the /q runs it in quiet mode so no user intervention is required)

I might try this - any comments?

thanks.

 

[BarbieGirl]

WOW! I have the EXACT same problem and have been searching for an answer to no avail.

I am unable to perform site updates. The client diplays the correct site (without a date in the Updated column), but when I choose update, I get the "Update sites failed."

SP3 is installed. I have tried 20clicln.bat (as well as deleting all registry components, etc) and upgrading NT 4 to 2000 with no luck. Manual installations also fail.

I have noticed that in Services, the "SMS Client Service" cannot be started due to an "internal windows error or internal service error". Ouch - does not help me much.

Could there be an entry in the SMS database that does not shake the client computer configuration or is it a local registry component that just hangs on? I have completely removed and reinstalled several times and still have the same problem.

If you find any answers, please post.

 

[rodaniel]

I just stumbled across something that may really help...

Most, if not all, of the PCs that have tanked on the SMS Client install have been Windows NT 4.0 PCs. After nosing around a bit, I've noticed a trend - the Server service has been disabled. After changing that service to "Automatic," starting the service, and then rebooting, the SMS Client install finished! I have only just figured this out, so I haven't done it on many PCs yet, but it may be the fix we've been hunting for.

Rob O'Daniel