Clients dropping out of Database 4 no apparent reason

[R0bb3rt]

We are using SMS 2 (SP3) and SQL 7 with ~120 clients so far and one day last week the clients started dropping out of the db (we lost ~80% in 24 hours). The clients were sending delta MIFs and the server wanted a complete inventories so it tossed the clients out to resync. We have discovery on (twice a day) and remote client install active and heartbeat set for 1 week. It fixed itself after a couple of days but we'd like to know why it happened in the first place.
TIA.

 

[Jpoandl]

huh...thats a strange problem. One thing I can tell you is if you clients think they are no longer within your SMS SITE BOUNDARIES (defined by subnet), the SMS client will uninstall itself.

I noticed this once, when I move a few NT machines that were working fine in SMS to a new subnet. This subnet was not defined in SMS...well, it took a few hours a think, but all of the machines that were moved to the new segment lost the SMS client. This must be a built in "feature" of SMS.

So, maybe your CAPs or your SMS site server was offline while your client machines were still on. This may cause clients from uninstalling themselves.

Not sure...but thought I'd mention it.

Leter,.. Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2000

 

[mikescuba]

The client isn't supposed to uninstall, for something like 60 to 90 days from what I read. However I can also vouch for the loss of client connectivity when the clients are moved to a new subnet. We vlan'd our network and then a bug with the sms2_sp2 client became apparent as it started filling up the registry with bogus client connection accounts. This bug is fixed with SMS2_sp3, I recommend the upgrade, maybe it'll fix your problem as well.

Mike C

 

[Calgarian]

The 60 to 90 day uninstall relates to loss of contact by the client with SMS - we have a problem with laptops users who don't come into the office very often.

A client will uninstall pretty quickly if you give it an IP address outside of the boundaries.

Back to the original problem - I've seen the same happen before, activating logon discovery seemed to fix it.

 

[R0bb3rt]

The clients were not moved and are inside the subnet boundaries and we are using SP3. We are not able to use logon discovery because our SMS server does not have Domain Admin rights and can't create logon points on the Domain controllers (long story) so we only have the network discovery option. Also, the clients didn't actually uninstall itself, the console said the software wasn't installed but you can still use remote tools to control the PCs.

I appreciate all ya'lls help, I'm double checking my settings now.

 

[Calgarian]

Hmmmmmmmmm....

I've had similar problems with security - if your SMS service accounts don't have domain admin rights, do they have local admin rights on your workstations?

Are the rights nice and open on the local SMS directory and the registry keys?

I've had similar problems of clients disappearing out of the database, but still having full functionality - blatting the client and opening up the security before a reinstall seemed to work.

 

[Calgarian]

I must be getting old ... heartbeat discovery is an update method and only works if you have logon discovery enabled ... so it's a red herring as it should have no effect on the status of your clients.

 

[R0bb3rt]

I just read that heartbeat discovery is used in case no other method is used or in the case of logon discovery, on servers that rarely get logged onto so they do not get taken out of the db when the maintance routine throws them out after 90 days (our server hasn't been up that long yet). I did notice that the SMS folder and the SMS section of the reg on the clients are locked down so I'm opening them up so maybe that'll help like you mentioned above.

Thanks.

 

[Schoenberg]

I have had this exact behaviour on our NTW4.0 clients that are "locked down". In our case, the SMS Service Account could not complete the installation because it did not have administrative rights on the workstation.

Also, I would suggest throttling down those 90-day SQL tasks. Depends on your environment, but if a machine has not reported a Heartbeat for say.....30 days, should that machine really be in your SMS database???

However, some environments have machines that do not report Heartbeats for over 30 days (for whatever reason.. ..vacation.. ..business trips.. ..whatever). In these environments, you should make the SQL maintenance a longer period to account for the lack of connectivity.