Knowledge Base

SMS: How to Set Up a Simple Test Environment

Article ID: 185352

Article Last Modified on 6/14/2005

Microsoft Systems Management Server 1.1 Standard Edition
Microsoft Systems Management Server 1.2 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q185352

SUMMARY

The information in this article is intended to help you set up a simple test environment, but is not meant to take you through a step-by-step demonstration or test of Systems Management Server functionality. After you have set up a test lab, refer to the Systems Management Server Administrator's Guide and try each feature, to become familiar with Systems Management Server processes.

MORE INFORMATION

The main components of a minimal test environment are:

Windows NT Server running as a primary or backup domain controller.
A SQL Server database installed and configured on a Windows NT Server computer.
A client computer running Windows 95, Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups, or MS-DOS.
A local area network (LAN) connecting the computers.

In this very simple environment, you only need to devote two computers to your test effort. The computer running Windows NT Server, installed as a Systems Management Server central site, will also function as a Systems Management Server logon and distribution server. Obviously, you can increase the scope of your testing by including more computers in your test environment.

Hardware Requirements

A Systems Management Server primary site server in a simple test environment must meet the following minimal hardware requirements:

Intel Pentium or DEC Alpha CPU
500 MB free disk space available
Access to a CD-ROM drive
An amount of RAM as determined below

The following list includes a simple set of rules for determining the total amount of RAM required by a site server:

16 MB of RAM for the Windows NT Server operating system.
16 MB of RAM for SMS services.
16 MB of RAM if the site server runs the SMS Administrator program.
16 MB of RAM for additional major applications or network services.
16 MB to 64 MB of RAM for SQL Server if it is running on the site server computer.

Additionally, the client must meet the following requirements:

Intel x86 processor or Apple Macintosh
Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups, or MS-DOS version 5.x or later, Macintosh System 7.x or later operating system

Setup Checklist

The following checklist is useful as a guideline to successfully running Setup:

Set up the hardware, install the Windows NT Server network operating system, and make sure the network is fully functioning before installing SQL Server or Systems Management Server.

Create a Windows NT user account for the SMS Services. This is generally called the "Systems Management Server Service Account" and it must have:

Domain Administrative privileges.
Log On As A Service rights.

Set the Application Log of the Windows NT event log to overwrite events as needed.

Install SQL Server. Have a Systems Management Server SQL Login ID such as "sa" (you will need to specify this ID when you run the Systems Management Server Setup program). The Systems Management Server SQL Login ID specified in the Systems Management Server Setup program must have Create Database, Dump Database, and Dump Transaction permissions for the master database. This enables the Systems Management Server Setup program to create and maintain the site database.

Increase the memory option in the system configuration for the SQL Server to at least 8 MB (note that this setting is specified in 2-KB units; specify 4096 for 8 MB), and increase the "open objects" option to 5,000. For more information on SQL Server tuning parameters with Systems Management Server, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
166244 SMS: SQL Server Tuning Parameters for Systems Management Server
If SQL Server is installed on a different server than the Systems Management Server site server, do all of the following:
- Create the site database device and transaction log device on separate devices (for example, SMSDATA and SMSLOG). Each of these devices should be at least 5 MB.
- Increase the size of the temporary database (tempdb). For a simple test environment, 10 MB should be more than enough space.
- Set the "maximum user connections" option to at least 25.
- Set the SQL Server with the current time.
Synchronize the date and time of the client computer to the Windows NT Server computer. You can do this by typing the following at the client command line:
net time\\siteserver /set

Additional query words: testing

Keywords: kbfaq kbhowto kbinfo KB185352