How to pre-stage SMS clients to avoid network bandwidth contention during installation

MORE INFORMATION

Windows Networking Logon Discovery and Windows Networking Logon Installation are often confused. Logon Discovery not only shows you which clients are logging into your network, it also turns all clients that log into the network into Potential Managed Resources. Managed Resources are clients and servers that have one or more of the client agents installed on them, such as Remote Tools or Software Distribution. Logon Installation actually turns the potential managed resource into a managed resource and installs the optional client agents that are enabled for the site.

To turn a client into a potential managed resource, the client Core Components are installed at logon if Windows Networking Logon Discovery is enabled even if the client is not assigned (within the site boundaries for the site). Installation of the Core Components consume approximately 14 megabytes of network traffic. This one-time install can be a huge network hit. This applies whether or not Windows Networking Logon Installation is enabled.

NOTE: Network Discovery is passive and does not install the client core components.

All potential managed resources and managed resources must have the Systems Management Server core components installed. There are four ways the core components can be installed: Logon Discovery, Logon Installation, SMSMan, and client pre-install. There are several ways to stagger installation so that the network is not impacted depending on which logon method is used.

Windows Networking Logon Discovery

When Logon Discovery is enabled for one or more domains, every client that runs the SMSLS will get the client core components installed. Following are several possible approaches to minimize network traffic at logon:

1. Manually update user logon scripts. If you want to control the number of clients discovered on a single day, it is possible to manually modify the user logon scripts by completing the following steps:
   1. In the Systems Management Server Administrator's Console, in the Site Hierarchy node under Discovery Methods, edit the Windows Networking Logon Discovery properties.
   2. On the General tab, select Enable Windows Networking Logon Discovery. Ensure the user accounts domain you want to discover clients in is listed.
   3. On the Logon Settings tab, clear Modify User Logon Scripts.
   4. In User Manager for Domains, add SMSLS under Logon Script Name for each user environment profile you want to enable. If your company is already using logon scripts, you can edit one or more of the logon script .bat files by adding SMSLS at the beginning or end.
2. Discover the client manually by using the Systems Management Installation Wizard, or Smsman. Smsman.exe can run silently with a command line argument and a link to it can be sent in an e-mail message or placed on a web page. Smsman will not cut down the amount of network traffic but its use at staggered times will lessen the impact of the one-time client core component install.
3. Pre-install the client core components. Pre-installing the client is beneficial when setting up a client remote from the Systems Management Server Site; for example if you have a contractor build and supply your desktops. When the client is discovered through logon, it looks for some client components locally on the client, and if it does not find them, it copies them from the server. If it does find them, it bypasses copying them at a net bandwidth savings of 6 megabytes per client. To manually pre-stage the client complete the following steps:
   1. Create a %Windir%\MS\SMS\Core\Bin folder.
   2. Rename SLWNT32.exe (if the client is 32-bit), Slwnt32a.exe (if you are using an Alpha computer), or SLWNT16.exe (if the client is 16-bit) to Slownet.exe.
   3. Copy the following files into the %windir%\ms\sms\core\bin directory: Boot32WN.exe, Slownet.exe, Clicore.exe, and SMSBoot1.exe.

Windows Networking Logon Installation

If Logon Installation is also enabled and one or more optional client agents are turned on, network bandwidth consumption increases. There are several possible approaches to minimizing the network traffic at first-time install. These include:

1. Perform discovery first, and a few days or weeks later, enable Logon Installation. Since the client must be discovered to be installed, it is possible to follow any of the staging approaches documented in Windows Networking Logon Discovery above. If network bandwidth consumption is not really a problem, it is possible to break the client installation into two stages by enabling Logon Discovery (with automatic logon script modification) to get the core components installed and a few days later enable Logon Installation to get the client optional components installed. Keep in mind you can turn off Logon Discovery once your clients have been installed.
2. Manually update user logon scripts. If you want to control the number of clients installed on a single day, it is possible to manually modify the user logon scripts:
   1. In the Systems Management Server Administrator's Console, in the Site Hierarchy node under Installation Methods, edit the Windows Networking Logon Installation properties.
   2. On the General tab, check Enable Windows Networking Logon Installation. Ensure the user accounts domain you want to discover clients in is listed.
   3. On the Logon Settings tab, clear Modify user Logon Scripts.
   4. In User Manager for Domains, add SMSLS under Logon Script Name for each user environment profile you want to enable. If your company is already using logon scripts, you can edit the one or more of the logon script .bat files by adding SMSLS at the beginning or end.
3. If Logon Discovery is not being used, you can achieve the same results by turning off all client components until the majority of clients completed install. This will cause only the client core components to be installed initially. You can then turn on the optional components, one at a time, staggered by one or more days. The clients will install the optional components when the Client Configuration Installation Manager (CCIM) runs it's next cycle (default is every 23 hours) or the next time it runs SMSLS. It is possible to manually trigger the CCIM cycle by using the SetEvt tool from the Back Office Resource Kit, volume 4.5.

NOTE: The BackOffice Resource Kit version 4.5 contains an SMS Installer script named Clistage.ipf that can be used to install the base components on clients before adding them to the site. This script is also known as the Client Preload Tool.