Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 Administrator's Companion

Streamline—and centralize—the management of your Microsoft Windows-based desktops with the essential guide to planning, deploying, and supporting Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003. This in-depth administrator’s reference drills into SMS features and components and provides easy-to-follow procedures, practical workarounds, and key troubleshooting tactics for everyday, on-the-job results. From remotely installing, managing, and troubleshooting applications to deploying patches, monitoring system usage, and tracking assets—you get must-know details for protecting and optimizing your technology investment.

Discover how to:

Plan, install, and configure your SMS site and site systems
Prepare existing SMS 2.0 sites for migration
Construct a management hierarchy, including creating secondary sites
Understand patch management and how to integrate SMS 2003 into the process
Walk through resource discovery and client installation methods
Create and distribute software packages and critical updates through the management console and through scripts
Implement and administer standard or advanced security modes
Monitor site activity, track information flow, and analyze network and server performance remotely
Plan your disaster recovery strategy, including maintenance and backups Evaluation software inside!
Try Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 with 120-day evaluation software on CD.

A Note Regarding the CD or DVD

The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to booktech@oreilly.com.

Customer Reviews:

Must have addition for administrators

By Jase T. Wolfe - June 2, 2004

There is no question that if you need to implement or administer SMS, this is a must own. The book covers everything needed to plan and configure your back-end environment, as well as to setup a good administrative model for IT support, application management and end-users control and deployment. This title will also serve as an excellent day to day resource long after you have implemented SMS. Although I completely recommend this title, I found that this book isn't enough completely on it's own to truly cover all the ins and outs of SMS 2003. Microsoft provides two free downloads which I recommend you read and use in conjunction with this title; "Concepts, Planning, and Deployment Guide" and "Operations Guide" (The SMS 2003 Microsoft website also has many other resources for administration).

Good, but could be better

By Don't tread on me "Defending the Conservative... - May 14, 2004

This book is easy to read. However, if you are wanting a book that has everything to get up and running on SMS 2003, this book is lacking. Make sure to read the product's release notes. If you have access to Microsoft TechNet and Microsoft's website, you will need it to do some homework. The Advanced Security model in SMS 2003 is definitely far different from previous versions of SMS. The book does not go into any of this in detail. I recommend this book, but make sure you collect up the other information I have mentioned.

The Manual for SMS 2003

By Rodney D. Trent "Rod Trent" - April 10, 2004

The SMS 2003 Admin Companion is the best guide to SMS 2003 available. The author doesn't miss a thing and lays out the management applicaton in a logical manner. SMS 2003 is a huge application with a huge learning curve, and this book helps get you up-to-speed in as little time as possible.