Released: OS Deployment Feature Pack Beta

The Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Operating System Deployment (OSD) Feature Pack (Beta) provides support for SMS to create and deploy images of Windows Operating Systems. The OSD Feature Pack allows the deployment of Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003 Operating Systems to systems currently running NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003 via SMS advertisements or CD based installation with the following features:

• Support for unattended image deployment to Windows Desktops
• Support to create and distribute OS images using SMS 2003 advertisements or CD triggered installations
• Fully integrated with SMS 2003 SP1 leveraging SMS inventory based planning and targeting, advertisement status and site to site content replication
• Built in imaging using advanced Windows Imaging (WIM) format
• Advanced image installation task scheduler supporting scripts to perform installation custom actions
• Includes Microsoft Windows Pre-Execution (WINPE) version 1.5
• Leverages the new Microsoft Windows User State Migration Tool (USMT) 2.6 to capture and restore user state

Available: SMS 2003 Capacity Planner Tools

Microsoft® Systems Management Server 2003 Capacity Planner is a tool that helps consultants, SMS administrators, and IT professionals perform scenario analysis on their existing and proposed SMS 2003 hierarchy. The Capacity Planner Tool User Guide describes how to use the Capacity Planner tool. The Capacity Planner tool analyzes the input you provide and suggests SMS site topology configurations and corresponding hardware configurations for site servers and site systems.

Released: SMS 2003 SP1 RC1 (English)

The Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) (Release Candidate) includes the following enhancements targeted at helping to tighten security, increase reliability, and improve scalability:

• Inventory encryption and client authentication
• Client certificate provisioning
• Configurable communications port
• Watson support for server diagnostics
• Support for a greater number of distribution points to reduce maintenance cost
• More granular control of intersite traffic
• Improved software distribution in multi-site hierarchies
• Folders structures for queries, packages, advertisements, and reports
• Ability to bypass inventory of the Windows directory for each inventory rule
• Client-side performance enhancements for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)-based inventory
• Critical patch management

To download the SMS 2003 SP1 (Release Candidate), you must first register to participate in the SMS 2003 SP1 open beta program. To register, complete the following steps:

1. Go to the BetaPlace Web site.
2. Sign in with a Microsoft .NET Passport account. If you don't have a Passport account, you can create one.
3. In the Guest ID box, type SMSInvite. The Guest ID is case-sensitive.
4. Click the SMS 2003 SP1, DM, OSD and SDK link and follow the instructions to register.

Available: Scenarios and Procedures for SMS 2003 (Maintenance, Backup and Recovery)

This document is targeted at SMS administrators, to help with overall site maintenance, and more specifically with site backup and site recovery. Maintaining healthy sites reduces the changes of site failure, thus, increasing the level of support to the clients. Several worksheets are also included to help track scheduled maintenance tasks, and a recovery operation worksheet.

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Evaluating your network for SMS deployment

Thursday, August 19, 2004
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Ed Goad, Sr. Systems Engineer, Microsoft
Are you trying to determine where and how Microsoft® System Management Server (SMS) should be deployed in your corporation? This webcast is an end-to-end overview of evaluating your business environment for a SMS deployment. It covers the analysis of your goals and business needs; and steps through the analysis of your environment to determine the right tools to use. In this session we will walk through the process of analyzing a computer environment to determine the optimal placement and sizing of SMS systems.