Service Pack 1 for SMS 2003 Adds Features

The first service pack for Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003, Microsoft’s product for inventorying Windows-based hardware and software assets, distributing software, applying patches, tracking licenses, and remotely diagnosing and fixing problems on remote systems, includes more than the usual rollup of bug fixes. In addition to adding the ability to manage Virtual PC, Virtual Server, and Intel Itanium-based 64-bit client platforms, the service pack includes security and patch management improvements and is needed for upcoming Microsoft and third-party SMS extensions.

Separate from the service pack, Microsoft has also released AdminStudio SMS Edition, a new tool for repackaging applications for distribution by SMS. (For more details, see the sidebar “New Repackaging Tool“.)

What’s New?

In addition to rolling up 29 hotfixes issued since SMS 2003 first shipped in Dec. 2003, Service Pack 1 (SP1) includes the following new features and performance enhancements:

New client platform support. SP1 supports several new OS platforms. SMS 2003’s Advanced Client can now be installed on and manage computers running Virtual Server 2005 and Virtual PC 2004 and can also manage guest OSs if they are running Windows 2000 or higher. A 64-bit version of the management client is also available to manage 64-bit Intel Itanium-based systems running Windows Server 2003. Lastly, Microsoft’s new Windows Storage Server 2003, a specialized version of Windows Server 2003 for network-attached storage devices, can be managed by the SMS 2003 SP1 Advanced Client and is also supported as a SMS distribution point, which is a special file server share that SMS uses to stage software installation packages for installation on client PCs.