Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 : Defining Parent-Child Relationships (part 4) - Implementing a Parent-Child Relationship Between Primary Sites

Implementing a Parent-Child Relationship Between Primary Sites

When you install an SMS 2003 secondary site, it becomes a child of the primary site it’s installed from, and, voila, you have a parent-child relationship. As we discussed, however, primary sites can also enter into parent-child relationships. Two main requirements must be met to successfully implement a parent-child relationship between two primary sites: each site must have an address to the other site, and the child must identify its parent.

Creating an Address

An address in SMS 2003 is yet another site setting—that is, a property of the site. A site server needs to know which other site servers it needs to communicate with—for sending package information, inventory data, status messages, and site control information—and how to establish that communication.

Both the parent and the child need an address to each other. The child sends inventory data, status messages, discovery data, and site control information to its immediate parent. The parent site sends package, collection, advertisement, and site control information to its child. A parent site can also send this information to any other site below it in the hierarchy. It does so by routing the information through its child sites or by configuring an address directly to the other site.

This flow of information is illustrated in Figure 21. Sites A04 and A05 will report data directly to their parent, site A03. Site A03 will, in turn, report its data (which includes the data from sites A04 and A05) directly to its parent, central site A01, as will site A02. Sites A04 and A05 need an address to site A03, and sites A02 and A03 need an address to site A01. Similarly, site A01 needs an address to sites A02 and A03, and site A03 needs an address to sites A04 and A05. Site A01 can administer any site below it in the hierarchy. It can send package and advertisement information to sites A04 and A05 by routing that information through site A03, for which it has an address. However, if the SMS administrator configures an address in site A01 for site A04, site A01 could send information directly to site A04.

An SMS 2003 site delivers information to another site by connecting to that site using a communication mechanism called a sender. The five available senders are Standard Sender (regular LAN/WAN connection), Asynchronous RAS Sender, ISDN RAS Sender, X.25 RAS Sender, and SNA RAS Sender. 

These senders connect to a default share point on the target site named SMS_Site. This shared folder references the SMS\Inboxes\Despoolr.box\Receive directory and is created automatically during the installation of a primary or secondary site server. If you’re running your sites in standard security mode, the SMS administrator must identify a connection account that has at least Change access to this share. That could, of course, be the SMS Service account, but it doesn’t have to be. Using this account to access the target site server share, the sender copies the data in question to the target site, keeping track of its progress. When it has finished, the sender disconnects from the target site. If you’re running your sites using advanced security mode, SMS will use the Local System account and computer accounts to connect to this share.

Creating an Address to Another Site

To create an address to another site, follow these steps:

1.	In the SMS Administrator Console, navigate to the Site Settings folder and expand it.
2.	Right-click the Addresses folder and choose New from the context menu. A list of sender address types is displayed, as shown in Figure 22. Figure 22. Displaying a list of sender address types.
3.	Choose the sender address type you need, to display its Properties dialog box. Fill in the General tab in the appropriate Properties dialog box as follows: In the Standard Sender Address Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 23, select the site from the Destination Site Code dropdown list for the target site. In the Destination Access frame, enter the name of the destination site’s site server name. Click the Set button to specify the name and password of the account on the target site that has at least Change permission for the SMS_Site share on the target site. Figure 23. The Standard Sender Address Properties dialog box. In the Asynchronous RAS Sender Address Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 24, select the site from the Destination Site Code drop-down list for the target site. In the RAS Access frame, enter the RAS phone book entry that references dial-up information for accessing the target site. Click the Set button to specify the dial-up access account and phone number to be used when dialing in to the target site. In the Destination Access frame, enter the name of the target site’s site server name and the domain of which it is a member. Click the Set button to specify the name and password of the account on the target site that has at least Change permission for the SMS_Site share on the target site. If you’re running in advanced security mode, this account will be displayed as Local System and you won’t be able to change it. Figure 24. The Asynchronous RAS Sender Address Properties dialog box. In the ISDN RAS Sender Address Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 25, select the site from the Destination Site Code dropdown list for the target site. In the RAS Access frame, enter the RAS phone book entry that references dial-up information for accessing the target site. Click Set to specify the dial-up access account and phone number to be used when dialing in to the target site. In the Destination Access frame, enter the name of the target site’s site server and the domain of which it is a member. Click Set to specify the name and password of the account on the target site that has at least Change permission for the SMS_Site share on the target site. If you’re running in advanced security mode, this account will be displayed as Local System and you won’t be able to change it. Figure 25. The ISDN RAS Sender Address Properties dialog box. In the X.25 RAS Sender Address Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 26, select the site from the Destination Site Code dropdown list for the target site. In the RAS Access frame, enter the RAS phone book entry that references dial-up information for accessing the target site. Click the Set button to specify the dial-up access account and phone number to be used when dialing in to the target site. In the Destination Access frame, enter the name of the target site’s site server and the domain of which it is a member. Click Set to specify the name and password of the account on the target site that has at least Change permission for the SMS_Site share on the target site. If you’re running in advanced security mode, this account will be displayed as Local System and you won’t be able to change it. Figure 26. The X.25 RAS Sender Address Properties dialog box. In the SNA RAS Sender Address Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 27, select the site from the Destination Site Code dropdown list for the target site. In the RAS Access frame, enter the RAS phone book entry that references dial-up information for accessing the target site. Click the Set button to specify the dial-up access account and phone number to be used when dialing in to the target site. In the Destination Access frame, enter the name of the target site’s site server and the domain of which it is a member. Click the Set button to specify the name and password of the account on the target site that has at least Change permission for the SMS_Site share on the target site. If you’re running in advanced security mode, this account will be displayed as Local System and you won’t be able to change it. Figure 27. The SNA RAS Sender Address Properties dialog box.
4.	Select the Schedule tab, as shown in Figure 28. As you can see, by default the sender is available for all priority send requests at all times. Select the time period you want to modify by highlighting it using the mouse. In the Availability list, select the appropriate option: Open For All Priorities, Allow Medium And High Priority, Allow High Priority Only, Closed. The priority of a send request such as a package is set when the package is created. Choose Closed for periods when you don’t want the sender to send anything, such as during regular backup times. If there are multiple addresses to a target site, SMS will automatically choose the next sender in order of priority (based on the Relative Address Priority setting in the General tab) if the current sender is unavailable for some reason. Select the Unavailable To Substitute For Inoperative Addresses check box to prevent this sender from being used as an alternative sender (used when a higher priority sender is in use or unavailable.) Figure 28. The Schedule tab of the Standard Sender Address Properties dialog box.
5.	Select the Rate Limits tab, as shown in Figure 29. Notice that by default SMS can use as much bandwidth as it wants when transferring data to the target site. Select the Limited To Specified Maximum Transfer Rates By Hour option and highlight the period of time you want to modify using the mouse. In the Rate Limit For Selected Time Period frame, select a preferred bandwidth percentage from the drop-down list. Figure 29. The Rate Limits tab.
6.	Click OK to create the address.

If multiple addresses exist for a target site, the order of priority in which SMS will use them to connect to the target site is the order in which the addresses were created. This is known as the relative address priority—that is, the priority of one address relative to another. You can change the relative priority of an address by right-clicking one of the addresses in the address pane of the SMS Administrator Console and choosing either Increment Priority or Decrement Priority from the context menu. If you have only one address listed, the priority options will be dimmed.

Multiple addresses to the same target site provide SMS with alternative ways of connecting to a site and transferring data if one sender is busy or unavailable. This flexibility can improve performance in the sending process, but with one caveat. You can install only one sender of each type on the same site server. For example, you can’t install two Standard Senders on the same site server, but you can install the Standard Sender once on as many component site systems as you want.

Identifying the Parent Site

Before you identify a site’s parent, you must have created an address to that parent site. The child site will use that address to connect to the parent and transfer its site control information—including the fact that the parent now has a new child site. You can then set the parent site by following these steps:

The site configuration change process includes not only updating the child site with the new parent site information but also sending data to the parent site and updating the parent site’s database and site control information. This process shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, but factors such as the resource capabilities of both the child and parent sites, available bandwidth, and other database activity will affect the length of time it takes for the parent-child relationship to be established and “recognized” by both parent and child. When you first create the address entry for the parent or the child, the site entry should include the site code and should indicate that the site name is unknown. After the relationship has been established and site control data has been transferred, this information will be updated to reflect the actual site name of the addressed site.

You can follow the flow of the site configuration change process and the transfer of information that takes place by monitoring the status messages that the SMS components record at each point in the process. . Table 1 lists the SMS components and the status messages that relate to this process.

You can also monitor the log files associated with the appropriate SMS components for information regarding the flow of this process if you have enabled logging for those components. These log files can be found in the directory SMS\Logs and include Hman.log (Hierarchy Manager), Sched.log (Scheduler), Sender.log (Sender), DDM.log (Discovery Data Manager), or Replmgr.log (Replication Manager), depending on which components you have enabled logging for.