Free Download: CBT Nuggets Exam-Pack 70-089: Planning, Deploying, and Managing Microsoft SMS 2003

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Apr 23

CBT Nuggets Exam-Pack 70-089: Planning, Deploying, and Managing Microsoft SMS 2003

Published at Wednesday 23 April 2008 @ 9:23 pm by Admin

For network admins, Microsoft’s Systems Management Server (SMS) is one of those things that you don’t know you need until you get it… and then you can’t live without it.

SMS makes it easy to survey and inventory the software and hardware on your network. Then you can deploy and update software on client machines, offer remote assistance, monitor the health of your network, even install operating systems, and a whole lot more. And it all integrates with the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 infrastructure.

But it takes more than a snap of your fingers to get it all right. Previous versions of SMS had a reputation that it can be difficult to do things right, and sometimes it’s way too easy to do things wrong. While SMS 2003 is an improvement on what was there before, there’s still a learning curve to using SMS successfully. Lucky for you, this training shortens your learning curve tremendously.

Instructor Greg Shields has years of experience working with SMS, on every version since 2.0. He knows all the fundamentals plus the expert tips, tricks, and secrets to getting SMS to purr like a kitten.

In this series, Greg takes you through the same process you’ll follow from not having an SMS infrastructure up to having a fully-managed SMS infrastructure–including what you need to know along the way to get the biggest benefits from the core SMS components plus useful add-on feature packs.

Here’s what you’ll learn in the videos:

Get a quick overview of the reasons why SMS makes your life as a network admin easier, plus get a primer for what you’ll be expected to know on the SMS 2003 70-089 exam. (Video 1)
Planning is the most important aspect of your SMS installation–go through all the factors to consider before you even think about installation, including hardware and software requirements. Then install SMS to your Windows Server, walking along with Greg through the important installation decisions. Finally, make Active Directory ready for SMS by extending the schema. (Video 2)
Even once you’ve installed SMS you’re not quite ready to go. It’s time to configure site system roles, sites (including parent, child, primary, secondary, and central sites), boundaries, and roaming in SMS before you can actually get in and start working. (Video 3)
Configure SMS to discover fundamental information about everything connected to your network, using one or more of the seven types of discovery SMS allows. Plus understand the difference between discovery and inventory, and what types of information each gets you. (Video 4)
Install SMS clients to workstations on your network–know which types of clients to use, which functions are available from the different client agents, when and why to use the different installation executables that are available, and methods you can use to install clients across your network, plus interact with clients from your server once they are installed. (Video 5)
Learn exactly what hardware and software are installed on client machines by collecting custom inventory information. Then view this information, uncovering useful data such as which clients have a specific network adapter or un-patched version of software. Finally, configure metering and understand the difference between the information you get from metering and the information you get from inventory. (Video 6)
Make management of multiple clients easier by grouping clients into collections based on parameters you define–including defining collections in a way that they update automatically as your network resources change. Then use queries, reports, and dashboards to interact with, view, and share this information. (Video 7)
Learn the “art” of creating good software packages to distribute software to clients. Learn how packages, programs, and advertisements all factor in to getting the software installed on the client machines–and how they all work together in SMS to make software deployment extremely flexible. (Video Cool
Secure your SMS deployment using class and instance rights. Also, configure and use remote assistance to troubleshoot client computers from your desktop. (Video 9)
Control software updates and patching through SMS, including agent-based and agent-less patching tools, plus compliance-based patching processes. Then, set up software updates using the Security Update Inventory Tool (SUIT) and go through the four-step process of actually doing a software update: synching, scanning, patching, and reporting. (Video 10)
Keeping clients healthy may be the most difficult part of managing your SMS infrastructure. Understand client health, the client health service, and the client health database. Then install the client health tool, and use the ping and pulse tools to identify which clients are “healthy” and which clients are not–plus generate reports on client health network-wide. (Video 11)
Speed up the deployment of operating systems using the OSD feature pack. This video takes you through all the steps: create an image capture CD, capture an operating system image, create the image deployment CD, and then deploy the image. Plus, learn what actions you can take after the deployment to get the deployed system up and running as quick as possible. (Video 12)
Use SMS’s inventory and software deployment features on Windows Mobile devices, with the help up the Device Management Feature Pack (DMFP). (Video 13)
Maintain your SMS database to keep your infrastructure healthy using SQL commands and built-in tasks. Backup your data to protect against disaster, and understand the purpose of both the smsbkup.log and smsbkup.ctl files. If disaster strikes, learn how to restore a site using the Recovery Expert and the Site Repair Wizard. (Video 14)
Wrap up your SMS knowledge with miscellaneous topics you need to know, including which SMS logs and inboxes are important, understanding System Status and Status Message Queries, a review of SMS Toolkit 2 and some of the useful tools it contains, plus a final exam review to get you ready to certify your SMS skills. (Video 15)
On-the-job skills for Systems Management Server plus exam prep for MCP, MCSE

Exam-Pack 70-089: Planning, Deploying, and Managing Microsoft SMS 2003 shows you how to use SMS 2003 to make your job as a network admin easier. It also maps to exam objectives for Microsoft exam 70-089, which earns you Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) certification on SMS 2003 and gives you elective credit toward Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification on Windows Server 2003.

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CBT Nuggets Exam-Pack 70-089: Planning, Deploying, and Managing Microsoft SMS 2003

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