SMS: How to Reduce SMS Accounts Required for Installation on Large Windows NT Domains

ID: Q235169

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

In Systems Management Server configurations where many sites share the same domain, a large number of Systems Management Server accounts are created. For each Systems Management Server site, a unique client connection account (SMSClient_XXX) and server connection account (SMSServer_XXX) account is created. For example, in a domain where 500 Systems Management Server primary and secondary sites exist, 1000 client connection and server connection accounts will be created.

In such a configuration, it may be desirable to limit the creation of such a large number of accounts.


WORKAROUND

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Systems Management Server 2.0. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q236325 How to Obtain the Latest Systems Management Server 2.0 Service Pack


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Systems Management Server 2.0. This problem was first corrected in Systems Management Server 2.0 Service Pack Service Pack 1.


MORE INFORMATION

Systems Management Server 2.0 Service Pack 1 provides a setup command-line method of manually specifying the client connection and server connection accounts that will be used in the domain.

The accounts must already exist and have the proper rights. When the accounts are manually specified, the Setup program won't create the default SMSServer_XXX and SMSClient_XXX accounts.

The syntax of the setup command is as follows: 


setup /ServerAccount DOMAIN\<account> /ServerPassword <password> /ClientAccount DOMAIN\<account> /ClientPassword <password>
For example, when installing a site, you want the Setup program to use MyDomain\SMSServerAcct (password Elvis1) as the server connection account and MyDomain\SMSClientAcct (password Elvis2) as the client connection account. You can invoke the Setup program using the following syntax: 

setup /ServerAccount MyDomain\SMSServerAcct /ServerPassword Elvis1 /ClientAccount MyDomain\SMSClientAcct /ClientPassword Elvis2
However, to use the command-line argument, you must run the Setup program directly from the CD-ROM. Therefore, specifying a pre-created server and client connection account is not possible for remote secondary site setup.

To specify accounts for a secondary site:

Create an .ini file called SMSAccountSetup.ini in the %WINNT%\system32 directory of the targeted secondary site server. The .ini file lists the server and client account information in the following format: 

[ServerAccount]
Name=SMSServer
Password=Elvis1

[ClientAccount]
Name=SMSClient
Password=Elvis2
When the Setup program is started, it reads the SMSAccountSetup.ini file from the %WINNT%\system32 directory. The accounts specified in the .ini file will be treated the same as the /ServerAccount and the /ClientAccount command-line arguments and the default SMSServer_XXX and SMSClient_XXX accounts will not be created.

If there is any need to reset a site, run the Setup program with the same command line to manually specify the accounts again:

setup /ServerAccount DOMAIN\<account> /ServerPassword <password> /ClientAccount DOMAIN\<account> /ClientPassword <password>.
Otherwise, the default server and client connection accounts will be created.

To change the password for the pre-created server or client connection account, run the Setup program with the same command line as the initial installation, this time specifying the new passwords.

Additional query words: prodsms setup account 


Keywords          : kbSMS200 kbSMS200bug kbSMS120 kbSMS120bug 
Version           : winnt:2.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: July 23, 1999