Day 9: Heartbeat Discovery

So I’m ready to install ITMU on my test setup and I get to the point where it asks for a sync client. I decide to use the site server (against Microsoft advice, but it’s the way our production environment is currently configured). My problem is that the ITMU setup says that my site server is not a client. I double check the All Systems collection and I see it. But upon closer inspection the Site Code column is empty and the Client column says No. In fact is also says this for my actual xp client machine that is in the test domain. So I run ccmsetup.exe from \\siteserver\smsclient\i386 . Client is installed. Start>Control panel>Systems Management. On the advanced tab, the currently assigned to site code field is empty. I click discover. Viola! It discovers my test site. Switch back to the SMS console>Collections>All Systems. No change. How disappointing. F5. No Change. More disappointed. Right click>All tasks>Update Collection Membership. No Change. This is starting to bother me. Right click on the client>Trigger Discovery Data (you need the right click tools installed for this option to be available). Get the Right click tools from Stuart Watret at http://offshore-it.co.uk/ . Still No Change. Back to the client>Systems Management>Actions tab> Hardware Inventory Cycle> Initiate Action. Come back an hour later. No Change. I go back and forth before I put my time tested Googling skills to use. Google: collections client no sms installed. 4^th link down has the answer. It’s the heartbeat discovery. Not really sure how it differs from the AD System Discovery but it does. SMS console>Site Settings>Discovery Methods>Heartbeat Discovery>Right Click>Properties. It’s enabled, but by default set to once every 7 days. Since this is my test site, switch it to once every hour. Back on the client side> actions tab> Discovery Data Collection Cycle> Initiate Action. Back to the Site Server. Collections>All Systems>All tasks>Update Collection Membership. Ahhhh. Sweet SMS goodness. Instantly the two systems show up as assigned, client = yes, client type = advanced, etc. It all looks good. Back to ITMU!

I really need to get the SMS administrators book and figure out how all this should work.