SMS Questions

1. How would you set up an SMS environment with 200 mobiles users, 1000 central users, and 500 remote users in 5 different sites with varying connection speeds. Have them give specifics like how many secondary sites, DPs, MPs, etc would be used or suggested and then have them justify the answer.

2. It is very important to get an SMS admin that understands the internals of how SMS works in addition to how, on the surface, to use SMS.

3. Describe in technical detail how inventory gets from my laptop to an SMS web report.”

4. Specifics about inventory files & folders, MOF, WMI, Provider, SQL & IIS.

5. What are boundaries? What types of sites are there? what is a Sender? What is a proxy management point?...

6. You setup 20 new secondary sites at your last job, tell me why you would create a secondary site rather than a primary site or just no site at all?" ,

7. At your last job you say the environment was in advanced security mode? How did that help you with you job? What was required for that? How did that change things from regular security?" ...

8. Names of log files, experience with doing troubleshooting, where to find info, where things are located, requirements for certain things BITS, MP, RP, etc...


9. Give two examples of how you would uninstall the MP (assuming you have the 2003tookit installed)?


10. Give different examples of how to automate advanced client installs, and the pros and cons of each one:


11. How would you automate the SMS client installaiton on the client machines? When you connect your PC into network, the SMS client must be automatically installed on it

12. How to do Mac address based imaging via the SMS server


13. The sms client is also dependent on what other windows service?

14. You check and notice a few machines have not inventoried recently what might you check for?

15. Explain roaming

16. Explain the new features of service pack 1

17. I want to distribute office 2003 to 5000 desktops what would you do?

18. 1000 of those distributions failed how would you go about trouble shooting?

19. What would you do when your SMS database becomes SUSPECT.

20. How to use the recovery tools, sms backup, SQL commands, services, service accounts, and how not to freak out in an emergency situation

21. What daily maintenance do you do on your site??


22. What weekly maintenance do you do on your site?


23. What periodic maintenance do you do on your site??



24. Explain how SMS uses IIS to send policy


25. Explain how SMS works in a primary/child relationship, (collections, queries, etc)


26. Explain how you would troubleshoot a web reports not working

27. A workstation is a SMS client and although you have added the workstation to a software deployment group, the application and core advertisement do not install. Describe the steps you would take to troubleshoot the client before you called the SMS Admin.

28. Where can you go to see the success and or failures of an advertised package?

29. How would you know if your management point is down? What logs would you look at and what possible tools would you use?

30. What does the Execmgr.log, CAS.log and LocationServices.log files each tell you?

31. If you are unsure if a particular patch has been applied to the SMS client during the monthly patch deployment, where would you find the log file for a specific KB update on that workstation? Also, what is the name of the log file?

32. Say that your entire site is not receiving packages. What do you do?

33. What are the proper steps to remove and reinstall the SMS client? Also, where is the client software located?

34. A package has been advertised to one of your SMS clients. The package is set to download to the client but never installs. You notice an error in the CAS.log file where “hash does not meet expected”. What does that mean and how can it be fixed?

35. What does it mean when you go into the Control panel and look in the SMS Run Advertised Programs and the window is blank?

36. What tool(s) can you use to see what the status is of all advertisements on a specified workstation? There are 2 that we use.

37. How can you run an advertisement again for one workstation?

38. What is the SMS Toolkit as provided by Microsoft?

39. An AD group has been created for a new package. You add the first workstation to the group and you notice the SMS collection does not update with the workstation name, thus the package doe not install. What is the most likely reason?

40. When you RIS a workstation that has already been a SMS client, should you delete the workstation in SMS before you RIS the computer?

41. What does it mean when you have a computer that shows up twice and one says it’s “obsolete”? What does Obsolete mean? What if you had 2 workstations listed and neither were obsolete? How would you know which one to keep and which one to delete?

42. What is the default size of the SMS cache on the clients by Microsoft? What does the cache do and how can you increase the size? Why is the size important

43. How would you manage the patch lifecycle for the operating system?

44. How would you manage the application lifecycle (including patch distribution)?

45. How would you configure SMS to support various business groups? ie. order desk, help desk, desktop support, business analysts, management, etc.

46. Workstation imaging/reimaging/recovery...

47. How many sites and site servers do you have?

48. How many clients do you have (total and average per site)?

49. How do you staff your SMS infrastructure?

50. What feature helps you most?

51. What feature gives you the most headache?

52. collecting custom data elements non-standard to SMS with custom scripting

53. custom reporting using SQL enterprise / MS Access

54. name a couple 3rd party tools that integrate with SMS 2003 (ie. 1E, MonInfo, SMSExpert, SMSClientSpy)

55. High level process for standing up a single site and deploying clients. See if they understand basic order of things like adding roles, setting the boundaries, configuring agents, discoveries, etc

56. What do you mean by MIF?

57. The two SMS DPS are on the same lan segment you are distributing one package to both DPs One dp get updated on 2 mins where as the other dp took 8 mins ??? where you goona find out the problem (Answer from SMS perspective no permision issues)

58. If you want to have SMS hierarchy in cross forest infrastucture what all consideration you need to take care ??

59. What remains uncleaned with Ccmclean??? or what all process you goona follow for removing the client from worksation all possibilities with sequence , ccmclean, msiexec /x ect ect

60. Why the backlogs being created in the site server ???

61. what all are WMI classess ??

62. What log you goona check for one software distribution in site server ???

63. What is the relationship of sms and wmi ? how abt this relationship in terms of the SMS client and WMI ??

64. What WMi Version the SMS 2003 Sp2 use or which is the miniumum version of the WMI is required for sms client .

65. The Status messages from the secondary site servers are not coming to the primary site server

Case A;- When the status messages from all secondary site servers associated with the particular Primary site server is not coming

Case B : Couple of them are not sending it over

66. In the cross forest design can you configure any site system role in the forest where you dont have sms hierarchy in the place ?? How do you register MP, SLP in WINS database as per one of the requistes in cross forest design .

67. Differences between WBEM and WMI

68. Why the ITMU cab name is changed recently ?? Or otherway around how many records does the new cab support ??