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How to customize Microsoft SMS
- Thread starter lalberti
- Start date
Two best bets are Microsoft's SMS site and
What are you looking to do exactly?
Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2000
If your company is in need of experts to examine technical problems/solutions, please check out
What are you looking to do exactly?
Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2000
If your company is in need of experts to examine technical problems/solutions, please check out
- Thread starter
- #3
Well, I'd like to:
- customize sms database adding table & fields (where can I get the database model?)
- make my own reports using crystal reports
- getting sms object model, if any exist
- in general, getting documentation about making custom solution based on SMS
Luca ALBERTI
RAMCube S.r.l.
- customize sms database adding table & fields (where can I get the database model?)
- make my own reports using crystal reports
- getting sms object model, if any exist
- in general, getting documentation about making custom solution based on SMS
Luca ALBERTI
RAMCube S.r.l.
Yeah, I think would be your best bet.
Edit MOF
SMS Knowledge Base:
Hope this helps... Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2000
If your company is in need of experts to examine technical problems/solutions, please check out
Edit MOF
SMS Knowledge Base:
Hope this helps... Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2000
If your company is in need of experts to examine technical problems/solutions, please check out
There are not too many ways to customize SMS itself but there are add-ons and reporting options. Here are a few.
For getting data, the best customization is through MOF extensions. The basic SMS MOF (SMS_def.mof) instructs the clients what to capture during hardware inventory. The basic functionality is through WMI (a Microsoft "enhanced" industry standard repository that the SMS client installs). WMI reports nearly everything about the client. The SMS resource kit has a tool for editing the MOF by turning on and off what is collected. You can also create a custom mof to collect anything out of the registry or whatever you want. I don't know of a good reference for MOF editing but I'm sure something is out there.
There are add-ons to the SMS admin console such as Alita Snap Reports. This puts a customizable pretty face on your SMS queries and collections.
When it comes to customizing reporting against the SMS database then you're somewhat on your own. Microsoft doesn't officially support queries against the database outside of Web Reports, SMS Extract and Admin Console. Neither do they publish a data model or schema for the SMS tables. The closest thing available that I've found is which can also be found in the Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Resource Guide (out of print but available used).
If you choose to do reporting against the SMS database using, say, Access, you can either 1) use the WBEM ODBC driver (slow but safe) or 2) set up an account on the SMS server to do straight ODBC (you should really know what you're doing to go this path). Since the SMS table structure is subject to change (but the views should stay more static) I'd do your reporting against the views. This is fast enough in all cases except for the software view, which is a view of a view of a view. You'll get a lot more views if you install Microsoft Web Reports for SMS.
The views will have different names depending upon whether you're seeing the WMI name or the ODBC name. Through WMI (admin console or WBEM ODBC) you'll see a view as SMS_G_System something in most cases. Through ODBC or in the database itself you'll see a view as v_GS_ something.
Here are just some of the views you'll care about (WMI names):
SMS_R_System (The main view. All others star off of this.)
SMS_G_System_OPERATING_SYSTEM
SMS_G_System_PC_BIOS
SMS_G_System_COMPUTER_SYSTEM
SMS_G_System_DISK
SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK
SMS_G_System_PARTITION
SMS_G_System_VIDEO
SMS_G_System_NETWORK_ADAPTER
SMS_G_System_NETWORK_ADAPTER_CONFIGURATION
SMS_G_System_NETWORK_CONNECTION
SMS_G_System_PROCESSOR
SMS_G_System_SoftwareFile
SMS_G_System_SoftwareProduct
SMS_G_System_ENVIRONMENT (Not available by default. Must edit default MOF)
SMS_G_System_PC_CASE_TYPE
Come back to Tek-Tips with more questions as they arise.
More resources: thread22-150985
For getting data, the best customization is through MOF extensions. The basic SMS MOF (SMS_def.mof) instructs the clients what to capture during hardware inventory. The basic functionality is through WMI (a Microsoft "enhanced" industry standard repository that the SMS client installs). WMI reports nearly everything about the client. The SMS resource kit has a tool for editing the MOF by turning on and off what is collected. You can also create a custom mof to collect anything out of the registry or whatever you want. I don't know of a good reference for MOF editing but I'm sure something is out there.
There are add-ons to the SMS admin console such as Alita Snap Reports. This puts a customizable pretty face on your SMS queries and collections.
When it comes to customizing reporting against the SMS database then you're somewhat on your own. Microsoft doesn't officially support queries against the database outside of Web Reports, SMS Extract and Admin Console. Neither do they publish a data model or schema for the SMS tables. The closest thing available that I've found is which can also be found in the Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Resource Guide (out of print but available used).
If you choose to do reporting against the SMS database using, say, Access, you can either 1) use the WBEM ODBC driver (slow but safe) or 2) set up an account on the SMS server to do straight ODBC (you should really know what you're doing to go this path). Since the SMS table structure is subject to change (but the views should stay more static) I'd do your reporting against the views. This is fast enough in all cases except for the software view, which is a view of a view of a view. You'll get a lot more views if you install Microsoft Web Reports for SMS.
The views will have different names depending upon whether you're seeing the WMI name or the ODBC name. Through WMI (admin console or WBEM ODBC) you'll see a view as SMS_G_System something in most cases. Through ODBC or in the database itself you'll see a view as v_GS_ something.
Here are just some of the views you'll care about (WMI names):
SMS_R_System (The main view. All others star off of this.)
SMS_G_System_OPERATING_SYSTEM
SMS_G_System_PC_BIOS
SMS_G_System_COMPUTER_SYSTEM
SMS_G_System_DISK
SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK
SMS_G_System_PARTITION
SMS_G_System_VIDEO
SMS_G_System_NETWORK_ADAPTER
SMS_G_System_NETWORK_ADAPTER_CONFIGURATION
SMS_G_System_NETWORK_CONNECTION
SMS_G_System_PROCESSOR
SMS_G_System_SoftwareFile
SMS_G_System_SoftwareProduct
SMS_G_System_ENVIRONMENT (Not available by default. Must edit default MOF)
SMS_G_System_PC_CASE_TYPE
Come back to Tek-Tips with more questions as they arise.
More resources: thread22-150985
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