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Network Trace

Some of you might work with an SNMP management application. These types of applications are used to map out and monitor IP-addressable hardware devices such as routers, switches, and printers. Often they can provide you with a graphical map of what your network infrastructure looks like.

The Network Trace utility is similar in that it can help you map out and monitor your SMS site system structure—kind of like “SNMP-lite.” This utility provides the following:

You can access this utility through the SMS Administrator Console by navigating to the Site Systems folder under Site Settings and right-clicking any site system. Choose All Tasks and then Start Network Trace. A site map similar to that shown in Figure 6.9 is generated.

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Figure 6.9: The SMS site system infrastructure Network Trace view.

In this particular mapping, there is only one site system, called SQL1. We can see that it is has been assigned the site system roles of site server, client access point, distribution point, management point, reporting point, and server locator point. It’s also the server running SQL and is part of the subnet 192.168.1.0.

The Network Trace interface is fairly easy to navigate. You can, of course, print the map, which is actually quite convenient, especially for documentation purposes. You can switch between Trace view and Site view. Trace view is the default view, as displayed in Figure 6.9. Site view reconfigures the map to show all the elements of the site. You can also zoom in and out to view the map more easily or with more detail.

The monitoring aspect of this utility comes on the Tools menu. There are two connectivity check options: Ping All Servers And Routers and Ping Selected Servers And Routers. Either option generates a network connectivity check to determine whether the site systems can be accessed across the network. The result is a green check mark on top of each site system that was successfully accessed, as shown in Figure 6.10, and a red X on top of those that couldn’t be accessed.

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Figure 6.10: The Trace View displaying site systems successfully accessed across the network.

There is also a component check option. By clicking a given site system in the Network Trace map window and then selecting Tools, Poll Components of Selected Server(s), a Component Poller window similar to that shown in Figure 6.11 is displayed. In this window you can click a specific component or several components and then click Poll Selected to check the running status of particular SMS components on that particular site system, or you can check the running status of all components by clicking Poll All. Figure 6.11 shows the result of clicking Poll All. The status of each component is listed along with the last time it was polled, the name of the site system, and whether the component is a service or a thread.

In this example you can see that there are two components SMS_NETWORK_ DISCOVERY and SMS_SITE_BACKUP—that indicate a status of “Stopped.” This doesn’t necessarily indicate a problem with the component. In this case these components run at predetermined schedules and at the time of the poll were simply not scheduled to run. As you might be discerning at this point, a component’s status as displayed here might or might not be indicative of a problem with the component. To get to that next level of information, the savvy SMS administrator would check the status messages for those components and perhaps the log files to determine whether a problem exists.

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Figure 6.11: Network Trace Component Poller dialog box.

But then, the purpose of this utility is to convey a high-level view of the status and mapping of an SMS site and its site systems. It’s one more tool—a neat one, at that—available for SMS administrators as they balance day-to-day administration with the wider issues of site structure, connectivity, and interaction.



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