Brief Explanation
SMS Software Distribution
Software distribution via SMS involves,
- Having a Distribution Point. This is where all your Source for the distribution are to stay. Usually, this will be the same machine where SMS Primary site is installed.
- Creation of a Distribution Package from MSI or EXE. Installations can be customized and distributed too. For example, there are several ways that one can customize Microsoft Office 2003 installation.
- Once the Package is ready, we need to Advertise to SMS Clients that a new Software Package is ready for deployment. We can also schedule the deployment. Based on the installation type, the software would be installed in the Client.
Its quite interesting to see live how this works
It is always good to know how the Softwares installed are being used frequently by the Users, so that we could optimize on Licensing Issues. Software Metering helps us to track the Usage of the Applications
To enable Software Metering , we have to,
- Enable the Software Metering Agent
- Create Software Metering Rules
- Now , As soon as the Software Metering Rule is saved, that would start acting on the Clients or they can also re-scheduled to do so
- The Usage Data can be easily viewed using SMS Reporting












