Site Boundary Planning

SMS sites are bounded by site boundaries. Site boundaries are defined by IP subnets, Active Directory site names, or both. Clients are assigned to an SMS site based on their IP address or Active Directory site name and by the SMS site boundary configuration. Consequently, an essential part of the deployment planning process is determining the appropriate site boundaries for your SMS site. Use the Site Boundary Planning worksheet in the Deployment Planning guide to help you identify and organize possible SMS site boundaries.

Figure 1.6 can help you identify possible boundaries for your site.

Figure 1.6   Site boundary planning flowchart

[This is AltText:]Flowchart outlining questions that can help you determine possible boundaries for your SMS site.

Legacy Clients are included in an SMS site if their IP address or Active Directory site name is within the site boundaries that the SMS administrator has configured for the SMS site.

Note

Legacy Clients running the Microsoft Windows® 98 or Windows NT 4.0 operating system can use only IP subnets for the SMS site boundaries.

It is recommended that subnets or Active Directory sites not be contained in more than one SMS site. Overlapping boundaries produce undefined results in SMS. Assign clients to only one SMS site.

Note

Site boundaries are used to assign clients to a site. They are not used to specify which computers are assigned site system roles for the site. SMS site systems do not have to be located within a site’s boundaries. SMS Advanced Clients are able to communicate with site systems that are members of another site in the SMS hierarchy. For more information, view the animation Roaming in SMS 2003 or read the white paper Configuration and Operation of Advanced Client Roaming, both available from the SMS 2003 Product Documentation Web site https://www.microsoft.com/smserver/techinfo/productdoc.

Advanced Clients have the ability to roam. Roaming is the ability to move a computer that is running the SMS Advanced Client, from one IP subnet or Active Directory site to another. For example, roaming occurs when you remove a laptop from its network connection at work and plug it into a dial-up connection (or other Internet service provider connection) in your home or elsewhere. Roaming also occurs when you unplug your laptop from its network connection in your office, walk down the hallway to a conference room, and connect the laptop to your organization’s wireless network using a wireless network card.

Roaming always involves an IP address change on the client. Roaming allows mobile clients to move to different SMS sites while they are still being managed by SMS and still receiving their software distribution packages. If you configure roaming boundaries appropriately, SMS site systems and SMS clients use network bandwidth with maximum efficiency.

For a complete discussion about roaming boundaries, view the animation Roaming in SMS 2003 or read the white paper Configuration and Operation of Advanced Client Roaming, both available from the SMS 2003 Product Documentation Web site https://www.microsoft.com/smserver/techinfo/productdoc.