SMS Does Not Report BIOS Information on Windows NT Systems

• Microsoft Systems Management Server versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2

SYMPTOMS

When Systems Management Server inventories MS-DOS systems, the BIOS information is reported. However, Systems Management Server currently does not report the BIOS information for systems running Windows NT.

CAUSE

Systems Management Server collects inventory properties for computers running Windows NT by examining the system registry. With Windows NT 3.1 and 3.5, the system BIOS was not reported in the registry, and Systems Management Server could not query the BIOS directly due to the hardware abstraction that is a part of Windows NT. Since the BIOS information was not available, Systems Management Server was not designed to report BIOS information on computers running Windows NT.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Systems Management Server versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2. A supported fix is now available for version 1.2 only, but has not been fully regression-tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. Unless you are severely impacted by this specific problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Service Pack that contains this fix. Contact Microsoft Technical Support for more information.

MORE INFORMATION

With Windows NT 4.0 and above, the BIOS information is reported in the registry. The registry value that Systems Management Server will query is located in \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware\Description\System.

With the hotfix installed, Systems Management Server will query the new registry values SystemBiosVersion and SystemBiosDate. If the values exist, Systems Management Server will report the BIOS information contained in the registry.

The current Systems Management Server Windows NT Inventory Processor cannot report the BIOS information directly, due to the current architectural limitation in the RAW file format. To work around this current limitation, the BIOS information is written to the Noidbios.mif file, located in the client's MS\SMS\Noidmifs directory. This information will then be collected by the standard Inventory Agent file collection process, and reported to the site server.