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Nancy Winnick Cluts
November 1998
Contents
Y2K Resources
How Does SMS 2.0 Deal With Y2K Compliance?
SMS 2.0 and Y2K Hardware Compliance
How Does Beta 2 Actually Check Y2K Compliance?
What About SMS 1.2?
SMS 2.0 Y2K Tips
Where Do I Go From Here?
Much has been written about the anticipated problems associated with the year 2000. No, I'm not some end-of-the-world soothsayer suggesting that you stockpile Spam. What I'm talking about are the little glitches that you might experience with your computer software once we get to '00. What do I mean by '00? Did I mean 1900 or 2000? How could you tell? Well, in this article you can probably guess via the context of the sentence; however, if you were a computer, you might not have a clue.
The Year 2000 (Y2K) problem is a result of computer programmers saving bytes. I will admit that I worked on software over ten years ago (stop trying to guess my age, whippersnapper!) in which I saved the year in two digits. Back when I wrote that software, I had to make my code fit into a very small space, and every byte counted (don't you wish today's programmers cared so much about software bloat?). In fact, I added code that assumed 00 meant 2000. My code didn't need to handle dates before 1980, so I added 1900 to every two-digit number over 79 and 2000 to every number less than 80. It will work until 2079, then you would run into problems. For the calendar program I wrote, I saved all four digits of the year. This program will work until the year 10,000. Of course, the computer that I wrote these programs for no longer exists in the civilized world (only in hacker homes where the acquisition of anachronistic machinery is hip), but there are many companies who use software in which the programmers saved only two digits to designate the year. They saved space then, but the company may pay for those bytes soon.
As a result, there is a burgeoning cottage industry of programmers who specialize in solving your Y2K software problems. There are utilities being written to scour source code for the offending problem, as well as other solutions being considered. One solution that may work for your company is to take advantage of the functionality of Microsoft® Systems Management Server (SMS). SMS helps you manage your network of Windows-based personal computers. You might have a network of 20 PCs in one location or a large network of Windows-based PCs that spans the globe. Either way, you can use SMS to manage and troubleshoot your network, as well as to deploy software on those desktops. You can also use SMS to help solve your Y2K problems. This article is based on David Hamilton and Eric Leonard's presentation, Using SMS to Solve Year 2000 Problems (INFRA 242), that was given at Microsoft Global Summit 98, July 24-July 30, 1998.
The first place to go to find out about Y2K and your Microsoft software is the Web site that was created especially for it: http://www.microsoft.com/y2k/ 
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At this Web site, you can read about Microsoft's plans to make its software work into the next millenium. You can take a look at the product database listing the level of Y2K compliance for each Microsoft product.Here you can view whether or not a product has been tested already and, in addition, if there are any issues with a product, those are listed. Finally, you can click over to the Y2K whitepapers for information to help you determine where you might have some problems, how to test for them, and how to solve them.
The Beta 2 version of SMS 2.0 includes a new feature for testing for Y2K software compliance: a database of applications and their respective compliance levels (compliant, non-compliant, or compliant with issues). This is the same database of information that was mentioned above, which can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/y2k/ . New databases from Microsoft or other vendors can also be added by the system administrator. When SMS is run to check for compliance, a series of reports on compliance are created by comparing the Y2K database against the software inventory on machines on the network.
SMS uses header information to collect a list of installed applications for PCs on the network. SMS loads a tab-delimited file from the Web site that represents the Y2K database listing compliance levels of applications. This database uses the header file format. The Y2K database can be extended so that items can be added directly to the database, compliance levels for applications can be changed (just in case somebody does an update), and whole new databases can be imported.
SMS provides some standard queries and reports that can be generated based on the comparison of the Y2K database with the installed software. Beta 2 contains four standard queries and one standard report. By the time SMS ships its retail version, more reports and queries will be provided. In addition, you will be able to create your own custom queries and reports.
SMS can upgrade non-compliant software as well. SMS uses the Y2K database to determine whether or not there is a software patch available. Y2K can then be queried to create a collection and a package containing a program and advertisement from the collection. A wizard is provided to facilitate this work.
If you thought that all you had to worry about with respect to the year 2000 was software, you also need to think about your current hardware. Hardware comes with firmware known as the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). The BIOS is responsible for the minimal services needed for the machine to communicate with its peripherals (CD-ROM drive, printer, and so on.). It also provides the beginning of the bootstrap process (in other words: boot), which is the process of initializing and loading the operating system. The BIOS is stored in the PC's ROM (read-only memory). If the BIOS that your computer runs is not Y2K compliant, you can also run into problems.
After Beta 2, the tool that checks for software compliance will be expanded to check whether or not the BIOS is also Y2K compliant. SMS collects information on BIOS levels for all PCs on the network. This information is also compared to a database; this one containing information of known BIOS problems. As with the Y2K software database, this BIOS database can be enhanced by custom queries and reports based on this comparison.
If you have a copy of the Beta 2 release of SMS 2.0, you can try out the Y2K tool. Bear in mind that this tool will be updated and improved before the final release of SMS 2.0. The first thing that you may want to look at is the Y2K database. This can be be found in SMS under the Site Database node. In this database you will see a list of Microsoft products and their respective compliance levels. This list is current as of Beta 2, but will be updated for the final release. If you wish to add an additional compliance database for software from other vendors, select the Y2K database node and click Import on the Action menu. Specify the name of the database in the dialog box. The format for the tab-delimited database file can be found on the Y2K Web site.
To do a comparison of your network software with the database, you need to do a query. The query node, Y2K Non-Compliant Software of Systems by Version, is off the SMS/Site Database/Queries node. You can run the query by selecting Run Query from the Action menu. Your query will run, and a window is displayed showing the results of the query.
Note By the final release of SMS 2.0, the format of the query will change.
If you are running SMS 1.2 and want the ability to check for Y2K issues, there are some things that you can do. SMS 1.2 already provides the ability to inventory the software and hardware on the machines on your network. SMS 1.2 can also be used to deploy the Y2K fixes that you have. There are some limitations to what you can do with SMS 1.2 and Y2K compliance. Specifically, the hardware inventory for the BIOS will work for you, but the software inventory is not based on header information. Instead, it is based on an audit file, so you need to know what information you are looking for, rather than getting information on all applications. In addition, there is no easy mapping provided for compliance status.
There are some Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) that provide some assistance to the problem: 
Computing Edge has a good software inventory for SMS, and Software Spectrum builds inventory services that can be extended to check for Y2K for SMS 1.2.
The Y2K tool for SMS 2.0 is a good start in your investigative work on Y2K issues on your network, but there are some limitations. SMS 2.0 uses header information to gather version information about an application, so if an application doesn't include versioning information in its header file or is a DOS application, you won't be able to use the tool to determine compliancy. Applications that are integrated with the operating system (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 on Microsoft Windows® 95 or on Microsoft Windows NT® 4 Service Pack 3) also will not be reported by the tool. Finally, new service packs or updated applications also may not have version information in the database. A workaround to this problem would be to update the database with the new information.
Now that you have an idea of what SMS can do for you to help you solve your Y2K problems, you probably would like some more specifics. To get specific information about SMS and Y2K, check out the Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/smsmgmt/support/whitepaper.asp . The Beta 2 Reviewers Guide has a section on Y2K that you might find helpful. If you aren't familiar with SMS, the Reviewers Guide is a great resource for information. You can download a compressed copy in Microsoft Word (DOC) format for your reading pleasure.
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