SMS: Despooler Force Disconnect Setting Alters Directory Rights

ID: Q182414

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Systems Management Server version 1.2

SYMPTOMS

In earlier versions of Systems Management Server, if a file which is contained in a package is being used during a package refresh, when the file is copied to the distribution servers, the copy operation may fail.

Systems Management Server retries the package installation 100 times over a period of a week. If the file is still open during this time, the delivery of the package fails.

CAUSE

The Systems Management Server Despooler force disconnect logic requires that it removes the users access and rights to the directory to prevent users from accessing the package. However, because the share already exists, it does not restore the directory rights after updating the files.

WORKAROUND

The only workaround at this time is to manually change the NTFS file permissions on each distribution server for that shared package directory.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Systems Management Server version 1.2. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. service pack for Systems Management Server version 1.2. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

S E R V P A C K

MORE INFORMATION

To enable guaranteed package delivery, the Systems Management Server administrator must change the value in the following registry key to 1:


   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\SMS\Components\SMS_DESPOOLER
   \Use Forced Disconnect

NOTE: The above registry key is one path; it has been wrapped for readability.

This is a site-wide property. You cannot enable this setting per package distribution. You can also change the "Forced Disconnection Delay In Minutes" and "Number of Retries Before Forced Disconnection" registry values.

However, when using the "Use Force Disconnect" setting, Systems Management Server Despooler will not preserve the NTFS file permissions for the shared package directory. It will be changed to:

<SMS Service Account> - Full Control.

Domain Users will no longer have access to that share and will, therefore, be unable to run the application.

Additional query words: prodsms

Keywords : smsdespooler kbfix1.20.sp4 kbbug1.20
Version : winnt:1.2
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug