Dell have updated their Inventory tool for managing Dell computers using SMS 2003 (SP1 or later). This will enable you to manage BIOS versions, Dell management software and drivers using SMS 2003 on Dell computers.
It uses the old Inventory Tool method:
- An advertisement runs a synchronisation tool that downloads a catalog.
- You approve updates for deployment – this creates a package to be deployed to clients.
- An inventory tool runs on SMS clients (via an advertisement) to download and install the update packages.
I wonder if Dell and HP have started looking at Configuration Manager 2007? It doesn’t natively use the Inventory Tool approach for software updates. Instead it uses Deployment Packages and a new Client Agent. 3rd party catalogs can be imported into CM 2007 using the System Center Updates Publishing tool … it’s similar to the Custom Update Publishing Tool in SMS 2003 R2’s Inventory Tool for Custom Updates.