Over the weekend, I took the plunge, and upgraded my home SMS server to the Beta 2 release.

I was at SMS 2003 SP3 beta (he he).

I did a good backup, and ran the setup.

I was impressed by the new setup wizard, and the prerequisite checker.  However, I would like to see either the required hotfixes included, or links to the hotfixes.  One of the hotfixes mentioned was available only by PSS (Windows Server 2003 Post-Service Pack 1 COM+ 1.5 Hotfix Rollup Package 6).  The MMC 3.0 hotfix was easy enough to find.

The setup steps were simplified, due to the upgrade.  I did like that the setup actually showed the install tasks in serial order, instead of flashing by on the screen.

The new console does have a consolidated feel, and not a mashup of feature packs and technologies.

Overall, the console has the same feel as previous, just more additions.

Some other new/noticeable enhancements.

• Boundaries can be subnet, AD site, or IP Range.
• Certificates node
• Accounts node
• Approve/Blocking of clients.  This doesn't seem to be fully implemented as of yet.
• AssetMatrix is included,

I did notice an issue, and that was adding a new Remote Client Installation account seemed to crash the MMC.  I have heard that you cannot have two accounts with the same name and different passwords (such as "Administrator"), and the MS response is "We're not fixing it".

I'll post more when i work with this some more.