SMS 2003 - Packages - Time Zone Sync
In our environment, we use (most of the time) a single workstation image and then layer applications based on the division or department. Our imaging department creates these images, then uploads them to a central Ghost server for disbursement among the remote sites. On occasion, technicians in the remote sites fail to confirm the time zone information during setup. Kerberos security will prevent any remote administration of a machine which has its time information off by a significant amount. Typical symptoms of this include, but are not limited to:
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Cannot UNC into the affected machine by NetBios name, but can via IP.
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Cannot remote into the affected machine via DameWare, Radmin, etc.
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Cannot run remote batch or VBScripts on the affected machine.
This also will affect the operation of remote SMS 2003 operations, such as using the SMS Tools option kit, but the client workstations will still check into their assigned sites and pick up policies and thus will "seem" to operate normally. I discovered the time zone/sync problem in our environment when a couple of imaging workstations were joined to the domain and left on the network during the SMS discovery process, and thus had the SMS client installed. Within a week or so, machines from incorrect locations started populating the two sites where images are created. When I began to force site assignment changes, I received MANY "access denied" errors through the SMS Tools "Reassign Site Code" function. After conversing with local technicians from the affected sites, it was discovered that the time information was way off on these machines from which I received the "access denied" errors.
Considering the number of machines which were affected, manually adjusting the time information and reassigning the assigned site was out of the question. After reviewing the logs of one machine, I noticed that from an SMS perspective, everything seemed to be functioning normally. i.e. Packages were being deployed, etc. So I created collections which grouped the affected machines by correct site (they are named so I can do this) and created these four packages to deploy.
Time and Zone Sync Batch Files:
TZ_Arizona.bat
control.exe timedate.cpl,,/Z (GMT-07:00) Arizona
NET TIME /SET /YES
exit
TZ_Central.bat
control.exe timedate.cpl,,/Z Central Standard Time
NET TIME /SET /YES
exit
TZ_Eastern.bat
control.exe timedate.cpl,,/Z Eastern Standard Time
NET TIME /SET /YES
exit
TZ_Pacific.bat
control.exe timedate.cpl,,/Z Pacific Standard Time
NET TIME /SET /YES
exit
I set these up as download and distribute and our problems were corrected immediately on those machines which received the advertisement.