Symantec Management Platform (Notification Server)

Current a have 6.9 NS and DS (NS,DS and SQL on there own servers).  Hopefully this is just a straight forward answer I'm just missing my understanding of installing SMP.

I've installed 7.1 in test, have 3 servers to work with.  I have NS installed on ServerA, SQL on ServerC.   I began by installing the CMS (this includes DS) which appears to be working without issue.  I've gone through the documentation and I'm not quite grasping a couple of concepts.  Now I want to install DS on ServerB

This is a 2 part question.  Do I begin by using the Symantec Installation Manager and install Deployment solution or do I first go through NS and add ServerB as a site servers through the console then use SIM to add DS to serverB?

When I get to "Notification Server Configuration" and it ask for "Web Location for Notification Server" even though it wants to point to "ServerB.mycompany.com" I'm assuming I should be redirecting this to "ServerA.mycompany.com"?

Any assistance is pointing me in the right direction would be great, I've been going through the pdf's quite a bit.

Thank you,

OK let me approach this from a different way. 

When installing SMP, along with the DS piece, is it all installed on the NS server (ServerA example) and basically creating site servers is the method to spread the load from NS?

is entirely different that 6.9 DS. When you install SMP, and then setup site servers, you are extending the ability of the platform to 'reach' clients without affecting the WAN. Site Servers also take pressue off the SMP server itself.

You can add a site server from the site server configuration screen, and enable the task and\or package services. If you want to extend the ability to use DS7.1 on these site servers, you have to enable the component separately.

If you want to use DS6.9 instead of DS7.1, you can do that, however it won't be integrated into the SMP platform. You could make the DS6.9 a site server, but it still wouldn't be part of the DS7.1 framework without the components I mentioned above.

Your first step is to consider what you want to use for imaging. If you're going to to stick with DS6.9 and perhaps only test DS7.1, I don't know if you'd even want DS7.1  installed on your SMP as it could cause confusion (at least for PXE).

Thanks Jim for the response.  This is proof of concept install to figure out exactly which will be best for things like DS.

So to compare I was trying to put NS (SMP) on one server and DS on second server in an attempt to separate the workload.  But what I believe I'm beginning to understand is that NS and DS would be on the same server but in order to separate the workload you have to create a site server on a separate server with package and task service added through the site server configuration?  These server would be at the same location.

I assumed that I would have to use SIM to load the DS part on this second server, is this correct or is simply adding the services through NS enough?

We use DS 6.9 for imaging so I'm trying to see how the products compare?

Thanks for your time,

DS6.9 and SMP have two different installers and two different databases. Therefore you would use the SIM to install SMP on the NS, and use the policies within the SMP to roll out the task and package components to the site server.

DS6.9 is just a standalone installer, no linking or other software needed (except SQL for a database).

When you say "no linking or other software needed" you are indicating say a 2nd server to assist with sharing the workload of NS?

I was making it more complicated that needed by attempting to use SIM to say install NS on one server and then using SIM to install DS 7.1 on another server.  I assumed that I could just point the new DS or somehow integrated the new DS by point it at NS, both sharing the same SQL database. 

having a site server to offload work on the NS\SMP is virtually essential, in my opinion. What I meant was, there is no linking between the DS6.9 and the SMP\DS7.1.

Hope that clears things up.