Methods, systems and computer program products for determining installation status of SMS packages

A method for determining a status of advertised system management server packages at a client device, comprising:

• receiving a request for a determination of the status from a user at an interface application executing on the client device separately from a system management server client application executing on the client device;
• and
• performing operations as follows carried out by the interface application responsive to the request:
• identifying a plurality of system management server packages that have been advertised to the client device and determining an installation status of the plurality of system management server packages by querying log files generated by the system management server client application, wherein querying log files includes using a query to extract data from contents of the log files reflecting the installation status of respective ones of the identified plurality of system management server packages and wherein the query is generated without user input;
• and
• generating a graphical user interface that lists the plurality of system management server packages and provides a visual indication of the installation status of the plurality of system management server packages.

A method for monitoring a status of distribution of system management server packages to a plurality of client devices, comprising:

• advertising the system management server packages to the plurality of client devices;
• requesting that users of the client devices execute an interface application on the respective client devices, separately from system management server client applications executing on the client devices, to identify the system management server packages, determine an installation status of the system management server packages by querying log files generated by the system management server client applications and generate graphical user interfaces that list the respective system management server packages and provide a visual indication of the installation status of the system management server packages;
• and
• receiving error reports from the users identifying problems indicated in the graphical user interfaces;
• wherein querying log files includes using a query to extract data from contents of the log files reflecting the installation status of respective ones of the system management server packages and wherein the query is generated without user input.