Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
If you notice a "Phantom" Discovery Method in the SMS Administrator Console make sure you are running the version of the SMS Administrator Console that is the same or greater than the Service Pack of the Site Server you are accessing.

I've just come across an interesting issue where I was asked to troubleshoot an SMS Software Distribution problem. One of the first things I noticed was a "Phantom" under Discovery Methods (or in other words the icon was there but there was no text label such as "Active Directory User Discovery").

Double-clicking the object simply displayed a dialog box stating "No properties are available on this object."

Checking the version of the Admin Console revealed that this was an SP1 Admin Console trying to access an SP2 Site Server. This of course isn't supported for obvious reasons such as this issue (the SP1 Admin Console has no knowledge of the new features introduced in SP2 such as the new "Active Directory Security Group" Discovery Method hence the issue).

Uninstalling the SP1 version of the Admin Console resolved the issue (by the way ordinarily I would have removed the SP1 version of the Admin Console and installed the SP2 version but in this particular case for some bizarre reason this version of the Admin Console was actually installed on a Secondary Site - possible - yes, practical - no).
 

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