To force a state means that you can set a given state for a component; for instance, you might force a state to synchronize the tool with the current deployment configuration.

As an example, suppose an administrator installs the MPFConfig database on MPSSQL01. After six months, MPSSQL01 fails and the administrator restores the MPFConfig database to MPSSQL0X. The MPS Deployment Tool is now out of sync because it was not involved in restoring the database. To update the MPS Deployment Tool with the new state, the administrator can now force the MPFConfig database to be installed and verified (using the Verified option) on MPSSQL0X without having to run the deployment process again.

As another example, you can use the Force State options to update the MPS configuration file (MpsConfig.xml) with changes to the configuration that cannot be detected by the MPS Deployment Tool, either because a server is offline or is unreachable from the computer running the tool. In this case, you can re-verify a component's state by configuring it with the Not Installed option in the Force State dialog box, and then reinstall the component.

You can access Force State options by right-clicking a Requirements Status tree component and selecting Force State on the contextual menu that appears. This action launches the Force State dialog box that contains the following options:

• Not Installed - The initial state where the component is not installed.
  
• Install Failed - An install was attempted but failed.
  
• User Input Needed - Not yet installed, user interaction is required.
  
• Unverified - Installed, but not yet verified.
  
• Verify Failed - Installed, but verification failed.
  
• Verified - Installed, verification succeeded.
  

Some Force State options will be disabled for components that do not support them, such as those that do not require deferred deployment.