If you’ve been following IT monitoring discussions on Reddit, Microsoft Tech Community forums, or X (formerly Twitter), you’ve likely encountered a persistent narrative: “SCOM is dead.” The announcement that Azure Monitor SCOM Managed Instance will retire on September 30, 2026, only seemed to fuel this narrative further. Skeptics argue that Microsoft is abandoning System Center Operations Manager in favor of cloud-only solutions, leaving on-premises infrastructure monitoring in the dust.

But here’s the reality that often gets lost in the noise: Microsoft just released SCOM 2025 in Q4 2024, with comprehensive support for Windows Server 2025, SQL Server 2022, and a commitment to mainstream support extending through at least 2030. If SCOM were truly dead, why would Microsoft invest engineering resources into a major new release with a decade of support ahead?

The truth is more nuanced than the “SCOM is dead” soundbite. While Azure Monitor SCOM Managed Instance is being deprecated, the retirement actually reinforces Microsoft’s strategy: organizations should choose either full Azure Monitor for cloud-native workloads or on-premises SCOM for hybrid and on-premises environments. The retirement isn’t a death knell; it’s a clarification of Microsoft’s dual-path monitoring strategy.

In this post, we’ll examine what’s new in SCOM 2025, explore why on-premises and hybrid monitoring remains critical for enterprise organizations, and discuss how purpose-built add-ons can extend SCOM’s value even further. Whether you’re a longtime SCOM administrator or evaluating your enterprise monitoring strategy for 2025 and beyond, understanding SCOM’s current state and future trajectory is essential for making informed decisions.

What’s New in SCOM 2025: A Platform Built for the Next Decade

SCOM 2025 represents more than just an incremental update. Microsoft has positioned this release as a future-proof platform with support extending for at least the next decade, following the company’s Fixed Lifecycle Policy that provides 5 years of mainstream support and 5 years of extended support. Let’s break down the key improvements and what they mean for enterprise IT operations.

Full Support for Windows Server 2025 and SQL Server 2022

One of the most significant updates in SCOM 2025 is comprehensive support for the latest Microsoft server technologies. The platform now fully supports Windows Server 2025 for both management servers and monitored agents (including Standard, Datacenter, and Server Core editions). This ensures that organizations investing in Microsoft’s latest server infrastructure can maintain consistent monitoring without compatibility concerns.

On the database front, SCOM 2025 supports SQL Server 2022 with Cumulative Update 11 (CU11) or later for the Operations Database, Data Warehouse, and Reporting Server roles. This requirement for the latest CU demonstrates Microsoft’s commitment to security and stability. Organizations can also continue using SQL Server 2019 (with CU8 or later) or SQL Server 2017, providing flexibility for existing deployments while offering a clear upgrade path to the latest database platform.

According to Microsoft’s official system requirements documentation, the combination of SCOM 2025 running on Windows Server 2025 with SQL Server 2022 represents the recommended configuration for new deployments, offering the best performance, security, and long-term supportability.

Enhanced Security Features

Security remains a critical focus for enterprise infrastructure tools, and SCOM 2025 delivers meaningful improvements in this area:

• OpenSSL 3.1 to 3.3 support: Updated cryptographic libraries ensure secure communications across monitored infrastructure
• Reduced CredSSP and NTLM dependencies: Addressing modern security best practices by minimizing reliance on legacy authentication protocols
• TLS 1.3 support: The latest transport layer security protocol for encrypted data transmission

These security enhancements are particularly important for organizations subject to compliance requirements such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, or SOC 2, where maintaining current security protocols is not optional.

Improved Browser Support and Web Console Functionality

SCOM 2025 modernizes the administrative experience with support for current browser versions, including Microsoft Edge version 121 and later (with IE compatibility mode) and Google Chrome version 121 and later. The web console has received important fixes, including resolution of issues with security policy settings (allow-popups and allow-forms) and HttpParseException errors affecting favorite reports.

These improvements may seem minor, but they significantly impact day-to-day operations, allowing administrators to manage monitoring infrastructure from modern browsers without compatibility workarounds.

Simplified Licensing Management

SCOM 2025 introduces more flexible licensing options. Organizations can now register product keys during initial setup or post-deployment through the Operations console. The new Set-SCOMLicense PowerShell cmdlet enables remote license registration from any management server, simplifying license management in distributed deployments.

Proven Stability and Maturity

While some observers characterize SCOM 2025 as primarily “security and version updates” rather than groundbreaking new features, this perspective misses a crucial point: for enterprise infrastructure monitoring, stability and maturity are features, not bugs. SCOM has evolved over nearly two decades, with a vast ecosystem of management packs covering hundreds of technologies, from Microsoft workloads to third-party applications.

Unlike newer monitoring platforms that require extensive custom configuration, SCOM’s management packs provide out-of-the-box monitoring with established health models, proven alert tuning, and years of community refinement. This maturity translates directly to faster deployment times and lower total cost of ownership.

SCOM in Hybrid Environments: Why On-Premises Monitoring Still Matters

The cloud-first narrative often overlooks a fundamental reality: most enterprise IT environments are hybrid and will remain so for the foreseeable future. According to industry analyses, cloud workloads represent only a small percentage of total enterprise infrastructure, with the majority remaining on-premises for regulatory, performance, or cost reasons.

The Hybrid Cloud Reality

Organizations face complex hybrid scenarios combining legacy on-premises data centers with cloud IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS resources. This hybrid reality creates both challenges and opportunities for monitoring strategies. As Microsoft’s own guidance acknowledges, customers have significant investments in SCOM and need unified monitoring across on-premises, Azure, AWS, and other cloud platforms—not separate monitoring silos for each environment.

SCOM excels in this hybrid context because it was purpose-built for comprehensive infrastructure monitoring regardless of location. Organizations can monitor on-premises servers, virtual machines, network devices, applications, and cloud resources from a single platform, maintaining consistent health models and alerting across the entire estate.

When SCOM Outshines Azure Monitor

While Azure Monitor is powerful for cloud-native Azure workloads, several scenarios favor SCOM for enterprise monitoring:

1. On-Premises Expertise and Control

SCOM remains Microsoft’s best solution for monitoring on-premises servers. Organizations maintain complete control over the monitoring infrastructure, data retention policies, and customization. For regulated industries where data sovereignty and audit trails are critical, keeping monitoring data on-premises provides clear compliance advantages.

2. Deep Application Monitoring with Management Packs

SCOM’s management packs provide metrics out of the box for specific applications like SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, Active Directory, and hundreds of other technologies. These management packs encode years of expertise about what to monitor, appropriate thresholds, and troubleshooting workflows. Azure Monitor requires manual configuration to achieve similar depth, and migration tools don’t exist because the underlying architectures differ fundamentally.

3. Customization for Unique Use Cases

SCOM offers superior customization capabilities for unique applications and monitoring scenarios. Organizations can create custom management packs, execute local scripts on monitored systems, and build sophisticated health models that Azure Monitor cannot replicate. This customization is essential for monitoring proprietary applications or industry-specific systems.

4. Service-Level Monitoring and Alert Suppression

SCOM provides robust tooling for ticket management integration, service monitoring (grouping infrastructure components into business services), alert suppression, and health state rollup. While Azure Monitor has some of these capabilities, it lacks the maturity and integration depth of SCOM’s established ecosystem.

Real-World Enterprise Examples

Consider a financial services organization with data center infrastructure supporting trading platforms, customer databases, and compliance systems. Regulatory requirements mandate specific data residency and audit capabilities that cloud-based monitoring complicates. SCOM allows this organization to maintain comprehensive monitoring with complete data control while selectively using Azure Monitor for cloud-native disaster recovery systems.

Another example: a healthcare provider using custom SCOM management packs to monitor specialized medical applications. The organization built monitoring for performance, availability, and health of their clinical platforms directly within the SCOM framework, enabling proactive incident detection that would require extensive custom development in Azure Monitor.

SCOM vs. Azure Monitor: A Strategic Comparison

The comparison between SCOM and Azure Monitor isn’t winner-take-all; it’s about choosing the right tool for specific workloads:

As Microsoft’s own documentation suggests, most customers benefit from a hybrid monitoring strategy that leverages SCOM’s strengths for on-premises infrastructure and server workloads while using Azure Monitor for cloud-native resources. This approach allows gradual cloud migration without sacrificing monitoring coverage during the transition.

Enhancing SCOM with Add-ons: How Specialized Tools Multiply SCOM’s Value

While SCOM 2025 provides comprehensive monitoring capabilities out of the box, purpose-built add-on tools can significantly enhance efficiency, reduce operational overhead, and extend SCOM’s functionality. At SCOM Synapse (formerly SCOM Connect Tech), we’ve seen firsthand how the right tools transform SCOM from a monitoring platform into a true operational efficiency multiplier.

The Alert Fatigue Problem

One of the most common challenges facing SCOM administrators is alert fatigue. Without proper maintenance mode management, engineers face two problematic scenarios:

1. Forgotten Alert Management: Engineers manually disable alerts before maintenance windows and forget to re-enable them, creating permanent monitoring blind spots
2. Alert Noise: Engineers don’t disable alerts during planned maintenance, generating hundreds of false-positive alerts that condition operations teams to ignore notifications

Both scenarios undermine SCOM’s core value proposition: providing actionable, timely alerts when infrastructure problems actually occur.

SCOM Alert Update Connector Pro: Intelligent Alert Management That Eliminates Noise

Tools like SCOM Alert Update Connector Pro address alert fatigue through intelligent workflow automation. This powerful web-based solution integrates seamlessly with SCOM to help organizations create personalized alert workflows for different teams, ensuring that each group receives only the alerts relevant to their responsibilities—with the context they need to take action.

Key benefits include:

• Personalized Alert Workflows: Create team-specific alert rules that automatically route alerts to the right people with the right information, eliminating the “spray and pray” approach that leads to alert fatigue
• Selective Ticketing: Easily choose which alerts should create tickets in your ITSM system from a fast web interface, preventing ticket system overload with hundreds of low-priority or informational alerts
• Custom Field Enhancement: Enrich alerts with team-specific data, priority levels, and routing information that tells your ticketing system exactly how to handle each alert—including which queue should receive it
• Alert Noise Reduction: Organizations report dramatically reduced alert volume by filtering out non-actionable alerts before they reach operations teams, allowing staff to focus on genuine incidents rather than sorting through noise

The typical SCOM deployment suffers from a common problem: hundreds of alerts sit in the “New” state, overwhelming operations teams and causing important alerts to be missed in the flood of notifications. Alert Update Connector Pro solves this by acting as an intelligent filter between SCOM and your downstream systems, ensuring only relevant, properly contextualized alerts reach your ticketing system or on-call teams.

Instead of complex rules scattered across your ITSM platform that require constant updating, Alert Update Connector Pro centralizes alert logic in an easy-to-manage web interface where you can quickly create, test, and deploy new alert workflows without scripting or development work.

Advanced Automation Scenarios

Beyond scheduled maintenance, SCOM administrators can implement sophisticated automation scenarios:

Gateway Outage Automation

For organizations using SCOM gateways to monitor remote sites, network or gateway outages can trigger hundreds of heartbeat failures and “computer unreachable” alerts. Custom management packs can automatically detect gateway failures and place downstream agents in maintenance mode, suppressing cascading alerts until connectivity restores. When the gateway returns to healthy status, maintenance mode automatically ends and normal monitoring resumes.

Agent-Initiated Maintenance Mode

Organizations can enable systems administrators to place their own servers into maintenance mode directly from the monitored Windows computer using the Start-SCOMAgentMaintenanceMode PowerShell cmdlet. This distributed approach empowers teams to manage maintenance windows without requiring SCOM console access or creating bottlenecks through central operations teams.

The SCOM Synapse Approach

At SCOM Synapse, our philosophy is simple: SCOM’s monitoring capabilities are only as valuable as your team’s ability to focus on actionable alerts. Our add-on products are designed to:

• Eliminate repetitive manual tasks through intelligent automation
• Reduce alert fatigue so operations teams trust and respond to SCOM notifications
• Extend SCOM’s accessibility beyond specialized administrators to entire IT organizations
• Integrate seamlessly with native SCOM capabilities rather than requiring parallel systems

By enhancing SCOM with purpose-built add-ons, organizations maximize their SCOM investment while reducing operational overhead—achieving the best of both worlds.

Conclusion: SCOM 2025’s Future is Bright for the Right Organizations

So, is SCOM dead in 2025? The evidence overwhelmingly says no. Microsoft’s release of SCOM 2025 with comprehensive modern platform support and a commitment to at least a decade of support demonstrates that on-premises and hybrid infrastructure monitoring remains central to enterprise IT strategies.

However, the more nuanced answer is that SCOM 2025 is the right choice for specific organizational contexts:

• Hybrid and on-premises environments where cloud-only monitoring creates gaps or compliance challenges
• Organizations with significant Microsoft infrastructure (Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange, Active Directory) that benefit from mature management packs
• Regulated industries requiring on-premises data control and detailed audit capabilities
• Enterprises with custom or proprietary applications needing deep customization beyond what cloud monitoring platforms offer
• Organizations with existing SCOM investments looking to modernize their monitoring infrastructure without wholesale platform replacement

Evaluating SCOM Fit for Your Organization

When evaluating whether SCOM 2025 is right for your environment, consider these questions:

1. What percentage of your infrastructure will remain on-premises over the next 3-5 years?
2. Do you have regulatory or compliance requirements that favor on-premises monitoring?
3. Are you monitoring primarily Microsoft technologies where SCOM management packs provide immediate value?
4. Do you need deep customization and local script execution for specialized monitoring scenarios?
5. Is your team already trained on SCOM, or would cloud-based monitoring require similar training investment?

If you answered yes to several of these questions, SCOM 2025 deserves serious consideration in your monitoring strategy.

The Path Forward: Hybrid Monitoring Excellence

The future of enterprise monitoring isn’t about choosing between SCOM and Azure Monitor—it’s about strategically deploying both for hybrid excellence. Use SCOM 2025 for comprehensive on-premises and hybrid monitoring with mature management packs and deep customization. Leverage Azure Monitor for cloud-native Azure workloads and modern observability workflows. And enhance both with purpose-built tools that reduce alert fatigue and increase operational efficiency.

Take the Next Step

If you’re currently running SCOM 2019 or 2022, now is an excellent time to plan your SCOM 2025 upgrade and evaluate how add-on tools can enhance your monitoring strategy. At SCOM Synapse, we offer:

• Free trials of our SCOM enhancement tools so you can evaluate their impact in your environment [INTERNAL LINK: Free Trial Page]
• Expert webinars covering SCOM 2025 best practices, hybrid monitoring strategies, and automation techniques [INTERNAL LINK: Webinars Page]
• Consulting services to help you optimize your SCOM deployment and reduce operational overhead [INTERNAL LINK: Consulting Services]

SCOM 2025 represents Microsoft’s continued investment in enterprise monitoring for hybrid and on-premises infrastructure. For organizations with the right profile, it’s not just relevant—it’s essential. Don’t let the “SCOM is dead” narrative distract you from the facts: SCOM 2025 is here, it’s supported for the next decade, and it remains the gold standard for comprehensive Microsoft infrastructure monitoring.

Ready to see how SCOM 2025 and purpose-built add-ons can transform your monitoring strategy? Contact us for a personalized consultation or start your free trial today.

1) Preparation

Install two Windows Server 2019 VMs (Note: Windows Server 2022 isn’t compatible as a Replication Server) and join them to the domain.

VM1: AzMigrate1
VM2: AzReplicate1 – Allocate at least 700GB of drive space for replication.

Create a Resource Group called Migration-RG in Azure.

2) Create the Azure Migrate Project

Go to the Azure Migrate blade in the Azure portal.

On the left-hand side, select Servers, databases and web apps, then click Create project.

Select the Migration-RG resource group.

Give the project a name, for example MigrateProject.

Select a location, for example United States.

Click Advanced, choose Private endpoint for the connectivity method, and set Disable public network access to Yes.

Select your subscription, virtual network, and subnet.

Click Create.

3) Set Up the Azure Migrate Appliance

In Azure Migrate, click Servers, databases, and web apps again.

Click Discover, then select Using appliance.

Under “Are your servers virtualized?” choose Physical or other.

Under “Generate project key,” give your appliance a name (e.g. MigrateApp), then click Generate Key.

Log in to the AzMigrate1 server using RDP.

Download the Azure Migrate Appliance. Copy and extract it to the AzMigrate1 server.

Copy the project key and save it to a text file on AzMigrate1.

Important: Ensure your on-premises server can communicate with Azure Private DNS.

You will need conditional forwarders set up for these Private DNS zones:

privatelink.blob.core.windows.net
privatelink.prod.migration.windowsazure.com
privatelink.siterecovery.windowsazure.com
privatelink.vaultcore.azure.net

If your local DNS can’t communicate with Azure Private DNS directly, you may need a DNS server in Azure or a Private DNS resolver. With a private DNS resolver, you can set conditional forwarders there.

Here is how I have my private resolver set up:

If Private DNS isn’t working, you could use an LM hosts file on AzMigrate1, but it’s not recommended.

To get host files if you don’t have Private DNS working:

Go to the Azure Migrate project and click Overview. Under Project Details, click Properties, then select Download DNS Settings.

If you’re using a hub-and-spoke network, ensure that each private DNS zone has a virtual network link to your hub network with the site-to-site VPN. Otherwise, DNS queries won’t resolve privately.

We can verify private DNS is working by running an NSlookup from AzMigrate1 against one of the private DNS records:

Once verified, proceed with the Azure Migrate Appliance installation.

On AzMigrate1, open PowerShell and navigate to the directory where the appliance files were extracted. Run:

.\AzureMigrateInstaller.ps1

Select 3 for Physical, 1 for Azure Public, and 2 for Private Endpoint connectivity. Press Y to continue.

When asked to install Microsoft Edge, select Y. If it fails, download it manually from this link. Choose to remove IE as prompted.

After the server reboots, log back in and install Microsoft Edge if it wasn’t automatically installed.

4) Configure the Azure Migrate Appliance

Launch Azure Migrate Appliance Configuration Manager on the desktop of AzMigrate1.

Use the project key you saved earlier. If lost, go back to the Azure Migrate project, click Overview, then Manage Appliances, and find the Unregistered appliance to get the key again.

Paste the key and click Verify. After verification, click Login. Click Copy code & Login, then sign in with an account that has rights to access the Migrate project and resources. You should see a success message stating the appliance is registered.

Add credentials for an admin user that can run discovery (use domain\username format).

Click Add Discovery Source. Enter the FQDN of the server(s) you want to migrate. You can list multiple servers.

For software inventory and dependency analysis: It’s recommended to add credentials here as well. Even though you added them before, this step ensures inventory runs properly. You can specify application-specific credentials if needed.

Click Start Discovery. After discovery completes, go back to the Azure portal and refresh the Azure Migrate project page.

Click Discovered Servers to see the discovered servers. You can run an assessment if desired for VM size recommendations, though it’s not required for migration.

5) Set Up the Replication Server

Under Migration and Modernization, click Discover.

Choose Azure VM as the target.

For virtualization, select Physical or other.

Select the target region where you plan to migrate the VMs. Be sure to pick the correct region, as you can’t change it later for this migrate project.

Choose Install a replication appliance. Download both the replication appliance and the registration key file.

Copy them to AzReplicate1.

Launch MicrosoftAzureSiteRecoveryUnifiedSetup on AzReplicate1.

Leave the default option: Install the configuration server and process server.

You’ll need MySQL Community Server. Download it beforehand because the installer may fail to install MySQL when using private endpoints.

Download MySQL from: MySQL Installer

Install MySQL (Server Only). You may need Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (both 32-bit and 64-bit) due to a MySQL bug. Install both, then proceed with MySQL installation.

Use a password for MySQL—this will be needed by the Azure Replication Server installer.

Finish the MySQL configuration and return to the Azure Site Recovery Unified Setup wizard. Provide the key file (.VaultCredentials) you downloaded earlier and proceed with the setup.

Run prerequisite checks, enter the MySQL password, and when prompted, select No for environment details.

Select network interfaces as needed and click Next.

Before installation, you may need to run some commands to fix MySQL permissions or remove leftover data if the setup fails. Stop MySQL, delete the data directory, and ensure no mysqld.exe processes are running. Reset permissions and clear temp files if necessary.

Save the configuration server passphrase to a file named passphrase.txt. You will need this later.

On the Microsoft Azure Site Recovery Configuration Server page, click Add Account to add the account and credentials used previously.

Go back to Azure Migrate, under Migration tools click Discover again. Make the same selections, but now select your configuration server and click Finalize registration.

You should see a success message. Click Close.

6) Install and Configure the Mobility Agent on the Source Server

On AzReplicate1, browse to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Azure Site Recovery\home\svsystems\pushinstallsvc\repository and find the Microsoft-ASR_UA_9.61.0.0_Windows_GA_18Mar2024_Release.exe file. Copy this to the server you want to replicate.

Follow the official instructions for installing the Mobility Service via command prompt: Microsoft Docs

Copy the installer to C:\Temp on the source server. Run:

cd C:\Temp
ren Microsoft-ASR_UA*Windows*release.exe MobilityServiceInstaller.exe
MobilityServiceInstaller.exe /q /x:C:\Temp\Extracted
cd C:\Temp\Extracted
UnifiedAgent.exe /Role "MS" /InstallLocation "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Azure Site Recovery" /Platform "VmWare" /Silent /CSType CSLegacy

Use the passphrase you saved earlier. If you forgot it, run the following on AzReplicate1:

C:\ProgramData\ASR\home\svsystems\bin\genpassphrase.exe -v

Create passphrase.txt on the source server in C:\Temp\Extracted and paste the passphrase there.

Get the IP of AzReplicate1 and run:

cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Azure Site Recovery\agent"
UnifiedAgentConfigurator.exe /CSEndPoint /PassphraseFilePath C:\Temp\Extracted\passphrase.txt

Wait 15-30 minutes for the registration to complete.

7) Create an Azure Storage Account for Replication

Create an Azure Storage account in the same region you selected for replication.

Under Networking, enable public access from selected virtual networks and IP addresses as needed. Under Data Protection, uncheck all backup and replication options. Leave other defaults and create the storage account.

Follow the Microsoft documentation for required permissions. Assign Contributor and Storage Blob Data Contributor roles to the Managed Identity for the vault and migrate project at the storage account level.

8) Start Replication

Return to the Migrate project and select Replicate. Choose Physical or other as the source, and select the region, storage account, and network you configured.

Under “Virtual Machines,” select “No, I’ll specify” and choose the servers you discovered earlier. Set the VM size, disk type, and other settings as needed.

Click Start Replication. Once replication starts, you can monitor its status in the portal. It may take several hours to complete.

Once replication is complete, you can perform a test migration. Be careful, as this will bring the server online in Azure. Consider turning off the on-premises server before the test to avoid conflicts.

After testing, clean up the test migration to remove the test VMs.

After verification, you can finalize the migration.

This concludes the detailed process of migrating physical VMs using Azure Migrate with private endpoints.

What’s New in 2.1?

1. Azure SCOM Managed Instances Support – Expanding our horizon, version 2.1 introduces full support for Azure SCOM Managed Instances. This feature allows users to seamlessly integrate their Azure-managed environments with the SCOM Maintenance Mode Scheduler, providing a unified maintenance management solution across cloud and on-premises infrastructures. Now, managing maintenance windows for Azure SCOM Managed Instances is as effortless as for your on-premises servers.
   
   
   
2. Speed Enhancements – We understand that time is of the essence. That’s why we’ve optimized our website to load faster, providing you with a swift and responsive experience. Whether you’re scheduling maintenance, viewing upcoming windows, or accessing reports, you’ll notice a significant improvement in performance.
   
   
3. CSV Import Improvements – Importing your server list has never been easier. With version 2.1, the CSV import functionality has been enhanced for greater flexibility. You no longer need to format your list strictly as a true CSV file. Now, you can import a straightforward list of computers, similar to the functionality available in the SCOM 2012 Maintenance Mode Scheduler. This improvement streamlines the process, saving you time and effort when managing large numbers of servers.
   
   
4. Bug Fixes – We’re committed to providing a reliable and bug-free experience. In version 2.1, we’ve addressed several minor bugs, further stabilizing the application and enhancing its overall performance. These fixes are part of our ongoing effort to ensure the SCOM Maintenance Mode Scheduler meets your needs and exceeds your expectations.
   

Getting Started with 2.1

Upgrading to version 2.1 is straightforward and we strongly encourage all our users to update to take advantage of these new features and improvements. Visit our website for more details on the upgrade process and to download the latest version.

We’re excited to see how these new features will empower your maintenance management processes. As always, we value your feedback and are here to support you. Should you have any questions or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thank you for choosing SCOM Maintenance Mode Scheduler. Here’s to making maintenance management smoother and more efficient than ever!

Features:

• Easily access web based maintenance mode scheduler from any browser (Chrome, Edge, Safari and IE)
• Schedule Azure Alerts for maintenance in a few seconds.
• Import a CSV or text list of Alerts for scheduled maintenance.
• Instant MM: Server and application admins can instantly place Azure Alerts into maintenance before reboots and maintenance.
• Instant MM can be called by a PowerShell or Unix Shell script from anywhere. This can be used to start and stop maintenance on any server for a specified amount of time. This makes it easy to integrate into your current change or software management process.

Download

Instant Maintenance Mode

This solution makes it easy for IT staff to put a server into maintenance mode without having to go to the Azure console. Anywhere on your network, the administrator can visit the Azure Maintenance Mode Scheduler Instant MM website at http://yourMMserver/Home/MM/InstantMM

Create a shortcut on the desktop of the servers to make it even easier.

Instant MM can be called by a PowerShell or Unix Shell script

Using URL Parameters, you can put Azure Alert rules into Maintenance Mode from any computer using a script. Typical use case would be using SCCM when updates or software is installed. SCCM would execute the PowerShell script before the install process to start maintenance mode. After the updates or software is installed SCCM would call the script to stop maintenance mode.

PowerShell Example Download: https://www.scom2k7.com/downloads/AzureMM.ps1.txt

param (
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$mmServer,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$ruleName,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$min,
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$action
 )

 $FullURL = "http://" + $mmServer + "/AzMM/Home/InstantMM?RuleName=" + $ruleName + "&Min=" + $min + "&MMAction=" + $action
 $FullURL

Invoke-RestMethod $FullURL -Method 'POST'

Unix/Linux Example Download: https://www.scom2k7.com/downloads/AzMM.sh

RuleName=$2
RuleName=$( printf "%s\n" "$RuleName" | sed 's/ /%20/g' )

url="http://$1/AzMM/Home/InstantMM?RuleName=$RuleName&Min=$3&MMAction=$4"

echo $url

wget $url --method POST 

In Part 5, I have a couple tips and tricks.

I don’t like the idea of having a plug near my Hot Tub so I purchased some of these connectors to go from SMC to BNC.

Link

Link

Then I ran 3 33ft standard BNC cables from my basement to my raspberry PI to the sensors in my hot tub.

After a while my ORP and PH sensors wore out after being submerged in water for over a year.

I purchased this cheaper ORP sensor that works better and last longer. Link

I also switch to this PH Sensor. Link

How to import the workbook into Azure.

Download the workbook from https://github.com/timmcfadden/HotTubMonitoring

Open up the HotTub.workbook in Notepad++ or VSCode

Copy out the JSON.

Create a new workbook in Azure Workbooks.

Click Advanced Editor

Leave it on Gallery Template and Paste in the JSON code and click Apply.

You will see a bunch of red X’s. We need to change to your Log Analytics workspace.

Click Edit

The click Edit

Then Click Edit again

Now click Change

Under Log Analytics workspace. Select your log analytics workspace

Click Done Editing

Repeat the process for all of the Red X’s

When you are done all the data should be showing up

In part 4 we are going to create e-mail alerts to tell us when the water has breached our desired thresholds for water quality.

We are going to setup rules to alert us when

PH is below 7.2 or PH is greater then 7.8 – More Information

ORP (Chlorine/Bromine Level) is below 650 or is greater than 750. More Information

Temperature is between 95 and 106 (This is for a HotTub)

Open up Monitor, Logs. Type in the following query

HotTub_CL
| where todouble(PHValue_s) < 7.2 or todouble(PHValue_s) > 7.8
| where TimeGenerated >= ago(60m)

Set the Threshold value to 1 and the Period in minutes to 60. As you can see it won’t create any alerts right now as my current reading for the past 60 minutes has been around 7.6 which is within the range I want to be in.

Click Done, Under Actions select Add Action groups

Click Create action group. Set Resource Group, Action group name and display name.

Set you notifications

Click Review + create and then Create

Set the following and click Create alert rule.

Repeat the process for ORP. (No need to create another action group. Reuse the existing one)

Here is the query.

HotTub_CL
| where todouble(ORPValue_s) < 650 or todouble(ORPValue_s) > 750
| where TimeGenerated >= ago(60m)

Repeat the Process for Temperature. Here is the query.

HotTub_CL
| where todouble(TempValue_s) < 95 or todouble(TempValue_s) > 106
| where TimeGenerated >= ago(60m)

Here are all my Alert Rules Setup

Now for some final tips and tricks

Monitoring a Hot Tub or Pool with Azure Monitor and Azure Log Analytics Part 5 – Tip and Tricks

In part 3 we are going to build a dashboard like this to chart out history and progress of our water.

In Azure go to your Log Analytics workspace and verify the data is coming in. In Log Analytics query the HotTub_CL table and check the date time of the last entry and make sure its within a few minutes of the current data time .

Now lets chart out the data. By default the data is coming in as a string data type. To chart the data we need to change it to a double. Type in the following command to chart out the PH data.

HotTub_CL
| extend PH=todouble(PHValue_s)
| render timechart

It should look like this.

Now lets create some workbooks to show the data. Go to Monitor, Workbooks

Click Add, Add query

Select your log analytics workspace

Copy and Paste the Query

HotTub_CL
| extend PH=todouble(PHValue_s)
| render timechart

Change the Legend to Last Value and click Done Editing

Repeat the above process to create the ORP and Temperature Graphs. Here are their queries

ORP

HotTub_CL
| extend ORP=todouble(ORPValue_s)
| render timechart

Temperature

HotTub_CL
| extend Temperature=todouble(TempValue_s)
| render timechart

Now I would like to chart out the data over the last 30 days. I also want to set some visual thresholds. For PH anywhere between 7.2 and 7.8 is good.

Here is my query for PH for the last 30 days. This query uses the bin function to round the data to 30 minute intervals, if I tried to use all the data points for the last 30 days the chart wouldn’t render.

HotTub_CL
| where TimeGenerated > ago(30d)
| summarize avg(todouble(PHValue_s)) by bin(TimeGenerated , 30m)
| order by TimeGenerated desc
| extend UpperLimit = 7.8
| extend LowerLimit = 7.2
| render timechart

You can download the entire workbook and Import it into your Azure environment.

Link Click Code, Download Zip

**Note** See Part 5 – Tip and Tricks for how to import and configure the workbook to work in to your environment.

Now that we have all of the charts created lets add them to an Azure Dashboard.

In the portal go to Dashboard.

Give the Dashboard a name like HotTub and click Save.

Now click Share

Then click Publish. This will make it easier to find later.

Go back to the HotTub workbook under Monitor, Workbooks. Click Edit

Now click the Pin and select Pin All. (**IMPORTANT** If you don’t click Edit first you won’t get the option to Pin All and your charts won’t show up correctly)

Select Shared and Select the HotTub Dashboard.

Click the Pinning succeeded to go to your dashboard

It will bring in all your charts and values. Now we have to clean up the dashboard so it looks nice. Click Edit and start resizing and moving tiles around

To change the headings. Click the … when you hover over a tile and click Configure tile settings

When you give it a name it will replace the HotTub name at the top of the tile.

Click Save when you are done. You should now have a complete dashboard.

Next lets setup some alerting so we don’t have to stare at the dashboards all day.

Monitoring a Hot Tub or Pool with Azure Monitor and Azure Log Analytics Part 4 – Alerting

In Part 2, we are going to hookup the hot tub / pool sensors into Azure using Azure Monitor and Log Analytics

Create a Log Analytics Workspace in Azure.

If you don’t already have a MSDN account you can create a free trial account with a $200 credit at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free

Once you have an Azure account go to http://portal.azure.com and click Create a resource

Search for “Log Analytics Workspace“

Click Create

Under Create Log Analytics workspace. Type in the following

Resource group: HotTub-RG

Name: HotTubLA

Under Pricing tier leave the default Pay-as-you-go (Per GB 2018)

Click Review + Create and then click Create.

Once Deployment is Complete. Select Go to resource

In the Log Analytics workspace we need the Workspace ID and Primary Key. Click Agents management. Copy this information to notepad for use later.

Log into your Raspberry PI device with Powershell and SSh.

Go to home directory

cd /home/pi

Type in this command to install the git repository

git clone https://github.com/timmcfadden/HotTubMonitoring

change directory to HotTubMonitoring

cd HotTubMonitoring

open up HotTubAzureMonitor.py in nano

sudo nano HotTubAzureMonitor.py

Copy and paste your Workspace ID from Azure to the customer_id. Copy and paste your Primary key to shared_key

Control-x to Exit

Y to Save modified buffer and click enter

Now lets test the python code. Type in:

python3 /home/pi/HotTubMonitoring/HotTubAzureMonitor.py

If everything is setup correctly you should see the values from the sensors and Accepted

It can take 5-10 minutes for the data to initially show up in Log Analytics.

Go back to Azure and your Log Analytics workspace an verify the data is making it to Azure.

Click on Logs, Expand Custom Logs, and Double click on HotTub_CL and click Run

As you can see we have the data flowing in to Log Analytics.

Now lets setup our Raspberry Pi to run the Python code at startup and run it as a background task so it runs all the time.

Control + C to exit out of the running python code.

Type in

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

Add the following text to the beginning of the rc.local file.

python3 /home/pi/HotTubMonitoring/HotTubAzureMonitor.py &

It should look like this.

Exit out Control + x and Y and Enter to save

Now Reboot the Raspberry Pi

sudo reboot

After it reboots log back into the Raspberry Pi

Now type in

ps -ef

You should see the process in the list that looks like this. This process will run in a loop collecting data. If it ever stops for whatever reason you can simply reboot the device (even just pull the power) and it will start back up at startup.

exit out of the raspberry pi by typing

exit

Now lets setup some Dashboards in Azure so we can see the data anytime.

Monitoring a Hot Tub or Pool with Azure Monitor and Azure Log Analytics Part 3 – Dashboarding with Azure Monitor workbooks

Part 1 – Hardware and Software Setup || Part 2 – Azure Setup || Part 3 – Dashboarding and Workbooks || Part 4 – Alerting || Part 5 – Tips and Tricks

Are you having trouble keeping your Hot Tub or Pool water balanced? Are you wasting time checking to see if their is enough chlorine/bromine in your hot tub or pool everyday? Do you want to know the temperature of your pool or hot tub anytime of the day from your phone?

With Azure Log Analytics, a Raspberry PI Zero and some IOT parts you can built an awesome Hot Tub or Pool Monitoring Solution.

Here is the equipment you need:
Raspberry Pi Zero WH (Zero W with Headers) – $14
microSD Memory Card– $7.50
5V 2.5A Power Supply – $7.50
Wifi Pool Kit – $349.99
Jumper Wires – $7.49
Azure Subscription

Hardware

Remove the Arduino board that comes with the Wifi Pool Kit. Attach the micro USB cable to the power port of the Raspberry PI. Attach each of the jumper cables as specified in the drawing. To attach them to the blue board you will first have to loosen the small screws then attach the jumper cable and tighten the screws.

Move the Temperature Chip from the Temperature Slot to the AUX slot. It doesn’t work correctly in the Temperature slot with Raspberry PI

Screw in the PH, ORP and Temperature sensors into their respective ports.

When you plug it in the lights should light up blue if everything is working correctly

Software

First we need to get the Raspberry Pi Zero installed and communicating on your WiFi with SSH.

• Plug in the microSD Memory card in your computer. (If you don’t have a slot in your computer you will need a microsSD usb reader or another computer that has one)
  
• Download the Raspberry PI Imager Link
  
• Run the Raspberry PI Imager.
  • For Operating System choose Raspberry Pi OS (other)

• Then choose Raspberry Pi OS Lite (32-bit)

• Choose your MicroSD card for Storage and Click Write

• REMOVE AND REINSERT THE MICROSD CARD – This step is only necessary because Raspberry PI Imager automatically unmounts the SD card.

Before we put the microSD card into the Pi, we’ll need to edit some files.

• In the root of the microSD drive, create a file called ssh (make sure there is no file extension). This file will enable SSH on the Pi. You can create a empty txt file called ssh.txt and remove the txt extension. You might need to click view and select File Name Extensions to remove the file extension.

Create a file called wpa_supplicant.conf and copy the code below changing the ssid and psk to your wifi name and password. Save this file to the root of the microSD drive as well. This is a configuration file that will allow you to pre-configure the WiFi credentials. On boot, the Pi will copy and use this as the default configuration file.

country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
ssid="YOUR_WIFI_SSID"
scan_ssid=1
psk="YOUR_WIFI_PASSWORD"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

Please double check and verify the WiFi credentials. If not, the next step will be hard.

Remove the MicroSD card from your computer and place it in the RaspberryPI Zero.

We need the IP address of the Raspberry Pi. To find out the IP address you can either log into your router and look for a computer connected to your network called raspberrypi. You an also use a IP scanning tool like Advanced IP Scanner

Now that we have the IP address we can SSH into the Raspberry PI. The default login is

UserName: pi
Password: raspberry

To login to the device using windows 10 open up Windows PowerShell (Right Click Run as administrator)

Type in ssh pi@yourIpAddress

Run the following command in the terminal.

sudo apt-get install python-smbus
sudo apt-get install i2c-tools

Once those have finished installing run

sudo raspi-config

You should see a blue screen with a grey box with options. Select 3 Interface Options. Click Enter

Next choose P5 I2C Enable/disable automatic loading of I2C kernel module. Click Enter

Choose Yes. Click Enter

Click Ok on the next screen then go down to the bottom of the screen and click Finish.

Reboot the Raspberry Pi

sudo reboot

Now with the raspberry pi is setup to communicate with the sensors lets test it out.

Log back into the raspberry pi with SSH using PowerShell.

Install git

sudo apt-get install git

Download the sample code

git clone https://github.com/AtlasScientific/Raspberry-Pi-sample-code.git

CD into the Raspberry-Pi-sample-code directory

Run the following code to make sure your devices are showing up. If you don’t see them then check the connection to the Raspberry PI and the Blue Board.

sudo i2cdetect -y 1

Run the following command to bring up a test command interface

sudo python i2c.py

Then in the enter the following command. This will start polling all three interfaces.

Poll,2.0

Control-c to exit the polling and Control-c to exit the script.

Now lets hook it up to Azure Monitor and Log Analytics.

Monitoring a Hot Tub or Pool with Azure Monitor and Azure Log Analytics – Part 2 – Azure Setup

• Easy to Use – Select the SCOM Monitor or Rule you want to send to ServiceNow. All future alerts from that Monitor or Rule will be sent to ServiceNow.
• Send alerts based upon SCOM Groups to ServiceNow
  • Send all logical disk free space alerts created from computers in the SQL Team’s SCOM Group to the SQL Teams Incident Assignment Group in ServiceNow.
  •  Send all logical disk free space alerts created from computers in the Exchange SCOM Group to the Exchange Teams Incident Assignment Group in ServiceNow.
• SCOM Console Tasks
  • Select any alert in SCOM and instantly send it to ServiceNow.
  • Quickly identify the rule or monitor that created the SCOM alert to send future alerts to ServiceNow.
• Save Money – No extra ServiceNow tables required to filter SCOM alerts

Download

Select the SCOM Monitor or Rule you want to send to ServiceNow. All future alerts from that Monitor or Rule will be sent to ServiceNow.

When a logical disk free space alert is triggered in SCOM. The alert is created in ServiceNow.

Send alerts based upon SCOM Groups to ServiceNow

SCOM Console Tasks – Select any alert in SCOM and instantly send it to ServiceNow

SCOM Alerts sent to ServiceNow automatically get the ServiceNow Ticket ID and the Owner is set to the Assignment Group.

Alerts in ServiceNow have the Web Console Link in the description if the SCOM Web Console is installed.

How to Use the SCOM To ServiceNow Connector Pro Videos