Rui Caeiro

TechNet Webcast: Reporting with System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Level 200)

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:52:00 +0000

TechNet Webcast: Reporting with System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Level 200)

Summary

In this session, we discuss the new features and benefits of reporting in Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.

We start with a look at the new functionality and features in Operations Manager 2007 Reporting.
We cover the installation prerequisites, and then we walk through an installation of Operations Manager 2007 Reporting.
Next, we examine the new reporting console integration and the new reports in Operations Manager 2007.
We explore these new features and the data they enable you to report on.
Finally, we wrap up the session by describing the report contents that are included in the new management pack format.

Presenter

John Baker, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation

Details

Monday, September 17, 2007
9:30 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Language: English-United States
Recommended For: IT professionals

SCOM 2007: Mobile Console

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:24:00 +0000

In case you didn't know, SCOM 2007 provides a Mobile Operation Console that you can use to link it to your Windows Mobile Device.

There's a virtual directory configured on the default website for the Web Console that provides a customized interface for mobile devices. Simply fire up your browser pointing to the normal Web Console and add /mobile to the end.

Example: http://scom2007.domain.local:51908/mobile

This Mobile Console is very simple and it seams it has not a focus for the development team. Nevertheless, it's a new feature to add to our knowledge of SCOM 2007.

There's also a RSS virtual directory with a RSSFeed.aspx file. Apparently it seams that the main purpose is to provide alerts via RSS feed but I didn't managed to get it working right now.

SCOM 2007: Achieving Regulatory Compliance

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:48:00 +0000

AKCSL, in partnership with Microsoft, presents Achieving Regulatory Compliance with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.

Event Overview

Thought Microsoft Operations Manager 2007 was purely for monitoring performance and availability of your key applications? Think again!

Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 can be leveraged as a robust and scalable security management tool and as such can assist enterprises in meeting audit compliance requirements such as Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) and PCI DSS through the support of control frameworks such as CobiT and ISO 17799.

This event will explain how Microsoft address their customers compliance requirements and how Operations Manager 2007 can be utilised to ensure security best practices are being followed.

Event Content

We describe the key features of Audit Collection Services (a free component of SCOM 2007) and explain how it can be leveraged to provide an advanced security solution with auditing, forensics and compliance monitoring. We show how to collect, store, report and alert on windows security audit events and how to:

Include security alerting for key controls
Add expert knowledge guidance to security alerts
Provide forensic reporting capabilities
Implement Compliance monitoring modules for regulations such as PCI DSS and SOX

Event Details

SCOM 2007: Service Pack 1 release plans

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:38:00 +0000

Microsoft is making progress in getting the Service Pack 1 for System Center Operations Manger 2007 available shortly.

The high level themes of this Service Pack 1 will be:

Address critical customer initiated issues including roll-up of all hotfixes
Make the product easier to support
Make the product easier to use
Make the product easier to deploy

In the beginning of November there will be a public Release Candidate (RC). This release (RC) is fully upgradable to the final RTM version of the Service Pack. The reasons the product team is making the RC of the Service Pack generally available are:

To give customers evaluating OpsMgr 2007 advance access to the SP to aid in their evaluation and proof of concept deployments
To give current OpsMgr 2007 customers that may have hotfixes in their environment an opportunity to test the Service Pack and provide feedback on it
Ultimately to make sure that the final RTM release of the Service Pack is of the highest possible quality.

The final RTM version of the Service Pack is targeted for mid-February 2008. This version of the Service Pack will be able to be applied to upgrade the originally released RTM version of Operations Manager 2007 and it will also upgrade Operations Manager 2007 running the Release Candidate of SP1.

More detailed information by Björn Axéll at Advisec Blog.

SCOM 2007: Resource Kit Tools released

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:24:00 +0000

The first set of resource kit tools for Operations Manager 2007 have been released to the download center. They will be soon referenced from the TechNet TechCenter for OpsMgr too (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/default.aspx)

Sample Vista Gadget
A Vista Gadget that enables you to view the active alerts and health states for a specified set of objects from a computer running Windows Vista.

1. Allows selection of object types.
2. Displays alert counts for each severity level.
3. Color-coded alert levels.
4. Color-coded summary of health states.
Operations Manager Inventory
A command-line utility that captures the configuration of your Operations Manager 2007 Management Servers and stores it in a .cab file that can be sent to Microsoft support to assist in problem analysis.

1. Collects Windows Installer data for Ops Mgr installation.
2. Collects file information for Ops Mgr files.
3. Collects registry settings information for Ops Mgr installation.
4. Collects Ops Mgr server configuration data.
5. Collects data regarding running processes on Ops Mgr servers.
6. Collects Ops Mgr install logs.
7. Collects Windows event logs.
Operations Manager Cleanup Tool
A command-line utility that enables you to remove any or all of the components of Operations Manager from a local computer in cases where the normal method of uninstallation has failed.

1. Fast command line removal of agents.
2. Fast command line removal of server roles.
3. Removal of services associated with Ops Mgr.
4. Removal of registry keys.
5. Removal of Ops Mgr install directories and files.
AEM Validation
A command line utility that will allow you to perform end-to-end validation of Agent-less Exception Monitoring to verify that AEM is properly configured and operational.

1. Generates a test exception.
2. Allows end-to-end validation of AEM functionality.
AEM Management Pack
A Management Pack that enables you to identify generic errors sent by Windows Error Reporting (WER) clients to Management Servers that are AEM-enabled. Without this mapping function these errors appear in Operations Manager as "unknown application" and "unknown version".

1. Identifies application associated with generic exceptions.
2. Provides application version information for generic application exceptions.
3. Facilitates more precise application exception reporting.
Active Directory Integration Sample Script
A sample script that enables you to extract a list of computer names from your custom SQL Server database and add them to an Active Directory security group. The security group can then be referenced in the Agent Assignment and Failover Wizard to automate agent assignments to Management Servers.

1. Queries customer SQL asset database.
2. Populates custom security group with computer accounts of computers returned by the SQL query.
Effective Configuration Viewer
A tool that displays the set of rules and monitors that are running on a computer, distributed application, or any other managed entity after any configured overrides have been applied.

1. View effective monitoring of a managed object after overrides are applied.
2. View monitors and current state
Action Account Tool
A PowerShell script that allows you to set the action account on groups of computers.

1. Summary Modify action account settings for groups of computers with a single command.

SCVMM 2007: Virtual Machine Manager is Out !

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:04:00 +0000

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007, aka SCVMM 2007, has been officially released yesterday after 2 years of customer focused development.

Key Bennefits

Centralized deployment and management of virtual machines
Intelligent Placement analysis to determine the best servers for virtualization
Quick physical-to-virtual and virtual-to-virtual conversion
Ease of use with a familiar interface and seamless integration with other Microsoft products
Faster deployments with administrator-managed self-service provisioning
Resource efficiency with server consolidation and increased processor utilization
Quick automation via PowerShell scripting integration

Online Resources

Licensing

In order to make it easy for customers to manage their virtual environments and cover the key scenarios, Microsoft has announced that a new licensing mode was developed. It is called the System Center Management Suite Enterprise license at a reasonable price of $860 per physical host.

This license will include the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 license and Enterprise server management licenses for:

System Center Configuration Manager 2007
System Center Operations Manager 2007
System Center Data Protection Manager 2007

Workgroup Edition

Will be available in January 2008. This edition will be aimed at the mid-market (SMB) customers and will allow them to manage up to five physical host servers, and unlimited number of virtual machines. It will be priced at $499.

Future Releases: A quote from Microsoft Virtualization Team

"... Our next release is planned to coincide with the release of Windows Server Virtualization (codename Viridian) so that we can expose all the great features it provides. In addition to Viridian support – we are also adding some key customer driven features."

"... in our next set of releases will be adding support for non-Windows virtualization environments..."

"... And when I say we will manage these environments I mean really manage them – covering all the key scenarios they offer. From a single console and a single command-line you will be able manage Virtual Server, Viridian, VMWare and Xen."

SCOM 2007: New Management Packs Released

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:37:00 +0000

SCOM 2007 has new add-ons. Microsoft has released 3 days ago four new Management Packs for System Center Operations Manager 2007.

The Management Pack Catalog has already been updated to include this new packages.

GPDBPA - Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 22:43:00 +0000

At the end of August, Microsoft has released a new powerfull tool, great for auditing your infrastructure. We're talking about the Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer (GBDBPA) that you can download on the following links:

More information about how to use this new tool is available on the KB article KB940122.

How to use the Microsoft Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer (GPDBPA) tool to collect and to analyze data

Quote from Microsoft KB

You can use the Microsoft Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer (GPDBPA) tool to collect data about an environment's Group Policy configuration. For example, you can use this tool to analyze a Group Policy configuration for the following purposes:

To search for common configuration errors
To discover and to diagnose problems
To collect data for archiving

The account that you use to run the tool must have the appropriate permissions to access both the Active Directory database on an environment's domain controllers and the SYSVOL file structure that is maintained on those domain controllers. Additionally, the account must have local Administrator permissions on the Group Policy client.There are two additional prerequisites for using the GPDBPA tool:

The Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.1 or a later version must be installed on the computer on which the GPDBPA tool is installed.
The Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service must be running on the environment's domain controllers.

The GPDBPA tool is an automated health-check and troubleshooting tool. The tool is written in the C# language, and it collects configuration settings. The tool also performs tests against the Group Policy configuration of an environment. After the tool collects these test results in an XML output file, rules are then applied to the data that is collected in this file. Any differences between these rules and the data that is collected are highlighted.

The GPDBPA tool is a stand-alone program that an administrator can run from a Windows Server 2003-based system or from a Windows XP-based system. You can use the tool to do the following:

Perform a proactive health check on the Group Policy environment to detect common configuration errors that frequently generate support incidents.
Collect diagnostic information and initial data from an environment, and then automate some analysis of that data.
Obtain a snapshot of the Group Policy configuration for archiving. This data may be a useful reference if a future problem occurs.

SCOM 2007: New KB938991

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 22:32:00 +0000

Microsoft has released a new knowledge base article on 31 July 2007, regarding a flaw in the System Center Operations Manager 2007 monitoring for a SQL Server 2000 database. Details are bellow as described on the official support link for KB938991.

SYMPTOMS
In Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, you view the Microsoft SQL Server state view for a computer that has SQL Server 2000 installed. The SQL Server 2000 database engine health is not monitored.

CAUSE
By default, the SQL DB Engine Service Health Rollup monitor is not enabled.
Note - This aggregate monitor includes the SQL Service State terminated unexpected monitor and the SQL Service terminated unexpectedly monitor.

WORKAROUND
To work around this issue, follow these steps:

In the System Center Operations Manager 2007 Operator Console, click Authoring in the navigation pane.
Under Management Pack objects, click Monitors.
Press CTRL+M to display the Scope Management Pack Objects by target(s) dialog box.
In the Look for search box, type SQL 2000 DB Engine, and then click Find now.
Click to select the SQL 2000 DB Engine check box, and then click OK to display the SQL 2000 DB Engine target.
Expand SQL 2000 DB Engine, expand Entity Health, expand Availability, and then click SQL DB Engine Service Health Rollup.

This aggregate monitor displays No in the Enabled by default column.
To enable this aggregate monitor, right-click SQL DB Engine Service Health Rollup, point to Overrides, point to Override the monitor, and then click For all objects of type: SQL 2000 DB Engine.
In the list of overrides, click to select the Override check box for the Enabled parameter.
Click True in the Override Setting box, and then click OK.

SCE 2007: Troubleshooting Toolkit

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:19:00 +0000

Provided bellow is a list of usefull information to help you troubleshoot your System Center Essentials 2007 or WSUS client installations.

Server Diagnostic Tool
Designed to help administrators gather WSUS server debugging logs and configuration information for further troubleshooting.
Client Diagnostics Tool
Designed to aid the WSUS administrator in troubleshooting client machines that are failing to report back to the WSUS Server. The tool will conduct preliminary checks and test the communication between the WSUS Server and the client machine. Once the tool has completed the tests it will display the results in the console window.
Resultant Set of Policies (RSoP) MMC snap-in
Microsoft Management Console designed to display the current policies applied in the client.
Proxycfg.exe Command line Utility
Configures WinHTTP to access HTTP and HTTPS servers through a proxy server.
Windows Update Error Codes
List of all compreensive error codes returned by the Windows Update.
AU Troubleshooting Article
Article on how to troubleshoot Automatic Update Client communication with SCE 2007 Server.
WSUS Wiki
Great website with lots of usefull information.
Microsoft Official Documentation
System Center Essentials 2007 Operations Guide
System Center Essentials 2007 Migration Guide
TechNet Webcast: Overview and Architecture of System Center Essentials 2007 (Level 300)
TechNet Webcast: Deploying and Upgrading to System Center Essentials 2007 (Level 200)

SCE 2007: Deployment Day #2 and #3

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 01:23:00 +0000

SCE Day #2 and #3 - Installing and Configuring

Last couple of days I've been busy getting my hands dirty on System Center Essentials 2007. I'm going to continue posting issues I found during my deployment and the resolutions I have found to solve the problems.

Issue #1

I was having a repeated error entry on the Operations Manager Event Log of the SCE 2007 server.

Source: Health Service Modules
Event ID: 21400
Description
Failed to create process due to error '0x80070003 : The system cannot find the path specified.', this workflow will be unloaded.
...
One or more workflows were affected by this.
Workflow name: Microsoft.SystemCenter.CheckForManagementPackUpdates

Resolution #1
Apparently this workflow is ran through the Windows Powershell command. The Windows Powershell is not a pre-requisite for installing SCE 2007, and since some of the Operations Manager 2007 Management Packs uses it, you'll always get this error after a complete deployment sooner or later, since the Management Packs for SCE 2007 are the same as for OpsMgr 2007.

The resolution is simply installing the Microsoft Windows Powershell available at the following Link:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/powershell/download.mspx

Issue #2
Coudn't run any of the Reports in the Reporting pane of the SCE 2007 console, recieving a popup error log.

Resolution #2
Simply change the size of the MDF and LDF files for the ReportServer database on your SQL 2005 Server instance to larger values.

Please refer to the following knowledge base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899158/en-us

Issue #3

Some clients are not recieving updates and Iventory collection is not working properlly.

Resolution #3

Log on to the remote client and execute the following troubleshooting procedures

Stop the Automatic Updates service
Delete the contents of the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder
Restart the Automatic Updates service
Wait about 1 minute, then run wuauclt.exe /detectnow.

I have more issues but haven't found a convincing and straight forward resolution for them.

SCE 2007: Custom Task for On-Demand Updates Install

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:29:00 +0000

Bellow you'll find information about creating a task that will allow you to deploy update on-demand with a single button click, avoiding the timeframe of syncronization and detection frequency defined in the global GPO.

All the following information is cortesy of Björn Axéll from Advisec and the credits for the VBScript goes to Harry Johnston from University of Waikato, New Zealand.

As you know, System Center Essentials (SCE) provide you with both Update Management and Software Deployment. Since SCE uses Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) as underlying technology for both of these functions, the configuration of the client detection time and interval is done through Group Policy (this is done when you run the Feature Configuration Wizard in SCE and select domain policy). The default values for this are:

Schedule install time = 03:00
Automatic Updates detection frequency = Every 22 hour

Note that both of these can be changed to fit you environment.

So, if all of your machines are online at this time they will get all of the updates and all of the applications you approved for them. The problem I have seen is when you see (through the console) that one or more clients “Needs” updates or applications and you just want to “Click Install Now”. As default, this is not possible in SCE and the option you have it to use Remote Desktop or visit the computer. The two tasks you have by default in SCE are:

Detect Software and Updates Now - This tasks only download the updates to the client and inform the user that they are available but the user need to click “Install” or wait for the schedule time to apear
Collect Inventory - This task actually do exactly the same as above

The solution to this problem is to build your own task that run a script that both download and install updates and software and then report back what’s been installed.

Start the SCE console, click Authoring and then expand Management Pack Objects node
Right-click Tasks and select to create a new task
In the Create task wizard - Task Type, select Agent Task and Run a script and then select your destination management pack and click Next
In the Create task wizard - General Properties, input a task name and a description and choose target (I would recommend to use the Windows Computers as target). Click Next
In the Create task wizard - Script, select as below and then click Create:

File Name = WSUS.vbs
Time Out = This depend on the time it will take to install the updates. In my tests I have selected 1 hour
Script = Se below‘

Written in 2007 by Harry Johnston, University of Waikato, New Zealand.‘ This code has been placed in the public domain. It may be freely‘ used, modified, and distributed. However it is provided with no‘ warranty, either express or implied.

VBScript WSUS.vbs code

‘ Exit Codes:
‘ 0 = scripting failure
‘ 1 = error obtaining or installing updates
‘ 2 = installation successful, no further updates to install
‘ 3 = reboot needed; rerun script after reboot
‘
‘ Note that exit code 0 has to indicate failure because that is what is returned if a scripting error is raised.

Set updateSession = CreateObject(”Microsoft.Update.Session”)
Set updateSearcher = updateSession.CreateUpdateSearcher()
Set updateDownloader = updateSession.CreateUpdateDownloader()
Set updateInstaller = updateSession.CreateUpdateInstaller()

Do
WScript.Echo
WScript.Echo “Searching for approved updates …”
WScript.Echo

Set updateSearch = updateSearcher.Search(”IsInstalled=0″)

If updateSearch.ResultCode <> 2 Then
WScript.Echo “Search failed with result code”, updateSearch.ResultCodeWScript.Quit 1
End If

If updateSearch.Updates.Count = 0 Then
WScript.Echo “There are no updates to install.”WScript.Quit 2
End If

Set updateList = updateSearch.Updates
For I = 0 to updateSearch.Updates.Count - 1
Set update = updateList.Item(I)
WScript.Echo “Update found:”, update.Title
Next

WScript.Echo
updateDownloader.Updates = updateListupdateDownloader.Priority = 3
Set downloadResult = updateDownloader.Download()

If downloadResult.ResultCode <> 2 Then
WScript.Echo “Download failed with result code”, downloadResult.ResultCode
WScript.Echo
WScript.Quit 1
End If

WScript.Echo “Download complete. Installing updates …”
WScript.Echo
updateInstaller.Updates = updateList

Set installationResult = updateInstaller.Install()
If installationResult.ResultCode <> 2 Then
WScript.Echo “Installation failed with result code”, installationResult.ResultCode
For I = 0 to updateList.Count - 1
Set updateInstallationResult = installationResult.GetUpdateResult(I)
WScript.Echo “Result for ” & updateList.Item(I).Title & ” is ” & installationResult.GetUpdateResult(I).ResultCode
Next
WScript.Quit 1
End If

If installationResult.RebootRequired Then
WScript.Echo “The system must be rebooted to complete installation.”
WScript.Quit 3
End If

WScript.Echo “Installation complete.”
Loop

Open the Computer or Monitoring View and select the client/server you want to update and then select the task that you created above.

Example of the result of the task on a computer that needs one update and the installation is successfull and the computer needs to be restarted

Example of the result of the task on a computer that doesn’t have any updates

OpsMgr 2007: New KB soon to be public

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:20:00 +0000

The Microsoft team responsible for the Operations Manager 2007 has just posted on their blog information about a new workarround soon to be published as an offical KB article.

Issue
If you install reporting and then install a secondary MS then it will not be able to write DW data as profiles are not created by setup.

Symptoms
You get alerts that say the 2nd management server can’t write to the DW using the server action account – but we’re using the same server action account on both management servers.

Workarround
So to fix this manually you have to open the Console then Navigate to Administration View expand the security node. Select the Run As Profiles option, in the right hand view select the Data Warehouse Account and right click and choose Properties then select the Run As Account Tab. See if the Second Management server name is listed (most probably no) if not click New and specify the name of the second management, this should fix the issue. You should see Event ID: 31554 when this is successful. Note: This bug is fixed in Service Pack1 of OpsMgr 2007

SCE 2007: Official KB Articles

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 01:08:00 +0000

Bellow are the official Microsoft knowledge base articles I found out that are related with System Center Essentials 2007. I thought I post them here to let you all know they exist and for me to start creating a list as they get public.

SCE 2007: Online Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:49:00 +0000

Provided below are resources available online for getting to know the System Center Essentials 2007.

SCE 2007: Pre-Requisite Check

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:38:00 +0000

Here's some usefull info, also available on the SCE installation notes, about how to you will find information on how to prepare your Server for a fresh new installation of System Center Essentials (SCE) 2007. Cortesy of Don Hite @ myITForum.

You must install the SCE 2007 Management Server on any of the following Operating Systems either the 32-bit or 64-bit versions with Service Pack (SP) 1 or greater:

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Both Standard and Enterprise Edition)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 (Both Standard and Enterprise Edition)
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 (Both Standard and Premium Edition)
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005

You must also ensure that the following are installed:

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1
Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0
IIS Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 2.0
Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.80.1022.0 or greater
Windows Installer 3.1 or later must be installed
.NET Framework 2.0 or greater
.NET Framework 3.0 Components

Additionally you must ensure that the following are met:

Active Directory (AD) must be deployed
Your operating system must be installed on a drive formatted with NTFS

Tip: You must uninstall Software Update Server 1.0 before attempting to install Windows Server Update Services 3.0. This is if you're planning on upgrading from WSUS to SCE.

The following SCE 2007 Management Server hardware minimum requirements are listed below:

1.8 GHz processor (2.8 GHz or faster recommended)
1 GB of RAM (2 GB RAM recommended)
12 GB of available hard disk space (20 GB recommended)
1 GB of available hard disk space on the system drive.

In order to install SCE 2007 you should have a SQL server backend for the database already installed locally or you can use a Remote SQL database separate from the SCE server or the installation will install SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (Included on the CD-ROM Installation Media as SqlExpR_Adv.Exe in the Setup folder) with Advanced Services locally.

Note: You can also buy installation media with SCE 2007 and SQL Server 2005 Standard edition on it specifically licensed to use with SCE 2007.

You will need to install SQL Server 2005 any version listed below either the 32-bit or 64-bit versions with Service Pack (SP) 1 or greater installed and when you install SQL Server 2005 make sure that the SQL Reporting Services is installed as well as configured and patched with the SP 1 upgrade:

SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition
SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition

Tip: You must have SQL 2005 set to use Windows Authentication Mode.
Note: SCE 2007 does not support SQL 2005 Database Mirroring nor cluster support.

After the installation has completed SCE 2007 will allow you to support the following as managed computer resources:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
All Service Pack (SP) 4 or greater
Either the 32-bit or 64-bit versions with Service Pack (SP) 1 or greater
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Web Edition
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition
Microsoft Windows Vista Business Edition
Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
Either the 32-bit or 64-bit versions with Service Pack (SP) 2 or greater
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005

Hope this great compliled information from Don will help you prepare and plan your System Center Essentials 2007 (SCE 2007) deployment on your infrastructure.

SCE 2007: Deployment Day #1

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:10:00 +0000

This week I'll be implementing System Center Essentials 2007 on a new customer. It will be a pilot deployment in a controlled environment with pre selected target devices.

This will be done in order for my customer to avaliate if SCE will feat their needs or if they require a more complete solution based on SCOM and SCCM.

SCE Day #1 - Planning & Designing

The architecture of the solution will be the simplest scenario possible. It will consist on a clean installation of all the components needed for SCE on the new server. Since the client's infrastructure is very simple aswell, consisting in only one domain and all being centralized with no branch offices, it will make the planning & designing phase too much easy.

Nevertheless, there should always be professionalism regarding documenting procedures and architectural design when delivering a new solution to customers.

Server Configuration

Intel 4400 2.0GHz Core2 Duo
4GB RAM and 75GB of HDD

Software Description

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 EE 32-bit x86 with SP2
Microsoft IIS 6.0 with COM+ and BITS
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0
All lastest Windows Updates
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 EE 32-bit x86 with SP2
Database Server, Reporting Server and Workstation Components
System Center Essentials 2007

Configuration Details

Installation Location
C:\Program Files\System Center Essentials 2007
Database Location
D:\SCE Database
Update Files Location
D:\SCE
SQL Server database and Reporting Services
Local SQL default instance

Target Monitoring

13 Microsoft Windows Servers

Note: These 13 servers represent the majority of the client server infrastructure, which include Domain Controllers, Exchange Servers, SQL Servers, IIS Servers, File Servers, Print Servers, SharePoint Portal Servers and other specific Application Servers from Anti-Virus Central Servers to Backup Solution Servers.

Target Management

Arround 250 desktop clients

Note: Mixed environment being the majority installed with Windows XP Professional, a considerable number of Windows Vista clients, and some Windows 2000 Professional.

I'll be updating the blog daily with news about this new deployment. Will try to post and discuss issues and feature I find during the project.

OpsMgr 2007: SDK Service causes high CPU load and memory leaks while eXc Software monitoring is processed

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 01:39:00 +0000

Recently while working with the eXc Software Framework I noticed a huge progressive performance degradation on my Operations Manager 2007 Root Management Server.

While investigating this issue I've come to realise that everytime the eXc JavaScripts ran my SCOM 2007 Server was nearly dead, with the Microsoft.Mom.Sdk.ServiceHost.exe process, correspondent to the SDK Service consumed most of the time all of the CPU, raising it to 100%.

After contacting the eXc Support I was informed that this already a known issue and it occurs when the eXc Framework processes try to write data into the SCOM 2007 Data Warehouse database on the SQL Reporting Services.

Quoting eXc Software

I have only really seen this when trying to use the OpsMgr DataWarehouse, which we are really now recommending against since it is not designed well in its use by nonWindows... Also, note that this issue has already been answered to us from Microsoft saying that they will NOT be fixing it in SP1, but POSSIBLY in the next version of OpsMgr. Not the answer we expected either, but the answer nonetheless.

eXc Software has a workarround in order to solve this issue which involves the exclusion of writes into the Data Warehouse of the Reporting Services and use an alternative database for storing the gathered data for long term reporting.

In order to apply this configuration change you need to have the lastest Base Framework installed. Just follow the next configuration steps.

Download the latest Base Framework
Download the Report Bundle (available in Step 4 of the download page of any Virtual agent installation package)
Delete the eXc Management Pack
Stop all Virtual Agents
Uninstall the Base Framework (Event Provider) using Add/Remove programs
Do NOT uninstall any of the Virtual Agent packages

Install the latest Base Framework you previously downloaded
Re-Import the Management Pack
Unzip the Report Bundle
Open a New Query on a SQL Server where you want the new DW database
Paste the T-SQL code contained in the 'Ops Mgr 2007 - Data Warehouse Setup.sql' file to create the database
Change the paths for the MDF and LOG files and Execute
Create a New Login on the SQL Security node for the AD Group that contains the OpsMgr Servers (i.e. eXcSoftwareOpsMgrComputers)
Give it sysadmin permissions and access to the new eXc Software database

Open the eXc Configuration Tool and navigate to the MOM node.
On the MOMGlobalVariables tab change the name of the SQL Server to the server where you just setup the new DW database. Here don't use FQDN, just type the server NetBIOS name.
On the OpsMgrGlobalVariables tab check if the Management Server NetBIOS name and Domain name are correct, if not change them.
If you're using a domain account instead of the Local System account for the SDK Service you need to enter that information in the g_strMOMUserId and g_strMOMPassword input boxs.
Check the last checkbox stating g_boolWritePerfMetricsToeXcDWDB

The performance problem is now solved. We can now configure the Reporting Services to fetch information in the new created database so it can be available along side with the other reports on the Reporting tab within the Operations Manager 2007 console.

Open the SQL Reporting Services Web Console by typing http://reporting_server_hostname/reports
Click on New Folder to create a new node for the eXc reports and name it whatever you like (i.e. eXc Reports)
Open the folder you just created and click on New Data Source to create the association to the DW database
Name it eXc DataWarehouse, set the connection type to Microsot SQL Server and paste the following connection string without the quotation marks: "Data Source=reporting_server_fqdn;Initial Catalog="eXc Software";Integrated Security=SSPI;"
Select Windows Integrated Security and click on Generate Model
Name it eXc DataModel

Now you just need to have some fun with the SQL Reporting Services Report Builder and design the reports you want, base on the information available on the new DW database

Open the OpsMgr 2007 Operations Console and navigate to the Reporting node
Click on the eXc Software folder, or whatever name you entered when you previously created
Click on Design a new report link located in the right side taskbar
Have fun designing and customizing your reporting needs

OpsMgr 2007: KB935896 - Health Service & Memory Leak issue

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:34:00 +0000

Microsoft has released a new knowledge base article that addresses the problem that when the Health Service (HealthService.exe) runs timed scripts in Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, high memory usage may occur. This problem occurs when you use a System Center Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack that was converted from a Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Management Pack. The Health Service restarts because the monitored threshold of this service is breached.

Note: You can see the leak by checking the following performance counters:

Private Bytes
Virtual Bytes

Although the hotfix is not yet available on the KB935896 article, you may request it directly to Microsoft though the web form request at http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6294451

OpsMgr 2007: 2 new updates

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:24:00 +0000

Microsoft has released 2 new updates for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.

This two new updates will address some issues regarding the event data generated by the Data Warehouse Library and also some updates for the SCOM 2007 management pack itself.

Operations Manager 2007 Data Warehouse Library Management Pack

The Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Management Pack update is an update to the previously released System Center Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack with System Center Operations Manager 2007 RTM.

The updated file list includes:

Microsoft.SystemCenter.2007.mp (6.0.5000.28)
Microsoft.SystemCenter.Internal.mp (6.0.5000.28)
Microsoft.SystemCenter.Library.mp (6.0.5000.28)
Microsoft.SystemCenter.OperationsManager.200.mp (6.0.5000.28)
Microsoft.SystemCenter.ServiceDesigner.Library.mp (6.0.5000.28
Microsoft.SystemCenter.WebApplication.Library.mp (6.0.5000.28)
System.Health.Library.mp (6.0.5000.28)

Update to address fixes and enhancements:

OnDemandDetection for threshold monitors.
Ability to override Priority / Severity settings.
Alert rules/monitors added for Batch response.
Added Knowledge for rules and monitors.
Fixed Distributed Application health rollup state.
Top customer impacting bugs found post-RTM

System Center Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack Update

The Data Warehouse Library Management Pack contains the definitions and workflows required to support the forwarding of data to the Operations Manager Data Warehouse as well as the subsequent maintenance of the data. It also contains rules and monitors to track the ongoing health of the Data Warehouse data flows and processes. This Management Pack ships with the Operations Manager product and is periodically updated with fixes and new functionality.

Feature Bullet Summary:

Manages the flow of data to the Data Warehouse
Manages credentials used for the operation and management of the Data Warehouse
Supports the deployment of reports to the Data Warehouse
Manages the aggregation of performance data in the Data Warehouse
Synchronizes alert data in the Data Warehouse with recent alert changes made in the operational database
Manages the health of Data Warehouse workflows

OpsMgr 2007: Health Service not recieving new configuration

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:15:00 +0000

If you get an alert stating that The Health Service has requested new configuration, but no has not received it for more than 90 minutes and the end result is that the overall status of the monitored server turns out grey, this might happen due to the Windows Firewall running on the target agent monitored server.

To solve this issue, simply open up port 5724 on the Windows Firewall. If it doesn't work, check your network devices settings and allow communication on port 5724 between the RMS and the agent monitored server.

Note: If you use a more complex SCOM 2007 deployment scenario that involves multiple Management Servers, the communication port is 5723 from the agent to the MS.

Bellow are the default ports that SCOM 2007 uses to communicate between it's management infrastructure.

MMC Console --> Root Management Server --> TCP 5724
MMC Console --> SQL Reporting Services --> TCP 80
Web Console --> Web Console Server --> TCP 51908, TCP 443
Managed Agent --> Management Server --> TCP 5723

Back from vacations

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:40:00 +0000

Hello fellow readers,

I'm finally back from my long and deserved vacations so I'll be bringing more news and updates to the blog shortly.

Cheers.

OpsMgr 2007: RMS Disaster Recovery

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:26:00 +0000

The team of Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 has realeased a new disaster recovery document with guidelines on how to plan and recover a RMS (Root Management Server) implemented on a Microsoft Cluster Server environment.

Although this is still preliminary documentation, it contains the all the necessary configuration and troubleshooting steps you need to recover the server. The official and supported version of this document should be published soon.

In their lastest post they refer also to the realease of the Service Pack 1 for Operations Management. We'll stay tuned to further news to come.

OpsMgr 2007: Training Videos

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:17:00 +0000

Microsoft has provided the awesome set of the following training videos for all of those who wish to learn more about System Center Operations Manager 2007.

System Center Operations Manager 2007 Training Videos

Webcasts: Week 30 Jully - 03 August

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Caeiro) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 02:40:00 +0000

Webcasts Technet & MSDN
Week 30 Jully - 03 August

Systems & Operations Management

Windows Server 2008 & SQL Server 2008