Best of System Center Bloggers

Blog: Part 3: Creating DCM packs with SCCM 2007

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:59:50 -0800

In part 2 we created a new DCM Pack. Here in part 3 I would wanted to cover a particular aspect in the saving process, version can be a problem when saving your DCM so here are the steps to get around this problem, go to your DCM in the SCCM Console

Right click to export the DCM, which is just a cab file

save to your desktop

When saved it will look like this

Right click on the Cab file

Open then extract the XML. Note the 6 files!!

When extracted we can start to modify, also delete the RESX files we do not need these.

You can use Notepad but if you have a lot of files I use Visual Studio

Here are is the raw XML code, we are only interested in the Build Version

As we entered no info the Build Info shows just Zero’s

Modify to the the Version you want and remove ServicePackMajorVersion and ServicePackMinorVersion entries so it looks like line below

You could just use the Find and Replace in Visual Studio to do this

These next steps are optional if you wish to make it posh like for a client, as the files where saved with number you could find the ‘Display Name’ and save as this name as I have below. This makes the XML a little neater.

When the above steps are completed we need to re package the XML back into a Cab file, I use ‘Cab File Maker’ it’s simple and easy to use. Just drag and drop the 3 XML files into the Cab File Maker name the files and click start

Then when you have a re packaged Cab file import back into the SCCM Console

Then away you go with your DCM. I have to be careful of an NDA I have but I will say this, really BIG companies do it like this!

TechNet Webcast: Optimizing Operations Manager for Monitoring, Auditing, and Dashboards (Level 300)

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:17:20 -0800

Check out this webcast.

Event Overview

Learn how to optimize Microsoft System Center Operations Manager for cross-platform devices, applications, and regulatory auditing requirements, and see how to create advanced line-of-business (LOB), geographic, and executive-level dashboards in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. This webcast includes more than 40 minutes of demonstrations, and we provide customer examples of:

Monitoring Oracle and Apache applications using BridgeWays
Supporting Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) and PCI audit requirements using Secure Vantage Technologies.
Building intelligent views across solutions using Savision Live Maps.
Integrating solutions with SharePoint Server.

Presenters: Jeremiah Beckett, President, Secure Vantage Technologies, Ryan Brennan, Chief Technology Officer, Secure Vantage Technologies, Rob Doucette, Software Development Manager, BridgeWays, and Dennis Rietvink, President, Savision

Jeremiah Beckett is the founder and president of Secure Vantage Technologies, Inc. (SVT), a Microsoft Gold partner that specializes in security and compliance auditing software for Microsoft System Center and Microsoft Forefront technologies. Jeremiah is a recognized industry expert in IT security and compliance with more than 10 years of expertise in enterprise management. Jeremiah is a regular guest speaker at Microsoft events, author of the Audit Collection Service (ACS) Master Class Series ACS wiki on System Center Central, and contributing author to a Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Unleashed ebook. He also holds a bachelor's degree in business IT management from the DeVry Institute of Technology in Phoenix, Arizona.

Blog: OpsMgr: How to enable OpsMgr Module Logging to Troubleshoot Cross-Platform Discovery Failure

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:38:45 -0800

These logs are used mainly to investigate discovery issues. The logs show details about agent push, installation, and certificate signing. Calls made outside of Windows Remote Management (WinRM) are made using SSH/SFTP. These components rely on a separate logging mechanism than Operations Manager.

To enable UNIX native module Logs

Create a blank file named EnableOpsmgrModuleLogging in the \Temp directory for the user account calling these modules by typing at a command-line prompt

COPY /Y NUL %windir%\TEMP\EnableOpsMgrModuleLogging

NOTE: Generally, it is the SYSTEM account making calls during this process. The C:\Windows\Temp directory is the default SYSTEM temp folder, thus the reason for using this location.

DEMO: How to Enable Module Logging

OpsMgr MVP David Allen has created a short webcast on how to enable module logging, step-by-step.

Making groups of logical disks – an example from simple to advanced

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:00:37 -0800

I have been seeing this question come up a lot lately – as customers try and create groups of their disks – in order to create overrides for “certain” disks. So – I am creating this post to give some real world examples.

Well – I will start this simply. Say we want to create a group of all logical disks, with the drive letters of C: and D:?

I would start with creating a new group – and adding the “Windows Server 2003 Logical Disk” class. Now – I could just use the parent class of “Logical Disk” instead of the OS specific class if I wanted. The only issue with that is that most monitors targeting a disk – are OS specific – and duplicated three times. So it is best to create specific groups for these – but totally not required.

Ok – so in the Dynamic Members query builder – I click add, and pick a property. Since I know “Device Name” contains the drive letter – this will do nicely. I select device name “Equals” “C:”.

Now – I want to also include D:. There are many way to do – this – and I will go through them. First – I could simply Insert a new line for Windows Server 2003 Logical Disk – and replicate the line I have – adding one for D:

Only one problem – this is an “AND” grouping – I really need this to be an “OR” grouping to include both C: and D: drives. You can switch this grouping the in UI, just right click the word “AND” and change it to an OR grouping:

Voila!

This formula now looks like:

( Object is Windows Server 2003 Logical Disk AND ( Device Name Equals C: ) OR ( Device Name Equals D: ) )

Save your group – then right click it – and choose “View Group Members”. This will ensure we are cooking with gas. It should contain all your Windows 2003 based C: and D: volumes.

So far – so good.

Now – what if I ONLY want C: and D: disks, that are HOSTED by specific Windows Computers? I can do that too! Lets say I want a group – of all the C: and D: logical disks, on servers that begin with the name “SR______”

If you look at the bottom of the list of properties for Logical Disks – you will see (Host=Windows Computer). From here – we can pick any attribute of the Windows Computer class as well to add to our expression – to limit our logical disks in our group to very specific Computers.

Go back to the properties of your group, edit the Dynamic Members, and you can construct something like this:

Which translates to the following formula:

( Object is Windows Server 2003 Logical Disk AND ( Windows Computer.NetBIOS Computer Name Matches wildcard sr* ) AND ( ( Device Name Equals C: ) OR ( Device Name Equals D: ) ) )

Now – I will be honest – getting all the “ands” and “ors” in the right place using the UI is a big pain. It is very easy to screw it up. I like to simplify this to the fewest lines possible – using Regex.

Using Regular Expressions – we can use modifiers to create very advanced expressions. my favorites are ^ which means the beginning of a new line or word, and | which is the “pipe” symbol – which means “or”.

So a simple way to accomplish the same example above – without all the complexity – is this:

WAY simpler!

However – you might notice – this doesn't work right. This is because Regex is case sensitive. If the Server NetBIOS name is detected in all CAPS, this expression wont match. I talk a little about this issue in this post: http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2009/04/21/quick-tip-using-regular-expressions-in-a-dynamic-group.aspx

So – based on that posts example – there is a simple way to make a RegEx case insensitive: (?i:blah)

Using that as an example – we can now make very advanced groupings, quite easily:

(?i: to make it case insensitive. ^ to signify the beginning of the word/line match. Here is the formula now:

( Object is Windows Server 2003 Logical Disk AND ( Device Name Matches regular expression (?i:^C|^D) ) AND ( Windows Computer.NetBIOS Computer Name Matches regular expression (?i:^sr) ) )

Check it out:

Victory!

What if I wanted all logical disks that we NOT hosted by a Virtual Machine? Easy!

( Object is Logical Disk AND ( Windows Computer.Virtual Machine Equals False ) AND True )

This reveals a group of ALL logical disks hosted by a Windows Computer with the attribute of Virtual Machine = False:

As you can see – using the Hosting relationship of the disk – to the Windows Computer object, there is much more you can do with groups.

Blog: System Center Central Sponsor: Bridgeways

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:16:37 -0800

Microsoft have created an incredibly powerful monitoring application, Bridgeways is making the reach into ‘Foreign’ territories of this monitoring tool. I remember whilst reading the brief of R2 ‘Cross Platform’ monitoring I was so excited by this and truth be told I didn’t give any thought to the applications that would run on these Cross Platform servers.

Bridgeways has given thought to these applications, in fact a great deal of thought and it’s really exciting. Oracle, MySQL, Apache and others ..." are being brought together with Microsoft by a Bridge, way! Yea Bridgeways.

So now we can monitor our Microsoft applications as well as other non MSFT applications with the exact same precision, Bridgeways are monitoring a good range of day to day apps that we may have in our mixed environment allowing us to monitor with the one application.

BridgeWays Management Pack for VMware ESX

Virtualization technology has improved dramatically over the last few years. As more and more companies look to virtualize their environments, additional vendors come to market, spurring competition and accelerating feature growth. Today’s hypervisors open even more opportunities for server consolidation and create a new (some would argue a return to the old) operational paradigm in which resources are centralized and workloads are distributed to the hardware that can best accommodate the resource requirements.

Monitoring virtualized environments has become critical to optimizing hardware performance and achieving maximum ROI. This requires a consolidated view that allows for monitoring of both the hypervisor and the individual workloads in order to identify bottlenecks and correct any problems before they have a major impact on the performance of the virtual environment.

BridgeWays Management Packs for MySQL Database and Apache HTTP Server

The LAMP stack is a common framework for both internal and public web sites, including many of the largest sites on the internet. LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (could also be Perl or Python). While the Linux is the predominant OS, the “AMP” parts can also be run on Solaris, Windows, Mac, or other operating systems.

Administering and monitoring the LAMP stack cannot be done efficiently by separately monitoring the individual components. Using one tool to monitor the OS, another for the database, and a third tool for the web server fails to reveal how each component impacts the others. Without a contextual overview, administrators often lose a great deal of time chasing false leads, while failing to identify the root causes of issues that arise.

BridgeWays Management Packs for JBoss Application Server and Oracle Database

In most organizations, the availability of workflows associated with mission-critical applications is crucial to the success of their business. Unplanned outages are costly, and in extreme cases these applications can never be down at all, proactive monitoring is needed to ensure the availability and performance of the services that are being provided. It is not enough to know that the database is up, or the application server is running. Capturing detailed information through monitoring of the components and the service in general is how IT organizations are able to ensure that service level objectives applied to the service and the underlying workflows are met or exceeded at all times.

These critical services are often n-tier applications that include components such as JBoss Application Servers and Oracle Databases. When monitoring an n-tier application, it is not enough to monitor each workflow in a silo. Monitoring Oracle, JBoss, the network, the operating systems, and even the base hardware in isolation can lead to problems being missed until a minor symptom grows into a full scale epidemic. Getting the depth of information necessary to certify service levels requires a view of the entire service to ensure harmonious interaction, and to pinpoint where action must be taken to maintain system performance and avoid downtime.

For example, a minor increase in database query times may be within acceptable thresholds for a generic database, yet it may damage workflow equilibrium if JBoss starts queuing up requests and the queue eventually caps out, leading to timeouts and dropped requests.

BridgeWays are committed to constantly building new management packs based on customer and community demand, this is helping to expand the reach of System Center Operations Manager; giving more and more people the direct benefits that come from using Operations Manager for their entire environment. To see the complete list of currently available MPs, go to the Product Overview

Their Product Overview Page where you can also request trials in order to see if their MPs can help you. Or if you are going to TechEd Berlin why not schedule a Personal Demo

Blog: TechEd Berlin: Using Microsoft System Center to Manage Beyond the Trusted Domain

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:22:03 -0800

Rory McCaw and myself will be in Berlin at TechEd next week and hope to see you there!

We will be co-presenting in a level 300 breakout session on Monday, November 9th titled "Using System Center to Manage Beyond the Trusted Domain". We'll be discussing how to leverage PKI in Windows 2008 R2 to extend the reach of System Center to systems outside the Active Directory trust boundary. I've included a preview agenda below. We hope to see you there!

Preview Agenda

Windows 2008 PKI Drill Down
Using PKI to Extend the Reach of System Center
Changes in Provisioning Certificates in Windows 2008
Bulk Certificate Provisioning for System Center
Managing Internet-Based Clients with ConfigMgr 2007
Troubleshooting Certificate Issues
Monitoring CA and Certificate Validity

Blog: Jalasoft Xian Wings 2010 Pending Announcement

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:17:10 -0800

Jalasoft sent us a note a couple days ago on a new product announcement coming Friday. Wonder if this is a competitive offering to Derdack?

“Jalasoft informed today to a close network of contacts that they are going to announce the release of Xian Wings 2010. Wings 2010 will be part of the Xian suite and will make it possible for network and server administrators to gain better control of their environments thanks to a special client application that works on their mobile device”

Updated Active Directory ADMP Management Pack released – Version 6.0.7065.0

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:53:34 -0800

This is now available on the catalog.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/cc539535.aspx

Changes in this update:

Support for monitoring Windows Server® 2008 R2 server operating systems as well as Windows® 7 client operating systems
Support for monitoring the Active Directory Web Service (ADWS) in Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as the Active Directory Management Gateway Service in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003

There were a few other minor fixes as well, such as the AD LSASS CPU overload monitor. This release also replaces a recently released ADMP version 6.0.7050.0 that was pulled to fix the aforementioned monitor.

Blog: Part 2: Creating DCM packs with SCCM 2007

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:09:20 -0800

After Part 1 really just an intro in DCM we look at creating a new DCM Pack with Scripts, this is a long document and there are a few steps. So navigate to Desired Configuration Management (DCM) with in the SCCM Console.

Right click on Configuration Items, click new and in this case I have selected Operating System Configuration Item, if you want to chose another you can.

With the wizard open enter a name and description.

I want you to pay attention to this screen, this is a place where things can go wrong. I will go into detail in Part 3 which will follow soon why we leave this as is seen. I will detail how we edit this in XML so we can remove some of the fields making it a better to detect different versions.

The Objects section is not required for script but we will address it function in Part 4

In the setting section is where we are going to make it all happen with our script so click on “New”

When you click on New select “Script”

This will open this window, note it asks which script language. Our script today is VBScript so I have it selected on VBScript

Enter a name, description and your script, just cut a paste. Make sure your script has been tested as a VBScript before using it.

Here is another very important part, do we know what we are looking for as a response, well Read Only SNMP Community String have a DWORD setting of 4 in the registry.

So we are looking for the value of 4, if we where to change this to ‘Does not Match’ 4 then we could set the severity to Warning

Click OK, the Validation will look like this.

Click OK,

And again

Last time

And now are on the on the way to create the DCM but still have some more steps

Rick click on the newly create Item and select ‘Create child configuration Item’

This trys to add the date and time remove those

So it looks like this

Now you have 2 Items, the child needs no extra work and will always be a replica of the Parent and is used for the deployment of the XML

Now lets go to the Configuration Baseline and right click ‘New Configuration Baseline’

In the wizard give it a name (this is going to be the name of the DCM Pack)

Click next

And again

Click next

So you get a Configuration Baseline

Then right click on it select ‘Add’ the ‘Operation System Configuration Item’

You will get loads of item show up here is you have already imported DCM so you can use the ‘Look for’ as I have to narrow down the search, click on the two items (child as well)

So than when you look in the Rules it shows you the added rules

Click OK. Less the OS version we are ready to go.

I will follow up with the Part two this week which is also a heavy going document.

Howto: Disable a NIC when running Sysprep

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:25:07 -0800

Disabling a network card when running sysprepping a Windows machine is easy. Two things need to happen:

1. Add the following command to the [GuiRunOnce] section of your sysprep.inf file

Command0=”C:\temp\disablenic.cmd”

2. On the machine you are sysprepping, create a C:\temp\disablenic.cmd file that contains the following:

netsh interface set interface “Local Area Connection 2″ DISABLED

Change the name of the interface you want disabled as needed. To determine the names of all network interfaces on a system, run the following command:

netsh interface show interface

Proceed with syspreping as normal. When the machine boots up, the specified network interface(s) will be disabled.

social software in the workplace - magic quadrant 2009

marcus — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:28:00 -0800

right up there with ibm and jive software. hope they’re not talking about lotus notes! ;)

full details for this and other magic quadrant reports are located here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/itanalyst/default.mspx.

Blog: Powershell: OpsMgr Alert-to-Speech (cool idea from Gary Broadwater at Quest)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:48:32 -0800

A customer request had me looking around the support community of one of our community sponsors - Quest. (The site is management-extensions.org). While I was there, I ran across something that raises some interesting possibilities for audible alarms using the OpsMgr Command Notification Channel. This would be especially with remoting in Powershell 2.0 so we could execute the audible alarm on a system that is NOT the RMS.

Gary Broadwater (eXc-turned-Quest architect) posted the most simple Powershell snippet HERE.

If you save this as a text_to_speech.ps1 file and pass a text string to it, your computer will recite the words. Text-to-speech in 3 lines. They don't call it Powershell for nothing.

################################
# Company: Quest Software
# Author: Gary Broadwater
################################

$q = new-object -com SAPI.SpVoice
$q.speak($args)
$q = $null

Sample Run

I ran exactly this on my computer, and I could make the words out very clearly!

.\text_to_speech.ps1 Quest extends system center to the non-windows world!

Calling the script remotely from the RMS

Then, from your OpsMgr RMS, you could use the notification command channel to call the remote script. I have Powershell 2.0 running on an OpsMgr lab server, so I would expect this should be okay, but you'd want to test carefully I think. I don't think I'd do this without Powershell 2.0, because you need it for remoting to avoid running this on the RMS. Here's PoSh 2.0 syntax to do it.

invoke-command -computername RemoteAlertComputer -filepath c:\Scripts\text_to_speech.ps1

NOTE: You could work out how to pass the OpsMgr alert description with the standard XPath as a script argument, but I think this would work best with a short message hard-coded in the script.

And a Personal Comment on Quest

I have talked with the technical folks at Quest about what they're doing with PRO and virtualization, application virtualization, extending Configuration Manager to support non-Windows systems, and they are working on some pretty cool answers for difficult technology and business problems. I have to say I am genuinely excited to see what develops. And I want to add this personal note about the tech support I've received from these guys. In short, the best of any ISV I have worked with. Gary, Tony and gang have delivered for me whenever I needed an assist.

Take a look at the ways Quest extends System Center at http://www.quest.com/system-center/

Visit the Quest Heterogeniuses Blog

Blog: Error code 80070102 deploying SCOM agent

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:48:59 -0800

Ran into an issue today trying to both push deploy an agent and manually install an agent on a Windows Server 2008 server. The resultant error code was 80070102 when the push installation failed.

Looking at the agentinstall.log for the server in c:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\AgentManagement\AgentLogs, this had to do with the Windows Firewall on a Windows Server 2008 server.

The solution was to disable the Windows Firewall General, Public, and Private settings and stop the Windows Firewall service and then attempt a push deployment again. This time it worked flawlessly.

Technorati Tags: SCOM,Error Code 80070102,SCOM Agent deployment failure,Infront Consulting Group,Rory McCaw,OpsMgr 2007,Training

For great technical information on System Center, check our Infront Consulting Group’s training classes at www.infrontconsulting.com/training.php.

Chatting with Brad, Part 4

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:57:17 -0800

Hey everyone, we continue in this posting talking with Brad Anderson - CVP of System Center. In this part 4 of 4, we talk with Brad about the capabilities of System Center to manage workload products like Exchange. We hope to see you at TechEd Berlin next week!

Jeff Wettlaufer
Sr. Technical Product Manager
System Center

Blog: The Springboard Series Community Partei @ Microsoft TechEd Berlin

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:53:39 -0800

Cool party announced for TechEd Europe on the TechNet Plus Blog.

If you plan to attend Microsoft TechEd in Berlin, join us for a special celebration!

Party Details and Registration URL

On Tuesday, 10 November, at 21:00, get ready to rub shoulders with some of the world’s most powerful IT Professionals and community influencers.
Exclusively for Springboard Series Technical Expert Panelists (STEP), Microsoft MVPs, TechNet Plus Subscribers, and Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs), the Springboard Series Community Partei held the week of TechEd Europe in Berlin, Germany, is your opportunity to network with industry peers and key Microsoft executives, learn about other communities and special offerings, and enjoy an evening full of music (DJ’d by our very own Joey Snow and David Lowe), food, drinks, and fun—all compliments of Microsoft.
Party attendance is limited, so be sure to register today to reserve your spot at TechEd Europe’s only community party!

Brought to you by Springboard Series, TechNet+ Subscriptions and Microsoft Server

Registration Site: https://microsoft.crgevents.com/CommunityPartei/

Registration Code: TE-TN

Blog: Extending System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM) to Unix, Linux and Mac systems - Overview

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:57:41 -0800

Presenter: Richard Haddock, Senior Product Manager | Quest Software

IT Administrator's are challenged with complex heterogeneous systems to manage. For many, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 is their tool of choice to manage their Windows environment. This blog series will discuss a solution called Quest Management Xtensions (QMX) for Configuration Manager 2007 that natively extends SCCM to Unix, Linux and Mac systems. This first video is an overview of what this solution can do for IT administrators. Future blog entries will drill down into other topics including architecture, platform support and feature demos.

View the Video

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SCCM end users - check out SystemCenterCentral.com

Quest Software is a proud, gold sponsor

Heterogeniuses Blog

Technet Webcast Rescheduled today….

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:03:07 -0800

Hi everyone, today we were scheduled to run a webcast on TechNet entitled “Technical Overview: System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 and R3 “. Due to a collection of unforeseen circumstances this ‘cast had to be rescheduled. We regret the late notice, and hope this has not caused any inconvenience to anyone who had signed up for the presentation.

We do plan to run this webcast very soon. There are 2 upcoming opportunities for you to see this content delivered. The first is at TechEd Berlin, the week of Nov 9th-11. This content will be covered in several sessions there. In addition, we have rescheduled the Webcast on Technet with the below date and time information.

MGT200 Microsoft System Center Roadmap and Strategy, Tue 11/10 | 9:00-10:15 | Paris 2 - Hall 7-1c
MGT301 What's New in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager: SP1, R2, and R3, Tue 11/10 | 13:30-14:45 | Berlin 2 - Hall 7-3a
MGT306 Microsoft System Center and the Green Client, Wed 11/11 | 15:45-17:00 | Europa 1 - Hall 7-3b

TechNet Webcast: Technical Overview: System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 and R3 (Level 200) (link)
Date: 11/24/2009
Time: 10:00 AM-11:00 AM U.S. Pacific Time

If you were registered for the webcast today, you have automatically been re-registered for the new session on Nov 24th. You should have an email from the TechNet team.

We hope to see you at one of these events soon!
Kind regards

Jeff Wettlaufer
Sr. Technical Product Manager
System Center

Blog: How to create a Two-State PowerShell Script Monitor using the Authoring Console (Part 3)

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:17:19 -0800

This is a step-by-step guide in multiple parts:

Part 1 will cover the Probe Actions Module Types: Part 1 is available on SCC or on code4ward
Part 2 will be about creating a Data Source: Part 2 is available on SCC or on code4ward
Part 3 will cover creating a Monitor Type
Part 4 will cover the Unit Monitor itself

As always be careful with the samples provided here. Always use a test environment first to try those examples!

Will only work with OpsMgr 2007 R2 !

Part 3: Monitor Type

What’s a Monitor Type?

A monitor type actually defines the workflows for a monitor. So, before you can create a monitor you need to hook up different modules and specify how these play together and what the monitor should do. The first two parts showed how to create these modules and data sources and now all those modules are coming together…

Creating the Monitor Type

	Let’s navigate to the Monitor Types section in the Type Library space. Right-click on the Module Types panel and select New –> Composite Monitor Type. Type in an ID like: code4ward.Sample.PowerShellMonitor.MonitorType.CheckFileContent Also provide a Name like: Check File Content Monitor Type
	Click on the States tab and provide some meaningful IDs for the two states our monitor can have. In our case: ID of state 1 will be Healthy and ID of state 2 will be Unhealthy A three state monitor is not much different than a two state monitor. If you go through this guide you should also be able to create a three state monitor.
	The Member Modules tab is a bit different in this case. What here happens, is basically just the definition of modules and their configuration. There’s no order of execution of these modules. So here we define all our modules we need for our workflow and we start with our Data Source we created in Part 2. Click on the Add… button and look for the Data Source code4ward.Sample.PowerShellMonitor.DataSource.CheckFileContent As ID we specify DS (again, as mentioned in the previous parts, this ID must only be unique for the modules we need here, it doesn’t need to be unique through the whole MP!)
	After you hit OK, the configuration window of our module will show up. All the parameters for our data source will be set to $Config/…$ (see screenshot). You can use the fly-out button and select the Promote menu item to automatically fill in the $Config/…$ values. Just to repeat this one, here we define that our consumer (in this particular case the unit monitor) will provide these values. Every value you will set here “hardcoded” will not be configurable in the unit monitor. Also, remember, that if you have defined optional (non-required) parameters in the data source, you may need to add them manually by clicking on Edit… and use a XML editor (such as Notepad.exe or Visual Studio) to put in your parameter. A side note: when you use Visual Studio, an XML schema will be generated and used automatically which speeds up XML editing! In our case, no optional parameters are defined or needed, so nothing special to do here.
	Next we need two modules to evaluate our health state. Remember, our script returns a property bag, so we need to look for a value in our property bag (in our case “Status”) to determine if the health state is “Healthy” or “Unhealthy” (as we defined those IDs for our health states). So click on Add… again and look for the System.ExpressionFilter module and give that one the ID HealthyExpression. When the Configuration window appears, do not bother to insert data into the generic XML mask, click on Configure… to open up the expression builder UI.
	There we specify our expression for the Healthy state: Property[@Name=’Status’] Equals OK Click on OK and let’s do the same for the Unhealthy expression
	Same procedure as 2 steps above. We just specify another ID: UnhealthyExpression
	Type in the following in the expression builder: Property[@Name=’Status’] Equals ERROR
	At this point we would have already enough to create a two state monitor. Our data source which basically executes our script probe on a schedule and two expressions, one for each state. We will add two more modules. We need them to configure “On Demand” detection (= Recalculate Health button in Health Explorer).
	To enable on demand detection, we need our script probe we created in Part 1 of this guide and a PassThrough module (which is simple and doesn’t need any configuration). Click on Add… again and look for our Probe Action from Part 1 (NOT the one we created for our Tasks!) The ID will be something like “Script”.
	In the Configuration window we will again Promote the parameters with the fly-out button, except the ExecutedAsTask parameter can be set to false, because the situation where we use this module will never see that parameter set to true. One question will arise here: We already configured the parameters $Config/File$, $Config/ErrorText$ and $Config/Debug$, what will happen now? The answer is fairly simple: In this case both modules will use the same parameter. When we configure the unit monitor we provide the parameter for $Config/File$ once and will be used in both modules. Our On-Demand detection will now execute our Probe Action module and use the same parameter as the Data Source we defined in this workflow. So when we set the Debug parameter to true on the monitor level, we will get debug information every time the monitor is executed and every time we do a Recalculate Health. Let’s say we always want to avoid debug information when we click on Recalculate Health, we just need to “hardwire” this parameter to false in this Configuration window and it will always be false in this workflow.
	The last module we need, is a PassThrough module. This module doesn’t need to be configured at all and is just needed to kick-off the workflow in the On Demand module. Do not ask me what it does exactly, I just know it is needed. Now let the fun part begin and change to the Regular tab to setup the workflow.
	In this tab we define for each health state (in our case two states) the workflow. So select the Healthy state in the list and check all modules we need in this workflow to evaluate a healthy state: We need our Data Source, we called it DS and our HealthyExpression. When those two modules are enabled, we need to define the execution order of these modules using the drop down lists in the Next Module column. The start of our workflow is the Data Source (DS), so here the Next Module must be set to HealthyExpression. The HealthyExpression is the last module in this workflow, so the Next Module must be set to Monitor State Output.
	Let’s move on to the Unhealthy state. Check all modules we need in this workflow to evaluate a unhealthy state: We need our Data Source again and this time the UnhealthyExpression Again, when those two modules are checked and enabled, setup the execution order: The start of our workflow is again the Data Source (DS). The Next Module must be set to UnhealthyExpression. The UnhealthyExpression is the last module in this workflow, so the Next Module must be set to Monitor State Output. That’s it for our two state monitor. Now we will setup the On Demand detection.
	First we need to check the Use On Demand Detection check box. On top of this dialog you have again both available health states. We need to setup a workflow for each health state. Select the first state (Healthy) in the list if not already selected and enable the modules needed for this workflow. In this case we need the PassThrough module, the Script (our Probe Action) and again the HealthyExpression. For the On Demand detection the first module is always the PassThrough module, so we select the Script module as Next Module for the PassThrough module. The Script module will return our property bag which needs to be passed on to the HealthyExpression module. The HealthyExpression module is our last in this workflow, so we set Monitor State Output as Next Module.
	Select the Unhealthy state in the list and let’s do the same workflow but in the end we will use the UnhealthyExpression module instead of the HealthyExpression. After that we finished all our workflows. Each workflow (healthy and unhealthy) will always be executed independently each time the monitor will run. So if you use other criteria in your expression (some performance value instead of a status text, or some and/or logic), be sure that each expression will uniquely identify each health state.
	As in our previous modules we need to be sure that the configuration schema is correct. The authoring console doesn’t always pre-set the right data type for each configuration value. So double check that Interval is an Integer and Debug is a Boolean.
	Now to the Overridable Parameters tab. Use the Add… button on the bottom to allow overrides on individual parameters. You may notice that I do not want to provide a way to override the File to monitor. This of course is up to you what you allow to be overridden and what not. I think it’s always a good idea to allow an override on Debug and Interval, this way you can look into issues on a specific server or change some configuration for a group of computers or so. As mentioned in the previous parts, you can mark this Monitor Type as Public, so that other MPs can reference your MP and use your Monitor Type (if sealed, of course). Click on OK and you are done!

That’s it for part 3. The next step will be creating the unit monitor and a task.

cheers,
Stefan Koell
http://www.code4ward.net

xian wings 2010 announcement eminent

marcus — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:25:00 -0800

i just got this little piece of information from my favorite sales girl at jalasoft. it looks like they’re extending your view of the network to your mobile device. now you can know when your datacenter is on fire while you’re enjoying your stouffer’s frozen dinner and watching an episode of flashforward. here’s the blurb:

“Jalasoft informed today to a close network of contacts that they are going to announce the release of Xian Wings 2010. Wings 2010 will be part of the Xian suite and will make it possible for network and server administrators to gain better control of their environments thanks to a special client application that works on their mobile device.”

fabulous!

Marcin@Work - System Center Operations Manager 2007 Tools and Management Packs

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:36:00 -0800

If you are an MP author, you need to bookmark Marcin's site

VIDEO: Hyper-V Virtual Networks Overview

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:25:00 -0800

An overview of Hyper-V’s Virtual Networks

Overview of Problem Management in Service Manager

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:04:00 -0800

The objective of Problem Management is to resolve the underlying root cause of incidents and consequently prevent incidents from recurring [ITIL]. Proactive Problem Management aims to identifying and solving Problems and Known Errors before the incidents occur.

The Problem Management Process Management Pack provides basic capabilities to document problems, link incidents and research the problems through basic search capability. Though it does not provide any workflows but the partners could extend it to include automated workflows to automate aspects of problem management process.(continue at source)

OpsMgr R2 by Example: the SharePoint MP

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:01:00 -0800

The Office SharePoint Server 2007 management pack and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 management pack are separate management packs. This discussion focuses on the Office SharePoint Server 2007 management pack, as this is the more current version of the two. (continue at source)

VMware: Hyper-V turns Windows into DOS

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:58:00 -0800

The trash talk in the Microsoft vs. VMware feud once reached Reggie Miller vs. Spike Lee heights. The two companies rarely passed up the opportunity to disparage, make fun of or even spread lies about each other.

But things had quieted down lately, and a lot of the more recent trash talk just rehashed old criticisms and insults. That is, until VMware issued its “Competitive News Flash” about Hyper-V R2, which compares “Microsoft myths” to “VMware realities.” (Hmm, where have we heard that before?)

Management Pack for Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 Release Candidate Now Available

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:56:00 -0800

We are happy to announce the availability of the Management Pack (MP) for the Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 Release Candidate. As a response to your feedback, we enhanced the management pack, to increase its coverage and usability.

While the previous release monitored and managed some of Forefront TMGs features, we are now monitoring and managing all Forefront TMG features. We added discoveries (automatic detection mechanisms) of the new features, their state and events in Forefront TMG 2010 and made significant improvements to increase the usability and productivity of the MP.(continue at source)

Windows Systems Do Not Require Unique SIDs

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:05:06 -0800

Holy cow batman! The title says it all and is the conclusion of one Mark Russinovich – Windows Guru Guru Extraordinaire. Check out his blog post: The Machine SID Duplication Myth ....(read more)

moving configmgr package shares to an alternate location

marcus — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:15:00 -0800

ever since sms got into the business of managing security updates, it’s been a struggle trying to make sure that distribution points are sized right for the amount of content they’re going to be hosting. we’re all clowns in a circus and should be quite adept at juggling by now. :)

once you’re beyond that small hurdle, you may find yourself in the same pickle when you start venturing into OSD. even in a san world where drive space can magically show up on your server, it’s still often easier to get additional drive space than it is to increase existing drive space.

i had to do a bit of reshuffling recently and found this blog post from the manageability team blog immensely helpful: http://blogs.technet.com/smsandmom/archive/2008/09/04/moving-the-smspkgc-share-to-a-different-drive.aspx.

there is one caveat though that my coworker enlightened me about. if you’re using bits-enabled distribution points (and i imagine the majority of us are), you’ll want to make one additional change. any distribution points utilizing bits will have a corresponding virtual directory which will need to be adjusted to the new location. to do this, fire up your internet information services (iis) manager.

navigate to site server\web sites\default web site\sms_dp_smspkg[x]$.
right-click the virtual directory and choose properties.
in the local path field, change the path to the new location.

[x above is the drive letter.]

here’s a screen shot of what to do.

comments always welcome. hope you get some good mileage out of this.

Blog: OpsMgr: T-SQL Query to retrieve Top Alerts by Alert Count

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:11:26 -0800

Here's a T-SQL query to retrieve the top alerts by alert count from the OperationsManager database. It should be cut-and-paste for any environment and should work with SCE 2007 as well.

SELECT TOP 10 SUM(1) AS AlertCt, AlertStringName, AlertStringDescription, MonitoringRuleId, Name FROM Alertview WITH (NOLOCK) WHERE TimeRaised is not NULL GROUP BY AlertStringName, AlertStringDescription, MonitoringRuleId, Name ORDER BY AlertCt DESC

Why do my group memberships for Windows Computers have machines that don't belong there?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:35:50 -0800

Here is a little tip if you find that your Windows Computer Groups (and state views scoped by groups) contain computers that should not be there.

Have you noticed that you have state views or Windows Computer Groups that contain servers that you don't expect? Like Exchange Servers in your SQL Computers Group? Or SQL Servers in your Exchange 2007 computer group? Or maybe Hyper-V host servers in a LOT of your groups? If so – you are probably running Hyper-V, and using the Hyper-V MP version 6.0.6633.0.

Have a look at the below example: My SQL Management Pack “Computers” view – contains domain controllers, exchange servers… even XP clients… plus it also includes the Hyper-V host (VS3).

This can wreak havoc on your management group…. because we use groups of Windows Computers for Overrides, and for scoping console views.

The good news is – there is a very simple workaround: There is a relationship in this MP that we need to disable. This relationship attempts to associate the Windows Computer objects of a guest to its host – however it doesn't work properly, and isn't necessary.

Open Authoring in the console. Select “Object Discoveries”. Scope to “Hyper-V Virtual Machine”. Find the discovery named: “Hyper-V 2008 Guest Computer Relationship Discovery”

Create an override for this – “for all objects of class: Root Management Server”. Set this discovery to disabled.

Now that that is disabled – we need to run a little cleanup on aisle 7. We have a nifty little cmdlet in the OpsMgr command shell – named remove-disabledmonitoringobject. This cmdlet will basically remove any discovered objects – for any situation where they are explicitly disabled with an override on a discovery. Since that is what we just did (disabled a discovery) this will quickly delete any discovered relationships which previously existed.

Now – when I look at my state views scoped to SQL Computers group – I only see SQL servers, AND – the Hyper-V host. We don't want the Hyper-V host tho….. apparently the cmdlet cleanup doesn't take care of those. To resolve that membership – I generally bounce the HealthService on the Hyper-V hosts, and then the HealthService on the RMS, and in a few minutes they will be gone.

Voila!

Blog: OpsMgr R2 by Example: the SharePoint MP

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:31:44 -0800

How to Install the SharePoint MP

If your environment is running SharePoint 2007, download the Office SharePoint Server 2007 Management Pack from the Management Pack Catalog. The Office SharePoint Server 2007 Management Pack Guide is included in the download and labeled “Microsoft_Office_SharePoint_Server_Management_Pack_Guide.doc.”
Read the Management Pack guide, which includes tips such as resizing the Windows System and Application logs to at least 10240 in size.
Import the Office SharePoint Server 2007 management pack (using either the Operations console or PowerShell).
Create a SharePoint_Overrides management pack to contain any overrides required for the MP.

The Office SharePoint 2007 management pack does not support agentless monitoring.

SharePoint MP Tuning / Alerts to look for

The following alerts were encountered and resolved when tuning the various SharePoint management packs (listed in alphabetical order by Alert name). Alerts from the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 management pack are also provided as additional information in the event similar issues are found in the SharePoint 2007 version of the management pack.

Alert: Can not load virus scanner

Issue: SharePoint 2003 alert. This looks for event number 1000 from the source of Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 containing the description.

Resolution: There is no virus scanner on this system specifically for SharePoint, so this rule was disabled for this system.

Alert: Failed to load index

Issue: This appears to be a side effect of an underlying corruption that occurred on an index. See http://objectmix.com/sharepoint/298641-sharepoint-search-index-corrupt.html.

Resolution: This environment had three SharePoint servers; two of them were for SharePoint content and the third server to provide indexing. In SharePoint Central administration it was determined there was no indexing server. Configured the third server to perform indexing and these issues no longer occurred.

Alert: Failure in loading assembly

Issue: Per the management pack guide: Discovery for the SharePoint Portal Server Management Pack relies on the file wssDiscovery.exe. This file is run automatically when you import the Management Pack. You must configure the Agent Action Account so that is has administrative access to the SharePoint Portal Server API and administrator rights to the SQL Server databases.

Resolution: For this to work correctly, you must enable Proxy. Be sure to enable Proxy for each of the SharePoint (including SharePoint 2003) servers.

Alert: IIS Stop Command

Issue: IIS was stopped on the server while a portal protection program was installed on the system. This action was performed by a system administrator. This is an alert rule so it will not close automatically.

Resolution: Created a web monitor for the SharePoint website. Changed the severity of this item from 2 to 1 (critical to warning) as this is by itself not a critical situation. If the website was down as a result, that would be a critical situation but these are checked separately with web monitors.

Alert: Index is corrupt

Issue: Index corruption identified on multiple SharePoint servers.

Resolution: This environment had three SharePoint servers; two of them were for SharePoint content and the third server to provide indexing. In SharePoint Central administration, it was determined there was no indexing server. Configured the third server to perform indexing and these issues no longer occurred.

Alert: Query server removed from rotation

Issue: This appears to be a side effect of an underlying corruption that occurred on an index. See http://objectmix.com/sharepoint/298641-sharepoint-search-index-corrupt.html.

Resolution: This environment had three SharePoint servers; two of them were for SharePoint content and the third server to provide indexing. In SharePoint Central administration, it was determined there was no indexing server. Configured the third server to perform indexing and these issues no longer occurred.

Alert: Sweep Synch failed

Issue: Errors reported on various SharePoint servers in the server farm. This appears to be a side effect of an underlying corruption that occurred on an index. http://objectmix.com/sharepoint/298641-sharepoint-search-index-corrupt.html

Resolution: This environment had three SharePoint servers, two of them were for SharePoint content and the third server to provide indexing. In SharePoint Central administration, it was determined there was no indexing server. Configured the third server to perform indexing and these issues no longer occurred.

Alert: The Microsoft Single Sign-on Service State

Issue: This service is not running on the SharePoint 2007 servers in the environment. This service is used to store login credentials for 3rd party applications so you can create links from SharePoint to those apps and auto login users if they aren’t using Windows Authentication. That is the only reason you would need to have it running.

Resolution: This functionality was not in use in the environment, so created an override to disable the alert, and stored it in a Sharepoint_Overrides management pack.

Alert: The Office SharePoint Server Search Service State

Issue: Office SharePoint Server Search is not running. This appears to be a side effect of an underlying corruption that occurred on an index. See http://objectmix.com/sharepoint/298641-sharepoint-search-index-corrupt.html.

Resolution: This environment had three SharePoint servers; two of them were for SharePoint content and the third server to provide indexing. In SharePoint Central administration, it was determined there was no indexing server. Configured the third server to perform indexing and these issues no longer occurred.

Alert: Unable to discovery sharepoint components

Issue: Per the management pack guide: Discovery for the SharePoint Portal Server Management Pack relies on the file wss Discovery.exe. This file is run automatically when you import the management pack. You must configure the Agent Action Account so that is has administrative access to the SharePoint Portal Server API and administrator rights to the SQL Server databases.

Resolution: For discovery to work correctly, you must enable Proxy. Be sure to enable Proxy for each of the SharePoint (including SharePoint 2003) servers.

Blog: ReSearch This! KB - Alert Parameter Replacement Failure

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:44:56 -0800

Alert: Alert Parameter Replacement Failure

Alert: DHCP Service Running Alert

Issue: These alerts occurs when the DHCP service is stopped on a DHCP server. This occurs at the same time as the critical DHCP Service Running Alert occurs. The DHCP Service Running Alert closes itself automatically, but the Alert Parameter Replacement Failure does not.

Resolution: Restarted the DHCP server service on the system which identified the error. Manually closed the Alert Parameter Replacement Failure alert. This alert appears to be able to be disabled as the DHCP Service Running Alert provides more relevant information than the warning.

Submitted By: Alexandre Verkinderen (MVP) and Cameron Fuller (MVP)

Blog: ReSearch This! KB - Alert Parameter Replacement Failure

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:44:56 -0800

Alert: Alert Parameter Replacement Failure

Alert: DHCP Service Running Alert

Submitted By: Alexandre Verkinderen (MVP) and Cameron Fuller (MVP)

Virtualized Infrastructure with Hyper-V from BriForum 2009

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:03:00 -0800

This is the slide deck from the "Hyper-V and System Center: How Good Can It Be?" presentation from BriForum 2009 in Chicago. It looks at the solution of Hyper-V R2 and the System Center suite (SCVMM, SCOM, SCCM and DPM - the latter two briefly) and exposes the good, bad and ugly.

Download: Hyper-V and System Center: How Good Can It Be? - BriForum 2009

Blog: OpsMgr: Recurring Agent Proxy Bulk Update for a Group of Computers via Powershell

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:39:50 -0800

I had a request to update agent proxy for a group of computers, to perform a regularly scheduled update. To accommodate updating Agent Proxy for group members on a recurring basis (to get new members), Powershell was required.

I new there were a couple of scripts out here from a very long time ago, but had trouble finding them because they were posted with "Act as a Proxy" in the name for some reason. Since I may not be the only one, I wanted to post updated names here so they'll be easier for all to find.

Where to get them

Here are the download links to the scripts

Agent Bulk Update Script

Description: A Powershell script that will enable the 'Act as a Proxy' functionality on a group of agents. This is useful when an MP requires a large number of agents to have this functionality enabled. It could also be scheduled to run on a recurring basis using Windows Task Scheduler.

Agent Proxy Bulk Update version 2

Description:**Updated to use FQDN** A Powershell script that will enable the 'Act as a Proxy' functionality on a group of agents. This is useful when an MP requires a large number of agents to have this functionality. It could also be scheduled to run on a recurring basis using Windows Task Scheduler.

For bulk-enabling manually on an ad-hoc basis, try Boris Y's Proxy Settings tool. There is a link to Boris blog post with the tool on our OpsMgr Community Toolbox Page at\ http://www.systemcentercentral.com/tools

Blog: MP Authoring Reskit: Analyze and Troubleshoot Workflows More Quickly with the Workflow Analyzer

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:51:59 -0700

I know it’s the OpsMgr 2007 MP Authoring Resource Kit, but even if you are not an MP Author, you need to check this out. This is your new viewer for effective configuration of a health service (agent). Whether you’re an MP author or OpsMgr admin, the Workflow Analyzer is also your looking glass into workflows as they run…and when they fail.

Have you ever had to troubleshoot a workflow that was failing or otherwise not completing with the expected results? Then you need to get familiar with the Workflow Analyzer. I’m going to show off a bit of what this tool is capable of and a few preliminary tips on how to use it to troubleshoot workflows in your environment.

Previous Posts

· RELEASE - SYSTEM CENTER OPERATIONS MANAGER 2007 R2 AUTHORING RESOURCE KIT RELEASED!

· Part 1 - MP Authoring Reskit: Generating Visio Class Diagrams from the R2 MP Authoring Console

· Part 2 - MP Authoring Reskit: MP Spell Checker

· Part 3 - MP Authoring Reskit: MP Best Practices Analyzer

· MP Best Practices Analyzer

· MP Spell Checker

· MP Visio Generator

· MP Diff

· MP Cookdown Analyzer

· All References Addin

· Workflow Analyzer

· Workflow Simulator

· Reference Tracker (unofficially)

NOTE: Workflow Analyzer is meant to run in a LIVE management group for troubleshooting workflows. If you need to simulate a workflow outside a live management group, see the Workflow Simulator, which is also part of the MP Authoring Resource Kit.

Use Case Scenarios

Workflow Analyzer (WFAnalyzer) was developed as a way to view how a workflow passed data between the modules. This tool has a lot of value for quickly troubleshooting and determining what to change in a management pack to get a workflow working. It can be leveraged in a variety of circumstances, including:

· Troubleshooting a Workflow That Is Not Running

· Troubleshooting an Unloaded or Failed Workflow

· Capturing Trace for a Failing Workflow

· Troubleshooting a Running Workflow That Has a Bug

Workflow Analyzer allows you to:

· Understand the data flow within a workflow and read through traces produced by each module in a workflow. Learning how workflows are composed is typically a process of trial and error, combined with researching countless blogs, forum posts, and search results. This is due to the fact that workflows are effectively a “black box”. WFAnalyzer provides the means to investigate workflows in your production and development environments both for the purposes of troubleshooting and learning.

In the end, this tool will help all of us authors become more knowledgeable in building more sophisticated custom workflows more quickly, which should encourage MP production and innovation.

· Quicker troubleshooting. Currently when writing an MP, you must write the MP, import it into a management group, run it against an agent and review event logs and state views to see if they implemented their rule to function correctly. A manual process like this is very error prone, and in many cases may be skipped entirely when time is critical.

NOTE: Workflow Analyzer provides deeper insight into these workflows in a live environment, but is also integrated with Workflow Simulator for viewing the traces for a simulated workflow.

Using Workflow Analyzer

1) To launch the Workflow Analyzer, go to Start Menu à System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 à Authoring Tools à Workflow Analyzer.

2) On the Start a new session screen, enter the name of your RMS and the agent for which you would like to view workflows.

You will then be presented a list of workflows on the target health service, each with a list of Running (green), Failed (red) or Unknown, as shown in the figure below.

3) When you right click a failed workflow, the context menu will present you with two options – Trace and Analyze.

Do I select Trace or Analyze?

Good questions and the answer is “it depends”, but in short, Trace is going to be the requirement any time you want to troubleshoot a running or failed workflow. Here is a list of scenarios and the appropriate choice

Use” Analyze” to

· Troubleshoot a workflow that is not running - Analyze can be used to determine why the workflow is not running, such as a disable override.

Use “Trace” when

· Troubleshooting an unloaded or failed workflow - For failed workflows, you will have to trace them to determine why they are failing and being unloaded.

· Capturing trace for a failed workflow - Maybe you have a ticket open with Microsoft support for a particular MP problem and they ask for a trace of the problem. When you select trace, all subsequent trace outputs are output to an ETL file on the computer on which the agent is running.

· Troubleshooting a running workflow that has a bug – This is great when you have a workflow that is running, but not delivering the expected result. For example, maybe you have a script discovery that runs but does not successfully discover anything.

Using the Analyze Option

The Workflow Analyzer is a great way to view and analyze “effective configuration” or current status of an agent more effectively than the Effective Configuration Viewer in the OpsMgr Resource Kit.

Let’s look at the Analyze option in the context of the “Exchange 2003 Topology Root” object discovery, which is disabled by default. The Workflow Analyzer returns an effective state of disabled and appears in red.

Here’s the same object discovery after an override was created to enable the discovery for this server. Notice that now in the output the word “Running” appears

Using the Trace Option

As mentioned above, you select the “Trace” option when attempted to troubleshoot a live workflow. When you select Trace from the context menu, you’ll see a screen with the status of the workflow you selected, at which point you click Start to begin the trace.

You will then be prompted with a progress of the trace, step by step, beginning with the overrides for the trace being implemented. Next, you will see each step of the workflow’s execution. However, you will not see the workflow steps until the next time it executes, so you must be aware of how often the workflow runs. For discoveries or other workflows that only run every few hours, you may need to lower the interval for the health service you are testing.

For an excellent example of a real life example of the Workflow Analyzer in action, have a look at Kris Batch post on the Operating Quadrant blog HERE.

Conclusion

Up to now, workflows have been a black box, with visibility limited to events and obscure trace files only useful to MS support. Whether you’re an MP author or OpsMgr admin, the Workflow Analyzer is your key to peering into workflows as they run…and fail. We’ll wrap up here. In the next installment, we will look at another winner in the MP Authoring Resource Kit - the MP Cookdown Analyzer.

Blog: MP Authoring Reskit: How to Verify MP Best Practices in the OpsMgr 2007 R2 MP Authoring Console

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:06:01 -0700

The recently released MP Authoring Resource Kit for OpsMgr 2007 has a number of tools that I believe will not only transform the authoring process for the MP author, but will significantly change MP testing and troubleshooting for the OpsMgr administrator. I’m going to step through each of the tools in the Authoring Reskit to demonstrate how they can be leveraged in a variety of situations. Today, we’ll have a look at the MP Best Practices Analyzer (MPBPA). In particular, we’ll examine

1) What conditions the MPBPA checks for

2) How to run the MPBPA on your custom MPs

3) MPBPA report output

Previous Posts

· RELEASE - SYSTEM CENTER OPERATIONS MANAGER 2007 R2 AUTHORING RESOURCE KIT RELEASED!

· Part 1 - MP Authoring Reskit: Generating Visio Class Diagrams from the R2 MP Authoring Console

· Part 2 - MP Authoring Reskit: MP Spell Checker

· MP Best Practices Analyzer

· MP Spell Checker

· MP Visio Generator

· MP Diff

· MP Cookdown Analyzer

· All References Addin

· Workflow Analyzer

· Workflow Simulator

· Reference Tracker (unofficially)

The R2 MP Authoring Resource Kit Tools are integrated with the MP Authoring Console and once installed, most can be launched from the tools menu in the Authoring Console itself. This includes the MP Best Practices Analyzer.

What MPBPA checks for

MPBPA identifies many aspects of management configuration that could only be checked manually in the past, including (but not limited to) the following:

· Discovery Intervals - Object discoveries configured with dangerously short intervals

· Script Time-outs - Scripts (monitoring or discovery) configured with short time-out (less than 300 seconds)

· WMI Query Scope - WMI queries with “Select *” (which could pose a performance risk – more on this HERE)

· XML Syntax Issues, such as invalid target references. XML is case sensitive, so this is easy to overlook (e.g. - $TargetID$ instead of $TargetId$)

· Usability Issues, such as verifying display names, descriptions and Knowledge Articles are present on rules, monitors, etc.

· Health Rollup Issues that may affect usability, such as unit monitors that do not roll up to a standard aggregate roll up monitor

· Core MP Functionality such as scripts with syntax issues or workflows using an incorrect scheduler module.

· Extensibility and Compatibility Issues

o SP1 compatibility check by determining if the new OpsMgr 2007 R2 Powershell modules are used in the MP (which are not available in OpsMgr 2007 SP1).

o References to the Backward Compatibility MP

o Custom object classes with Accessibility set to Internal (rather than Public), which would prevent external reference in rules, monitors, diagnostics and recoveries

Full List of MPBPA Checks

Here are some screenshots of the full list of MPBPA checks (listed by Category)

Usability	Performance and Localization

Core MP Functionality	Extensibility and Compatibility Knowledge and Documentation

How to use MPBPA

To run the MPBPA, perform the following steps:

1. Open your custom management pack In the Authoring Console. This launches the MP Spell Checker interface shown in the figure below

2. From the Tools menu, select Analyze with MPBPA. You are then presented with the dialogue shown in the figure below.

3. Uncheck the “Information” and “Pass” checkboxes if you only want to see MPBPA areas of concern. I like to leave them all selected, so I can see more of what MPBPA checks.

4. After making your selections, click the Rescan button and only the results you selected will remain.

5. In the lower right of the results window, click the Generate Report button.

Output of the MPBPA Results Report

The MPBPA presents a very user-friendly report with detailed presentation of area of concerns in your MP.

For example, I left the script timeouts and object discovery intervals very short in this sample MP (60 seconds). Notice in the MP report the last line item in the screenshot below where ‘Script time-out’ appears with a count of 1 in the Warning column.

When you click on that line item, the following detailed explanation is presented. Along with discovery intervals, this is one of those areas that in the past could only be identified through manual review.

And here we can see the short intervals in the object discoveries also identified. This is of tremendous value when examining an MP prior to implementation in a production environment.

Conclusion

Even seasoned MP authors can make mistakes. The MP Best Practices Analyzer is a valuable tool to the author at design time and OpsMgr administrator in MP testing and analysis. We’ll wrap up here. In the next installment, we will look at another truly awesome tool in the MP Authoring Resource Kit - the MP Workflow Analyzer.

Blog: MCTS: OpsMgr and ConfigMgr Practice Exams for the iPhone

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:27:23 -0700

While I do not recommend practice exams for System Center certification (I think they're straightfoward enough if you use the products), I was interested to see a couple of MCTS practice exams for 70-400 and 70-401 for the iPhone that are now available in the App Store

Here are a couple of pics from the App Store I posted to Twitter this morning...

New version of the Deployment CD

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:11:00 -0700

Johan Arwidmark has released a second version of the Deployment CD. This version provides step-by-step guides and video tutorials on how to build a Windows Deployment Solution using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010, with or without, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 SP2

You can download the CD, by singing up at the Deployment CD webpage

Service Manager Authoring Tool: The ABCDs of Workflows....

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:39:00 -0700

What the heck are WFs in Service Manager Authoring Tool?

A workflow (WF) is comprised of a set of one or more activities (also referred to as a WF activity). Each workflow activity performs a function, such as joining a user or a computer to a group in Active Directory or running a script. The Workflow is primarily triggered by one of two mechanisms: schedule or event based. If it is schedule based, the WF can fire periodically based on a predetermined schedule. If it is event based, it is based on some event or state change that took place in SM DB. For example, a new incident was recently created. This may trigger a WF to publish the incident to a SharePoint site.(continue at source)

Installing Virtual CD Software in a Virtual Machine

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:18:00 -0700

Ben Armstrong: Like many Hyper-V users, I have created ISO images of most of my CDs / DVDs (and in the case of my MSDN software – have downloaded in ISO format to begin with). I then have these images stored on a file server.

It is possible to connect a CD ISO image on a file server to a Hyper-V virtual machine, as long as you are working in a domain environment and you are running the Hyper-V management user interface directly on the Hyper-V server.

Windows Client 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7 Operating System Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:25:00 -0700

The Windows Client Monitoring Management Pack is built to detects, diagnose, and resolve hardware and software problems pertaining to Client 2000, XP, and Vista operating systems. Information and analysis on the issues that the system detected are collected by the MPs through an agent on the client machine, and sent to OpsMgr where this data is converted into health state, alerts (if need be) and processed for business critical and aggregate reports. The MP gives a clear picture of catastrophic failures in your mission critical machines, trend-based alerts of significant changes to computer groups, in-depth views of health of individual machines, and reports that provide a landscape view of the health of all monitored clients.

Feature Summary

* Key Processor Performance Indicators
* Logical and Physical disk performance and free space
* Memory utilization
* Network health
* Health monitoring of key Windows Operating System services
* Comprehensive performance collections
* Availability and event reports

Download: Windows Client 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7 Operating System Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2.

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:24:00 -0700

The Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Management Pack adds support for monitoring Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 in a 64-bit environment with Operations Manager 2007 R2 or Operations Manager 2007 SP1 with hotfix (KB971541) installed. This enables the Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Management Pack to work with either the 32-bit or the 64-bit Operations Manager 2007 agent. Except for the 64-bit support, the other features and guidance for Configuration Manager 2007 Management Packs remain intact.

This management pack includes:

* Detection and monitoring of all Configuration Manager servers and dependent services
* The alert driven state
* The site hierarchy diagram
* Performance and backlog monitoring and configuration
* Performance and availability reports

Download: Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2.

OpsMgr R2 by Example: the SharePoint MP

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:40:17 -0700

How to Install the SharePoint MP

If your environment is running SharePoint 2007, download the Office SharePoint Server 2007 Management Pack from the Management Pack Catalog. The Office SharePoint Server 2007 Management Pack Guide is included in the download and labeled “Microsoft_Office_SharePoint_Server_Management_Pack_Guide.doc.”
Read the Management Pack guide, which includes tips such as resizing the Windows System and Application logs to at least 10240 in size.
Import the Office SharePoint Server 2007 management pack (using either the Operations console or PowerShell).
Create a SharePoint_Overrides management pack to contain any overrides required for the MP.

The Office SharePoint 2007 management pack does not support agentless monitoring.

SharePoint MP Tuning / Alerts to look for

Alert: Can not load virus scanner

Issue: SharePoint 2003 alert. This looks for event number 1000 from the source of Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 containing the description.

Resolution: There is no virus scanner on this system specifically for SharePoint, so this rule was disabled for this system.

Alert: Failed to load index

Issue: This appears to be a side effect of an underlying corruption that occurred on an index. See http://objectmix.com/sharepoint/298641-sharepoint-search-index-corrupt.html.

Alert: Failure in loading assembly

Resolution: For this to work correctly, you must enable Proxy. Be sure to enable Proxy for each of the SharePoint (including SharePoint 2003) servers.

Alert: IIS Stop Command

Alert: Index is corrupt

Issue: Index corruption identified on multiple SharePoint servers.

Resolution: This environment had three SharePoint servers; two of them were for SharePoint content and the third server to provide indexing. In SharePoint Central administration, it was determined there was no indexing server. Configured the third server to perform indexing and these issues no longer occurred.

Alert: Query server removed from rotation

Issue: This appears to be a side effect of an underlying corruption that occurred on an index. See http://objectmix.com/sharepoint/298641-sharepoint-search-index-corrupt.html.

Resolution: This environment had three SharePoint servers; two of them were for SharePoint content and the third server to provide indexing. In SharePoint Central administration, it was determined there was no indexing server. Configured the third server to perform indexing and these issues no longer occurred.

Alert: Sweep Synch failed

Alert: The Microsoft Single Sign-on Service State

Resolution: This functionality was not in use in the environment, so created an override to disable the alert, and stored it in a Sharepoint_Overrides management pack.

Alert: The Office SharePoint Server Search Service State

Resolution: This environment had three SharePoint servers; two of them were for SharePoint content and the third server to provide indexing. In SharePoint Central administration, it was determined there was no indexing server. Configured the third server to perform indexing and these issues no longer occurred.

Alert: Unable to discovery sharepoint components

Issue: Per the management pack guide: Discovery for the SharePoint Portal Server Management Pack relies on the file wss Discovery.exe. This file is run automatically when you import the management pack. You must configure the Agent Action Account so that is has administrative access to the SharePoint Portal Server API and administrator rights to the SQL Server databases.

Resolution: For discovery to work correctly, you must enable Proxy. Be sure to enable Proxy for each of the SharePoint (including SharePoint 2003) servers.

Blog: DPM 2007: Downloadable copy of the SCDPM 2007 Error Catalog

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:32:25 -0700

I was disappointed when I could not find a downloadable copy of the DPM 2007 error catalog as we had available with DPM 2006, so I created one for myself. It occurred to me that other users may like one for reference as well. I transferred this very long list of error codes to to Excel, cleaned up the formatting and added the standard search filter...

You can download a copy from the downloads section at http://www.systemcentercentral.com/Downloads/DownloadsDetails/tabid/144/IndexID/47436/Default.aspx

Twitter Users – Follow SCC on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/sysctrcentral

Blog: Microsoft Management Summit 2010 Content Survey Now Available

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:34:24 -0700

The Microsoft Management Summit 2010 Content Survey is now available. The objective to the survey is to get an idea of the content desires and expectations of the attendees. If you participate in the survey, you have a chance at a prize as well according to this excerpt from the MMS site:

"When the survey closes on Monday, Dec 22nd 2009 we will draw two entries from amongst the responses and will send a Portable Media Player to those respondents".

Where to take the survey

Click the URL below to go to the survey page

http://www.mms-2010.com/wizard/content_survey/wp1.aspx

Why Social Media Are Important to the Business

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:27:45 -0700

Nifty YouTube video circulating around that does a fine job of presenting data on social media—how it’s changing the culture of communications and so necessarily the way companies need to shift the way they market their products and services. It also explains in global terms why I’m doing what I’m doing, sitting here on the System Center and Virtualization marketing team, tinkering w/ social media programs and initiatives, trying to find the right mix for our business and audience.

If you haven’t connected yet to our Facebook and Twitter pages and feeds, I invite you all to do so—we’re just getting started with all this, and need your help to turn it into something other than the basic broadcast engine it currently is.

Enjoy!

- dave //

DPM 2010 – SQL Server End-user recovery

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:23:52 -0700

Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 (currently in beta) allows backup administrators to authorize SQL Server database owners to recover their databases without intervention from the backup administrator.

To do this, the DPM administrator must create and manage DPM roles. A DPM role allows backup administrators to control what an end-user can recover and which instances of SQL Server they can recover to. A DPM role for SQL Server End-User Recovery (SQL Server EUR) includes the following:

Users: A security group that represents a set of end users.

Objects: SQL Server databases that can be recovered and instances of SQL Server that have been identified for an alternate instance recovery.

Recovery permissions for alternate instance recovery, which a DPM administrator uses for managing SQL Server EUR functionalities used by end-users.

Source: DPM 2010 beta documentation

The first thing you need to do is to install the SQL Server end-user recovery client on the protected machine, in this example hq-opsmgr28. The EUR client application enables end-users to perform recoveries of databases.

After that you need to create a role, that is done, in the current beta, with DPM Command shell. The following example creates a role named “Operations Manager SQL”.

$Role = New-DPMRole -name “OpsMgrSQL” -description “Operations Manager SQL” -DPMServerName HQ-DPM55
Add-DPMSecurityGroup -DPMRole $Role -SecurityGroups “Hq\OpsMgrSQL”
$DatabaseForEndUserRecovery = $null
$ListOfPGs = Get-ProtectionGroup -DPMServerName HQ-DPM55
$ListOfPGs | ForEach-Object {if ($_.FriendlyName -eq “SQL Protection Group”) {$PG = $_; break }}
$DatasourceInPG = Get-Datasource $PG
$DatasourceInPG | ForEach-Object {if ($_.LogicalPath -eq “HQ-OPSMGR28\OperationsManager”) {$DatabasesForEndUserRecovery +=,$_}}
Add-DPMRecoveryItem -DPMRole $Role -type SQLDatabase -datasource $DatabasesForEndUserRecovery
Add-DPMRecoveryItem -DPMRole $Role -type SQLInstance -sqlinstances “HQ-OPSMGR28″
$RecoveryTargetInstance = New-DPMRecoveryTarget -Type SQLINSTANCE -RecoveryTarget “HQ-OPSMGR28\Recovery” -RecoveredFilesPath C:\TEMP
Add-DPMRecoveryTarget $Role $RecoveryTargetInstance
Set-DPMRole -DPMRole $Role

This script will create a new role named OpsMgrSQL. It will add the security group HQ\OpsMgrSQL to this role. Get the list of protection groups and all data sources in SQL Protection Group, and then add the OperationsManager database to the list of databases we want to allow the role to recover . Then add the list to the role as recovery item. Add the required instance whose database we want to recover, and add the target instance and recovery target. Finally we save the role.

Members of the HQ\OpsMgrSQL group can now connect to the DPM server HQ-DPM55 and restore the OperationsManager database (from the hq-opsmgr28 server). The OperationsManager database is protected by the SQL Protection Group and can be restored to the HQ-OPSMGR28\Recovery SQL instance only.

From the end-user recovery wizard, in the protected server, the end-user can now recover the database

The OperationsManager database is restored and back online again. Performed by the SQL administrators without any delay or wait for backup administrators.

Updated PowerShell Script - Maintenance Mode

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:22:00 -0700

I was recently e-mailed by a colleague regarding the maintenance mode PowerShell script that was originally released by Boris Yanushpolsky (found here) that worked great for RTM/SP1, but was failing when executed on an OpsMgr 2007 R2 agent managed system. In addition, the script was designed to place an object into maintenance mode for an hourly duration, not in minutes matching the setting in the Operations Console.

As you know, in Operations Manager RTM/SP1, we did not place the health service or health service watcher instance of the computer object into maintenance mode as one would expect, when you place a computer and its contained objects into maintenance mode. In Operations Manager R2, this was resolved and no longer requires you to perform this as a second step in the process.

The attached script has been updated to support automating the placement of computer objects into maintenance mode for Operations Manager R2, and now accepts the argument of minutes instead of hours for duration of maintenance. I am also in the process of updating the Maintenance Mode management pack that Brian Wren originally developed, and Andrzej Lipka (a former MCS Consultant from Poland) and myself modified with some additional features (see Andrzej's MP here and mine here) so you can leverage it for R2. I hope to have it completed and tested by this weekend, and submitted for review and release on http://www.opsmanjam.com the following week.

The command-line for executing the script is:

Starting MM - powershell "c:\MMode_R2.ps1" -groupName:'All Computers' -minutes:10 -rmsServerName:'localhost' -startMM:$true

Ending MM - powershell "c:\MMode_R2.ps1" -groupName:'All Computers' -minutes:10 -rmsServerName:'localhost' -startMM:$false

Suggestions and feedback are always welcome.

Chatting with Brad continued…….

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:16:32 -0700

Hi guys, we continue in our 4 part series with Brad our Corporate VP today as we talk about the world of Windows Server. We thought on the day Server releases, we could share our conversation.

Here is Part 3 in our 4 part series……. enjoy!

Jeff Wettlaufer
Sr. Technical Product Manager
System Center

Hyper-V How To: Test Hosts for Proc Compatibility for VM Migration

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:31:00 -0700

In Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V R2, when a running or a saved state virtual machine is migrated to another virtualization server (also called “host”), the destination server may have a processor with a different set of features. An operating system or application that attempts to execute CPU features discovered when the virtual machine was started on a "source" machine, but not present on the destination (called "destination") machine, will cause a virtual machine migration failure.