Latest Blogs

Blog: OpsMgr: DirectAccess in Windows 7 and 2008 and the DirectAccess Management Pack

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:52:22 GMT

What is DirectAccess and Will there be a management pack for it? This is a good question and here is the latest for information we have seen on the Internet.

What is DirectAccess?

The Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2 operating systems introduceDirectAccess, a new solution that provides users with the same experience working remotely as they would have when working in the office. With DirectAccess, remote users can access corporate file shares, Web sites, and applications without connecting to a virtual private network (VPN), as shown in Windows 7 DirectAccess User Experience. Further, DirectAccessseparates intranet traffic from Internet traffic, as shown on the left, and reduces unnecessary traffic on the corporate network.

Will there be a DirectAccess Management Pack for OpsMgr?

According to Kevin Holman, Direct Access will have its own MP. Some of the data on that page is out of date and we have requested it be updated. The DA MP is expected to be release soon, along with the RRAS MP.

Where Can I Learn More?

There is an article and video on TechNet Edge explaining DirectAccess.

Article: "What is DirectAccess?" - http://edge.technet.com/Media/Windows-7-DirectAccess-Explained/

Webcast: "Windows 7 DirectAccess User Experience" - http://edge.technet.com/Media/Windows-7-DirectAccess-User-Experience/

Blog: OpsMgr MP Authoring and Clarification on Cook Down and OnDemand Detection

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:53:32 GMT

WIth the various blog posts and forum discussions there has apparently been a bit of confusion since Raphael Burri and I did our presentation on Custom Workflows and Cook Down. I wanted to take a moment to provide some of the final conclusions reached on these topics through community discussion which included one of our friends on the product team.

The bottom line: Yes, Cook Down does work across rules and monitors.

In other words, you can run a single script to feed multiple rules and monitors. The very talent Daniele Grandini mentioned this might not be possible on his blog (in this post “ On Demand Detections”), but later set the record straight when he discovered that “ConfirmDelivery on monitors breaks Cook Down” as he recounts in “On Demands and Cookdown Corrige”. The fact that someone as talented as Daniele encountered these difficulties demonstrates the intricacies of the process.

About Cook Down During OnDemand Detection…

Cook Down during OnDemand Detection is another story. It is more difficult to achieve Cook Down during OnDemand Detection because you have less control. We had a very productive discussion about Cook Down during OnDemand Detection in the System Center Forums with Marius Sutara and Raphael Burri which can be found HERE.

The bottom line according to Marius:

“You do not have much control on how cookdown will be performed because on demand detection uses data source module (start module for on demand detection workflow) which is not cooked down across entity but only for instance (where entity is a type and instance is instance of such type). So regardless that your "trigger only" probe is cooked down (or would be cooked down), fork happened already with data source module which precedes this module in your monitor definition.

Having multi instance scenario, there might be cases I would try to avoid on demand detection. Such cases would include script base probe (where script is not instance dependant but could for example just read computer registry etc) because such script will be executed for each instance“.

The bottom line here is OnDemand Detection can be very expensive, so choose your battles here.

Blog: What does the MCT designation do for you?

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:49:00 GMT

Well for $400 US per year to renew, you get NO support from Microsoft… that’s one of the perks…

On July 8, 2009 a colleague of mine at Infront sent an email to the Microsoft Courseware Library Requests team and received a response yesterday November 20, 2009, that’s only a 4 month turn around.

=== Original Email ===

Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 4:11 PM
To: Courseware Library Requests
Subject: Courseware Library
Importance: High
Good afternoon,
I can’t log in to the courseware library. I’ve tried to use the Forgot logon button but it’s telling me that my email address is invalid. I’ve tried all the email addresses I can think of and it’s not working.

How can I get assistance with this? I need some courseware….

==== End of Original email ===

And the response which came in more than 4 MONTHS LATER!!!

We apologize but this email address is no longer monitored. The bad news is we have not honored our commitment to supporting you and have not addressed your needs and questions in a timely manner. This email address has been unmonitored for some time now and we’ve just recently recognized this lapse in our process.

We hope that your question has been answered or your issue resolved. If not, we have support through Microsoft’s Regional Support Centers now. You can find user guides, answers to the top 10 questions about the Courseware Library, as well as contact information for your region’s support center at http://cwlibrary.mslearn.net/page/support.aspx.

We realize this may have had a negative impact on you or your customers and for that we are truly sorry.

Sincerely,

Courseware Library Requests Team

It’s this type of quality that I see in both the MCT program as a whole and the courseware that is being developed by Microsoft that is really disturbing. The complexity of the Microsoft products is increasing but the quality of their training material is decreasing almost proportionally. To there credit, Microsoft is GREAT at making changes based on customer feedback so I am just hoping someone at Microsoft reads this post.

Rory McCaw, MCT

Technorati Tags: MCT,Courseware Library,Rory McCaw

Blog: How to Add a Hyper-V Cluster to System Center Essentials 2010

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:58:19 GMT

To add a Hyper-V server as a managed host in System Center Essentials 2010 basically means that through the Essentials Administrator Console you will add the host to the integrated SCVMM 2008 instance installed with Essentials. When trying to add a Hyper-V host as a managed host in SCE 2010, you may be prompted with a message that the host is a member of a cluster. The message will prompt you to use the Add-VMHostCluster cmdlet in the SCVMM Command Shell to add the Hyper-V Cluster to VMM so it can then be managed.

Here is a sample script you can use to add the Hyper-V cluster to the SCE-integrated instance of Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.

Sample Script - Add Hyper-V Cluster as Managed Hosts for Essentials 2010

Cut-and-paste in Notepad and save with .ps1 extension. Run from the VMM Command Shell.

#Prompt for Admin Credentials
$Credential = Get-Credential

#Replace FQDN with name of your SCVMM 2008 R2 Server
Get-VMMServer -ComputerName "host2.Contoso.msft"
$VMHostGroup = Get-VMHostGroup | where {$_.Path -eq "All Hosts"}

#Replace Name with FQDN of your Hyper-V Cluster
Add-VMHostCluster -Name "labclstr.Contoso.msft" -VMHostGroup $VMHostGroup `
-RemoteConnectEnabled $TRUE -RemoteConnectPort 5900 -Cred $Credential

To fully manage the host, you do need to deploy an Essentials agent to the Hyper-V host, which will allow for monitoring and leveraging the PRO functionality in SCVMM, which is enabled and configured in Essentials 2010 by default.

RSS | TWITTER

Blog: Connectors / Ticketing

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:57:39 GMT

Saw some posts about connectors and ticketing and thought you might be interested in this. I am getting ready to split and am going to be out all next week, but you can shoot any questions into the management-extensions.org forums. I would probably relay your questions to those smart guys anyway :) Hope it helps.

Here is the blurb that I posted on the Heterogeniuses blog:

Connect Operations Manager bi-directionally to other management systems like: BMC Patrol, CA UniCenter, HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli, Mercury BAC, Nagios, NetCool…more

System Center Operations Manager is the ideal solution for Windows infrastructure management and, in conjunction with QMC, can uni-directionally or bi-directionally integrate the event, alert and performance data being collected by other management system tools being leveraged by the IT team such as:
BMC Magic, BMC, Patrol, *BMC Remedy, *CA Service Desk, CA UniCenter, Generic (Universal), HP Insight Manager, HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli, Mercury BAC, Microsoft MOM-OpsMgr, Nagios, NetCool, Oracle Enterprise Manager, Quest Big Brother, Quest Foglight, SolarWinds, Spectrum and more.

* Uni-Directional: from Operations Manager/MOM to alternate management system

SCOM end users - check out SystemCenterCentral.com
Quest Software is a proud, gold sponsor

Blog: Improvements in Scheduled Computer Discovery in System Center Essentials 2010

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:28:14 GMT

I've been working with the System Center Essentials 2010 beta quite a lot in recent months, and Microsoft have made UI improvements in many of the right places to increase the flexibility and granularly of Essentials configuration. Pretty frequently, we'd often resort to command line configuration to schedule computer discovery as we liked. And scoping scheduled discovery to a subset of computers was not something easily achievable in the last release.

In Essentials 2010, not only allows configuration of scheduled computer discovery multiple times per day, but they've now made it easy to scope discovery by target OU. This fulfills the very common scenario of automating workstation discovery in Essentials, while not automatically deploying to servers.

From the Computer Discovery wizard, you simply click the Add button, you can browse the OU tree in your Active Directory domain.

Try It Out

Currently in public Beta 1, you can download System Center Essentials 2010 from the MS website at http://www.microsoft.com/sce

Blog: Deploying the OpsMgr R2 console with SCCM

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:32:14 GMT

Yesterday I need to deploy around 10 OpsMgr R2 consoles, so I thought I would do this via SCCM, being a lover of the System Center range. So here is how I did it.

First we need to create the package;

Using the standard approach as any other deployment;

As I am only distributing the console my package only needs to contain the server files, note that I deployed to X86 Windows boxes so only used the i386 files.

With my data source set I used the ‘ConfigMgr package Share”

The rest of the setting as left as default.

So on to the Programs to be run and where the clever switches are added

This is the switch I have used to deploy JUST THE Console. Just add the name of your RMS and use the same switch

MOM.msi /qn /l*v %Temp%\MOMUI_install.log ADDLOCAL=MOMUI ROOT_MANAGEMENT_SERVER_DNS=YOUR RMS SERVER FQDN

Then distribute the package in the same way as any other package.

This worked like a charm for me and saved loads of time, have fun.

Blog: Steve Rachui’s blog post on Creating Rules and Monitors with a Schedule/Understanding XML internals

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:22:31 GMT

Thought the group might be interested in this. Enjoy!

http://blogs.msdn.com/steverac/archive/2009/11/17/creating-rules-and-monitors-with-a-schedule-understanding-xml-internals.aspx

Blog: Weekly Live Technical Demos: Extending Operations Manager to non-Windows

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:11:54 GMT

Tech Demo: How to Extend System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) to non-Windows environments.

When: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1 PM ET.

Presented by: Quest Software

Register:http://www.quest.com/events/listdetails.aspx?contentid=7422&searchoff=true&technology=&prod=367&prodfamily=&loc=

Check out the new Heterogeniuses Blog:

http://blogs.inside.quest.com/management-extensions/

Quest Software is a proud SystemCenterCentral gold sponsor

Blog: Using PowerShell for System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) sizing

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:44:25 GMT

Presenter: Gary Broadwater, Software Developer | Quest Software
Storage is pretty cheap these days, but you still have to plan for growth when sizing. This affects not only storage size, but disk IO and database performance and how to set up maintenance, grooming, etc...... This video will show you a quick way to help you determine what your back end infrastructure may require to accommodate x number of nodes for monitoring, when using Quest Management Xtensions (QMX) – Operations Manager 2007 Edition.

View the Video

Check out the new Heterogeniuses blog: http://blogs.inside.quest.com/management-extensions/

Quest Software is a proud SystemCenterCentral gold sponsor

Blog: SCC Contest Winner for week ending October 26th is Unleashed!

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:06:44 GMT

Another winner in the Unleashed drawing...We'll be drawing winners in our SCC Contest every two weeks from mid-August through mid-November for a copy of OpsMgr 2007 or ConfigMgr 2007 Unleashed from SAMS Publishing. The winner for week ending October 26th is David P. All thanks go to members and sponsors who make community happen! (see below)

August 31 – William H.
September 14 – Angel A.
September 28 – Marty W.
October 12 - Justin L.
October 26 – David P.
November 9 -
November 23 -

We'll be drawing for 3 more winners to be "Unleashed" so stay tuned!

Special Thanks to our Sponsors

Certainly everything happening at System Center Central would be possible without the great participation from experts in the System Center community or our generous sponsors.

Special thanks to Quest, Microsoft, BridgeWays and SecureVantage!

…and of course the fine authors of the Unleashed book series: Kerrie, Cameron, Jason, Byron, Andy, John, et al

And to the people who make it happen….YOU

to all the people from around the world answering questions, adding to the wiki and blogging. So Simon S, Kent A, Jason S, Brian D, Tommy G, David A, Michael K, Raphael B, Andreas W and Stefan Koell……and everyone else who's taken time to visit – THANK YOU!!! And If you've been watching quietly and not participating, consider this your invitation to JOIN THE DISCUSSION. Remember: There is a YOU in CommUnity!

TWITTER USERS – Follow SCC bloggers on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/sysctrcentral

RSS – Follow SCC bloggers using your favorite feed reader at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/systemcentercentral/blogs

Blog: ReSearch This! KB - DHCP Scope Addresses Available Monitor

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:00:14 GMT

Alert: DHCP Scope Addresses Available Monitor

Issue: In an environment with two DHCP servers with the scope split we had one of the DHCP scopes that were completely empty while the other scope had only three addresses in use. We determined that the IP helper information was incorrect for the second DHCP server.

Resolution: In the network environment, re-configured the iphelper configuration to point to both DHCP servers with the correct IP addresses.

Blog: SCC Contest Winner for week ending October 12th is Unleashed!

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:47:02 GMT

Another winner in the Unleashed drawing...We'll be drawing winners in our SCC Contest every two weeks from mid-August through mid-November for a copy of OpsMgr 2007 or ConfigMgr 2007 Unleashed from SAMS Publishing. The winner for week ending October 12th is Justin L. All thanks go to members and sponsors who make community happen! (see below)

August 31 – William H.
September 14 – Angel A.
September 28 – Marty W.
October 12 - Justin L.
October 26 –
November 9 -
November 23 -

We'll be drawing for 3 more winners to be "Unleashed" so stay tuned!

Special Thanks to our Sponsors

Certainly everything happening at System Center Central would be possible without the great participation from experts in the System Center community or our generous sponsors.

Special thanks to Quest, Microsoft, BridgeWays and SecureVantage!

…and of course the fine authors of the Unleashed book series: Kerrie, Cameron, Jason, Byron, Andy, John, et al

And to the people who make it happen….YOU

to all the people from around the world answering questions, adding to the wiki and blogging. So Simon S, Kent A, Jason S, Brian D, Tommy G, David A, Michael K, Raphael B, Andreas Z and Stefan Koell……and everyone else who's taken time to visit – THANK YOU!!! And If you've been watching quietly and not participating, consider this your invitation to JOIN THE DISCUSSION. Remember: There is a YOU in CommUnity!

TWITTER USERS – Follow SCC bloggers on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/sysctrcentral

RSS – Follow SCC bloggers using your favorite feed reader at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/systemcentercentral/blogs

Blog: OpsMgr 2007 R2 – Download Management Pack – don’t use: next reason

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:34:17 GMT

Many people on forums claims that Import/Download Management Pack – new functionality introduced in Operations Manager 2007 R2 -- is not good solution. Main reason for that statements: I allow to import MP without reading piece of documentation. But there are others.

One of example I observe few days ago.

I had few problems with my production OpsMgr environment. It is quite small: all roles in one server, with few agents (bellow 100), with few OpsMgr Gateways (with separate domains, not trusted) and 5 independent machines connected do RMS by certificate.

I meet other issue related with that functionality. When I upgrade Windows Base OS MPs (to version 6.0.6667) I do it using Download MP. If I’m correct remember it finish with success.

But few weeks after that I recognize similar behavior like here: http://www.systemcentercentral.com/tabid/60/indexId/46870/tag/Forums/Default.aspx#vindex48005 :( It look that Agents cannot communicate with RMS.

Event Type:    Warning
Event Source:    OpsMgr Config Service
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    29106
Date:        11/12/2009
Time:        7:35:38 PM
User:        N/A
Computer:    OPSMGR
Description:
The request to synchronize state for OpsMgr Health Service identified by "9feb20e0-38dc-4e08-8b2a-5eec57a6de66" failed due to the following exception "Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Common.DataAccessLayerException: Invalid column name SizeNumeric_486ADDDB_2EB8_819A_FA24_8F6AB3E29543 for query MTV_SelectProperty_0b95ad7d-e73b-80cf-56cb-05d537682d2c.
   at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Mom.DataAccess.QueryDefinition.GetColumnDefinitionBySourceColumnName(String sourceColumnName, Int32 resultSetIndex)
   at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Mom.DataAccess.QueryDefinition.GetColumnDefinitionBySourceColumnName(String sourceColumnName)
   at Microsoft.Mom.ConfigService.OpsMgrDataAccess.ConfigurationDataAccessor.QueryInstanceProperties(ReadOnlyCollection`1 instances)
   at Microsoft.Mom.ConfigService.DataAccess.DatabaseAccessor.QueryInstanceProperties(ReadOnlyCollection`1 instances)
   at Microsoft.Mom.ConfigService.Engine.ConfigurationEngine.CommunicationHelper.StateSyncRequestTask.ConfigurationItems.Instances.CollectPublicProperties(ReadOnlyCollection`1 identities, IConfigurationDataAccessor dataAccessor)
   at Microsoft.Mom.ConfigService.Engine.ConfigurationEngine.CommunicationHelper.StateSyncRequestTask.ConfigurationItems.ConfigurationItemCollection`2.CollectPublicProperties(IConfigurationDataAccessor dataAccessor)
   at Microsoft.Mom.ConfigService.Engine.ConfigurationEngine.CommunicationHelper.StateSyncRequestTask.ConfigurationItems..ctor(StateContext stateContext, IConfigurationDataAccessor dataAccessor)
   at Microsoft.Mom.ConfigService.Engine.ConfigurationEngine.CommunicationHelper.StateSyncRequestTask.CreateResponse(Managers managers)
   at Microsoft.Mom.ConfigService.Engine.ConfigurationEngine.Managers.Synchronize(OnDoSynchronizedWork onDoSynchronizedWork)
   at Microsoft.Mom.ConfigService.Engine.ConfigurationEngine.CommunicationHelper.StateSyncRequestTask.Execute(Managers managers)
   at Microsoft.Mom.ConfigService.Engine.ConfigurationEngine.CommunicationHelper.StateSyncRequestTask.Run(Guid source, String cookie, Managers managers, IConfigurationDataAccessor dataAccessor, Stream stream, IConnection connection)".

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Of course after “reinstall” – practically, for Windows 2003 MP, install first time – problem disappeared.

Awful, really?

Blog: OpsMgr – No Cluster for you!

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:12:09 GMT

Once in a while I through myself into a situation what while deep-dive debugging an OpsMgr issue, when I finally find the resolution I get a good chance to laugh at myself. This blog entry is a goodd example to laugh at and hopefully it will help someone else who ends up in the same situation I was in. So, here we go.

Situation: I was not seeing any of my clustered Exchange databases in the Exchange management pack. I initially thought that this was an issue within the Exchange 2007 management pack.

Debug STEP 1: I started with the assumption that I had not not enabled the appropriate discovery rules on the clustered Exchange pieces, but after checking on those I found that I had already enabled them.

Debug STEP 2: Next I checked the clustering management pack and saw that only one of my six clusters in the environment were appearing in the clustering management pack/so I figured it was cluster Management Pack related.

Debug STEP 3: To debug the clustering MP I opened the Operations Manager logs on the agent and found the following:

Client event: 1102 Source HealthService

Rule/Monitor "System.Mom.BackwardCompatibility.Computer.IsHostingMSCS.Discovery" running for instance "SERVER" with id:"{ED873637-669D-57E6-6645-1872603D143E}" cannot be initialized and will not be loaded. Management group "MG1"

Debug STEP 4: I dug into the RMS and ran across these events which would recur every time I restarted the System Center Management service on the cluster nodes.

RMS event: 33333 DataAccess Layer

Data Access Layer rejected retry on SqlError:

Request: p_RelationshipDiscovered -- (RelationshipId=24d9c744-f0f0-f598-16a5-c2f224db276d), (SourceEntityId=8cee6f8d-a6dc-3000-9879-af0b6fbf427b), (TargetEntityId=f6623c80-23a7-77e7-21ac-894396297850), (RelationshipTypeId=6284518a-90cc-fadd-e56b-26669e2a0a8f), (DiscoverySourceId=08e62d16-8a8d-c913-e23d-767a046cb17d), (HealthServiceEntityId=4c0bc849-29e2-f792-ba3d-36c840629c50), (PerformHealthServiceCheck=True), (TimeGenerated=11/12/2009 8:50:48 PM), (RETURN_VALUE=1)

Class: 16

Number: 777980002

Message: The specified relationship doesn't have a valid source.

RMS event: 10801 Health Service Modules

Discovery data couldn't be inserted to the database. This could have happened because of one of the following reasons:

- Discovery data is stale. The discovery data is generated by an MP recently deleted.

- Database connectivity problems or database running out of space.

- Discovery data received is not valid.

The following details should help to further diagnose:

DiscoveryId: 0f1fba2c-d205-edb2-2259-1430d6206c10

HealthServiceId: 4c0bc849-29e2-f792-ba3d-36c840629c50

Invalid relationship source specified in the discovery data item.

RelationshipSourceBaseManagedEntityId: 8cee6f8d-a6dc-3000-9879-af0b6fbf427b

RuleId: 0f1fba2c-d205-edb2-2259-1430d6206c10

Instance:

5c324096-d928-76db-e9e7-e629dcc261b1HPSMXCLUSTER01.hps.com5c324096-d928-76db-e9e7-e629dcc261b1HPSMXCLUSTER01.hps.coma27b57c5-6479-9ce8-8682-b83228266cebCCR Cluster.

Debug STEP5: After reviewing these events I needed to translate some of the GUID type numbers into something that I could figure out what it was.

Using this query I determined what systems were reporting errors: (where the actual GUID value is specified in the alert)

Select * from dbo.BaseManagedEntity where BaseManagedEntityID = 'GUID'

Using this query I determined what discovery was failing: (where the actual GUID value is specified in the alert)

select MP.MPName, D.DiscoveryName, MT.TypeName from Discovery D with (nolock)

join ManagementPack MP with(nolock) on MP.ManagementPackId = D.ManagementPackId

join ManagedType MT with(nolock) on MT.ManagedTypeId = D.DiscoveryTarget

where D.DiscoveryId = 'GUID'

Using this query I determined what the relationshiptypeid was: (where the actual GUID value is specified in the alert)

select * from relationshiptype where RelationshipTypeId='GUID'

Debug STEP 6: From web research based upon what I received in the event logs and the systems reporting the error it seemed to be pointing out that I had not enabled proxy on these servers (http://systemcenterinfo.blogspot.com/2008/06/scom-alert-agent-proxying-needs-to-be.html). So I verified that I had enabled proxy on the systems. I tried enabling proxy both from the UI, and even from ProxyCfg (http://wchomak.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!F56EFE25599555EC!738.entry). But any way I investigated this it was enabled.

Debug STEP 7: Figuring that this might be a bad agent configuration, I tried to uninstall the OpsMgr Agents and delete them from the console. Then I re-deployed the agents, re-configured proxy (which was still enabled) and re-tested. The same events were occurring on the RMS and client systems.

Side-Thoughts: At about this point in time my mind started rambling to the title of this blog article because it seemed like anything I tried wouldn’t get the darn cluster identified: No Cluster for You!

(for those who haven’t seen this or it’s before your time see below)

<\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" src="http://www.systemcentercentral.com/portals/0/VenexusIndexItem/Index51752/WLW-OpsMgrNoClusterforyou_85E5-video27e3ada22bef.jpg" />

Debug STEP 8: I finally figured out what the issue was and I sounded similar to this.

The system was identified as a cluster (which can be seen by opening the Operations Manager Console/Monitoring/Discovered Inventory and choosing the target type of Windows Cluster Services) but could not configure it as a cluster because I had not configured the RunAs account for this domain! We have a multiple-forest configuration with clusters running in each forest. The one cluster which was working was the only cluster in that forest. The rest of the clusters were in another forest. I had put a question about this when I had initially deployed the clustering management pack but I had not tracked this issue back to that root cause yet (article available at: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/operationsmanagermgmtpacks/thread/b9bc85de-8403-4c28-a1cf-9397cd66582f).

Once the cluster was identified, the Exchange discovery occurred correctly so that the next morning when I went back to the console my Exchange clustered mailbox servers now were appearing correctly in the Exchange management pack.

So… What’s my lessons learned from this?

1) Check the assumptions at the door. Just because I wasn’t seeing the server in the Exchange MP didn’t mean it was an Exchange issue to debug. Start with the basics. Does it have an agent on it? Is the agent working? If it’s an Clustered application, is it visible in the clustering management pack?

2) On the RMS, regularly check for error/warning/critical alerts in the Operations Manager log and debug based upon them. That log contains all sorts of hints for strange issues which may occurring in the OpsMgr environment.

3) From the Operations Manager event log entries use SQL queries to translate GUID’s into something more understandable.

4) Read the management pack guides. The clustering MP specifically stated to configure the RunAs account and to enable proxy for each node in the cluster.

Blog: ReSearch This! KB - Application of Group Policy Alert

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:07:42 GMT

Alert: Application of Group Policy Alert

Issue: Windows failed to apply the Folder Redirection settings. The alert context tab shows the computer logging the issue and the user account which it is occurring for. In this case it was an event number 1085 from the source of Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy. The alert context indicates that it failed to complete the function of folder redirection. This appears to only occur on Windows Server 2008 systems when users that have Folder Redirection settings in place log into the system. The same users do not have this issue when logging into Windows Server 2003 systems. This error is not causing the users issues when they are logged into the Windows 2008 server systems.

Resolution: Created an override to disable this alert for Windows Server 2008 Computer Group.

Submitted By: Cameron Fuller (MVP)

Blog: ReSearch This! KB - ConfigMgr 2007 Status: Distribution Manager failed to process a package

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:55:57 GMT

Alert: ConfigMgr 2007 Status: Distribution Manager failed to process a package

Issue:

CMSERVER

- ConfigMgr 2007 Status: Distribution Manager failed to copy a package from its source directory to its destination directory on a Distribution Point.

A new monitored SMS status message on machine CMSERVER from component SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER with message ID 2328 was found in the site ABC database.

The status message contains message properties

Machine Name:

CMSERVER

Module Name:

SMS Server

Component:

SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER

Message ID:

2328

Win32 Error:

Top Level Site Code:

ABC

Database Record ID:

1988626

This alert is critical (and probably should not be critical – it should be a warning), but it has no abilities to override this alert including no ability to change either priority or severity.

Resolution:

On the ABC site server there is a ServerUpdates folder which has been shared out for Software Update source files. The share permissions only an owner listed. The site server has been trying to access the share to copy the files to the DP. Added the Everyone Group with Read perms so the package can be successfully distributed to the DP. The package was processed successfully after changing the share permissions.

Submitted By: Cameron Fuller (MVP) & Hamid Yusuff

Blog: ReSearch This! KB - ConfigMgr 2007 Status: SMS State System error processing message file

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:51:30 GMT

Alert: ConfigMgr 2007 Status: SMS State System error processing message file

Issue: This alert is listed as critical and it specifies information about something occurring in configuration manager. Example details below:

CMSERVER - ConfigMgr 2007 Status: SMS State System error processing message file.

A new monitored SMS status message on machine CMSERVER from component SMS_STATE_SYSTEM with message ID 6101 was found in the site ABC database.

The status message contains message properties

Machine Name:

CMSERVER

Module Name:

SMS Server

Component:

SMS_STATE_SYSTEM

Message ID:

6101

Win32 Error:

Top Level Site Code:

Database Record ID:

998004

Resolution: This alert is critical, but it has no product knowledge and there are no abilities to override this alert including no ability to change either priority or severity. After speaking with my ConfigMgr SME we came to the same opinion and we have created an override to disable this alert.

Submitted By: Cameron Fuller (MVP) & Hamid Yusuff

Blog: TechEd Europe Berlin 09 coming to an end.

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:04:14 GMT

Well it has been a good event overall and of course there is a lot going on around other products. Exchange 2010 for IT Teams that use System Center Operations Manager will be great as it will support more types of notification like SMS and with the IM (OCS) this will for sure be a good asset. The release of Windows 2008 R2 and the additional Hyper-V features like live migration is sure to be a reason to upgrade.

DPM. Talking to the DPM team the improvements to come in the version next will be awesome. With the ability to backup laptops over the net is cool and offline, like to see how that works.

The general interest and questions in the TLC lounge (the old ‘Ask the Expert’) shows the growing demand for System monitoring with Ops Mgr and a healthy uptake on the MS System Center Influencer Program has given us in insight on how serious the user wants to get. I would really like to see the hard core if not more System Center Central members sign up to the Influencer program for the additional info that Microsoft offers here.

Pete, Rory and myself did a ‘Birds of a Feather’ session on System Center the level of questions ‘out of the box’ demonstrated that companies really are looking to get more out there System Center Monitoring solution. Like how to alert on Anti Virus products direct into Ops Mgr, this is great stuff and look forward to seeing a resolve to this problem soon.

In summary the show proved to be a informative event and some cool demo’s of new products.

Regards

Simon Skinner

Blog: Operations Manager 2007 documentation updates - Management Pack Development Kit

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:25:40 GMT

A few updates to the System Center > Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack Development Kit tab on the MSDN network. Updates to the Elements Reference, Data Types Reference, Module Types Reference, and the Schema Types Reference.

They can all be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee533840.aspx