Tag: add-ons

HP Storage Management Integration with Microsoft System Center

Previously I’ve covered HP Storage Management Pack but now there is another HP Storage tool that integrates with System Center component named HP Storage UI add-in for System Center Virtual Machine Manager. These two tools combined together represent HP Storage Management Integration with Microsoft System Center.

So what is exactly this new tool:

HP Storage UI add-in for System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) enables enhanced integration of SCVMM and HP Storage providing our customers a single pane-of-glass monitoring view of physical, virtual and cloud environments. It automates HP Storage management and provides an integrated view of VMs and associated storage resources.

HP Storage supports all SMI-S-enabled functionality introduced in SCVMM 2012 – Storage Discovery, Storage Classification, Storage Provisioning and Storage Allocation.

HP Storage also provides a new HP Storage UI Add-in for enhanced monitoring, provisioning and control of HP Storage in SCVMM environment.

 

Personally I haven’t the chance to try it but from what I’ve seen from demos and screenshots it is definitely worth a try if you have one of the following storages:

  • HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage – HP 3PAR StoreServ 10000 Storage, HP 3PAR StoreServ 7000 Storage, F-Class, T-Class, HP 3PAR OS 3.1.1 and 3.1.2
  • HP StoreOnce Backup – HP StoreOnce Backup: HP D2D 2000, D2D 4000 and HP StoreOnce B6000 Gen 3 Backup Systems

You can download it for free from here.

System Center 2012 – Service Manager Component Add-ons and Extensions

After the general availability of SC 2012 SP1 there are some additional downloads that needs to be updated. This time IT Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) Process Management Pack for SCSM is updated to work with SP1. Along with this management pack usually System Center Cloud Services Process Pack is also released but this time this is not the case. On the download page it is marked as coming soon. Let’s hope we will have it in one or two weeks maximum. IT Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) Process Management Pack  can be downloaded from here.

SCSM Project Connector 1.1 and Event Dashboard by Expit for System Center 2012 Service Manager

Expit is a third party company based in Kuwait that provides two add-ons for SCSM:

  • Project Connector by Expit – This connector allow you to synchronize data between Microsoft Project Server and System Center Service Manager 2012. You can see short demo how the product works on the video below:
Expit SCSM Project Connector

Learn more about the product here.

  • Dashboard v1.0 for SCSM by Expit – This software enables service managers to view all open activities, incidents, problems, release, change and service requests through one single console.

 

Find more about this software here.

System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager Component Add-ons and Extensions

Another set of add-ons and extensions this time for Virtual Machine Manager 2012. Here is what this download set consists of:

VM Recovery Tool
The stand-alone Virtual Machine Recovery Tool works with System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) to temporarily remove a host, cluster, virtual machine, or service from VMM when that object is in a failed or persistent warning state due to environmental conditions, third-party applications, or other causes. After resetting the state of the object, once VMM refreshes, the object will appear as healthy in VMM. This tool does not repair a damaged or incorrectly created virtual machine or corrupt .vhd file. It deals with state information stored in the VMM database. For additional details about the tool, see Using the Virtual Machine Recovery Tool for System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager (VMM).

Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer (VMMCA)
The VMMCA is your first line of defense in troubleshooting an issue in the System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager environment. VMMCA is a diagnostic tool you can use to evaluate important configuration settings for computers that are either running VMM server roles or are acting as virtual machine hosts. The VMMCA scans the hardware and software configurations of the computers you specify, evaluates them against a set of predefined rules, and then provides you with error messages and warnings for any configurations that are not optimal.

Microsoft Product Support Reporting Tool (MPSRPT)
You can use the Virtual Machine Manager MPS Reporting Tool for System Center 2012 to gather detailed system status and configuration information from the VMM management server as well as all managed virtual machine hosts and VMM server roles.
The tool offers the ability to select the particular scenarios for which system configuration data will be gathered.
The Virtual Machine Manager MPS Reporting Tool for System Center 2012 gathers the following diagnostic data for the VMM management server, the virtual machine hosts and library servers that the VMM management server manages, and physical to virtual conversion (P2V) source computers:

  • Virtual Machine Manager traces
  • Virtual Machine Manager database
  • Windows event logs and virtual server event logs
  • IP address
  • Virtual Machine Manager setup logs
  • SQL Server setup logs
  • Registry information
  • Open ports information
  • System Information (msinfo)

OVF Import/Export
The Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is a packaging standard from Distributed Management Task Force, Inc., for portability and deployment of virtual appliances. The OVF Import/Export tool consists of cmdlets that enable VMM users to import and export single virtual machines that are packaged in an OVF 1.1 complaint format. You can use the OVF Import/Export tool to import a virtual machine from other virtualization platforms (currently VMware vCenter and Citrix XenServer) or to export a virtual machine from VMM for use on another platform.

Download them all from one link here.

Two new add-ons for SCSM from Signature Consultancy

Signature Consultancy offers two new add-ons for SCSM that can provide business value to Incident Management:

  • SMAX

SMAX Management Pack is an add-on to Microsoft System Center Service Manager from Signature Consultancy that provides you with the means to send meeting requests directly from the SCSM Management Console  to Microsoft Exchange. The meeting request is related to any incident (ticket) in Microsoft SCSM and is sent directly to the exchange mailbox of the analyst or operator assigned to the incident.  This meeting request will show in the analyst Calendar on outlook thus allowing you additional Control on support engineers’ schedule.

More information and demo video can be found on this address: http://www.signatureconsultancy.com/smax.html

  • SMTI

SMTI creates the link between your Microsoft System Center Service Manager installations, the IP soft phone system and call center operators computer. This connectivity makes it possible to identify the callers automatically and presents the call center operator with the customer’s incidents history and status allowing an instant response to basic incident queries and follow up call.

More information and demo video can be found on this address:http://www.signatureconsultancy.com/smti.html