First Look at OpsLogix’s VMware Management Pack (beta)–Part II

After taking a first look at OpsLogix’s VMware Management Pack I’ve released I’ve missed something that I usually test with such core MPs like this one. That test is to bring the discovered objects from SCOM to SCSM as Configuration Items. It is not something hard to do and I’ve described the process before here but nevertheless I think it will good to see it visually in this blog post.

First you need to import OpsLogix IMP –Base Library MP and OpsLogix IMP – VMWare MP in Service Manager.

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But before actually importing these two you need to import also their dependencies:

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In my case I’ve needed to import Operations Manager Internal Library, System Center Visualization Library and System Center Image Library. All management packs can be found in the SCOM installation in the Management Packs folder. Keep in mind that for the System Center Visualization Library the MPB file have to be imported:

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After successful import you need to configure your Operations Manager CI connector in SCOM to sync the VMWare MP:

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Next we need to put some classes in the SCSM allow list in order to sync the instances for that classes. The classes we will find in SCOM Discovered Inventory View:

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Now that we know the display names of the classes we can easily find their internal names with PowerShell.

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You need to start Operations Manager cmdlet and execute the following commands:

  • Get-SCClass | Where-object {$_.DisplayName -match "Vmware Cluster"}
  • Get-SCClass | Where-object {$_.DisplayName -match "Vmware Datacenter"}
  • Get-SCClass | Where-object {$_.DisplayName -match "Vmware Datastore"}
  • Get-SCClass | Where-object {$_.DisplayName -match "Vmware ESX Server"}
  • Get-SCClass | Where-object {$_.DisplayName -match "Vmware Network"}
  • Get-SCClass | Where-object {$_.DisplayName -match "Vmware Resource Pool"}
  • Get-SCClass | Where-object {$_.DisplayName -match "Vmware vCenter"}
  • Get-SCClass | Where-object {$_.DisplayName -match "Vmware Virtual Machine"}

Basically we need the following classes:

  • OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.Cluster
  • OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.Datacenter
  • OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.Datastore
  • OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.ESXServer
  • OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.Network
  • OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.ResourcePool
  • OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.vCenter
  • OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.VirtualMachine

Now that we have the internal names of the classes we can easily put them in SCSM allow list again with PowerShell:

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I am using the built-in SCSM PowerShell cmdlets and executing these commands:

  • Add-SCSMAllowListClass -ClassName OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.Cluster
  • Add-SCSMAllowListClass -ClassName OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.Datacenter
  • Add-SCSMAllowListClass -ClassName OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.Datastore
  • Add-SCSMAllowListClass -ClassName OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.ESXServer
  • Add-SCSMAllowListClass -ClassName OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.Network
  • Add-SCSMAllowListClass -ClassName OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.ResourcePool
  • Add-SCSMAllowListClass -ClassName OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.vCenter
  • Add-SCSMAllowListClass -ClassName OpsLogix.IMP.VMWare.VirtualMachine

To verify that the classes are added to the allowed sync list you can use: Get-SCSMAllowList

Next you need to force sync on your Operations Manager CI connector. After the connector syncs successful you can create several views to check if the instances of these classes are synced:

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The beta of the MP does not discover a lot of properties for the objects but I am hoping this will be changed in the final version or some of the next ones as proper and rich CMDB is important.

Extend CI class in Service Manager 2012

Stefan Koell wrote a guide on how to extend CI class in SCSM 2012. SCSM 2012 provides basic Configuration Manager Database that can be easily customized to meet your needs. This guide will show in some easy steps how you can leverage that easy customization. Read the full article here.

Adding Network Device monitored by SCOM in SCSM CMDB as CI

If you are using Operations Manager with Service Manager you probably sync the CMDB of SCSM with configuration items discovered by SCOM. This can be achieved by a series of steps that have to be executed in order to implement this solution. Cameron Fuller wrote a post on how to do that for Network Devices but the principal applies to almost any other Configuration items discovered by SCOM. Read the full article here.

Different ways of extending SCSM CMDB

If you want to find out more ways on how to extend the CMDB of SCSM check this article: Extending Service Manager 2012 CMDB Automation and with System Center 2012 and PowerShell.

Technical Documentation Download for System Center 2012 – Service Manager

Microsoft is starting to release the Technical documentation for System Center 2012 components. This means only one thing – we will see the final version of System Center 2012 on MMS 2012. Click on the link and download the documentation for System Center Service Manager.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27850