Tag: OpsMgr

Operations Manager Admin Integration Pack (v1)

There is a new integration pack for Orchestrator on the horizon. It is free and developed by Russ Slaten and Anders Bengtsson. The IP covers administration tasks for OpsMgr 2012. Read more about the IP here.

Version 2.0 of My Script to Download All SCOM Management Packs with PowerShell

Not so long ago I’ve wrote a script that can download all SCOM Management Packs released by Microsoft. Unfortunately Microsoft has decided to change the interface of their download pages and didn’t asked me for approval Smile. Because of that the script stopped to work as it was dependent on the layout of the download web pages. I’ve decided to give it a try to fix the script. Looked at the layout of the new download page. Change a bit the logic and some lines and viola the script is working again.

You can grab Version 2.0 of the script from TechNet Gallery or from systemcentercentral.com.

P.S. The Script requires PowerShell 3.0.

Installing Windows Server Operating System version 6.0.7026.0 MP

I’ve deployed the latest version of Windows Server OS MP without any issues. It was quite easy so I will just share my experience for those who are interested.

1. Install the new version of the MP. Tip 1: I always install all MPs to one folder so I can find easy what MPs I have installed. Tip 2: I always make a copy of the previous version before installing the new one.

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2. After the installation I import the new versions. Tip 3: I install only those MPs I need. In the case below I do not install MPs for Windows Server 2000 and 2003 because I do not have such servers in my environment.

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3. Importing was successful.

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4. After the import you will see the added collection rules in this new version.

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5. I also check if there are any new alerts that may have risen because of this new MP in Active Alerts view.

6. If you synchronize objects from SCOM to SCSM you have to update the MPs in SCSM also.

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Happy updating!

New MP: Windows Azure SQL Database Management Pack

New management pack is available for Windows Azure service. Now you can monitor your Windows Azure SQL Databases from SCOM. These are the key features:

  • User-friendly wizard to discover Windows Azure SQL Database servers.
  • Provides availability status of Windows Azure SQL Database server.
  • Collects and monitors health of Windows Azure SQL Database databases.
    • Space monitoring:
      • Used space
      • Free space
      • Total allocated quota
    • Track the total number of databases per server
  • Collects and monitors performance information:
    • Average memory per session
    • Total memory per session
    • Total CPU time per session
    • Total I/O per session
    • Number of database sessions
    • Maximum Transaction execution time
    • Maximum Transaction lock count
    • Maximum Transaction log space used
    • Network Egress/Ingress bandwidth
  • Ability to define Custom thresholds for each monitor to configure the warning and critical alerts.
  • Run-as profile to securely connect to Windows Azure SQL Database.
  • Detailed knowledge to guide the IT operator with troubleshooting the problem
  • Custom tasks to redirect the user to the Windows Azure SQL Database online portal
  • Custom query support to enable application-specific availability and performance monitoring

Grab the management pack and the installation and configuration guide from here.

Updated MP: System Center Management Pack for Windows Server Operating System

As MSFT promised we have a new version of Windows Servers OS MP in Q2. The update brings a couple of bug fixes and one significant feature marked in bold:

  • Fixed a bug in Microsoft.Windows.Server.2008.Monitoring.mp where the performance information for Processor was not getting collected.
  • Made monitoring of Cluster Shared Volume consistent with monitoring of Logical Disks by adding performance collection rules. (“Cluster Shared Volume – Free space / MB”,”Cluster Shared Volume – Total size / MB”,”Cluster Shared Volume – Free space / %”,”Cluster Disk – Total size / MB”,”Cluster Disk – Free space / MB”,”Cluster Disk – Free space / %”)
  • Fixed bug in Microsoft.Windows.Server.ClusterSharedVolumeMonitoring.mp where the Cluster disks running on Windows Server 2008 (non R2) were not discovered.
  • Fixed bug ‘Cluster Disk Free Space Percent’ and Cluster Disk Free Space MB’ monitors generate alerts with bad descriptions when the volume label of a cluster disk is empty.
  • Added feature to raise event when NTLM requests time out and customers are unable to use mailboxes, outlook stops responding, due to the low default value for Max Concurrent API registry Key (HLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters) , which is a ceiling for the maximum NTLM or Kerberos PAC password validations a server can take care of at a time. It uses the “Netlogon” performance counter to check for the issue.
    The updated management pack and its guide you can find here. Smooth updating.