Tag: windows 2012

New MPs: System Center 2012 Management Pack for Windows Server Hyper-V 2012 and two more

It is here. Probably one of the most wanted and waited management packs – Windows Server Hyper-V 2012. On the download page the MP promises the following features:

  • Management of critical Hyper-V services that affect virtual machines and host server functionality
  • Management of host server logical disks that affect virtual machine health
  • Full representation of virtualization in a single Hyper-V host server, including virtual networks, and virtual machines
  • Monitoring of virtual machine hardware components that affect availability

 

This MP is only supported on SCOM 2012 or later. The documentation can be found in the installation folder after you install the MP. I’ve took a quick look at the documentation it is not long just 20 pages but it is good to read. Let’s hope there are no critical bugs in the MP because of the tight schedule of SC 2012 SP1. Download link is here.

Along with this MP several days ago two more MPs were released

 

More on Global Service Monitor you can read in this article.

New MP: System Center 2012 Monitoring Pack for Windows Server Backup

There is a new management pack on the horizon. For those who use Windows Server Backup they can now monitor it with SCOM 2012 or SCOM 2007 R2. Unfortunately it only supports Backup feature on Windows Server 2012. The documentation with the MP scattered and doesn’t offer much information. In fact Windows Server 2012 in the documentation is mentioned with its codename Windows Server 8. Also I do not have any idea why SCCM 2012 is also mentioned as required software. Anyway the MP just monitor several events in the event log:

  • Backup cancelled
  • Backup failed
  • Backup failed due to snapshot
  • Backup partially succeeded
  • Backup succeeded with skipped files
  • Recovery failed
  • Recovery succeeded with warnings

 

The MP and the two page guide you can download from here.

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Cookbook – Book Review

After reviewing the Packt Publishing books for two of the components for Microsoft Private Cloud – Configuration Manager and Service Manager now it is a time for a third component – Hyper-V.The book from Packt Publishing about Hyper-V is titled Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Cookbook. The book is authored by a well known MVP Leandro Carvalho.

The book consists of 9 chapters and about 300 pages. The chapters will walk you trough all the basic features of Hyper-V 2012 and to some of the advanced ones by also noticing what have been changed since the last version.. As every Cookbook from Pack Publishing Hyper-V features are presented as min-guides that you can follow in order to test the product my yourself. Of course before actually buying the book I suggest to prepare some test environment where you can follow the guides from it. That way the book will be more effective to you. I have tried most of the features in the new Hyper-V server but by reading the book I’ve managed to try a feature called Resource pools that I just haven’t paid so much attention before. As Windows Server 2012 heavily relies on PowerShell every example in the book that is executed trough GUI there is an separate example how to achieve the same trough PowerShell. So if you are not so PowerShell knowledgeable you can learn some tricks how to perform certain tasks for Hyper-V.

As a summary I can recommend this book to every beginner who has less or no experience with Hyper-V. Also if you are on some beginner or medium level with Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 and you want to learn and test the new features in Hyper-V 2012. You Can find the book in several online stores:

More about the book you can find by clicking on the image below:

Windows Server Print Server Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 updated

A new version 6.0.7004.0 of the MP for Print Servers I released. The new MP introduces support for Windows Server 2008 R2 and 2012 Print server. According to the download page the MP is supported in SCOM 2007 R2 only but I guess there is no reason to be working for SCOM 2012 also. Full changes to this MP:

Print Server Library:

– Disabled and set visible to false for dashboard and performance views.

Print Server 2003:

– Fixed rule for collecting “jobs spooling”

Print Server 2008:

– Added support for monitoring the Print Server Role on Windows Server 2008 R2.

Print Server 2012:

– Added support for monitoring the Print Server Role on Windows Server 2012.

The new version you can download from here.

Review of the MP from Kevin Holman you can read here.