Pontus Operations Management Blog

MMS 2009 in Las Vegas

2009-04-27T14:25:00.003+01:00

It´s time for MMS 2009 in Las Vegas. I´m on site and have some intressting meetings with the product teams. I will try to write some around VMM and Operations Manager. Have been very busy the last months and no post on the blog as a result. I will try to change that. I have been working with Ops Mgr 2007 R2 and we have it deployed on RC code in production, So far so good. Have been doing Lab work on VMM 2008 R2 beta together with Ops Mgr R2 RC. W8ill try too blog about thé progress of this work in the coming month. But for now I will focus on MMS for a week.

DHCP MP QFE release to fix the high CPU utilization issues

2008-11-08T12:43:00.001+01:00

Download the updated DHCP MP here.

Quick Details
File Name: Microsoft DHCP 2000 2003 and 2008 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007.msi
Version: 6.0.6452.0
Date Published: 11/7/2008
Language: English
Download Size: 891 KB

Release History

10/26/2007 - Release of Windows Server 2000/2003 DHCP MP for OpsMgr 2007, version 6.0.5000.41
8/15/2008 - Added support for Windows Server 2008, version 6.0.6383.0
11/7/2008 - QFE release to fix the high CPU utilization issues, version 6.0.6452.0

SQL MP with support for SQL 2008

2008-11-08T12:32:00.002+01:00

Download the SQL Server Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 here.

Microsoft have relesed a new version of the SQL MP with support for SQL Server 2008 as well as SQL 2000 and SQL 2005.

Quick Details
File Name: SQL Server System Center Operations Manager 2007 MP.msi
Version: 6.0.6441.0
Date Published: 10/29/2008
Language: English
Download Size: 1.6 MB

Release History:

3/23/2007 - Initial Release, version 6.0.5000.0
12/21/2007 - updated version 6.0.6247.5
3/31/2008 - Updated version 6.0.6278.8
10/29/2008 - Released version 6.0.6441.0, which introduced SQL Server 2008 support in addition to other new features and fixes. Refer to the MP guide for a complete list of changes

Active Directory MP for Server 2008 Domain Controllers

2008-11-08T10:43:00.002+01:00

Download the new version of the Active Directory Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 here.

The new MP supports Windows Server 2008 Domain Controllers as well as Windows Server 2000 and 2003.

Quick Details
File Name: Microsoft Active Directory 2000 2003 and 2008 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007.msi
Version: 6.0.6452.0
Date Published: 11/7/2008
Language: English
Download Size: 1.9 MB

Management Pack Release History:

3/23/2007 - Initial Release, version 6.0.5000.0
1/15/2008 - Updated Guide - same version
03/17/2008 - QFE, version 6.0.6278.3
03/26/2008 - QFE, version 6.0.6278.10
11/7/2008 - Initial release for 2000/2003/2008, version 6.0.6452.0

Configure Ops Mgr 2007 for VMM 2008 PRO

2008-11-03T20:55:00.004+01:00

Í have been working on the VMM 2008 the last couple of months. One thing I have found the hard way is when you run the "Configure Operations Manager" part on the RMS server you need to do this with a account in the same domain as your server. We have admin accounts in another domain (but in the same AD with full trust), if I use this account I get an error message about setting SPN for the VMM service. The only way to fix this(What I have found at least) is to create a Ops Mgr Admin account in the same domain as your RMS server and run the installation with this. Then the process just runs smooth.

Been busy working on VMM 2008

2008-11-03T20:48:00.003+01:00

There have not been many post on this blog the latest months. This is caused of very intense work on different products in the System Ceneter family. We are working with VMM 2008, App-v 4.5 and Config Manager 2007 R2. I have also been busy in front of the camera. Watch our video case study for Microsoft Virtualization.

How to change the credentials for the OpsMgr SDK Service

2008-07-10T13:24:00.002+01:00

While doing some Lab work on the VMM 2008 PRO integration with Hyper-V and VMM 2008 and Operations Manager 2007 I needed to change the SDK Service account to Local System for the VMM 2008 to Operations Manager 2007 connection to work properly. I found a very good KB article that maybe someone else also has a need for. The article describes how to change the service accounts for Operations Manager 2007 in "any direction" to or from Local System.

You find all information in the KB936220 here.

System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 MP for Operations Manager 2007

2008-07-02T08:45:00.002+01:00

Download the System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 here.

Overview

Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 provides proactive monitoring of your Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 environment. This management pack includes:

Detection and monitoring of all MDM servers and dependent services
The alert-driven state
Performance and backlog monitoring and configuration
Before you install the MDM management pack, read the MDM Management Pack Guide document. The guide includes instructions that you need to correctly deploy, configure and use the management pack.

Feature Bullet Summary:
The System Center Mobile Device Manager (MDM) 2008 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 provides capabilities for MDM 2008 monitoring, including the following:

Collection of events from MDM Device Management Server, MDM Enrollment Server, MDM Gateway Server, and MDM Self Service Portal.
Health state monitoring and alerting for MDM service errors requiring administrative intervention.
Collection of MDM performance counters from MDM Device Management Server, MDM Enrollment Server, MDM Gateway Server, and MDM Self Service Portal.
Events indicating service outages
Alerts indicating configuration issues and connected data source changes
Verification that all dependant services are running

Management Pack Release History:
6/30/2008 - Version 1.0.2300.0 Original release of the English version of the Management Pack

File Replication Service 2000/2003 MP for Operations Manager 2007

2008-07-02T08:41:00.002+01:00

Download the File Replication Service 2000/2003 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 here.

Microsoft have updated the documentation for this MP. You will find the documentation in the download.

Brief Description
Monitors the performance and availability of Windows File Replication Service, ultrasound, and replica sets. Requires OpsMgr 2007 MOM 2005 Backward Compatibility MP Update 6.0.5000.1 (or higher).

Management Pack Release History:
6/4/2007 - Initial Release for OpsMgr 2007 , version 6.0.5000.0
6/30/2008 - Updated documentation, same version, 6.0.5000.0

Message Queuing MP for Operations Manager 2007

2008-06-11T13:14:00.001+01:00

Download the Message Queuing Management Pack for Ops Mgr 2007 here.

Brief Description
The Message Queuing Management Pack provides monitoring for Microsoft Message Queuing Services (MSMQ) version 3.0.

Overview
Message Queuing (also known as MSMQ) is a server application that enables applications to communicate across heterogeneous networks and systems that may be temporarily offline or otherwise inaccessible. Instead of an application communicating with a service on another computer, it sends its information to Message Queuing, which sends the information to a Message Queuing service on the target computer where it is made available to the other application. Message Queuing provides guaranteed delivery, efficient routing, security, and priority based messaging.

Feature Summary
The Message Queuing Management Pack provides monitoring for the following:
MSMQ Servers
MSMQ Triggers
MSMQ Queues
Dependant Clients

Release History

6/3/2008 - Initial Release, version 6.0.6278.23. Refer to the MP guide for further details.

New Hotfix solves some issues with Ops Mgr 2007 SP1

2008-06-11T08:56:00.002+01:00

Microsoft have released a KB article with a hofix to solve some of the issues that came with SP1.

Here is the KB951979 article.

There are 6 different issues that this hotifx covers.

Problem 1
The management server cannot collect the CSDVersion property from Windows Vista-based client computers.
Problem 2
The management server cannot collect operating system properties from Windows 2000 Service Pack 4-based client computers.
Problem 3
The HandleCountThreshold agent monitor does not restart the HealthService service on the Microsoft Exchange Server agent even when the HandleCountThreshold value has been exceeded.
Problem 4
Audit Collection Services (ACS) events cannot be collected correctly.
Problem 5
Incorrect warnings are raised for Performance Data Source Module when some services in the system are disabled.
Problem 6
Cluster discovery does not work correctly when the Virtual Server Name is a substring of the Physical Server Name.

Updated HP BladeSystem Management Pack, version 1.6.2 is now available

2008-04-21T19:41:00.003+01:00

Download the updated HP BladeSystem Management Pack, version 1.6.2 here.

As I reported in a previous post there were regional settings problem with the Blade Enclosure discovery. This is fixed in this new release.

Version 1.6.2 addresses the following:

Bug Fixes:
Fixed the HP BladeSystem Enclosure Monitor Manager to support the regional and language settings on Windows Operating System.
Fixed the HP BladeSystem Management Pack for Alert Parameter Replacement Failure on Operations Manager 2007 SP1.

LSASS Monitor in Active Directory MP gives false alerts

2008-04-21T18:54:00.002+01:00

The AD Processor Overload (lsass) Monitor in the Acticve Directory MP gives false alerts if the LSASS process consumes over 15% CPU. This is caused of a misconfiguration in the Ops Mgr 2007 monitor. The script running the monitor AD_CPU_Overload.vbs have 6 parameters as input. Parameter 4 and 5have been mixed so that the "MaxFrequency"=15 and "LSASSThreshold"=80 (Default values) replaces each other. So instead of alerting for LSASS process consuming more than 80% CPU the monitor alerts for over 15%.
To fix this before a update MP is available make a ovverride for the "AD Processor Overload (lsass) Monitor".

The override should look like this:
Min number of min between alerts:80 (15 Default)
Lsass Threshold(%): 15 (Default 80)

Operations Manager 2007 Performance and Scalability Whitepaper

2008-04-16T19:49:00.003+01:00

Download the Operations Manager 2007 Performance and Scalability Whitepaper here.

Brief Description
Operations Manager 2007 Performance and Scalability Whitepaper
This document describes performance and scalability guidelines to consider when planning a Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 deployment

Quick Details
File Name: OM2007_PerfScal.doc
Version: 1.0
Date Published: 4/15/2008
Language: English
Download Size: 291 KB

This documentation can be handy to have when planning an Ops Mgr 2007 deployment.

Need help sorting out what went wrong with WMI and Scripts in the Console?

2008-04-09T13:23:00.003+01:00

After implementing the Ops Mgr 2007 you get to the point when adding MPs, upgrading MPs and other changes like upgrading to SP1 gives you some noise in the alert views. Our Ops Mgr 2007 Operators doesn´t like the noise and I think they are in good company. Does anyone like it? Anyway I have done some tweaking with the Console to get the Operation Manager noise, "Script or Executable Failed to run" and "WMI Probe Module Failed Execution" out of the alert log. I have made overrides to these 2 rules and changed the severity to "0" (from "1" Warning). With this value the alert comes as a Information alert instead of warning. To even more easy up the Active Alert log I have removed the Information alert from the default "Active Alerts" view and then created a new "Active Information Alerts" view were all the alerts with severity "0" = Information Alerts ends up.

Now the Operators just looks into the Active Alerts view and are told to not touch the Informational Alerts. By sorting the Alerts in this new "Active Informational Alerts" view by repeat count you can se witch rules on witch systems have the most noise problems? And looking at the end of this sorting you can check for alerts with no repeat count and Age 5 days or so and just close them as "bad luck" alerts. With this method you can keep your Operators in a good mood and it give the Ops Admin a good tool to fix (or report to the creator of the MP) bad scripting or miss configured servers. I would like in future release to have a new Severity for this kind of alerts. The Ops Admin Severity alerts that if they make sense (not all do!) it makes sense just to the Ops Mgr Admin and not the regular Operators.

Good luck hunting down the "Script or Executable Failed to run" backlog :)

Updated Exchange Server 2003 MP

2008-04-07T19:17:00.002+01:00

Download the updated Exchange Server 2003 Management Pack here.

Quick Details
File Name: Exchange Server 2003 System Center Operations Manager 2007 MP .msi
Version: 6.0.6278.5
Date Published: 4/7/2008

Management Pack Release History:
3/23/2007 - Initial Release Version 6.0.5000.0
6/25/2007 - Updated Release Version 6.0.5000.11, version details
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.Library.mp 6.0.5000.0
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Discovery.mp 6.0.5000.11
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Monitoring.mp 6.05000.11

1/15/2008 - Updated Guide - same version
2/25/2008 - Updated MP Guide and Management Pack. Please refer to the MP Guide for details.
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.Library.mp 6.0.6278.0
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Discovery.mp 6.0.6278.0
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Monitoring.mp 6.0.6278.0

3/17/2008 Updated MP Guide and Management Pack. Please refer to the MP Guide for details.
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.Library.mp 6.0.6278.2
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Discovery.mp 6.0.6278.2
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Monitoring.mp 6.0.6278.2

4/4/2008 Updated MP Guide and Management Pack. Please refer to the MP Guide for details.
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.Library.mp 6.0.6278.5
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Discovery.mp 6.0.6278.5
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Monitoring.mp 6.0.6278.5

MP authoring samples from Boris

2008-04-03T16:37:00.002+01:00

Boris Yanushpolsky is publishing examples for creating MPs for Ops Mgr 2007. First out is "NT service based discovery". Read the information and get the example from his blog "OpsMgr++".

Updated info on HP BladeSystem Management Pack

2008-04-03T05:31:00.007+01:00

If you are running the HP BladeSystem Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 and use a regional setting that uses "," instead of "." as delimiter, the Blade Enclosure discovery doesn´t work(We are running swedish regional settings and most of the european regional settings have the same problem). A workaround for this until a updated version of the MP i released is to change to US-Regional setting during discovery of the Enclosures and then switch back to your orginal regional setting.

This is tested with the following Versions:
•HP BladeSystem Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 – Version 1.6.15.0
•Hewlett-Packard BladeSystem Management Pack – Version 1.6.0.0

How to:
Install the HP Blade MP (Follow the documentation that follows the MP)
When it is time to run the HP BladeSystem Enclosure Monitor Manager for Enclosure discovery:
1. First change your regional setting to US
2. Restart the HP BladeSystem Enclosure Monitor Service
3. Start the HP BladeSystem Enclosure Monitor Manager and do the discovery.
5. Set the regional settings back to your normal one.
6. Restart the HP BladeSystem Enclosure Monitor Service.

Now everything should work just fine.

Updated Cluster Management Pack

2008-04-03T05:01:00.003+01:00

Download the updated Windows Server 2003 Cluster Management Pack here.

You will find more information on what was changed and how to update in Marius Suatras Blog

Quick Details
File Name: Microsoft Windows Cluster System Center Operations Manager 2007 MP .msi
Version: 6.0.6277.1
Date Published: 4/2/2008

Important Notice
If you have installed the Windows Server 2003 Cluster MP 6.0.6277.0, remove the following management pack files prior to importing this management pack:
Microsoft.Windows.2003.Cluster.Management.Monitoring
Microsoft.Windows.2003.Cluster.Management.Library
Microsoft.Windows.Cluster.Management.Monitoring
Microsoft.Windows.Cluster.Management.Library

Release History:
3/6/2008 - 6.0.6277.0 - Original English release
4/1/2008 - 6.0.6277.1 - Updated version, see MP guide for details

Updated SQL Server 2000/2005 Management Pack

2008-04-01T19:34:00.003+01:00

Download the updated SQL Server 2000/2005 Management Pack here.

Quick Details
File Name: SQL Server System Center Operations Manager 2007 MP.msi
Version: 6.0.6278.8
Date Published: 3/31/2008

Management Pack Release History:
Initial Release 3/23/2007 Version 6.0.5000.0
12/21/2007 - updated version 6.0.6247.5
3/31/2008 - Updated version 6.0.6278.8

The SQL MP Guide in this download is updated.

Changes in this Update:
• The “Transaction Log Space Free (%)” monitor was made public for both SQL 2000 and SQL 2005 to allow for further customization.
• Some corrections were made and additional detail provided in the “Key Monitoring Scenarios” sections of this guide.
• Removed the hard-coded exception for jobs with a specific name from the “A SQL job failed to complete successfully” rules for both SQL 2000 and SQL 2005.
• Fixed an issue with the scripts used to calculate DB free space which was preventing some databases from having their free space correctly monitored on SQL installations that did not have DBs with contiguous IDs.
• Corrected typographical errors.
• Fixed an issue where incorrect free space values were being calculated for some SQL 2000 databases.
• A fix was made to address issues with collection of performance data from specific instances of Analysis Services.
• Significant changes were made to the “Database Status” monitor in the SQL 2005 MP. The monitor now has three states reflecting good, bad, and neither. The possible database states have been realigned into these categories which will reduce “false-positive” alert volumes specifically when log-shipping and database backups are occurring.

New updated AD MP to fix AD Op Master Response issues.

2008-03-27T00:50:00.002+01:00

Download Windows Server 2000/2003 Active Directory Management Pack here.

Microsoft has done a update to the AD MP to fix the last part of AD Last Bind monitors not handling western european regional settings.

Quick Details
File Name: Active Directory System Center Operations Manager 2007 MP.msi
Version: 6.0.6278.10
Date Published: 3/26/2008

Management Pack Release History:

Initial Release 3/23/2007 Version 6.0.5000.0
1/15/2008 - Updated Guide - same version
03/17/2008 – Bug Fixes - Version 6.0.6278.3
Active Directory DC Last Bind Monitor: fixed incorrect locale dependent data type conversions in AD General Response.
Active Directory Replication Partner Count MAX_CONNECTIONS increased to 999
Active Directory General Response Last Bind Performance Collection rules: increased data source script run interval to five minutes
Active Directory Global Catalog Response Time is less than five minutes
Active Directory Database and Logfile threshold monitoring: override parameter provided
03/26/2008 – Bug fixes – Version 6.0.6278.10
Active Directory DC Last Bind Monitor: fixed incorrect dependent data type conversions in AD Op Master Response.

Alert History Grooming BUG

2008-03-26T09:49:00.009+01:00

Just a reminder.(I have written about this before the SP1). In Ops Mgr 2007 SP1 (and without) the alert history is groomed out before the alerts is resolved with the result that open alerts get an empty alert history.
But by own experience, I forgot to re-apply the fix to the stored procedure p_AlertGrooming after upgrading to SP1. So again my alert history is groomed out before the alerts is closed. So the Ops Mgr 2007 SP1 still have this small but annoying BUG. Upgrading to SP1 over writes your fixed stored procedure. You can fix it with this little change to the stored procedure.

Edit the stored procedure p_AlertGrooming in the Ops Mgr DB like this:

1. Log into the server that hosts the OperationsManager database.
2. Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
3. Expand Databases > OperationsManager > Programmability > Stored Procedures > dbo.p_AlertGrooming.
4. Right-click dbo.p_AlertGrooming and select Modify.
5. Find the following two lines in the SQLQuery:

DELETE dbo.AlertHistory
WHERE TimeAdded < @GroomingThresholdUTC

6. Comment-out these two lines with “--" and add a comment:

-- Changed to keep alert history until alert is resolved
-- DELETE dbo.AlertHistory
-- WHERE TimeAdded < @GroomingThresholdUTC

7. Execute the query, which will "save" the stored procedure.
8. Close the query, and when prompted to save changes, click No.

Now the Alert History stays intact until the Alert is Resolved.

Add Enclosure doesn´t work with HP BladeSystem MP for Ops Mgr 2007

2008-03-25T00:39:00.004+01:00

Running the HP BladeSystem Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 and trying to “add enclosure” with the HP Blade Monitoring tool fails with Swedish regional settings. I have tested and switched to US Regional settings and restarted the Blade Service and then the add enclosure discovery worked. We are running English Windows 2003 but with Swedish regional settings. It is not only Microsoft that has problems with other regional settings than the "US". I can´t confirm that other western European regional settings have the same problem but probably. I have a support case open with HP on this.

Updated Exchange Server 2003 Management Pack

2008-03-21T06:45:00.003+01:00

Download the updated Exchange Server 2003 Management Pack here.

Quick Details
File Name: Exchange Server 2003 System Center Operations Manager 2007 MP .msi
Version: 6.0.6278.2
Date Published: 3/19/2008

Management Pack Release History:
3/23/2007 - Initial Release Version 6.0.5000.0
6/25/2007 - Updated Release Version 6.0.5000.11, version details
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.Library.mp 6.0.5000.0
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Discovery.mp 6.0.5000.11
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Monitoring.mp 6.05000.11

1/15/2008 - Updated Guide - same version
2/25/2008 - Updated MP Guide and MP. Please refer to the MP Guide for details.
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.Library.mp 6.0.6278.0
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Discovery.mp 6.0.6278.0
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Monitoring.mp 6.0.6278.0

3/17/2008 - Updated MP Guide and MP. Please refer to the MP Guide for details.
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.Library.mp 6.0.6278.2
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Discovery.mp 6.0.6278.2
Microsoft.Exchange.Server.2003.Monitoring.mp 6.0.6278.2

New Updates on the AD Last Bind Bug

2008-03-21T06:31:00.005+01:00

I have talked with Microsoft about this and they have solved the AD DC Last Bind Monitor with the AD MP Version 6.0.6278.3,
but forgotten to check the AD DC Op Master ... Monitors.

In my environment the AD DC Last Bind Monitor works OK, but the following does NOT:

AD DC Op Master PDC Last Bind Monitor
AD DC Op Master Infrastructure Master Last Bind Monitor
AD DC Op Master Domain Naming Last Bind Monitor
AD DC Op Master RID Last Bind Monitor
AD DC Op Master Schema Master Last Bind Monitor

There is 2 different scripts that handles the Last Bind monitors:
1. AD General Response script. This is fixed. (AD DC Last Bind)
2. AD Op Master Response script This is not fixed.(AD DC Op Master...)

Microsoft is working on a QFE for this.