System Center Operations Manager Management Pack Authoring

Always wondered how they design/create their own custom System Center Operations Manager Management Pack?

There is a couple of ways to create your own custom management pack.

Here are the 3 most common ways in doing that:

1. Silect MP Author - View post here
2. Visual Studio - Free download here (Visual Studio 2013 Community)
3. XML - Definitely not the easiest to start with

Still "lost" in where to start? Here is a link to the Microsoft Virtual Academy course on what you will need to know on where to start designing/creating your very own custom management pack.

http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/system-center-2012-r2-operations-manager-management-pack

Please feel free to share/like or post your ideas on any custom management packs that you are busy creating.

Happy authoring!!

Silect MPAuthor

Silect MP Author is a tool used for creating/authoring SCOM Management Packs.

They have shipped the new Service Pack 3 version of the tool.
http://www.silect.com/mp-author

You can download the tool here: http://www.silect.com/content/mp-author-free-download-form

If you require any assistance, you can view the online support media at http://www.silect.com/mp-author-support or email them at info@silect.com

Here is a the new features that comes with SP3 (Copied it from their site):

• Improved knowledge viewing and editing in multiple language environments 
• Improved XML editing 
• New feature to "Check for missing display names" 
• Added ability to use base classes other than LocalApplication when creating new classes 
• Additional MP elements are displayed 
• Added a drop down list of $$ parameters for alert messages 
• Schedule property grid made more user friendly 
• Improvements to memory usage
• We've also fixed a number of bugs in this release.

Hope that this quick post was helpful.

Operations Manager 2012 – Useful PowerShell Commands and Scripts

Here are some useful PowerShell Commands and Scripts that can help you in your environment.

Note : Change the values in red to the standards of your environment.

Install Prerequisites 2012/2012r2 Management Server and/or Console:

$dwnld = 'C:\File_Download_Location\SCOM2012R2Prereqs'
if (!(Test-Path -path $dwnld))
 {
 New-Item $dwnld -type directory
 }
$object = New-Object Net.WebClient
$RPTurl = 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/B/7/FB728406-A1EE-4AB5-9C56-74EB8BDDF2FF/ReportViewer.msi'
$object.DownloadFile($RPTurl, "$dwnld\ReportViewer.msi")
  
$RPTurl = 'http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239644&clcid=0x409'
$object.DownloadFile($RPTurl, "$dwnld\SQLSysClrTypes.msi")
  
Start-Process -FilePath "$dwnld\SQLSysClrTypes.msi" -ArgumentList '/q' -Wait
Start-Process -FilePath "$dwnld\ReportViewer.msi" -ArgumentList '/q' -Wait

Creating Dynamic Groups With Windows Computer Objects and Health Service Watcher Objects

It has been a well known requirement for most customers, to be able to Create Groups of Windows Computers that also contain corresponding Health Service Watcher objects. This was needed for Alert Notification subscriptions so that different teams could receive alert notifications filtered by groups, but also include alerts from the Watcher, such as Heartbeat failure and Computer Unreachable.

Below you will find the code for SCOM 2007x and SCOM 2012x.

PowerShell & System Center 2012

A few days ago Microsoft published a cmdlet reference for System Center 2012, containing many documents about all available PowerShell cmdlets for the System Center 2012 family.

These 37 references can be downloaded from here:

1. SC2012_AppController_Cmdlets.pdf
2. SC2012_DPM_Cmdlets.doc
3. SC2012_DPM_Cmdlets.pdf
4. SC2012_OpsMgr_Cmdlets.doc
5. SC2012_OpsMgr_Cmdlets.pdf
6. SC2012_VMM_Cmdlets.doc
7. SC2012_VMM_Cmdlets.pdf
8. SC2012R2_AppController_Cmdlets.doc
9. SC2012R2_AppController_Cmdlets.pdf

SCOM 2012 R2: FINALLY The Collation Settings Issue Is Addressed!

The past
As we all know up to SCOM 2012 R2 the Collation Settings of the SCOM SQL databases was crucial and ONLY SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS worked, even though Microsoft stated differently.
Main reason here was that the installer of SCOM installed the Data Warehouse database with this SQL Collation setting (SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS) no matter what (SQL) Collation Setting the SQL instance itself was running.

And when there is a mismatch between the (SQL) Collation settings of both SCOM SQL databases (OperationsManager & Data Warehouse) you could end up in situations like these. Only a reinstall would solve that issue OR – when being blessed with really power SQL DBAs – the databases could be preserved while modifying the SQL Collation Settings.

Speeding up the SCOM Console

Beware! When editing the registry one can cause damage which cannot be undone. So be careful when performing the procedure mentioned in this blogposting. Always make an export of the registry keys before deleting ANYTHING from the registry.

Ok, having said that, there is a nice trick to get the SCOM Console running faster.

At a customers site I bumped into a situation where the SCOM operators complained about the performance of the SCOM Console. And they were right. It was very sluggish. So I checked the RMS and the related SQL server. These servers were performing just fine. No glitch what so ever. They were dimensioned properly (enough cpu, RAM and fast disks) and when running perfmon on those servers, all was well.

So the cause of the sluggish SCOM Consoles wasn't to be found there. Then I turned my attention to the systems of the SCOM Operators. First I found that they were running the SCOM Consoles with the /ClearCache command.

They started with SCOM when it came RTM and with RTM it was advised to use that switch. But when they upgraded to SP1, they were still using this switch. But it is Best Practice only to use this switch when there are problems with the SCOM Console. Under any other circumstances this switch is not to be used. So I deleted this switch.

Agents on Windows 2012 R2 Domain Controllers can stop responding or heart-beating

This is an issue I have been tracking for some time. When you deploy SCOM 2012 Agents on Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controllers, it is possible for the agents to stop responding and or sending heartbeats. The agent services will still be running. You will see the events in the OpsMgr event log stop processing, and you might see heartbeat failures as well. I have personally seen this on both of my Windows 2012 R2 domain controllers, which also run DNS and DHCP, and have the AD, DNS, and DHCP management packs imported.

WMI, SCOM and Windows 2003 server

On many W2K03 servers WMI can get hosed when the SCOM Agent is installed. This is not due to the SCOM Agent but due to the fact that WMI on W2K03 servers is a bit instable.

Since the SCOM Agent utilizes WMI to its fullest extend, the less stronger parts of WMI will be giving problems. There are ways to 'reset' WMI but there is also a hotfix for it. Look here for this hotfix.

Always read the KB article completely so one knows whether this hotfix applies to their situation as well.

However, when one wants to reregister the WMI repository on a W2K03 server this script will do the trick:

Windows Azure Symbol/Icon Set

Microsoft has published a free symbol/icon set for Windows Azure. This set can be used with Visio and PowerPoint.
For example:

The same zip file contains all symbols and icons as PNG files as well, so you can use them for other applications as well. Download the zip file from here.

Hope that this post was helpful.

System Center 2012: PowerShell Cmdlets

Microsoft has released documents containing ALL the Cmdlets available for ALL the System Center 2012 components.

Since System Center 2012 is PowerShell driven, there is a HUGE collection of cmdlets:

Changing the OperationsManagerACS Database Retention Period

Operations Manager grooms, or removes, data from its various databases at regular configurable intervals. For the Operations database, this is done in the Operations console. For the ACS database, these settings are configured during setup with a default value of 14 days. This means that every day, all database partitions (and their data) that are older than 14 days are dropped or deleted. Because of the volume of data that ACS can accumulate, 14 days is not an unreasonable setting. However, some companies might need to retain data for longer periods and they must have already planned for that when making the sizing and performance calculations for their environment. You can change the retention period for the ACS data by following this procedure.

SCOM 2012: Enable agent proxy on all agents

I kept on getting this alert on the SCOM 2012 console:
"Agent proxy not enabled"

Below is the resolution for enabling the agent proxy for all agents and setting the default value to enable agent proxy for all newly installed agents.

Turn on agent proxy for all agents where it is disabled:
get-SCOMagent | where {$_.ProxyingEnabled -match "False"} | Enable-SCOMAgentProxy

Turn on agent proxy as a default setting for all new agents to be deployed, never to have to mess with this again:
add-pssnapin "Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.OperationsManager.Client";
new-managementGroupConnection -ConnectionString:scomserver.domain.com;
set-location "OperationsManagerMonitoring::";
Set-DefaultSetting -Name HealthService\ProxyingEnabled -Value True

Thanks to Kevin Holman for his post on this.

Hope that this post was helpful.

Windows Server 2012, SQL Server and System Center 2012

When designing a good System Center 2012 environments it’s obvious that SQL Server is key to the overall success of your design, implementation and functionality of it all.
When a bad decision is made or a good design decision is poorly executed, it has a direct negative impact on the overall experience and functionality of your System Center 2012 environment.

Microsoft System Center - Free eBooks

Microsoft Press has been releasing Microsoft System Center free ebooks this year in waves. All of these eBooks are being hosted from the Microsoft Virtual Academy website.

Download in all formats (PDF, Mobi and ePub).

Introducing Microsoft System Center 2012 R2

• Download the PDF file
• Download the EPUB file
• Download the Mobi for Kindle file

To Do List: Adding Additional SCOM Management Server To An Existing Management Group

When a SCOM Management Group (MG) is already in place for some time and an additional SCOM Management Server is added to it later on, their are quite a few steps one must do in order to get it working properly. When forgetting one of those steps it might result in a SCOM MG showing erratic behaviour.

Mind you, all these steps take place AFTER the new SCOM Management Server is installed. Also good to know, this To Do List is based on System Center Operations Manager 2012 SP1.

01. Antivirus exclusions
Please make sure the new SCOM Management Server uses the same AV policy as the other SCOM Management Server. So the correct folders and processes are excluded from AV scans. Check KB975931 for more information.

SCOM Reports Not Updated & Not Working

Issue
Bumped into an issue where the latest MPs contained Reports which weren’t uploaded at all to SCOM Reporting. Took me a while to crack it but finally I found KB2771934 which was the starting point of the solution to this issue.

Causes & Fixes
As it turned out there were multiple causes which joint forces in order to frustrate the SCOM Reporting process in many kind of ways.

1. The object Data Warehouse Synchronization Server was a goner. KB2771934 helped me in fixing that.
2. The SCOM Data Warehouse Read account was lacking proper permissions. TechNet has some good articles about it, like Account Information for Operations Manager and the Online Deployment Guide. Based on that information I set the permissions as required.
3. There were also multiple time outs where the Management Servers couldn’t write their information to the Data Warehouse database or read from it (important for SCOM in order to know what Reports to upload to the SSRS instance). After some tweaking and tuning the SQL server got a bit more space to operate which reduced these errors enormously.

Afterwards the Reports were updated again: the old outdated Reports removed since their related MPs weren’t present anymore and the newest Reports, based on the MPs which were imported lately, showed up in SCOM Reporting.

Hope that this post was helpful.

Register ASP.net 4.0 With IIS Windows Server 2012

Issue
Bumped into an issue where ASP.net 4.0 wasn’t registered with IIS running on Windows Server 2012. Before that Server OS the solution was an easy one: simply follow this posting of mine and all is fine again.
HOWEVER, Windows Server 2012 and later don’t support that anymore and the ONLY fix is removing IIS and reinstalling it with ASP.net 4.0. But that’s way too much and takes too much time, effort and resources.

Quick Fix
Thanks to Google I found two articles about how to fix this WITHOUT removing and reinstalling IIS:

1. Open IIS Manager and select the webserver and select Modules (found under header IIS).
2. Double click on it, so you open Modules, and remove the module ServiceModel.
3. Go back to IIS Manager, select the webserver again in IIS, and select Handler Mappings (found under header IIS).
4. Remove the handler svc-Integrated.
5. Restart IIS by using an elevated cmd prompt and issue this command: IISRESET <enter>.
6. When IIS is running again add WCF by going to "Turn Windows Features On and Off" and enable .NET Framework 4.5 Features > WCF Services > HTTP Activation.
7. Restart IIS by using an elevated cmd prompt and issue this command: IISRESET <enter>.

Now the SCOM 2012 Web Console will be fully functional WITHOUT reinstalling IIS.

A big word of thanks to the authors of these two articles I used for this solution:

1. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15278027/cant-register-net-4-0-in-iis-on-windows-8
2. http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/613812/Solve-IIS-8-Error-Could-not-load-type-System-Servi

Hope that this post was helpful.

Fixing the SCOM 2012 SP1 UR#3 Web Console. Error: Debugging resource strings are unavailable.

Issue
This one is a bit strange. Before UR#3 for SCOM 2012 SP1 the Web Console worked just fine. I applied UR#3 for SCOM 2012 SP1 Web Console, ran through all the required procedures but the Web Console was broken.

And:

New FREE MP Authoring Tool For IT Pros

For a day now a new FREE MP Authoring tool for IT Pros is available for download. This will be the tool recommended by Microsoft since they partnered with Silect in order to build this new tool.
Basically it means it will replace VAT (Visio Authoring Tool) which won’t be recommended any more nor supported. I don’t regret it since VAT wasn't a good tool at all. It forced me to use other MP authoring tooling, so I am happy about the demise of it.

The new tool looks very promising and resembles the previous SCOM 2007 MP Authoring tool somewhat. You can download the tool from here (after some registration). Again, the tool is FREE so don’t let this screen fool you after you have filled out the form:

Simply click on No Thanks. This will bring you back to the main screen where you started. But now you've received an e-mail message containing the download link for the tool.

Download it, install it and use it. Already Stefan Stranger and Kevin Holman blogged about these in more detail so no need to repeat myself:

Stefan Stranger:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_stranger/archive/2014/01/13/new-tool-for-mp-authoring.aspx
Kevin Holman:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2014/01/13/new-mp-authoring-tool-released-mp-author.aspx

Hope that this post was helpful.

System Center 2012: Turn On Microsoft Update Or Not?

With System Center 2012 a new functionality came to be. That is, a functionality which already exists for a long time for other Windows/Microsoft based technologies, the Microsoft Update functionality.

During installation one is asked whether or not to let Microsoft Update cover the related System Center 2012 component as well. For myself I always set this option to OFF.

Retrieving Data from the SCOM Database - (OperationsManagerDW)

Centralised monitoring tools are very useful for collecting data from a large server estate; however when you have got the data it’s nice to be able to do something with it. Often these tools have an interface which is both slow and convoluted – it takes a long time to work out how to get a raw data export, as long again to run it and when you finally get it out it’s not in the format you wanted it. And if you want to automate analysis a csv export isn’t what you want anyway – you want access to the raw data in a database.

A lot of tools (particularly open source tools) seem to use an rrdtool database which isn’t designed for anything except graphing. You can get the data out but SCOM (or Microsoft System Centre) is one tool that is better in this sense in that it has a fairly nice SQL server database underneath it. We looked into the database structure for connecting our OCM analysis pack to it (see Intelligent Automated Alerting in Practice).  I thought I’d share a few tips on how the performance data is stored and how to retrieve it.

How to add a product key to an evaluation version of System Center 2012 Operations Manager

To set the product key, use the Set-SCOMLicense cmdlet in PowerShell. To use the Set-SCOMLicense cmdlet you need to use elevated permissions. (Run as Administrator).

1. Open PowerShell as an Administrator
2. Load the OperationsManager Module
         import-module operationsmanager

3. Connect to your ManagementGroup
        SCOMManagementGroupConnection

4. Use Set-SCOMLicense -ProductId "yourlicensekey"
5. To check if changes were executed run Get-SCOMManagementGroup | ft skuforlicense, version, timeofexpiration –a

Note:
This may require a reboot after running in order to register correctly.

Hope that this post was helpful.

Deploying a Gateway Server - Part 3

Distributing the Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.GatewayApprovalTool
The Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.GatewayApprovalTool.exe tool is needed only on the management server and it only has to be run once.

To copy Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.GatewayApprovalTool.exe to management servers

1. From a target management server, open the Operations Manager installation media \SupportTools directory.
2. Copy the Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.GatewayApprovalTool.exe from the installation media to the Operations Manager installation directory.

Deploying a Gateway Server - Part 2

Obtaining Computer Certificates from Microsoft Certificate Services

The high-level process to obtain a certificate from a stand-alone certification authority (CA) is as follows:

1. Download the Trusted Root (CA) certificate to each Management Server \ Gateway (or agent if Gateway not used)
2. Import the Trusted Root (CA) certificate to each Management Server \ Gateway (or agent if Gateway not used)
3. Create a setup information file to use with the CertReq command-line utility.
4. Create a request file for each Management Server \ Gateway (or agent if Gateway not used).
5. Submit a request to the CA using the request file.
6. Approve the pending certificate request.
7. Retrieve the certificate from the CA.
8. Import the certificate into the certificate store for each Management Servers \ Gateway (or agent if Gateway not used)
9. Import the certificate into Operations Manager using MOMCertImport for each Management Servers \ Gateway (or agent if Gateway not used)

Deploying a Gateway Server - Part 1

Gateway servers are used to enable agent-management of computers that are outside the Kerberos trust boundary of management groups, such as in a domain that is not trusted. The gateway server acts as a concentration point for agent-to-management server communication. Agents in domains that are not trusted communicate with the gateway server and the gateway server communicates with one or more management servers. Because communication between the gateway server and the management servers occurs over only one port (TCP 5723), that port is the only one that has to be opened on any intervening firewalls to enable management of multiple agent-managed computers. Multiple gateway servers can be placed in a single domain so that the agents can failover from one to the other if they lose communication with one of the gateway servers. Similarly, a single gateway server can be configured to failover between management servers so that no single point of failure exists in the communication chain.
Because the gateway server resides in a domain that is not trusted by the domain that the management group is in, certificates must be used to establish each computer's identity, agent, gateway server, and management server. This arrangement satisfies the requirement of Operations Manager for mutual authentication.