Thursday, August 30, 2012

[OpsMgr 2012] Infrastructure Planning and Design document for System Center Operations Manager 2012

A Beta version of the Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) document is available here


Contents :
  • The Planning and Design Series Approach
  • Introduction to the Microsoft System Center 2012 - Operations Manager Guide
  • Step 1: Define the Project Scope and Requirements
  • Step 2: Determine Number of Management Groups
  • Step 3: Design the Operations Manager Management Server Infrastructure
  • Step 4: Design the Operational Database
  • Step 5: Design the Data Warehouse and Reporting Server
  • Step 6: Design the ACS Database Server
  • Step 7: Design the Notification System
  • Step 8: Design the Network Connections
  • Conclusion
  • Appendix A: Job Aids
  • Appendix B: IPD in Microsoft Operations Framework 4.0
  • Appendix C: System Center 2012 - Operations Manager in Microsoft Infrastructure Optimization
  • Version History
  • Acknowledgments
 

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.

[OpsMgr 2012] Update Rollup 2 for System Center 2012 - Operation Manager SP1

This article discusses the installation instructions and the issues that are fixed in Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft System Center 2012.

Follow the installation instructions to download and then install the update packages for System Center 2012.

Here are the issues fixed for

Operations Manager (KB2731874)

Issue 1
The Windows PowerShell module runspace configuration cache grows indefinitely. This causes memory usage to increase.

Issue 2

The Set-SCOMLicense cmdlet fails if the management group evaluation expiration time-out has expired.

Operations Manager - UNIX and Linux Monitoring (Management Pack Update)

Issue 1

The System Center Operations Manager agent may crash on Oracle Solaris root zones that are configured to use a range of dedicated CPUs.

Issue 2

The UNIX/Linux agent process provider may not enumerate running processes if a process has arguments that include non-ASCII characters. This prevents process/daemon monitoring.

Issue 3

The .rpm specification file for the agent for Red Hat Enterprise Linux does not specify the distribution.

Orchestrator (KB2702112 - Runbook Designer (x86), Runbook Server (x86))

Issue 1

A System Center Orchestrator Runbook that uses the "Run Program" activity to execute an application on a system that is running Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, or an earlier version of Windows may return a failed status for the "Run Program" activity together with the following content in the Error Summary Text published data:
Could not start Orchestrator Run Program Service service on computer_name - The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely manner. (code 1053)

On the remote computer on which the service is trying to start, the following event is captured in the Application log:
Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Event ID: 1000
Level: Error
Description:
Faulting application OrchestratorRunProgramService.exe, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x4f44a324, faulting module KERNEL32.dll!SetProcessPreferredUILanguages, version 6.0.6002.18005, time stamp 0x49e03824, exception code 0xc0000139, fault offset 0x0006f04e,
process id 0x76c, application start time 0x01cd134f73ced65a.

 -----------------

How to obtain and install Update Rollup 2 for System Center 2012 :


Operations Manager  : http://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=30421

 
File nameSize
SystemCenter2012OperationsManager-UR2-KB2731874-X86-X64-IA64-ENU.exe74.5 MBDownload



UNIX and Linux Management Pack update for Operations Manager : http://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=29696

File nameSize
AIXMPGuide.doc692 KBDownload
HPUXMPGuide.doc553 KBDownload
Monitoring Pack for UNIX and Linux Operating Systems.msi332.4 MBDownload
RHELMPGuide.doc773 KBDownload
SLESMPGuide.doc750 KBDownload
SolarisMPGuide.doc729 KBDownload


Orchestrator (KB2702112) :
Download the Runbook Designer (x86) update package now.
 
Direct download :
Update Rollup 2 for Microsoft System Center 2012 – Orchestrator Runbook Designer (x86) (KB2702112)


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.

[Powershell] Microsoft Script Explorer for Windows PowerShell (Release Candidate)

Microsoft® Script Explorer for Windows PowerShell® (Release Candidate) helps scripters find Windows PowerShell scripts, snippets, modules, and how-to guidance in online repositories such as the TechNet Script Center Repository, PoshCode, local or network file systems and Bing Search Repository.

Version:RC                      Date published:8/9/2012


File name                    Size
MicrosoftScriptExplorerforWindowsPowerShell.exe                         7.6 MB          Download



Overview

Microsoft® Script Explorer for Windows PowerShell® (Release Candidate) helps scripters find Windows PowerShell scripts, snippets, modules, and how-to guidance in online repositories such as the TechNet Script Center Repository, PoshCode, local or network file systems and Bing Search Repository. Microsoft® Script Explorer enables:
  • Integrated community and Microsoft resources to help you unlock the power of Windows PowerShell.
  • Seamless searching across online repositories to locate script samples relevant to you.
  • Establishing and searching local, network, and corporate script repository is easy.

System requirements

Supported operating systems: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Vista Service Pack 2
Additional Requirements:
  • Windows PowerShell 2.0/3.0 ISE (Client computer that is to run Script Explorer as an add-on)
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer) OR Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Web Installer)

Instructions

The installer works on both x86 and x64 platforms. It tries to update the All Users Windows PowerShell ISE profile file located at %windir%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\ Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 OR %windir%\SYSWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\ Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 depending upon your architecture. Refer to the troubleshooting section in User Guide for information on how to update the profile file manually in case the installer fails to do so because of insufficient permissions.

User Guide: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=245439
Deployment and Troubleshooting Guide: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=245460

Known Limitations :

  1. During installation, Script Explorer updates the ISE profile file Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 (All Users profile) located in %windir%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\ by adding the following entry ."C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Script Explorer for Windows PowerShell\Microsoft.ScriptExplorer.ps1". If the All Users profile file is already signed, this change invalidates the file signature and the user must resign the profile file.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.

[OpsMgr 2007R2][OpsMgr 2012] System Center Monitoring pack for SQL Server - Version 6.3.173.1

The Monitoring pack for SQL Server provides the capabilities for Operations Manager 2007 R2 and Operations Manager 2012 to discover SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, and SQL Server 2012. It monitors SQL Server components such as database engine instances, databases, and SQL Server agents.

Version:6.3.173.1    Date published:8/20/2012



The links in this section correspond to files available for this download. Download the files appropriate for you.
File nameSize
SQLServerMP.msi      2.3 MB       Download
SQLServerMPGuide.doc      1.1 MB       Download



Overview

The Monitoring pack for SQL Server provides the capabilities for Operations Manager 2007 R2 and Operations Manager 2012 to discover SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, and SQL Server 2012. It monitors SQL Server components such as database engine instances, databases, and SQL Server agents.

The monitoring provided by this management pack includes performance, availability, and configuration monitoring, performance data collection, and default thresholds. You can integrate the monitoring of SQL Server components into your service-oriented monitoring scenarios.

In addition to health monitoring capabilities, this management pack includes dashboard views, diagram views and extensive knowledge with embedded inline tasks, and views that enable near real-time diagnosis and resolution of detected issues.

Important Prerequisite Notes:
Clusters: In order to ensure that all monitoring works correctly for clustered instances of SQL Server ensure that your OpsMgr agents on the physical nodes of the cluster are running either OpsMgr 2007 R2 or OpsMgr 2007 SP1 with the most recent cumulative update for OpsMgr 2007 SP1 applied or OpsMgr 2012.

Feature Summary:
The following list gives an overview of the features of the SQL Server management pack. Refer to the SQL Server management pack guide for more detail.

New features:
  • AlwaysOn Monitoring
    • Automatically discover and monitor availability groups, availability replicas, and availability databases for hundreds of computers.
    • Health roll-up from availability database to availability replicas.
    • Detailed knowledge with every critical health state to enable faster resolution to a problem.
  • Seamless integration with Policy based management (PBM)
    • Auto-discover custom PBM polices targeting AlwaysOn and database components.
    • Rollup of health of policy execution within the SQL monitoring pack under extended health.
  • Support for Mirroring and Replication Monitoring (only applicable to SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 version of management pack)
    • Discover mirroring databases, witness, and mirroring group.
    • Monitor database mirror state, database mirror witness state, and mirroring partners’ state.
    • Custom diagram view to visually represent the primary and the mirrored databases.
    • Approximately twenty rules to detect replication events.
  • Improved Freespace monitoring with mount point support

Additional features:
  • Support for Enterprise, Standard and Express editions of SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, and 2012 and 32bit, 64bit and ia64 architectures.
  • Support for both simple and complex SQL Server configurations such as clustered installations, multiple instances and 32bit roles running on a 64bit OS. For full details on supported configurations refer to the guide included with the management pack.
  • Discovery and monitoring of SQL Server roles such as DB Engine, Reporting Services, Analysis Services, Integrations Services.
  • Discovery of SQL Server components such as databases, the SQL Agent and SQL jobs.
  • Views covering areas such as database free space, SQL Server related performance, SQL Server related alerts, and lists of the various SQL Server roles and components which are discovered and their related state.
  • Discovery and basic monitoring for SQL Server Reporting Services and Integration Services.
  • Reports for longer-term analysis of common problem areas related to SQL Server such as SQL Server lock analysis and top deadlocked databases, SQL Server service pack levels across discovered roles, user connection activity. Likewise the generic reports from the Microsoft Generic Report Library can be used against the roles and components discovered by the SQL MPs to review availability and performance across many systems and over longer periods of time.
  • Role and component specific tasks which provide access to common tools, triage information, or corrective actions without needing to leave the Operations Console in most cases.
  • Monitoring of databases covers database status, database free space, log shipping monitoring for both the source and destination, and transaction log free space.
  • Monitoring of key SQL Server related services.
  • Monitoring for persistent SPID blocking.
  • Monitoring of numerous SQL Server events and performance data points. Alerts bring the issue to your attention and provide knowledge on the impact and possible resolutions.
  • A low-privilege configuration for discovery and monitoring that eliminates the need for SQL Server sysadmin, dbo, db_owner, and box admin privileges
Release History
  • 8/21/2012 - Updated release, version 6.3.173.1
  • 4/2/2012 - Updated release, version 6.3.173.0
  • 5/6/2011 - Updated to version 6.1.400.0. Minor bug fixes. Fixed sql injection security issues
  • 8/17/2010 - Added SQL 2000 management pack as an independent mp, see below downloadable SQL Server 2000 Management Pack.msi for SQL 2000 Server monitoring.
  • 8/5/2010 - Updated to version 6.1.314.36. Removed DMO dependency, improved health model, improved free space monitoring to support file groups and autogrow, added knowledge and added detailed low-privilege configuration information in the MP guide. Refer to the management pack guide for a more complete list of additions and improvements in this release.
  • 11/24/2009 - MP guide update only, same version 6.0.6648.0
  • 7/22/2009 - Updated version 6.0.6648.0, which fixes an issue with some monitoring not working on clustered instances of SQL Server. Refer to the MP guide for more details.
  • 3/31/2009 - Updated version 6.0.6569.0, which provided a number of fixes. Refer to the MP guide for more details.
  • 12/3/2008 - Updated version 6.0.6460.0, fixed an issue with the database discovery script to prevent overflows
  • 10/29/2008 - Updated 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.
  • 3/31/2008 - Updated version 6.0.6278.8
  • 12/21/2007 - updated version 6.0.6247.5
  • 3/23/2007 - Initial Release, version 6.0.5000.0

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.

[OpsMgr 2012] Boris Yanushpolsky 's Tools updated for OpsMgr 2012 by Daniele Muscetta - New update

Thanks once again Daniele and Boris for their job.

In order to not let those tools go to waste, since many people use them, Daniele Muscetta have asked Boris Yanushpolsky to give him the code of his tools and allow him to update and maintain those tools going forward.

Here is the last update from Daniele on August 29th 2012  : MPViewer 2.1.2 contains fixes to show Perf Objects, Counters and Frequency for some more modules.

Get lastest updates directly on : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dmuscett/archive/2012/02/19/boris-s-tools-updated.aspx

The previous version 1.7 (that works with OpsMgr 2007 and 2007 R2) was released here. Version 2.1.2 has been updated to work with OpsMgr 2012, and now includes support for MPB files (MP Bundles) as well as the ability to Unseal and Unpack MP Bundles.
Warning: only MP Bundles that contain a single ManagementPack are supported; there are some Service Manager MPBs that contain multiple ManagementPacks in a single bundle, and this tool currently cannot deal correctly with those.
The previous version 3.3 (that works with OpsMgr 2007 and 2007 R2) was released here. Version 3.5 has been updated to work with OpsMgr2012 and includes some minor fixes, as well as the capability to Export all overrides to an Excel spreadsheet.
The previous version 1.1 (that works with OpsMgr 2007 and 2007 R2) was released here. Version 1.2 is functionally identical to the previous version but has been just recompiled to work with OpsMgr 2012 SDK.



All the above tools require the Operations Manager Console being installed on the machine where you run them, as well as the .NET framework 4.0.
According to my information, the above three tools were the most used/useful. Feel free to comment if need any other one being updated and/or have bug reports or feature requests – albeit I don’t promise I will be able to fix or update everything Smile
Disclaimer
Just like their predecessors, it is necessary to make clear that this posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of included utilities are subject to the terms specified at http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm
Changelog / Updates
[Updated on March 8th 2012 with MPViewer 1.9.1 that contains a fix for the Excel export of some MPs]
[Updated on March 15th 2012 with MPViewer 2.0 that now allows you to Unseal/Unpack MPs and MPBundles]
[Updated on March 21st 2012 with OverrideExplorer 3.5 which now allows to export Overrides to Excel]
[Updated on July 19th 2012 with MPViewer 2.1 that now shows the PublicKeyToken for referernces/dependencies]
[Updated on August 29th 2012 with MPViewer 2.1.2 that contains fixes to show Perf Objects, Counters and Frequency for some more modules]

Sources : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dmuscett/archive/2012/02/19/boris-s-tools-updated.aspx

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

[OpsMgr 2012] Put OM2012 Computer Group Members in Maintenance Mode with PowerShell

 has publish a powershell script to put computers from a group in maintenance mode.
read more on http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_stranger/archive/2012/07/06/put-om2012-computer-group-members-in-maintenance-mode-with-powershell.aspx

Very interesting !

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.

[OpsMgr 2007R2][OpsMgr 2012] Usefull reports

The reports provided with System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) may sometimes seem particularly poor in terms of daily operations on the product. Today, Jean-Sébastien DUCHÊNE offers some report that are very usefull when you are working on overrides when you upgrade Management Packs, on groups and agents

Do not forget to create a datasource targeting to the operational database with security rights necessary to generate the report. This reports works with System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2, System Center 2012 Operations Manager and SQL Server 2008 RTM/R2.

Overrides stored in a non - sealed MP
Overrides stored in non sealed MPs for a dedicated MP
Overrides by type for a dedicated MP
Overrides stored in all non - sealed MPs
Overrides changes by date
Monitor, rule and discovery chages by date
Add, update and remove MPs by date
Agents state
Non accessible agents
Groups stored by MP
Groups for an agent
List alerts by computer for a Group
Summary and detailled alert report for an agent
Detailled performance (RAW) for an agent
Discovered entities for an agent
Maintenance mode history for an agent


Thanks to Jean-Sébastien - this helped me a lot in my all day work !

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.

[OpsMgr 2007R2][OpsMgr 2012] Overrides by type for a specific MP - Report

Jean-Sébastien DUCHÊNE has published one of his very interesting report on 21/7/2012 21:04. You can download the MP here : Overrides by type

The reports provided with System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) may sometimes seem particularly poor in terms of daily operations on the product. Today, I offer a report to list overrides with a view by type for a given Management Pack. This Management Pack is useful when you upgrade Management Packs.



Do not forget to create a datasource targeting to the operational database with security rights necessary to generate the report. This reports works with System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2, System Center 2012 Operations Manager and SQL Server 2008 RTM/R2.
Here is the query:

SELECT DISTINCT MP.MPName 'MP', (CASE WHEN AOV.OverrideType = 'RuleProperty' THEN R.RuleName WHEN AOV.OverrideType = 'MonitorProperty' THEN M.MonitorName WHEN AOV.OverrideType
= 'DiscoveryProperty' THEN D .DiscoveryName WHEN AOV.OverrideType = 'RuleConfiguration' THEN R.RuleName WHEN AOV.OverrideType = 'MonitorConfiguration'
THEN M.MonitorName WHEN AOV.OverrideType = 'DiscoveryConfiguration' THEN D .DiscoveryName END) AS 'NameType', aov.ParentType,
mt.Name AS Context, mt.DisplayName AS ContextDisplayName, mtv.Name AS ContextObject, mtv.DisplayName AS ContextObjectDisplayName,
aov.OverrideableParameterName, aov.Value, aov.Enforced, aov.LastModified, aov.TimeAdded, D.DiscoveryEnabled AS 'Enable_by_default',
MPSTORE.MPFriendlyName AS 'MPSTORED'
FROM AllOverrideView AS aov LEFT OUTER JOIN
Rules AS R WITH (nolock) ON aov.TargetId = R.RuleId LEFT OUTER JOIN
Monitor AS M WITH (nolock) ON aov.TargetId = M.MonitorId LEFT OUTER JOIN
Discovery AS D WITH (nolock) ON aov.TargetId = D.DiscoveryId LEFT OUTER JOIN
ManagementPack AS MP WITH (nolock) ON
(CASE WHEN AOV.OverrideType = 'RuleProperty' THEN R.ManagementPackId WHEN AOV.OverrideType = 'RuleConfiguration' THEN R.ManagementPackId
WHEN AOV.OverrideType = 'MonitorProperty' THEN M.ManagementPackId WHEN AOV.OverrideType = 'MonitorConfiguration' THEN M.ManagementPackId
WHEN AOV.OverrideType = 'DiscoveryProperty' THEN D .ManagementPackId WHEN AOV.OverrideType = 'DiscoveryConfiguration' THEN D .ManagementPackId
END) = MP.ManagementPackId INNER JOIN
ManagementPack AS MPSTORE WITH (nolock) ON MPSTORE.ManagementPackId = aov.ManagementPackId LEFT OUTER JOIN
ManagedTypeView AS mt ON mt.Id = aov.ContextId LEFT OUTER JOIN
ManagedTypeView AS mtv ON mtv.Id = aov.ContextObjectId
WHERE (MP.MPFriendlyName IS NOT NULL) AND (MP.ManagementPackId = @MPId)
ORDER BY 'NameType', MP.MPName

Download Management Pack - Overrides by type Report



source : http://microsofttouch.fr/default/b/js/archive/2012/07/21/scom-2007-un-rapport-donnant-les-overrides-par-type-pour-un-management-pack.aspx



This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.