[OpsMgr 2012 R2] Upgrading Operations Manager from 2012 SP1 to 2012 R2 step by step

Brett Boone has share with System Center Central site a step-by-step guide to upgrade your Operations Manager from 2012 SP1 to 2012 R2.

The following blog posts discusses the process to upgrade from Operations Manager 2012 SP1 to Operations Manager 2012 R2. This blog post also shows the steps required to integrate the new System Center Advisor functionality available with 2012 R2.

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

[OpsMgr 2012 R2] New Powershell Cmdlets ( #OpsMgr2012R2 #Powershell )

Stefan Roth (SCOMFaq) has made a comparison between Cmdlets provided by SCOM 2012 SP1 and the one that comes with SCOM 2012 R2. There is something new since there is 7 more Cmdlets in the R2 version !

Full Article from Stefan >>>>>> Here <<<<<<

Here are the 7 new Cmdlets :



Add-SCAdvisorAgents: adds one or more agent(s) to the group of agents reporting to the Advisor Connector.

Get-SCAdvisorAgents: gets the agents that are reporting to the Advisor Connector.

Get-SCAdvisorProxy: gets the proxy server for connecting to the Advisor Service.

Register-SCAdvisor: registers an Operations Manager management group to a System Center Advisor account.

Remove-SCAdvisorAgents: removes one or more agent(s) from the group of agents reporting to the Advisor Connector.

Set-SCAdvisorProxy: sets the proxy server for connecting to the Advisor Service.

Remove-SCOMUserRole: Remove a SCOM user role

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

[OpsMgr 2012] Operation Manager 2012 Toolbox - Override Explorer Updated

To complete the toolbox post created here : OpsMgr Toolbox, here is an article to announce that OverrideExplorer has been updated to Version 3.7 to work with OpsMgr2012 and includes some minor fixes, as well as the capability to Export all overrides to an Excel spreadsheet. It also now shows both Windows and Unix computers in the computers view.

Boris’s OpsMgr Tools – Updated

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

[OpsMgr 2012 R2] Microsoft Monitoring Agent 2013 ( #MMA #OpsMgr2012R2 )

Microsoft Monitoring Agent monitors computer infrastructure and application health. It collects diagnostic data, such as performance metrics, event logs, and traces. Microsoft Monitoring Agent can be used as a standalone tool or together with System Center Operations Manager. When monitoring .NET applications, you can direct the agent to save application traces in an IntelliTrace log format.

Version:	Date Published:
1.0	9/24/2013
File name:	File size:
MMASetup-AMD64.exe	26.4 MB
MMASetup-i386.exe	21.1 MB

Click here to go to download page

Microsoft Monitoring Agent monitors computer infrastructure and application health. It collects diagnostic data, such as performance metrics, event logs, and traces. Microsoft Monitoring Agent can be used as a standalone tool or together with System Center Operations Manager. When monitoring .NET applications, youMicrosoft Monitoring Agent monitors computer infrastructure and application health. It collects diagnostic data, such as performance metrics, event logs, and traces. Microsoft Monitoring Agent can be used as a standalone tool or together with System Center Operations Manager. When monitoring .NET applications, you can direct the agent to save application traces in an IntelliTrace log format that can be opened in Visual Studio Ultimate. When connected to System Center Operations Manager, the agent calculates the health state of the monitored computers and objects, and then reports back to the management server. The management servers centrally distribute the configuration to agents and store data received from the monitored computers.

Microsoft Monitoring Agent can be used as a standalone tool for collecting application traces locally. You can use PowerShell commands to start and stop monitoring and collect IntelliTrace logs from applications written in Microsoft .NET Framework.

Microsoft Monitoring Agent includes the full functionality of System Center Operations Manager Agent, .NET Application Performance Monitoring, and IntelliTrace Standalone Collector and can be used for monitoring applications that are running in production environments.

Compatibility

• Visual Studio Ultimate 2013
• Visual Studio Ultimate 2012 Update 4
• System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
• System Center 2012 SP1 – Operations Manager )
• System Center 2012 – Operations Manager

For details about compatibility and upgrade guidance, see Microsoft Monitoring Agent Compatibility (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=323495) can direct the agent to save application traces in an IntelliTrace log format.

Service	Microsoft Monitoring Agent
Build	September 2013 release
Supported versions of System Center	System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Operations Manager System Center 2012 – Operations Manager
Supported versions of Visual Studio	Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2012 Update 2
Interoperability information	If you want to use local monitoring with Application Performance Monitoring in System Center 2012 SP1, you must be running Update 4.

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

[OpsMgr 2012 R2] Why Operations Manager Agent becomes Microsoft Monitoring Agent ? ( #OpsMgr #Opsmgr2012R2 )

Since the release of System Center 2012 R2, we can ask why did Microsoft rename the Operations Manager agent to "Microsoft Monitoring Agent" ?

Microsoft Monitoring Agent is a new agent that replaces the Operations Manager Agent and combines .NET Application Performance Monitoring (APM) in System Center with the full functionality of IntelliTrace Collector in the Microsoft Visual Studio development system for gathering full application-profiling traces.

Microsoft Monitoring Agent can collect traces on demand or can be left running to monitor applications and collect traces.

You can limit the disk space that the agent uses to store collected data. When the amount of data reaches the limit, the agent begins to overwrite the oldest data and store the latest data in its place.

You can use Microsoft Monitoring Agent together with Operations Manager or as a stand-alone tool for monitoring web applications that were written on the Microsoft .NET Framework. In both cases, you can direct the agent to save application traces in an IntelliTrace log format that can be opened in Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate. The log contains detailed information about application failures and performance issues.
You can use Windows PowerShell commands to start and stop monitoring and collect IntelliTrace logs from web applications that are running on Internet Information Services (IIS). To open IntelliTrace logs that are generated from APM exceptions and APM performance events, you can use Visual Studio. For information about supported versions of IIS and Visual Studio, see Microsoft Monitoring Agent Compatibility.

Source & more information : Technet Site

We can also read this interesting article : Introducing Microsoft Monitoring Agent that explain how to use the Microsoft Monitoring Agent in standalone mode and how to generate and use the IntelliTrace file !


Daniele Muscetta has written too an interesting post explaining Microsoft Monitoring Agent, System Center Operations Manager and Visual Studio Application Insights

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

[OpsMgr 2012] How to find a specific rule/monitor/discovery in the console - SQL queries / Powershell command ( #SQL #Powershell #OpsMgr #OpsMgr2012 )

Sometimes in the Operations Manager Event log, we have some event/alert  for script error or WMI query error and all the time, the description give your the exact name of the rule/monitor/discovery that cause the issue. In SCOM console, you cannot find the rule/monitor/discovery by their exact name, only by the display name.

For example, here is an event 5500 we have on one server due to an invalid configuration for a monitor: Microsoft.SystemCenter.Agent.HealthService.PrivateBytesThreshold

Log Name:      Operations Manager

Source:        HealthService

Date:          11/28/2013 3:10:43 PM

Event ID:      5500

Task Category: Health Service

Level:         Information

Keywords:      Classic

User:          N/A

Computer:      MyServer.MyDom.Dom

Description:

Frequent state change requests caused the incoming state change request to be dropped due to it being older than the currently recorded state change for this monitor. This could also be due to an invalid configuration for this monitor. 

Affected monitor: Microsoft.SystemCenter.Agent.HealthService.PrivateBytesThreshold

Instance: MyServer.MyDom.Dom

Instance ID: 293C0099-290F-C53C-340E-A5E710CA5B9F

Management Group: MyMgtGroup

Request generated time: 2013-11-28T15:10:43.1658766+01:00

Requested state: Success

Recorded time: 2013-11-28T15:20:35.7827611+01:00

Recorded state Success

To start investigation, you need to retrieve the display name of the rule/monitor/discovery. You can also execute SQL queries on views in the OpsMgrDB or PowerShell commands connected to your management group :

Rules:

SQL:

select DisplayName from ruleview where name = 'Rule.Name'

Command Shell:

(Get-SCOMRule | Where {$_.name -match 'Rule.Name'}).DisplayName

Monitors:

SQL:

select DisplayName from monitorview where Name = 'Monitor.Name'

Command Shell:

(Get-SCOMMonitor| Where {$_.name -match 'Monitor.Name'}).DisplayName

Discoveries:

SQL:

select DisplayName from DiscoveryView where name = 'Discovery.Name'

Command Shell:

(Get-SCOMDiscovery| Where {$_.name -match 'Discovery.Name'}).DisplayName

In our case, powershell command or SQL query give a display name (replace Monitor.Name by Microsoft.SystemCenter.Agent.HealthService.PrivateBytesThreshold in the line) : Health Service Private Bytes Threshold for monitor Microsoft.SystemCenter.Agent.HealthService.PrivateBytesThreshold

We can now retrieve the monitor in the SCOM console and try to investigate the issue  ! :)

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

[SCCM 2012 R2] Windows Intune Company Portal By Microsoft Corporation ( #SCCM2012R2 #Intune #Android #iOS )

Microsoft has just finished the validation and publication of enterprise portal applications for iOS and Android to allow mobile device management via System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2. These applications are available on the publisher AppStore and Google Play stores:

Android 4.0 and more recent 

iOS 6.0 and more recent

The Company Portal app helps you search, browse and install apps made available to you by your organization through the Windows Intune online service. Apps can be installed without requiring a connection to your corporate network. You can also add your personal computers and devices to the service and locate contact information for your IT team.

Features
• Company apps – browse, search and install apps made available to you by your company
• Computer/device enrollment – manage enrollment with Windows Intune for your devices, as well as the ability to remote wipe certain device types
• Contact IT – easily locate contact information

IMPORTANT: This software requires your company’s organizational account and connectivity to your company’s valid subscription to Windows Intune™. Updates to the service may be required for proper performance. Some functionality may not be available in all countries. If you have issues with this software or have questions about the use of it (including questions about your company’s privacy policy), please contact your company’s IT Administrator. Do not contact Microsoft, the application store owner, your network operator, or device manufacturer for support.

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

[OpsMgr 2012] Using SiteName when deploying gateways to help manage alerts ( #OpsMgr2012 #Opsmgr )

When deploying the Operations Manager gateway role you can tag the gateway with a Site name.   Any alerts coming from an agent reporting to this gateway will now have it's "Site" property populated with the site name you configured when deploying the gateway.  This can be really handy for building specific alert views and sending notifications.

To create a site (without using the SDK) you need to create a gateway, more a site can only be created at gateway approval time, this the command line to create MySite site associated with Gateway.dom.lab gateway:

MICROSOFT.ENTERPRISEMANAGEMENT.GATEWAYAPPROVALTOOL.EXE /ManagementServerName=ms1.dom.lab /GatewayName=Gateway.dom.lab /SiteName=MySite

Sites are slightly changed in OM2012, nothing you can get in the UI, but the code has been reviewed and a new relationship of type Microsoft.SystemCenter.SiteContext has been added to track site memberships.

Be carefull this change has an important implication (probably a bug) : you must avoid orphaned sites. Orphaned sites are sites without any gateway associated with.

You can find more information on this point on the site bellow :

• The road to Operations Manager 2012 – Sites and gateways
• The Mysterious Case Of The Nested Groups & Orphaned SCOM Gateway SiteNames

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

[OpsMgr 2012] How to remove an OpsMgr 2012 Gateway Server that is associated with a site ( #OpsMgr2012 #OpsMgr )

When you install a Gateway server into OpsMgr, it is possible to associate it with a site so that any alerts coming via that gateway server will have their site property tagged. This is really useful for building site-specific alert views and controlling site-specific notifications. But what about decommissioning a Gateway associated with a site ?

Brian McDermott has written a post to explain How to remove an OpsMgr 2012 Gateway Server that is associated with a site.

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

[Book][SCCM 2012] System Center Configuration Manager Concepts, Utilization & Administration ( #SCCM, #Book #SystemCenter )

Consultant and trainer on Microsoft technologies, Jean-Sébastien Duchene is recognize for some years as an Infrastructure Expert on System Center products. He is Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) on System Center since 2010.

Few months ago, he wrotes with G. CALBANO a new book on System Center 2012 - unfortunately it's only in french.

Guillaume CALBANO - Jean-Sébastien DUCHÊNE
Collection : Epsilon
Ref. ENI : EP12SCCM

 You can buy the book  >>>>> here <<<<<

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

[OpsMgr 2012] My best practice for creating overrides

Referring to my old post on best practices for creating overrides, I would just say this can be apply to SCOM 2012

• Define a naming convention
• Create only one override MP by MP to override
• Never store overrides in the "Default Management pack"
• Always override a monitor/rule for a group
• Clean the "Default MP"

In short terms, to clean up the default MP, you must :
1. Export the default MP - create a backup
2. Identify the rules, monitor, group that have been created in it

• For each rule, monitor or group, recreate them in an other MP
• Delete them from the default MP
• Delete associated Displaung

3. Identify the overrides that are stored in it

• For overrides recreate them in an other MP
• Delete them from the default MP

4. Identify the views that have been created in it

• Each view must be recreated in an other MP
• Delete them from the default MP

5. When step 1, 2 and 3 is done, delete all un-used references.
6. Re-import the Default MP

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

Florian Aguettaz IT Blog: [System Center] Full review of all System Center product ( #SystemCenter )

Florian Aguettaz is posting a full review of all System Center products. There are currently 7 products in the System Center Suite that are used to cover all the ITIL best practices. Each one will be detailed in different post on his blog.

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

[Ebook] Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2 ( #Ebook #WindowsServer )

Introduction

This book is intended to provide you with an overview of the new features and enhancements introduced in Windows Server 2012 R2. The intended audience for this book is IT pros who deploy, manage, and maintain Windows Server workloads in data center, private cloud, and hosting provider environments.
We assume that you are at least somewhat familiar with the features and capabilities of the previous platform Windows Server 2012. If you are not familiar with all the new features and enhancements Microsoft introduced previously in Windows Server 2012, we recommend that you first read Introducing Windows Server 2012 RTM Edition (Microsoft Press, 2012).
A key feature of this book is the technical sidebars that have been contributed by Microsoft insiders. These sidebars were written by experts who have been closely involved in the Windows Server 2012 R2 development process and include Program Managers, Support Escalation Engineers, Technical Consultants, Data Center Specialists, and others who work at Microsoft in various capacities.

FORMATS	LINKS
Download the PDF	here
Download the ePub file	here
Download the mobi file	here
Print version for sale	here

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

[Ebook] Free ebook: Microsoft System Center: Troubleshooting Configuration Manager ( #Ebook #Troubleshooting #SCCM )

 

Microsoft Press blog is very excited to announce another free ebook offering in their System Center series from Microsoft Press. These unique (and free) ebooks bring System Center experts together to discuss designing, deploying, and troubleshooting some of the most complex and mission critical aspects of key System Center capabilities.
The third title in this series, Microsoft System Center: Troubleshooting Configuration Manager (ISBN 9780735683020) by Rushi Faldu, Manoj Kumar Pal, Andre Della Monica, Kaushal Pandey, and the System Center series editor Mitch Tulloch, is now available.


 DOWNLOADS

Download the PDF	here
Download the Mobi file for Kindle	here
Download the ePub file	here

___________________

Introduction

As the authors of this book, we have tried provide you with insights and tips on troubleshooting System Center 2012 Configuration Manager drawn from our insider knowledge and real-world field experience.  While most of you who are Configuration Manager administrators are fairly comfortable with the product and can perform common management tasks, many of you still have pain points when it comes to certain aspects of how the product works. Based on our observations and interactions with customers, the biggest knowledge gaps tend to be in the following areas:

• Troubleshooting common Configuration Manager tasks such as software distribution, software updates, and deployment.
• Understanding how the various components of Configuration Manager on both the server and client side work together when such tasks are performed.
• Dealing with the enormous number of log files that are generated on both the server and client side of Configuration Manager.

This book is our attempt to address some of these gaps and pain points. Chapter 1 provides insights into the Configuration Manager architecture and deployment principles. Chapter 2 familiarizes you with some of the key components of Configuration Manager and how they interact with each other when performing common tasks by using verbose logging for tracing the actions of various components. And Chapter 3 examines how to troubleshoot various Configuration Manager functionality including software and application deployment, site-to-site replication, software update and patching, operating system deployment, and Mac client issues.

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

[OpsMgr 2012 SP1][OpsMgr 2012 R2] System Center 2012 Management Pack for Windows Server 2012 R2 Remote Access ( #OpsMgr2012 #RemoteAccess #ManagementPack )

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for Windows Server 2012 R2 Remote Access helps you monitor the health and availability of computers configured for Remote Access server role and running Windows Server 2012 R2.

Direct link to Microsoft Site

Note: There are multiple files available for this download. Once you click on the “Download” button, you will be prompted to select the files you need.

Version:	Date Published:
7.1.10100.0	10/18/2013
File name:	File size:
OM2012R2_MgtPack_RAS Guide.doc	437 KB
SC Management Pack for Remote Access 2012 R2.msi	752 KB

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for Remote Access helps you monitor the health and availability of computers configured for Remote Access server role and running Windows Server 2012 R2.

System Center Management Pack for Remote Access combines monitoring for DirectAccess and RRAS into a single management pack. Monitoring capabilities for DirectAccess have been enhanced to cover more components and encompass larger set of health scenarios. This management pack monitors the following conditions:


1. DirectAccess Monitoring
• Issues with internal and external network adapter connection and settings such as forwarding
• State of transition technologies such as teredo, 6to4 etc
• State of underlying services
• Heuristics around network security such as DOS attack, spoof attack etc
2. VPN Monitoring
• Connection failures
• Erroneous configuration
• Other erroneous conditions such as hardware device error, IP-Sec related failures etc
• Support for monitoring performance counters and instrumentation
All existing support for VPN Server monitoring has been ported to this combined pack.

Release History

• 10/18/2013 - version 7.1.10100.0
• 1/25/2013 - Original English release, version 7.0.8560.0

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

[OpsMgr 2012] Finding Management Packs from Microsoft Download website using PowerShell ( #OpsMgr2012 #ManagementPack #Powershell )

I guess you already know that page on the Technet where a list of microsoft Management pack is done : Direct link to Technet site.

In March 2013 Stefan Stranger has published a command line to scrape some of the information about Management Packs using PowerShell. Using the line bellow will list provide you the list of management pack and the download link to get it !

$hsg = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/16174.microsoft-management-packs.aspx"
$hsg.Links | Where-Object {($_.href -like "*http://www.microsoft.com/*download*") -and ($_.outerText -notlike "*Link to download page*") -and ($_.InnerHTML -like "*This link*")} | 
Select @{Label="Management Pack";Expression={$_.InnerText}}, @{Label="Download Link";Expression={$_.href}}

This other command line should provide the publication date and the creator of the publication :

[xml]$hsg = Invoke-WebRequest "http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/16174.microsoft-management-packs/rss.aspx"

$hsg.rss.channel.item | select Title, pubDate, creator

Based on this command line, Stanislav Zhelyazkov wrote a script to download all MPs from the link and create folders by MP name, and subfolders by version 

You can get the lates script on that link : Download All Microsoft Management Packs for SCOM 2007, R2 and 2012 in Bulk V2

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

What’s New in Visual Studio Authoring Extensions 2013 (#VSAE #Authoring )

Follow this link to see the list of the detailed updates that have been made to Visual Studio Authoring Extensions 2013.

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

[OpsMgr 2012 R2] System Center 2012 R2 - Operations Manager Survival Guide released ( #OpsMgr2012R2 #Opsmgr )

Matthias Heil is happy to announce the Operations Manager 2012 R2 survival guide a the successor of the System Center 2012 - Operations Manager survival guide.

What is a survival guide? It is a page created as a pointer to the best information on the web. You can use the information below to learn the fundamentals; increase your current knowledge; or stay current on Operations Manager and events. If you think we missed some great article out there, please add it below! Many links take you to topics and articles that apply to System Center 2012 SP1 also, so the content is linked where necessary. The survival guide is not finished yet, so feel free to contribute more content.


 Link to the Operations Manager 2012 R2 survival guide

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

[OpsMgr 2012] Is VMPD working on Microsoft Visio 2013 Professional ? (#VMPD #Authoring #Opsmgr )

After having forget using VMPD on my computer, I today wanted to make it working. Going on the download page show me that only Microsoft Visio Premium 2010 is supported !

What about Microsoft Visio 2013 Pro ? Hope I'll not have to downgrade my soft version !

Let's also try to launch MSI file and install VMPD on my Visio 2013. Installation is successful and I can start 'Design Management Pack in Visio'. Great !

Let's now use a template 'Application with single server role' and add the needed values like Service Name, event ID and TH and when done click on Generate MP : 

An exception occured : 

Same issue I add when using Visio 2010 an my Seven computer. Nothing has changed. too bad !

I've tried a lot of things and finally ungroup the shape and this makes VMPD able to save the MP !

Even if not supported, VMPD is also able to work on Visio Pro 2013 ! Good new !

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