[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.