<Update> I have include information on how to upgrade from R2 RC to R2 RTM. 

Not much has changed when upgrading from Operations Manager 2007 SP1 to R2 or deploying a fresh installation of Operations Manager 2007 R2.  However, I do want to take the opportunity to point out few of the changes.

Changes to supported platforms

Operations Manager R2 now supports OM database roles running on SQL 2008 with SP1.  Please be sure install SP1 of SQL 2008 before beginning your R2 install or upgrade.  Our Prerequisite checker detects for SQL 2008 SP1and will block until it is found.  Note: We still continue to support SQL 2005 with SP1 or higher.

Operations Manager R2 also supports upgrading from SQL 2005 to SQL 2008.  Only the Operations Manager Reporting role require special instructions.  Detailed instructions can be found in the upgrade guide.  Upgrading SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008 Link

Upgrade Support

Operations Manager supports the following upgrade paths:

Agent Mixed Management Group Multi-homed Support

For agents that are multi-homed we support the following:

Upgrading from R2 Trial version (Eval) to R2 RTM (Select)

Upgrading from R2 RC to R2 RTM <New>

When upgrading from R2 RC to R2 RTM please follow the same procedures outlined in the Upgrade guide for upgrading from OM SP1 to OM R2.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd362729.aspx

R2 Monitored Item Capacity changes from SP1

New Supported Operations Systems for Agent

Windows Server 2008 Foundation, WePOS v1, POSReady, Windows Embedded Standard, Windows Embedded Enterprise, Windows Embedded POS Ready

New Documentations and Guides

Upgrade Guide

Troubleshooting Guide

Deployment Guide

Lastly, we have added some new functionality for adding a RMS cluster to an existing management group.  In one of my next blog posts I plan to go into more detail on this topic.

Thanks you!

Rob Kuehfus | System Center Operations Manager | Setup and Deployment Program Manager

Overview

• SLD 2.0 Release Notes.rtf
• Microsoft.EnterpriseServiceMonitoring.ServiceLevelDashboard.R2.mp
• Service Level Dashboard 2.0_x86.msi
• Service Level Dashboard 2.0_x64.msi
• Service Level Dashboard 2.0 for Operations Manager 2007 R2 User Guide.docx
• Supplemental License for Service Level Dashboard for OpsMgr 2007 R2.rtf

To read more about this Solution Accelerator online at TechNet click here.

Send questions or feedback to us directly at SATfdbk@microsoft.com

Get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1d9d709f-9628-46a8-952b-a78f5dd2bdd9

Dear Operations Manager Community,

The Notifications Test Tool is a simple tool you can use to test your notification channels and subscriptions.  This tool can be used to test email (SMTP), Instant Message (IM) or Text message (SMS) channels.  Also, you can use this to generate a test alert in OpsMgr to test subscriptions.

Install Instructions:

Download and install the OMTestTool.msi to a local directory on your computer. 

Note: This tool must be installed on a computer that has the OpsMgr console installed and run from someone logged as a local admin.  To run the tool you must me a member of the OpsMgr Administrator group.

I have included a small user guide in the zip file.  This tool will work on all version of OpsMgr.  I plan to update this tool to support multiple channels types that R2 now exposes when I get some time.

Note: If you are running this tool on an OS where UAC is enabled please make sure to right click and run as Administrator.

Enjoy!

Rob Kuehfus | System Center Operations Manager | Program Manager

Disclaimer:

This utility is supplied "as -is" with no support.  In addition, my thoughts and opinions often change, and as a weblog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot you should not consider out of date posts to reflect my current thoughts and opinions.

Available by 2nd half of 2009 (late fall) - brought to you by the System Center Cross Platform team.

Provide Audit Collection Services (ACS) for Unix and Linux systems

1. Leverage OpsMgr 2007 R2 Cross Platform infrastructure to enable Unix/Linux auditing
2. Collect and aggregate audit events across enterprise systems for a singular view
3. Out of the box support for base OS audit events

Reporting – base OS auditing reports

1. Access violations - unsuccessful logon attempts
2. Account management - Account creation/deletion/password change
3. User logons
4. Administrator activity - su, sudo
5. Forensic – all events for a computer/event ID

Management Pack (to collect events)

1. Out of the box MP for each platform
2. Datasources - Syslog, su log, audit, etc.
3. Audit event collection:
1. Logons – success/failure (Ssh, telnet, rsh, tty, ftp)
2. Privilege use activity – su, sudo
3. Account activity – create/delete/password change

Platforms

1. RedHat Enterprise 4, 5
2. Novell SLES 9, 10
3. Solaris 9, 10
4. HPUX 11iv2, 11iv3
5. AIX 5.3, 6.1

Provide the infrastructure to extend enterprise auditing - potentially for things like:

1. Network devices (e.g. Firewalls, Routers, Load balancers)
2. Applications (e.g. Databases, ERP/CRM systems)
3. Leveraging standard System Center Cross Platform logfile provider (or build your own customer provider) to read events 

Delivery

1. Out of band, dependent on OpsMgr 2007 R2
2. CY Q2 2010

One of the challenges we face when working with notifications in System Center Operation Manager is figuring out if a notification subscription was triggered and who received it.  Currently in OM2007SP1 and OM2007R2 we do not record when the notification was sent and who received the message.

The following tool in the download link below uses a combination of a command notification channel and a command line tool to update the alert history of any alert that meets the subscription criteria.  All you need to do is make sure this command notification is a part of the subscription.  Please click on the link to download the setup instructions and tool.

Enjoy!

Rob Kuehfus | System Center Operations Manager | Setup and Deployment Program Manager

ACS reports that will come out of the box with System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2, will support Windows Server 2000, 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2.
In addition, R2 which has many new enhancement and features - and for ACS in particular, it will also include more robust creation of indexes for better query performance.
Oh, and here's the cool part - by 2nd half of 2009 - the System Center Cross Platform team will extend ACS in OpsMgr R2 to support Linux and Unix systems as well!

We have also included several new reports:

• Access_Violation_-_Account_Locked.rdl
• Policy_-_Account_Policy_Changed.rdl
• Policy_-_Audit_Policy_Changed.rdl
• Policy_-_Object_Permissions_Changed.rdl
• Policy_-_Privilege_Added_Or_Removed.rdl

Most reports have been rewritten for enhanced performance. Each report will query for relevant security events from Window Server 2000, 2003, 2008, 2008 R2 (as well as Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7) and normalize the different fields from different OS versions such that the data are presentated in a single coherent format.

Ok, but what if you are using System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1's ACS feature and need reporting support for Windows Server 2008 today?
Well, we have taken the curtosy of providing these reports for you here* (see attachement - please do not re-distribute the reporting package).
Installation is pretty simple:

1. Rename your existing Audit Reports folder in SRS to another name (Say Old Audit Reports)
2. Copy the zip file to your local machine and unpackage it into a local folder (say C:\ACS)
3. In C:\ACS, run UploadAuditReports

UploadAuditReports {DatabaseServerAndInstance} {ReportingServiceURL} {ReportFolder}
Example (database with instance):
UploadAuditReports MyDBServer\Instance1 http://MyDbServer/ReportServer$Instance1 C:\MyReports
Example (database with no instance):
UploadAuditReports MyDBServer http://MyDbServer/ReportServer C:\MyReports

That's it!

*note: these reports have only been tested and verified for R2, but should technically work for SP1 as well

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.
Use of included tools and reports are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

To learn more about the Visio Add-in for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2, check out the video on TechNet Edge at http://edge.technet.com/Media/Visio-Integration-with-Operations-Manager-R2/.