July, 2009

We've just posted a new guide to the Operations Manager library - the Reporting Guide. This guide consolidates all reporting guidance (with the exception of report authoring) in one place.

This guide also includes reporting scenarios to help you create specific reports to meet your business needs. Right now there are two scenarios - Availability and SLA. We're working on additional scenarios - performance, disk usage, etc. If you have additional asks, please let us know and we'll get a scenario published for you.

Thanks!

The Visio 2007 Add-in for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 combines the strengths of two applications widely used in enterprise IT to simplify the creation of customized graphical dashboards showing the health of an environment. Examples of such diagrams include showing objects by geography overlaid on a map, by location in a datacenter or building, by role in a logical view of an application or by topology for complex distributed applications such as Exchange or Active Directory. 

Update (Nov. 9, 2011): The add-in is now available as an attachment to this post. The documentation is at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee342533.aspx.

New features for this release include:

1. Links to the Web Console Health Explorer and Alerts view: to determine why the state of an object is in a particular state and see the alerts associated to this object.
   
2. Insert Shape: You can insert shapes using the icons stored in Operations Manager to keep the same look-and-feel of Visio diagrams as you would see in the Operations Manager console.
   

The Visio Add-in has the following features:

1. Distributed applications exported from System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 as Visio documents automatically show live health state information on the exported objects when opened in Visio.
2. You can easily create new Visio documents and link shapes to any managed object (computer, database, web site, perspective etc.) to show the current health state.
3. You can automatically link entire existing Visio documents to the computer and network devices managed by Operations Manager by matching computer names or IP addresses.
4. You can add shapes pulled from Operations Manager using the Insert Shape functionality.
5. Health states can be automatically refreshed in Visio documents. You can use this option along with Visio’s full screen view to create dashboard views suitable for use as a summary display in a datacenter control room.
6. You can use the predefined data graphics enable you to toggle from Operations Manager health icons to shape color for health state, or create your own new data graphic easily within Visio. 

To get your imagination going, here are some sample ideas for dashboards created in Visio and linked to Operations Manager using this add-in:

Four management packs have been updated and the 7/21/2009 PartnerPack newsletter have been posted to the OpsManJam site. Click here for the announcement and links.

 Remember send feedback to omjfeed@microsoft.com

 Chris

The current PartnerPack Newsletter for 7/7/2009 has been added to the PartnerPack archive on the OpsManJam site.

Chris

Recently, I have had a bunch for requests for more detail on installing a Windows Agent or upgrading a Agent from the command line.  So here you go!! 

Use Case	Command
Fresh Install and set specific action account	msiexec.exe /i \\path\Directory\MOMAgent.msi /qn /l*v %temp%\MOMAgentinstall.log  USE_SETTINGS_FROM_AD=0 MANAGEMENT_GROUP=<MG_Name> MANAGEMENT_SERVER_DNS=<MSDNSName> ACTIONS_USE_COMPUTER_ACCOUNT=0 ACTIONSUSER=<AccountUser> ACTIONSDOMAIN=<AccountDomain> ACTIONSPASSWORD=<AccountPassword> USE_MANUALLY_SPECIFIED_SETTINGS=1 SET_ACTIONS_ACCOUNT=1
Fresh Install and use local system as action account	msiexec.exe /i \\path\Directory\MOMAgent.msi /qn /l*v %temp%\MOMAgentinstall.log  USE_SETTINGS_FROM_AD=0 MANAGEMENT_GROUP=<MG_Name> MANAGEMENT_SERVER_DNS=<MSDNSName> ACTIONS_USE_COMPUTER_ACCOUNT=1 USE_MANUALLY_SPECIFIED_SETTINGS=1 SET_ACTIONS_ACCOUNT=1
Fresh Install with AD Integration and set specific action account	msiexec /i \\path\Directory\MOMAgent.msi  /qn /l*v %temp%mominst.NoGroupSpecified.log USE_SETTINGS_FROM_AD=1 USE_MANUALLY_SPECIFIED_SETTINGS=0 ACTIONS_USE_COMPUTER_ACCOUNT=0 ACTIONSUSER=<AccountUser> ACTIONSDOMAIN=<AccountDomain> ACTIONSPASSWORD=<AccountPassword>  SET_ACTIONS_ACCOUNT=1
Fresh Install with AD Integration and use local system as action account	msiexec /i \\path\Directory\MOMAgent.msi  /qn /l*v %temp%\ mominst.NoGroupSpecified.log USE_SETTINGS_FROM_AD=1 ACTIONS_USE_COMPUTER_ACCOUNT=1 USE_MANUALLY_SPECIFIED_SETTINGS=0 SET_ACTIONS_ACCOUNT=1
Upgrade from SP1	msiexec /i \\path\Directory\MOMAgent.msi SET_ACTIONS_ACCOUNT=0 /qn /l*v %temp%\MOMAgentUpgrade.log
Upgrade from R2 Beta	msiexec /i \\path\Directory\MOMAgent.msi SET_ACTIONS_ACCOUNT=0 /qn /l*v %temp%\MOMAgentUpgrade.log
Upgrade from R2 RC	msiexec /i \\path\Directory\MOMAgent.msi SET_ACTIONS_ACCOUNT=0 /qn /l*v %temp%\MOMAgentUpgrade.log
Change Management server name	MsiExec.exe /i \\path\Directory\MOMAgent.msi /norestart /qn /l*v %temp%\MOMAgentReinstall.log MANAGEMENT_GROUP= <SameManagementGroup>  MANAGEMENT_GROUP_OPERATION=ModifyConfigGroup MANAGEMENT_SERVER_DNS=<NewManagementServerName>  REINSTALL=ALL
Add new MG	MsiExec.exe /i \\path\Directory\MOMAgent.msi /norestart /qn /l*v %temp%\MOMAgentAdd.log MANAGEMENT_GROUP=<NewManagementGroup> MANAGEMENT_GROUP_OPERATION=AddConfigGroup MANAGEMENT_SERVER_DNS=<NewManagementServerName> REINSTALL=ALL Note: If fresh install is already AD enabled, then re-homing configuration is set by AD
Remove old MG	MsiExec.exe /i \\path\Directory\MOMAgent.msi  /norestart /qn /l*v %temp%\MOMRemove.log MANAGEMENT_GROUP=<OldManagementGroup> MANAGEMENT_GROUP_OPERATION=RemoveConfigGroup MANAGEMENT_SERVER_DNS=<OldManagementServerName> REINSTALL=ALL Note: If this is the last MG assigned to this agent the agent will also be uninstalled. Note: If fresh install is already AD enabled, then re-homing configuration is set by AD
Re-Home (remove old MG\MS, redirect to new MG/MS)	Step 1: Add new management group \ Management server MsiExec.exe /i \\path\Directory\MOMAgent.msi /norestart /qn /l*v %temp%\MOMAgentAdd.log MANAGEMENT_GROUP=<NewManagementGroup> MANAGEMENT_GROUP_OPERATION=AddConfigGroup MANAGEMENT_SERVER_DNS=<NewManagementServerName> REINSTALL=ALL Step 2: Remove old management group \ management server MsiExec.exe /i \\path\Directory\MOMAgent.msi  /norestart /qn /l*v %temp%\MOMRemove.log MANAGEMENT_GROUP=<OldManagementGroup> MANAGEMENT_GROUP_OPERATION=RemoveConfigGroup MANAGEMENT_SERVER_DNS=<OldManagementServerName> REINSTALL=ALL Note: Make sure to add the new management group first before removing the old one.  If you remove the old management group first and it’s the last management group assigned to the agent the agent will be uninstalled. Note: If fresh install is already AD enabled, then re-homing configuration is set by AD

USE_SETTINGS_FROM_AD=0	Indicates that management group settings properties will be set on the command line.
MANAGEMENT_GROUP=MG1	Sets the management group the computer will be managed by to MG1.
MANAGEMENT_SERVER_DNS=MS1.Domain1.net	Sets the management server fully qualified domain name (FQDN) to MS1.Domain1.net (). To use a gateway server, enter the gateway server FQDN as MANAGEMENT_SERVER_DNS. Important If the computer's DNS and Active Directory names differ, the MANAGEMENT_SERVER_AD_NAME property also needs to be set to the fully qualified Active Directory Domain Services name.
USE_MANUALLY_SPECIFIED_SETTINGS=1	Indicates that management group settings properties will be set on the command line.
SET_ACTIONS_ACCOUNT=1	Indicates that the default action account will be set on the command line.
SECURE_PORT	Sets the health service port number.
ACTIONS_USE_COMPUTER_ACCOUNT=0	Sets the Agent Action account to a specified user account, instead of to Local System.
ACTIONSUSER=AgentAction	Sets the Agent Action account to AgentAction.
ACTIONSDOMAIN= Domain1	Sets the Agent Action account domain to Domain1.
ACTIONSPASSWORD= Password#2007	Sets the Agent Action account password to Password#2007.

Note: Order of parameters does not matter. 

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

This 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.

Sorry for the brief outage yesterday, dns registration didn't get renewed as requested.  This has been fixed and the site is up and running just fine now.  please send feedback to omjfeed@microsoft.com on what you would like to see more of on OMJ and what you would like to see less of.  I am really interested in knowing how and when you use the site.

thanks

Chris

 

We have updated the mp guide tempate that you can use for writing your own mp guides for your custom mps.  The content has been updated for several topics and new content was added for disabled monitors.  This is available on the opsmanjam site in the doc library, or link directly to the doc here.

 

One of the scenarios supported by the new Exchange 2007 MP (6.0.6623.0) is to keep the Exchange 2007 Converted MP (6.0.6461.0) installed.  This allows you to keep your historical data from the old Exchange MP, while gaining the advantages of monitoring your Exchange 2007 servers with the new Management Pack.  In order to do this you need to disable the monitoring from the old MP to avoid duplication of monitoring.    This can be done with the attached unsealed management pack.. 

The management pack, Microsoft.Exchange.2007.Disable.xml, will disable all the rules and monitors in the converted Exchange 2007 MP.  It uses enforced overrides to attempt to disable the monitoring even over any existing overrides you may have in your management group.   Using this MP should avoid duplication of alerts, one raised by the old converted MP and one raised by the new MP and also avoid running the synthetic transactions from the old converted MP.

Edit: Updated the Attached MP, the version here was incorrect as it disabled the discoveries as well.