System Center: Operations Manager Engineering Team Blog

Clarification on SQL Server Collation Requirements for System Center 2012

Travis Wright MSFT — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:15:29 GMT

Introduction and Problem Statement

There has been quite a bit of confusion over the requirements for SQL Server collation for the various components of System Center. We didn’t make a coordinated effort here to make this as easy as it could and should be. The documentation has conflicts within itself in some cases. We will be cleaning up the documentation over the next few days so that it is consistent and clear. Since the documentation is still component focused, we want to take this opportunity to provide a holistic view of the SQL Server collation requirement across the suite. This will hopefully clear things up and over time it will become even clearer as we make changes in the product itself to be consistent on this requirement.

SQL Server collation for those of you that are unfamiliar with the concept is how SQL Server controls the sorting, storage, indexing, and comparisons of characters in a database. It is essential to use the right collation depending on the type of data that you intend to store in order to ensure that the system will function correctly. If you use the wrong collations, searches may be less effective or not work at all, sorting might produce unexpected results, and other problems can happen when inserting or retrieving data.

There are two types of collations – SQL Server collations and Windows collations. Generally speaking, SQL Server collations start with “SQL_” and Windows collations do not. SQL Server can use either a SQL Server collation or a Windows collation. Collation names are things like “Latin1_General_100_” or “Chinese_PRC_”. Following that name there are typically some indicators in the name for case sensitivity and accent sensitivity. CI = Case Insensitive, CS = Case sensitive. AI = Accent Insensitive, AS = Accent sensitive. Thus a complete collation name might be something like Latin1_General_CI_AS. This is a Windows collation which would stand for Latin1 (language) case insensitive and accent sensitive. Some of the newer collation names also have a number in them like 90 or 100. These refer to the version of SQL Server they were built for – 90 = 9.0 = SQL Server 2005, 100 = 10.0 = SQL Server 2008. You can read more about collations here and here.

Historically, System Center products have been tested and supported with only the SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation. It is the default collation when you install SQL Server on an EN-US Windows Server. When you install SQL on all other languages of the Windows OS the collation default will be something different, typically a Windows collation. The SQL Server collations are no longer being updated and will eventually be phased out in favor of the Windows collations. Therefore, the SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation doesn’t have some of the latest Unicode characters in its codepage which can cause some problems for those languages which have recently added characters to Unicode. Historically this has been a minimal to non-existent issue. With the introduction of Service Manager to the System Center suite we had our first component that has (a) a full-text searchable knowledge base and (b) a user base that included not just IT people but really the entire organization. The result is that data is stored in newer Unicode characters more often. We started hitting search and sort issues with customers that were using the SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation during the beta testing of Service Manager 2012 because they were storing some of the newer Unicode characters in the database that weren’t in the SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation codepage.

The SQL Server team advised us that we should start switching to the Windows collations to minimize these issues from happening. That is why when you are installing SCSM on a SQL Server that is using the SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation you will see this warning message:

You can bypass this warning message and continue to install using the SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. Further, the SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation was not listed as a supported collation on the Language Support for System Center 2012 - Service Manager page on the TechNet Library. The required collation for SCSM per the documentation currently is Latin1_General_100_CI_AS (note the 100).

Because all other System Center components (except SCOM which can also be installed on a few other additional collations – more on that in a minute) are required to be installed on SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS, most people thought they would need a dedicated SQL Server instance for SCSM. We would generally recommend having a separate instance of SQL Server for running SCSM for performance and scalability reasons, but understand that there are probably plenty of cases where it makes sense to collocate SCSM and other System Center components on a single SQL Server instance.

Further, in one place the SCSM product documentation indicated that the SCOM DB and the SCSM DBs had to be exactly the same collation. This effectively meant that there was a conflict in the documentation.

The rest of this blog will describe how we are going to resolve this and what steps we are taking to make this more clear.

Resolution for System Center 2012

We have recently updated the documentation to add support for the following additional collations for SCOM:

Language	Collation
English	SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
English (new)	Latin1_General_CI_AS
English (new)	Latin1_General_100_CI_AS
French (new)	French_CI_AS
German, Brazil (Portugese), Italian (new)	Latin1_General_CI_AS
Russian (new)	Cyrillic_General_CI_AS
Chinese CHS (new)	Chinese_PRC_CI_AS
Japanese (new)	Japanese_CI_AS
Spanish (new)	Traditional_Spanish_CI_AS

We will also be updating the SCSM documentation to add support for the following additional collations:

Language	Collation
English (new)	SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
English (new)	Latin1_General_CI_AS

I will now attempt to clarify what is meant when the documentation says that “You must use the same supported language collations if you intend to import data from Operations Manager into Service Manager.” This is true only for the OM OperationsManager database and the SM DWStagingAndConfig database in the scenario of creating an OM Data Source for the DW. To be clear this is known in the UI as a Data Warehouse Data Source. This does not affect either the SCOM -> SCSM Configuration Item connector or the SCOM -> SCSM Alert -> Incident connector. Visually – this is what I am talking about:

NOT this:

The problem with using different locales is because we use a special .Net class called SqlBulkCopy to copy the data from the OperationsManager database to the SM DWStagingAndConfig database. This particular class will throw an exception that looks like this if the Locale ID of the collations of the source and target DBs don’t match.

ETL Module Execution failed:

ETL process type: Extract

Batch ID: 594

Module name: Extract_ManagedType_CTI_OM12_CHS

Message: The source Column "TypeName" locale ID "1033" and the target column "TypeName" locale ID "2052" do not match.

Thus, the OM OperationsManager database and the SM DWStagingAndConfig database must have matching collation locales (not necessarily the exact same collation). All other databases in OM and SM can have mismatched collations (and even locales) if needed so long as you are using a collation which is supported by that particular component. This is because in other points of integration we are not using this SqlBulkCopy class to copy the data over.

If you have databases with collations that don’t match then you will not be able to use the SCOM -> SCSM DW integration which brings over alerts from the OM OperationsManager DB (not DW) to the SM DWStagingAndConfig.

We have also produced a support matrix which indicates the supported combinations of using SM DWStagingAndConfig databases and OM OperationsManager databases together in cases where the locale IDs are compatible.

Any of the green squares will be supported in combination with each other. The ‘Y’ squares have been specifically tested and passed the tests. The Y*, Y**, Y*** squares have not been specifically tested, but because they are very similar to other combinations tested should be fine and we will deal with any issues on a case by case basis through support. Any combination outside of a green box may or may not work and are not supported. The green combinations should cover the majority of common use cases. If there is a combination that is currently on the unsupported list and you would like to see it supported, please leave a comment below and we’ll take a look at the request. The documentation will be updated to reflect this matrix in the next couple of weeks but you can use this as a guide for now.

This matrix indicates that you may use SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS for SCSM but please be aware that storage of the newer Unicode characters may cause your database to function incorrectly and require a support case to attempt to resolve the issue. Using SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS in combination with storing Unicode characters which are not supported by the codepage for SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS is not supported. If you need to store those newer characters then use a Windows Latin collation - either Latin1_General_CI_AS or Latin1_General_100_CI_AS.

You may be asking “Why doesn’t SCOM support Latin1_General_100_CI_AS?” It should, but right now the setup is designed to block installing SCOM on any other collation besides those listed above for SCOM. Without taking a code change to setup and re-releasing the product we can’t change this until the next release.

Future Plans

We will make this simpler going forward and be more progressive in supporting and using the most up to date collations. To do this we will be modifying setup of all the SC components in the next release to require the latest Windows collations available at that time for that version of SQL Server that you are attempting to install on. The collation versions will likely be updated over time by the Windows/SQL Server team so our requirements will stay in lockstep with them. That means for example if when you are installing any component of System Center on SQL Server 2008 in the next release we will require the Latin1_General_100_CI_AS collation for an English system. If you are installing on SQL Server 2012 we will require Latin1_General_110_CI_AS (assuming there is such a thing as _110_ - I don’t know right now). This will only apply to new installations. Upgrade installations will not be subject to this and we will continue to support the older collations for those upgraded databases.

Conclusion

We hope this provides more flexibility and clarity in how you deploy System Center 2012. We will update the documentation accordingly. We apologize for any confusion and inconvenience. We will make this better going forward by being more consistent across the suite while at the same time improving the quality of the product by using the latest collations.

Collecting 32-bit Performance Counters Using a 64-bit Operations Manager Agent

Gustavo R Lima — Fri, 25 May 2012 05:43:00 GMT

With System Center Operations Manager 2012, the 32-bit agent cannot be installed in a 64-bit server. Although - in general - 32-bit applications can still be monitored by the 64-bit agent, you won’t be able to collect 32-bit custom performance counters by using the standard, performance-based, rules and monitors. By standard, I mean the rules and monitors you can create via the console by selecting “Windows Performance Counters” in the Create a New Rule/Monitor wizards.

Nonetheless, with some dose of backstage maneuvering, this limitation can be circumvented. In this post, I would like to show you how you can do that. The short answer is: use the log-based performance counter data source!

It turns out that, buried in the Performance Library Management Pack (System.Performance.Library), we can find the building blocks we need to achieve our goal. This MP includes all of the rules and monitors used in the standard performance counter collection, as well as those needed for log-based counter collection. These rules and monitors are able to collect performance counter data by parsing Windows Performance Monitor (perfmon) log files. Hence, they are called “PerformanceLogBased” and all rely on the PerformanceLogDataProvider data source module to do the parsing. Unfortunately, this feature is not exposed through the SCOM console, so that’s where the “backstage” maneuvering comes into place.

What is needed?

A simple custom MP which takes advantage of the rules/monitors defined in the Performace Library.
Windows Performance Monitor logging (perfmon). Logging must be enabled for each counter which needs to be collected.

A Simple Example

Goal: Collect and monitor the number of remote desktop sessions in agents and change state of the monitor to “Critical” when this number exceeds 4 over 2 consecutive samples. We also want to store the counter values as performance data in the Operational Database.

Performance Counter: Terminal Services/Total Sessions

Unit Monitor Definition

<Category>AvailabilityHealth</Category>

</OperationalStates>

<LogFileDirectory>%SystemDrive%\LogFiles\Perflogs</LogFileDirectory>

<LogFilePattern>TerminalServices*.csv</LogFilePattern>

<LogIsUTF8>false</LogIsUTF8>

<Direction>greater</Direction>

</Configuration>

</UnitMonitor>

As it can be seen, this monitor uses the System.Performance.PerformanceLogBased.ConsecutiveSamplesThreshold monitor type, which does exactly what we want: It changes state whenever the value of the performance counter violates the configured threshold over a consecutive number of samples.

Configuration

LogFilePattern: the name of the file(s) containing the performance data. In this case, I've used the wild card character (*) to indicate that it should look for all files which start with “TerminalServices” and have a .csv extension. Later, we need to tell perfmon to log to a file with the same name format.

LogFileDirectory: where the monitor will look for the files matching the pattern.

LogIsUTF8: indicates whether the parsing algorithm should decode based on UTF-8 or not.

Threshold: the value above or under which this monitor will change state.

NumSamples: the number of consecutive samples that need to violate the threshold before the monitor changes state.

Collection Rule Definition (Storing counter data in the Ops DB)

The following rule collects the performance counters logged to files in the TerminalServices*.csv format (e.g. TerminalServices01.csv, TerminalServices02.csv), residing in the %SystemDrive%\LogFiles\Perflogs directory. It will then store the collected values in the Operational database as performance data. This data can then be viewed as usual, through performance views and dashboards.

<Category>Maintenance</Category>

<LogFileDirectory>%SystemDrive%\LogFiles\Perflogs</LogFileDirectory>

<LogFilePattern>TerminalServices*.csv</LogFilePattern>

<LogIsUTF8>false</LogIsUTF8>

</DataSource>

</DataSources>

</WriteActions>

</Rule>

Some Observations:

Only 1 performance counter (combination of performance object + counter name + instance) per file. The PerformanceLogDataProvider data source module does not support multiple counters. For example, logging PrivateBytes for all instances of the w3wp.exe process will not work. Just one instance per file.
The file should be in CSV format (by default, perfmon logs are in a binary format – that needs to be changed, as shown below)
Cyclic logging should not be used. I recommend starting a new file in a sequential manner, based on a size limit or time schedule. For instance, in this case we would have TerminalServices1.csv, TerminalServices2.csv, etc. All logged to the same directory.
If the health service is stopped and then started at a later time, parsing should resume from where it stopped at the time the service shut down. When a computer comes back from maintenance mode however, collection will restart as new entries are logged (data produced while the agent was under maintenance is not collected).
You can define Alerts for the monitor via the UI console by going to this monitor's properties and setting the Alert configuration.
Although these workflows are targetting the Agent computers, you could define your own type (e.g. a certain app) and specify that as the target. Of course, you would have to create discovery rules to discover instances of the type.

Import the MP with the rules and monitors

Assemble an MP file with your final rules and monitors. One option here is to create a new MP by using the Create a Rule wizard, exporting that MP and then editing it to include your custom rules and monitors. Once ready, re-import your final MP.

Enabling PerfMon Logging

The last piece of work that needs to be done before data starts flowing is actually logging the counters to where Operations Manager is supposed to find them and in the format it is expecting.

The steps involved are:

1. Enable a new User Defined Data Collector Set in Windows Performance Monitor (perfmon). Choose the Create manually (Advanced) option and then check the Performance counter checkbox.

2. Add the desired counter to the set (only 1 counter should be added) and choose the Sample Interval.

3. Choose the root directory to where the file will be written, save and close the wizard, without starting the collector. This should be the same directory specified in the rule/monitor.

  4. Right-Click on the newly created Data Collector Set and select Properties.






  5. On the Directory tab, uncheck the Prefix subdirectory with computer name checkbox and make sure the Subdirectory name format textbox is empty. Apply those settings. On the Schedule and Stop Condition tabs in this window, you can optionally set a new file to be generated after the current one reaches a limit or based on a schedule.

6. Open the Properties for the DataCollector file. In the Log format drop box, select Comma Separated.

7. Select the File tab and make sure the Log file name matches the pattern expected by Operations Manager (as specified in the configuration for LogFilePattern). Apply and close the properties window.

8. Start the data collector.

Other Monitor Types Available

There's pretty much a 1-1 matching between what can be done via standard performance data collection and the log-based one. Just like in the standard case, there are log-based monitors for:

Self Tuning Thresholds

2-State Above
2-State Baselining
2-State Below
3-State Baselining

Single Thresholds

Average Threshold
Consecutive Samples over Threshold
Delta Threshold
Simple Threshold

Double Thresholds

Double Threshold
Delta Double Threshold
Average Double Threshold

Refer to the Performance Library MP (System.Performance.Library) to look at their configuration.

Happy Log-Based Performance Counter Collection!

KB: Unable to see any performance or availability details using System Center 2012 Operations Manager widgets

J.C. Hornbeck — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:48:53 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published. This one talks about an issue where you may be unable to see any performance or availability details using System Center 2012 Operations Manager widgets

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Symptoms

When using performance widgets in System Center 2012 Operations Manager (OpsMgr), you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:

While creating Performance widgets, none of the performance objects/counters are shown in the wizard.
You are unable to retrieve availability details using OpsMgr state widgets.
Network dashboard views are not showing any availability details or performance details.
The Reset Health State task fails with the exception below shown under the task status view:

A module reported an error 0x80070490 from a callback which was running as part of rule "System.Health.ResetState" running for instance "<instance name>" with id:"{GUID}" in management group "<Management Group Name>".

Error Code: -2130771918 (Unknown error (0x80ff0032)).

Cause

This can occur if the Management Group ID is different in the “MT_ManagementGroup” and “__MOMManagementGroupInfo__” tables. If you create the OperationsManager DB using “DBCreateWizard.exe”, the Management Group GUIDs will be different. We can safely change the Management Group ID in “__MOMManagementGroupInfo__” table.

NOTE This issue will only happen on upgraded environments from System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, complete the steps below.

1. Find the Management Group ID in “MT_ManagementGroup” and “__MOMManagementGroupInfo__” tables. To do this, run the following queries on the OperationsManager Database:

Select ManagementGroupId from __MOMManagementGroupInfo__

Select Id_6B1D1BE8_EBB4_B425_08DC_2385C5930B04 from MT_ManagementGroup

Update __MOMManagementGroupInfo__ SET ManagementGroupId = '<GUID>'

NOTE Change the “GUID” to match the ID from “MT_ManagementGroup” table.

3. Once the query is executed, restart the System Center Data Access Service, the System Center Management Configuration and the System Center Management services on the Management server.

4. Re-open the OpsMgr console using “clearcache” switch. For example, run the following command at a command prompt:

microsoft.mom.ui.console.exe /clearcache

More Information

Make sure that you have recent backups of the OperationsManager and OperationsManagerDW databases before updating the tables.

=====

For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2711375 - Unable to see any performance or availability details using System Center 2012 Operations Manager widgets

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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The Forefront Server Protection blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/fss/
The Forefront Endpoint Security blog : http://blogs.technet.com/b/clientsecurity/
The Forefront Identity Manager blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ms-identity-support/
The Forefront TMG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/isablog/
The Forefront UAG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/edgeaccessblog/

KB: Understanding Operations Manager Maintenance Mode

J.C. Hornbeck — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:30:47 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published. This one is a basic overview of what Maintenance Mode is and when/how you’d want to use it, plus a couple common issues you may run into.

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What is Maintenance Mode?

Maintenance mode is a feature in Operations Manager to suspend monitoring of an object during regular software or hardware maintenance activities like Software Update installations, Hardware replacements, etc.

What happens when an object is put into Maintenance Mode

When an object is placed into Maintenance Mode, all workflows targeted against that object are suspended during that specific interval. This prevents Alerts and Notifications from being generated by the workflows targeted against the object in Maintenance Mode and helps reduce alerting noise during a planned maintenance activity on the server. In Maintenance Mode, alerts, notifications, rules, monitors, automatic responses, state changes and new alerts are suppressed at the agent.

The following event is logged on the Operations Manager event log during starting and ending of Maintenance Mode for a monitored object:

=============================================

Log Name: Operations Manager
Source: HealthService
Date:
vent ID: 1216
Task Category: Health Service
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Server.Domain.COM
Description:
Resuming monitoring for instance "Database" with id:"{GUID}" as the instance maintenance mode is OFF. Management group "MG".

=============================================

IMPORTANT NOTE:
It is not recommend that you put management servers into Maintenance Mode. Configuration distribution, the heartbeat feature, and other features for the system might become unreliable. If you place a management server into Maintenance Mode, alerts, notifications, rules, monitors, automatic responses, state changes, and new alerts generated on the management server will be suppressed. The health service on the management server continues to run. Alerts, notifications, rules, monitors, automatic responses, state changes, and new alerts from other agent-managed computers will be processed and displayed as appropriate.

How to put an object into Maintenance Mode

In Operations Manager, Monitoring is based on specific classes. A specific monitored object on an agent can be put into Maintenance Mode instead of putting the entire Computer into Maintenance Mode.

In the example below, the SQL Database Engine running on Server A will be updated to the current version. This software update maintenance is expected to take 30 minutes to complete. During this time, the default instance of the SQL Database engine running on this server will not be available.

In this case, we can put the SQL Database engine and its entire contained object into Maintenance Mode instead of putting the entire server into Maintenance Mode. This helps in monitoring the Operating System and other applications running on the server while SQL maintenance is performed.

The default instance of SQL running on Server A can be put into Maintenance mode as follows (Note that this article assumes that we have a working Operations Manager management group with the SQL management pack already installed and working):

1. Open the Operations Manager console. Under the Monitoring Pane, expand the folder named “Microsoft SQL Server”, then expand “Server Roles” and select the “Database Engines” State view.

2. This will list all monitored instances of SQL Database engine in this management group.

3. Select and right-click the default instance (MSSQLSERVER) whose Path value is Server A. In the Displayed menu, select ”Maintenance Mode”.

Choosing “Selected objects only” Puts only the Database engine into Maintenance Mode.

Choosing “Selected Objects and all their contained objects” puts the Database Engine and all the databases hosted by this instance of SQL database engine into Maintenance Mode.

An easier way to find the contained objects is to open the Diagram view for the specific object and drill down in the view.

You can select the Time interval for the Maintenance Mode using on the options under the “Duration” as required.

How to Schedule Maintenance Mode

Operations Manager does not allow scheduling Maintenance Mode for monitored objects from the console. However, Maintenance Mode can be scheduled for a future time with the help of the Maintenance Mode schedule tool that is part of the Operations Manager R2 Admin resource kit. Please see the link below for more information:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26139

NOTE This tool does not work with System Center 2012 Operations Manager

The blog below from the Operations Manager community also has a tool for scheduling Maintenance Mode for monitored objects:

http://www.scom2k7.com/scom-remote-maintenance-mode-scheduler-2-0-r2-scripts/

Additionally, you can use Orchestrator to put objects into Maintenance Mode on a schedule, and there are also third party tools/scripts available.

How to automate starting and Ending Maintenance Mode using SCOM SDK

The link below provides information on how to automate starting and ending Maintenance Mode of specific objects using Operations Manager 2007 R2 SDK:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb437532.aspx

How to view the objects that are in MM

To view all objects of a specific class that are in Maintenance Mode using the Operations console, follow the steps below.

1. Open Operations console. Under the Monitoring pane create a state view named “Maintenance Mode” under the specific unsealed Management Pack folder or under the “Monitoring” folder at the root of the view tree. Creating the View under the “Monitoring” folder at the root of the view tree saves the view in the Default Management Pack.

2.Under the Name option, Type in “Maintenance Mode”

Change the Value under “Show data related to” from Entity to the Class of objects that you want to view.

Select “is in Maintenance Mode” check box under the “Select conditions”

Click Ok to create the view.

This view will display all objects of that specific class that are in Maintenance Mode currently.

Maintenance Mode Cmdlets

The following command lets are available for Managing Maintenance mode using the Operations Manager command shell in Operations Manager 2007 R2:

New-MaintenanceWindow – This cmdlet puts the Specified monitoring object into Maintenance Mode. More information about this cmdlet is here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg132214.aspx

Set-MaintenanceWindow– This cmdlet sets properties of a maintenance windows. It can be used to update end time, reason and comments on the current Maintenance Mode for the monitoring object specified by the Monitoringobject parameter.

More information about this cmdlet is here :

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg132242.aspx

Get-MaintenanceWindow– This cmdlet gets maintenance window information for a monitoring object that is currently in Maintenance Mode. The cmdlet can retrieve maintenance windows for top-level items, items at the current location or for specified monitoring objects.

More information about this cmdlet is here :

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg132195.aspx

How maintenance mode helps reporting

Starting and ending the Maintenance Mode for a specific object for a planned maintenance helps the Operations Manager administrator report accurately on the planned and unplanned downtime of an application or a service. This helps report the availability of a specific service or an application or a server accurately during a specific period of time.

Maintenance Mode Known issues:

1. A computer agent unexpectedly generates heartbeat alerts after you put it into Maintenance Mode in System Center Operations Manager 2007

This issue has been explained in the below KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942866

2. Configuration Manager and Operations Manager agent Maintenance Mode

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 supports Maintenance Mode for Operations Manager with its Software Distribution and Software Updates features. By placing the Agent into Maintenance Mode, alerts can be suppressed on computers running the Configuration Manager client.

This option works well if running MOM 2005 but does not operate as you may think with Operations Manager 2007 and later. When you set this option and Configuration Manager attempts ‘Maintenance Mode’ on an Operations Manager agent, the result is that the health service is paused. While the health service is paused you may get heartbeat failure errors, and when the health service is resumed all queued up actions will process at that time resulting in potential alerts. For this reason and others, we do not recommend using the Configuration Manager option for Operations Manager agents.

3. Alerts are generated by an agent while in Maintenance Mode

This issue could be caused due to the following reason:

- The object that was put into Maintenance Mode is not generating the actual alert. To verify this, right-click “Active Alerts” view on the Operations Manager console and select “Personalize view” from the menu. Select the check box next to “Class” under the “Columns to display” option.

You will see a new column “Class” under the Active Alerts view. Make sure the instance of this class for that agent is in Maintenance Mode.

- The alert was generated before monitoring was suspended on the agent. This can be verified by checking if the Event ID 1215 confirming the monitoring of the specific instance is suspended.

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For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2704170 - Understanding Operations Manager Maintenance Mode

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza Videos!

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 23 May 2012 03:35:18 GMT

I just noticed that all of these cool demo videos were posted to TechNet Video earlier this month. Check them out to see how System Center 2012 can make managing your private cloud a whole lot easier and better!

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 1: Deploy Bare Metal Servers to Hyper-V with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-1-deploy-bare-metal-servers-to-hyper-v-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 2: Multiple Hypervisors for Cloud Resources & Adding ESX Servers with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-2-multiple-hypervisors-for-cloud-resources-and-adding-esx-servers-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 3: Add Resources to a Failover Cluster with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-3-add-resources-to-a-failover-cluster-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 4: Service Template Creation & Deployment with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-4-service-template-creation-deployment-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 5: Standardized Service Updating with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-5-tandardized-service-updating-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 6: Monitor Network Devices with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-6-monitor-network-devices-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 7: Monitor and Automatically Resolve Issues in the Fabric with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-7-monitor-and-automatically-resolve-issues-in-the-fabric-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 8: Create an Orchestrator Runbook and Integrate with Service Manager with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-8-create-an-orchestrator-runbook-and-integrate-with-service-manager-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 9: Create Self-Service Request Offerings using the Service Catalog with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-9-create-self-service-request-offerings-using-the-service-catalog-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 10: Deliver Self-Service Request Offerings using the Service Catalog with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-10-deliver-self-service-request-offerings-using-the-service-catalog-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 11: Gain Insight & Visibility through Service Manager Reporting with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-11-gain-insight-and-visibility-through-service-manager-reporting-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 12: Enabling Application Performance Monitoring with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-12-enabling-application-performance-monitoring-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 13: Creating an Application Performance Monitoring Dashboard with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-13-creating-an-application-performance-monitoring-dashboard-with-system-center-2012

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 14: Deep Application Diagnostics & Insight with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-14-deep-application-diagnostics-and-insight-with-system-center-2012.aspx

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 15: Managing Applications Across Private & Public Clouds with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-15-managing-applications-across-private-and-public-clouds-with-system-center-2012.aspx

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 16: Managing Application Resources Across Private & Public Clouds with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-16-managing-application-resources-across-private-and-public-clouds-with-system-center-2012.aspx

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza 17: Self-Service Application Deployment with System Center 2012

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/private-cloud-demo-extravaganza-17-self-service-application-deployment-with-system-center-2012.aspx

Upcoming Webcast Series: Bare Metal to Private Cloud

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:42:52 GMT

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with customers over the last 6-12 months helping them plan out and deploy their first private clouds managed by System Center 2012. To help people get started faster I headed into the Enterprise Engineering Center (EEC) on the Redmond campus, arranged for some really nice hardware, and set up a System Center managed private cloud from bare metal all the way up. All along the way I recorded everything I did. In this 8 part webcast series I will show you some of the best practices and process for getting start with your System Center 2012 managed private cloud. We will deploy a Hyper-V host cluster, Virtual Machine Manager, Operations Manager, Service Manager, Orchestrator, the Cloud Service Process Management Pack, integrate them all together and do so in a high performance and high availability configuration.

The web cast series starts next week and will be every Tuesday and Thursday at 11:00 AM Redmond time from May 29th through June 28th. We will take the week of TechEd North America off. All of the web casts will be available on demand after the initial showing.

Please register for the sessions, add them to your calendar, and join me over the next few weeks as we go from Bare Metal to Private Cloud!

-Travis

5/29/2012 11:00:00 AM - Bare Metal to Private Cloud (Part 1 of 8): Beginning with the End in Mind

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9809577 or http://bit.ly/JTGtJK

Abstract:

In this session, we take a look at the end state of managing a private cloud with Microsoft System Center, including the Cloud Services management pack. The sessions that follow this session describe how to go from bare metal to a private cloud managed by System Center.
_____________

5/31/2012 11:00:00 AM - Bare Metal to Private Cloud (Part 2 of 8): Hardware and Prerequisite Software Platform

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9809578 or http://bit.ly/KJc41E

Abstract:

In this session, we take a look at the hardware used for these sessions as examples of the kind of hardware that you can use to run a private cloud. We’ll also discuss how to install and configure the prerequisite software, such as the Windows Server operating system, SQL Server data management software, and Active Directory Domain Services.
_____________

6/5/2012 11:00:00 AM - Bare Metal to Private Cloud (Part 3 of 8): Clustering Hyper-V and Installing a Highly Available Virtual Machine Manager Cluster

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9809579 or http://bit.ly/KvgVAM

Abstract:

In this session, we take a look at how to create a Hyper-V host cluster and install a highly available cluster by using Virtual Machine Manager, a component of Microsoft System Center 2012.

_____________

6/7/2012 11:00:00 AM - Bare Metal to Private Cloud (Part 4 of 8): Configuring System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9809580 or http://bit.ly/KlsCYU

Abstract:

In this session, we talk about how to configure Virtual Machine Manager, a component of Microsoft System Center 2012. We explore how to deploy agents, create a host group, create a cloud, and create virtual networks.

_____________

6/19/2012 11:00:00 AM - Bare Metal to Private Cloud (Part 5 of 8): Installing and Configuring System Center 2012 - Operations Manager

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9809581 or http://bit.ly/J2WDgE

Abstract:

In this session, we show how to install a highly available Microsoft System Center 2012 - Operations Manager and deploy agents to manage the private cloud.

_____________

6/21/2012 11:00:00 AM - Bare Metal to Private Cloud (Part 6 of 8): Installing and Configuring System Center 2012 - Service Manager

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9809582 or http://bit.ly/Ms8GtP

Abstract:

In this session, we show how to install a highly available Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Manager, including the configuration management database (CMDB), data warehouse, reporting, self-service portal, and service catalog.

_____________

6/26/2012 11:00:00 AM - Bare Metal to Private Cloud (Part 7 of 8): Installing and Configuring System Center 2012 - Orchestrator

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9809583 or http://bit.ly/JXQgPA

Abstract:

In this session, we show how to install a highly available Microsoft System Center 2012 - Orchestrator and installing the System Center and other integration packs for automated administration of the private cloud.

_____________

6/28/2012 11:00:00 AM - Bare Metal to Private Cloud (Part 8 of 8): Integrating System Center 2012

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9809584 or http://bit.ly/JcGHxd

Abstract:

In this session, we configure the many integration points between the Microsoft System Center components and also between System Center and Active Directory Domain Services.

KB: Notification of Operations Manager alerts may not be received

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:53:07 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published. This one describes an issue where recipients of Alert subscriptions may not receive e-mail notifications in OpsMgr.

=====

Symptoms

Recipients of Alert subscriptions may not receive e-mail notifications in System Center Operations Manager.

Cause

System Center Operations Manager is able to send e-mail notifications for new alerts, or alerts that have had a change in resolution state. E-mail notifications will be sent to all recipients that have subscribed to the alert, provided that the alert meets the defined criteria for the subscription, and all other pre-requisites have been met.If the alert does not meet all criteria, or notification is not configured correctly, intended recipients will not receive E-mail notification.

Resolution

Verify Notification Pre-Requisites have been met

The process for configuring System Center Operations Manager to send e-mail notifications via SMTP server is described in TechNet:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd440890.aspx

The notification channel will need to be configured with the correct FQDN and port of the SMTP server. This address and port should be accessible from the RMS.If it is blocked by firewall rules or anti-malware software, exclusions for the RMS should be created.

The channel can be configured for Anonymous authentication or Windows authentication.If Anonymous is selected, the SMTP server should either allow anonymous connections, or be configured with an exclusion for the IP address of the RMS.If Windows Authentication is selected, a Run-as account will need to be created and associated with the Notification Account Run-As profile.This account will need permission to send e-mail through the SMTP server.See the associated help page in TechNet:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd440886.aspx

Verify Subscriber configuration

Each subscriber can have a schedule during which time notifications will be sent to them.This is a general setting that affects all addresses configured for that subscriber.Each address that is defined for a subscriber can also have a schedule that specifies when that address is available to have notifications sent to it.This allows a great deal of flexibility with notifications.

For example:A subscriber could have general notification availability from 8:00am to 5:00pm every day of the week.This subscriber could have two addresses with different notification times, though, such as a work address that is configured for Monday - Thursday and an alternate address configured for Friday through Sunday.If e-mail notifications are not being received by the subscriber, the general subscriber availability and specific address availability must both be met before the notification can be sent.

The address the notification is sent to should also be verified as a valid address.The SMTP server and e-mail client of the subscriber should not have any filtering rules blocking e-mail from the Operations Manager server or the domain name.The Reply-To address defined in the notification channel can be added as an exemption to any filtering rules on the SMTP server or client, if needed.

Verify Subscription applicability

Subscriptions can have multiple criteria that must all be met for a notification to be sent.If any of the criteria are not met, no notification will be sent.

The first two available criteria are for the alert to be raised by an instance that is a member of a specific group and for the alert to be raised by an instance of a specific class.In these two criteria, the instance that raised the alert should be listed in the source field of the alert.The alert will only list the name of the instance, not the class.If the class that the instance is a member of is not clear, the Actions menu will list the available actions for that class when the alert is highlighted in an Alert view.The class should be included in the subscription, if class is a criterion, or the specific instance should be a member of any group that the subscription is defined for.

In some cases, an alert may be raised by a watcher node or replication partner on behalf of an instance.In this situation, the source of the alert would be the watcher node or replication partner, so alert subscriptions that do not include the watcher node or replication partner as a source would not send an e-mail notification.The most common instance of this would be missing agent heartbeat alerts, where the source is the instance of Health Service Watcher for that Health Service.

Subscriptions can be created for specific rules and monitors.A specific alert can be highlighted in an alert view and a notification subscription can be created for that alert from the Actions menu or by right-clicking the alert and choosing the Notifications submenu.If multiple alerts need to be included in a subscription, the “Created by rules or monitors” criteria can be selected in the new subscription wizard, and multiple rules and monitors can be selected at one time.

Subscriptions will notify on all alert severity and priority, by default, unless otherwise specified.Rules and Monitors that create alerts of specific severity and priority will usually expose overrides to change the severity and priority of these alerts.Overrides of these alert properties can be useful to include or exclude alerts raised by these rules and monitors from existing subscriptions.

If the criteria for resolution state is not specified, notifications will be sent when an alert is first raised (resolution state 0) and again when it is closed (resolution state 255).If custom resolution states are used in the management group, each time an alert’s resolution state is changed, a new notification will be sent.

NOTE:An alert notification will only be sent when an alert changes resolution state.If an alert is raised by a rule or monitor, alert suppression is enabled for that rule or monitor, and the conditions that caused the alert to be raised are encountered again before the original alert is closed or moved to a custom state, new notifications will not be sent.An increase in the repeat count of an alert will not send additional notifications.Once the alert is closed, however, any new detection of the conditions that raised the original alert will cause a new alert to be raised, with a corresponding notification.

Criteria that look for specific text in the name or in custom fields can also prevent some alert notifications from being sent.Any criteria that allow wildcard text may prevent notification if the wildcard values specified do not match the alert field specified.As a test, use a simpler wildcard value, or eliminate the criteria during testing to verify that the alert notification is sent.

=====

For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2709639 - Notification of Operations Manager alerts may not be received

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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Cumulative Update 6 for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 is available

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:44:41 GMT

Cumulative Update 6 for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 is available. Cumulative Update 6 for Operations Manager 2007 R2 resolves the following issues:

RMS promotion fails if NetworkName and PrincipalNames are not in sync for agents.
UI is limited to only 100 MB for the Memory Usage field in the wizard.
Additional OIDs in auth certificate are not processed correctly.
AEM creates duplicate computer objects in OpsMgr based on Agents NetBIOS name.
Cannot open reporting pane on OpsMgr 2007 R2 remote console.
Cannot view schedule for scheduled report.
ManagementServerConfigTool with the option "promoterms" fails because it stops polling the SDK Service.
OpsMgr reports are failing on Windows 7 with the error: "Cannot initialize report."
ACS events have "n/a" as their category in the ACS database.
Watch agentless monitoring listener to detect failure to respond.
SCOM SDK memory leak on cryptography keys and cryptography contexts.
After you click Edit Schedule, a message box appears, and you cannot save the change value.
Audit events can be lost when the AdtServer process crashes.

Cumulative Update 6 for Operations Manager 2007 R2 resolves the following cross-platform issues:

The installation process for the IBM AIX 6.1 agent incorrectly checks for AIX 5.3 packages.
After a system restart, the OpsMgr agent for Solaris may start to run before local file systems are mounted.
On Red Hat Linux version 4 and SUSE Linux version 9, LVM disks are not discovered and cannot be monitored.
The OpsMgr agent for AIX does not report the arguments for monitored processes.
When Microsoft security update MS12-006 is installed on an OpsMgr management server, that management server can no longer communicate with the OpsMgr agent on any Linux or UNIX server.
On HP-UX, OpsMgr cannot discover and monitor a logical volume that is composed of more than 127 physical volumes.

Cumulative Update 6 for Operations Manager 2007 R2 adds the following cross-platform features:

Support for IBM AIX 7.1 (POWER).
Support for Oracle Solaris 11 (x86 and SPARC).

For all the details and a download link, see the following Knowledge Base article:

KB2626076 - Cumulative Update 6 for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 is available

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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Open Beta for Private Cloud MOF Guide - Now Available for Download!

Travis Wright MSFT — Fri, 11 May 2012 03:53:57 GMT

Managing and Operating a Microsoft Private Cloud—How to Apply the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF)

The Microsoft Operations Framework team is working on a new guide: Managing and Operating a Microsoft Private Cloud—How to Apply the Microsoft Operations Framework.

Get the beta here.

This guide leads you through the process of how to manage and operate a Microsoft private cloud using the service management processes of the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF). The guide applies MOF’s IT service management principles to that conceptual architecture and technology stack. It describes how to maximize the potential of MOF’s people, process, and technical capabilities to manage and operate a Microsoft private cloud.

Follow this guidance for a private cloud that is better aligned to meet your business needs. Employ MOF’s service management functions (SMFs) to help align IT and business goals, which can enable you to perform private cloud activities effectively and cost-efficiently.

This guide focuses on the SMFs in the Operate Phase and the Manage Layer of MOF to give IT pros and managers what they need to know about managing and operating a private cloud. Management reviews—internal controls that ensure goals are met to achieve business value—are also included.

Tell us what you think! Download and review the beta guide, then send your feedback to mofpm@microsoft.com by June 11, 2012. We would especially appreciate feedback in the following areas:

· Usefulness – Is the technical depth of this guide sufficient for the topics covered? Will this guide be useful to you on a day-to-day basis? What portions of the guide are the most useful to your organization?

· Usability – Is the structure or flow of this guide effective? Is the information presented in a clear and logical manner? Can you easily find key content?

· Impact – Do you anticipate that this guide will save you time and accelerate deployment of Microsoft products in your organization? Has this guide had a positive influence on your opinion of the Microsoft technologies it addresses?

Benefits for participation:

· You get an early look at the guide.

· You will be listed on the acknowledgments page for providing usable feedback.

We look forward to hearing from you! Your input helps to make each guide as helpful and useful as possible. Thanks in advance for taking the time to review Managing and Operating a Microsoft Private Cloud—How to Apply the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF).

Subscribe to the MOF beta program and we will notify you when new beta guides become available for your review and feedback. These are open beta downloads. If you are not already a member of the MOF Beta Program and would like to join, follow these steps:

1. Go here to join the MOF beta program:

https://connect.microsoft.com/site14/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=1880&InvitationID=MOFN-M6H9-PV3X

If the link does not work for you, copy and paste it into the web browser address bar.

2. Sign in using a valid Windows Live^® ID.

3. Enter your registration information.

4. Continue to the MOF program beta page, scroll down to Microsoft Operations Framework, and click the link to join the MOF beta program.

Please send your comments and feedback to mofpm@microsoft.com.

Want to learn more about other MOF guides?

Visit our MOF page for information on the full series of Microsoft Operations Framework guides.

Check out our other Solution Accelerators:

You can see our full catalog of Solution Accelerators here.

Questions & Feedback:

For Microsoft-internal questions and feedback on the guide, please contact us.

KB: Deleting a Favorite in Advisor produces an error in the Event Log

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:44:54 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published this morning. This one describes an event you may see when deleting a Favorite in AVIcode or System Center 2012 Operations Manager.

=====

Summary

After deleting a Favorite Report from AVIcode Advisor in AVIcode 5.7 or Application Advisor from System Center 2012 Operations Manager, you may see an event logged with the message below. The event is logged as an Informational Event with ID 0 in the Intercept Log in AVIcode 5.7 and as an Error Event with ID 34852 in the Operations Manager log in System Center 2012 Operations Manager.

Subscription for Favorite cannot be deleted
Message: System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: The value for parameter 'SubscriptionID' is not specified. It is either missing from the function call, or it is set to null. ---> Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.Utilities.MissingParameterException: The value for parameter 'SubscriptionID' is not specified. It is either missing from the function call, or it is set to null.
at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.DeleteSubscriptionActionParameters.Validate()
at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.RSSoapAction`1.Execute()
at Microsoft.ReportingServices.WebServer.ReportingService2005Impl.DeleteSubscription(String SubscriptionID)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Microsoft.ReportingServices.WebServer.ReportingService2005Impl.DeleteSubscription(String SubscriptionID)
at Microsoft.ReportingServices.WebServer.ReportingService2005.DeleteSubscription(String SubscriptionID)
Source: System.Web.Services
Target Site: System.Object[] ReadResponse(System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapClientMessage, System.Net.WebResponse, System.IO.Stream, Boolean)

Stack Trace: at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
at Avicode.Intercept.SEManager.Core.Services.ReportingServices.ReportingService.DeleteSubscription(String SubscriptionID)
at Avicode.Intercept.SEManager.WebViewer.Modules.FavoritesSelector.DeleteFavorite()

More Information

This event occurs when the Favorite report being deleted has a NULL value for the SubscriptionID column in the dbo.FAVORITE table in the SEViewer database for AVIcode 5.7, or in the apm.FAVORITE table in the OperationsManager database for System Center 2012 Operations Manager.
This event can safely be ignored as the report is successfully removed from the users Favorites.

=====

For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2704138 - Deleting a Favorite in Advisor produces an error in the Event Log

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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Update to Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:19:28 GMT

An update to Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 has been released. In addition to the previous fixes for Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) and App Controller (AC), the update rollup now includes fixes for Operations Manager (OM).

A few things to note:

1) What we used to call ‘Cumulative Updates’ (CU) are now called ‘Update Rollups’ (UR).

2) We will release Update Rollups for the entire suite not individual components as we have in the past. Not every component will have something to release in each Update Rollup.

3) The UR 1 was originally released a couple of weeks ago. This is an update to the UR that now includes some fixes for SCOM.

You can find out more about what is in Update Rollup 1 and get details on how to download and install it here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2686249

The VMM and App Controller updates are available via Microsoft Update.

Below is a snapshot of the VMM and App Controller updates on Microsoft Update.

Management Pack to Sync Alerts to Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:35:20 GMT

This came out a little while ago but better late than never to promote it!

This management pack synchronizes System Center 2012 - Operations Manager Application Performance Monitoring (APM) alerts and Team Foundation Server (TFS) work items. After importing this management pack, operators can manually assign APM alerts to the engineering team. Assigning an APM alert to engineering creates a new work item in Team Foundation Server. The management pack workflow tracks and synchronizes changes made to TFS work items and changes made to associated Operations Manager APM alerts.
Important:
Only APM alerts that are directly linked to events in Application Diagnostics can be linked to TFS work items. If you assign any other type of alerts to engineering, they will not synchronize with TFS work items.
Feature Summary
After importing this management pack, operators can:

Manually assign APM alerts to the engineering team which results in the creation of a new work item in Team Foundation Server.
Track and synchronize changes made to TFS work items and changes made to associated Operations Manager APM alerts.

Download here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=29422

New Kelverion Runbooks for Connecting Operations Manager to Service Desks/Enterprise Management Tools

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:56:20 GMT

With Microsoft System Center 2012 Operations Manager connections to other Enterprise Management (EM) tools or Service Desks are now provided via System Center 2012 Orchestrator. Customers have been asking how to build a suite of Orchestrator Runbooks which enable a robust flow of data from Operations Manager 2012 to these other EM tools and Service Desks.

Kelverion have developed and recently released a series of ‘free of charge’ Runbooks that use best practices to connect Operations Manager 2012 to a number of EM tools and Service Desks as follows:

Service Desks

BMC Remedy ARS v7.5, 7.6
BMC Remedy ARS v7.1
HP Service Manager
Service-now.com

Enterprise Management Tools

BMC Enterprise Event Manager (BEM) v7.4
HP Operations Manager
IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus

These Runbook Connectors deliver a number of inter-connection functions such as;

Event forwarding
Automatic Incident Ticket creation
Automatic update of the SCOM Event to record the Service Desk Ticket ID
Monitoring of the target EM tool or Service Desk in order to automatically resolve the original Operations Manager Event once the Event is Resolved on the target system.

For customers looking for event enrichment and more in-depth processing of events from Operations Manager, this can be achieved by adding further Runbooks to the base solution.

The package includes the Runbooks, User Guide, evaluation copy of the Integration Pack for Databases and Runbook Surveyor documentation of the Runbook configurations. The package is available to download from here.

The product description is available on the Kelverion website here.

If you have any questions regarding these Connectors or require assistance please contact info@kelverion.com

KB: You may receive the error "Setup Cannot be Completed" when installing System Center 2012 Operations Manager

J.C. Hornbeck — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:31:30 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published this morning. This one discusses a database related issue you may run into when installing System Center 2012 Operations Manager.

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Symptoms

While installing System Center 2012 Operations Manager, the installation fails and you receive the error "Setup Cannot be Completed".

Cause

This may occur if the OperationsManager.mdf and OperationsManager.ldf files already exist in the directory where you chose to install the new OperationsManager database. If this occurs you will see an error similar to the following in the OpsMgrSetupWizard.log file:
[05:44:19]: Error: :Exception running sql string CREATE DATABASE [OperationsManager] ON PRIMARY(NAME=MOM_DATA,FILENAME='C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\OperationsManager.mdf',SIZE=1000MB,MAXSIZE=1000MB,FILEGROWTH=0MB) LOG ON(NAME=MOM_LOG, FILENAME='C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\OperationsManager.ldf',SIZE=500MB,MAXSIZE=500MB,FILEGROWTH=0MB) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS: Threw Exception.Type: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException, Exception Error Code: 0x80131904, Exception.Message: Cannot create file 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\OperationsManager.mdf' because it already exists. Change the file path or the file name, and retry the operation.
CREATE DATABASE failed. Some file names listed could not be created. Check related errors.
[05:44:19]: Error: :StackTrace: at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning()
at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteNonQueryTds(String methodName, Boolean async)
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.InternalExecuteNonQuery(DbAsyncResult result, String methodName, Boolean sendToPipe)
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery()
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.OperationsManager.Setup.DBConfigurationHelper.DBConfiguration.RunSqlStrings(String[] sqlCommands)
[05:44:19]: Always: :Failed to create and configure the DB with exception.: Threw Exception.Type: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException, Exception Error Code: 0x80131904, Exception.Message: Cannot create file 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\OperationsManager.mdf' because it already exists. Change the file path or the file name, and retry the operation.
CREATE DATABASE failed. Some file names listed could not be created. Check related errors.

NOTE The OpsMgrSetupWizard.log file is located in C:\Users\<InstallationAccount>\AppData\Local\SCOM\Logs

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you must either delete the old OperationsManager mdf and ldf files, or move them to a separate location and run the install again.

=====

For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2705760 - You may receive the error "Setup Cannot be Completed" when installing System Center 2012 Operations Manager

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 now available

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:48:49 GMT

Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 contains a number of fixes for System Center 2012 Operations Manager, App Controller and Virtual Machine Manager, including cross platform fixes and support for Oracle Solaris 11.

I won’t go into all the details here but you can see what’s included as well as get a download link in the following KB article:

KB2686249 - Description of Update Rollup 1 for System Center 2012 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2686249)

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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KB: The Orchestrator Runbook Service starts and then stops after 30-60 seconds

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:10:18 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published today. This one talks about an issue where the Orchestrator Runbook Service starts and then stops after 30-60 seconds and logs a 7023 event.

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Symptoms

The Orchestrator Runbook Service (orunbook) on a System Center Orchestrator Runbook Server starts successfully but then terminates after 30-60 seconds.
In the System Event Log of the System Center Orchestrator Runbook Server, the following sequence of events will be seen:

Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager
Date:
Event ID: 7036
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: <Computer>
Description:
The Orchestrator Runbook Service service entered the running state.

Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager
Date:
Event ID: 7023
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: <Computer>
Description:
The Orchestrator Runbook Service service terminated with the following error:
%%-2147467259

Additionally the following may be observed.

When querying the status of the Orchestrator Runbook Service using SC.exe, the following output shows the last exit code when the service is in a stopped state:

C:\Windows\system32>sc query orunbook

SERVICE_NAME: orunbook
TYPE : 10 WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
STATE : 1 STOPPED
WIN32_EXIT_CODE : -2147467259 (0x80004005)
SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
CHECKPOINT : 0x0
WAIT_HINT : 0x0

One or more exceptions may be captured in the Orchestrator Runbook Service logging folder on the Orchestrator Runbook Server computer. The default path for these logs is "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft System Center 2012\Orchestrator\RunbookService.exe\Logs".

Cause

The Orchestrator Runbook Service was not able to connect to the Orchestrator database. This could be due to any of the following reasons:

The service for the Microsoft SQL Server database instance is not running.
The hostname for the Microsoft SQL Server database instance does not resolve correctly.
An incorrect database instance has been configured.
An incorrect TCP/IP port may have been configured in Orchestrator or in Microsoft SQL Server for the database instance.
TCP/IP may not be configured as an acceptable binding or an alternative protocol binding may be configured as higher priority causing connections to work from some locations but not others (e.g. local versus remote).
The user account provided does not have appropriate permissions to the Orchestrator database.

Resolution

Correct the problem that is preventing the Orchestrator Runbook Service from connecting to the Orchestrator database.

Verify the Microsoft SQL Server database instance that hosts the Orchestrator database is running.
Verify that the hostname for the Microsoft SQL Server instance is correct and resolves correctly in DNS.
Verify that the correct Microsoft SQL Server instance is configured in System Center Orchestrator.
Check that the TCP/IP port configured in Microsoft SQL Server for the instance that hosts the Orchestrator database matches the TCP/IP port defined in System Center Orchestrator.
Check the protocol configuration for the Microsoft SQL Server instance that hosts the Orchestrator database to ensure communication via TCP/IP is the default protocol.
Verify that the user account of the Orchestrator Runbook Service or the SQL User Account is a member of the Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Runtime user role in the Orchestrator database.

More Information

The Orchestrator Runbook Service will only terminate due to failed connectivity to the Orchestrator database during the service start. Once the service has successfully started with full database connectivity, any future database issues will be captured and logged without the service terminating.
This issue occurs most frequently when the System Center Orchestrator environment is restarted and the Orchestrator Runbook Service starts before the Orchestrator database is fully online. In this case, configuring the Orchestrator Runbook Service Recovery Properties can often automatically remediate the problem by having the service wait a period of time and then attempt to start again.

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For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2702157 - The Orchestrator Runbook Service starts and then stops after 30-60 seconds

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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KB: Configuring Database fails and presents a Red X when installing System Center 2012 Operations Manager

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:22:27 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published this morning. This one discusses a database issue you may run into when installing System Center 2012 Operations Manager.

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Summary

When configuring the database during the System Center 2012 Operations Manager installation, next to the database name field, you may receive a Red Circle with an X inside and no tooltip provided with further information about the error if you hover over it.

More Information

This issue occurs when the database name provided is greater than 128 characters. To resolve the issue, shorten the database name to less than 128 characters.

=====

For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2704143 - Configuring Database fails and presents a Red X when installing System Center 2012 Operations Manager

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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KB: The status icon in a title column of a State View only shows health from the first item in System Center Operations Manager

J.C. Hornbeck — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:30:23 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published today. This one discusses an issue where the status icon in a title column of State View shows health from the First Item in System Center 2012 Operations Manager

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Symptoms

In System Center Operations Manager, the overall health column in any state view should reflect the worst state of all devices/servers in that view, however in System Center 2012 Operations Manager (OpsMgr 2012) it only reflects the state of the server/device in the first row. If you change the sorting order, the overall status column also changes.

Example:

Consider we have two servers in a state view. The first row has healthy state and second row has critical state. In this scenario, the overall health should show the Critical state (worst state). In OpsMgr 2012, we are only considering the first row's state and reflecting it as the overall state.

Resolution

This is a known issue in System Center 2012 Operations Manager and is scheduled to be addressed in Service Pack 1.

=====

For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2711108 - The status icon in a title column of a State View only shows health from the first item in System Center Operations Manager

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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KB: Regular expression support in System Center Operations Manager

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:35:04 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published this morning. This one discusses regular expression support in System Center Operations Manager.

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Summary

The authoring of management packs may need to include regular expression matching in discoveries and groups, as well as for pattern matching in expression criteria in monitors and rules.

There are two different types of regular expression support in the SCOM product, and you have to know which element you are working in to choose the correct one. Specifically, Group membership calculation and expression filters use distinctly different syntaxes for pattern matching.

More Information

Group calculation uses PERL regular expression syntax. By default, the matching is case insensitive, but in the XML you can specify that an expression needs to be….

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For the rest of this article please see the following:

2702651 - Regular expression support in System Center Operations Manager

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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New Top Solutions feeds for System Center products

J.C. Hornbeck — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:50:23 GMT

We are very happy to announce that seven of the Product Solution Centers on http://support.microsoft.com are featuring new Top Solutions sections that pull dynamically from the Top Solutions RSS feeds. The Top Solutions are usually listed on the page for the Key Resources tab.

The following solution centers have dynamic Top Solutions; the rest will be updated in the near future. Check out the new look and functionality!

Windows Server 2008 R2
SQL Server
System Center 2012 – select the tabs for the following products
- Configuration Manager
- Data Protection Manager
- Operations Manager
- Virtual Machine Manager
Lync Server

If you want to keep up to date on all the latest top solutions you’ll definitely want to check these out.

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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MPViewer, OverrideExplorer, ProxySettings - Boris’s OpsMgr Tools Updated

Daniele Muscetta — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:30:16 GMT

Over the years, Boris has released a set of phenomenal tools, that saved ~~lives of OpsMgr administrators~~ quite some time in performing common OpsMgr tasks in OpsMgr 2007 and 2007 R2..

Anyhow, Boris has moved to another team within Microsoft. In order to not let those tools go to waste, since I know many people use them, I have asked him to give me the code of his tools and allow me to update and maintain those tools going forward.

And so I did: I updated a couple of his tools to work with OpsMgr 2012, and also implemented a couple new features in MPViewer (MPB support, Unseal MPs) and in OverrideExplorer (Excel export) and I also fixed a few bugs here and there.

I actually did post those updated tools a while ago on my blog http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dmuscett/archive/2012/02/19/boris-s-tools-updated.aspx , but I am reposting here since some people have missed those and kept asking.

I will keep that page on my blog up-to-date with new versions and fixes, whenever I make them…. so make sure you bookmark that page and refer to it to grab the latest versions. Please reach out over there for comments and bug reports as well.

New Application Management blogs

Daniele Muscetta — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:18:01 GMT

In case you haven’t noticed, our colleagues and long-time Application Management experts Shawn Gibbs and Chris Childers have started blogging:

Chris http://blogs.technet.com/b/chrischilders/
Shawn http://blogs.technet.com/b/shawngibbs/

Make sure you add them to your aggregator, as a lot of good information is coming from them in regards to Application Management and System Center.

Beta versions of the Windows Server 2012 Management Packs are now available for download

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:07:37 GMT

Just a quick FYI that beta versions of the Windows Server 2012 Management Packs (MPs) for System Center 2012 Operations Manager are now available to TAP customers. These beta versions of the Windows Server 2012 Management Packs are available for you to test with on your Windows Server 2012 Beta machines (formerly Windows “8” Beta) and can be found at the Connect link below.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

The use of these MPs in a production environment is not authorized or supported.
These MPs can only be installed in System Center 2012 Operations Manager

The following MPs are available for download from Connect:

Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS)
Active Directory Directory Services (ADDS)
Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)
Active Directory Rights Management Services (ADRMS)
DHCP (Core Networking)
Remote Access
DNS (Core Networking)
Cluster Management
File Services
Windows Deployment Services
IIS
MSMQ
Network Access Protection
Network Load Balancing (NLB)
Networking QoS
Power Management
Print Services
Remote Desktop Services (RDS)
Windows Backup
Windows Server Update Services
Windows Operating System

We look forward to your feedback!

The System Center Team

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KB: The Operations Manager OpenView connector fails to auto-forwarding alerts to an HP OVO server

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:58:07 GMT

Here’s one more Knowledge Base article we published this morning. This one shows you how to easily fix an issue where the Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 (OpsMgr) Connector for HP OpenView fails to auto-forwarding alerts to an HP OVO server.

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Symptoms

The Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 (OpsMgr) Connector for HP OpenView Operations for Windows fails to auto-forwarding alerts to an HP OVO server. You also find information similar to the following in the SCInterop log file:

[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManModule] ERROR Could not deliver some events. No providers were available. Cannot create WSManConfig for any providers
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManModule] DEBUG Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.NoProviderAvailableException: Cannot create WSManConfig for any providers
at Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManModule.BuildWsmanConfigList(IConfig c)
at Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManModule.XFormOutboundAlerts_Callback(Topic topic, Payload payload)
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManModule] DEBUG Exiting WSRxAlerts_Callback method...
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.XFormModule] DEBUG Leaving CacheAlerts_Callback
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.Cache] DEBUG Leaving FilterAlerts_Callback
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.FilterModule] DEBUG alerts published
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.FilterModule] DEBUG Leaving OpsAlerts_Callback
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.OpsMgrModule] DEBUG 3 alerts published
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.OpsMgrModule] DEBUG acking alerts 3 to sdk
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.OpsMgrModule] DEBUG 3 alerts acked to sdk
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.OpsMgrModule] DEBUG Leaving TimerCallback
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManModule] DEBUG Entering TimerCallback method...
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManModule] DEBUG Retrieving events...
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManModule] DEBUG locked on WSRxAlerts
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManModule] DEBUG BuildWsmanConfigList called
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManModule] DEBUG Not all providers have be queried for WSManType. Attempting to query each provider
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManConfig] DEBUG WSManConfig constructor called
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManConfig] DEBUG Creating WSManConfig for OVO Server
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManWrapper] DEBUG Entering GetWSManType method...
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManWrapper] DEBUG Entering CreateSession method...
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManWrapper] DEBUG using basic auth
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManWrapper] DEBUG Calling WSMAN Session host OVO Server with parameters...
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManWrapper] DEBUG ResourceUri : https://OVO Server:1270
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManWrapper] DEBUG SessionFlags : 266241
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManWrapper] DEBUG UserName : root
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManWrapper] DEBUG Exiting CreateSession method...
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManWrapper] DEBUG Calling WSMAN Identify on host OVO Server with parameters...
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManWrapper] DEBUG Flags : 0
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManWrapper] DEBUG Exception A security error occurred occurred while determining WSMan type of server OVO Server
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManWrapper] DEBUG Exiting GetWSManType method...
[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Interop.Framework.Modules.WSManModule] DEBUG System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80072F8F): A security error occurred
at WSManAutomation.IWSManSession.Identify(Int32 flags)

Cause

This can occur if there are no providers can be contacted to get an update event.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, run scicert.exe to import the certificate from the provider into the connector server. To do this, on the server that the OpsMgr Connector for HP OpenView Operations service is installed, run the following command from a command prompt window:

C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Connectors\OpsMgr Connector for HP OpenView Operations\

Then run the following command:

scicert <OVO server> <wsman user> <wsman password> "OpsMgr Connector for HP OpenView Operations"

NOTE Replace <OVO server> with your OVO server name

NOTE <wsman user> will be the user you setup in the Connector Configuration UI (e.g., - doman\wsman user or root account)

If this is successful it will display the certificate thumbprint and ask if you want to continue. Enter Yes to import the certificate.

Once you have the certificate imported, restart the OpsMgr Connector for HP OpenView Operations service and check the log.

You should no longer see the error and should now be able to forward alerts to the OVO Server.

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For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2693106 : The Operations Manager OpenView connector fails to auto-forwarding alerts to an HP OVO server

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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KB: Windows NT services monitored by AVIcode may fail to start automatically

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:34:32 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published this morning. This one talks about an easy fix for an issue you may run into where a Windows NT service fails to start automatically if monitored by AVICode.

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Symptoms

Some Windows NT services may fail to start automatically on computer startup if they are monitored by AVICode. However, the services can be started manually afterwards. If you check the Intercept event log, you see an error similar to this:

[DATA],[TIME],Intercept Stub,Error,None,4000,N/A,A01-CRM-TRNS22,"An error has occurred. Please contact Technical Support if this issue persists.
Error: Monitor initialization timeout expired.
Please contact your system administrator.
Code: [CODE] Type: Internal External Time [DATE] [TIME] Thread: [TID] Raised in: (ret == WAIT_OBJECT_0). CInitThread::InitAndWaitFinish, Caught in: CProfilerCallback::Initialize.
System information:
Agent version: [INTERCEPT_AGENT_VERSION]
Windows version: [OS_VERSION]
Process ID: [PID]; Instance ID: [IID];
InstanceName: [NAME_OF_THE_SERVICE].

Cause

Startup time for services can increase due to the way the .NET CLR Profiling API works.

Resolution

Configure a startup dependency for each of the services that are not starting automatically, to be dependent on the Intercept service (AVICode agent) using this article:

193888 - How to delay loading of specific services (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/193888)

Also make sure that the Intercept service is set to "Automatic" startup and NOT "Automatic (Delayed start)".

More Information

This article applies to Windows NT services that are monitored with AVICode 5.6 or 5.7

=====

For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2695741 : Windows NT services monitored by AVIcode may fail to start automatically

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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