February, 2012

Did you miss System Center Universe?  No problem.  The sessions were all recorded and are now available for viewing on demand here:

http://www.systemcenteruniverse.com/Agenda?sf3213864=1

In case you missed it, this is the site for the System Center Universe:

http://systemcenteruniverse.com/

Thanks again to the sponsors of System Center Universe and to the speakers!!  It was a great community event.

Twitter hashtag: #SCU2012

Looking forward to the next one!

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published today. This one talks about an issue where OpsMgr integration with System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager fails with error 10218:

=====

Symptoms

When creating the integration from System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM 2012) to Operations Manager, the integration fails with the following error:

Error (10218)
Setup could not import the System Center Virtual Machine Manager Management Pack into Operations Manager server because one or more required management packs are missing. The SCVMM Management Packs cannot be deployed unless the following component management packs are present in Operations Manager 2007:
Windows Server Internet Information Services 2003,
Windows Server 2008 Internet Information Services 7,
Windows Server Internet Information Services Library,
SQL Server Core Library.

NOTE All required Management Packs have been imported in Operations Manager.

Cause

In this scenario, the Virtual Server 2005 R2 Management Pack was imported which imports the Microsoft Virtualization Core Library. The cause of the problem is that SCVMM 2012 will import a newer version of the Microsoft Virtualization Core Library Management Pack and the old version cannot be present in order for integration to complete successfully.

Resolution

There are two potential solutions:

1. Remove the old version of the Microsoft Virtualization Core Library and the Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Management Pack.

or

2. Configure a second Operations Management group for the SCVMM 2012 integration and configure the SCVMM 2012 server as well as the Hyper-V servers to report to this new management group.

More Information

The Microsoft Virtualization Core Library is a Hyper-V Management Pack developed by the Hyper-V team. It has been updated to support the latest version of Hyper-v and improve monitoring of the hosts.

=====

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

2674625 : Operations Manager integration with System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager fails with error 10218

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

Get the latest System Center news on Facebook and Twitter:

App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/appv/
ConfigMgr Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/
DPM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/dpm/
MED-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/medv/
Orchestrator Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/orchestrator/
Operations Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/
SCVMM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/scvmm
Server App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/serverappv
Service Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager
System Center Essentials Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenteressentials
WSUS Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/sus/

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/

We will add a new product family to your WSUS server today – System Center. The System Center product family will contain updates for versions 2012 and higher of System Center products, which include System Center 2012, a product that combines components such as:

• Operations Manager
• Configuration Manager
• Data Protection Manager
• Service Manager
• Virtual Machine Manager
• Endpoint Protection
• Orchestrator
• App Controller

The System Center product family will allow a variety of update types, e.g. service packs, optional updates, critical updates, and security updates. System Center updates will also be available in the Microsoft Update Catalog at http://catalog.update.microsoft.com.

You will see new product categories appear under the System Center product family as new updates are available for each product or product component. The first product category to be added will be System Center Advisor. For additional information about System Center Advisor, see http://www.SystemCenterAdvisor.com/.

We encourage you to synchronize the System Center product family if you are planning to deploy System Center 2012, either through upgrades or new licenses, or if you already have System Center 2012 products in your managed environment. For additional information about System Center 2012, see http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/system-center/default.aspx.

One of our System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management MVPs, Kristian Nese, wrote up a great article on his blog describing services in System Center Virtual Machine Manager.  I definitely recommend taking a read through that if you are new to services in Virtual Machine Manager.

Here is a link to the article on Kristian’s blog:

http://kristiannese.blogspot.com/2012/02/getting-started-with-services-in-vmm.html

Also, check out the blog series by Yung Chou, Sr. IT Pro Evangelist at Microsoft, if you aren’t already following this:

• Part 1: Scenario and Lab Environment
• Part 2: Importing Service Template into Library Share
• Part 3: Changing Service Template
• Part 4: Deploying Service Template to Target Private Cloud (coming soon)
• Part 5: Managing Service Instance  (coming soon)

Also, check out these previous posts on this blog from Alaks Sevugan if you haven’t already:

Overview of a Service in SCVMM 2012

Creating Service Templates using the VMM 2012 Service Template Designer

How to customize and deploy a Service in SCVMM 2012

I’ll keep adding more info here as I come across it.  If you have some other information sources on services, please drop them in the comments!

Following the release of System Center 2012 Release Candidate, Microsoft is pleased to announce the availability of the Release Candidate of the Orchestrator Integration Packs for the following System Center 2012 components:

• System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager
• System Center 2012 Operations Manager
• System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager
• System Center 2012 Service Manager

In addition, Release Candidate Orchestrator Integration Packs are also available for the following System Center products:

• System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2
• System Center Service Manager 2010
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2
• System Center Data Protection Manager 2010
• System Center Configuration Manager 2007

All of the above listed Integration Packs allow customers and partners to gain better automation and integration across their datacenter and private cloud environments by standardizing IT process and systems activities to drive greater consistency and improve operational ROI.

To obtain the Release Candidate Integration Pack download, visit http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=28725

System Requirements:

System Center 2012 Component Support: System Center 2012 RC Orchestrator must be installed prior to installing the System Center 2012 RC Integration Packs.

Installation Instructions:

System Center 2012 RC Orchestrator Integration Packs

• Download the System_Center_2012_Orchestrator_Integration_Packs.EXE file from the link above
• Double click on System_Center_2012_Orchestrator_Integration_Packs.EXE
• Follow the on screen prompts to extract the Integration Packs
• After you extract the Integration Pack files, you must register them with the System Center 2012 RC Orchestrator management server and then deploy it to Runbook Servers and Runbook Designers. For instructions on how to install Integration Packs, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239936.

Related Resources:

Integration Pack Installation Instructions http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239936

System Center 2012 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=216991

Integration Pack Guide http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=220929

This Release Candidate contains the following:

• Orchestrator Integration Pack for System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager
  • 30 Runbook Activities including:  Create Checkpoint, Create New Disk, Create New
    Disk from VHD, Create Network Adapter, Create User Role, Create VM From
    Template, Create VM from VHD, Create VM from VM, Get Checkpoint, Get Disk, Get
    Network Adapter, Get User Role, Get User Role Quota, Get VM, Manage Checkpoint,
    Move VM, Remove User Role, Remove VM, Repair VM, Resume VM, Run VMM PowerShell
    Script, Shut Down VM, Start VM, Stop VM, Suspend VM, Update Disk, Update
    Network Adapter, Update User Role Property, Update User Role Quota and Update
    VM.
  • RunVMM PowerShell Script allows runbooks to easily interact with the SC2012
    VMM PowerShell surface.

• Orchestrator Integration Pack for System Center 2012 Service Manager
  • 13 Runbook Activities including:  Create Change with Template, Create
    Object, Create Incident with Template, Create Related Object, Create
    Relationship, Delete Relationship, Get Activity, Get Object, Get Relationship,
    Monitor Object, Update Activity, Upload Attachment and Update Object.

• Orchestrator Integration Pack for System Center 2012 Operations Manager
  • 8 Runbook Activities including: Create Alert, Get Alert, Get Monitor,
    Monitor Alert, Monitor State, Start Maintenance Mode, Stop Maintenance Mode and
    Update Alert.
• Orchestrator Integration Pack for System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager
  • 9 Runbook Activities including:  Create Recovery Point, Get Data Source,
    Get Recovery Point, Get DPM Server Capacity, Protect Data Source, Recover
    SharePoint, Recover SQL, Recover VM and Run DPM PowerShell Script
  • Run DPM PowerShell Script allows runbooks to easily interact with the SC2012
    DPM PowerShell surface.
• Integration Packs for System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, Operations Manager 2007 R2, Configuration Manager
  2007, Service Manager 2010, Data Protection Manager 2010 (unchanged from previous RC).

• (YES!) Start/Stop Maintenance Mode for a Windows or Unix computer now recurses
        through all child monitors on that computer!
• New published data from Get Alert and Monitor Alert:CompanyKnowledge, ManagementPackMonitorName,
         MonitoringRuleName, ManagementPackName, ManagementPackFriendlyName,
         ManagementPackDisplayName, ManagementPackId, ManagementPackVersion,
         ManagementPackIsSealed

Post RC:

• Integration Pack for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager

I just came across a great blog post over on the Microsoft Server and Cloud Platform Blog that I thought I’d share with you.  It was written by Microsoft’s own Kenon Owens and covers over a lot of information about using System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager’s Dynamic Optimization feature in your private cloud infrastructure:

As more and more organizations are moving towards the private cloud, you may be wondering what you can do to give your apps the best chance of running most efficiently. You are possibly working to create your private cloud. Perhaps, you have it already deployed and configured. Now, you want to help ensure that the Apps running on your cloud are getting the resources they need, when they need them.

You can continue reading Kenon’s article here.

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

Get the latest System Center news on Facebook and Twitter:

App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/appv/
AVIcode Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/avicode
ConfigMgr Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/
DPM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/dpm/
MED-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/medv/
OOB Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/oob/
Opalis Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/opalis
Orchestrator Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/orchestrator/
OpsMgr Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/operationsmgr/
SCMDM Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/mdm/
SCVMM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/scvmm
Server App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/serverappv
Service Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager
System Center Essentials Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenteressentials
WSUS Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/sus/

The Forefront Server Protection blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/fss/
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/