System Center: Service Manager Engineering Team Blog

How To Display User Class Extended Properties on Incident Form

Travis Wright MSFT — Fri, 25 May 2012 21:03:20 GMT

This blog post is from one of our community contributors - Markus Klein. Thanks for sharing Markus!

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Extending classes are common tasks in System Center Service Manager to bind external or additional information to a base class.

This example shows how to extend the AD User Class with two new attributes called test1 and test2 using the authoring tool.

The goal is to have these properties appear on the Incident Form and bind additional information to the Affected User.

Using the Authoring Tool you can add a new Tab-Item Test to the System.WorkItem.Incident.ConsoleForm and on it add two labels and two new textboxes for the new attributes to the form.

Now you have to change the binding property of both textboxes to the extended attributes created before. Unfortunately, these attributes are not shown in the attribute list of the “Affected User” relationship.

To add this attributes to the form, you will have to add the prefix “Affected User.” in front of the attribute name for the binding property.

Finally we need to seal the management pack and import it to System Center Service Manager.

The Incident Form displays now all new properties depending on the affected user.

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Note from Travis: You may want to do this with labels instead of textboxes in case you don’t want the text to be editable.

Clarification on SQL Server Collation Requirements for System Center 2012

Travis Wright MSFT — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:46:38 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.

Automatically Closing Completed SCSM Service Requests with Orchestrator

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 23 May 2012 03:52:00 GMT

This is a guest blog post by Mark Newton, one of our community contributors. Thanks for sharing Mark!

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I have set up a number of ‘Service Requests’ in SCSM 2012 which are all working great. However what we were finding was that all our requests once finished were in the SCSM console with a status of ‘Completed’. We were having to go in periodically and ‘Close’ all the request so that they will be eventually purged from the console. I thought what a simple job for Orchestrator to do and here is how I set it up.

This is what the run book looks like:

1. Monitor Date/Time is just setting what time do I want the run book to check for completed service requests.

2. -7 days is essentially saying check 7 days back.

3. Get Completed SRF gets service requests which are ‘Completed’ and older than 7 days using the information available on the bus from –7 days.

4. On the line between Get Completed SRF and Close SRF is ‘Only if value > 0’. This ensures that the next step is only carried out if there are service requests which have completed.

5. Close SRF closes the service request, sets a closed date and adds a description.

Private Cloud Demo Extravaganza Videos!

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 23 May 2012 03:36:15 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 02:41:31 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.
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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.
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Working With Relationships in the SCSM Orchestrator Integration Pack

Travis Wright MSFT — Tue, 22 May 2012 23:01:00 GMT

Working with relationships in the SCSM integration pack can be a bit tricky so this blog post is intended to provide some tips.

First of all it is really important when working with Service Manager to understand the data model. Have a look at the data model diagram that is included in the SM Job Aids package (more info) for details on what classes, properties and relationships exist in the out of box model. Keep in mind that the Orchestrator integration pack reflects this data model when you are configuring activities in a runbook. Another useful way to explore the data model is to use PowerShell (more info).

Secondly, if you haven’t already watched them I highly recommend watching these two demo videos that will provide you needed background info on automating service request fulfillment with SCSM and Orchestrator:

Demo: Automating Service Request Fulfillment from the SCSM Service Catalog with Orchestrator

Demo: Automating Service Request Fulfillment from the SCSM Service Catalog with Orchestrator–Real World Examples

For the purposes of this blog post we will deal with a fairly common scenario when you are trying to automate service request fulfillment using SCSM (Service Catalog and Service Requests) and Orchestrator (runbooks). The scenario is adding the requesting user to a particular group in Active Directory.

The relevant part of the data model look like this (simplified):

The Runbook activity is going to kick off the Orchestrator runbook and it is going to pass a single piece of data to the runbook via the Initialize Data activity – the Runbook Activity Work Item GUID:

Configuration in Orchestrator:

Configuration in SCSM:

So – now when the runbook starts out it starts from the context of knowing exactly which Runbook Activity Work item triggered it. From there we can figure out which Group is related to it (i.e. the group that the requesting user should be added to).

We can also figure out the parent service request (see hyperlink above) and then we can traverse from the service request over to the Affected User.

So – our runbook looks like this at a high level:

This is what each activity does:

Initialize Data – takes in the runbook activity work item GUID as described above.

Get Group Relationship – this activity finds all the objects of a specific class that are related to the runbook activity work item – in this case the Active Directory Group class. The runbook activity work item GUID that is passed in via the Initialize Data activity is used as the starting point.

Get Group Object – this takes the output of the Get Group Relationship activity and actually gets the Group object itself using the related object GUID that is returned by the Get Group Relationship activity.

Let’s recap where we are….

Now we are going to do essentially the same thing to get the parent service request.

Get Parent SR Relationship - this activity gets the relationship between the Runbook Activity Work Item and the Service Request.

Get Parent SR – this activity actually gets the SR object using the output from the Get Parent SR Relationship activity.

OK – so let’s pause here and take a look at the configuration of each of these activities so far:

So far this should seem pretty straightforward. Now we are going to get a little bit tricky. The next thing we are going to do is traverse from the service request over to the affected user and get that object.

Get User Relationship – This activity gets the relationship between the service request and the affected user.

Get User Object – This activity gets the actual user object.

And the configuration dialogs:

Seems the same right? Not quite! There is a catch here.

Notice how in the Get Group Relationship configuration I pointed to the Active Directory Group class.

And in the Get User Relationship activity I pointed to the Active Directory User class.

It’s really only conceivable for purposes of this scenario that the only Active Directory Groups that will be related to the Runbook Activity Work Item will be those which are related by the Work Item About Config Item relationship type.

In the case of the Service Request being related to the User class there are actually multiple relationship types between those two classes. In fact there are three in the out of the box data model:

Keep in mind that in the Get User Relationship activity the only configuration that I am providing is the source class (Service Request), source object GUID (Service Request GUID), and the target class (User). If the Created By User relationship points to Bob, the Assigned to Relationship points to Sally, and the Affected User points to Donna, how does Orchestrator know that I am looking for the Affected User Donna??

Here’s what happens. Orchestrator will grab all of the related objects that are of the User class that are related to the Service Request and put them on the databus as published data. If you open up the Runbook Tester and run this runbook you will see this in the output:

Those … mean that there is a collection of property values there not just one. If we double click on the … we can see the output in a table format:

So you can see in this case by looking at the Related Object GUID that the Affected User and the Created By User are the same user and the Assigned To User is a different user. Now – what we want to do is filter the list of objects that are passed along on the databus such that only the Affected User is passed along and everything else is dropped.

To do this we right click on the link coming out of the Get User Relationship activity and choose Properties:

Then click the Exclude tab and the Add button to add an Exclude filter. Click the first link and set it to Relationship Class, change the operator to ‘Does Not Equal’ and then click the last link and type in ‘Affected User’ (exactly as you see it above in the table).

This will now filter out the Assigned To User and Created By User and pass along only the Affected User on the databus.

That’s the trick! The rest is easy.

That’s it!

One more tip. As I showed you above you need to use the Display Name of the relationship type in question. You can discover the relationship type display name by using SMLets. First – look up the internal name in the Visio diagram of the data model linked to at the beginning of this blog post. For example the relationship type with the display name of ‘Affected User’ is called System.WorkItemAffectedUser. Then you can run a command in SMLets like this:

If you aren’t sure of the exact internal name of a relationship but you might have some idea of the word(s) that might be included you can do a quick search using part of the name using SMLets too:

FAQ: Why Doesn’t the SCOM Web Console URL in SCSM Work (403 or 404 Error)?

Travis Wright MSFT — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:27:36 GMT

When you have an SCOM alert-generated incident selected in SCSM you have two additional tasks available to click on in the task pane: View Alert Details and View CI Health State.

When you click on these tasks they will take you directly in context to the SCSM web console alert details or health explorer:

Alert Details	Health Explorer

However, in some cases, you may get a 403 error message – Forbidden: Access is denied. - like this:

Or a a 404 error message – The resource cannot be found. – like this:

Here are some common reasons why you might be getting these errors:

403 – You need to log into the SCOM web console in a browser window to create an authenticated session prior to clicking the task link in SCSM. I don’t think this was necessary in SCOM 2007 R2 but due to the architectural changes to the SCOM web console in 2012 it seems that this is now necessary, at least for now.

404 – You may have the wrong SCOM web console URL configured in SCSM. You might think it is http://<servername>:<port>/OperationsManager since that is how you access the SCOM web console. You might also have the SCOM 2007 R2 URL configured – e.g. http://<servername>:<port> . The web console URL has changed from 2007 R2 to 2012. The URL for accessing the SCOM web console for these two tasks is now :/MonitoringView">:/MonitoringView">http://<servername>:<port>/MonitoringView

The documentation on TechNet is out of date on this topic and will be updated soon.

New Exchange Integration Pack On the TechNet Gallery

Travis Wright MSFT — Mon, 21 May 2012 20:53:45 GMT

Bart Timmermans (blog, @Bart_Inovativ) , a consultant at Inovativ, has just released an integration pack for Exchange! Here is a graphic of the activities included. You can read more about the integratio pack on his blog or download it from the TechNet Gallery. Nice work Bart!

I’m really looking forward to setting up some automated self-service provisioning scenarios with the Service Manager service catalog + Orchestrator on the backend with this integration pack!

New SCSM 2012 IPD Guide - Now Available for Download!

Travis Wright MSFT — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:32:15 GMT

System Center 2012 - Service Manager

The Infrastructure Planning and Design team is pleased to announce that the IPD Guide for System Center 2012 - Service Manager is now available for download!

Download the IPD Guide for System Center 2012 - Service Manager.

This guide can help your organization more quickly benefit from this platform for automating and adapting IT Service Management best practices such as those found in Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). This guide takes you through an easy-to-follow process for successfully designing the servers and components of a Service Manager implementation. The result will be a design that is sized, configured, and appropriately placed to deliver the stated business benefits, while also considering the performance, capacity, and fault tolerance of the system.

Thank you to Vijay Aski, Thomas Ellerman, Dmitry Garaev, Rajat Kumar, Arjan van de Rest (Capgemini), Ranganathan Srikanth, Darko Vukovic, Kathleen Wilson, and Dave Winter (Dynamic Systems Integrators, LLC) for providing feedback on this or the previous version of the guide.

KB: The System Center Service Manager console crashes when creating a Knowledge Article

J.C. Hornbeck — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:12:44 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published this morning. This one discusses an issue where the SCSM console crashes when using a console installed on the Spanish version of Windows XP.

=====

Symptoms

When a new Knowledge Article is created in System Center Service Manager 2010 on a remote console installed on a Spanish version of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), when you click ‘OK’ to save this article, the Service Manager console crashes with the following exception:
System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Se produjo una excepción en el destino de la invocación. ---> System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Se produjo una excepción en el destino de la invocación. ---> System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException: No se puede crear una instancia de 'LocaleIDPicker' en el ensamblado 'Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.UI.SMControls, Version=7.0.5000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35'. Se produjo una excepción en el destino de la invocación. Error en el objeto 'CategoryStackPanel' en el archivo de marcado 'Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.KnowledgeManagement.Forms;V7.0.5000.0;component/allforms/knowledgeui.xaml'. ---> System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Se produjo una excepción en el destino de la invocación. ---> System.ArgumentException: Ya existe una entrada con la misma clave. en System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentException(ExceptionResource resource) en System.Collections.Generic.SortedList`2.Add(TKey key, TValue value) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.UI.WpfControls.LocaleIDPicker..ctor() --- Fin del seguimiento de la pila de la excepción interna --- en System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandle& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck) en System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean fillCache) en System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks, Boolean fillCache) en System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic) en System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.CreateInstanceFromType(Type type, Int16 typeId, Boolean throwOnFail) --- Fin del seguimiento de la pila de la excepción interna --- en System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException.ThrowException(String message, Exception innerException, Int32 lineNumber, Int32 linePosition, Uri baseUri, XamlObjectIds currentXamlObjectIds, XamlObjectIds contextXamlObjectIds, Type objectType) en System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException.ThrowException(ParserContext parserContext, Int32 lineNumber, Int32 linePosition, String message, Exception innerException) en System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.ThrowExceptionWithLine(String message, Exception innerException) en System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.CreateInstanceFromType(Type type, Int16 typeId, Boolean throwOnFail) en System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.GetElementAndFlags(BamlElementStartRecord bamlElementStartRecord, Object& element, ReaderFlags& flags, Type& delayCreatedType, Int16& delayCreatedTypeId) en System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.BaseReadElementStartRecord(BamlElementStartRecord bamlElementRecord) en System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.ReadElementStartRecord(BamlElementStartRecord bamlElementRecord) en System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.ReadRecord(BamlRecord bamlRecord) en System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.Read(Boolean singleRecord) en System.Windows.Markup.TreeBuilderBamlTranslator.ParseFragment() en System.Windows.Markup.TreeBuilder.Parse() en System.Windows.Markup.XamlReader.LoadBaml(Stream stream, ParserContext parserContext, Object parent, Boolean closeStream) en System.Windows.Application.LoadComponent(Object component, Uri resourceLocator) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.KnowledgeManagement.Forms.KnowledgeMainForm.InitializeComponent() en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.KnowledgeManagement.Forms.KnowledgeMainForm..ctor() --- Fin del seguimiento de la pila de la excepción interna --- en System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandle& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck) en System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean fillCache) en System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks, Boolean fillCache) en System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.UI.FormsInfra.FormViewController.CreateForm(String assemblyName, String typeName) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.UI.FormsInfra.FormViewController.CreateFormFromConfiguration(XPathNavigator configNav) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.UI.FormsInfra.FormViewController.ParseConfiguration() en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.UI.FormsInfra.FormViewController.EndInit() en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.UI.Console.FormViewController.EndInit() en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ComponentFactory.CreateComponentWithDefaultConstructor(ConstructorInfo constructor, IContainer parentContainer, String componentName, EventHandler`1 componentInitializeProcedure) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ComponentFactory.CreateComponent(Type componentType, IContainer parentContainer, String componentName, EventHandler`1 componentInitializeProcedure) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.FrameworkServices.ServiceTableRecord.CreateComponent(Type componentType, String componentName, EventHandler`1 componentInitializeProcedure) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ViewConstructor.CreateViewController(Object parent, Object view, Type controllerType) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ViewConstructor.BeginShow(ShowViewContext showViewContext, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.Wpf.GenericWpfViewConstructor.CreateNonRecyclableView(ShowViewContext showViewContext) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.Wpf.GenericWpfViewConstructor.CreateAndShowViewCore(ShowViewContext showViewContext) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.Wpf.GenericWpfViewConstructor.ShowViewOperation.Begin(ShowViewContext showViewContext) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.Wpf.GenericWpfViewConstructor.BeginShow(ShowViewContext showViewContext, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteOpenViewTaskStep.BeginDoStep(AsyncCallback callback, Object state) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.StepExecutionFrame.BeginStep(Action`2 completedCallback) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.BeginNextStep() en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.ContinueExecution() en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.StepCompleted(StepExecutionFrame frame, IAsyncResult result) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.StepExecutionFrame.StepCompleted(IAsyncResult ar) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteOpenLinkStep.OnEndExecuteLinkedNodeTask(IAsyncResult result) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.NotifyExecutionCompleted() en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.ContinueExecution() en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.StepCompleted(StepExecutionFrame frame, IAsyncResult result) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.StepExecutionFrame.StepCompleted(IAsyncResult ar) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteOpenLinkStep.OnEndExecuteLinkedNodeTask(IAsyncResult result) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.NotifyExecutionCompleted() en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.ContinueExecution() en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.StepCompleted(StepExecutionFrame frame, IAsyncResult result) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ExecuteNodeTask.StepExecutionFrame.StepCompleted(IAsyncResult ar) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.WindowManager.WindowRecord.IndicateShowWindowCompleted() en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.WindowManager.WpfWindowRecord.OnApplicationIdle(Object sender, EventArgs e) --- Fin del seguimiento de la pila de la excepción interna --- en System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeMethodFast(Object target, Object[] arguments, SignatureStruct& sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeTypeHandle typeOwner) en System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethodFast(Object target, Object[] arguments, Signature sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeTypeHandle typeOwner) en System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks) en System.Delegate.DynamicInvokeImpl(Object[] args) en System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter) en System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler) en System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WrappedInvoke(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler) en System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeImpl() en System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeInSecurityContext(Object state) en System.Threading.ExecutionContext.runTryCode(Object userData) en System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData) en System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) en System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) en System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Invoke() en System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.ProcessQueue() en System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WndProcHook(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled) en MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled) en MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(Object o) en System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter) en System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler) en System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WrappedInvoke(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler) en System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.InvokeImpl(DispatcherPriority priority, TimeSpan timeout, Delegate method, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter) en System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority priority, Delegate method, Object arg) en MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.SubclassWndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam) en MS.Win32.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessage(MSG& msg) en System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrameImpl(DispatcherFrame frame) en System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrame(DispatcherFrame frame) en System.Windows.Window.ShowHelper(Object booleanBox) en System.Windows.Window.Show() en System.Windows.Window.ShowDialog() en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.WindowManager.GenericWpfWindowConstructor.BeginShow(ShowViewContext showViewContext, Object parent, Object view, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.ViewConstructor.BeginShow(ShowViewContext showViewContext, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.WindowManager.GenericWpfWindowConstructor.ShowWindowCore(ShowViewContext showViewContext) en Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.WindowManager.WpfWindowRecord.ShowWindow() en System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state) en System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) en System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()

Under the Applications Event log, an error message (5000) is also logged:

Descripción:EventType clr20r3, P1 miisdoylp4janzlhyczwcu3fx1qy0rnk, P2 7.0.5000.0, P3 4cda301b, P4 mscorlib, P5 2.0.0.0, P6 4e154d36, P7 f4f, P8 7, P9 n3ctrye2kn3c34sgl4zqyrbfte4m13nb, P10 NIL.Para obtener más información, vea el Centro de ayuda y soporte técnico en http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.Datos:0000: 63 00 6c 00 72 00 32 00 c.l.r.2.0008: 30 00 72 00 33 00 2c 00 0.r.3.,.0010: 20 00 6d 00 69 00 69 00 .m.i.i.0018: 73 00 64 00 6f 00 79 00 s.d.o.y.0020: 6c 00 70 00 34 00 6a 00 l.p.4.j.0028: 61 00 6e 00 7a 00 6c 00 a.n.z.l.0030: 68 00 79 00 63 00 7a 00 h.y.c.z.0038: 77 00 63 00 75 00 33 00 w.c.u.3.0040: 66 00 78 00 31 00 71 00 f.x.1.q.0048: 79 00 30 00 72 00 6e 00 y.0.r.n.0050: 6b 00 2c 00 20 00 37 00 k.,. .7.0058: 2e 00 30 00 2e 00 35 00 ..0...5.0060: 30 00 30 00 30 00 2e 00 0.0.0...0068: 30 00 2c 00 20 00 34 00 0.,. .4.0070: 63 00 64 00 61 00 33 00 c.d.a.3.0078: 30 00 31 00 62 00 2c 00 0.1.b.,.0080: 20 00 6d 00 73 00 63 00 .m.s.c.0088: 6f 00 72 00 6c 00 69 00 o.r.l.i.0090: 62 00 2c 00 20 00 32 00 b.,. .2.0098: 2e 00 30 00 2e 00 30 00 ..0...0.00a0: 2e 00 30 00 2c 00 20 00 ..0.,. .00a8: 34 00 65 00 31 00 35 00 4.e.1.5.00b0: 34 00 64 00 33 00 36 00 4.d.3.6.00b8: 2c 00 20 00 66 00 34 00 ,. .f.4.00c0: 66 00 2c 00 20 00 37 00 f.,. .7.00c8: 2c 00 20 00 6e 00 33 00 ,. .n.3.00d0: 63 00 74 00 72 00 79 00 c.t.r.y.00d8: 65 00 32 00 6b 00 6e 00 e.2.k.n.00e0: 33 00 63 00 33 00 34 00 3.c.3.4.00e8: 73 00 67 00 6c 00 34 00 s.g.l.4.00f0: 7a 00 71 00 79 00 72 00 z.q.y.r.00f8: 62 00 66 00 74 00 65 00 b.f.t.e.0100: 34 00 6d 00 31 00 33 00 4.m.1.3.0108: 6e 00 62 00 20 00 4e 00 n.b. .N.0110: 49 00 4c 00 0d 00 0a 00 I.L.....

Cause

The issue occurs because when Windows XP SP3 was localized for the Spanish language, there was a mistake made in the entry for Sami (Southern) (Norway) (LCID = 6203). This was localized to Spanish as Sami septentrional (Noruega). Sami septentrional (Noruega) already exists and translates to Sami (Northern) (Norway) with LCID = 1083. LCID should have been translated as Sami Meridional (Noruega). Because LocaleIdPicker uses the DisplayName (which is the localized name of the language), it attempts to insert 'Sami septentrional (Noruega) as the key twice and hits the duplicate entry exception.

Resolution

On the affected computer, back up the registry, then delete the value 0000183b from the following registry location:

HKLM\System\CCS\Control\Nls\Locale

=====

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

2703129 - The System Center Service Manager console crashes when creating a Knowledge Article

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

Get the latest System Center news on Facebook and Twitter:

The Forefront Server Protection blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/fss/
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The Forefront TMG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/isablog/
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Customizing the Query Result Prompt to Store Related Objects Using Different Relationship Types

Travis Wright MSFT — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:33:03 GMT

MVP Patrik Sundqvist is at it again hacking around in MP XML and coming up with awesome solutions to problems. Check this one out.

http://blogs.litware.se/?p=1300

Nice job Patrik!

Signature Consultancy Now Offers Two New Solutions – CTI Integration and Work Item Scheduling

Travis Wright MSFT — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:06:36 GMT

One of our ISV/SI partners in the Middle East, Signature Consultancy, is now offering two solutions that have been in high demand from SM customers for a long time now. Check it out!

1- SMAX

SMAX is intended to provide SCSM with a scheduling functionality useful for booking analyst time for specific tickets. It uses exchange web services to send meeting requests directly from SCSM console to the assigned analysts. Additional details as well as a short video are available online (http://www.signatureconsultancy.com/smax.html)

2- SMTI

SMTI (Service Manager Telephony Integration) creates a link between SCSM and computer based telephony systems. It was designed to reduce the support call time for the highest numbers of incoming calls to support(people would call support to check on an open incident status or to create a new incident). SMTI would link up with computer based telephony such as Cisco desktop agent, Lync, 3CX, Avaya and others… to identify the caller and bring up a summary list of open incidents for that caller. SMTI also provides a reduced form for creating an incident. It is suitable for all levels of support and is especially useful for front line or first level support. Additional details as well as a short video are available online (http://www.signatureconsultancy.com/smti.html)

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

Travis Wright MSFT — Fri, 11 May 2012 03:52:43 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.

FAQ: How Do I Customize the SMPortal Header on the Portal to Something Else?

Travis Wright MSFT — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:37:52 GMT

Out of the box the portal header says ‘SMPortal’ like this:

That’s not something that you want to present to end users obviously. Fortunately this is super easy to customize since this is just basic SharePoint site customization.

To change this make sure you are accessing the site as a SharePoint site administrator. Just above where it says SMPortal there is a drop down labeled ‘Site Actions’.

Pull down that menu by clicking on it:

And click on Site Settings.

That will take you to a page that looks like this:

On the middle column there under the Look and Feel section click the ‘Title, description, and icon’ link.

That will take you to a page that looks like this:

You can change the title and the URL path here. You probably don’t want your URL to have SMPortal in it either. In the example above I changed the title to Contoso Electronics and the URL to /ServiceDesk. You can also specify a graphic file that will show up in the header area.

After clicking OK my site now looks like this:

Notice the URL too!

There are lots of customizations you can make to the portal just using standard SharePoint functionality. Just experiment by clicking around in Site Settings and try out some things!

KB: Additional Activities are created when creating a Change Request or Incident Request in System Center Service Manager

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:26:41 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published this morning. This one discusses an issue where you might find duplicate Activities in a SCSM Change or Incident Request.

=====

Symptoms

Scenario 1:

A new Change Request (CR) is created in System Center Service Manager. When you open the new Change Request, you see that there are duplicate Activities on the activities tab and the second of each activity will not have the prefix applied, only a number.
Scenario 2:

A new Incident Request (IR) is created from a template which has activities defined. When the new Incident Request is opened there are duplicate Activities on the activities tab and the second of each activity will not have the prefix applied, only a number.

Cause

When these requests are created, a template is selected to create the Request. When there are activities defined in the template, an instance of these activities are created at the time the request is created. Then the workflow runs, and because the option to apply a template is selected, another template is applied on top of the original template selected, which will then create the additional activities.

Resolution

Both scenarios above are resolved in the same way. In the Service Manager console, Under Administration -> Workflows -> Configuration, highlight the Change Request/Incident Request event workflow Configuration and click Configure Workflow Rules in the task pane on the right. In the configure workflows screen, there will be any number of workflows which have been defined. Find and highlight the one that matches the criteria of the Change Request or Incident Request submitted in one of the scenarios above and click Edit. In the Configuration wizard for this workflow, there is a section called Apply Template which has a checkbox next to "Apply the Selected Template". Uncheck this box and click OK.

=====

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

2703549 - Additional Activities are created when creating a Change Request or Incident Request in System Center Service Manager

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

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FAQ: Cloud Service MP Pre req error: The current user is not a valid System Center Orchestrator user

Travis Wright MSFT — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:08:00 GMT

Did you get this error message when trying to import the Cloud Service MP runbooks into Orchestrator?

This is because the Cloud Service MP is not actually testing to see if the user that is running the setup actually has the required permissions by asking Orchestrator. It is looking for something very specific: It wants to see if the logged in user is directly a member of a local security group called OrchestratorUsersGroup. You must also be running the setup on a Orchestrator management server.

Regardless of how you configured security for Orchestrator you need to have the logged in user be a member of a local group on the server called ‘OrchestratorUsersGroup’ in order to get past the prereq checker.

The Orchestrator setup explicitly recommends using a domain group to grant permissions so assuming people are following instructions I expect quite a few people will hit this when installing CSPP.

Default:

Normally should be changed to a domain group…

Of course, you still need to have permissions to write to the root folder in order to be able to create a new folder and import the new runbooks but you can actually get those permissions from however you configured it when you set up Orchestrator – probably by using a domain group and putting your user account in it.

Note: If you chose to use a domain account during the inital setup of Orchestrator you will not have a local OrchestratorUsersGroup. You will need to create it manually.

Cloud Service Process Management Pack RTM Now Released!

Travis Wright MSFT — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:55:52 GMT

Enhance private cloud management with new process pack

Microsoft System Center Cloud Services Process Pack now available for download!

The Microsoft Solution Accelerators team is pleased to announce that the System Center Cloud Services Process Pack is now available for download.

Download the System Center Cloud Services Process Pack.

The System Center Cloud Services Process Pack is Microsoft’s Infrastructure as a Service solution built on the System Center platform. With the System Center Cloud Services Process Pack, enterprises can realize the benefits of Infrastructure as a Service while simultaneously leveraging their existing investments in the Service Manager, Orchestrator, Virtual Machine Manager, and Operations Manager platforms.

Corporate datacenters are in transition. The recent shift from physical to virtual environments is now being replaced by an interest in moving to the cloud—specifically both private and public cloud infrastructures. Private cloud management assets are being delivered with System Center 2012 and a key part of this solution is the self-service experience. This experience is now significantly enhanced by the System Center Cloud Services Process Pack.

The benefits offered by System Center Cloud Services Process Pack for the enterprise include:

Deep customization and extension of the cloud services experience; natively supported by the System Center suite of products.
Reduced cost, effort, and time to deploy cloud services to organizations that already leverage the System Center platform.

The benefits offered by System Center Cloud Services Process Pack for consumers of IT within the enterprise include:

Standardized and well-defined processes for requesting and managing cloud services, including the ability to define Projects, Capacity pools, and Virtual Machines.
Natively supported request, approval, and notification to enable businesses to effectively manage their own allocated infrastructure capacity pools.

The System Center Cloud Services Process Pack offers a self-service experience to facilitate private cloud capacity requests from your business unit IT application owners and end users, including the flexibility to request additional capacity as business demands increase.

Download the System Center Cloud Services Process Pack: Download the process pack.

Learn more. Visit our TechNet Library page to learn more.

Tell your peers about Solution Accelerators! Please forward this to anyone who wants to learn more about Microsoft Solution Accelerators.

Already using Solution Accelerators? We’d like to hear about your experiences. Please send comments and suggestions to satfdbk@microsoft.com.

System Center

System Center 2012

Microsoft Private Cloud

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IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) 2012 Management Pack Released!

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:30:05 GMT

The Microsoft Solution Accelerators and the System Center Service Manager teams are pleased to announce the availability of the System Center 2012 Process Pack for IT GRC.

Download the System Center 2012 Process Pack for IT GRC.

The System Center 2012 Process Pack for IT GRC helps simplify, strengthen, and manage your organization’s IT GRC programs. This process pack enables your organization to manage compliance programs for over 400 regulations and standards, track risks and incidents, and automate hundreds of controls.

This update to the Process Pack for IT GRC adds capabilities allowing you to:

· Streamline your GRC process through exception management

· Drive data insights through comprehensive trend reporting

· Stay current with the latest knowledge libraries

New and existing users can download this release of the Process Pack for IT GRC from the Microsoft Download Center.

Streamline and strengthen your IT GRC compliance process through a combination of policy enforcement and a simplified exception management mechanism. With the exception management feature, you can now optimize your IT GRC process: easily define, classify, and manage noncompliance incidents, technology/service constraints, and justifiable exceptions. Simplified exception management provides for the creation, approval, and reporting of justifiable exceptions to control and assess the applicability for a given business/IT situation.

Drive deeper insights into your compliance health and status with comprehensive trending analysis and richer reporting. Proactively manage your IT compliance life cycle trends through multi-dimensional analysis across various measures, including control activities, risk factors, and exceptions, to strengthen your IT governance, risk, and compliance programs.

With the System Center 2012 Process Pack for IT GRC, you can automatically check, download, and keep abreast of the latest knowledge libraries through online and offline updates. With this release, you can broaden your IT compliance scope with even more control activities for various Microsoft technologies, including Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, and more.

For a complete end-to-end solution, the Process Pack for IT GRC should be used in combination with System Center Service Manager 2012. To learn more, please visit the System Center site.

System Center Service Manager and these IT GRC solutions provide a customizable and extensible platform that enables customers and partners to implement additional GRC capabilities.

The System Center 2012 Process Pack for IT GRC provides end-to-end compliance management and automation for desktop and datacenter computers.

Download the System Center 2012 Process Pack for IT GRC.

Learn more. To learn more about this end-to-end IT GRC solution, please visit the System Center site.

Tell your peers. Please forward this to anyone who wants to learn more about IT GRC solutions from the System Center Service Manager and Microsoft Solution Accelerators teams.

Compliance Management Forum

Regulatory Compliance TechCenter

Security Solution Accelerators

Microsoft Solution Accelerators

www.microsoft.com/GRC

Want to learn more about Compliance Solution Accelerators?

Visit our Compliance Solution Accelerators home page to discover how these tools can help your organization improve its compliance while saving time and money.

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

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Channel 9 Interview on Service Delivery and Automation at MMS

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:21:07 GMT

OK – this is more just about comedic relief here. You know how it’s always embarrassing/awkward to hear your voice on an audio recording (“I sound like that?”) ? Well, it’s even worse watching yourself on a video recording.

Symon Perriman, a Microsoft Technical Evangelist for IT pros, interviewed me at MMS for Channel 9. Anybody already reading this blog probably knows everything that I talk about in this video, but it’s fun just to watch anyway. We had to do about 12 different takes of the demo part because of microphone problems.

Enjoy laughing at me being a cheeseball on TV!

You can also download it and take it with you on your smartphone for whenever you need a little comedic uplift on the go.

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Service-Delivery-and-Automation-with-System-Center-2012

Hint: Watch my phone (Nokia Lumia 900) on the table. Now you see it. Now you don’t. They thought that part of the mic problems was my phone.

Updated Sizing Tool for SCSM 2012 Now Available!

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:08:27 GMT

The Sizing Tool for SCSM has been updated for 2012! This tool can be used to size your Service Manager deployment based on how much data you plan to manage. It specifies recommended HW and deployment topologies based on your inputs.

It is included in the Job Aids download package.

Up next for update:

* Data Model Visio diagram

* DW data model diagram

* Architecture diagram

For the most part those have not changed a lot from 2010 to 2012 so you can still use the 2010 versions for 2012 for now.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=232378

Microsoft Application Approval Workflow (RTM) Now Available!

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:59:13 GMT

Enhance your Application Approval Process

The Microsoft Solution Accelerators team is pleased to announce that the Application Approval Workflow Solution Accelerator is now available for download!

· Download Application Approval Workflow

Application Approval Workflow (AAW) takes an application request submitted through the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Application Catalog and transforms it into a System Center 2012 - Service Manager service request, allowing flexible approval lists and activities.

Key features:

· Synchronize Configuration Manager applications data into the Service Manager database.

· Monitor and transport Configuration Manager Application Catalog requests requiring approval to Service Manager and open a service request.

· Return the completed approval workflow status to Configuration Manager for handling.

· Allow administrators to define and maintain application selection criteria for specific applications or application groups and specific users or user groups.

· Track application approval service requests and view application catalog contents in Service Manager.

AAW extends your application approval process. End users can easily request applications on-demand directly through the Configuration Manager Application Catalog or via redirection from the Service Manager Self-Service Portal. Application requests requiring approval are routed to Service Manager where custom approver lists and activities can be configured based on user and application properties.

Download Microsoft Application Approval Workflow.

Already using Application Approval Workflow? We’d like to hear about your experiences. Please send comments and suggestions to aawfeedback@microsoft.com.

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Removing the Sample Incident Management Configuration – Support Tiers 1, 2, 3

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:44:06 GMT

This is a guest blog post from Sam Erskin (NN4 Consultants), one of our outstanding community contributors and “ MP XML guru” Dieter Gasser (Syliance IT Services). Thanks for sharing guys!

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

The default installation of SCSM is configured with sample names for the incident management views and lists. Most organizations have support groups with names personalized to their naming standards. Additionally the icons used in the sample configuration and the support folder are not available for views and folder created using the SCSM console (without XML editing).

Here is a process and steps to remove the sample configuration.

Incident Templates Modification

A number of the default templates are configured to use the Tier 1 support group. You must either delete the templates or edit the support group field using these steps.

SCSM Console \|Library \|Templates \|filter by incident
Select a template \|Properties \|Ensure When I click OK, open the template form is ticked \|Click OK
Delete the Entry in the Support group field
Click OK
Repeat for all Incident Templates with the support group field populated	High Priority Incident Template Default Incident Template Software Issue Template Printing Issue Template Hardware Issue Template Networking Issue Template

Delete Incident Support Group Views

The next step is to delete the sample support group views.

SCSM Console \| Work Items \|Incident Management
Expand Incident Support Group
Select Tier 1 Open Incidents \|Delete \|Yes to the dialog
Repeat for the rest of the Tier x views
Remove the Incident Support Group folder
SCSM console \|Administration \|Management Packs Select the unsealed management Pack : Service Manager Incident Management Configuration Library \|Export
Browse to a destination folder for Example D:\ManagementPacks\Export \|OK
Keep a copy of the original exported MP as a backup before proceeding with the next step!!!
Open the exported Management pack with an XML editor (For Example Notepad++)
Search for “ServiceManager.Console.IncidentManagement.TierQueues.Folder”
First occurrence will be a Category tag: <Category ID="ServiceManager.Console.IncidentManagement.TierQueuesFolder.Category" Target="ServiceManager.Console.IncidentManagement.TierQueues.Folder" Value="Incident!ServiceManager.IncidentManagement.TierQueuesFolderTasks" /> Delete it. From <Category … />
Continue search. Next occurrence will be a Folder tag. Delete it, including the parent Folders tag. * <Folders> * <Folder ID="ServiceManager.Console.IncidentManagement.TierQueues.Folder" Accessibility="Public" ParentFolder="Incident!ServiceManager.Console.IncidentManagement" /> * </Folders>
Continue search. Next occurrence will be a FolderItem tag. Delete it. <FolderItem ElementID="SMConsole!Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.UI.Console.Task.CreateGridView" ID="ServiceManager.Console.IncidentManagement.FolderItem.CreateTierView" Folder="ServiceManager.Console.IncidentManagement.TierQueues.Folder" />
Continue search. Next occurrence will be a ImageReference tag. Delete it. <ImageReference ElementID="ServiceManager.Console.IncidentManagement.TierQueues.Folder" ImageID="Incident!Wunderbar_IncidentManagement_16" />
Continue search. Next occurrence will be another ImageReference tag. Delete it. <ImageReference ElementID="ServiceManager.Console.IncidentManagement.TierQueues.Folder" ImageID="Incident!Wunderbar_IncidentManagement_24" />
Continue search. Next occurrence will be a DisplayString tag. Delete it <DisplayString ElementID="ServiceManager.Console.IncidentManagement.TierQueues.Folder"> <Name>Incident Support Group</Name> <Description>Contains Incident Management support group views</Description> </DisplayString>
Continue search and delete all remaining DisplayString tags that are found. This would be in all the other languages supported by SCSM
Save XML
Import the modified MP into SCSM \|SCSM Console \|Administration \| Management Packs \|Import
There is a warning message because you will be overwriting an existing MP. Click Import
Close the SCSM Console and Re-open to validate

Remove the List items from the Incident Tier Queue (Support Group)

SCSM console |Library |Lists |Incident Tier Queue

Double Click to Edit

Select Tier 1 |Click Delete

Repeat for Tier 2 and Tier 3

Enjoy!!!

Sam Erskine (www.NN4consultants.com )

Request Filter Query Result Filtering Tips

Travis Wright MSFT — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:25:34 GMT

Nate Lasnoski, a Microsoft MVP, has been working with some large customers on their SCSM deployments lately. He has shared some great tips on configuring Query Result prompts in request offerings on his blog. Check it out!

http://blog.concurrency.com/infrastructure/service-manager-request-query-result-filtering/

Thanks for sharing Nate!

KB: Service Manager 2010 Reports fail to include current data

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:16:53 GMT

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published this morning. This one discusses an issue where reporting data isn’t current due to a hung MPSyncJob or DWMaintenance job.

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Symptoms

In System Center Service Manager 2010, you may experience one or more of the following:

-Reports do not have current information
-ETL jobs are not running
-The MPSyncJob or DWMaintenance job is running for an extended period of time (e.g. a more than a few hours)

Cause

This can occur when either the MPSyncJob or DWMaintenance job is hung or stuck.

NOTE When the MPSyncJob or DWMaintenance job is running, it disables the ETL job. Because of this, no ETL jobs can run until MPSyncJob or DWMaintenance job finishes running. When either job is hung, no data will move to the DWDatamart for reporting.

NOTE The MPSyncJob can take up to 6 hours for intial deployment. However after initial deployment the MPsync job should complete quickly, usually in a few minutes. If the MPSyncJob is taking several hours or longer that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. This expected time also applies to the DWMaitnenance job - more information on resolving those issues can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh542403.aspx

Resolution

Before troubleshooting, you will first need to understand what a Batch, Module, and Workitem are.

Batch: Data Warehouse will create the batch for each process when it wants to run the extract job. For example:

Select * FROM Infra.Process Where ProcessName like '%Extract%'

Data Warehouse will create the batch for this process

Select * FROM Infra.Batch Where ProcessId = <ProcessID from 1st query>

Module: Module is defined to get the data from classes. Multiple modules are bound together to run in batches. One module runs one Workitem. To find out the modules process that the 1st query is running, use the query below:

Select * FROM Infra.ProcessModule Where ProcessId = <ProcessID from 1st query>

Workitem: Workitem is the smallest execution unit. Once all workitems are finished then the batch will be considered as finished

Select * FROM Infra.WorkItem Where BatchId = <BatchID from 2nd query>

Compare this query result with the result of 3rd query result (number of rows returned by query) will be same as every module runs in separate Workitem.

Troubleshooting Steps:

MPSyncJob hung:

When we see that the MPSyncJob hung, we first need to figure out why it hung. You can do that using the steps below:

1. Get the MPSyncJob batchid using the PowerShell command Get-SCDWJob –JobName MPSyncJob.
2. Issue the query to DWStagingAndConfig using the batchid from step #1.

select * from infra.WorkItem where BatchId = '...'

3. If no workitem is in status 7 (i.e. all of the workitems are either 6 or 3), and the job has been running for a while, then we need to restart the “System Center Management” service.

NOTE Find all the available status by using the query below.

Select * FROM Infra.Status

4. Otherwise, check the CustomInfo column of workitems whose statusid = 7

If it says waiting for acquiring lock, that means currently the DWMaintenance job is running. Wait until that job is complete, then the focus on why the DWMaintenance job is hung. If it says waiting for deployment to complete, then we need to run the following:

select * from DeploySequenceView where DeploymentStatusId != 6

If the query returns something where the status is waiting or not started or running, that means the deployment cannot complete. Next we need to check if deployment and execution processcategory are enabled using he following query:

Select * from infra.ProcessCategory

From here, we want to make sure the Deployment and Execution process categories are enabled. If they are enabled, from this point on the investigation should focus on MP deployment. Change the underlying table using this query

select * from DeploySequenceView where DeploymentStatusId != 6

This only returns those with a failed status, or if there are MPs that depend on the failed MP, their status should be Waiting. From the view DeploySequenceView definition in DWStaingAndConfig, we can see deploymentstatusId is calculated via the following tables:

dbo.DeploySequence,dbo.DeploySequenceStaging,and Infra.WorkItem

The work around for this is to modify the deploysequencestaging table using the commands below.

NOTE Please complete a backup of the DWStagingAndConfig database before running the query below.

use DWStagingAndConfig
update DeploySequenceStaging
set StatusId = 2
where StatusId = 4

The work around above is just to allow the MPSyncJob job to move on; it doesn’t resolve the MP failure to deploy issue.

DWMaintenance job hung

In general, when we see the DWMaintenance job is hung, we would troubleshoot this much the same way we would a hung MPSyncJob:

Get the DWMaintenance batchid by using the PowerShell command Get-SCDWJob –JobName DWMaintenance

Issue the following query to DWStagingAndConfig using the batchid from first step:

select * from infra.WorkItem where BatchId = '...'

From here, continue on just as you would for a hung MPSyncJob.

More Information

Prevention:
Monitor the Jobs running status weekly using the PowerShell command Get-SCDWJob. Use PowerShell instead of the UI because from the PowerShell output you can see how long the job has been running.

=====

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

2703027 - Service Manager 2010 Reports fail to include current data

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

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FAQ: Why is my Self-Service Portal/Service Catalog Blank?

Travis Wright MSFT — Fri, 04 May 2012 06:03:50 GMT

Does your portal look like this?

Here’s why:

The Self-service portal is a SharePoint web site. That much is fairly obvious since you had to install SharePoint as a prerequisite. The menu options on the left take you to different pages on the SharePoint site. Each of those pages has nothing but a single web part in it out of the box. You can add more if you want but it looks like this if you choose to edit the page:

Notice how the Home page has just the one web part – ServiceCatalogWebPart.

This is a map of the Pages – Web Parts:

Home – ServiceCatalogWebPart

Help Articles – Knowledge Article WebPart

My Requests – My Requests WebPart

My Activities – My Activities WebPart

Those web parts correspond to a set of Silverlight .xap files.

Home – ServiceCatalogWebPart – ServiceCatalogSilverlightModule.xap, ServiceOfferingSilverlightModule.xap, RequestOfferingSilverlightModule.xap

Help Articles – Knowledge Article WebPart – KnowledgeArticleSilverlightModule.xap

My Requests – My Requests WebPart – MyActivitiesSilverlightModule.xap

My Activities – My Activities WebPart – MyRequestsSilverlightModule.xap

These web parts are hosted on the Web Content Server in the folder (by default):

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\System Center Service Manager Portal\ContentHost\ClientBin

There is also a Settings.xml file that is hosted there which contains settings for controlling the layout and format of the Silverlight web parts.

There are also some .resx files which contain localized text strings and some .zip files which contain other things the Silverlight web parts need.

All of these files need to be downloaded to the client browser in order to display the Silverlight web parts. That’s why this web site is called the *Content* server.

The SCSMWebContentServer is configured to be rooted at C:\inetpub\wwwroot\System Center Server Manager Portal

Sooo….

First of all – you need Silverlight installed!

Secondly – you need to make sure that the Web Content Server URL is configured correctly in the settings of the SharePoint web site. To do that go to IIS Manager on the SharePoint site web server.

Select Service Manager Portal in the tree.

Double click the Application Settings icon.

Double click the SMPortal_WebContentServer_URL to configure it:

Make sure the name is SMPortal_WebContentServer_URL.

Then make sure that the following is true about the URL:

1) If you are using HTTPS to access the SharePoint site then the value for the Web Content Server URL must also be HTTPS. If you are using HTTP for SharePoint then the Web Content Server URL should be HTTP.

2) If you are using the NetBIOS name of the computer to access SharePoint then you should have the NetBIOS name of the Web Content Server in the URL. If you are using FQDN to access SharePoint then configure the Web Content Server URL to use FQDN,

3) Make sure the port is right. It is configurable during setup. It should be set to the value that you see when you right click on the SCSMWebContentServer web site and choose Edit Bindings…

If you have the site configured for both HTTP and HTTPS then make sure you configure the URL with the port that corresponds to the protocol.

Then – test the Web Content Server URL first to make sure it is right before you save it. Just open a browser and paste it in followed by ‘Settings.xml’ e.g. http://SP:85/ContentHost/ClientBin/Settings.xml. That should resolve to something that looks like this:

If you are using a load balancer for your Web Content Server make sure you are using the cluster name to connect to not one of the individual node names. See this blog post for more information on How to Configure the Self-Service Portal SharePoint Site or the Web Content Server for Load Balancing.

Hope that helps!