Today I got an email from Mark Wolzak with the question if I could give some exposure to his newly created Maintenance Mode GUI based on PowerShell and Windows Forms.
At his company there are several people who have to perform maintenance tasks in the monitored environment. Not all of them are familiar with powershell or the operationsmanager console. And there will be probably more people who have the same issues at their company ;-)
That’s why he combined the agent maintenance mode script and the group maintenance mode scripts in a graphical UI so that people no longer need to be familiar with powershell or the operations manager console.
And now he is giving his solution to the community. So if you are interested. Take a look at his website and download this new Maintenance Mode GUI based on PowerShell.
And in case you want to create a Shortcut to this script you can take a look at the Windows Scripting Guys how to do that.
There are new OpsMgr 2007 R2 Release Candidate downloads available from Microsoft Connect
There are a number of enhancements over the beta released in November, including:* New Power Management MP template (the monitored system must be either Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7)* Updated branding across all user interfaces, including a new skin* Improved trace configuration tools to help support issues escalated to Customer Support (if applicable)* Improved Run As Account Distribution Configuration* Ability to run inline tasks for non-Microsoft servers* Support for upgrade from Beta deployments to the Release Candidate* New and updated documentation, including the Usage Guide, Design Guide, Deployment Guide, Upgrade Guide, Security Guide, and Operations GuideThe RC should be upgradeable to the RTM version once that is available, but since this is a test version, do not run it in a production environment unless you have made special arrangements with Microsoft.
Go and download the latest.
Source: The Configuration Manager Support Team Blog
Beginning on Monday, March 30, 2009, support for Microsoft's Premier customers on System Center products will move from a live phone queue to callback. This applies to the Systems Management Server/Configuration Manager (SMS/ConfigMgr) and the Operations Manager (MOM/SCOM) product lines and includes all severities and Premier offerings. Normal response goals for support on these products have not changed, and support will continue to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This will bring these products in-line with all other support offerings and products in the System Center family of products.
So why move to a callback model? The primary reason we made the decision to move to a callback model is because of the success we’ve already seen by doing this with the other System Center products. A callback model allows us to get a customer to the support engineer who is best able to resolve that particular issue as quickly as possible, instead of simply the engineer who happens to be the first one available. This is a big win as we’ve found that connecting you with the right engineer from the start gets your issue resolved faster, saving you both time and money and increasing satisfaction.
If you have any questions about this change, please contact your Technical Account Manager, or you can contact the System Center Support management team directly at sccbfb@microsoft.com.
Remark: For EMEA this callback model was already implemented.
Source: PRWeb
“Savision B.V., the leader in Microsoft® System Center Operations Manager visualization, today announced the availability of a free version of Live Maps for Microsoft Operations Manager 2007. Microsoft Operations Manager administrators everywhere can now benefit from the extraordinary visualization capabilities of Live Maps v3. The free version is fully functional and allows IT organizations to create three maps of any type.”
The free version of Live Maps may be downloaded at www.savision.com/free.
Savision also has a blog now, you can subscribe to their rss feed here http://blog.savision.com/.
Source: Simple-Talk
Thomas LaRock has written an article about using OpsMgr Reports to Validate (your SQL components) uptime.
Check it out.
You can also follow Thomas LaRock (@sqlbatman) on Twitter if you want.
Source: Kevin Holman’s OpsMgr Blog
Kevin blogged about ways to find the differences between different versions of a MP.
After converting the MP’s to XML files he showed you could use XML Notepad or Beyond Compare to show the differences between the two MP’s.
He ends with the question if you have some better/cooler XML diff tools to let him know.
I found another ways of finding the differences but I don’t think these are any better, because they still doe not provide the summary in the context of OpsMgr.
Ok, how could you find the differences between a MP?
First you could PowerShell.
PowerShell has a Cmdlet called Compare-Object. This Cmdlet takes two resultsets and automatically analyzes them. It then outputs only those items present in either one of the result sets.
Steps:
Complete PowerShell script
$version1 = get-content C:\temp\Compare\version1\System.Mom.BackwardCompatibility.Library.xml $version2 = get-content C:\Temp\Compare\Version2\System.Mom.BackwardCompatibility.Library.XML Compare-Object $version1 $version2
But as said before I don’t think this would really be an improvement above the ways Kevin mentions.
The second method is using Compare Sheets in Excel.
First export the MP’s to Excel with the MPViewer tool from Boris and doing the comparison within Excel. I’ve found some great Excel tools from JMT Excel Consulting which have a Compare Sheets macro you could use to do the comparison.
Only problem with this Macro is you have to select each Worksheet manually before you can do the comparison.
So the question still remains do you better ways of finding the differences between MP’s with some OpsMgr context?
Source: SCOMNIVORE at myITForum
Today I got an email from Vin di Pippo about his new blog article about Relationships in OpsMgr 2007.
Great service, being notified by a personal email ;-) He also mentioned he will be posting as much new content as he can. I don’t mind him posting not that often, because when he does it’s such a great content. It’s about quality and not quantity. Maybe I should also stick to that idea ;-)
So if you are ready for some level 400 content about Relationships in OpsMgr 2007 check it out.
Great work Vin!
The last couple of weeks I’m trying to be the fastest on @twitbrain. Twitbrain is a challenge to answer calculation questions like How much is? 713 – 63 * 3
Example:
But the more people following @twitbrain on Twitter the more difficult it becomes to be the first who answers the question correct.
So I thought of a way to cheat on Twitbrain. Call me evil, but I only cheated 3 times, and it was just for the PowerShell learning experience. I won’t do it again. I hope you all can forgive me ;-)
So how did I cheat?
I used PowerShell to do the math for me and post the result on Twitter as soon as there was a new challenge on the Twitbrain website.
For those interested you can find the PowerShell script on Poshcode. But please don’t use it anymore because that would spoil Twitbrain for all those who want to play it fair!
You could easily use the example for other websites where you want to find info and post it on Twitter.
I’ve just planned my sessions for MMS 2009. If you haven’t planned your sessions please go the website.
Source: TechNet Flash Newsletter
In case you missed it in your TechNet Flash Newsletter.
Create Visio Network Diagrams in a Snap – Download the Free LANsurveyor Express Plug-in
As an IT professional, you need an up-to-date network map to help you diagnose connectivity issues and maintain workplace productivity. Now LANsurveyor Express can automatically create network diagrams for you within Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007. It’s valued at US$499, but for a limited time only, it’s free.
Not subscribed yet to the TechNet Flash Newsletter? Go to the registration here.
Just back from snowboarding in Austria and before starting to work again I needed to train my brains again. And instead of using my girlfriends Nintendo DS lite with Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training I found @twitbrain on Twitter ;-)
So back to those old days where your teaser was asking the next question?
How much is 75 +plus+ (7 *times* 45) +plus+ (4 *times* 73)?
Me!Me!Me!