• Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Overrides in separate management packs

    • 0 Comments

    I saw this question in one of our internal maillists and I sometimes also get the question why you aren’t able to select another MP than the one where the custom monitor has been saved.

    clip_image001

    Why is this and is there a way to place them in a separate MP?

    Answer:

    This is happening because the monitors are defined in an unsealed MP. When you create an override for a monitor and store it into a separate MP, under the covers there is a reference created from the override MP to the MP which defined the monitor. There can only be references created to sealed MPs. In order to create overrides in a separate MP, you need to first seal the MP which contains the monitor.

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Goaaaal! MPViewer with export to Excel

    • 1 Comments

    Source: Boris Yanusholsky

    Update:  I found that the that the MPViewer export to HTML functionality didn’t work with the latest version of the E12 MP (Silect MPStudio Lite also has an issue with this MP when you want to document this MP). This was caused by a bug in MPViewer and Boris corrected it ;-) He also added some more minor features such as frequency for performance monitors as well breaking out the monitors by type (unit, dependency, aggregate).

    Download new version on blogpost.

    We (the Dutch) are still in the Euro Soccer Championship as you can see in the subject ;-) But this is what I always wanted to see in the MPviewer and now Boris added exporting to Excel!

    image

    Read for more info on source.

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    OpsMgr Lineage Explorer

    • 1 Comments

    Source: SCOMNIVORE

    Thanks to Rod Trent I found this tool called OpsMgr Lineage Explorer from Vin DiPippo.

    image

    This tool allows you to explore the lineage of OpsMgr MP elements. This tool loads your OpsMgr environment from the database and then allows you to inspect the class types, relationship types, and module types installed.  It allows you to expand them to see their lineage (either their parentage for class types and relationship types or in the case of module types, their composition tree down to the underlying native or managed modules).

    Download and read more on source.

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Updated OpsMgr Toolbox

    • 0 Comments

    Today I updated the OpsMgr Toolbox with the latest version of the Module Explorer v2 from Boris Yanushpolsky. He added another view which instead groups modules by the MP in which the module is defined. This should help in some scenarios where you just want to find a particular module and see its settings and configuration.

    image

    I wished I was a programmer too ;-) Maybe soon more on this “I’m not a programmer” topic. Because I’ve been busy with trying to create a new OpsMgr Connector for my own learning experiences. Did you know you can even find a small program I’ve written in Delphi on Sourceforge for a opensource monitoring tool?

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides - Now in Beta!

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    System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008; System Center Operations Manager 2007; Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0

    We are pleased to announce that the Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Beta has been updated! We have added the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, System Center Operations Manager 2007, and Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 guides to our beta. Beta members can download the content now.

    If you aren't currently an IPD beta member, follow the instructions below or visit the Infrastructure Planning and Design Website.
    Infrastructure Planning and Design streamlines the planning process by:

    • Defining the technical decision flow through the planning process.
    • Listing the decisions to be made and the commonly available options and considerations.
    • Relating the decisions and options to the business in terms of cost, complexity, and other characteristics.
    • Framing decisions in terms of additional questions to the business to ensure a comprehensive alignment with the appropriate business landscape.

    Join the Beta

    Additional Infrastructure Planning and Design series guides are available as beta releases on the Connect Web site. They are open beta downloads. See below for instructions on how to access the beta guides.
    To join the Infrastructure Planning and Design Beta, follow these steps:

    1. Visit the Infrastructure Planning and Design Beta on the Microsoft Connect Web site.
    2. Sign in using a valid Windows Live ID to continue to the Invitations page.
    3. Scroll down to Infrastructure Planning and Design.
    If you have not previously registered with Microsoft Connect, you might be required to register before continuing with the invitation process.
    If the link in step 1 does not work for you, copy the link and paste it into the Web browser address bar.
  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    MP Guide Library complete

    • 0 Comments

    Source: Jeanie Decker

    The guides for Windows operating systems and technologies and the guides for server products are all online now.

    Read more on source.

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    OpsMgr 2007 Event 21402

    • 1 Comments
    A colleague of mine Dirk van Coeverden has written an excellent article about troubleshooting OpsMgr 2007 Event 21402. With this article you can see how you can use the Workflow name from the Event details to trace which rule/discovery/monitor is causing the error.

    Introduction

    This article describes how to troubleshoot OpsMgr 2007 Event 21402, which indicates a script error or warning. However the article is intended to be an example for other events, since a lot of details are also in other events (like Workflow name).

            Event Type: Warning
            Event Source: Health Service Modules
            Event ID: 21402
            Description:
                    Forced to terminate the following process started 
                    at 12:08:50 PM because it ran past the configured 
                    timeout 120 seconds.
     

    With this article you will find

    • The discovery, monitor or rule which causes the event
    • Retrieve the script content in a SQL table (limited by SQL2005 Studio)
    • How it looks in XML and understand the workflow

    The query to find the discovery, monitor or rule should work for every event where the workflow name is listed. The script content is more specific to 21402 but might give an impression on how to retrieve content from an XML columns (of NVARCHAR type).

    The queries aren't tested for performance, so the best course is to import the MP of the customer in your test environment and run them on your own machine.

     

    21402 details

    An example of 21402 is

            Event Type: Warning
            Event Source: Health Service Modules
            Event Category: None
            Event ID: 21402
            Date: 7-4-2008
            Time: 4:05:34
            User: N/A
            Computer: server01
            Description:
            Forced to terminate the following process started at 
            04:05:04 because it ran past the configured timeout 30 
            seconds.
    
    
            Command executed: "C:\WINDOWS\system32
            \cscript.exe" /nologo "C:\Program Files\System Center 
            Operations Manager 2007\Health Service State\Monitoring Host 
            Temporary Files 297\177
            \CheckVirtualMachineNameMatchComputerName.vbs"
    
    
            Working Directory: C:\Program Files\System Center Operations 
            Manager 2007\Health Service State\Monitoring Host Temporary 
            Files 297\177\ 
    
    
            One or more workflows were affected by this.  
    
    
            Workflow name: Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2.VirtualMachineName_does_not_match_computer_name.rule 
            Instance name: servern01.contoso.com 
            Instance ID: {3B3FA6E2-BB6B-CD49-274A-8722250C3D0C} 
            Management group: OpsMgrdemo
    
    
            For more information, see Help and Support Center at 
            http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

    Important Event Elements

    Command Executed:

    "C:\WINDOWS\system32cscript.exe" /nologo "C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\Health Service State\Monitoring Host Temporary Files 297\177\CheckVirtualMachineNameMatchComputerName.vbs"

    Working Directory:

    C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\Health Service State\Monitoring Host Temporary Files 297\177\

    Script:

    CheckVirtualMachineNameMatchComputerName.vbs

    Workflow:

    Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2.VirtualMachineName_does_not_match_computer_name.rule

    Which discovery monitor or rule?

    To find out which discovery monitor or rule the script belongs to run the following SQL script (based on the example event above) on the OperationsManager database.

     DECLARE @ObjectName NVARCHAR(256)
    
    
     SET @ObjectName = 'Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2.VirtualMachineName_does_not_match_computer_name.rule'
    
    
     IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM DiscoveryView WITH (NOLOCK) WHERE Name = @ObjectName) 
            SELECT 
                    'Discovery' As 'Object Type',
                    d.DisplayName AS 'Displayname in Console',
                    d.Name AS 'Internal Monitor Name',
                    d.Id AS 'MonitorId',
                    p.Displayname AS 'ManagementPack',
                    p.Version AS 'ManagementPack Version',
                    p.Name AS 'Management Pack Library Name'
            FROM DiscoveryView d WITH (NOLOCK)
            INNER JOIN ManagementPackView p WITH (NOLOCK) ON d.ManagementPackId = p.Id
            WHERE d.Name = @ObjectName
     ELSE IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM MonitorView WITH (NOLOCK) WHERE Name = @ObjectName) 
            SELECT 
                    'Monitor' AS 'Object Type',
                    m.DisplayName AS 'Displayname in Console',
                    m.Name AS 'Internal Monitor Name',
                    m.Id AS 'MonitorId',
                    p.Displayname AS 'ManagementPack',
                    p.Version AS 'ManagementPack Version',
                    p.Name AS 'Management Pack Library Name'
            FROM MonitorView m WITH (NOLOCK) 
            INNER JOIN ManagementPackView p WITH (NOLOCK) ON m.ManagementPackId = p.Id
            WHERE m.Name = @ObjectName
     ELSE IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM RuleView WITH (NOLOCK) WHERE Name = @ObjectName) 
            SELECT 
                    'Rule' AS 'Object Type',
                    r.DisplayName AS 'Displayname in Console',
                    r.Name AS 'Internal Rule Name',
                    r.Id AS 'RuleId',
                    p.Displayname AS 'ManagementPack',
                    p.Version AS 'ManagementPack Version',
                    p.Name AS 'Management Pack Library Name'
            FROM RuleView r WITH (NOLOCK) 
            INNER JOIN ManagementPackView p WITH (NOLOCK) ON r.ManagementPackId = p.Id
            WHERE r.Name = @ObjectName

    This will give the following results

    Object Type Displayname_in_Console Internal Rule Name RuleId ManagementPack ManagementPack Version Management Pack Library Name
    Rule Virtual Machine: Virtual machine name does not match computer name Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2. VirtualMachineName.rule E465679D-BC55-C4D3-FEF0-C108DF37DFD9 Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 1.0.2627.0 Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2

    In the OpsMgr Console / Authoring you can find the Discovery, Monitor or Rule (depending on Object Type) in Management Pack Objects.

    Retrieve the script content

    To retrieve the script you can run the following SQL query on the OperationsManager database.

     SELECT 
             ManagementPackId,
             ScriptName,
             ScriptFile
     FROM (        
             SELECT 
                     ManagementPackId,
                     Script.Col.value('(Name/text())[1]', 'NVARCHAR(128)') AS ScriptName,
                     Script.Col.value('(Contents/text())[1]', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)') AS ScriptFile
             FROM (SELECT ManagementPackId, CONVERT(XML, MPXML) AS MPXMLFormat, MPName FROM ManagementPack) p 
             CROSS APPLY p.MPXMLFormat.nodes('//File') Script(Col)
             WHERE p.MPName LIKE '%2005R2%') s
     WHERE s.ScriptName = 'CheckVirtualMachineNameMatchComputerName.vbs'

    Take note that SQL 2005 Studio has a limit of (about) 8000 char for its return results. Also since the MPXML field of the ManagementPack table is not of type XML but NVARCHAR, the formatting isn't really fancy. However it might give you a quick impression of what the script is about.

    If people find this a useful query, I can work out one which gives a nice formatted output of the script content.

    In XML

    If you want to see how it is build up and configured in XML than

    • Export MP (Powershell Export-ManagementPack)
    • In .xml search for <Rule ID="Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2.VirtualMachineName_does_not_match_computer_name.rule"

    This looks like

           <Rule ID="Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2.VirtualMachineName_does_not_match_computer_name.rule" Enabled="true" Target="Windows! Microsoft.Windows.Computer" ConfirmDelivery="false" Remotable="true" Priority="Normal" DiscardLevel="100">
             <Category>AvailabilityHealth</Category>
             <DataSources>
               <DataSource ID="DS" TypeID="Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2.CheckVirtualMachineName">
                <IntervalInSeconds>60</IntervalInSeconds>
                 <Expression>
                   <And>
                     <Expression>
                       <SimpleExpression>
                         <ValueExpression>
                           <XPathQuery Type="String">Property[@Name='IsVirtualMachine']</XPathQuery>
                         </ValueExpression>
                         <Operator>Equal</Operator>
                         <ValueExpression>
                           <Value Type="String">True</Value>
                         </ValueExpression>
                       </SimpleExpression>
                     </Expression>
             ...

    Here you find all the properties of the (in this case) the rule. Actually you can read the workflow of this object here. One part of the workflow is the Databasource ModuleType

     <DataSource ID="DS" TypeID="Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2.CheckVirtualMachineName">

    This points to the ModulesType part of the XML file

          <ModuleTypes>
           <DataSourceModuleType ID="Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2.VirtualServerVirtualMachineDiscovery" Accessibility="Internal" Batching="false">
           <DataSourceModuleType ID="Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2.RelVirtualMachineComputerDiscovery" Accessibility="Internal" Batching="false">
           <DataSourceModuleType ID="Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2.VirtualMachineComputerDiscovery" Accessibility="Internal" Batching="false">
           <DataSourceModuleType ID="Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2.VirtualMachineState" Accessibility="Internal" Batching="false">
           <DataSourceModuleType ID="Microsoft.Virtualization.VirtualServer.2005R2.CheckVirtualMachineName" Accessibility="Internal" Batching="false">
            <Configuration>
              <IncludeSchemaTypes>
                <SchemaType>System!System.ExpressionEvaluatorSchema</SchemaType>
              </IncludeSchemaTypes>
              <xsd:element name="IntervalInSeconds" type="xsd:integer" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" />
              <xsd:element name="Expression" type="ExpressionType" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" />
            </Configuration>
            <OverrideableParameters>
              <OverrideableParameter ID="IntervalInSeconds" Selector="$Config/IntervalInSeconds$" ParameterType="int" />
            </OverrideableParameters>
           ....

    Here you will find the Module itself which is executed

                 <MemberModules>
                   <DataSource ID="DS" TypeID="System!System.CommandExecuterPropertyBagSource">
                     <IntervalSeconds>$Config/IntervalInSeconds$</IntervalSeconds>
                     <ApplicationName>%windir%\system32\cscript.exe</ApplicationName>
                     <WorkingDirectory />
                     <CommandLine>/nologo $file/CheckVirtualMachineNameMatchComputerName.vbs$</CommandLine>
                     <TimeoutSeconds>30</TimeoutSeconds>
                     <RequireOutput>true</RequireOutput>
                     <Files>
                       <File>
                         <Name>CheckVirtualMachineNameMatchComputerName.vbs</Name>
                         <Contents>        
     ' Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
     ' VBScript source code
     ' CheckVirtualMachineNameMatchComputerName.vbs
     ' Arg 0 : SourceID
     Option Explicit 
    
    
     Const StrVMMManagementGroupInstallationRegKey = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Server\Setup\InstallPath"
     Const StrVirtualServerRegKey = "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Virtual Server\Start"
     Const StrVMMServerInstallationRegKey = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Server\Setup\InstallPath"
     Const StrVMMServerVersionRegKey = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Server\Setup\ProductVersion"
     Const StrVMMSelfServiceServerInstallationRegKey = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Self-Service  Portal\Setup\InstallPath"
     Const StrVMMSSsiteEngineMachineRegKey = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Self-Service  Portal\Settings\VmmServerName"
     Const StrVMMDatabaseServerRegKey = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Server\Settings\Sql\OnRemoteServer"
     Const StrVMMDatabaseNameRegKey = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Server\Settings\Sql\DatabaseName"
     Const StrVMMDatabaseInstanceRegKey = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Server\Settings\Sql\InstanceName"
     Const StrVMMRemoteDatabaseMachineFQDNRegKey = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007  Server\Settings\Sql\MachineFQDN"
     Const StrVMMConsoleInstallationRegKey = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Administrator Console\Setup\InstallPath"
     Const StrVMNameRegKey = "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Virtual Machine\Guest\Parameters\VirtualMachineName"
    
    
     Const StrWebsitDisplayName = "Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 Self-Service Portal"
     Const StrSQLServerDefaultInstance = "MSSQLSERVER"
     Const StrEmpty = ""
     Const StrFolderSeparator = "\"
     Const StrLocationHost = "Host"
     Const StrLocationLibrary = "Library"
    
    
     '=============
     ' Method:       ReadRegistry
     ' Description:  This function read the regiestry, return true if the registry exit; otherwise return false
     '=============
     Function ReadRegistry(ByVal regString, ByRef regValue)
         Dim bHasRegistry
         Dim oReg
         Set oReg = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")   
    
    
         On Error Resume Next    
         regValue = oReg.RegRead(regString)
         If Err.number &lt;> 0 Then
             bHasRegistry = False
         Else
             bHasRegistry = True
         End If
         On Error Goto 0 
    
    
         ReadRegistry = bHasRegistry
     End Function 
    
    
     Call Main()
    
    
     ... 
  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Savision ready for Microsoft Teched Orlando

    • 0 Comments

    Today I got an email from Douwe and Dennis from Savision with their first impression on TechEd Orlando. There are ready to show their product so if you have some time visit their booth.

    SavisionOnOrlando

    I really like their Dutch orange jackets ;-) Did you know the Dutch won from Italy yesterday with 3 – 0 in the European Football Championship?

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    New System Center Branding

    • 2 Comments

    The System Center products have a new logo.

     

    systemcenterlogo

    Check out the Microsoft System Center Home Page

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    New version of System Center Content Search Gadget

    • 2 Comments

    Chris Scoville has created a new version of the System Center Content Gadget. This is one of the best tools I’ve been using for OpsMgr and other System Center tools. I’ve added it to my OpsMgr Toolbox article.

    Changes:

    • New System Center branding in the UI.
    • When you select a specific product in the settings/options for the gadget, the UI will now reflect what product you selected.
    • Fixed a bug that people with slow internet connections were seeing (the search results pane would not load correctly when there was a slow internet connection).  Now, users will see the flyout pane and the words “Loading…” in the search box while the search results are gathered.
    • Now, when you click the X to close the results pane, the whole flyout pane will also close.
    • When System Center DPM is selected from the settings, the results will contain a tab for DPM 2007 and DPM 2006 on Technet (previously it was just DPM on TechNet with no separate for the versions).
    • When “All System Center products” is selected in the settings (the default setting), the following tabs will be available on the results pane:
    • TechNet, MSDN, Microsoft.com, Downloads, Videos/Media, Webcasts, Blogs, Forums, Microsoft Learning, and Web.  The Web tab allows you to search the entire web.

    Go download the latest version.

    Great work from Chris Scoville!

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Microsoft Product Support Lifecycle for MOM 2005

    • 0 Comments

    Now OpsMgr 2007  is released for almost a year you may want to know what the Product Support Lifecycle for MOM 2005 is.

    Those of you who are not familiar, the Microsoft Support Lifecycle is the set of policies that governs the length of support for all Microsoft products.  Or, as described by our website, "provides consistent and predictable guidelines for product support availability when a product releases and throughout that product’s life".  The Microsoft Support Lifecycle website is the authoritative source for information on the policy.  There is also a blog site where you can find info on Microsoft Support Lifecycle.

    Still interested in the MOM 2005 Support Lifecycle? Click here.

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Sysinternals tools are now available via a Live service

    • 1 Comments

    Source: Doug Finke and Marc van Orsouw

    The Sysinternals tools are now accessible using a direct UNC link ( \\live.sysinternals.com\Tools\ ), so if your in need of a Sysinternals tool and you have an internet connection you can just type :

    CD  \\live.sysinternals.com\Tools\

    And all the tools are at your disposal :

    image

    If you added a new function to my $profile just like Doug.

    function sysinternals {CD  \\live.sysinternals.com\Tools\}

    How cool is this? You can just run Procmon on every machine with an internet connection without having to install the program!! Great for troubleshooting...

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Management Packs Guides Online

    • 0 Comments

    Source Jeanie Decker and Raymond Chou

    "The Management Pack Guide library is now live on TechNet. About half (23) of the Operations Manager 2007 guides are available in the library now, with the rest to be added over the next few weeks. The guides are organized into Operating Systems & Technologies and Server Products for easier browsing.

    I (Jeanie) almost forgot to add...we've included the Community Content widget on all of the online guides, which means you can add tags and submit your own content to enhance the information in the guides.”

     

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Passed OpsMgr Configuring Exam (070-400)

    • 6 Comments

    Today I did my Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Configuring Exam and passed with a score of 980 points. Still room for improvement…

    http://twitpic.com/1lc8

    I thought it was easy, but I work with the product every day and I still love it ;-)

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Management Pack for SAP Monitoring

    • 0 Comments

    Source: RealTech

    REALTECH's newly developed Management Pack for SAP Monitoring is one of the first integration modules to use the .NET interface of Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 to display real-time information on the availability, performance, and error status of any SAP NetWeaver component. Thanks to the seamless integration of the management pack, Operations Manager will continue to be the primary system.

    A colleague of mine found this Management Pack for SAP and this is not on the System Center Pack Catalog.

    Anybody any experience with this MP? Please leave a comment.

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    New Updates for Management Packs

    • 0 Comments

    WSS 2.0 (2003) Management Pack. Release date: /27/2008. http://tinyurl.com/6ftfmy

    Terminal Services 2000/2003 MP for OpsMgr 2007. Release date: 5/27/2008. http://tinyurl.com/33ltyj

    SharePoint Portal Server 2003 MP for OpsMgr 2007. Release date: 5/27/2008. http://tinyurl.com/6cjysm

    Windows 2000/2003 IIS Management Pack for OpsMgr 2007. Release date: 5/27/2008. http://tinyurl.com/6rno62

    Microsoft Information Worker Management Pack. Release date: 5/27/2008. http://tinyurl.com/67jum4

    Window Client 2000/XP OS MP for OpsMgr 2007. Release date: 5/27/2008 http://tinyurl.com/5zdodf

    Windows Server 2000/2003 OS Management Pack Release date: 5/27/2008 http://tinyurl.com/6ywrd9

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Evaluation of SCCP 2007 by Ian Blyth

    • 1 Comments

    Source: Ian Blyth

    Ian gives a clear evaluation of System Center Capacity Planner for OpsMgr 2007.

    “I can say now that I am very disappointed with it and can’t see me using it at all even if it is the official sizing tool.”

    The only thing I can say, I’ve used it a couple of times to check my own designs with the results of SCCP. Just have a look if it’s a useful tool for you or not.

    Here is a link to the System Center Capacity Planner Download Catalog.

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Update: OpsMgr 2007 Toolbox

    • 0 Comments

    I’ve updated my OpsMgr 2007 Toolbox with the Windows PowerShell Scriptomatic from Ed Wilson, My Log File Viewer Util from Jeevan Bisht and the Data Warehouse Data Retention Policy tool from Daniel Savage.

    Here is the link to the updated version.

    Today I found out that Stuart Renes also created a blogpost about some useful tools for OpsMgr 2007. If I’ve some time I’ll merge the two.

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    What is Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO)?

    • 0 Comments

    Did you hear about Pro Packs or Pro Tips lately? And do you know what they are? I saw this question in an internal mail thread and I must say I didn’t knew much about it also. So here is some info about PRO which is a new feature of SCVMM 2008.

    PRO or Performance and Resource Optimization is a new feature in VMM 2008 which leverages the monitoring and alerting capabilities of Operations Manager 2007 to surface Tips or recommendations within VMM which help administrators ensure a high performance and efficient virtualized environment.  By leveraging OpsMgr’s MP framework partners and customers can create PRO enabled MPs which surface these Tips in VMM and have associated actions (Users can configure them to run manually or automatically) which implement the recommendations made to resolve issues or increase the efficiency of the environment.

    Example: Operations Manager gets an alert that the CPU on an HP physical host is exceeding utilization threshold. The HP PRO Pack generates a PRO Tip based on that alert and sends it to VMM. Based on HP policies specified in the PRO Pack, the recommended action is to migrate VM workloads to another host to free up resources. The administrator implements the PRO Tip and VMM uses Intelligent Placement to determine the best destination for the virtual machines in the cluster. The VM is migrated to another host and Operations Manager is alerted of the fix and the status returns to green.

    You can find more info on Pro Packs, Pro Tips and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 on the Windows Virtualization Team Blog.

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    PowerShell Scriptomatic

    • 0 Comments

    Ed Wilson has created a Scriptomatic PowerShell Version, which you can download here.

    This Scriptomatic writes Windows PowerShell scripts that harness the power of WMI (Windows Instrumentation Management) for use in system management and administration.

    image

    It really has some nice features, like output options. Check it out!

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Viewing OpsMgr Eventlogs on remote computer

    • 0 Comments

    Source: The Manageability Team Blog

    Jeevan Bisht has written a “utility” that lets you view System Center Operations Manager 2007 Server/Agent Event logs on a remote computer if you don’t have installed an OpsMgr Agent or Server on the machine from which you want to look at the OpsMgr Eventlogs.

    Now you can open the EventViewer and connect to the machine from which you want to see the OpsMgr events.

    The util will install the needed dll’s and registry info so the EventViewer can show you all the info from the OpsMgr events.

    image

    Read more on source.

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    OLE DB Data Source MP Template connection strings

    • 0 Comments

    Operations Manager 2007 comes with several standard management pack templates. You can use these templates to create a new management pack and then customize that management pack to your requirements. This approach provides an alternative to creating a new management pack to store the overrides for a sealed management pack.

    One of the available MP templates is the OLE DB Data Source Template. Use the connection string properties to specify the instance to which you want to connect. You can find more information on how to construct OLE DB connection strings, on MSDN Connection String Syntax.

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    Removing the Operations Manager 2007 Data Warehouse

    • 0 Comments

    During some commandline installation testing I accidentally installed the OpsMgr Data Warehouse in a wrong directory, so I wanted to uninstall the database and used the GUI setup in an effort to delete the Data Warehouse (OperationsManagerDW).

    Luckily I did my testing on my demo systems because I saw some frightening screens during my uninstall of the Data Warehouse ;-)

    Screenshot of current installation:

    image

    Screenshots of uninstall Data Warehouse:

    image

    image

    image

    Let’s check.

    image

    Seems I only uninstalled the Data Warehouse Database. ;-) By the way I didn’t had to run ResetSRS.exe to get SQL Reporting Services in a Running State.

    But wait a minute. I still see the OperationsManagerDW database (Data Warehouse)

    image 

    So what did I remove during the uninstall of the Data Warehouse?

    It seems that during the Data Warehouse installation the Datawarehouse.Initial.Setup.sql file is copied and run. Which creates the OperationsManagerDW database.

    image

    To remove the Data Warehouse database I had to Delete it from within the SQL Server Management Studio tool. This is probably a good thing, because you don't want to accidentally remove the Data Warehouse with all your historical data ;-)

    Finally I was able to re-install the Data Warehouse through the commandline.

    Here are the commandline parameters I used to install the Data Warehouse:

    msiexec.exe /i D:\Install\OpsMgrSP1\reporting\i386\Reporting2007.msi INSTALLDIR="D:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\" /qn /l*v "%temp%\REPORTINGDB_INSTALL.LOG" ADDLOCAL="MOMREPORTINGDB" SQLSVR_INSTANCE="OPSMGRSP1RMS01" MOMREPORTINGDBNAME="OperationsManagerDW" DB_SIZE="1000" DATA_DIR="D:\MSSQL\Data" LOG_DIR="D:\MSSQL\Logs"

    As you can see I wanted to install the files on the D-drive. So I used the INSTALLDIR and DATA_DIR and LOG_DIR parameters.

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    OpsMgr 2007: Parameters Explained

    • 7 Comments

    Some time ago I showed you can use PowerShell to create Events for OpsMgr 2007. And according to the comments quite some people have questions about Event parameters. After creating the first version of the PowerShell Create Events for OpsMgr 2007 script, Ken added some functionality and one was modifying the question to not only add a EventLog Description but also a EventLog Parameter.

    I found some info on MOM 2005 parameters on Rory McCaw’s weblog, but except that article I could not find much info on Event Log parameters. So hopefully this will explain what parameters are and how they can be used in OpsMgr 2007.

    EventLog Parameters in the Events

    Every Windows event has description text that is filled in by the values of different parameters. You can find the Eventlog parameters of an event by using the Log Parser. (if you know an easier way on Windows 2003 Servers let me know). Log parser is a powerful, versatile tool that provides universal query access to text-based data such as log files, XML files and CSV files, as well as key data sources on the Windows® operating system such as the Event Log, the Registry, the file system, and Active Directory®.

    Example of EventLog Parameters in an Eventlog:

    C:\Program Files\Log Parser 2.2>LogParser.exe "SELECT Top1 Strings AS Parameters FROM Application WHERE EventID=301"

    Result:
    image_thumb

    So in this example you can use four parameters in your OpsMgr Rules or Monitor.

    Event Parameters in OpsMgr 2007

    Eventlog Parameters can be used in OpsMgr Rules and Monitors. An example where you can find EventLog Parameters used is the Windows Activation State Monitor in the Windows Server 2003 MP. This is a 3 State Event Log Monitor and this monitor looks for EventLog Parameters and the values found in the Eventlog change the state of the monitor.

    Healthy:    Look for EventId 1006 in Application Log of Source Windows Product Activation
    Warning: Look for EventId 1005 in Application Log of Source Windows Product Activation and Params/Param[1] > 6 =< 15
    Critical:   Look for EventId 1005 in Application Log of Source Windows Product Activation and Params/Param[1] =< 6

    image_thumb10

    You can use the PowerShell Create Events script from Ken to test your monitors or rules with with one EventLog parameter. So it won’t work if you need to test a Rule or Monitor which uses more than one parameter in the Eventlog.

    So if you want to test the Windows Activation State Monitor and want to Change the State to Critical, you need to create an Event with the next values:

    EventID 1005
    Source Windows Product Activation
    Type Error
    Description Your Windows product has not been activated with Microsoft yet. Please use the Product Activation Wizard within <number> days.

    More info about this event can be found on EventID.Net

    image

  • Stefan Stranger's Weblog - Manage your IT Infrastructure

    RSS2Twitter Part 2

    • 0 Comments

    Thanks to Jeremy Pavleck I found out that Twitterfeed is much more efficient than using a PowerShell rss2twitter script. And he is right!

    image

    But I learned some PowerShell creating the rss2twitter script ;-)

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