Unified physical and virtual IT management for midsized businesses
This is a repost of an article written by Milan Jajal that I put over on the Configuration Manager Support Team blog so if you follow that one you’ve probably already seen it. Back when I originally posted this I wasn’t part of the SCE blog family but now that I am I thought it would be nice if we had everything in one convenient place. Anyway, if you ever have the need to add a workgroup based host then this should get you going in the right direction.
You are using System Center Essentials (SCE) 2010 and you try to designate a host that is in a workgroup and not in a domain. The result is that it fails with the following error:
Error (2912) An internal error has occurred trying to contact an agent on the <server-name> server.
Recommended Action Ensure the agent is installed and running. Ensure the WS-Management service is installed and running, then restart the agent.
This can occur when the host is not in the domain and instead is in a workgroup, causing the authentication between them to fail.
Note that the SCE console does not support the option of adding a host from perimeter network so you have to manually add the perimeter host using VMM Powershell available on SCE server.
You can take the steps below to make this work:
1. Connect to the host computer via RDP, then from Control Panel –> Add/Remove programs, un-install the SCVMM 2008 R2 Agent (If already installed manually).
2. Using the source media for SCE, manually install the SCVMM 2008 R2 Agent from \setup\vmm\amd64\SetupVMM.exe. Select option to install a Local Agent.
3. In this wizard, select the option “This host is on a perimeter network” and specify a password for the Security file encryption key and do not select to use CA certificate.
4. Select Use Local computer name and click Next and Install.
5. This installs the SCVMM agent on that host. Note that you have to copy that SecurityFile.txt file from Host server to SCE server.
6. Now on the SCE server, open Start Menu –> Microsoft System Center –> Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 –> Windows Power Shell –> Virtual Machine Manager.
7. In the power shell run the commands below to add the host:
a. >Get-VMMServer -ComputerName "<SCE-server-FQDN>" - (This server connects to a SCE server which is an SCVMM server also). b. >$Key = Get-Credential
This prompts for the user name and password. Specify user name as Administrator and the password as the same one you specified during the manual agent install.
c. >Add-VMHost "<hostname>" -Description "Perimeter host" -RemoteConnectEnabled $False -PerimeterNetworkHost -SecurityFile "C:\temp\SecurityFile.txt" -EncryptionKey $Key - (Note: The location of security file is any location where you copied file from host to SCE server)
8. Now Host should get added fine.
9. You should eventually see the event below in the VM Manager event log on the SCE Server:
Log Name: VM Manager Source: Virtual Machine Manager Date: <date, time> Event ID: 1705 Task Category: None Level: Information Keywords: Classic User: N/A Computer: <SCE-server-name> Description: Job 2bb6c79f-24de-4a9a-a279-036d72165b2e (Add perimeter network host) completed successfully.
10. Now in the SCE console you will see this computer as a host.
11. In the SCE console, below the All Virtual Machines view, you will now see all VMs hosted by this host.
12. While connecting to it, you may get prompted for credentials. After supplying the correct user name and password it may show one more prompt saying the certificate is not trusted.
13. From this prompt click on view certificate, go to the details tab, click on copy to file and export the certificate as .cer file.
14. From the SCE server –> MMC console –> Certificate snap-in, import this certificate under Trusted Root Certification Authorities.
15. Now exit and reopen the SCE console.
16. The SCE Console should be now able to see the host, all VMs and connect to all VMs fine.
“You can designate and configure servers as hosts for virtual machines in Essentials 2010 from the Essentials management server or from the Essentials console. You can also set up and manage the virtual machines on hosts in trusted domains, workgroups, or perimeter networks.”
You can find this in the Technet Library at this URL: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff603625.aspx
Hope this helps,
Milan Jajal | System Center Support Engineer
The App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/appv/ The WSUS Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/sus/ The SCMDM Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/mdm/ The ConfigMgr Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/ The SCOM 2007 Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/operationsmgr/ The SCVMM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/scvmm/ The MED-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/medv/ The DPM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/dpm/ The OOB Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/oob/ The Opalis Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/opalis The Service Manager Team blog: http: http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager The AVIcode Team blog: http: http://blogs.technet.com/b/avicode The System Center Essentials Team blog: http: http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenteressentials
I ran into an interesting issue the other day and thought I would post it here in case anyone else happened to see it. The issue is that if you use System Center Essentials 2007 (SCE) to manage computers in your environment, when you select a specific computer in the admin console it will try to display the information in the details pane but will ultimately crash with the error message below:
Description: Stopped working
Problem signature: Problem Event Name: CLR20r3 Problem Signature 01: B0JHPZQR1B3GGBEMYEIFSKRWRQLFYWDD Problem Signature 02: 6.0.1885.0 Problem Signature 03: 47be30a3 Problem Signature 04: mscorlib Problem Signature 05: 2.0.0.0 Problem Signature 06: 4bf4c743 Problem Signature 07: f4f Problem Signature 08: 7 Problem Signature 09: N3CTRYE2KN3C34SGL4ZQYRBFTE4M13NB OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.272.7 Locale ID: 1033
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Note that selecting other computers works just fine, but whenever you select that problem computer the console will keep crashing while trying to display its information. Also when trying to run Reports for Deployment status, the reports will not work and will error out.
This can be caused by wrong information being reported by the video card driver. In this case, this happened because when SCE collected software and hardware inventory of that computer, the video card driver from that system reported an invalid value (e.g. a negative value) for the video card memory. For example, on a working computer it will show a value as 256 MB, but on a problem computer it may show a negative value such as -340473856 for Adapter RAM.
This can be seen by running Hardware Inventory report (SCE console –> Reporting pane) for that computer and selecting to see video card information.
The ideal fix is to update the display driver on that computer or change it to a new one.
An alternate option is to update WSUS. This problem occurs when using WSUS 3.0 Service Pack 1 (3.1.6001.65) as it stores values in SUSDB as it's received (i.e. negative values), but in WSUS 3.0 Service Pack 2 (WSUS 3.2.7600.226), it takes care of such negative values and does not store the invalid values in SUSDB.
Once you update WSUS from SP1 to SP2, it updates SUSDB immediately, and then your SCE console will not crash anymore while trying to display information for that computer.
Reports for deployment status will also start working fine once this is done.
You can download WSUS 3.0 SP2 from this link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=a206ae20-2695-436c-9578-3403a7d46e40
The App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/appv/ The WSUS Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/sus/ The SCMDM Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/mdm/ The ConfigMgr Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/ The SCOM 2007 Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/operationsmgr/ The SCVMM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/scvmm/ The MED-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/medv/ The DPM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/dpm/ The OOB Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/oob/ The Opalis Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/opalis The Service Manager Team blog: http: http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager The AVIcode Team blog: http: http://blogs.technet.com/b/avicode
The installation of SCE 2007 SP1 blocks with a warning “WSUS Valid Date”. This happens because the WSUS 3.0 SP1 image present on the SCE 2007 SP1 DVD is expired in October 2010. This blog lists the steps to download and install WSUS 3.0 SP2 to unblock and complete the installation of SCE 2007 SP1.
On running SetupSCE.exe from the SCE 2007 SP1 DVD, the installation of SCE stops on the prerequisites check page with the warning: “Current WSUS Version is Out of Date”. The NEXT option on the prerequisite check page is disabled (as shown in the screenshot below):
This happens because the WSUS 3.0 SP1 Present on the SCE 2007 SP1 DVD has expired and needs to be replaced with WSUS 3.0 SP2. The steps involved for downloading WSUS 3.0 SP2 and unblocking the installation of SCE 2007 SP1 are as follows:
1. Download the appropriate WSUS 3.0 SP2 package from the Knowledge Base Article: KB972455 at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=161140
2. Copy all the files from the SCE 2007 SP1 DVD onto a local folder on the machine, like C:\SCE 2007 SP1.
3. Replace the existing WSUS.exe in the Setup folder of SCE 2007 SP1 present in the local folder on the machine created in step 2 (C:\SCE 2007 SP1) with the WSUS3.0 SP2 KB article package downloaded in Step 1.
4. Run SetupSCE.exe from the SCE Setup present in the local folder on the machine created in Step 2.
5. The Installation Prerequisites page still shows the warning message “Current WSUS Version is out of date”. But the NEXT option is enabled and we can go ahead with the installation of SCE ignoring this warning message.
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6. Proceed with the remaining pages on the SCE 2007 SP1 wizard to complete the installation of SCE 2007 SP1.
7. The version of WSUS installed is WSUS 3.0 SP2. This can be checked in the WSUS properties once the installation of SCE 2007 SP1 completes.
When a computer group is created in Essentials 2010 using Create a Computer Group in the Computers space, a corresponding group is created in the WSUS database. This can be seen in the WSUS console.
Figure 1. Computer groups in the WSUS console.
Deleting these computer groups from the WSUS console will result in the computer group not showing in the Computers space.
Use this tool if you no longer see some or all computer groups in the Essentials console that you had previously created.
The Fix Computer Group tool must be run on the Essentials 2010 server.
To run this tool:
1. Open a Command Prompt window with Administrator rights.
2. Navigate to the Essentials 2010 installation directory.
3. Run LinkDG.exe.
The Fix Computer Group tool does not take any arguments. It will connect to the Essentials 2010 server and identify or fix any broken computer group relationships. The tool will display a list of completed tasks in the command prompt window after completion.
Figure 2. Default Essentials 2010 computer groups fixed.
Figure 3. Customized Essentials 2010 computer groups fixed.
When a monitored object, such as a computer or distributed application, is taken offline for maintenance, Essentials 2010 detects that no agent heartbeat is being received and, as a result, might generate numerous alerts and notifications. To prevent alerts and notifications, monitored objects can be put into maintenance mode. When a monitored object is in maintenance mode, alerts, notifications, rules, monitors, automatic responses, state changes, and new alerts are suppressed at the agent.
Maintenance mode can only be initiated at the current time by manually selecting the object in the Actions pane of the Monitoring area in the console and clicking Start Maintenance Mode.
However, there may be users who need to schedule maintenance mode for some objects at a future recurring time. For example, a group of computers may need to be turned off every Saturday and Sunday night from 11PM for 3 hours. This tool will allow users to schedule a maintenance interval for computer groups, beginning at a certain time and lasting for certain duration on a weekly recurring basis. At the scheduled time on the scheduled days, all the computers in the specified computer group will be automatically put into maintenance mode for the specified duration.
The tool should only be run on the server where Essentials 2010 is installed. When the tool starts up, the user will see a table with a list of previously scheduled maintenance modes. Each maintenance mode will have the following attributes,
The user can also hover over individual rows in the table to see a tooltip with the comments the user may have entered when creating the maintenance mode.
The New button lets a user schedule maintenance mode, the Delete button deletes a previously scheduled maintenance mode and the Close button closes the application. Note that the tool will not allow any editing of previously scheduled maintenance modes.
Click on the New button in the main window to show the “Schedule a new maintenance interval” window. In this window,
If the tool is able to successfully schedule maintenance mode, an appropriate message will be displayed.
If an error occurred when scheduling maintenance mode, an appropriate error message will be displayed. To close the “Schedule a new maintenance interval” window and return to the main screen, click the Close button.
It is recommended that you never put the Essentials management server into maintenance mode because configuration distribution, the heartbeat feature, and other features for the system might become unreliable. Hence the tool will never put the Essentials management server into maintenance mode even if it is part of the selected group.
How to delete a new maintenance interval for a computer group:
To delete a previously scheduled maintenance mode,
A confirmation dialog box is shown. Click Yes to delete and No to cancel the deletion.