David Mills and I hooked up with the TechNet Edge folks at TechEd 2009 and shot another video on System Center Essentials 2010.

http://edge.technet.com/Media/System-Center-Essentials-with-David-Mills-and-Dustin-Jones/

(thanks to Essentials team member Stephanie for this article!) 

If you've tried to use the Remote Assistance task in the Essentials Computer space to connect to a Vista or Windows Server 2008 computer, you've found that the task to initiate a Remote Assistance session does not work.  The task does not work because of a change in how Remote Assistance works in Vista and Server 2008.

In Windows XP and Server 2003, Remote Assistance was initated by using helpctr.exe.  In Vista and Server 2008, Remote Assistance is initated by using msra.exe.  helpctr.exe cannot be used to connect to Vista and Server 2008 computers.  msra.exe can be used to connect to XP, Server 2003, Vista and Server 2008 computers.  Also, msra.exe can only be executed on Vista and Server 2008 computers.

The Remote Assistance task in the Essentials computer space only uses helpctr.exe.  That said, you do not need to wait for a new management pack release to get this functionality.  Below are instructions on how to create your own task for Remote Assistance that will display in the Computer space and work with Vista and Server 2008.

In the Authoring space (the paper and pencil in the bottom of the wunderbar) expand Management Pack objects and right click on 'Tasks'.  Choose create a new task.  Choose Console Tasks\Command Line.  Click next. Name the task "Remote Assistance for Vista/Server 2008".  Chose a task target by clicking the Select... button and target "Windows Computer".  Chose next.  In the Application field, enter %SystemRoot%\system32\msra.exe.  In the parameters field, add:

/offerra $Target/Property[Type="Windows!Microsoft.Windows.Computer"]/NetworkName$ 

In the working directory, chose %SYSTEMROOT%\system32.  Uncheck the option to display output when the task is run.

Now from the Computers space, choosing a computer in a view such as All Computers, your task will appear in the available tasks lists next to the Remote Assistance task that uses helpctr.exe.  Note that this new Remote Assistance task will only work if you are using the Essentials console on a Vista or Server 2008 computer.

System Center Essentials provides several ways to remotely manage computers, including:

• Computer Management MMC
• Remote Desktop
• Remote Assistance
• Tasks to show current information, such as process usage

Sometimes though what is wanted is just a remote command window without the overhead of opening a full remote desktop session.

The PsExec tool which is one of the SysInternals tools provides a way to open a remote command window without needing to install anything on the remote computer.

You can find out more about PsExec from:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx

With psExec installed you can open a remote command prompt by calling it as follows:

If you have psExec installed on your computer with the Essentials console you can create a task in Essentials to open a remote command window from within Essentials.

To create this task:

1. Go to the Authoring workspace
2. In the navigation pane on the left hand side, expand Management Pack Objects and select Tasks
3. From the Tasks pane, select Create a New Task
4. Select Command Line from the Console Tasks folder and click Next
5. In the Task Name field, type "Remote Command Window"
6. In the Description type "Use the SysInternals PsExec tool to open a remote command window for the selected computer. PsExec must be installed on the computer with the Essentials console."
7. In the Task Target, click Select and then choose Windows Computer and click OK
8. Click Next
9. In the Application field, type the full path the psexec.exe on the Essentials console (e.g. C:\pstools\psexec.exe). If you have the console on multiple computers you will need psExec installed in the same location on each of them.
10. Enter \\ then Click the arrow at the end of the Parameters field and select Net BIOS Computer Name, then add a space and enter cmd
11. Uncheck the Display output when this task is run box
12. Click Create

In the Computers workspace, with a computer selected there is now a "Remote Command Window" task that is available. Selecting this task will open a remote command window for the selected computer.

A management pack is a definition file (either with an .xml or .mp extension) that contains predefined monitoring settings that enable an agent to monitor a specific service or application in Operations Manager 2007 or Essentials 2007. These predefined settings include discovery information that allows Operations Manager and Essentials to automatically detect and begin monitoring services and applications, and a knowledge base that contains error and troubleshooting information, alerts, and reports to help you correct the problems detected in your environment.  You import a new or updated management pack into Essentials using the Management Pack Import Wizard (found in the Administration space in the Essentials console).

Almost all of the management packs developed for Operations Manager 2007 can also be used in Essentials 2007.  To help you identify these management packs, you can filter the System Center Pack catalog on Essentials:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sce/cc462787.aspx

One management pack that you might want to import into Essentials straight away is the updated Essentials 2007 management pack that resolves an issue that was preventing the Remote Assistance task from running on Windows Vista and Server 2008. You can download this management pack from this location:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8F74CC26-5E0E-42F1-96CC-7AE064099190&displaylang=en&displaylang=en

If you are receiving alerts “Performance Module could not find a performance counter” in the Essentials Console, please perform thefollowing steps to disable the rule via override.

1.       Navigate to the Authoring Space in the Console.

2.       Select “Rules” under “Management Pack Objects”.

3.       Type “Performance Data Source Module” in the “Look for:” box and click “Find Now”.  Be sure a Scope is not set or filtering the “Health Service” Target.

4.       Find the rule, “Performance Data Source Module could not find a performance counter” under “Type: Health Service (2)”, right-click, select “Overrides”, “Disable the Rule”, “For all objects of type:  Health Service”.

5.       When prompted, “Are you sure you want to disable this rule for Health Service?” click “Yes”.

Microsoft is working on the long-term solution to address this problem.

Thanks, Dustin Jones