System Center Essentials Team Blog

Deploying KB2607070 on Win7 SP1 SCE managed clients

Mangesh Sonar [MSFT] — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:04:00 GMT

An update has been released to resolve issues where System Center Essentials updating Windows 7 SP1- based computers with locally published content may fail with error 0x80070570. Please refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2607070 for more details and download.

This hotfix is expected to be installed individually on all Win7 SP1 machines which are managed by SCE server. However, you can use Software Deployment’ feature in SCE Server to deploy these packages on all Win7 SP1 machines in a single go. Please see "How to Deploy" section below.

Command line parameters for the Package -

These are the command line parameters available for WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86 (KB2607070).

This option helps you to deploy the hotfix on Win7 SP1 machines from SCE server itself in an unattended way.

Notes –

I recommend restarting the system after installing this hotfix. If you use /norestart option, system won’t reboot; however patch will not be functional and you might still encounter 0x80070570.
How to verify whether package is installed successfully?

Extract the package WindowsUpdateAgent30-<x86> /x: C:\temp
Check the binary versions of windows update binaries in the extracted folder C:\temp. For example - wuaueng.dll, wuapi.dll, wups.dll etc. will be at version 7.6.7600.243.
When you install the KB2607070, these binaries would be updated in the system folder (say for example %windir%\system32) after reboot.

How to Deploy

Install directly on all Win7 SP1 machines which are managed by SCE server

This is a straight forward install of any typical Microsoft hotfix. You can download the package and launch WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86 (KB2607070) on Win7 SP1 client systems in your SCE environment. Installer will prompt for a reboot if installed in an attended mode. If you use /quiet, it will not prompt for a reboot but then you would need to reboot the system in order to get the patch applied and functional.

What will happen when you use Default Deployment Procedure in SCE using ‘Software Deployment’ feature?

Kindly refer to this TechNet link for additional details on how to create and deploy software packages.

This update is a windows update agent itself and hence turns off windows update followed by an immediate turn on. As soon as this process ends, package payloads are updated in the system.
Log file shows "user cancelled the installation" because of this, but after restart package would be up and functional.
As windows update is restarting during the update, the state of the previous install is not retained into its database and hence package gets reoffered.

If you install using DISM mechanism as explained below in the blog, you won't encounter these issues and you can overcome them. However, patch gets deployed correctly with an explicit reboot if you follow default flow of local publishing and deploying the package from SCE console. To do that,

In the System Center Essentials console, please click on software.
Click on “New Package” in the “Software Packages” section of “Tasks” pane. (Highlighted)

3. Please download KB2607070 locally onto your machine from download center.

4. In the New Software Package Wizard provide the path to WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe in the textbox under “Deploy a package from stand-alone setup file” option and click “Next”.

5. Provide package name and package description in the next page of the wizard and click Next.

6. Apply necessary settings in the Target System Types page and click next

7. In the “Install/ Uninstall Parameters” page for quiet installation provide “/quiet” switch in the “Installation Parameter(s)” and click next

8. Click Create button in the Summary page, this creates a package.

9. Select appropriate group of computers in Add and Remove Approvals wizard and click ok, by default Win7 SP1 clients will be listed under “All Windows Client” group.

With these steps, you have published the package for managed Win7 SP1 machines. Now these Win7 SP1 machines can have the published WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe (KB2607070) package available in the Windows Update window.

Admins can set a deadline and this hotfix would be pushed on the user systems even if they don’t install it explicitly. (See highlighted below)

Within few minutes of a specified deadline when package offering is complete, please reboot individual Win7 SP1 systems.

Otherwise, users on managed computers can always install the hotfix on the system before the deadline by obeying the below steps-

Open Windows Update on the client machine.
Check for new updates in the Windows Update Window

3. Select the update deployed on the SCE server and click OK.

4. Click Install Updates button.

5. This will install the update on the client machine by closing the Windows Update client window.

6. We need to restart the client machine for this update to get affected.

Installation using DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) -

* This is based on approach proposed by LGS on SCE TechNet Forum*

You can use an open source tool called RunIt.exe where as DISM is available in system32.

Download WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe to your desktop.
Create an empty folder (extracted) on the desktop.
Extract the exe to an empty folder(extracted) on the desktop, using following command “WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe /x”, provide the path click OK on the prompted UI.

4. Click OK when extraction is complete.

5. Create an empty folder (WUA Update) on desktop.

6. Download runit.exe from web and copy it to newly created WUA Update. Move/Copy 'extracted' folder to WUA Update.

7. Open System Center Essentials.

8. Go to "Software" Click on the “New Package” under “Software Packages” section in “Tasks” pane.

9. Select the “Deploy a package from a setup file requiring additional folders” radio button in the New Software Package Wizard.

10. Provide the Folder Location by browsing to the folder WUA update. Click Ok.

11. To provide the Package setup file, click Browse beside package setup file text box.

12. Select RunIt.exe and click Open. Click Next in the wizard

13. Provide Package Name and Package Description and click Next.

14. Select appropriate target system types as mentioned below and click Next.

15. Map 3010 return code with Success With Reboot, by providing details(Code and Value) and clicking on Add.

16. Click Next.

17. Provide the installation parameters as mentioned below and click Next.

Install Parameters are - /L dism /Online /Add-Package /Packagepath:extracted /quiet /norestart.

Internally Windows update triggers following command. RunIt.exe /L dism /Online /Add-Package /Packagepath:extracted /quiet /norestart

RunIt.exe : invokes the exe file specified after parameter “/L” with the remaining parameters(/Online /Add-Package /Packagepath:extracted /quiet /norestart)

Dism: it is an exe file provided by Windows used for Servicing and management of Deployment image.

Online: Specifies that the action is effect on current windows running image Add-Package: adds the packages specified by PackagePath parameter to the Image /quiet and /norestart: these parameters will be used by the package while install happens on next reboot.

18. Click Create on summary page.

19. Package Creation would get progressed and then click Finish.

20. Add and Remove Approvals window appears. Select appropriate options in this window and click Ok.

21. Within few minutes after the deadline exceeds, you would observe a restart prompt on your machine.

NOW LIVE: The Microsoft TechNet Gallery

J.C. Hornbeck — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:45:20 GMT

As many of you probably already know, for a long time the Script Repository (a special-purpose gallery) has been an engine of great content and community engagement on TechNet. Well starting last week it was upgraded significantly and launched as the new TechNet Gallery, supporting not only just scripts but many other technical resources for Microsoft products including App-V, Exchange, and System Center.

Also of note is that in addition to English, the new gallery is available in French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Korean, Czech, Polish, and Turkish. Individuals’ contributions and engagement with the TechNet Gallery are tracked in their TechNet profiles and fully integrated with our reputation system which is also fully localized.

If IT resources like scripts, management packs, utilities, and extensions are important for your success, you’ll definitely want to bookmark this one.

TechNet Gallery

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

The System Center Blog Aggregator app is now available on Android

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:57:22 GMT

A few weeks back I announced the System Center Blog Aggregator app for Windows Phone 7 and today I wanted to let you know that it was now available for all you Android users out there as well. I won’t go into all the details as you can read that at the link above, but here are a couple screen shots to give you an idea of what it looks like. It’s essentially the same app except for the addition of the Nexus SC blog and the blog for Microsoft Server Application Virtualization. Look for the original Windows Phone 7 app to be updated shortly.

After you load and start The System Center Blog Aggregator you see the main screen that defaults to loading the Nexus SC System Center site:

From there you simply click the list button and you’ll see the option for all of our other blogs:

From there you can select and read any blog you like. So there you have it, an app that allows you to follow our content quickly and easily right on your Android phone. If you have an Android phone you should load up The System Center Blog Aggregator and check it out. It’s free after all so what do you have to lose? You can find it here.

Enjoy!

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

Free 3 day Office 365 Jump Start Training Event

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:47:47 GMT

I know this isn’t System Center Essentials specific but I thought you might want to know about a great training opportunity we have coming up at the end of the month for Office 365. On May 24th through 26th Microsoft Learning is hosting a free 3-day Jump Start tailored for IT Pros interested in learning more about preparing for and deploying Office 365. This is the first public training for IT Pros on Office 365. The course will be streamed live from 10:00-am-4:00pm PDT on all 3 days, and the recordings will be published later on TechNet Edge for later viewing.

We’ll deliver an overview of Office 365, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online. Top subject matter experts for each technology will be delivering the content and you can find more info in this MSL blog post.

To get all the details, including the daily schedule, instructor bios and a registration link see the following:

https://www.eventbuilder.com/microsoft/event_desc.asp?p_event=x8f7i41r

Enjoy!

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

A quick note on SCE 2010 support for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

J.C. Hornbeck — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:44:00 GMT

System Center Essentials 2010 (SCE 2010) is certified to work with Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

Important Note – SCE2010 will not be enhanced to support configuration of Dynamic Memory and Remote FX (new features that were added in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1) on virtual machines, although SCE itself can run fine in a VM configured with dynamic memory. Therefore, if you want to use dynamic memory on a VM you must configure it directly from the Hyper-V Manager console. SCE can monitor and manage such VMs configured to use dynamic memory without problems. You simply won’t be able to make any changes in dynamic memory/Remote FX using the SCE console.

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center Knowledge Engineer

SCE Quick Fix: Designating a host that is in workgroup fails with error 2912 in System Center Essentials

J.C. Hornbeck — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:26:19 GMT

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.

Symptoms

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.

Cause

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.

Resolution

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.

More Information

“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

SCE 2007 Quick Fix: The admin console crashes when selecting a computer in the computers list

J.C. Hornbeck — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:37:59 GMT

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

Read our privacy statement:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=50163&clcid=0x0409

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.

Cause

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.

Resolution

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.

More Information

You can download WSUS 3.0 SP2 from this link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=a206ae20-2695-436c-9578-3403a7d46e40

Milan Jajal | System Center Support Engineer

How to install SCE 2007 SP1 which is blocked with expired WSUS 3.0 SP1 warning

Mangesh Sonar [MSFT] — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 10:47:25 GMT

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.

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.

How to use the Fix Computer Group tool to rebuild computer groups deleted from Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)

M. Umair Aftab — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:19:01 GMT

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.

Running the Fix Computer Group tool

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.

How to use the Maintenance Mode Tool to schedule weekly maintenance modes for computer groups

Guruprasad A — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:35:25 GMT

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,

Computer Group: The computer group that the maintenance mode is scheduled for
Start Time: The time at which the maintenance mode is scheduled to start
Days of week: The days of the week on which maintenance occurs
Duration: The duration of the maintenance mode
Reason: The reason for the maintenance mode

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.

How to schedule a new maintenance interval for a computer group:

Click on the New button in the main window to show the “Schedule a new maintenance interval” window. In this window,

Select a computer group from the dropdown box (the list of computer groups is automatically populated). The list of computers in the selected computer group is shown in the list below the dropdown box.
Enter or pick a start time for the maintenance mode (time can be entered in either 12 hour or 24 hour formats)
Enter the duration of the maintenance mode in minutes. Note that the minimum duration is 5 minutes.
Pick the days of the week on which maintenance occurs
Pick the reason for maintenance mode from the dropdown box
Enter any additional comments in the comments textbox
Click the “Schedule” button

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,

In the main program window, select the desired row in the table
Click the “Delete” button

A confirmation dialog box is shown. Click Yes to delete and No to cancel the deletion.

Resource Kit tool to view Essentials Setup log files

Aaron Gaskill — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:19:35 GMT

During Essentials installation, Setup creates a number of log files in the %localAppData%\SCE\Logs folder:

SetupSCE0.log – Unmanaged bootstrapper log file.
SCESetupWizard.log – Managed bootstrapper log file.
SCEMSI.log – Essentials Windows Installer log file.

To help identify installation issues, the Essentials Resource Kit includes a log parsing tool, SetupLogParser.exe. SetupLogParser can parse both the managed bootstrapper log file (SCESetupWizard.log) and the Essentials Windows Installer log file (SCEMSI.log).

Opening a log file

Start the log parser tool by double-clicking SetupLogParser.exe in the Resource Kit installation folder. On the File menu, click Open to load a log file, as shown:

In the Open dialog box, select a log file:

Click Open to load the selected log file. SetupLogParser will check the contents of the log file to verify that the contents are in the correct format for either the managed bootstrapper file or the Essentials Windows Installer log. If SetupLogParser cannot validate that the file contains data in a recognized log file format it will show error message:

If the content of the file is in one of the supported log file formats, the program will show a progress window:

After the parsing and conversion is completed, SetupLogParser reads the log file and creates a report, as shown:

Identifying Setup issues in the log file

Possible issues Essentials Setup encountered during installation will be shown in red:

SetupLogParser does not offer an explanation of possible reasons for failure, but in many cases the log message itself is self-explanatory.

For example, Setup will fail if a pending reboot request is detected:

In the case of the Essentials Windows Installer log, the failure of a custom action does not always cause Setup as a whole to fail. In this case, the log contains a record in green informing you that Windows Installer converted an error result to a success result:

Saving a Setup log file report

For large Essentials Windows Installer log files, the time that it takes to generate a report can be a few minutes or more. To avoid the time required to generate the report again from the same log files at a later time, you can save the generated report. To save the report, on the File menu, click Save As:

In the Save As dialog box, select XAML files (.xaml) in the Save as type: list, and then click Save:

Opening a previously saved log file report

To open previously saved report, on the File menu, click Open. In the Files of type: list, select XAML files (.xaml) and click Open:

Saving log files to XML

SetupLogParser converts text log file to XML format before generating a report. If you want to use the log file information in some other application, you might want to save the XML version of the log file. However, the SetupLogParser tool does not support loading XML log files.

To save the log file in XML format, on the File menu, click Save As, select XML files (.xml) in the Files of type: list, and then click Open:

How to read the Essentials Setup log report

Here is a sample tour through one of the log files generated during Essentials Setup testing. The report contains a header for the main Setup log file:

Next, you will see the various report sections, examples of which are included here.

Here is an example that shows the date and time when installation started and command line that was used to start the installation.

This reports that User CHOCOLATE\testAdmin started the installation of OEM English version of System Center Essentials on computer SCETEST015D. Local system is 64-bit Windows NT 6.1.7600.0.

This reports that Windows Update is not installed on local computer, and that neither Essentials 2007 nor 2010 are installed in the local domain.

You will see an entry like this when Setup successfully ran Windows Update prerequisites check.

Here is an example of an error: The database check failed. The local ESSENTIALS instance of SQL Server already has a System Center Essentials database.

This prerequisite check generated a warning message. Warning messages will not block Setup.

This lists successfully passed prerequisite checks.

In this example, the user cancelled the installation.

Here is a possible reason why the user cancelled Setup.

Sometimes, failed prerequisite is not really a problem, just an indication that one of the required prerequisites is not installed. In this case, “Failed prerequisites” section will follow with “Prerequisites passed with choices” and “Prerequisites selected for installation”:

In this example, Setup could not find any instance of SQL Server.

In this example, Setup has offered to install SQL Server 2008 SP1 Express Edition on the local computer.

In this example, the user opted to install SQL Server 2008 SP1 Express Edition on the local computer.

Setup successfully installed SQL Server 2008 SP1 Express on the local system.

In this example, Setup successfully installed System Center Essentials.

This entry indicates that Setup successfully installed Windows Update.

In this example, the System Center Essentials Setup program failed. The Setup logs include Windows Installer process log entries.

How to read Essentials Windows Installer log report

Here is one of the log files generated during Essentials Setup testing:

This is a header for Essentials Windows Installer log report. The log entries begin with the date and time when installation started and command line used to start the installation.

In this example, an error has been reported. The entry Action: INSTALL starts the initial phase of the Windows Installer process. During the initial phase, the installer collects information about the local computer and prepares the installer for the deferred phase. No changes to the local computer are made during the initial phase. The result shown is the overall installation result. Actions in the initial installation phase start with word “Action”. All properties set or modified by the custom action are shown. For example, the WindowsFolder.F0DF3458_A845_11D3_8D0A_0050046416B9 custom action set the property WindowsFolder.F0DF3458_A845_11D3_8D0A_0050046416B9 to a string value “E:\WINNT\”.

The entry Action: InstallFinalize represents the start of the deferred phase of the Windows installer process. During deferred phase Windows Installer is making changes to the local computer, such as copying or deleting files, creating or removing registry keys and values, and so on.

The result for the InstallFinalize action shows the overall result of the deferred phase.

Here is an error example: the _CreateDatabase custom action failed to create the database.

Here is an example of a failed installation: The installation failed with an error code of 1603. The description for error code 1603 is “Fatal error during installation,” which is a common error when Setup fails because of one of the custom actions failed.

For a complete list of Windows Installer error codes, see the following Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229683.

How to update Essentials certificates

Guruprasad A — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:05:59 GMT

Essentials 2010 uses a certificate for signing locally published content. The released version of System Center Essentials 2010 is designed to use an updated type of certificate. Use the UpdatePublisherCert.exe tool to replace the existing certificate with a new certificate.

The UpdatePublisherCert.exe tool performs the following tasks:

1. Save the current policy configuration

2. Uninstall the current policy

3. Delete certificates from the certificate store

4. Delete certificates from the system

5. Reconfigure the policy and generate new certificates

6. Resign all locally published software and update packages.

Essentials will automatically push out the new certificates to all the managed computers if Essentials is configured to use domain policy. If you have one or more workgroup joined computers managed by Essentials 2007 or Essentials 2010 it will be necessary to manually update the certificate on workgroup joined computers using the instructions in the Deployment Guide. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc339469.aspx

Who should use this tool:

Use the UpdatePublisher.exe tool if one of the following conditions apply:

· You are currently using System Center Essentials 2007

· You are upgrading from Essentials 2007 to Essentials 2010

· You are installing Essentials 2010 RTM, after installing and uninstalling Essentials 2010 Beta or RC (uninstalling Essentials 2010 Beta or RC does not remove the certificate)

Using UpdatePublisherCert.exe

UpdatePublisherCert.exe is a command-line tool that replaces the certificate used for signing locally published content and resigns all locally published content with the new certificate.

1. Open a Command Prompt window with Administrator rights.

2. Run UpdatePublisherCert.exe (there are no command-line-parameters).

Figure 1. Running UpdatePublisherCert.exe from a command line.

How do I move from SCE2007 on x86 to SCE2010 on x64

Aaron Gaskill — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:04:42 GMT

With the release of System Center Essentials 2010 and the general excitement around some of the new features like virtualization, some customers are asking about our upgrade/migration story from the previous version.

SCENARIO

You read about the 2010 release and are excited about the virtualization features in the new version. You purchase the 2010 version of SCE and run back to your office to do the install. When you launch the install, you see the support for upgrading your existing Essentials 2007 sp1 install. You starting the upgrade process and before long, you have deployed the new version of Essentials.

You go to add the virtualization component and get a message telling you that your x86 system does not support this component. Luckily you have another server that does meet the system requirements for the Essentials 2010 virtualization component… but you don’t want to lose all the data you have on your existing Essentials server… you just need better hardware and a newer OS.

We have anticipated this scenario and have provided a solution in the resource kit that can be leveraged to solve this issue. In the resource kit, there is a tool called MigrationAdvisor.exe. The migration advisor is a wizard which will allow you to migrate your existing Essentials 2010 data from one server to another server with the same FQDN. Here is how it works.

Things You will need

Existing Essentials 2010 Server that you wish to migrate from
Another server you wish to migrate to
A network location to store the migration data (you will need to grant read/write access to this share for both the account you are running as and the account the SQL server is running as)

First you install the resource kit on your existing server. The steps for that are:

Download the SCE 2010 ResKit from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=32b2872a-a31d-4db1-abe8-018d91bf3942
Run the MSI on your server box by double clicking it.
Once the install is complete, go to the folder where your SCE server is installed (the default location is in a sub folder under %programfiles%).
Find and launch the MigrationAdvisor.exe

Now that you have the migration advisor up and running, you will see the following screen:

Choose the “Migrate Essentials 2010 to another server” radio button. On the next screen, you will need to provide a location for the backup files and a password used to secure your rmsbackup and certs.

Make sure the location has plenty of free space as all your Sce data will be stored there. I would suggest using a Network location as you will not have access to the old Sce server during the migration restore phase (hit the browse button to change the location). Make sure you have write access to the location you select.

Now your ready to start the backup. Hit the begin button and wait for successful completion of the backup as seen below. (This will take a few min. depending on the amount of data on your server.)

Congrats, your halfway through the process…

The Tricky Part

The next thing you need to do is decommission your existing server. Since the migration of essentials is ONLY supported onto another server with EXACTLY the same FQDN, you have a couple of choices.

You could:

A. Uninstall Essentials from your existing server and then change that servers FQDN to another name so that it will not conflict with the new Essentials server.

B. Shut the Essentials server down and then format the disk and use the hardware to create a different machine on your network later.

Once the old Essentials server has been removed from the domain, you will need to add a new server to your domain with EXACTLY the same name as your original Essentials server. This is the server with the hardware and OS that can support the Virtualization component of Essentials 2010.

Important Note

Having EXACTLY the same FQDN is important… if the FQDN is not the same as the previous machine, you will not be able to successfully migrate your previous Essentials data to this machine using the MigrationAdvisor.exe.

The next step is to install Essentials 2010, using the same settings components and account information as your previous install

Important Note

Selecting the same components it very important as the MigrationAdvisor will not allow you to migrate your data to the new machine if the component settings do not match. For example, if you do not have Virtualization on the box you are migrating from, don’t install it on the new box (you will add it using the ARP after the migration is complete).

Once the install is complete you will need to close the installation wizard. Do not run the configuration wizard as your settings will be configured by the migrationadvisor as it restores your existing data.

Now you need to install the resource kit tools on this server and launch the migrationadvisor. This can be done following the same steps you did to install the resource kit tools on your previous Essentials server (see the top of this document).

Now you need to choose the “Restore Essentials 2010 from a complete Essentials backup” option then hit next.

Then you need to provide the storage location you used during the migration step and the password you used during the backup, and hit begin.

The Migration Advisor will begin processing….

A few minutes later (on my server which had very little data, the restore took about 10 minutes to finish), the wizard will finish.

Now you should have a working Sce server with your original data.

Important Note

AEM settings are not preserved so if you were using AEM, you will need to go into the console and enable it again.

At this point, if you want the virtualization component, you will be able to install it by running the setup wizard again and choosing to add the Virtualization component. Then you can begin deploying and managing your virtual machines. Enjoy.

Introduction to Virtualization in System Center Essentials 2010

Eugene Polonsky — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:00:47 GMT

So, you got your copy of System Center Essentials 2010 installed, you’ve run through your initial configuration, and now want to try out this virtualization thing.

This post will guide you through creating and configuring your first virtual machine, and is designed for someone not at all familiar with virtualization. Upcoming entries will target customers more experienced with the technologies, and will demonstrate the value SCE2010 provides for those customers.

But first…

So what is this virtualization thing, anyway, and why should I care?

At its simplest, virtualization is running a software-based computer inside a hardware-based one. The software emulates the hardware. That’s it, really. A virtual machine (VM) allows you to split your hardware into self-contained silos, and easily manage the number and performance characteristics of these silos. The net result is higher resource utilization of your hardware, as well as ancillary benefits like ease of backup, snapshotting, etc.

There’s a lot of literature on the benefits of virtualization on the net, for example http://www.itworld.com/nls_windowsserver050411. But this post is not about explaining why virtualize. It’s meant to be address the how, utilizing SCE2010.

Ok, I’m convinced. Let’s get a VM going!

The first thing you want to do to get a VM running is to provision a host. A host is the hardware box that’s going to be running your software VM, and provisioning means installing the virtualization software on that box.

Note that although you can certainly provision the SCE Server itself as a host, it’s not recommended. Typically in order to provide predictable performance a VM host should be a dedicated, and a fairly beefy, machine. (The machine must run one of the Windows Server OSes – Win2k3 or Win2k8. Naturally you will have access to more features, e.g. live migration, on a Win2k8 box) For the purpose of this paper we’ll assume that you have one available.

So, the first thing you want to do is get SCE to manage that beefy machine. To do this you want to add it to SCE’s list of managed machines, through the “Add New Computers And Devices wizard.” (Tasks->Computer Groups->Add New Computers And Devices in the Computers area of the SCE console.)

A few minutes after you add the machine you should see the following view. (in this example “eugenepo-smx3 is the SCE server, and eugenepo-smx1 is our host-to-be.)

Don’t worry too much about the Status fields – those take a little longer to populate correctly. Notice though that the machine must appear in the “All Windows Servers” group before you can go on to the next step. (and this might take 10-15 minutes.)

Great, we’ve got our machine added. Now we have to designate it as a host. To do this run the Tasks->Computer Group->Designate a Host wizard. Most of the wizard should be fairly straightforward… until you get to Virtual Networks.

There are three reasons why you may encounter the “Configure Virtual Network” screen:

1. Your new host is connected to the network through a static IP address, and does not have a network location set.

2. Your new host has more than one NIC card.

3. Your new host is part of a cluster. (advanced topic)

For this entry we will focus on the first and second scenario.

This screen lists the NIC cards found on the designated host (and yes, at this point the machine is already designated as a host… if you were to cancel out of the wizard at this point you’d have a host with no virtual networks configured), and asks you to provide a network location for each NIC.

Simply put, what you want is to enter the networks that your physical machine is connected to. The entries you make here will later be shown when you choose what network to connect your virtual machine to. So let’s say that my second NIC is also connected to contoso.com, but through a static IP. In this case I would simply enter “contoso.com”, or pick it from the dropdown.

Note also the “Do not configure” option in the dropdown. This option would keep that NIC card from ever being used by a virtual machine. You may want to do this if you want to keep a clear communications channel to your host machine. (Clear as in not congested with VM-based traffic.)

This option also has meaning for advanced users. Say you have been using this machine as a host already, through Hyper-V, and have configured a virtual network for this NIC. Selecting “Do Not Configure” would leave that virtual network intact. Note, however, that if that virtual network is bound to a NIC using a static IP address, and thus had no intrinsic network location set, this network would not be available in SCE during VM creation. If you were, however, to type in a location, all that would happen is SCE would update the VN’s location property (not a Hyper-V property, by the way – this property is only exposed through VMM), allowing this network to be used inside SCE.

Note that the wizard will not let you proceed until you fill out network location names or hit “Do not configure” for all NICs on this screen.

Wohoo, now we’ve got us a host. All that’s left now is to create a Virtual Machine to run on it!

Go ahead and launch the “New Virtual Machine” wizard at Tasks->Computer Group->New Virtual Machine.

Here’s where the beauty of virtualization really shows through. On this screen you are meant to assign what resources your new machine will be using – how many processors, how much RAM, etc. To that end SCE provides you with three common-scenario templates (accessible via the Templates combo box), or you can edit these values manually by hitting the “Change Properties” dialog.

Note the network locations dropdown. This is populated, as I mentioned above, directly based on choices made during the “Designate Host” wizard’s “Network Configuration” dialog. (Or, if you had just one NIC card that used a dynamic IP, SCE got the virtual network name for you automatically there.)

Note that SCE uses dynamically expanding virtual hard disks, and the disk size you specify here is the maximum size these disks can grow to. So the .vhd files that represent these virtual hard disks will only take up as much space as there’s actual data on the virtual hard disk.

Ok, so back to the New VM wizard. Assuming you’ve made your selections in the Properties dialog, the next screen allows you to choose how you’re going to get an OS on this new virtual machine. Remember, when a VM is first created it’s just like a brand new box – empty disk drives. SCE presents three options of getting an OS installed: a PXE boot (booting from network), a DVD boot (by inserting an OS DVD into your host machine), or ISO image boot, which starts out grayed out because in your brand new SCE installation you do not yet have any ISOs.

This might be a good time to briefly discuss the SCE VMM library. When SCE is installed it creates a folder <install drive>:\SCE\Virtual Machine Library that contains all of the common .iso files, and .vhd template files in your SCE installation. So if you had a, say, Win2k8 ISO sitting around, all you have to do is drop that puppy into this folder and click on the “Refresh Library” button to have it be available during VM creation.

Short of VHD templates (which we will cover in subsequent posts), and assuming your network doesn’t have a PXE boot server, ISO boot is the easiest way of getting an OS onto your VM – you don’t need to sneaker-net the OS DVD onto the host box.

But for the sake of this walkthrough, let’s say you actually do pop that DVD into the host, and select “Install from DVD”. The next screen shows us the host we’ve designated, along with its compatibility rating.

But what’s this? “Not Compatible”?? Let’s look below for an explanation. Aha, the machine I’ve chosen for this walkthrough is actually not all that beefy (or is being utilized for other tasks), and the amount of RAM I’ve chosen for my new VM exceeds the amount of RAM available on the host. In general, when you see “Not Compatible” on a host, the text box below will give you enough information to take the action necessary to bring the host into compatibility. In this case I will simply go back to VM Properties dialog on the first screen, and adjust the VM RAM to 1GB.

And after that’s done, voila:

The next screen asks for a name for this new VM, and a description of what it’s for. This information is meant to be useful for you later on, when you have a couple dozen of these and need to remember what workloads they’re carrying. We recommend having the same VM name as the computer name you’re planning to use for that VM – that’ll make it easier to identify the VM.

The next screen is simply a summary and once I hit the Create button my new virtual machine is now created!

At this point a dialog pops up prompting us with steps required to get this machine up and running, and managed by SCE:

Note the Operating System Source – I had selected “network boot” instead of “DVD boot” by mistake… but that’s ok, we can still do a DVD boot – let me show you how.

First let’s go ahead and close this dialog. That’s ok, we can get it back later.

Let’s switch over to the “All Virtual Machines” node in the left-hand treeview. Your new virtual machine should be listed there, along with a red bang.

Notice the yellow band in the details pane. Clicking on that will bring up the Manage VM dialog. You can also get back to it through Tasks-><VM Name>->Configure Virtual Machine.

But for now, we want to set this VM to boot from DVD. Let’s go ahead and double-click on the VM in the grid. This should bring up a Properties dialog:

This dialog allows you to control the properties of the VM you specified during VM creation.

Let’s navigate over to the CD/DVD drives tab, and set the VM to use the host’s CD/DVD drive:

After clicking OK our VM is now ready to boot from DVD. Let’s bring up that Configure Virtual Machine dialog once again, and run through the steps.

Install Operating System should be taken care of, but you want to wait until the OS is finished installing, and you’ve logged into the machine, before trying the second and third steps. If you click on the “Install Operating System” link SCE will pop up a console connection to the virtual machine. This is certainly useful for doing any manually installation steps needed to get the OS installed. You can also get to this window from Tasks-><VM Name>->Connect to Virtual Machine.

Virtual Guest Services, the second step, installs a small client inside your virtual machine that allows it to better make use of host server hardware resources, effectively greatly speeding up the VM. It is also required for the VM to be managed by SCE.

The third step, “Add new virtual machine to management” simply launches the “Add New Computers And Devices” wizard we’ve already seen in the beginning of this walkthrough. You can then specify the VM computer name, and add it just as you did the physical host box earlier. Now that the VM is added to SCE, it can be managed right alongside your physical computers in the All Windows Computers view.

And that concludes our beginner walkthrough. At this point you have your first Virtual Machine. More advanced topics, such as snapshotting, migration, Pause/Save, etc, will be covered in later posts.

Technorati Tags: SCE 2010,Virtualization

Updates Management Maintenance in Essentials 2010

ravichin — Fri, 14 May 2010 00:23:48 GMT

Update Management Maintenance is a new feature in System Center Essentials 2010. Together with Automatic Selection of the product categories, Update Management Maintenance feature provides IT generalists with a seamless low cost update management solution

(See below for the details on how it works better with Automatic Selection feature)

What is Update Management Maintenance?

With Update Management Maintenance in Essentials 2010 you can configure maintenance tasks to remove updates that are no longer needed from the Essentials management server. You can also schedule those maintenance tasks to run at a specific time.

Figure 1 - Update Management Maintenance Settings

The following maintenance tasks are available:

1. Scheduled maintenance—maintenance can be configured to run weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly, or every 3 months. The task can also be set to run at a specific time of day.

2. Database maintenance—re-indexing and defragmenting the updates database improves database performance.

Updates maintenance

3. Update cancelled or renewed subscriptions

a. Decline unneeded updates. This task does the following cleanups:

i. Delete expired updates that have not been approved for 30 days or more, and delete older update revisions that have not been approved for 30 days or more.

ii. Delete update files that are not needed by other updates.

iii. Decline updates that are not approved and have been expired by Microsoft.

iv. Decline updates that have not been approved for 30 days or more, are not currently needed by any clients, and are superseded by an approved update.

4. Update cancelled or renewed subscriptions

This task declines updates for inactive subscriptions. This is powerful if it is used together with Automatic Selection feature. See below for the details on how it works better with Automatic Selection feature

How do I open Update Management Maintenance Settings?

1. To open Update Management Maintenance settings from the Updates workspace, click the Updates button on the lower left corner of the Essentials 2010 console, and then click Configure Windows Server Update Services Maintenance in the Tasks list.

2. To open Update Management Maintenance settings from the Administration space, click the Administration button on the lower left corner of the Essentials 2010 console. Click Settings and then under Update Management, double-click Maintenance.

Figure 2 - Update Management Settings, Administration Pane

How can I take advantage of these features?

The maintenance tasks can be scheduled to run automatically or to run on demand.

To schedule tasks:

1. In the Update Management Settings - Maintenance window, select the Schedule maintenance check box.

2. In the Every box, select the maintenance frequency, and in the Start box, select a time for the maintenance tasks to start. 3:00 a.m. is selected by default.

3. To save your changes, click Apply or OK.

To run the tasks on demand:

Click the Re-index Now button to re-index the database immediately. Click the Decline Now button to immediately decline unneeded updates, and click the Update Now button to immediately update cancelled or renewed subscriptions. These buttons are not enabled if the Schedule maintenance check box is not selected.

How is Update Management Maintenance "better” together with automatically selected product updates?

Auto-Select is a new feature in Essentials 2010. For more information about Auto-Select, please read this article. (http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenteressentials/archive/2010/03/18/automatic-selection-of-product-categories-in-system-center-essentials-2010.aspx) Update Management Maintenance is designed to work closely with Auto-Select to provide you with a seamless Update Management experience.

For example, Chris, the IT administrator of an environment which currently consists of Windows XP and Windows Vista machines, has configured Essentials 2010 to receive updates for just these two operating systems.

Chris has just ordered new machines, which come with Windows 7 operating systems installed. After the machines have been discovered by Essentials, and assuming that Auto-Select is enabled, the Windows 7 product category is automatically selected and the Essentials server receives Windows 7 updates.

Three months later, Chris starts to retire all the old Windows XP machines. He removes the machines from the managed computer group. Auto-Select kicks in and determines that there are no longer any Windows XP machines in his environment and automatically clears the Windows XP category from the product selection

If the Update cancelled or renewed subscription maintenance task is scheduled, Essentials 2010 will go through all the updates that currently exist on the Essentials management server and decline all the updates that are marked as Windows XP-related. The physical files of the declined updates will be deleted by the Decline unneeded updates maintenance task.

Creating a Dynamic Group Based on Installed Software

Richard Rundle — Wed, 12 May 2010 00:42:38 GMT

At the Dynamics Convergence 2010 conference I mentioned to several people that it is possible to create a dynamic group based on whether a piece of software is installed or not but I never went into the details of how to do it. This posting describes how to create a group for a particular piece of installed software (Microsoft Office 2003 Web Component for the purpose of illustrating the process).

Creating a group based on if software is installed is helpful for approving new versions of software for installation (e.g. you want to upgrade from version 2 to version 3),

There is a three step process to create a dynamic group based on if a software application is installed:

Create an attribute to trigger membership of the group
Define a managed group based on the value of the attribute
Create a Computer group linked to the managed group

Create an Attribute

The first step is to create an attribute that we can use to evaluate whether a computer has a piece of software installed or not. This can be based on either a registry key or WMI query. If you have a choice between using a registry key or a WMI query, opt for a registry key – the lookup process is more efficient.

You can use any registry key or WMI query. For this blog, since I am looking for a 32bit application installed on a 64bit computer, I’m going to use a registry entry under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\

If I was searching for a 32bit application on 32bit computer (or a 64bit application on a 64bit computer) then I could look in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\

I’m using the above registry key location since it tends to be a reliable way to determine which software is installed. In the above registry locations will be any currently installed software that has an uninstall program or feature.

To create an attribute:

Go to the Authoring workspace
Expand Management Pack Objects
Select Attributes
Click Create a New Attribute to open the Create Attribute Wizard
Provide a name and a description for the attribute
- Name = Microsoft Office 2003 Web Component
- Description = Check if the Office 2003 Web Components are installed on this computer
Click Next
On the Choose a Discover method page, select the following values:
1. Discovery Type = Registry
2. Target = Windows Computer
For Management Pack, click New to create a new management pack (this will make managing the groups easier later).
On the Create Management Pack page, type the following values:
- Name = My Software Groups
- Description = Definitions for computer groups based on installed software
On the Knowledge page, click Create which will create the management pack and return you to the Create Attribute Wizard.
Make sure the Management Pack drop down has My Software Groups selected and click Next
On the Registry Probe Configuration screen:
- Leave Key selected in the Key or Value radio button
- In the Path field type the registry key you are looking for. In this example, the registry key has a GUID, but when I look at the DisplayName property in the registry I can see this GUID is for Microsoft Office 2003 Web Components
  Path = SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{90120000-00A4-0409-0000-0000000FF1CE}\
  If you use the Copy Key Name feature in regedit to copy in the path, remember to delete the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ part at the start since the wizard automatically provides this value.
- Keep the Attribute Type as Check if exists
- Increase the Frequency to 43,200 seconds (12 hours) since this attribute will only change infrequently
Click Finish to create the attribute

We have now created an attribute, whose value will be collected every 12 hours from each Windows Computer managed by Essentials.

Define a Managed Group

Now that we have an attribute, we can use the attribute to define a group whose membership will change based on whether the value of the attribute is true (i.e. Office 2003 Web Components are installed).

To create the Managed Group:

Stay in the Authoring workspace
Select the Groups node
Click Create a New Group to start the Create Group Wizard
Provide a Name and Description for the group:
- Name = Microsoft Office 2003 Web Component
- Description = Computers that have the Office 2003 Web Components installed
Select My Software Groups as the value for Select destination management pack
Click Next and then Click Next again to get to the Dynamic Members page
Click Create/Edit rules… to open the Query Builder
Change the desired class to be Windows Computer_Extended and Click the Add button
If you don’t see this as an option, go back to step 5 and make sure the Management Pack you created the attribute in is selected.
Use the following values to build the query:
In the Property column, select the attribute you created (Microsoft Office 2003 Web Component)
In the Operator column, select Equals
In the Value column, type True
Click OK
Click Next. Click Next. Click Create.

We have now created a group whose membership is controlled by the value of the attribute defined earlier. In our case, we now have a group for all computers with the Microsoft Office 2003 Web Component installed.

Create a Computer Group Linked to the Managed Group

Managed groups do not show in the Computers workspace by default. Our final step is to add the group we created in the previous step into the Computers workspace, where it will then be available for approving software and updates.

Go to the Computers workspace
Click Create a Computer Group
Change the Criteria drop down to be Use a managed computer group
Select the group created earlier (Microsoft Office 2003 Web Component) from the Managed computer groups drop down
Click Create

You now have a computer group whose membership will change depending on the software installed on the computers managed by Essentials.

A Final Word

By saving the attributes and group definitions in their own management pack you can export and share your software groups with other people. You can also export the management pack and manually edit it (its XML) if you want to create multiple groups without stepping through the wizards.

Before you create lots and lots of groups, it is important to know that we’ve tested Essentials 2010 to be able to handle up to 100 computer groups. While the process above will also work with Essentials 2007, we are aware of scale issues that can cause group synchronization to stop working in Essentials 2007 when there are around 30 groups (for some people the number is higher, for others it is lower).

Overwhelmed by Alerts?

Richard Rundle — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:40:38 GMT

A big thank you to everyone who stopped by and asked us questions at the Microsoft Management Summit and the Dynamics Convergence conferences during the last 2 weeks.

In this post I’m going to talk about one area that we received feedback on at the conferences.

Some people told us they wanted to see even more alerts than they were currently seeing – this post is not for you. Other people told us they were seeing too many alerts – this post is for you!

Before starting, check the Improving Default Monitoring blog posting, this will help you make changes and workaround common issues seen with the default monitoring in Essentials 2010.

There are three main things that affect the number of alerts you see:

The current health of your IT environment
The number of Management Packs installed
The quality of the Management Packs

Essentials is designed to help you proactively monitor your environment and keep it running smoothly. As part of this, we want to help you identify issues that are not causing an outage now, but may in the future. Sometimes, for some environments, the alerts generated can seem a little overwhelming.

To reduce the risk of being overwhelmed by alerts, you can use the following approach:

Introduce Management Packs slowly
Use the Most Common Alerts Report
Create Overrides
Provide feedback

Introduce Management Packs Slowly

Essentials 2010 includes a feature to help identify some key management packs that should be installed in your environment. Start by installing these management packs and performing any tweaking to suit your needs before selecting additional management packs to install.

This will help you control the number of alerts and will also allow you to review the knowledge articles included with each alert for guidance on how resolving alerts. If after reviewing an alert you determine that it is not one you want to take action on in your environment, you can use an Override to disable the alert. See the section below for instructions on creating overrides.

Use the Most Common Alerts Report

In the Reporting workspace, in the Microsoft ODR Report Library is the Most Common Alerts report. Reviewing this report will reveal the alerts you see most frequently. Using this information you can focus your efforts – either using the alert knowledge to troubleshoot the root cause, or if desired, identifying alert(s) to Override to disable monitoring. To run the Most Common Alerts report:

Go to the Reporting workspace
Select the Microsoft ODR Report Library
Run the Most Common Alerts report

Create Overrides

Overrides allow you to make changes to rules that can help reduce the number of alerts you receive. Through an override you can:

Disable a rule/monitor
Change the thresholds

The screenshot below shows a monitor that is being selected to have an override applied. Using the override it is possible to either disable the monitor, or change the configuration of the monitor.

Disable a Rule/Monitor

It is possible to disabling monitoring of particular rules, and this will reduce the number of alerts you see. In Essentials it is possible to disable a rule on all computers, or just groups of computers, and this provides additional flexibility for you, allowing you to receive an alert on one computer but not another.

Follow these steps to disable a rule or monitor using an Override. Note, the steps are in the Operations Manager documentation, and step 1 does not apply in Essentials.

Change the Thresholds

By using an override to change the thresholds for a rule you can alter when an alerts are generated. This is helpful if you find that an alert is generated sooner they you’d like.

Follow these steps to change the thresholds for a rule or monitor using an Override. Note, the steps are in the Operations Manager documentation, and step 1 does not apply in Essentials.

Provide Feedback

Feedback on Management Packs helps us to make improvements to them and increase their relevance for your environment. There is a very simple way to provide us feedback on Management Packs – enable Operation Data Reporting (ODR). Our Privacy statement includes information on the data collected and includes a link to sample reports. To enable ODR:

Go to the Administration workspace
Select the Settings node
Double click the Privacy setting
Select the Operational Data Reports tab
Select “Yes, send operational data reports to Microsoft” and click OK

You can also provide feedback in the Management Packs forum.

Management Packs receive updates at various times, and when updating management packs we include feedback from you to improve the monitoring. In Essentials 2010, when there is an update available for a management pack that you have installed, you will receive a notification.

Additional Resources

Some of these are written for Operations Manager, however they typically also apply to Essentials since Essentials uses the same monitoring engine and Management Packs as Operations Manager.

Improving Default Monitoring – A guide to resolving common alerts seen during a default installation of Essentials 2010.

Management Packs forum – get help from Management Pack authors, MVPs and other knowledgeable folks in the community.

By Example guides for “tuning” specific Management Packs

4 Tips for Proactive Management Pack Tuning – advice on steps to reduce alerts before you see them

Troubleshooting Alert Storms – in addition to the topics above, also includes guidance on alert suppression

SC Essentials 2010 is Released to Manufacturing

Jason Buffington — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:31:00 GMT

YES! It is finally here!

We are very excited to announce the RTM of SCE 2010.

You can read the official announcement at System Center Nexus, as well as the commentary from longtime SCE product manager, David Mills, at the Because Its’ Everybody’s Business site.

Our original SCE 2007 brought many enterprise management technologies to midsized organizations, almost three years ago. To that end, we provided a unified console that gave you the embedded knowledge of Management Packs (MP’s) and easy to deploy software and system updates.

We followed that up with SCE 2007 Service Pack 1, which continued the journey. And we heard very clearly that midsized companies were ready to start taking advantage of virtualization, as a way to reduce costs and scale up your capabilities without scaling out your infrastructure. So, System Center created a workgroup edition of Virtual Machine Manager and we sold it as a bundle, alongside SCE 2007 SP1.

Staying true to our vision of continuing to make IT Management easier for midsized organizations, we have continued to enhance our the reporting, monitoring, deployment and update capabilities and added virtualization management and deployment within SCE.

SCE 2010 truly delivers unified physical and virtual management within a single experience that has been optimized for your needs, as midsized organizations. Some of the big enhancements include:

Awareness and delivery of only the MP’s that you need, so you have exactly what you need to monitor and report on what is in your environment -- not too much (noise) and not too little (insight).

Intelligent filters and customizations for software deployment, so we only attempt to install packages on machines that are suitable to receive them.

Optimized software updates, again pulling only what is needed for your environment.

And lots of Virtualization management including:

- Easy creation of new virtualization hosts

- Simple deployment of new virtual machines

- Wizard-driven migration of legacy physical servers to virtual machines, or from VMware to Hyper-V

We are really proud of SCE 2010 and believe that it meets all of the goals that you asked for in an IT Management solution in midsized organizations.

DOWNLOAD THE EVALUATION SOFWARE at

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee470677.aspx

Throughout this week, you will continue to see updates on our website, blogs, Facebook and tweets.

Website: www.microsoft.com/SCE

Blog: blogs.technet.com/SystemCenterEssentials

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/SC-Essentials/281028165672

Twitter: @SCEssentials

On twitter, you can also watch for #SCE2010 posts from @Jbuff or @DMills_MS

Our launch wave continues as we get ready for Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas (this week) and Microsoft Convergence in Atlanta (next week). Evaluation software will be available this week and full packaged product (and pricing) will be available by the end of May as it is released into the various Microsoft channels and published to the Microsoft price list on June 1.

How does Essentials 2010 stack up compared to other System Center products?

dustinj — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:58:00 GMT

Check out Willemjan van Laarhoven's blog article comparing System Center Essentials 2010 with other System Center products.

http://www.toolzz.com/?p=301

Troubleshooting ‘Unknown’ software and update status, ‘Not yet contacted’ and lack of hardware and software inventory

dustinj — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:36:37 GMT

Sorry about the long title, but I wanted to help you find this article if you’re searching for assistance with a common environment issue that affects your ability to manage computers with System Center Essentials Essentials.

If while looking at computers in the Computers workspace in the Essentials console, if you notice a managed computer with any of these symptoms:

Hardware and software inventory is displayed as ‘Unknown’
Software and Update status is ‘Unknown’
Last Contacted is ‘Not yet contacted’

the managed computer is not being fully managed by Essentials. Essentials uses the Operations Manager agent to provide monitoring and remote task execution on managed computers, and the Windows Update agent to provide software distribution, update management and inventory collection on managed computers. In this case, the Windows Update agent on the managed computer is not properly reporting to the Essentials server, which is why the status for these areas is ‘Unknown’.

We’ve added monitoring in Essentials 2010 to alert you when managed computer are affected by this issue, but it also can be easily detected by looking at managed computers in the Computers workspace. Here are screenshots of how this issue is displayed in both Essentials 2007 and Essentials 2010.

Essentials 2007

Essentials 2010

Note: The description, asset tag and BIOS serial number properties are collected via the Ops Mgr attribute discovery process instead of via Windows Update agent inventory collection.

Troubleshooting Configuration: Group Policy

Essentials uses group policy to configure the Windows Update agent on the managed computer to report to the Essentials server. The first area to investigate is whether the managed computer is receiving and applying this policy.

Troubleshooting Steps

On the managed computer that is not reporting to the Essentials server, open Registry Editor and navigate to:

HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate

and verify that the WUServer and WUStatusServer values are set to:

https://<FQDN of your Essentials server>:8531

If its set to the Essentials server, jump to Windows Update log section, else continue to step 2.
If you have configured the Essentials server to use domain group policy, verify that the managed computer is a member of the ‘SCE Managed Computer <management group name>’ Security Group located in the Users container in your Active Directory domain. If the computer is not a member, add the computer object to the security group, and restart the managed computer.
If you have configured the Essentials server to use domain group policy, run ‘gpresult.exe /v’ on the managed computer to determine if the computer is receiving the ‘SCE Managed Computer <management group name>’ group policy. If the computer is not applying the policy, use the Troubleshooting Group Policy in Microsoft Windows Server guide to assist you: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b24bf2d5-0d7a-4fc5-a14d-e91d211c21b2&displaylang=en
If you have configured Essentials to use local policy, a scheduled task runs once per day that configures the local group policy object on the managed computer. Use Resultant Set of Policy (rsop.msc) to investigate if there is an Active Directory group policy (which has a higher order of precedence) that is overriding the Windows Update agent configuration in the local group policy object.

Troubleshooting Connectivity: Windows Update log

Now that you’ve verified that the Windows Agent is configured to report to the Essentials server, the next step is to check out the Windows Update log on the managed computer to verify its attempting to contact the Essentials server and is successful.

Open the Windows Update log on the managed computer; the log can be found at %windir%\windowsupdate.log.
Scroll to the bottom of the log file and look for the last attempt to contact. A successful communication will look like this:

2010-02-24    08:13:04:445    1076    2450    PT    +++++++++++ PT: Synchronizing server updates +++++++++++
2010-02-24    08:13:04:547    1076    2450    PT      + ServiceId = {3DA21691-E39D-4DA6-8A4B-B43877BCB1B7}, Server URL = https://sceserver.contoso.com:8531/ClientWebService/client.asmx
2010-02-24    08:13:35:580    1076    2450    PT    WARNING: Cached cookie has expired or new PID is available
2010-02-24    08:13:35:587    1076    2450    PT    Initializing simple targeting cookie, clientId = 897ad25c-b27c-4124-a938-c3d609793c6c, target group = , DNS name = myclient.contoso.com
2010-02-24    08:13:35:587    1076    2450    PT      Server URL = https://sceserver.contoso.com:8531/ClientWebService/client.asmx
2010-02-24    08:13:41:980    1076    2450    PT    +++++++++++ PT: Synchronizing extended update info +++++++++++
2010-02-24    08:13:41:980    1076    2450    PT      + ServiceId = {3DA21691-E39D-4DA6-8A4B-B43877BCB1B7}, Server URL = https://sceserver.contoso.com:8531/ClientWebService/client.asmx
2010-02-24    08:13:42:280    1076    2450    Agent      * Found 0 updates and 53 categories in search; evaluated appl. rules of 437 out of 560 deployed entities
2010-02-24    08:13:42:357    1076    2450    Agent    *********
2010-02-24    08:13:42:357    1076    2450    Agent    ** END ** Agent: Finding updates [CallerId = AutomaticUpdates]
2010-02-24    08:13:42:357    1076    2450    Agent    *************

An unsuccessful attempt will look like this:

2010-03-29    09:23:57:662    1132    1f80    Agent    *************
2010-03-29    09:23:57:662    1132    1f80    Agent    ** START ** Agent: Finding updates [CallerId = Windows System Health Agent Search]
2010-03-29    09:23:57:662    1132    1f80    Agent    *********
2010-03-29    09:23:57:662    1132    1f80    Agent      * Include potentially superseded updates
2010-03-29    09:23:57:662    1132    1f80    Agent      * Online = Yes; Ignore download priority = No
2010-03-29    09:23:57:662    1132    1f80    Agent      * Criteria = "IsInstalled=0 and CategoryIDs contains '0fa1201d-4330-4fa8-8ae9-b877473b6441'"
2010-03-29    09:23:57:662    1132    1f80    Agent      * ServiceID = {3DA21691-E39D-4DA6-8A4B-B43877BCB1B7} Managed
2010-03-29    09:23:57:662    1132    1f80    Agent      * Search Scope = {Machine}
2010-03-29    09:23:57:834    1132    1f80    PT    +++++++++++ PT: Starting category scan +++++++++++
2010-03-29    09:23:57:834    1132    1f80    PT      + ServiceId = {3DA21691-E39D-4DA6-8A4B-B43877BCB1B7}, Server URL = https://sceserver.contoso.com:8531/ClientWebService/client.asmx
2010-03-29    09:24:18:958    1132    1f80    Misc    WARNING: Send failed with hr = 80072ee2.
2010-03-29    09:24:18:958    1132    1f80    Misc WARNING: SendRequest failed with hr = 80072ee2. Proxy List used: <(null)> Bypass List used : <(null)> Auth Schemes used : <>
2010-03-29    09:24:18:958    1132    1f80    PT      + Last proxy send request failed with hr = 0x80072EE2, HTTP status code = 0
2010-03-29    09:24:18:958    1132    1f80    PT      + Caller provided credentials = No
2010-03-29    09:24:18:958    1132    1f80    PT      + Impersonate flags = 0
2010-03-29    09:24:18:958    1132    1f80    PT      + Possible authorization schemes used =
2010-03-29    09:24:18:958    1132    1f80    PT    WARNING: StartCategoryScan failure, error = 0x80072EE2, soap client error = 5, soap error code = 0,

Notice the WARNING and error codes I’ve bolded in the log excerpt. These are issues that are preventing the Windows Update agent from communicating with the Essential server. Check out these article for specific guidance on how to troubleshoot these errors and warnings:

How to read the Windowsupdate.log file
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902093

Windows Update Agent Result Codes
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc720442(WS.10).aspx

How the Windows Update client determines which proxy server to use to connect to the Windows Update Web site
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/900935

If you use image-based OS deployment: Troubleshooting duplicate SUSClient ID

If you have many managed computers that are not reporting to the Essentials server, and you use an image to install the operating system on computers, the most likely cause of this issue is that the managed computers are sharing the same SUSClientID. The WSUS technology in Essentials uses the SUSClientID to uniquely identify each managed computer that contacts the Essentials server. If more than one computer is using the same duplicate SUSClientID, only the first computer that reports to the Essentials server will be fully managed.

If this is the case in your environment, check out these articles for cleaning up this issue, and also fix your image so that you do not have to deal with this issue in the future.

A Windows 2000-based, Windows Server 2003-based, or Windows XP-based computer that was set up by using a Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP image does not appear in the WSUS console
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903262

Resolving the duplicate SUSClientID issue, or “Why don’t all my clients show up in the WSUS console?”
http://blogs.technet.com/sus/archive/2009/05/05/resolving-the-duplicate-susclientid-issue-or-why-don-t-all-my-clients-show-up-in-the-wsus-console.aspx

We’d appreciate your feedback on this article or your experiences troubleshooting this issue:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/systemcenteressentials/thread/75ee711f-3de1-4719-aa11-082b7db142e3

Which management packs should I be using to monitor my computers and applications?

dustinj — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:49:57 GMT

If you've used Essentials 2007, you noticed that it monitored Windows, Exchange, SQL and Active Directory 'out of the box.' Essentials is able to do this because it come pre-loaded with management packs that encapsulate knowledge for how to monitor these applications. If you wanted to monitor additional applications, you needed to import a new management pack to monitor the application. Management Packs are available from a catalog, just recently moved to Microsoft Pinpoint.

In Essentials 2010, we added a feature to help you understand which management packs are needed to monitor the applications and operating systems in your environment. We call this feature 'Monitoring Configuration'. The feature detects applications installed or used in your environment, and then recommends that management packs are imported to monitor these applications. Recommended management packs are determined by detecting applications that are installed in the Essentials server domain using Active Directory LDAP queries and OpsMgr SDK interrogations.

When Essentials 2010 ships, it will include the ability to detect and import management packs for these applications:

Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows 7
Windows XP
Windows Vista
SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2008
Active Directory 2003
Active Directory 2008
Exchange 2003
Exchange 2007
Exchange 2010
Virtual Server 2005
Hyper-V
Virtual Machine Manager
Data Protection Manager 2007
Windows Server Updated Services
Network Monitoring

Here’s a screencap of the Monitoring Configuration dialog recommending import of the Hyper-V and DPM management packs. Clicking the ‘Import’ button will import these packs, and any dependencies, and configure Essentials to start monitoring these applications.

You’ll also notice there are two options to be configured.

Automatic Discovery of new monitoring – this option configures Essentials to scan once a day for new applications installed in your environment that are not already monitored. If a new application is detected for which a management pack is not imported and available, you will be notified via a banner in the Computer workspace.
Do not notify about MPs that I chose not to import – this option allows you to configure Essentials not to recommend management packs that you have chosen not to import. You can still import these recommended packs in the future; you just won’t be notified about them.

Microsoft can update the list of detectable applications and operating systems in the future through product updates, so that as new management packs are released, you’ll know that they are available and recommended,

One last topic; management packs are frequently updated. To help you know when there is an updated management pack available via the management pack web service. The screenshot above shows Essentials checking for updated packs.

When packs are available, click the link which launches the ‘MP Import’ wizard. Then select to obtain packs from the ctlalog. Lastly, select ‘Updates available for installed management packs’ in the View drop down to see packs that are newer version of packs that are already imported in Essentials.

We’d love to hear your feedback on this future – drop us a note through our forums: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/systemcenteressentials/thread/d9924697-120f-4a33-b945-28ddab7434e4

Automatic Selection of Product Categories in System Center Essentials 2010

Anshu Agrawal — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:08:09 GMT

How to enable Auto-select for Microsoft Update (MU) subscriptions in System Center Essentials 2010

What is Auto-select?

Auto-select is a new feature in Essentials 2010 which improves the experience and performance of managing Microsoft update content. Essentials uses information collected about the software currently in the IT environment to automatically synchronize and download only the product updates that require evaluation. When the managed computers no longer need updates for outdated or removed software, those updates are no longer synchronized automatically and any existing packages containing outdated updates are purged. When a new computer or product is added and managed, auto-select feature automatically adds the appropriate category to the list of synchronized content. If the computer is not yet reporting to the server, Auto-select assumes that it runs the current Essentials management server operating system version, and selects the corresponding product on the Essentials management server. The Auto-select feature does not make any changes to update classification and languages; however, you can further limit or expand the content synchronization based on the automatic selections.

Value to Essentials customers

The decisions you make about how to synchronize with Microsoft Update can have a dramatic effect on the efficient use of bandwidth and disk space. Essentials offers you the ability to download only the updates which are based on your environment by enabling auto-select. It discovers exactly what updates are needed across the whole network. This can help if you are struggling to strike a balance between synchronizing enough updates from Microsoft in order to stay secure and synchronizing too many which can create a burden on the WSUS/Essentials server as well as adding complexity to the your other update deployment tasks. If you manually download too few categories or languages, then you might not be aware that some of your managed computers are no longer securely up to date. If you synchronize too many, you have to use extra command-line tools to purge the surplus content. Both paths involve considerable work on your part to achieve an optimal balance. Auto-select can provides confidence that you are downloading only updates for the products Microsoft supports in your environment.

How to enable Auto-select

After specifying the proxy server in the Configure System Center Essentials wizard, you can change how updates are downloaded on the Microsoft Updates page. To enable Auto-select, select the Automatically (recommended) option.

Note: When you enable the Auto-select feature, Essentials also configures Windows Update synchronization to be automatic. To change the Windows Update synchronization settings back from automatic to manual, you must first disable Auto-select.

How to see the selected list of products and how to disable Auto-select:

User can verify the products selections within a 2 hour window:

1. Open the Essentials console.

2. Click the Administration navigation button to open the Administration workspace.

3. In the Administration pane of the Essentials console, click Settings.

4. In the Settings list view, under Type: Update Management, double-click Products and Classifications.

5. Click the Microsoft Updates tab.

6. Select the Manually option, and you can see the list of products.

7. Do one of the following:

· To continue using Auto-select, click Cancel, and then click No when asked if you want to save changes.

· To disable the auto-select feature click Apply, and then click OK.

How Auto-select works

The updates database of Essentials (default name: SUSDB) stores all available product categories from Microsoft Update (MU) upon initial synchronization. Each subsequent synchronization refreshes the list in the database with the latest update categories. Essentials then evaluates the synchronized category collection, asking each managed computer’s update agent about which updates they need. Essentials then generates a manifest of relevant categories for each managed computer. Essentials combines and summarizes to distinct categories from all managed computers to represent the right subscription set/relevant categories and applies the completed list to the synchronization settings for Microsoft Update. This produces the same results as if each computer reported directly to Microsoft Update.

Essentials 2010 – UI Tips and Tricks

Richard Rundle — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:56:29 GMT

Thank you to everyone who has been using the Essentials 2010 Beta and RC. Many of you may have already discovered some of the User Interface enhancements we’ve made. In this post I’d like to share 9 tips and tricks when using the Essentials console.

Minimize tiles on Overview pages to focus on what is important.: Click on the ^ of the overview page tile and watch the tile collapse. This can let you hide the Servers tile and focus on Client computers without scrolling.
Reorder the workspace tabs or change the height of the workspace area.: To change the order of the workspaces, open the control. You can move workspaces up or down. You can also minimize the number of workspaces shown - giving you more room in the navigation area above.
Expand/Collapse Navigation and Task pane to maximize the viewable area of data in grids: Click on the < and > icons of the Navigation Pane or Task Pane to have the pane minimize. You can still access information in the minimized pane by clicking on it. The pane will open temporarily, allowing you to make a selection and then collapse again.
Filter data in grids to focus on particular information: Clicking on Edit Criteria exposes a filter control you can use to temporarily change the amount of data shown. The filter exists only while you remain in the current view.
Show/hide columns in grids: Right click on a column heading and you can enable or disable different columns so you can see just the information you are interested in. In the Computers workspace there are a number of fields that are not shown by default. This feature lets you add additional columns, and remove others.
Change the order of columns in grids: Select any column heading and drag it left or right to change the order columns are displayed in. No screenshot for this one. When used in conjunction with the previous tip you can make sure the key information is visible without scrolling.
Use sorting and grouping in a grid, including multi-column sort: To sort a grid by two or more columns, click the heading of the first column to sort by, hold down the shift key and click the second column to sort by. You can combine sorting with grouping - right click on a column heading and select Group By. You can use this to group all of your virtual machine hosts by grouping on the Host column, as shown below.
Copy data and paste into other applications: Take data from Essentials and paste it into other applications. For example, you can copy the contents of a grid into Excel. Note: In the RC this will not paste as you expect, but does for RTM.
Open more than one property page to do side by side comparisons: Select a computer and open the Properties window. Leave the properties window open and select and different computer and open its Properties window. You can open several property windows and compare the contents.

Bonus Tip: Pete Zerger has blogged some of the shortcut keys available in Essentials 2010

ZD Net UK review of System Center Essentials 2010

Jason Buffington — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:42:45 GMT

The nice folks at ZD Net in the UK just posted their review of SCE 2010, based on the Release Candidate. Click here to read the whole review, but their bottom line was:

Virtualisation is definitely the big draw for SCE 2010, but there are enhancements to the other tools as well — not least the software update option. Based on WSUS technology, the changes here are aimed at automating the patching process in order to, for example, discover exactly what updates are needed across the whole network, set auto-approval deadlines and handle distribution differently on workstations and servers. There's also support for third-party update services and a clean-up wizard to help keep the update database down to a reasonable size.

First a note of “thanks” to our friends in the UK who looked at SCE 2010.

Its been an exciting several months since the beta was first released, and we are very pleased with the number of folks who have downloaded the pre-release versions. Its great to see all of the excitement around leveraging System Center’s management technologies in midsized organizations, so we are looking forward to releasing SCE 2010!

Essentials 2010 – Improving Default Monitoring

Richard Rundle — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:23:00 GMT

The monitoring capability within Essentials comes from Management Packs, and the majority Management Packs that work with Operations Manager also work with Essentials. This is great, because it means there is a wealth of deep monitoring that is available for Essentials.

During the Beta and RC period we’ve had lots of great feedback (please keep it coming), and some of this feedback has focused on the monitoring capabilities provided by Management Packs. This post covers the common feedback, and configuration changes to improve the monitoring experience for the following management packs:

Windows Client Operating System
Exchange 2007
Exchange 2010
SQL Server 2008

Windows Client Operating System Management Pack

Alerts

There is an issue with the Windows 7 Client OS MP that will generate errors after the initial import of the management pack. You are likely to see 4 alerts that are very similar. You can dismiss the alerts and they should not reappear. The 4 alerts you are likely to see will all start with:

OleDb Module encountered a failure 0x80040e37 during execution and will post it as output data item. : Invalid object name

and then have one of the following:

'Win7.vWin7MemoryHealthAggregationRAM'.
'Win7.vWin7ShellPerfAggregationComputer'.
'Win7.vWin7DiskFailureAggregationDisk'.
'Win7.vWin7DiskFailureAggregationComputer'.

These issues may be fixed in a future release of the Windows 7 Client Operating System Management Pack. When an updated version of a management pack is available you will see a yellow notification bar at the top of the Computers workspace in the Essentials console.

Performance Collection

By default, if you attempt to view CPU Performance, Processor Queue Length or Memory in the Computers workspace for computers running XP, Vista or Windows 7 the graphs will be empty.

To show information for Client Computers you will need to enable the following rules for each OS:

Memory Available Megabytes
Processor % Processor Time Total
System Processor Queue Length

To enable collection of these performance counters:

Go to the Authoring Workspace
Expand Management Pack Objects and select Rules
In the Look For box (press Ctrl-F if it is not visible) enter Memory Available and click Find Now
Select Memory Available Megabytes for each client operating system to enable
Select Overrides -> Override this Rule -> For all objects of class
Check the box next to Enabled, change the Override Value to True and click OK
Repeat steps 3 to 6, searching for:
- Processor % Processor
- Processor Queue

More information is in the Management Pack Guide.

Exchange 2007 Management Pack

By default, the Microsoft Exchange 2007 Management Pack will not automatically discover any Exchange 2007 Server roles, and no monitoring is distributed to Exchange 2007 servers.

Initially, the only discovery that runs automatically is called the Exchange 2007 Discovery Helper Discovery. It is a lightweight registry discovery that runs on all Windows servers. Its only purpose is to discover Exchange 2007 servers in your environment without actually starting monitoring.

To verify that Discovery Helper has discovered your Exchange 2007 servers

Ensure that you have not scoped your views.
Go to the Discovered Inventory view in the Monitoring section of the Operations console.
Right-click and choose Select Target Type.
In the Look for field, type Exchange 2007 Discovery Helper, select it, and then click OK. A list of Exchange 2007 servers appears with a status of “Not Monitored.”

If no Exchange 2007 servers are discovered, you might want to make the discovery run more frequently than the default. You can change the frequency of the Exchange 2007 Discovery Helper Discovery in Object Discoveries located under Authoring in the Operations console.

To enable Exchange 2007 Server Role Discovery

Go to the Object Discoveries node located under Authoring in the Operations console.
In the Look for field, type Exchange 2007 Server Role and click Enter. A list of Exchange 2007 Server Role Discoveries appears. You need to enable Server Role Discoveries of the following discoveries:

Discovery Name	Description
Exchange 2007 CCR Clustered Mailbox Server Role Discovery	Discovers CCR and SCC clustered Mailbox servers
Exchange 2007 CCR Node Role Discovery	Discovers CCR node servers in a CCR cluster (the physical nodes)
Exchange 2007 Standalone CCR Node Discovery	Discovers standalone CCR node roles (nodes that are participating in log shipping but are not part of an active Mailbox server) and standalone mailbox roles
Exchange 2007 CAS Role Discovery	Discovers Client Access server roles
Exchange 2007 Hub Transport Role Discovery	Discovers Hub Transport server roles
Exchange 2007 Edge Role Discovery	Discovers Edge Transport server roles
Exchange 2007 UM Role Discovery	Discovers Unified Messaging (UM) roles

For example, to enable discovery of all Hub Transport servers, right-click the Exchange 2007 Hub Transport Role Discovery and select Overrides\Enable the Object Discovery\for all objects of type Exchange 2007 Discovery Helper. If you want, you can choose to discover servers using a group (containing Exchange 2007 Discovery Helper instances) or a single instance of Exchange 2007 Discovery Helper. It is also possible to use a group containing the computer objects of the Exchange servers.

More information is in the Management Pack Guide and also on the Operations Manager blog.

Exchange 2010 Management Pack

Importing the Exchange 2010 Management Pack on the Release Candidate of Essentials 2010 will cause the following alert to be generated:

Critical hotfixes required for reliable operation of the Exchange Server 2010 and other management packs are not installed on this server. Please see the appropriate KB article for more information, and to download the required hotfix.

The hotfixes referred to by this alert are included in the released version of Essentials 2010.

These updates resolve issues affecting state rollup using dependency monitors. These updates allow the Exchange Server 2010 Management Pack to accurately monitor whether Exchange databases are mounted. Without these updates you are also likely to see inaccurate availability reporting.

If desired, you can disable this alert:

Go to the Authoring workspace
Expand Management Pack Objects and select Rules
In the Look For box (press Ctrl-F if it is not visible) enter SCOM and click Find Now
Select The required SCOM hotfixes for Exchange MP are not installed.
Select Overrides -> Disable the Rule -> For all objects of class

This is only a temporary workaround for use with the RC and should be reverted when upgrading to the RTM version of Essentials 2010.

More information is in the Management Pack Guide

SQL Server 2008 Management Pack

Monitoring SQL 2008

A number of workflows in the SQL Server 2008 Management Pack run scripts, which rely on SQL Data Management Objects (SQL-DMO) to query information from the SQL Server. SQL-DMO is now deprecated and is not shipped as a part of SQL Server 2008. Every system with SQL Server 2008 that will be monitored must have SQL-DMO installed from the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components.

To install SQL-DMO on computers running SQL Server 2008:

On the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack, August 2008 download page, in the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components section, download the package that is appropriate for the version of SQL Server.
Run the .msi file on the computers running SQL Server 2008 that the SQL Server 2008 Management Pack will monitor.
On the Feature Selection screen, ensure that the SQL Distributed Management Objects (SQL-DMO) feature is set to This feature will be installed on local hard drive. None of the other features are required for the SQL Server 2008 Management Pack.
Complete the installation wizard to install the SQL-DMO backward compatibility components.

These issues may be fixed in a future release of the SQL Server 2008 Management Pack. When an updated version of a management pack is available you will see a yellow notification bar at the top of the Computers workspace in the Essentials console.

Alerts

If you are using the Express edition of SQL (installed by Essentials) you will see the following errors:

Warning Service Check Data Source Module Failed Execution

Warning Service Check Probe Module Failed Execution

Both errors will mention the following workflow:

Workflow name: Microsoft.SQLServer.2008.DBEngine.FullTextSearchServiceMonitor or

Workflow name: Microsoft.SQLServer.2005.DBEngine.FullTextSearchServiceMonitor

This will happen on any system that has SQL installed without the Full Text Search Engine. You can apply an override on that monitor to disable it for the systems that don't have that service installed.

To disable these monitors, perform the following steps:

Go to the Authoring workspace
Expand Management Pack Objects and select Monitors
In the Look For box (press Ctrl-F if it is not visible) enter Full Text and click Find Now
In turn, select each of the SQL Server Full Text Search Service Monitor (one for SQL 2005, and the other for SQL 2008)
Select Overrides -> Disable the Monitor -> For all objects of class

More information is in the Management Pack Guide.