Matt Goedtel on Operations Management : Operations Manager 2007 R2

Updated PowerShell Script - Maintenance Mode

mgoedtel — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:22:00 GMT

I was recently e-mailed by a colleague regarding the maintenance mode PowerShell script that was originally released by Boris Yanushpolsky (found here) that worked great for RTM/SP1, but was failing when executed on an OpsMgr 2007 R2 agent managed system. In addition, the script was designed to place an object into maintenance mode for an hourly duration, not in minutes matching the setting in the Operations Console.

As you know, in Operations Manager RTM/SP1, we did not place the health service or health service watcher instance of the computer object into maintenance mode as one would expect, when you place a computer and its contained objects into maintenance mode. In Operations Manager R2, this was resolved and no longer requires you to perform this as a second step in the process.

The attached script has been updated to support automating the placement of computer objects into maintenance mode for Operations Manager R2, and now accepts the argument of minutes instead of hours for duration of maintenance. I am also in the process of updating the Maintenance Mode management pack that Brian Wren originally developed, and Andrzej Lipka (a former MCS Consultant from Poland) and myself modified with some additional features (see Andrzej's MP here and mine here) so you can leverage it for R2. I hope to have it completed and tested by this weekend, and submitted for review and release on http://www.opsmanjam.com the following week.

The command-line for executing the script is:

Starting MM - powershell "c:\MMode_R2.ps1" -groupName 'All Computers' -minutes 10 -rmsServerName RMSSERVER -startMM $true

Ending MM - powershell "c:\MMode_R2.ps1" -groupName 'All Computers' -minutes 10 -rmsServerName RMSSERVER -startMM $false

Suggestions and feedback are always welcome.

New MP's on OpsManJam

mgoedtel — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:04:00 GMT

It has been quite some time since I have posted anything of relevance on my blog. I have been focused on updating some of the management packs that I published a few months ago, such as:

Extended Windows Server Active Directory
Extended Windows Server
System Center Configuration Manager OSD

In addition, I was developing some new custom management packs, such as:

Extended Windows Server Internet Information Services 2003
Extended SQL Server 2005/2008
Alachisoft NCache 3.x

All of these MP's, with exception of the Alachisoft and Extended SQL Server MP's, have been published on OpsManJam Library, under Management Packs. The Alachisoft NCache MP is undergoing an internal review and should be published this week or next. I am currently putting the finishing touches on the custom Extended SQL Server 2005/2008, which will provide the following features:

Provides basic monitoring of specific events when you have database mirroring enabled on specific databases hosted on your SQL 2005/2008 server.
Collects specific performance data related to database mirroring to view in the Console.
Monitors for an event condition when a database filegroup runs out of disk space (such as when AUTOGROW is not enabled, insufficient disk space, etc.)

So I have this first version complete and am currently drafting the deployment guide. I should have it completed by the weekend and submitted for publishing on OpsManJam next week. The next version of this MP that I am preparing to develop, will look to provide more advanced health monitoring for database mirroring.

From now on, all custom MP's that I develop will be published on OpsManJam and not on my blog.

Run As Profiles in Operations Manager 2007 R2

mgoedtel — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:36:00 GMT

One of the new features of R2 that hasn't received any attention yet (at least to my knowledge) is how we changed the functionality of Run As Profiles. Today in Operations Manager 2007, you associate a RunAs Account for a particular RunAs Profile on a specific computer. Pretty straight forward and if I remember correctly, the same as MOM 2005 (haven't touched it in some time so my memory is vague). When I was testing my custom ADMP (my lab environment is running on R2), I was caught off guard because I needed to associate a RunAs account with a RunAs profile as part of my testing, and it took me some time to figure out how to configure it correctly (since the on-line documentation for R2 was not updated to provide an appropriate level of guidance).

In Operations Manager 2007 R2, when associating a RunAs Account for a particular RunAs Profile, you can now target the the profile to any class available in Operations Manager and see the logical relationship between the two. Take for example a script that we run as a response to a monitor or a script that performs some level of monitoring against a SQL Server database. Instead of associating the profile with the agent, you can associate the profile with the database instance or the SQL Server Database Engine for that agent. So any workflow that requires running under a specific set of privileges in order to access the instrumentation correctly, you will be able to target the profile by group, object, and instance class. This follows the same logic as targeting a workflow today (monitors, rules, discoveries, tasks, etc.).

While today's management packs for Operations Manager aren't developed with this strategy in mind, by the time R2 comes out I would expect to see them supporting this.

OpsMgr 2007 Console on Windows 7

mgoedtel — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:10:00 GMT

Over the weekend I was able to make the time needed to wipe and load Windows 7 Beta, which I can say with much enthusiasm is stellar (really, I am not saying that because I work for Microsoft). Anywho, I installed the Operations Manager 2007 SP1 Operations Console and fired it up to see how it would fair on this beta OS. Thus far, it is working reliably.

While this is not earth shattering news and not a big deal from a "ohh I can do that" type of blog entry, I figured I would share this little tidbit of news anyway.

Oh, the Operations Manager 2007 R2 Operations Console is also running sound on Windows 7. So for you who are admins or operators using Operations Manager 2007, go forward and enjoy the fruits of Windows 7!

Leagl jargon - your milage may vary and this is not an endorsement to violate your company's policy with using beta software on production systems.