Matt Goedtel on Operations Management : Setup

Updated Deployment Guide - Operations Manager Reporting on Windows Server 2008

mgoedtel — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:21:00 GMT

Today I have updated the Deployment Guide for Operations Manager 2007 Reporting on Windows Server 2008. This was due to some confusion from those who downloaded the doc and were attempting to setup this configuration in their environment. I received a few e-mails and determined this needed to be addressed accordingly. Specifically I had verbiage in a paragraph in the section "Installing SQL Server 2005 with Service Pack 2" where I eluded to the fact installing SQL 2005 with Reporting Services should be performed using a slipstreamed version of SQL 2005 with SP2. I don't remember why I had that statement in this paragraph, but there is no technical reason from my experience why you cannot install SQL 2005 RTM and then apply Service Pack 2. It has worked fine for me on various occasions.

Thanks to those who have pointed this out and sorry that this caused any unnecessary confusion.

This updated version will also be uploaded on the http://www.opsmanjam.com site within a day or so.

Deployment Guide - Operations Manager Reporting on Windows Server 2008

mgoedtel — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:57:00 GMT

While I realize that today my colleauge in arms Walter Chomak, has blogged about installing System Center Operations Manager 2007 Reporting on Windows Server 2008, the attached guide provides greater detail and guidance on installing SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services and Operations Manager Reporting role on Windows Server 2008. Walter covers a key step, but I want to make sure the entire "picture" is painted for you.

I had authored this for our internal field staff a month ago but never found the time to convert the document from our customer delivery document standard to one that was more appropriate for this audience. Finally I got it done ths morning.

Enjoy!

Installing a OpsMgr Server Component to drive other than C: - can't?

mgoedtel — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:01:00 GMT

Here is a question that I see come up from time to time that I thought deserved some focus. Let's say you are looking to scale out your management group and install an additional management server, install a new gateway server, or maybe install the console locally (an exception of this scenario is the OpsMgr Reporting Server & Data Warehouse database). You could be in a pinch becuase you don't have any new hardware to dedicate for this requirement, dealing with a DR scenario, etc. While running through setup you notice that in the UI you cannot select a different installation location, the browse button is nowhere to be found, and it is likely defaulting to C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007. But you want to install it to a different volume, like E: or whatever.

So then you scratch your head and think, "well I understand MSI packages and their command-line settings. Let me pass the INSTALLDIR property and see if that works." So you try and it still fails. Why is this you wonder?

Most often times than not, it is due to the fact that the OpsMgr agent is already installed and has been for some time, in order to proactively monitor the system (following recommended practices for any server that is considered "live" or "production"). All the components of Operations Manager such as the console, management server and so forth have a dependency on the common components for the Agent Health Service (as defined in the MSI database). In order to work around this, you would need to first:

Uninstall the agent from the system
Install the Operations Manager component
Reinstall the agent if not a management server.

So just consider this when going through this exercise and ensure you document this in if you intend on taking an existing server monitored by OpsMgr to fill a role.

Clarification - ACS Reporting

mgoedtel — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:35:00 GMT

This is an entry I have been meaning to write for a couple of weeks now. But I have been really busy and I finally found some free time to write to my hearts content.

In a prior blog entry, I provided steps on importing the ACS Reports after you install the ACS Collector component in your Management Group. What was not clear were the options for where to install the ACS Reports.

So, in saying that, I want to provide some clarification around the deployment of ACS Reports for Operations Manager 2007. This recommendation is based off of my extensive testing in coming up with the procedures to move the ACS database to a new SQL Server (in support of the next version of the Backup/Restore Guide for Operations Manager). As you may or may not know, the curent release of the Operations Manager 2007 Deployment Guide provides guidance in deploying ACS Reports under two scenarios:

From the SQL Server hosting the OperationsManagerAC database (with SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services installed) and accessed via the browser.
From the server hosting SQL Server Reporting Services and Operations Manager 2007 Reporting Services and accessed via the Operations Console.

Now, if you deployed Operations Manager 2007 under the Single Server/Single Management Group scenario, you can successfully access the ACS Reports from the Operations Console. However, if you have deployed Operations Manager 2007 under the Multiple Server/Single Management Group scenario, where OperationsManagerAC database is hosted on a dedicated SQL 2005 based-computer and a separate SQL Server 2005 based-computer is hosting Operations Manager Reporting components (Report Services and the Data Warehouse) and ACS Reports (as an example scenario), you won't be able to successfully view the ACS Reports via the Operations Console.

This occurs due to how security has been implemented for executing reports via the Operations Console. When you execute a report, it runs under the security context of the Operations Manager Data Reader account that you define during setup of OpsMgr Reporting. The database user "Domain\OpsMgr Data Reader" has a role membership in the OperationsManagerDW database of "OpsMgrReader" and this database role is granted "select" rights to many views, tables, stored procedures, etc. in the OperationsManagerDW database. The security mode developed for reports in Operations Manager is not compatible at this time with the ACS Reports. When you attempt to view an ACS Report in the Operations Console, you will receive an error "An error has occurred during report processing. Cannot create a connection to data source "dataSource1." On the SQL Server 2005 based-computer hosting the OperationsManagerAC database, you will see an event written in the Application Log "Login failed for user NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON.(CLIENT: <IP Address of client>." The Operations Manager Reporting security model is not designed to prompt for security credentials when attempting to run a report. Therefore you cannot configure the ACS DBAudit datasource to connect using "credentials supplied by the user running the report" and "Use as Windows credentials when connecting to the data source" (as one example for a possible work-around). I spent many hours working on this, so I can assure you that every possible configuration was tested and discussed with the developers.

Even if you were to modify the connection settings of the DBAudit datasource for the ACS Reports (which you set to use Windows Integrated Security after you install the reports) to store the OpsMgr Data Reader account on the report server, this is not secure nor recommended.

So after reviewing all of this, I wanted to make sure that you understood the recommended way to deploy ACS Reports under two configurations:

On the same server hosting the ACS Database
On the SQL Server 2005 based-computer hosting Reporting Services for SQL and Operations Manager (which could also be or not be hosting the Data Warehouse database).

This gives you the ability to ensure:

Data in the ACS database is secure
You can appropriately delegate permission to who can view/run reports against the ACS database
Can successfully run the ACS reports and any custom ACS reports you develop

I have opened a bug with the Product Group so that we update the Deployment Guide to provide you with the right guidance. Also know that the developers are going to look into this further, so that we find a way to run the ACS reports via the Operations Console using a secure, supported method.

Update to moving OperationsManager Database Steps

mgoedtel — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 23:19:00 GMT

It was discovered by some of my colleagues, that when they completed the steps to move the OperationsManager database from one SQL Server computer to another, several events are written to the Application Event Log. An example of those events is:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSSQLSERVER
Event Category: (2)
Event ID: 18054

Description:
Error 7779800008, severity 16, state 1 was raised, but no message with that error number was found in sys.messages. If error is larger than 50000, make sure the user-defined message is added using sp_addmessage.

This event is generated because when we documented the steps to move the OperationsManager database from one SQL Server computer to another in the Operations Manager 2007 Backup and Recovery Guide, we were not aware of the fact that some specific configuration information is stored in the Master database.

You see during Operations Manager setup, after the OperationsManager database is created, error messages specific to Operations Manager are not tied to the database, but are stored in the sys.messages Catalog View in the Master database.

We are in the process of updating the Operations Manager 2007 Backup and Restore Guide accordingly. In the meantime, if you are preparing to perform this operation, you will need to execute the attached snippet of code. This snippet of code will ensure that Error Messages specific to the OperationsManagerDB are available on the new SQL Server. Open the attached file in SQL Server 2005 Query Designer and execute against the Master database.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Installing ACS Reports

mgoedtel — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:26:00 GMT

I figured I would write a quick post regarding the ACS component in Operations Manager 2007, as I sometimes see people wonder why the reports are not available after they install the ACS Database and Collector component. The setup of the ACS Collector does not install the ACS Reports and it is not even an option. In order to instal the Reports on your SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services/Operations Manager Reporting Server, perform the following steps:

From the source installation media, go to the ReportModels\ACS folder.
Launch the script - UploadAuditReports.cmd with the following parameters:

UploadAuditReports {DatabaseServerAndInstance} {ReportingServiceURL} {ReportFolder}

Note: ReportFolder is the path to "<Installation Media>\ReportModels\ACS"

Example: UploadAuditReports DBServer\Instance1 http://DbServer/ReportServer$Instance1 D:\ReportModels\ACS

Now when you go into the Operations Console, Reports link you should see the pre-canned ACS Reports available for use.

Operations Manager Reporting - Resolving Those Errors

mgoedtel — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 03:48:00 GMT

Sometimes working with Operations Manager Reporting and SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services can be a bit frustrating or challenging because the error displayed are often ambiguous. Some common situations I have come across are the following (including the solution):

Operations Manager 2007 Reporting Setup states "SRS Validation Error." Check the following:

That SQL Reporting Services service is running.
Verify you can access SRS by launching the browser and referring to URL's - http://[computername]/Reports and http://[computername]/ReportServer
Verify the browser is not configured to use a configuration script in the connection settings or that if it is configured to use a Proxy Server, that you select the check box to bypass for local addresses. An HTTP Error 502 will be logged in the MOMReporting<n>.Log file.
Execute the SQL Reporting Services Configuration tool and verify the configuration of SRS.
Review the Reporting Setup log that is located in the temp folder of the user profile that you are logged on as. The log file is named - MOMReporting<n>.Log.
Run the ResetSRS Tool located off of the Operations Manager 2007 media in the SupportTools folder. This will reset the configuration of SRS back to its default state. I recommend using this as an absolute last resort.
Make sure you are logged on with an account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrators role.

When you click on the Reports link in the Operations Console and you receive a HTTP Status Code error such as 401, 404, etc.

Check the connection settings for the browser where you are running the Operations Console.
Verify you can access SRS by launching the browser and referring to the two SRS URL's.
Verify you can resolve the name of the server hosting SRS and the Operations Manager Reporting component.

Current KB Articles on the topic of installing Operations Manager Reporting are:

If I uncover other scenarios and solutions, I'll post an update.

OpsMgr 2007 Installation Notes

mgoedtel — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 03:31:00 GMT

I have seen a few pots on some of the Management Community blogs regarding SCOM 2007 supporting Windows Server 2003 SP2 and SQL Server 2005 SP2. Both are supported and I can confirm through my own testing that it installs and runs successfully at this time. Some have stated they have run across an error when installing Operations Manager regarding a .NET Interop Assembly. In my testing I have not come across this issue.

The installation steps I followed when preparing the server for Operations Manager 2007 was:

Install and configure Windows Server 2003 Standard or Enterprise Edition, including IIS 6.0.
Install Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003.
Install .Net Framework 3.0
Install Windows PowerShell 1.0
Install and configure SQL Server 2005 RTM.
Install SQL Server 2005 SP2
Install Operations Manager 2007 - database, consoles, command shell, etc.

Granted this was an installation under a single server scenario. I have run through the installation or just run the prerequisit checker several times on physical and virtual instances with success. Could the issues others have come across been due to their standard build configuration, the build process, or other scenario? If you have run into this issue, please feel free to let me know.

Installing the MOM 2005 Consoles on Windows Vista

mgoedtel — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 06:24:00 GMT

So I thought for my first blog posting, I would discuss how to install the MOM 2005 consoles (Administrator and Operator) on a Windows Vista client. Hmm, should be straight forward enough, no? Well unfortunately the MOM 2005 Setup prerequisite checker will state the minimum requirements have not been met - specifically with regard to the OS. So how do we get around this? By referencing the MSI Package – MOMSERVER.MSI from the command-line providing specific properties to avoid the prerequisite checker and successfully installing on Windows Vista.

Minimum Requirements: Because MOM 2005 was developed using .NET 1.1 managed code, .NET Framework 1.1 must be installed! Remember, .NET Framework 3.0 is included with Windows Vista and you can install prior versions of .NET side-by-side. Once you download .Net Framework redistributable package from here - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=262D25E3-F589-4842-8157-034D1E7CF3A3&displaylang=en install it and then you can the proceed with the installation of the MOM 2005 Consoles.

Installing the Consoles: I recommend installing from the MOM 2005 SP1 media that is available on MSDN subscription or SA media and not the MOM 2005 RTM media. Once you find the source media, the command-line syntax to install the consoles is the following - MSIEXEC.EXE /i MOMSERVER.MSI ADDLOCAL=”MOMXUI” MOM_SERVER=”[Computer Name that hosts the MOM Management Server]” /qb

For further details on the command-line properties for MOMSERVER.MSI, please review the Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Deployment Guide found on TechNet and review the section “Deploying MOM 2005 in Advanced Environments\Deploying MOM Using the Command Line” and you will see a sub-section for “MOMSERVER.MSI.” Use the following link - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/mom/mom2005/Library/b7b0c768-64d1-486e-b9ed-7292c9e545f9.mspx?mfr=true

One note that should be mentioned, once the installation of the MOM 2005 consoles is complete and you execute one of the consoles; Vista will display a warning message indicating “known compatibility issues.” In my experience thus far, no issues have been encountered but your mileage may vary. The installation has been tested using MSDN and SA media on both Windows Vista x86 and x64 Ultimate SKU. It has not been tested on the Enterprise SKU; however there is no cause for concern as the differences between the SKU’s are simply the features installed.

So there you have it folks. Enjoy!