The Operations Manager Support Team Blog

Putting a Group of Computers into Maintenance Mode via Powershell

jchornbe — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:04:50 GMT

Have you ever found yourself in need of putting a group of systems into Maintenance Mode in System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2? If so you can use the script below. Note that in SCOM 2007 R2 there is no need to put the health service and health service watcher into Maintenance Mode separately, we just need to put the computer itself into Maintenance Mode and it will take care of other components automatically.

*************Script*********

param($rootMS,$group,$numberOfHoursInMaintenanceMode,$comment)

Add-PSSnapin "Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.OperationsManager.Client" -ErrorVariable errSnapin;
Set-Location "OperationsManagerMonitoring::" -ErrorVariable errSnapin;
new-managementGroupConnection -ConnectionString:$rootMS -ErrorVariable errSnapin;
set-location $rootMS -ErrorVariable errSnapin;

$groupObject = get-monitoringobject | where {$_.DisplayName -eq $group};
$groupagents = $groupObject.getrelatedmonitoringobjects()

foreach ($agent in $groupAgents)

{

$computerPrincipalName = $agent.displayname
$computerPrincipalName

$computerClass = get-monitoringclass -name:Microsoft.Windows.Computer
$healthServiceClass = get-monitoringclass -name:Microsoft.SystemCenter.HealthService
$healthServiceWatcherClass = get-monitoringclass -name:Microsoft.SystemCenter.HealthServiceWatcher

$computerCriteria = "PrincipalName='" + $computerPrincipalName + "'"
$computer = get-monitoringobject -monitoringclass:$computerClass | Where{$_.Displayname -like $computerPrincipalName}
$startTime = [System.DateTime]::Now
$endTime = $startTime.AddHours($numberOfHoursInMaintenanceMode)

"Putting " + $computerPrincipalName + " into maintenance mode"
New-MaintenanceWindow -startTime:$startTime -endTime:$endTime -monitoringObject:$computer -comment:$comment

}

*************************

Save the above script with a ps1 extension.

Schedule the script using the Task Scheduler and command line below:

Powershell c:\MMode.ps1 -rootMS: <RMS server name> -group: <Group name> - Numberofhoursinmaintenancemode: 1 -Comment: 'This is a test'

Hope this helps,

Ritesh Grover | System Center Technical Lead

New KB973499 - A memory leak occurs when many content location requests are received by a site server ConfigMgr 2007 SP1

jchornbe — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:23:13 GMT

Consider the following scenario:

The management point role is installed on a site server that is running Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1).
Many content location requests are sent to the management point when the requests contain multiple locations.

In this scenario, the memory usage of the Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) Agent Host service (Ccmexec.exe) keeps increasing.

There's a hotfix for this issue and you can read all the details and download it here:

KB973499 - A memory leak occurs when many content location requests are received by a site server that is running System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

How to enable a command notification channel in OpsMgr 2007

jchornbe — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:46:15 GMT

Command notifications differ from the other available notification channels. A command notification allows you to run an executable program automatically in response to an alert. Because you can run multiple commands in response to an alert you must assign a unique name to each command notification that you create.

To enable a command notification

Log on to the computer with a user account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrator role for the Operations Manager 2007 management group.
In the Operations console, click the Administration button.
In the Navigation tree, under Notifications, right-click Channels. Click New channel and then point to Command.
Type a name for the channel, such as Command channel and optionally provide a description. Click Next.
Type a unique name for this command channel in the Notification command channel name box and a brief description in the Description box.
In the Notification command configuration area, type the path to the executable file that you want to run in the Full path to command file box. For example, “%systemroot%\cmd.exe” or “c:\winnt\system32\cscript.exe”. Type any parameters that you want to run with this command in Command line parameters box. Type the path of the directory that is used for any output of this command in the Startup folder for the command line box.
Click Finish, and then click Close again to return to the Operations console.

After you have enabled the command notification channel, do the following:

Create a new recipient that has the command selected as a device.
Create a new subscription and select only the recipient created for this command.

Hope this helps,

Satish Phatge | System Center Support Engineer

OpsMgr 2007: Subscriptions getting automatically disabled - Event ID 11452 logged

jchornbe — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:35:23 GMT

I recently ran across an issue where notification subscriptions were getting disabled every 30 minutes. The strange thing was that only about half of the subscriptions were being disabled and they were the same subscriptions every time. I tried re-enabling them with both Powershell as well as the GUI and had the same result, the subscriptions kept being disabled. After digging through event logs I found this warning:

Log Name: Operations Manager
Source: Health Service Modules
Event ID: 11452
Task Category: None
Level: Warning

Validate alert subscription data source module encountered an alert subscription data source with configuration that has gone out of scope. Disabling the alert subscription data source module.

Alert subscription name: Subscriptionaca6a276_e5a9_446b_9751_0ea539168e41

One or more workflows were affected by this.
Workflow name: Microsoft.SystemCenter.ValidateAlertSubscription

The problem turned out to be that I recently cleaned up the SCOM Admins user group and one of the users removed from the group had created half of the subscriptions. By putting the user back in the SCOM Admins group and re-enabling the subscriptions the problem was solved but we really didn’t want this user in the SCOM Admins group as he had moved on to a different role.

So why was this happening? When a subscription is created the user who created the subscriptions SID is associated with that subscription. There is a workflow that checks every half hour for SIDs no longer valid. They could be invalid because their accounts access that had been removed, or possibly because the account has been disabled or deleted.

Resolution

To fix it long term I first exported the “Microsoft.SystemCenter.Notifications.Internal” management pack. This management pack is unsealed and contains all subscriptions.

Inside the management pack I searched for one of the subscriptions that were being disabled and one that was wasn’t. I then replaced the SID of the bad subscription with the SID of the good subscription.

After replacing the SIDs I re-imported the management pack and re-enabled all subscriptions and the problem was solved for good.

Here is an example of one of the SIDs I had to replace.

</Criteria>
<ExpirationStartTime>10/11/2008 21:38:45</ExpirationStartTime>
<PollingIntervalMinutes>1</PollingIntervalMinutes>
<UserSid>S-1-5-21-3273141924-712819414-2074229892-500</UserSid>
<LanguageCode>ENU</LanguageCode>
<ExcludeNonNullConnectorIds>false</ExcludeNonNullConnectorIds>
<RuleId>$MPElement$</RuleId>

Hope this helps,

Satish Phatge | System Center Support Engineer

Windows Power Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 now available

jchornbe — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:32:18 GMT

The Power Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 R2 enables you to monitor and manage the power consumption of computers running Windows Server 2008 R2. This management pack provides:

Visibility into power consumption.
Visibility and control of power policy.
Ability to lower power consumption during non-business hours to reduce overall power consumption.
Ability to limit power consumption.
Ability to detect excessive power consumption.

For all the details and to download the Management Pack visit http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6f147c1f-e190-4dbe-a3c7-9b9a19de8f93&displaylang=en

Enjoy!

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

Now Available: The Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007

jchornbe — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:37:15 GMT

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 management pack is designed to be used for monitoring Exchange 2010 events, collecting Exchange component-specific performance counters in one central location, and for raising alerts for operator intervention as necessary. By detecting, sending alerts, and automatically correlating critical events, this management pack helps indicate, correct, and prevent possible service outages or configuration problems, allowing you to proactively manage Exchange servers and identify issues before they become critical. The management pack monitors and provides alerts for automatic notification of events indicating service outages, performance degradation, and health monitoring.

Feature Summary The Exchange Server 2010 Management Pack includes rules and scripts to monitor and report on performance, availability, and reliability of all Exchange 2010 server roles including.

Mailbox Server Role
Client Access Server Role
Hub Transport Server Role
Edge Transport Server Role
Unified Messaging Server Role

For all the details and to download the Management Pack see http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7150bfed-64a4-42a4-97a2-07048cca5d23&displaylang=en

Enjoy!

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.0 Community Technical Preview (CTP) Now Available!

jchornbe — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:40:59 GMT

I know this isn’t Operations Manager specific but I thought it was something you’d appreciate hearing about nonetheless. The Solution Accelerator team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.0 Community Technical Preview (CTP). Designed to simplify and streamline the IT infrastructure planning process across multiple scenarios through network-wide automated discovery and assessments, this tool provides a quick and complete inventory of the current IT environment of any organization, hardware and device compatibility assessment, and actionable reporting of recommended hardware upgrades for migration.

The MAP Toolkit 5.0 CTP includes these new features:

· Heterogeneous Server Environment Inventory for Technologies including Windows Server, Linux, UNIX and VMware.

· Ability to determine usage of deployed System Center Configuration Manager, a member of the Core Client Access License Suite.

· Readiness assessment for migration or upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010.

Over 800,000 Microsoft customers and partners including Costco Wholesale Corporation, Continental Airlines, and Pella Corporation have already downloaded and used this toolkit to help plan for their server and PC deployments.

Additional MAP Toolkit Features include:

• Windows 7 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment.
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment.
• Virtualization Candidates Assessment for Hyper-V Server Consolidation.
• Inventory of VMware Server Hosts and Guests.
• Enhanced Usability and Improved Inventory Performance.
• SQL Server Instance Discovery.
• Desktop Security Assessment for Anti-virus and Anti-malware Programs Installation.
• Forefront Client Security/NAP Readiness Assessment.

To give you a quick sample, here are a couple MAP 5.0 Inventory and Assessment Wizard screenshots:

Here’s what the System Center Configuration Manager Server Report looks like:

Next Steps

· Register for the MAP Toolkit 5.0 CTP and download. (Live ID required)

· Want to influence the future of MAP? Complete the survey and receive a free 4GB Solution Accelerator branded Memory Stick.* (Live ID required)

· Download other Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Solution Accelerators for your IT planning, deployment, and management needs.

Enjoy!

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

New KB: Description of System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 Update

jchornbe — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:51:03 GMT

We published a new Knowledge Base article last week, this one a description of System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 Update.

This update provides a cumulative rollup of hotfixes for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 together with the following improvements:

Support for Windows 7
Support for Windows Server 2008 R2
Support for SQL Server 2008 and SQL Reporting Services 2008 Upgrade
Additional fixes and improvements

Note This update applies to System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1 only.

For all the details see:

KB971541 - Description of System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 Update

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

Automatic FixIt: You receive error 401.1 when you browse a Web site that uses Integrated Authentication and is hosted on IIS 5.1 or a later version

jchornbe — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:28:00 GMT

I asked the FixIt team for this a while back and they have delivered. Now if you ever run into the symptoms below the chances are good we can automatically fix it with just a few clicks of the mouse:

The Symptoms: When you use the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or a custom host header to browse a local Web site that is hosted on a computer that is running Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.1 or a later version, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:

HTTP 401.1 – Unauthorized: Logon Failed

Note You only receive this error message if you try to browse the Web site directly on the server. If you browse the Web site from a client computer, the Web site works as expected.

Additionally, an event message that resembles the following event message is logged in the Security Event log. This event message includes some strange characters in the value for the Logon Process entry:

Event Type: Failure Audit
Event Source: Security
Event Category: Logon/Logoff
Event ID: 537
Date: Date
Time: Time
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: Computer_Name
Description: Logon Failure:
Reason: An error occurred during logon
User Name: User_Name
Domain: Domain_Name
Logon Type: 3
Logon Process: Ðùº
Authentication Package: NTLM
Workstation Name: Computer_Name
Status code: 0xC000006D
Substatus code: 0x0
Caller User Name: -
Caller Domain: -
Caller Logon ID: -
Caller Process ID: -
Transited Services: -
Source Network Address: IP_Address
Source Port: Port_Number

The Cause: This issue occurs when the web site uses Integrated Authentication and has a name that is mapped to the local loopback address.

The Fix: If you happen to come across any symptoms like this then take a look at the following Knowledge Base article:

896861 - You receive error 401.1 when you browse a Web site that uses Integrated Authentication and is hosted on IIS 5.1 or a later version

The cool part is that this KB article contains a link to a Wizard that will fix this issue for you automatically. All you have to do is download and run it. This Loopback issue impacts almost any product that uses IIS, including your very own favorite, System Center Operations Manager 2007.

Jarrett Renshaw | Content Quality Program Manager

Updated Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Management Pack – Now with 64-bit support

jchornbe — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:05:49 GMT

The updated Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Management Pack adds support for monitoring Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 in a 64-bit environment with Operations Manager 2007 R2 or Operations Manager 2007 SP1 with hotfix (KB971541) installed. This enables the Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 Management Pack to work with either the 32-bit or the 64-bit Operations Manager 2007 agent. Except for the 64-bit support, the other features and guidance for Configuration Manager 2007 Management Packs remain intact.

Note: As of today, KB971541 is not yet available. This update should be available within the next few days. When it becomes available it should be found here.

For all the details and to download the updated MP see http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a8443173-46c2-4581-b3b8-ce67160f627b&displaylang=en

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

TechNet Webcast: PRO Tips in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

jchornbe — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:59:51 GMT

Being able to react to a changing server infrastructure is important for achieving a rationalized or dynamic IT infrastructure. This becomes a necessity with virtualization and the dynamic natures of workloads sharing an infrastructure. With Microsoft System Center Server Management Suite Datacenter, understanding and reacting to the dynamic nature of workloads becomes possible with our Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) Tips.

In this webcast, we detail the architecture of PRO Tips explaining the configuration, setup, and content of a PRO Tip along with a demonstration on how PRO Tips can rebalance the workload of a virtualized infrastructure, allowing customers to achieve savings in a more dynamic environment.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032429329&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

Monitoring Windows 7 with Operations Manager 2007: Windows Client OS Management Pack to support Windows 7 now available

jchornbe — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:04:20 GMT

The Windows Client Monitoring Management Pack is built to detect, diagnose, and resolve hardware and software problems pertaining to Client 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. Information and analysis on the issues that the system detected are collected by the MPs through an agent on the client machine and sent to OpsMgr where this data is converted into health state, alerts (if need be) and processed for business critical and aggregate reports. The MP gives a clear picture of catastrophic failures in your mission critical machines, trend-based alerts of significant changes to computer groups, in-depth views of health of individual machines, and reports that provide a landscape view of the health of all monitored clients.

Feature Summary

Key Processor Performance Indicators
Logical and Physical disk performance and free space
Memory utilization
Network health
Health monitoring of key Windows Operating System services
Comprehensive performance collections
Availability and event reports

Release History

3/23/2007 - Original release of the English version of Client 2000/XP management packs, version 6.0.5000.0
5/11/2007 - Original release of the English version of Vista management pack, version 1.0
1/15/2008 - Guide update of Client 2000/XP management packs, version 6.0.5000.0
2/22/2008 - Updated release of Client 2000/XP management packs, version 6.0.6278.0
5/27/2008 - Release onto Microsoft Download Center of Client 2000/XP management packs, version 6.0.6278.0
2/16/2009 - Update release that includes business Critical monitoring for Vista and bug fixes for performance and aggregate monitoring, version 6.0.6520.0
10/26/2009 - Updated release, version 6.0.6729.0, with bug fixes for Vista MP and support for monitoring Windows 7

For more information and to download the updated Management Pack see http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F55F1803-EAE6-4ED5-B2D2-9E1ADF98E325&displaylang=en&displaylang=en

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

DFS Replication Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 is now available for download

jchornbe — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:27:59 GMT

The DFS Replication Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 monitors the health of the DFS Replication service on Windows Server 2003 R2 and Windows Server 2008.

The DFS Replication Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 monitors the health of the DFS Replication service on Windows Server 2003 R2 and Windows Server 2008 computers. This management pack monitors events generated by the DFS Replication service. These events provide an insight into the health of the service and folders replicated on monitored computers. This management pack includes a dashboard view which can be used to monitor replication backlogs.

The management pack also features consolidation rules that monitor computers for frequent occurrences of certain operational conditions such as staging cleanups, sharing violations, replication conflicts etc.

Feature Summary
The following features are new in this release of the DFS Replication Management Pack:

Alerts indicating outages of the DFS Replication service on monitored computers.
Alerts indicating configuration issues that require administrative intervention.
Dashboard view that enables tracking of replication backlogs on monitored computers.
Tracking of intermittent operational conditions. These conditions are tracked by the management pack and show up either as warnings/errors. Transient warnings/errors flagged for conditions that are resolved over time are automatically corrected by the management pack, once those conditions are resolved.
Intuitive state view indicating red, yellow and green states of the service, replication groups, and replicated folders configured on monitored computers.
Monitoring of important service parameters such as staging area usage and replication conflicts generated.

For all the details and to download the MP see http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c97b22a1-1fd6-426f-94ab-2a6e6db4aed0&displaylang=en

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer

A recap of OpsMgr 2007 announcements you may have missed last week

jchornbe — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:25:00 GMT

A lot went on last week surrounding System Center Operations Manager 2007 so in case you might have missed one or two I have a quick recap below: The System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Authoring Resource Kit was released: http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2009/10/21/system-center-operations-manager-2007-r2-authoring-resource-kit.aspx...(read more)

OpsMgr 2007: Discovery Wizard may fail for multi-homing mixed version Management Groups

jchornbe — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:40:12 GMT

Let’s say you’ve got a mixed version (SP1 and R2) Operations Manager 2007 environment and agents are commonly multi-homed. This works and is supported to enable a phased upgrade approach. However, if you’re planning to multi-home new agents in this...(read more)