System Center Essentials Team Blog : SCE

SCE 2010 Public Beta is HERE!

damills — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:07:00 GMT

Do you know what time it is? Yes, it’s THAT time…time for you to check out the next full release of System Center Essentials – SCE 2010! For those of you who were with us for the release of System Center Essentials 2007 a little over two years ago, you know that this is Microsoft’s IT management solution specifically designed for midsized businesses. From one console, SCE allows you to monitor and manage your servers, clients, hardware, software, and IT services.

Over the last two years, we’ve been getting some great feedback from customers using SCE 2007, investigating ways to improve on the existing features AND address a new trend we’ve been seeing with customers’ virtualizing server workloads. Based on all this input, the engineering team has invested a lot of work into making the following updates in this next release. We’ve -

Integrated server virtualization management support, built on VMM 2008 R2 technology, including easy template-based creation of new virtual servers and live migration
Adjusted licensing limits to allow for management of virtual servers
Rewritten setup for an easier, intuitive installation
Built-in automatic Microsoft Update subscription maintenance
Provided flexible computer grouping
Added additional software distribution target criteria

Plus a lot, lot more!So, what are you waiting for? Stop reading my blog entry and head to this URL to download the SCE 2010 trial! http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee470677.aspx

David Mills

Sr. Product Manager

System Center Essentials 2007 SP1 with SQL Server 2005 Express and Windows Server 2008 x64

Richard Rundle — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:20:27 GMT

We’ve seen reports of people unsuccessfully attempting to install Essentials 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008 x64 and wanting to use SQL Server 2005 Express as the database.

We have published KB 975344 to provide more information on supported configurations involving Windows Server 2008 x64.

We recommend the following options for customers wanting to use Windows Server 2008:

Run Essentials 2007 on a 32 bit version of Windows Server 2008 (this may be a virtualized OS)
Run Essentials 2007 on a 64 bit version of Windows Server 2008 and use SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition x64

You will soon have a third option available – use System Center Essentials 2010. In early October the public Beta for Essentials 2010 will be available, and it fully supports installation on 64 bit versions of Windows Server 2008. There will be more information about Essentials 2010 available when the Beta is released.

Using psExec to Open a Remote Command Window

Richard Rundle — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:01:22 GMT

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

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

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

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

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

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

   psExec \\computer cmd

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

To create this task:

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

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

System Center 2007 and Virtualization

Richard Rundle — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:52:04 GMT

At the Microsoft Management Summit and TechEd this year we announced System Center Essentials 2010, the next version of Essentials. We also started to talk about the new features, in particular how we’ve placed virtualization capabilities in Essentials, providing a single location for monitoring and managing virtual computers.

You don’t need to wait for Essentials 2010 though to get started with virtualization management in Essentials.

Essentials 2007 supports virtualization in the following ways:

Essentials server can run on a virtualized operating system, i.e. you don’t need a physical server for Essentials.
Managed computers can be virtual. The Essentials agent will monitor and manage your virtual computers the same as your physical computers.

If you have System Center Virtual Machine Manager (including Workgroup Edition) you can go one step further and not only monitor virtual computers, but also create and control (start/stop etc) virtual computers.

Instructions for configuring Essentials and VMM are now available on TechNet to help you get started.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd759392.aspx

If you’ve previously followed Pete Zerger’s instructions for configuring Essentials and VMM you’ll be pleased to know that there are updated MPs available that include reports for Virtualization.

With Essentials 2007 and VMM you will use 2 consoles, but when Essentials 2010 is released you will have a single console for monitoring and managing both your virtual and physical computers.

Why are my Performance Graphs Empty in Essentials?

Richard Rundle — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:20:12 GMT

Have you wondered why some of the performance views and dashboards in the Monitoring Space don’t have any data to display, yet others do?

You can see an example of this by going to the Monitoring Space, expanding the Microsoft Windows Server folder and then expanding the Performance sub Folder.

The "Disk Capacity", "Memory Utilization (Page File)" and "Processor Performance" dashboards all let you select performance counters for your servers and view pretty graphs.

The "Disk Performance", "Disk Utilization", "Memory Utilization (Physical)" and "Network Adapter Utilization" don’t show a list of performance counters to select. Why is this, and how do we get a list of performance counters to display?

The performance counters available for display are controlled by rules in management packs. Not all of the rules responsible for data collection are enabled by default and this is why we don’t see a list of counters to select from in the views listed above.

To get a list of counters for these views we need to enable data collection by setting overrides on performance collection rules, and this is done in the Authoring Space.

Note: Enabling performance collection rules will increase the size of the Essentials database. If you are using SQL Server Express, collecting additional performance data may reduce the number of days of historical data available for reporting.

Let’s work through an example and enable data collection to populate the Windows Server Performance graphs we listed above.

For the Disk Performance dashboard view we will need to override the following rules:

Collection Rule for the Average Disk Queue Length
Collection Rule for Current Disk Queue Length
Collection Rule for Average Disk Seconds Per Read
Collection Rule for Average Disk Seconds Per Write

For the Disk Utilization dashboard view we will need to override the following rules:

Collection Rule for Disk Bytes Per Second
Collection Rule for Disk Reads Per Second
Collection Rule for Disk Writes Per Second

For the Memory Utilization (Physical) dashboard view we will need to override the following rules:

Memory Pool Paged Bytes
Memory Pool Non-paged Bytes

For the Network Adapter Utilization dashboard view we will need to override the following rules:

Network Adapter Bytes Received per Second
Network Adapter Bytes Sent per Second

To override a rule to enable performance data collection:

Go to the Authoring Space
Expand Management Pack Objects
Select Rules
Click Change Scope
Click Clear All
Type Windows Server in the “Look for” box
Place a check mark next to all targets starting “Windows Server”
Click OK
Find the rule to Override
You can either scroll through, or use the “Look for” functionality to filter the list.
In this case, use one of the following words for each category: logical, memory, network
You can only use one of the filter words at a time
Select the rule, then from the Actions Menu, select Overrides -> Override the Rule -> For all objects of type: Windows Server 2003 Logical Disk
For the Memory and Network rules the type will be slightly different
Check the box in the Override Column next to Enabled.
Click Apply
The Effective Value for the Enabled Parameter will change from False to True
Click OK

You will have noticed at Step 9 that for each rule there is a copy of the in the rule in the Windows Server 2000 Operating System and Windows Server 2003 Operating System Management Packs. If you want to enable collection for both Operating Systems you will need to override both copies of the rule.

As a general guide, the title of the graph in the dashboard view identifies the performance counter being collected. The rule to collect this counter will also have the counter name in it. You can use this information to find the rules that you need to enable for a particular graph.

Fix to enable Remote Assistance task on Vista and Windows Server 2008

Richard Rundle — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:51:46 GMT

As Dustin mentioned in the previous post, we recently released an update to the Microsoft.SystemCenter.Essentials.2007.mp. We have also released KB956890 which provides additional details.

This update resolves an issue where the Remote Assistance task fails to execute if the System Center Essentials console is running on Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008. Without the fix, attempting to run Remote Assistance results in the following error message:

Application: C:\Windows\pchealth\helpsctr\binaries\helpctr.exe

Parameters: -FromStartHelp –url hcp://CN=Microsoft%20Corporation,L=Redmond,S=Washington,C=US/Remote%20Assistance/Escalation/Unsolicited/SCEUnsolicitedRCUI.htm -ExtraArgument NOVICECOMPUTER=<ComputerName>&NOVICEUSERID=

Error Message: The system cannot find the file specified

In Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, Remote Assistance is started from the Help and Support Center (helpctr.exe), while in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Remote Assistance is started via msra.exe.

This update modifies the Remote Assistance task to call the correct command line based on the operating system that the Essentials console is running on.

You are recommended to install this update if you use the Essentials console on Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 and want to use the Remote Assistance task.

When using Windows Server 2008, please ensure you have the Remote Assistance feature installed. The Remote Assistance feature is not installed by default, but you can use the Add Feature Wizard within Server Manager to enable it.

More information is available in KB956890.

This update is available from the Microsoft Download Center via the following link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8F74CC26-5E0E-42F1-96CC-7AE064099190&displaylang=en

Caching Microsoft Update content in System Center Essentials

TyofWA — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:05:00 GMT

A question came up in the Technet forums around content caching, and what variables exist to adjust it. The footprint of cached content on the wSUS/SCE server take into consideration four variants:

Products (XP/2K3 as examples)
Classifications (Seciruty / Critical / Service packs)
Languages (EN, DE, JA, etc..)
Choosing to utilize Express files ( I will explain this one in more detail below)

SCE default configuration will bring in nearly 8GB of content; provided your needs stay within one language.

...Now about Express files..

There are two ways that a package can install on your managed systems; Stand-alone, or Express. For stand-alone, all the possible changes which can happen during that installation are contained in the package. Let's say Foo.Dll is revising to 1.2, and Bar.Exe is revising to 1.3. In this case, the old Foo.Dll and Bar.exe would be removed from the system, and the new ones applied. This is the safest, and most common way patching happens. However, it means that the entire package travels across the LAN/WAN when installation is necessary.

In the Express scenario, it may be that Workstation1 already had Foo.dll version 1.2, but not the latest version of Bar.dll. It's neighbor, Workstation2 had just the opposite. If the EXPRESS files were present, Workstation1 and 2 would ask the SCE/WSUS server for only the binary ranges it needed, and the acutal bytes which went across your LAN/WAN would be very close in footprint to the bytes which were needed to simply replace the specific files targeted.

So, Express seems to be the winner here (almost). In order to provide this optimization, the Update Services infrastructure needs to have fault tolerance. Express packages will not work for 100% of the systems in need of patching. Therefore, enabling express option means that the system will download the standalone version of an update as well as the Express version of that update. Should it need to fall-back due to failure, the standalone version will be locally available. Also, the express files are 2-4 times as large as the standalone packages.

The tradeoff question is: Should the optimization target ingress to the WSUS server at the cost of more LAN/WAN traffic, or the converse?

Determining which packages are "Needed" across your managed environment

TyofWA — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:40:00 GMT

Over the past six months, many within the System Center Essentials community provided feedback on the inability of SCE to show which updates and software are needed by managed systems. Workarounds exist today for Microsoft Update content, but when it comes to locally-published content, or driver content obtained from a partner catalog the question remains unanswered.

It is possible to call into the WSUS 3.0 APIs and obtain this information through the use of Powershell scripting using the steps below.

Install PowerShell on your SCE server, or workstation running the SCE remote management console.
Copy the attached script, and save it as 'NeededContent.ps1'
Launch the powershell console window
Sign the file, or set script execution to 'unrestricted' by running the following command: Set-ExecutionPolicy UnRestricted !! Note - It is important to understand the possible risks of running unsigned scripts. More details at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc137728.aspx
Call the file from the powershell console window. If it was located at d:\myscripts\ , the command would read: PS > D:\myscripts\NeededContent.ps1

Additional notes -

You will need to execute the script in the context of a WSUS administrator, or WSUS reporter role.
The script allows for the display of Microsoft Update content as well, but it will take considerably longer to execute due to the large volume of updates.
The script will filter out packages which are declined.

Hope this helps!
/Ty