Marc Umeno's Blog : DCM

Desired Configuration Management Integration in Service Manager Beta 1

mumeno — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:34:09 GMT

System Center Configuration Manager 2007(SCCM) has introduced a valuable feature, Desired Configuration Management (DCM), that enables assessment of client configuration compliance with specified configuration baselines. With Service Manager Beta 1, we have introduced integration with DCM where incidents are created for out-of-compliance clients.

We do this by collecting DCM non-compliance data using the SCCM connector and then continuously running a Service Manager workflow that creates incidents for non-compliant SCCM clients. You decide which specific DCM Baselines and DCM CIs generate incidents.

To initiate DCM incidents, you must create an connector to an SCCM site that is using the DCM feature. Next, select the Incident Settings view and start configuring the Desired Configuration Management settings using the Configure Workflow task.

This launches a dialog where all DCM workflows are managed:

The Add button launches the Add Desired Configuration Management Workflow wizard.

You can select DCM baselines and DCM CIs to include in the workflow – for each client that has a non-compliant report, an incident will be created. You can apply a pre-configured template and notification rules for the workflow as well. Once you have configured your first DCM workflow, incidents will be created for any current non-compliant clients. After the first DCM workflows are run, incidents will only be created for new non-compliant issues.

Note: You should be careful about which DCM Baselines and CIs you choose to create incidents – for example, if you choose DCM CIs that describe software update non-compliance, you could potentially generate an incident for each unpatched computer in your SCCM site, which could result in thousands of excess incidents.

Newly-created DCM incidents can be viewed in the Work Items –> Incident Management –> All Open DCM Incidents view.

DCM incident forms have a special Compliance Errors tab that adds additional details about the affected SCCM computer, including computer owner, computer name, DCM baseline, DCM scan date, and details from the DCM report about why the computer was non-compliant.

Once DCM incidents are created, they can managed like any other incidents in Service Manager.

Administering and Tracking Service Manager Beta 1 Connectors

mumeno — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:52:14 GMT

Early feedback on Service Manager Beta 1 has highlighted that many folks would like more information around administration of connectors, especially on how to track the progress of a connector.

TASKS

First, I would like to point out some of the tasks available for Service Manager Beta 1 for a connector:

The Sync Now task initiates an on-demand data sync for a connector. However, contrary to what you might think, this sync will not be completed immediately as there are often many underlying processes that are involved with a connector sync. I will touch more on the details around connector syncs later on in this post.

The Delete Connector task will do a couple of things, one of which may be surprising. First the connector is deleted and removed from the Service Manager database. What may be a surprise to you is that deletion of a connector will also delete any Configuration Items (CIs) it created, unless those CIs were also updated by another data source. This capability can be very convenient if you need to remove a lot of data from the Service Manager CMDB.

The Disable task will prevent future connector syncs from happening for a particular connector. In-progress syncs will complete even after this task is used.

The Enable task will re-enable a disabled connector and in Beta 1 at least, this will also initiate an immediate connector sync.

The Edit Connector task will pop-up a property dialog for the connector.

TRACKING SYNCS

As I mentioned above, each data sync for a connector is actually comprised of a number of smaller processes that actually run asynchronously.

Each sync for the AD and SCCM connectors comes in 2 asynchronous steps – the first step extracts data from the source and puts it into a staging data cache; the second step takes data from the staging data cache and writes into the Service Manager CMDB.

You can follow the progress of these data syncs in Service Manager Beta 1 by looking at the Event Viewer under Administrative Tools:

If you click on the “Filter Current Log” action and pick the “Lfx Datacenter” “Lfx Service” and “Lfx Source Config” Event services, you will narrow down the events to those related to connectors.

If you are only interested in tracking the progress of a connector, you can filter to just the “Lfx Service” events.

For an SCCM Connector, you will see a sequence that looks something like this – once all of these events are done, the sync is completed.

Date	Event
12/2/2008 2:18	Done:MomStore.DCMNonCompliantConfigItems.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:16	Done:MomStore.DCMConfigItemRelations.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:15	Done:MomStore.DCMConfigItems.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:14	Done:MomStore.TopConsoleUser.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:14	Done:MomStore.DeviceHasSoftwareUpdate.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:12	Done:MomStore.DeviceHasSoftwareItemInstalled.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:11	Done:MomStore.NetworkAdapter.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:10	Done:MomStore.Processor.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:09	Done:MomStore.LogicalDisk.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:08	Done:MomStore.PhysicalDisk.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:07	Done:MomStore.OperatingSystem.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:06	Done:MomStore.LogicalComputersOnPhysicalComputers.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:05	Done:MomStore.LogicalComputers.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:04	Done:MomStore.PhysicalComputers.DefaultCache.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:03	Done:Importer.DCM.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:02	Done:Importer.Updates.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:01	Done:Importer.Inventory.SCCMConnector.
12/2/2008 2:00	Done:Importer.Computers.SCCMConnector.

During the running of a sync, even if the connector has not completed all of the processes, Configuration Items might be created or updated & can be visible in the Service Manager console. For example, you might see a number of computer CIs created during an SCCM sync. However, if you were to look at the Software or Software Updates installed on that computer, you might find they are still missing if the sync has not completed.

Creating an SCCM Connector for Service Manager Beta 1

mumeno — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:44:53 GMT

In Service Manager Beta 1, you can create a Connector to a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 database.

The SCCM Connector brings Configuration Item data about computers managed by SCCM, including Hardware & Software Inventory, Software Updates, and Desired Configuration Management (DCM) data.

To create an SCCM Connector, you need to be a Service Manager administrator. Connectors are found in the Administration workspace.

Start by clicking on the “Create Connector” task and choose the Configuration Manager Connector option.

That launches the SCCM Connector wizard:

After supplying a Name and Description, you are given an option to provide an SCCM database server and database instance as well an account to access the database.

(Note: You cannot edit the database server name or database name for an existing SCCM connector – you have to create a new SCCM connector in this case)

TIP: The account must have rights for smsroledb_extract and databasereaders in SQL.

TIP: You should always check the validity of the credentials by pressing the “Test Connection” button.

Next you have provide the schedule for running the SCCM connector, which can run once a day or once a week.

You are then shown a summary screen and a completion screen when the connector is created.

System Center Service Manager Beta 1 is Released!

mumeno — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 09:29:22 GMT

System Center Service Manager Beta 1 has shipped!

You can download the Beta from Connect:

https://connect.microsoft.com/SelfNomination.aspx?ProgramID=2733&pageType=1&SiteID=446

System Center Service Manager Beta 1

mumeno — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:15:46 GMT

It’s been a while since I posted as we have been feverishly working on the Beta 1 for System Center Service Manager. Now that we are getting close to shipping Beta 1, I will start blogging again.

Beta 1 has a number of great features, including Incident Management (including automatic creation of incidents from SCCM Desired Configuration Management compliance errors), Change Management, Configuration Management/CMDB, and Connectors to Active Directory & System Center Configuration Manager.

We are very excited about sharing what we have been putting together – it’s coming soon!