SCOM Maintenance Mode Scheduler

I just got an e-mail from Nworks stating that the MP for VMware for Operations Manager 2007 has been released. Word on the street is that this is the best tool on the market for Monitoring VMware ESX 2.5 and 3.0 using System Center Operations Manager 2007. I will be reviewing this add on in the coming weeks. I am not a huge fan of using 3rd party tools, but ESX is essential to our environment so this may be worth it.

http://www.nworks.com/index.php

There is a bug when you try to create dynamic groups using the formula wizard. When you try to create a group an and us the Insert OR Group everything look fine until your select OK and then it changes your formula from a pipe (for OR) to an AND.

Here is the work around from Microsoft.

This is a known issue that we are tracking. As a work around in your case – after you add ‘Windows Operating System’ to the formula grid, right click on ‘AND group for Windows Operating System’ and select ‘Switch to Or group’.

Microsoft has just released the Operations Manager 2007 Design Guide to their download website.

This is really worth the read. The paper has good information about sizing, especially hardware requirements versus number of agents, which can be a real pain point for your deployment, if sized too small.

Download it here:http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/4/d/74deff5e-449f-4a6b-91dd-ffbc117869a2/OpsMgr2007_DesignGuid.doc

System Center Operations Manager 2007: Introduction

System Center Operations Manager 2007: Advanced Topics

Monitoring Web Applications with the MOM 2005 Web Sites and Services Management Pack

Managing Exchange and Active Directory with Operations Manager

The Dell Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager integrates Dell PowerEdge server alerts into Ops Manager.

The Management Pack provides a list of Dell-specific views that you can use to observe and drill down the system status in a network.

LINK

To create a certificate to seal a managment pack.

1.) Generate a key file –

D:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin>sn -k mykey.snk

Microsoft (R) .NET Framework Strong Name Utility Version 2.0.50727.42
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Key pair written to mykey.snk

2.) Extract Public key from the key file into another file –

D:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin>sn -p mykey.snk outfile
Microsoft (R) .NET Framework Strong Name Utility Version 2.0.50727.42
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Public key written to outfile

3.) Extract the public key token (64 bit hash of the public key) from Public Key –

D:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin>sn -tp outfile
Microsoft (R) .NET Framework Strong Name Utility Version 2.0.50727.42
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Public key is
0024000004800000940000000602000000240000525341310004000001000100ad4e339a2fd­e25 a78de93a363eebbaf755c043fdb44d8ce64a732b0cb24f66cddcbb97bd3966b375d04bef871­d10 c05cbf5213a02ef472feedf4f4855a8a3c5d0116326845d1d2b744b1245d7a24d0ad78d64e0­56911f810e165dd4aed6d05994f2a307a3ecc0a50bd7c5aa16afe123bdd0dc3f9c8aa06d14133f­b9a4cf4f7a2

Public key token is 36c8fd01b281c793

Now u can use the key file (mykey.snk) to seal your MP using MPSeal utility.

Seal your management pack

MPSeal.exe Microsoft.SQLServer.xml /I c:\mps /Keyfile mykey.snk /Company “Microsoft Corporation”

Here is a great article I found today. This is affecting my management servers.

Problem

The overall Entity Heath for one or more Management Servers displays Critical in the Operations Manager Console. Upon opening the Health Explorer against an affected Management Server, the Monitors affecting the overall Entity Health are either:
Health Service Handle Count Threshold
Or
Health Service Private Bytes Threshold
or both of the above threshold monitors.

Read the entire article and workaround on Clive Eastwood’s Blog.

http://blogs.technet.com/cliveeastwood/archive/2007/06/06/entity-heath-for-one-or-more-management-servers-displays-critical-in-the-operations-manager-console.aspx

The following Operations Manager 2007/Essentials 2007 Management packs have released to the Web

Microsoft Print Service Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=35d1fece-867b-4a0c-8642-57e84e327018&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Windows File Replication Service 2000/2003 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6f5f8e56-6a35-4909-bb8f-968ee95a8f17&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Windows Group Policy 2003 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=52459150-85bd-4acb-90be-2ee5df18e1a8&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Windows Server 2000/2003 DHCP Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2694e87c-76e0-417b-ad0f-5897e46fff88&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e7bfee42-2d3c-4810-97f8-4d89d7428a5f&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6803aa1d-0578-4d7d-bc2f-9600f0440d92&DisplayLang=en

I just confirmed with Microsoft support that there is a bug inside the Hotfix for KB 934441. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934441) After you install the hotfix on the MOM server and then try to deploy it out to the MOM agents using Pending Actions inside the Administrator console the install fails. Microsoft is working on a fix and should have it out within a month. In the meantime there are 2 workarounds.

1.) Manually install the update on each of the agents.

2.) Uninstall and then re-install all of your agents.

“CINCINNATI, Ohio – June 4, 2007 – This week, Microsoft has acquired Engyro Corporation, a successful partner company who provides software solutions that help organizations integrate, consolidate and simplify their IT operations, extending the enterprise interoperability of System Center Operations Manager 2007 with other enterprise management systems. This alliance will further Microsoft’s commitment to its customers’ longer term need for interoperable enterprise solutions and further the System Center family of solutions including Operations Manager and System Center Service Manager when it is released.”

LINK.