Hi all,
Just a quick message to tell you that I don't post on this blog anymore. I now post on myITforum.
Note that Aurelien Bonnin has also moved to myITforum.
Regards
One of my customers recently asked me to monitor its UPS, a MGE Galaxy 5000. This model includes a network management card that let me monitor this device using SNMP.
In this example I’ll only explain how I did to create a Trap Based Monitor.
When looking at the UPS MIB, I noticed that Traps were coming by pairs, one for failure and one for restore, for example:
- upsmgByPassUnavailable : 1.3.6.1.4.1.705.1.11.15
- upsmgByPassAvailable : 1.3.6.1.4.1.705.1.11.16
- upsmgUtilityFailure : 1.3.6.1.4.1.705.1.11.17
- upsmgUtilityRestored : 1.3.6.1.4.1.705.1.11.18
Glad to discover I would not only create basic alert rules that would let my device in a green state with 10 critical alerts but I could make monitors which would affect the state of my device.
First I created a simple SNMP Event (trap) collection rule with no filter so that I can see all traps coming from my UPS. I made tests with the upsmgUtilityFailure and upsmgUtilityRestored traps as I could easily trigger them from the UPS management interface:
OK I can receive traps. Now I could create the monitor (remember not to save it in the Default Management Pack). Choose this Simple Trap Detection:
Enter the name and description you want and make sure the Monitor Target is SNMP Network Device. You can notice that my monitor is disabled by default, it’s because I only wanted that monitor to run for my UPS so I created a group containing my device and after the monitor is created,I override it for my group:
On the First SnmpTrapProvider page just check the all trap checkbox:
On the next page use the expression /DataItem/SnmpVarBinds/SnmpVarBind[3]/Value Equals 1.3.6.1.4.1.705.1.11.0.17. I took the synthax from David Allen’s Blog :
Why did I use SnmpVarBind[3] in my expression ? When you look back to the first screenshot of this post you can see the event data at the bottom and you can see that the OID I want to apply a filter on is the third parameter.
On the Second SnmpTrapProvider page check the all trap checkbox again.
On te next page use the same expression as above but with the second OID:
Configure a warning or a critical state for the first event:
and finally configure an alert and validate:
Once you have created the monitor (and in my case made an override on it) you can appreciate the result:
Here is an interesting diagram made by the product team. It shows how MP import works and how MP goes down to agents:
Hi,
The Exchange 2010 Management Pack for Exchange 2010 is already there ! It supports both SCOM 2007 SP1 and R2. You can download it here : Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007
The Management Pack for Forefront 2010 have also been released this week. It also supports SCOM SP1 and R2. Yo ucan download it here : Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007
Hi,
This new Management Pack will let you manage the power consumption of your Windows 2008 R2 Servers. You can download it here : Windows Power Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2
Looks like the System Center team focused on green IT as SCCM 2007 R3 will also provide some power management features.
I mentionned it in my previous post. A new version of the AD MP has been released. It now includes Windows 2008 R2 support. Download it here :
Active Directory Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007
Little surprise today when I tried to install this Management Pack directly from my RMS which is hosted on Windows 2008 x64:
First I thought it was just a file corruption so I downloaded it again and same result.
Then I discovered here that this problem was introduced in the 1.5.2 version. No comment.
My workaround was to install it on a x86 machine, then copy the C:\Program Files\HP\HP Enterprise Storage folder to the RMS (same path) and finally import the management pack stored in the folder. I don’t mention here the WEBES and Webes listener installations.
I don’t have any issue atm but I’ll let you know if any problem appears. Alerts (test one) are correctly forwarded:
Lots of news, update and contributions this month:
Management Packs
IPD Guide for SCOM 2007
This guide have been updated for SCOM 2007 R2. Download
Service Level Dashboard 2.0 for SCOM 2007 R2
Help you improve SLA management for your LOB apps : Download
SCOM 2007 R2 Cross Platform Update
Fixes a few bugs and adds support for SLES 11: Download (250MB)
SCOM 2007 R2 Authoring Resource Kit
Authoring Console + MP Best Practice Analyzer + MP Spell Checker + MP Visio Generator + MP DIff + MP Cookdown analyzer + Workflow Analyzer + Workflow Simulator = Download + Preview
Hi all,
This post deals with problems collecting data about AD replication monitoring with SCOM 2007. I used latest version of AD MP. I found two main problems about this:
Run As Account Misconfiguration
As a good person I configured AD MP Run As account to be used on each domain controler with a domain admin account. In fact a good person wouldn’t use a domain admin account but assigning an account the good rights for AD monitoring is so painful…
At this point with such a configuration I was able to monitor replication availlability. My OpsMgrLatencyMonitors container was created and all DCs managed to create their own containers in it and to update them regularly. We then decided to monitor the replication latency between some strategic DCs. Following the guide I made overrides to enable rules “AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Source)” and “AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Target)” for 2 DCs first as a test. What does those rules do ? Each rule runs a script called “AD_Replication_Monitoring_Helper1.vbs” and “AD_Replication_Monitoring_Helper2.vbs”. Those scripts simply tags the DCs by writing and updating a registry key so that the main replication script knows if they are a source or a target for replication latency calculation. This should work but it won’t !
The problem is the main replication rule “AD replicaition is occuring slowly” runs the “AD_Replication_Monitoring.vbs” script using the AD MP Runas account. BUT the 2 helper scripts mentionned above do not and they run under the agent action account which is LocalSystem. So far you nothing looks wrong but check this capture of the registry:
Don’t pay attention to the values but to the registry key’s path. Depending on which Runas account is used you do not write keys in the same place. Scripts write and read key in a folder named with the runas account SID… The path is given in scripts by this function : oAPI.GetScriptStateKeyPath(oParams(0)). Scripts Helper1 and Helper2 runs under LocalSystem and write regkeys in path HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Operations Manager\3.0\…\S-1-5-18\Script\AD Management Pack\AD Replication Monitoring\ where S-1-5-18 is the well known SID of LocalSystem. The main script which runs under the AD MP account then tries to read keys in path HKLM\…\S-a-b-c-d-e-f-g\Script\AD Management Pack\AD Replication Monitoring\ where S-a-b-c-d-e-f-g is the SID of my AD MP account. As a result AD replication latency performance is never collected…
Workaround : As you can’t edit the AD Management Pack in order to make the 3 rules I spoke about to use the same profile, the only solution I found (and I feel like it’s a dirty one) is to configure the agents action account on DCs to be my AD MP Runas account. But in this case watch out for the HSlockdown tool which then disable LocalSystem from running responses even if it is still used as the privileged monitoring account . For more information about this have a look here.
Once this is done Replication Latency Performance data is collected but not in the way I thougth I configured it. Here is why:
Too much data collected
I configured only one DC (named A) as Source and one DC (named B) as Target for my test purpose. I should have receive performance data about replication from DC A to DC B but received replication performance data from All my DCs to DC B ! Here is why:
On DC A the helper script write the regkey lantecy with the current time every hour. When the main replication script runs it reads the key and then it writes the admindescription attribute on its container in the OpsMgrLatencyMonitors container. The difference is it adds a tag at the end and instead of writing "toto" it write "toto P1"
Once replication is done, DC B reads the admindescription of each DC to see if replication is done or not. It also check if the adminsdescription contains string “P1” and then in our case it knows it has to create performance data about DC A to DC B replication latency.
The problem this time is in the main replication script. In this screenshot you can see the part of the script which parse the admindescription for the P1 substring.
The script tests this using the Instr function and returns the result in the lPerfFlag variable. Problem is Instr returns the position of the substring in the tested string and if not found it returns 0 and not -1. However the admindescription contains P or not, the script goes to "If "P1" = Mid(strAdminDesc, lPerfFlag, 2) Then". Here we have another problem. If P1 really is in the string then lPerfFlag = 15. if P1 is not in the string then lPerfFlag = 0 which makes the Mid function here throw an error as the "start” parameter should be 1 or higher. BUT and I discovered that if you got an error in the "If Then" condition and as the script goes on even if it throws an error (On Error Resume Next) it however enters the "If Then" statement… (Maybe because it’s not a synthax error, ) SO bPerfData is set to True however it should or shouldn't be and Performance Data is collected in any case.
To make it simple, if you add a DC as a target it will generate Replication Latency Performance Data about all other DCs however you add them as a source or not.
Here is a test script I used to find out the problem (except assigning some variables and doing some echos it is the part of the original one which checks the admindescription attribute for string “P1”):
On Error Resume Next
stradmindesc = "20090626.0935 P1"
AdminDesc2Date = False
dtRemote = 0.0
bPerfData = False
Dim lDecimal, lPerfFlag
lDecimal = Instr(strAdminDesc, ".")
If (13 <= Len(strAdminDesc)) And (9 = lDecimal) Then
dtRemote = DateSerial(Mid(strAdminDesc, 1, 4), Mid(strAdminDesc, 5, 2), Mid(strAdminDesc, 7, 2)) + _
TimeSerial(Mid(strAdminDesc, 10, 2), Mid(strAdminDesc, 12, 2), 0)
lPerfFlag = Instr(strAdminDesc, "P")
If -1 <> lPerfFlag Then
If "P1" = Mid(strAdminDesc, lPerfFlag, 2) Then
bPerfData = True
End If
End If
'AdminDesc2Date = IsDate(dtRemote)
End If
wscript.echo lPerfFlag
wscript.echo bPerfData
And here are 3 executions of it, the first one without the On Error Resume Next statement, the second one without “P1” in the admindescription and the third one as it is shown in the script above.
So to correct this, the part
If -1 <> lPerfFlag Then
has just to be replaced by
If 0 <> lPerfFlag Then
Which we still can’t do as the “AD_Replication_Monitoring.vbs” script is in a sealed MP.
Hi all,
Just a little post to mention that Windows Serveur 2008 SP2 now includes the hotfixes needed for SCOM support. So no need to install KB951327, KB952664 and KB953290 anymore.
Hi all,
Long time I didn't post so what's new in May:
-
SCOM 2007 R2 is RTM but only available for evaluation (
download here).The official release will be available July 1st.
-
Service Level DashBoard 2.0 is available
here
-
If you plan to test SCOM R2 and its cross platform capabilities you can download a SUSE 10.1 VHD on the Novell
website. Very usefull for linux noobs like me.
-
For those who need to extend the cross platform monitoring, have a look at BridgeWays Management Pack
here. You'll be able to monitor Apache, MySQL, Oracle... on your Linux boxes.
-
I need coffee now.
Hi all,
Here is a post that lists all 237 Microsoft blogs categorized by products : http://blogs.technet.com/blogms/pages/directory-of-microsoft-team-blogs.aspx
Have a good read ! :)
Hello,
As several people who imported the latest DNS Management Packs you received many alerts regarding a problem with external resolution.
I found several blogs relating solutions was to override the host parameter of the monitor from www.microsoft.com to microsoft.com or to override the querytype parameter.
I think I found another part of the problem for people using non-US OS.
When I test the nslookup command on a french DC it returns successfully. So I checked the script used by SCOM NslookupAllTests.js and I figured out it was checking if the result of the command was matching some regular expressions:
but the string return in my case is in french:
So as the script doesn't find Non-Authoritative it returns a critical state for the monitor. My workaround for non-US environments (sorry): Disable the monitor.
Hi,
I posted some time ago a news about a fresh release of the IIS 7.0 MP with a little warning about its support. The product team has just posted about the release of a new QFE to definitly be able to monitor IIS 7.0.
Download
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f82ef6b3-a08e-4295-b9e3-fb78a74aefa8&displaylang=en
Hi,
This is a post I had in mind like 2 months ago and totally forgot to share with you so here it is. I just hope it's not too late.
Today I'll deal with the Exchange 2007 MP (still the converted one) and some performance collection. After implementing the MP and tuning it I had still some views remaining deseperatly empty like the "Test-PopConnectivity Logon Latency" view:
What was weird is that I had events collected about Test-PopConnectivity so I looked at the rule that generate those events:
To check which parameters I could modify I created an override on all the CAS servers:
And I discovered a lovely parameter called returnPerfDataForR...eports I guess but don't remember which was set to False so I turned it to True and saved my overrides in a specific MP dedicated to EX2K7 (Best practices !)
I waited for my override to be propagated to the CAS servers and guess what ? my view still remained empty. I decided to look at that PS cmdlet Test-PopConnectivity. I ran it the same way SCOM does but using a pipe fl to see all parameters:
And here was the result of the command with an interesting parameter called PerformanceCounterName which value was POPConnectivity-Latency:
After this intreseting discovery I decided to check the properties of my performance view:
And what the f*** ?? it was set to filter on a counter name called "Logon Latency" which I think is used for another performance view in the MP (copy/paste is evil !):
I then created a new performance view as a test:
And set it the same way the original view is but modified the counter name filter with the one I found in the PS cmdlet result:
And I could see that performance data were collected and that since I created the override:
I hope you find this post useful. I would be pleased to have some comments on this one as I'm not 100% sure this counter name issue is due to some Exchange configuration I don't have knowledge about.
Hi all, I'm really lazy this morning but it's an interesting news so here are notes from connect website:
Operations Manager 2007 R2 introduces key new and enhanced functionality, including:
Enhanced application performance and availability across heterogeneous platforms
· Delivers monitoring across Windows, Linux and Unix servers–all through a single console
· Extends end to end monitoring of distributed applications to any workload running on Windows, Unix and Linux platforms
· Maximize availability of virtual workloads with integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008
Improved management of applications in the data center
· Delivers on the scale requirements of URL monitoring of your business
· Meet agreed service levels with enhanced reporting showing application performance and availability
· More efficient problem identification and action to resolve issues
Increased speed of access to information and functionality to drive management
· Faster load times for views and results
· Improved and simplified management pack authoring experience
For those who are evaluating the Beta release, this Release Candidate offers a number of enhancements over the Operations Manager R2 Beta, including:
· New Power Management MP template (Monitored system must be Windows Server 2008 R2 or Win7)
· Updated branding across all User Interfaces
· Improved trace configuration tools on the CD to help support issues escalated to Customer Support (where applicable)
· Improved Run As Account Distribution Configuration
· Ability to run inline tasks for non-Microsoft servers
· Support for upgrade from Beta deployments to the Release Candidate
· New and updated documentation, including the Usage Guide, Design Guide, Deployment Guide, Upgrade Guide, Security Guide and Operations Guidev
Savision has announced the availability of a free version of Livemaps 3.0. This version is fully functionnal but only allows to create 3 maps.
Download
http://www.savision.com/free-version
Here is a news I found on Stephane PAPP's blog :
A beta version of Hyper-V Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 is available on connect.
This release is designed to run on both Opsmgr and Opsmgr R2.
It will monitor the following versions:
-
Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition (Complete install + Hyper-v rôle)
-
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (Complete install + Hyper-v rôle)
-
Windows Server 2008 Datacenter Edition (Complete install + Hyper-v rôle)
Support for Core installations will be integrated with MP availability in the catalog.
No information about support for Hyper-V Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 / Hyper-V Server R2 yet.
In order to access to this beta send a mail to mailto:MPCC@microsoft.com?subject=Request:%20Hyper-V%20Management%20Pack%20Registration%20Code
A new IIS MP is now available in the catalog. It now includes monitoring for IIS 7.0
Download
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D351BCA8-182B-4223-8C9E-627E184BA02B&displaylang=en
QFE
You need to apply this QFE in order to monitor IIS7.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f82ef6b3-a08e-4295-b9e3-fb78a74aefa8&DisplayLang=en
Caution
There seems to be some problem with this new QFE so it is not available for download anymore. For those who already installed it just have a look at this post from the Product Team Blog.
http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2009/02/25/problem-with-the-iis-modules-qfe-957123.aspx
Here is something I was asked to configure for one of my customer. He asked me to set SCOM so that it was able to send SNMP traps when alerts are generated. Here is how I did.
Tools:
Trapgen.exe : Used to generate the traps.
SNMPTrap.exe : Used to catch traps.
Settings:
Download en copy both tools on your RMS. I copied them in C:\SNMP\ folder.
In the console go to the Administration pane then select Settings and open Notification properties.
Go to the Command tab and click on Add.
The command line used is : C:\SNMP\trapgen.exe
The command line parameters are : -d 192.168.0.2 -c public -v .1.3.6.1.4.1.2349.2.2.2.7 STRING "$Data/Context/DataItem/AlertName$" -v .1.3.6.1.4.1.2349.2.2.2.2 INTEGER "$Data/Context/DataItem/Severity$" -v .1.3.6.1.4.1.2349.2.2.2.5 STRING "$Data/Context/DataItem/ManagedEntityPath$\$Data/Context/DataItem/ManagedEntityDisplayName$"
192.168.0.2 is the IP adress of my RMS so traps are sent locally for testing purpose, public is the community and OIDs used are taken from the MOM 2005 MIB but as this MIB is limited regarding the SCOM alerts parameters it's better to use new OIDs created for our purpose.
The initial directory is : C:\SNMP\
Once this is done create a new Notification recipient that uses our new command line channel and a new notification subscription that send alerts to this recipient.
To make sure SNMP traps are sent. Launch the snmptrap.exe tool, click and Settings -> Show Decode to see traps details:
First I would like to wish everybody an happy new year 2009 as I didn't post since last year !
This is not the news of the year but it's kinda practical. Management Packs guides are now availlable online. You can download them on the following URLs.
For Server Products : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd279605.aspx
For Windows Operating Systems and Technologies : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd279602.aspx
SCOM 2007 R2 beta 1 has just been released.
Download is available on Connect
Notes from the SCOM team :
Enhanced application performance and availability across heterogeneous platforms
. Delivers monitoring across Windows, Linux and Unix servers-all through a single console.
. Extends end to end monitoring of distributed applications to any workload running on Windows, Unix and Linux platforms.
. Maximize availability of virtual workloads with integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008.
Improved management of applications in the data center
. Delivers on the scale requirements of URL monitoring of your business.
. Meet agreed service levels with enhanced reporting showing application performance and availability.
. More efficient problem identification and action to resolve issues.
Increased speed of access to information and functionality to drive management
. Faster load times for views and results.
. Improved and simplified management pack authoring experience
The Operations Manager 2007 R2 beta integrates the functionality delivered within the Cross Platform Extensions Beta. New betas of the Interoperability Connectors will available shortly through the Operations Manager R2 Connect program.
Support for the R2 beta can be found through the following:
For general questions on the Operations Manager 2007 R2 beta, please use the existing newsgroups at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/bb839593.aspx
For questions relating to Cross Platform and the Interoperability Connectors, we are excited to launch the new forums available at:
Cross Platform Monitoring - http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=604&SiteID=17
Interop Connectors - http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=605&SiteID=17
Active Directory MP
A new version (6.0.6452.0) has been released. It now supports
Active Directory 2008.
Download
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=008F58A6-DC67-4E59-95C6-D7C7C34A1447&displaylang=en
DHCP MP
A new version (6.0.6452.0) has been released. This MP update fixes some high CPU utilization issues
Download
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2694E87C-76E0-417B-AD0F-5897E46FFF88&displaylang=en
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