Ready to Upgrade to SCOM 2016?

  Weehau - we got the new version of SCOM – and many companies are already thinking about the upgrade, when how and why? – First the last – A couple of new features are available like: Maintenance from the SCOM Agent Scheduled Maintenance Mode Agent for Nano Server New Agent for Linus/UNIX – Faster more robust and able to run shell scripts by itself LAMP Stack monitoring on Linux Good performance in mornitoring Network Devices Storage Spaces monitoring by Microsoft Native MP MP Tuning, Updates and Recommended MP in the Console A MP for AWS which are able to [...]

By |2016-11-03T09:16:15+01:00november 3rd, 2016|Operations Manager (SCOM)|1 Kommentar

SQL Error in SCOM 2016 TP5

I did a pretty clean installation and stumbled on the following Alert in SCOM 2016 TP5: Database connectivity is lost, with details: The EXECUTE permission was denied on the object ‘sp_help_jobactivity, database ‘msdn’, schema ‘dbo’ The following SQL did the fix: (Data Writer Account) use msdb go Grant Execute ON OBJECT::[dbo].[sp_help_jobactivity] To [HQ\OMDWWrite] See you

By |2016-05-23T20:33:58+01:00maj 23rd, 2016|Operations Manager (SCOM)|3 Comments

Example of setting up a custom monitor in SCOM with a Powershell Script – Monitor NIC teams in SCOM

In this blogpost, I'll run through an example of how to configure a monitor from the ground up, going through every step, for making a monitor in Powershell for SCOM. It's a very basic script, but it have a value we measure on, so you have all the basic building blocks. But first… What time is it? ADVENTURE TIME! The other day I was transferring an OS Image to one of our new Hyper-V servers, and the transfer speed was around 10 Mbit on our internal network. Asking the guy responsible for the server if there was something wrong, and [...]

Azure Automation / SCOM: Triggering a runbook as a Recovery task using Webhooks

  If you havent heard about it, the future of automation is here! In the form of  “Azure Automation”. also known as “OMS Automation” when it is part of the Operational Management Suite (OMS). This cloud service can control our automation, just as System center Orchestrator has done for years. It works in a very similar way, but has been extended to support more features, for instance it supports what is known as Webhooks. A webhook enables us to trigger a runbook using a standard HTTP call, making it easier to integrate from other tools (could for instance be used [...]

By |2016-02-10T15:41:56+01:00februar 10th, 2016|Azure, Operations Manager (SCOM)|1 Kommentar

FTP / SFTP monitor for SCOM

In this post we'll make a script for a FTP / SFTP monitor that can monitor the FTP/SFTP status, by doing the following operations: -Log in -Upload a file -Download a file -Delete the file Since Powershell doesn't have any built-in ftp support I was looking for some alternatives, and since I use WinSCP normally for ftp/sftp I found that they also support Powershell scripting, so why not take advantage of this? This guide was written with great help from WinSCP's own page: https://winscp.net/eng/docs/library_powershell Get the SSH fingerprint (This part is only nessary for the SFTP solution). Since we need the SSH [...]

December 3rd – SQL Stored Procedure in a SCOM Widget

Download Stored Procedure: [download id="270" format="1"] Download Web Site: [download id="269" format="1"] If you already knows about the Widgets in SCOM you have perhaps thought about how to execute a stored procedure against a SQL server directly from your console. However – I have used the following use-cases a couple of times before and used it for presenting different information. In this Use-case its about creating a widget which is able to show the current performance on the SQL Server database disk for your SCOM implementation (Web Browser Widget): First of all – why produce and present this information. Often when [...]

By |2015-12-03T12:00:00+01:00december 3rd, 2015|Operations Manager (SCOM), Visualization|Kommentarer lukket til December 3rd – SQL Stored Procedure in a SCOM Widget

The Hidden SCOM Command (Or how to enable Proxy on all future Agents in SCOM)

In the last many years I have read a lot of blogs of how to change default values in the SCOM Management Group, and everytime I see one I put a bow on my finger to remember to create a blog of how to change the default value of eg. the Proxy setting. First of all begin by starting your Operations Manager Shell and type the following nice oneliner: add-pssnapin "Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.OperationsManager.Client"; new-managementGroupConnection –ConnectionString:[Your SCOM Server FQDN]; set-location "OperationsManagerMonitoring::" When you get your “Are you Ready!” –> naaa its actually some information about your connection to your SCOM Server. Then try [...]

By |2015-09-17T09:39:02+01:00september 17th, 2015|Operations Manager (SCOM)|2 Comments

Great SQL Dashboard in SCOM (does not work for the mob)

I did for sure participate in the very nice but early presentation of the new SQL Dashboards (SQL MP 6.6.0.0) at Ignite 2015. And the Dashboards really looks great, so it’s a pleasure that they also have enabled the possibibility of using the new presentation as a Widget so you yourself are able to build a dashboard like the following: Just go ahead and create a Dashboard with Widgets – you are able to present any class in a nice way. But be careful not to brag to much to you organization, because when you let your Operators try it [...]

By |2015-08-20T15:44:52+01:00august 20th, 2015|Operations Manager (SCOM)|Kommentarer lukket til Great SQL Dashboard in SCOM (does not work for the mob)

Bluestripe acquired by Microsoft

It was with great excitement that I read that Microsoft has acquired Bluestripe . I have been working with their product Factfinder for a while now and is impressed with it’s features. The acquisition means even better integration and features for a solution that is already great and right now provide immense value to any SCOM and SCSM solution, which is why we always recommend our customers to consider Factfinder as part of their System Center implementation. Without Bluestripe’s product Factfinder, mapping services and creating distributed applications in SCOM, is typically a manual task and requires you to collect information [...]

OMS – Bringing SCOM to the next level

Atlanta, Advisor, Operarational Insights, OpsInsights, OMS or Microsoft Operations Management Suite is the story of a product which have undergoing a stuble path to be the product as it is today. During Ignite at Chicago Microsoft released the newest preview of OMS which in the future will be the primarely interface to monitoring your infrastructure – no matter if your are doing on-prem or Azure monitoring of your IT Services. OMG OMS OMS is a Cloud Service that are able to recieve data from your individual servers or your System Center Operations Manager installation, where the SCOM MS server are [...]

By |2017-08-22T10:11:21+01:00maj 19th, 2015|Operations Manager (SCOM)|Kommentarer lukket til OMS – Bringing SCOM to the next level

Group Creation Tool for Operations Manager

  Most people have a love hate relationship with Groups in in Operations Manager, you cannot really avoid them but there are some catches when you begin to work with them but let me explain in short. A group is a collection of objects. They can be instances of the same class or of different classes. Groups have population criteria that define what objects are added to them. This can be a dynamic criteria that adds objects as they are discovered or explicit criteria where you manually add specific objects to the group. Groups are used to scope overrides, views, [...]

By |2015-02-28T17:12:57+01:00februar 28th, 2015|Operations Manager (SCOM)|1 Kommentar

Installing and configuring a SCOM multi-homed agent with SCCM 2012 R2

(In this blogpost only handling x64 versions) I had the challenge to automatic install and configure a SCOM multi-homed agent. I ran in to a couple of issues that I had to deal with – so today I am going to share my experiences regarding this with you. First you need to copy the source files for the SCOM agent to your SCCM source files location. The next thing you need to do is to download a copy of my PowerShell script (InstallSCOMMultiHome.ps1) created for the solution and place it in the content folder mentioned before. Your content folder should [...]

NIC 2015 SCOM in the perfect world (Slides)

Thank you all for participating on my sessions about the right way to a implementation with SCOM. Remember that I have a lot of scripts in my slides – so look into them – If you would like the MFI NIC 2015 MP let me know and I will mail it to you. The HW I used was a Ubiquity MFI EU mPower with 3 outlets. Have a great conference Kåre Download Powerpoint Click on me to download

By |2017-08-22T10:14:54+01:00februar 12th, 2015|Events, Operations Manager (SCOM)|1 Kommentar

Grey Agents in SCOM

If you still have those old Windows 2003 and 2008 pre R2 servers around, and you have a SCOM Agent on those, it could be - they are all in a grey state. One reason could be the Advisor/OpsInsights Connector - Currently the Advisor Intelligence MPs are running PS scripts against Windows without PS. Fix: Override the Healthservice with a disable for those servers in a grey state (2003/2008) More info: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/cee7736b-f119-4d6a-ad81-18b3d9f7f4a9/grey-agents-after-new-management-pack-with-idmicrosoftintelligencepackstypes?forum=operationsmanagergeneral See you

By |2015-02-10T08:29:38+01:00februar 10th, 2015|Operations Manager (SCOM)|Kommentarer lukket til Grey Agents in SCOM

Unexpected Shutdown Managementpack

Earlier this year I was talking with a customer about Windows servers which unexpectedly shutdown and how to collect info and be able to see a pattern of the crashes. My very good friend Urban Österberg did a great job in doing a great management pack that save crash info and collect the info if the severs are doing an unexpected shutdown/crash. The Management Pack contain one Rule, which is using a script and registry to check and save information about the shutdown. The rule are enabled by default, please override it if you only want to check specific servers. [...]

How to populate object properties with data from a database using PowerShell

  You probably know how you can use a registry discovery to populate properties on windows computer instances, but what if you already have the data in SQL database/CMDB and want to avoid having to first write the data to the registry and then use a discovery to get the data into SCOM? Or what if the objects are not windows computers and hence the registry method is not an option? The solution is to use PowerShell to read  the data from the database and then update the objects in SCOM. This post will show you how to do this [...]

By |2014-12-09T04:09:00+01:00december 9th, 2014|Operations Manager (SCOM), Powershell|Kommentarer lukket til How to populate object properties with data from a database using PowerShell

Measure Mail/SMTP Round Time from SCOM

Have you ever thought about how to measure the actual SMTP/Mail round time on your Mail installation? And have you tried to configure the Exchange MP for external mail bounce without any luck? Its differcult… The solution we did for a customer was first of all to ensure the customer have Exchange on-prem, next develop a .exe file which sends a mail to [email protected] – recieve the ndr and measure the round time. The file SMTPRoundTrip.exe needs the following parameters: Your Exchange server, Your Exchange server version, Mailbox, Timeout My sample: sServer = "ctex01.coretech.intra" sVersion = "2013" sMailbox = "[email protected]" [...]

SCOM 2012 R2 Crossplatform UI Error

Symptom If you have patched/updated your SCOM 2012 R2 environment and are getting the UI Error below – typically when trying to create new Linux Monitors/Rules or one of the Linux/Unix Syntethic Transactions.     Resolution Upgrade your Linux/Unix management packs. Download the new Linux/Unix MPs from> http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29696 Import the following management packs: And of cause your MPs for the Linux/Unix built you need. Try to create the Linux script monitor again…  And now it Works…. Have a great day

By |2014-10-08T00:01:23+01:00oktober 8th, 2014|Operations Manager (SCOM)|Kommentarer lukket til SCOM 2012 R2 Crossplatform UI Error

Monitoring Exchange 2013

With Exchange 2013 a new way of monitoring workloads appeared, at least in the windows world. Managed Availability is the name and my guess is, that we will see more of this type of monitoring going forward. As a SCOM administrator you have limited possibilities of creating overrides for Exchange 2013 monitoring. This must be done by an Exchange administrator in the Exchange Management Shell, but you still need to know how this is done so you can work with the Exchange administrator to tweak the default monitoring configuration. I recommend reading these articles to begin with: Understanding how Exchange [...]

By |2014-09-18T13:54:06+01:00september 18th, 2014|Operations Manager (SCOM)|4 Comments

SCOM Boot Camp

New training for SCOM – a 5 days SCOM boot Camp with the best from Mastering + Advanced SCOM + Authoring Management Packs. This training is for both the expirienced SCOM Administrator or if you are new to SCOM – But be adviced – we are doing a lot of SCOM Labs during the week. And you will learn all aspect of scom both designing, installing, configuring, visualizing and Authoring. Right now we have 2 dates scheduled: In Phoenix on the 13. – 17. october 2014 (http://truesec.com/Labs#!lab=System_Center_2012_Operations_Manager_R2_Accelerated) In Zürich on the 3. – 7. november 2014 (http://www.realstuff.ch/services/schulung/scom-2012-r2-training/)   And you [...]

By |2014-08-18T08:34:44+01:00august 18th, 2014|Operations Manager (SCOM)|Kommentarer lukket til SCOM Boot Camp

Seeing Event ID’s 10801 and 33333 on your management servers?

If you see event ID 108101 and 33333 in pairs on your management servers, then you might have relationship discoveries that are failing due to missing target instances. Today I was troubleshooting this issue at a customer. The content of the event ID 33333. The thing to notice is “The specified relationship doesn’t have a valid target” An the event ID 10801. The key information here's is the Discoveryid Copy the discovery ID and enter it in this power shell cmd [guid]$g = "7cf81cf1-b2f2-6242-571e-c4c988639eef" Get-SCOMDiscovery | where {$_.Id -eq $g}   In the result you can see the display name [...]

By |2017-08-22T10:36:33+01:00juni 26th, 2014|Operations Manager (SCOM)|4 Comments

Have you ABBA as a Topology view in SCOM?

Or how to remove a picture used as background in SCOM Have you tried the new widgets in SCOM 2012 R2 UR2 – they are really great – it really delivers good possibilities of visualizing your IT Services and presenting information to the right people in your organization. One small thing – if you have used a picture in your Topology Widget – You cannot get rid of it. Therefore, you could be stuck with baggrounds like this: Ooohhh no – why did I import this picture as a my background – stupid me..…… Solution: Remove the ManagementPack: Microsoft.SystemCenter.Visualization.Component.Library.Resources from [...]

By |2014-06-23T16:16:00+01:00juni 23rd, 2014|Operations Manager (SCOM)|Kommentarer lukket til Have you ABBA as a Topology view in SCOM?