System Center Guide

David Williams, Analyst with Gartner, has published an in-depth examination of System Center Operations Manager 2007. In his report, Williams states that “Operations Manager 2007 has moved to rival many of the capabilities provided by more-established and more-expensive [tools].”

To read the full report (no Gartner account needed), visit the Gartner site at:

http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/vol10/article2and3/article2and3.html

Great little tip on this particular issue related to SMTP relay restrictions. 

Read the post: SMS&MOM : OpsMgr 2007: Email notification to external email address fails with error 31500

System Center Essentials 2007

946418 Error message when you install the System Center Operations Manager 2007 reporting feature: "SRS Server Validation Error"

949448 Error message in System Center Operations Manager 2007 or in System Center Essentials 2007: "The setup wizard was interrupted before System Center Operations Manager 2007 could be installed" or "The client has been disconnected from the server"

System Center Operations Manager 2007

949446 The mouse pointer disappears and the mouse rotation operation is unpredictable in System Center Operations Manager 2007

949447 You may have to restart the computer when you install the security update that Microsoft Knowledge Base article 933579 describes

948559 AEM does not work when the management server action account is a low-permission account in System Center Operations Manager 2007

949450 You cannot add required permissions to the share when you run the "fix permissions" task in System Center Operations Manager 2007

949453 The state calculation may be delayed when a new group or a distributed application is created in System Center Operations Manager 2007

946426 You are not prompted that a computer is shut down after the Maintenance Mode window expires in System Center Operations Manager 2007

949449 The Client Monitoring Configuration Wizard fails with an unknown error that occurs together with the 80FF002B code when you enable the client monitoring feature in System Center Operations Manager 2007

949455 System Center Operations Manager 2007 Reporting installation fails on a Windows Server 2008 computer if IIS 6.0 Management Compatibility is not installed

Sorry I haven’t been very active with blogging in the past couple of weeks but I’ve been busy getting ready for my System Center presentation the Microsoft Launch event being held tomorrow at the Tripod, Harcourt Street, in Dublin. There’s three 2-hour sessions beginning at 12PM and then repeating at 3PM and 6PM. So, if you’re an Irish reader, come on by and check out what’s coming from Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. Plus, if you pop into my session, you’ll get a sneak peek at the latest member of the System Center product family - due to go to beta very soon!

Courtesy of: Björn Axéll

Dell v.3.0

The Dell Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager and System Center Essentials 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

1) Added support for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Essentials 2007.
2) Enhanced health drill down model in Diagram views from overall Dell Hardware health to individual hardware components.
3) Includes support for the latest versions of Dell OpenManage Server Administrator v5.2 (including the enhanced Storage Management Service 2.2).
4) Supports monitoring of Dell printers using SNMPv2

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R168582&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=229201

Intel

Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager and System Center Essentials is now available. This management pack enables the users of these applications to take advantage of the advanced, hardware-based system management capabilities of Intel® AMT, which are built into PCs with Intel® VPro™ processor technology. These capabilities will help reduce the cost of discovering, managing and securing desktop and mobile PCs in the enterprise and thereby improving compliance with corporate policies. Information Technology (IT) support staff can now rapidly and remotely communicate with, power up, reboot, control, inventory assets, and remediate desktop PCs with Intel® VPro™ processor technology even if the PC is powered off or the operating system is not functioning. Support staff are able to manage PCs more effectively from the IT support center which leads to a reduction in desk-side visits and hence the total cost of ownership of computing systems equipped with Intel® VPro™ processor technology.

Download the latest version of Intel® Active Management Technology Management Pack for Microsof System Center Operations and System Center Essentials

More information about AMT MP

Download Intel® Server Management Pack

HP 1.5 (Note that this is a special version for SCE that inlcudes both the Proliant and Blade MP’s)

The HP ProLiant Server and BladeSystem Management Packs for Microsoft System Essentials (SCE) expose the native management capabilities of HP ProLiant Servers and BladeSystems through SCE

• Obtain greater visibiltiy of ProLiant servers and BladeSystems utilizing SCE System, State, and Alert views
• Quick root cause analysis with graphical server and blade characterization down to the subsystem level
• Easily manage custom data for HP ProLiant servers with HP’s integrated Custom Data Manager

http://h18013.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/mpp2007/index.html

OpsMgr Community,

If you are receiving alerts “Performance Module could not find a performance counter” in the Operations Manager Console, please perform thefollowing steps to disable the rule via override.

Note: When you run the Operations Console on a computer that is not a Management Server, the Connect To Server dialog box displays. In the Server name text box, type the name of the Operations Manager 2007 Management Server to which you want the Operations Console to connect.

1. Navigate to the Authoring Space in the Console.

2. Select “Rules” under “Management Pack Objects”.

3. Type “Performance Data Source Module” in the “Look for:” box and click “Find Now”. Be sure a Scope is not set or filtering the “Health Service” Target.

4. Find the rule, “Performance Data Source Module could not find a performance counter” under “Type: Health Service (2)”, right-click, select “Overrides”, “Disable the Rule”, “For all objects of type: Health Service”.

5. When prompted, “Are you sure you want to disable this rule for Health Service?” click “Yes”.

Microsoft is working on the long-term solution to address this problem.

Thanks, Justin Incarnato

Operations Manager Product Team Blog : "Performance Module could not find a performance counter" temporary workaround

Forgive my sarcasm, but I find it ironic that two websites - one officially Microsoft, one community-based (but still working for Microsoft) - have two distinctly different viewpoints on the same subject matter. However, I’ll let you decide for yourself: 

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and System Center (the Microsoft source)

vs.

http://blogs.technet.com/cliveeastwood/archive/2008/02/22/a-note-on-operations-manager-2007-service-pack-1-support-for-windows-server-2008.aspx

What’s the deal?

One says:

Microsoft System Center solutions can work together to provide an integrated, end-to-end management solution for your Windows Server 2008 environment. Learn about the benefits of managing Windows Server 2008 with System Center Operations Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, Configruation Manager, and Data Protection Manager.

While the other states:

Bottom line = [Operations Manager 2007] SP1 does not yet provide support for any role running on Windows Server 2008.

Now, since both sources are officially Microsoft sources, which one do we believe? My money is on Clive. 10-fold! And while I realise we’re probably just speaking about OpsMgr 2007 roles being unsupported on the new OS, the high-level message from MS and the field could use some tuning to ensure subject lines aren’t providing the wrong message. But again… I’ll let you decide for yourself.

Learn from the experts how to use the many features of Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) as well as address frequently asked questions.

I won’t waste your time with my mindless commentary, but trust me… the site is worth a visit:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/bb986763.aspx

Satya Vel outlines the Top 10 reasons you should consider using a Gateway Server in your Operations Manager 2007 infrastructure:

This is one of my favourite features/roles in OpsMgr 2007. When I refer to the Gateway Server I am referring to role in OpsMgr which can be used to monitor un-trusted domains/DMZs and not the spotted cow company that builds servers. If you are not leveraging the Gateway Server role then here are my 10 reasons why you should:

http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2008/02/19/10-reasons-to-use-a-gateway-server.aspx

The Dell Management Pack enables the Microsoft System Center
Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Essentials 2007 to discover 
and monitor the status of Dell systems and printers
on a defined network segment.

Figure: Dell Management Pack - Health Status Diagram View

This improved representation, which includes the receipt of failure
and pre-failure alerts, allows Dell customers to assess, respond to,
and ensure the availability of Dell systems and printers
monitored in the Operations Manager environment. In addition to 
improved availability, the Management Pack enhances the ability
to monitor and manage the hardware in a single management solution.

Download the Updated Management Pack Here