This new version of this tool includes also new functionalities like:

· Opalis Integration Packs
· Discovery Agent for Hyper-V host
· Complete documentation for all these functionalities.

Here we will focus only on the Microsoft Operations Manager management pack. This application has to be installed on a management server, if possible, avoid installing it on the root management server.

Copy the file, OnCommand-PlugIn-Microsoft_3.0_x64_NetApp.exe, on the root management server and let’s start the installation by double clicking on it. Unfortunately, we don’t have the choice here, it must run from the RMS.

If a previous version of the management pack is installed, like the Data Ontap Appliance Watch PRO 2.1, it will be automatically uninstalled it.

Click on Yes to continue.

Click on Next to continue.

Click on Next to continue.

Specify the destination folder and Click on Next to continue.

As we are only interested by the SCOM Management Pack, we will not install other component.

NetApp OnCommand needs to run a Web Service. Create a Service Account that will be local admin of the server on which you install the software. Set the credentials and click on Next.

Click on Install to continue.

The installation is now in progress, it will install the application, but it will also automatically import/upgrade the NetApp management packs to the Operations Manager Infrastructure.

And finally, click on Finish.

Start the SCOM Console, the installation process automatically installed the new the NetApp Management packs. /!\ If you were previously using the Netapp management pack, extract your custom management pack because the upgrade will simply remove it, which could be really frustrating. After the upgrade, you are able to reinstall it. It seems that NetApp changed some class, be sure to check that your overrides are well targeting the right classes./!\

The next step is to add the Netapp Controllers as Network device. Go to Administration > Network Devices > Discovery Wizard. Specified the IP range and start the discovery.

Discovery is in progress.

The controllers have been discovered as SNMP devices. Select all the controllers and click Finish.

Go to Monitoring > Data ONTAP > Storage Systems > Management Server, choose the root management server that will monitor your Netapp infrastructure and run the Data ONTAP : Run Discovery Task.

After a few moments, the Netapp Controllers will automatically appear in the Data Ontap > Storage Systems > Controllers view.

Extend the actions pane and click on Data ONTAP : Manage Controller Credentials task.

This will start the Netapp Credentials Manager, where we have to specify the credentials for all the NetApp Controllers.

When done, go back to the SCOM console, Go to the Authoring section > Management Pack Objects > Rules and search for the Data ONTAP: Discovery Rule.


This is the principal discovery rule for all Data ONTAP storage systems. Once you use the SNMP network device Discovery wizard in System Center Operations Manager to discover your Data ONTAP storage controllers, this rule contacts each storage controller and discovers all of its physical and logical storage elements.

This rule is disabled by default. You should enable the rule, via an override, for the management server that will monitor your Data ONTAP storage controllers.

After a few moments, the entire infrastructure will be discovered and all the views will be populated.

Regards
Christopher KEYAERT

Yesterday, I moved some agentless monitored servers from a Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 management server to a Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 management server. Since I did that, I received the following alert for all my Windows server 2003 agentless servers :

There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper

Description:

The Windows Event Log Provider is still unable to open the System event log on computer 'xxx.xxx.com'. The Provider has been unable to open the System event log for 68400 seconds. Most recent error details: There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper. One or more workflows were affected by this. Workflow name: Microsoft.Windows.Server.2003.OperatingSystem.ServerServiceConfiguration Instance name: Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Server 2003, Standard Edition Instance ID: {62B32BAB-6D06-9152-EDA8-F8D4306B5D56} Management group: OM2007

In the management server event log, the following event was recorded:

The Windows Event Log Provider is still unable to open the System event log on computer 'xxx.xxx.com'. The Provider has been unable to open the System event log for 336240 seconds.

Most recent error details: There are no more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper.
One or more workflows were affected by this. 
Workflow name: many
Instance name: many
Instance ID: many
Management group: OM2007

I checked the firewall settings, DNS settings, …. everything was fine. Finally I moved back an agentless monitored server to a Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 management server and the error disappeared.

The Microsoft Premier Support confirmed it me, a Windows Server 2003 agentless server must be monitored by a Windows Server 2003 server watcher node. Same idea for a Windows Server 2008 agentless server, it must be monitored by a Windows Server 2008 server.

Now, an agentless watcher node could be a management server, or any other agent monitored server of you infrastructure. If you choose an agent monitored server as watcher node, don’t forget to set change the run as account of the agent to an account which has the necessary access right to the agentless monitored server.

Regards
Christopher KEYAERT

Dear all,

We invite you to join us on the sixth edition of Community Day 2012. On Thursday, June 21st 2012, 17 user groups are working together to bring you a full day of sessions for both the developer and IT-Pro community! Just like last year, the event will take place in Utopolis Mechelen, Belgium.

This year, we offer you 6 parallel tracks, over 40 deep-technical sessions delivered by community members and partners and great networking opportunities. It's your free ticket to get up to speed with all the new releases including Windows 8, SQL Server 2012, System Center 2012, Visual Studio 11, C# 5 and much more.

This year, I will have the honor to present a session about : How to automate your server provisioning with System Center Technologies.

Want to be there? Register your free spot now.

The Community Day 2012 is brought to you by Azug, BeCPP, Besug, Biwug, IT-Talks, Pro-Exchange, SCUG, SQLUG, VBIB, Visug, WinSec, XNA-BUG, CLUG, MyTIC, Wiphug, TechNine and DotNetHub. We look forward to seeing you then!

Click here to download the Outlook Calendar file (*.ics) to save the date in your agenda!

This is your personal invitation to one of the two major technical
conferences we will be holding on June 7th 2012: The Best of
Microsoft Management Summit and Experience Windows Server 2012.

During The Best of Microsoft Management Summit (MMS 2012), we
will provide you with the best possible opportunity to learn
about what's new in System Center 2012. Led by experts who
attended MMS 2012 in Las Vegas, you can expect in-depth sessions
on infrastructure management, service delivery & automation,
application management, desktop & device management.

Discover the full program
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/enterprise/experiencedays/demo-mms.html

At Experience Windows Server 2012 day you will discover how
Windows Server is going beyond virtualization by scaling and
securing workload, how it will enable the modern work style by
giving people access to information and data regardless of the
infrastructure, network, device or application they use to
access it.
And you will discover the power of many servers with the
simplicity of one by efficiently managing infrastructure while
maximizing uptime and minimizing failures and downtime.

Join us and learn more about:

- New Hyper-V Virtualization Platform
- What's new in Active Directory
- Storage and Management Improvements
- Clustering Improvements
- Plus much more...
   
Discover the full program
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/enterprise/experiencedays/demo-windows-server.html

Places are limited, so register now for:

- The Best of Microsoft Management Summit 
   http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/enterprise/experiencedays/demo-mms.html

- Experience Windows Server 2012 
   http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/enterprise/experiencedays/demo-windows-server.html

Add to your Outlook calendar:

- The Best of Microsoft Management Summit 
  http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/enterprise/experiencedays/agenda-mms.ics

- Experience Windows Server 2012 
  http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/enterprise/experiencedays/agenda-experience-windows-server.ics]

These events are part of the Microsoft Experience Days
that take place on 6 and 7 June 2012.

Regards
Christopher KEYAERT

This morning, I had one agent managed server which stop to work correctly. The server appears as Not Monitored (Note : That’s could apply for some server in grey state) in the Console Computers view.

I checked in the Console Agent Managed view, and there, the server is not present at all.

In the agent managed server, we have the following event :

Event Type:    Warning
Event Source:    OpsMgr Connector
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    21034
Date:        5/10/2012
Time:        8:41:00 PM
User:        N/A
Computer:    TYOBKP002
Description:
The Management Group XXXXX has no configured parents and most monitoring tasks cannot be performed.  This can happen if a management group in Active Directory does not have any server SCPs or if the agent does not have access to any server SCPs.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

The first step is to check if the Management Group Name and the Management server are well configured.

Before going further, be sure to have a good backup of your SCOM DBs. Log on to the OperationsDB database server and run the following query :

SELECT * FROM dbo.[BasemanagedEntity] where FullName Like '%Windows.Computer%' and Name Like '%AGENTMANAGEDSERVERFQDN%'

if the IsDeleted value is set to 0, run the following query :

UPDATE dbo.[BasemanagedEntity] SET IsDeleted = 1 where FullName Like '%Windows.Computer%' and Name Like '%AGENTMANAGEDSERVERFQDN%'

You could now close the Microsoft SQL console, and go back to the Agent Managed server and stop the System Center Management service.

Go to the SCOM Agent Installation folder and delete the Health Service State folder.

Start the the System Center Management service.

After a few seconds, in the event viewer, you will see that event, don’t worry, this is normal.

After a few minutes, the server will reappear as Not Monitored in the Console Agent Managed view.

In the event log, we could see that agent has returned to communicating with the management server.

And after some minutes, it could take up to 30 minutes, the agent will go back to Healthy in the Console Agent Managed view.

Regards
Christopher KEYAERT

Yesterday, during the  Microsoft Management Summit keynote, Microsoft announced the availability of System Center 2012 RTM. You could download for free, the evaluation version via the following link : http://aka.ms/PvtCld

The Microsoft private cloud evaluation includes:

System Center 2012

• System Center 2012 Unified Installer is a utility designed to perform new, clean installations of System Center 2012 for testing and evaluation purposes only. If you want to upgrade from an existing System Center installation or choose set up options such as high availability or multi-server component installs, please refer instead to the System Center 2012 component installation guides located on the Microsoft Private Cloud Evaluation Resource Page.
  User's Guide >>
• System Center 2012 App Controller provides a common self-service experience across private and public clouds that can help you empower application owners to easily build, configure, deploy, and manage new services.
  System Requirements >>
• System Center 2012 Configuration Manager provides comprehensive configuration management for the Microsoft platform that can help you empower users with the devices and applications they need to be productive while maintaining corporate compliance and control.
  System Requirements >>
• System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager provides unified data protection for Windows servers and clients that can help you deliver scalable, manageable, and cost-effective protection and restore scenarios from disk, tape, and off premise.
  System Requirements >>
• System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection, built on System Center Configuration Manager, provides industry-leading threat detection of malware and exploits as part of a unified infrastructure for managing client security and compliance that can help you simplify and improve endpoint protection.
  System Requirements >>
• System Center 2012 Operations Manager provides deep application diagnostics and infrastructure monitoring that can help you ensure the predictable performance and availability of vital applications and offers a comprehensive view of your datacenter, private cloud, and public clouds.
  System Requirements >>
• System Center 2012 Orchestrator provides orchestration, integration, and automation of IT processes through the creation of runbooks that can help you to define and standardize best practices and improve operational efficiency.
  System Requirements >>
• System Center 2012 Service Manager provides flexible self-service experiences and standardized datacenter processes that can help you integrate people, workflows, and knowledge across enterprise infrastructure and applications.
  System Requirements >>
• System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager provides virtual machine management and services deployment with support for multi-hypervisor environments that can help you deliver a flexible and cost effective private cloud environment.
  System Requirements >>

Christopher KEYAERT

Yesterday, I migrated a SCOM 2007 R2 reporting module from a SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 to a SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2. The migration worked perfectly, the reports were available, I was able to start it, everything seems ok, but…

when I checked the scheduled reports, the schedule date/time display was set At 12:00 AM on 1/1/001.

And when I tried tried to edit a scheduled reports I’ve got the following error :

Hopefully the scheduled reports itself were still running fine, only the display was incorrect and an error message when I tried to edit it. I did some search and I found the following links :

http://wmug.co.uk/blogs/aquilaweb/archive/2008/10/14/reporting-error-value-of-1-1-0001-00-00-00-is-not-valid-for-value.aspx

http://qa.social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/eu/operationsmanagerreporting/thread/06d79194-2919-4236-bddf-371c7f1cc022

http://nocentdocent.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/reporting-error-when-a-different-locale-is-used-for-srs-and-console/

http://nocentdocent.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/issue-with-reports-and-non-en-us-locale/

All my servers were in English US format, none of the link above solved my problem. Finally, I found this thread :

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/operationsmanagerreporting/thread/c070e435-862b-4ccd-ab4a-d2202c61aab3

Update:

I opened up a case with Microsoft Support and resolved the issue. Apperantly this is a known issue and the bug will be addressed in CU6. Microsoft was able to give me a hotfix (QFE_MOMEsc_4724.msi) which I applied on all systems that have SCOM Console. I am told that this issue occurs when SCOM 2007 R2 CU5 runs on SQL 2008 R2.

I hope it helps to others that run into same problem.

ZMR 

I contacted my Microsoft Premier Support Contact and they sent me the hotfix. (Reference : Hotfix for MOMEscalation 4724).

This hotfix is simply a new DLL, Microsoft.MOM.UI.Common.dll, that you will have to place in the Operations Manager installation folder on all the machines where you run the Operations Manager Console. When done, just restart the Operations Console, and you will be able to see the Schedule information and edit the jobs without any error message.

As this hotfix is not public, you will have now other choice than contacting the Microsoft Support to get it. I received the confirmation that this hotfix will be included in the SCOM Cumulative Update 6, but we don’t know the release date yet.

Christopher KEYAERT

You may be already experimented this issue with System Center Orchestrator 2012 RC, the statistics available in the web console are never updated and always stay at zero. The two print screens below represent the problem that I had in my lab environment :

This problem is due to a SQL Store procedure that doesn’t start and doesn’t update the statistics in the web console.

To solve that, the very first step is to ensure that the SQL Broker in enable on your SQL Server. Go to you SQL Server and run the following Query :

select is_broker_enabled from sys.databases where name= 'Orchestrator’

If it is not (you get a return value of 0) then you need to enable it by doing the following:

alter database Orchestrator set enable_broker WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE

Now, we’ll check the last execution time of the procedure that is taking care of the statistic update. Execute the follow query :

SELECT
      [m].[Name],
      [m].[IsEnabled],
      [m].[IntervalInSeconds],
      [m].[LastExecutionTime]
FROM [Orchestrator].[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Maintenance].[MaintenanceTasks] [m]

This will return the following table :

We could see that the LastExcutionTime of the Statistics store procedure is MARCH 15, or this normally procedure has to run every 10 minutes (600 seconds). It’s clear that something is going wrong there.

To start manually this procedure, we have to run the follow query :

EXEC [Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Maintenance].[EnqueueRecurrentTask] @taskName = 'Statistics'

After a few seconds, we must find some data in the following table :

SELECT *
FROM [Orchestrator].[Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Statistics.Internal].[Statistics] 

Running manually the procedure must solve the issue in the majority of the case, but if you still have any statistic  data after running all the SQL queries above, it’s certainly due to your SQL Server that is not working properly.

In fact, it was my case, still no updated statistics. if like me, you are running  your lab SQL server in  a VM on your laptop, VM that you never shutdown /reboot, but always use the PAUSE feature. This could cause some problem with the SQL Store procedures.

How to solve that ? Simply reboot your SQL Server. After the reboot, my statistic updated automatically.

I hope this help you

Thanks to Travis Wright and Chris Sanders for their help on this topic.

Christopher KEYAERT

The recording of my last week session about “Orchestrator 2012 – How to build your first runbook” is available on TechNet Edge :http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/hh916316

The slide deck is available on Slide Share :

You could also download the Runbooks that I created during the session : DOWNLOAD

Cheers
Christopher

Kelverion company closely worked with Microsoft for releasing a new set of Orchestrator 2012 Integration packs for the following BMC Products:

• BMC Bladelogic v8.1, 8.2
• BMC Remedy ARS v7.5, 7.6
• BMC Enterprise Event Manager (BEM) v7.4
• BMC Atrium CMDB v7.6.04

The license is free of charge for the current BMC IPs on completion of an end user license form, detailing the number of Orchestrator databases and which BMC products are to be licensed.

The licensing of the Integration Packs is per Orchestrator database i.e. so normally a customer would have at least one license for production and one for development as a minimum.

These free IPs are supplied without warranty or support and you could download it here: http://www.kelverion.com/bmc-download

Downloads are supplied with a 14 day evaluation license but you simply have to send an email to info@kelverion.com to obtain permanent license keys.

More details about the activities available below :

Integration Pack for BMC Atrium CMDB

Supported Versions

• BMC Atrium CMDB 7.6.04 is supported. Future compatibility is dependent on BMC Atrium Core Web Services.  Prior versions to 7.6.04 are not supported.

Activities

The Integration Pack supports the following activities for both CIs and relationships:

• Create Instance
• Delete Instance
• Get Instance
• Monitor Instance
• Update Instance
• Start Reconciliation Engine Job

Integration Pack for BMC Enterprise Event Manager (BEM)

Supported Versions

Starting with BMC Enterprise Event Manager 7.4 with Impact Integration Web Server 7.4 (developed with 7.4.01).  Future compatibility is dependent on changes to Impact Integration Web Server.

BEM Activities:

• Create Event
• Update Event
• Set Event Status
• Get Event
• Monitor Events

Integration Pack for BMC Remedy AR System

Supported versions:

Starting with BMC Remdey AR System 7.5 and 7.6. (developed with Remedy 7.5). Future compatibility is dependent on Remedy Web Service. Version 7.1 or below is not supported.

Activities:

The Integration Pack supports the following activities:

• Create Request
• Update Request
• Get Request
• Monitor Request

Integration Pack for BMC BladeLogic

Supported versions:

Starting with BMC BladeLogic Server Automation 8.1

BladeLogic Activities:

• Create BLPackage from Audit
• Create Deploy Job (BLPackage Deploy Job or Software Deploy Job)
• Run Job  (Audit Job, ACL Push Job, Batch Job, BLPackage Job, Compliance Job, Component Discover Job, File Deploy Job, Software Deploy Job, NSH Script Job, Snapshot Job, Virtual Infrastructure Discovery Job)
• Export Audit Results
• Set Server Property
• Run BLCLI Command

More information on this website : http://www.kelverion.com/

Cheers
Christopher