SCOM 2007: Dynamically populating a group from txt file
At one of my clients they are using a custom build problem management tool + cmdb tool.
This means there’s not much flexibility of getting data in and out of these systems. At one point the question came to make a division between either critical servers and non critical servers to adapt the level of monitoring accordingly.
The only possible way to get the server list in was by supplying me with a txt file of all the critical servers.
So well… you can go and click away daily to compare the list with the group or automate the process… Of course I choose the second option.
By creating a new custom management pack that basically will read in the txt file on a regular basis and populate the group by deleting the servers which were removed and adding the new ones. So let’s get going.
The management pack can be downloaded here: Download management pack here
Things to adapt to your needs:
- Line 52: The interval in my management pack is set to every 3 minutes (180 sec) which is way to high for production reasons but great for testing. Set it to more convenient level as this group will not change multiple times a day. Suggestion: 129600 = 6 hours.
- Line 75: If you do not want to alter the management pack above you have to have your input file at c:\extract.txt. This can easily be adapted by editing line 75 before importing the management pack into your environment.
So now you have the xml file. Let’s import it in our environment and test:
Fire up your console and navigate to Administration > management packs
In the actions pane select Import Management Packs…
Select to import the management pack from disk by selecting add…
Click no at the following question. Browse to your management pack location and click import
Browse to your management pack location and click import.
Wait for it to import
When the import was successful you’ll notice the management pack listed in your mp list.
Check whether the group was created by going to the author tab > Groups.
The critical servers group was created but is empty at the moment because the discovery process did not run for the first time.
For this example I’ve created the extract.txt file with 3 servers who are currently residing in my environment.
After the first run of the script the servers are added to the group and the population has been completed.
To test whether the servers are dynamically removed I’ve removed VSERVER05 from the file and wait for the following run of the discovery.
and eureka! A couple of minutes later the server has been removed from the group:
Note: Make sure to not have empty lines in the file because this will trigger an End Of File (EOF) command and stop the script.
Now that you are sure that you always have the latest update of your critical servers group you can target this group for more strict monitoring or any additional overrides you specifically want to apply to these critical servers in your environment.
Sources:
I’ve based my management pack on other community members who did similar projects:
Kevin Holman did it with populating groups from a CMDB which is SQL based: Populating groups from a sql server
Steve Rachui did it with a txt file and included several groups based on location: Populating from text file based on location
Finally 2012 has arrived…
Ok first of all I’m wishing you all a very nice year 2012 with everything you wish for as well on private as professional fields…
But enough chit chat. That’s not why I’m so excited.
THIS… yes THIS year will be a milestone in the System Center family. All the new versions of System Center products are just waiting around the corner packed with new features to make your live as a Sysctr admins even easier.
It has been a bit quiet on this blog due to various professional and personal reasons but my resolution for 2012 (at least one I can keep) is to start posting to this blog back regularly.
Stay tuned for the next events in the pipeline:
- 06/01: I’ll be speaking at the next event of scug.nl: “Meet the System Center Operations Manager 2012”: http://www.scug.nl/2011/12/07/meet-the-system-center-operations-manager-2012-experts-6-januari-2012/
- 16/04 – 20/04: I’ll be attending MMS at the venetian (if you want to hook up drop me a line on twitter
) - 08/05: I’ll be hosting a livemeeting: The One million dollar question: Should I upgrade to Scom2012? More info later.
Next blog series in the pipeline:
- I’ll be highlighting the project approach on how to tackle a SCOM project (new install / upgrade)
- Of course all the hot news of MMS
- Various comparisons between SCOM2007R2 and SCOM2012
- And last but not least the various troubleshoots I need to pull out of my sleeve to resolve the SCOM issues which are thrown at me at various customer sites.
So take a deep breath, close your eyes and then jump in and let the system center 2012 rollercoaster take off
Meet the System Center Operations Manager 2012 Experts
I have the privilege of giving a session at the “Meet the System Center operations Manager 2012 Experts” event of Scug NL on 06/01/2012.
On the link below you can find the different topics + timetable.
http://www.scug.nl/2011/12/07/meet-the-system-center-operations-manager-2012-experts-6-januari-2012/
I’ll go over the different aspects of preparing yourself for the upgrade / move to the next best thing SCOM2012 by planning and not by being the IT_Rambo for a change…
There’s a good chance that IT-Rambo will surface in NL.
So if you see him start hitting next as quick as possible!
MMS 2012: Registration is open!
The Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) is THE event for all professionals who are working with the System Center Suite products.
This year the event is held from 16/04/2011 – 20/04/2011 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.
5 days packed with sessions of qualified speakers, hands-on labs and different opportunities to meet with peers and top notch experts on a variety of different subjects with one thing in common System Center!
This year will be an even more special edition with all the new 2012 versions coming out for different products!
So if you work with System Center products be sure to be there!
Scug will be there with a delegation so if you are joining make sure to drop us a line so we can meet up!
More info here: http://www.mms-2012.com/
SCOM 2012: Webconsole fails to load after upgrade
In my recent session I’ve showcased an error I encountered when upgrading my SCOM2007R2 environment to SCOM2012beta.
After the upgrade was finished successful I performed my standard after migration health check and opened my web console to check out the new features of the SCOM 2012 console.
Only to find out this very “nice” cryptic error message:
Apparently this is because the ASP.NET version was installed after the IIS role and the new web app “SCOM 2012 Web Console” was never registered to use this version of ASP.NET with the IIS role.
So what are we going to do now… well euhm… Fix it 
Open an elevated command prompt (make it a habit, this will save you a lot of trouble in your live)
Open explorer and browse to “c:\windows\Microsoft.net\Framework64\v4.0.30319\”
Note: Make sure you use your installed framwork and version
Locate the file aspnet_regiis.exe and drag it into your elevated command prompt and add the switch –iru at the end as shown below. 
This actually will reinstall the ASP.NET version into the IIS sites so they can all use the new version. Sites which already use the new version are left untouched.
Finished installing… So we’ll see what happened to our console!
Well it’s loading up fine at this point
Note: You’ll need to have Silverlight installed. If you don’t have it on your machine a nice kind message will appear whether you want to install it. I’ve installed it in advance as it is one of the prerequisites.
There we have our nice brand new shiny Scom 2012 web console which we can start exploring
SCOM 2012: Upgrade failed with error 0x80070005
During the prep of my lab I came across an error which was in fact not this very common so I’ve decided to share my solution with you to save you some trouble when performing this in your environment.
After running through the entire installation wizard my upgrade process started fine… But after 10 minutes…
After restarting the process I was left with a broken SCOM2007R2 and SCOM2012 not installed. SQL Reporting services were broken so I had to revert my machine back to a snapshot I took earlier on and started all over again…
Now the solution so you shouldn’t have to go through the whole process of troubleshooting.
After checking the log file I found the following cause of my initial failing of the upgrade:
“System.UnauthorizedAccessException, Exception Error Code: 0x80070005, Exception.Message: Access to the path ‘MOMAspNet.msi’ is denied.”
This in fact is your ASP.net msi which is used when you install the agents. I’ve checked the rights and they were all good.
Delete folder: “C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\AgentManagement”
The installation went through after this.
After your upgrade this folder will be replaced anyway by the new SCOM2012 agent install packages so it’s safe to delete this before upgrade.
Another little step towards our brand new shining SCOM2012 environment 
SCOM 2012: Don’t be the IT-Rambo…
The title says it all…
Don’t be the IT-Rambo but prepare yourself for the move to SCOM2012 by checking my session which I gave the 20th of September and is now available online.
Check it here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/Hh443650
The slide deck is also available here: https://skydrive.live.com/?sc=documents&cid=f14edda98c2a18de#!/view.aspx?cid=F14EDDA98C2A18DE&resid=F14EDDA98C2A18DE%21126
SCOM 2012: Run WebConsole in different application pool
During my session on how to prepare yourself I’ve showcased some tips and tricks which will make your live much easier when you upgrade your existing SCOM 2007 R2 installation to SCOM2012.
One of the tricks I’ve mentioned was to run the SCOM2012 web console in it’s own app pool. During the upgrade of your web console the application pool will be removed and you can only choose the default application pool to install the website which is in my opinion not a best practice.
So before installing the Web Console on your webserver perform the following tasks in IIS:
Open the IIS manager on your machine
Right click the application pools and choose “Add Web Site…”
Fill in the details:
Note: At this point you need to choose another port than the default 51908. You can change this again after the upgrade.
The site is up and running.
During the wizard for pre installation you’ll get at one point at the following dialog to choose your application pool. Here’s the reason explained why we can’t reuse the “old” site:
The Operations Manager WebConsole will be deleted during the upgrade so it will default to the default application pool.
Select the new created website and continue.
After the upgrade you’ll notice that the old site has been removed. At this point you can edit the binding of the application pool again to the default port to keep the same transparency towards your users.
More tips to follow so stay tuned!
SCDPM 2012 Beta: How to install
Well the beta is live now. So let’s start installing it. In this particular case I’m installing it on a Hyper-V machine in my test environment. The SQL is on the same machine as this is just a lab environment.
Always make sure to run the Setup.exe as administrator. When opened we get the familiar install screen of all the System Center products.
Click the “Data Protection Manager”.
Accept the license terms and conditions and click OK.
After this the DPM installer will install all the necessary prerequisites to get the install going. These are not yet the prerequisites for the DPM itself.
When these are finished the familiar DPM install screen appears. Nothing changed here so far. Click next to continue with the Prerequisites check.
As said before I’m running this purely as test in my lab so I’m using a Dedicated Instance of SQL Server and install it on my DPM server. Click “Check and install” 
DPM will install the basic components.
Unfortunately there’s a reboot required after installing the SISFilter. If you want to avoid this you could install the filter in advance by downloading it here: 
After reboot run through the process again and choose Next when all the prerequisites are installed.
Fill in unser name and Company and click next.
I’ve left the defaults here but you can easily change them if you please.
Put in a strong password to run the SQL Server service and Server Agent Service.
Use Microsoft Update choice. It’s up to you to use the Microsoft update or not. I prefer to put this on Microsoft Update to receive the updates when they appear.
CEIP data. Again a personal choice to participate or not.
A nice summary before the magic happens.
Clicking install still launches a Security warning to open the SQL 2008 setup file. Click Run to continue.
The SQL Server install will take some time. In my case 14 minutes. Note that this can vary in your environment but don’t worry it’ll get there eventually. If you have a remote instance this step is not necessary.
Everything went fine.
So let’s open the console for the first time to check it out!
Time to start playing and see the new features in action.
I’ll be installing the SCOM extensions as well shortly to check out the new remote manage capabilities.
Live meeting: How to prepare for SCOM 2012
On 20th of September I’ll be hosting a live meeting where we’ll go over the different steps to prepare yourself and your environment for the move from SCOM 2007 to SCOM 2012. The upgrade path has been said to be easier than the one from MOM2005 to SCOM2007 (god thank). But still there are some things to keep in mind and consider before moving towards the new version when it’s released.
So join me on the 20th of September to prepare yourself for the next version of the SCOM software family.
The abstract of the topics covered (more to come):
- Backup and Document your environment.
- Health Check your SCOM installation.
- Compare management packs for SCOM2007 and SCOM2012.
- Supported upgrade paths.
Link to join in: https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032492077&Culture=en-US
I’ll be prepared for SCOM 2012… will you?