How to enable Network Adapter State monitor in Operations Manager 2007

By default is all the Network Adapters under the Microsoft Windows Server/Network State view Not monitored. This is because the monitor is default disabled. To enable Network Adapter monitoring you have to create an Override that enables the monitor.

How to:
Go to the Authoring Pane. Scope to Microsoft Windows 2003 Network Adapter and Microsoft Windows 2000 network Adapter. Select Monitor under Management Pack Objects. Under Target expand Windows Server 2000 Network Adapter/Entity Health/Availability and there is the monitor: Network Adapter Connection Health. Right click on the monitor and select Overrides and Override for all objects of type: Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Adapter. Then select enable and change the value to True. Use the same procedure for the Windows 2003 monitor.

Best practice is to save the Overrides in a new Management Pack like Windows Server Overrides MP and not to the Default Management Pack.

Operations Manager 2007 Performance and Scalability Whitepaper

New document: Operations Manager 2007 Performance and Scalability Whitepaper.
This document describes performance and scalability guidelines to consider when planning a Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 deployment.

Quick Details
File Name: OM2007_PerfScal.doc
Version: 1.0
Date Published: 5/25/2007
Language: English
Download Size: 163 KB

Updated Operations Manager 2007 Documentation released

Microsoft has released updates to the Operations Manager 2007 documentation.
Following files are available at Microsoft Download:

Quick Details
Version: 1.0
Date Published: 5/26/2007
Language: English
Download Size: 121 KB - 4.2 MB*
*Download size depends on selected download components

OM2007_AuthConsole.exe
OM2007_MP_ActDirMgmt.doc
OM2007_MP_ExSrvr2003.doc
OM2007_MP_IIS.doc
OM2007_MP_InfoWrkr.doc
OM2007_MP_Sharepoint.doc
OM2007_MP_SharepSvcs.doc
OM2007_MP_SQLSrvr.doc
OM2007_MP_SysCenter.doc
OM2007_MP_WinCliBase.doc
OM2007_MP_WinSerBas.doc
OpsMgr2007_Deployment.doc
OpsMgr2007_Security.doc

The OM2007_AuthConsole.exe file is a zipped help file for Authoring Console.

Best practice for creating overrides for Management Packs

In the Operations Manager Product Team Blog Jonobie Ford posted a great article about the Best practice to create overrides for Management Packs in Ops Mgr 2007. There is also good information how to Remove dependencies on the Default Management Pack if you already have created overrides and have put them in the Default MP.

New graphical design

To make it easier to read the instructions in the Blog I have decided to try a new graphical design. Hope you like it.

How to activate the SQL 2000 DB Engine monitor in Operations Manager 2007

For some reason is the SQL 2000 DB monitor disabled by default. To start monitoring the SQL 2000 DB engines you have to make an override to enable the disabled monitor. The best thing is to create a MP like "SQL Override MP" to store the overrides. It is not recommended to store the overrides in the Default MP.

Create a override in the "SQL Override MP" for the rule "SQL 2000 DB Engine/Entity Health/Availability/SQL DB Engine Service Health Rollup” to activate/enable SQL Server State. To create the overrides use the Authoring pane in the Console. Open up Management Pack Objects and select monitors. Scope for SQL 2000 DB Engine. Open Entity Health and Availability. Right click on SQL DB Engine Service Health Rollup and select Override/Override the monitor/For all objects of type SQL 2000 DB Engine. Select Enable and override setting to true. Now the monitor is enabled.

If you like to monitor the SA password for empty passwords you can make a override for the rule "SQL 2000 DB Engine/Entity Health/Security/SQL Instance SA Password Check". This monitor is also disabled by default.

Changing Sensitivity for Baselining monitors.

With the introduction of Baselining monitors came some tuning work. Every system or environment doesn´t behave like the other. By doing overrides you can change the sensitivity for Baselining monitors and this way tune the monitor for your needs. I found this information in the Microsoft Ops Mgr 2007 General forum News Group.

1. You need to find a baseline rule and disable it (through an override). The Rule's name is the Monitor name followed by "Baseline Signature". For eg, in the case of the "Handle Count" monitor, the Rule Display Name is "Handle Count Baseline Signature". Disable this Rule by overriding the Enabled Node value to false. You also need to disable the Monitor itself by applying a similar override. You can disable the Rule and Monitor in any order.

2. You need to override the InnerSensitivity and OuterSensitivity nodes on the Monitor, and the Sensitivity node on the Rule. While overriding the values, you need to ensure that the InnerSensitivity node value of the Monitor matches the Sensitivity Node value on the Rule, and the OuterSensitivity value on the Monitor just needs to be larger than the InnerSensitivity. By increasing the Sensitivity value, you can reduce the number of false positives. You can set the Sensitivity Node value to 2.81 for now. This corresponds to raising an alert for only 0.1% of the values. The larger the value of InnerSensitivity/Sensitivity, fewer the alerts that will be generated.

3. Once these overrides are applied, remove the disable overrides for both the monitor and the rule. The Rule and the Monitor should now start operating with the New Sensitivity values.

The information is written by Rajeev Sudhakar [MSFT].

HP Server Management Packs does not support System Center Essentials

I found this information in the release notes for HP Server Management Packs:
HP Server Management Packs for Operations Manager 2007 only support System Center Operations Manager 2007 product. System Center Essential product is not supported.

HP StorageWorks Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007

The Storage MP for Ops Mgr 2007 is released. You find information and downloads here.

HP Server Management Packs v1.0 for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007

The new HP server MPs for Ops Mgr 2007 are released. HP Proliant Server Management Pack for SCOM 2007 and HP Integrity Server Management Pack for SCOM 2007 are both part of the MP. You will find more information and download instructions here. For direct link to registration and download use this link.

How to use scripts to discover and monitor in Ops Mgr 2007

If you want to know how to use scripts for discovery and monitoring in Operations Manager 2007 there is some useful information in the Operations Manager 2007 SDK.

System Center Operations Manager 2007 includes a script library that you can use to create custom runtime scripts. When they are added to a Management Pack, these scripts allow you to do the following:

Discover class instances that you want to monitor.

Create monitoring data that can later be used by rules, tasks, or monitors.

Operations Manager 2007 Security Guide

Operations Manager 2007 Security Guide is available on Microsoft Download.

Brief Description:
This guide provides you with security-related information as it pertains to Operations Manager 2007.

This is a good start to get the security concept for things regarding Ops Mgr 2007.

Systems Management Server 2003 Service Pack 3 Management Pack Guide for Systems Center Operations Manager 2007

Microsoft have released the Management Pack Guide for the SMS 2003 SP3 MP. You find it on Microsoft Download and there is also the Management Pack for download.

Windows Vista Client Monitoring Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007

Microsoft have released the Vista MP on Microsoft Download

Overview
The Windows Vista Client Monitoring Management Pack is built on the Windows Diagnostics Infrastructure in Windows Vista that detects, diagnoses and tries to resolve hardware and software problems. Information and analysis on the issues that the system detected are collected by the MP through an agent on the client and sent to OpsMgr where this data is converted into health state, alerts (if need be) and processed for aggregate reports. The MP monitors the following areas:

• Disk reliability and utilization
• Memory reliability and utilization
• System performance
o Runtime performance
o Bootup performance
o Shutdown performance
o Sleep performance
o Resume performance

And surfaces information in these areas by:
1. Raising individual alerts when there are impending catastrophic failures
2. Raising trend-based alerts on significant changes to any OEM or computer group in one of the monitored areas
3. Health monitors giving an in-depth view of the health of individual machines with knowledge articles to guide the admin.
4. Reports giving a landscape view of the health of all monitored clients in all the monitoring areas

System Center Operations Manager 2007 Documentation

Updated Operations Manager 2007 documentation is available on Microsoft Download. Some documents are updated and some are new like the Terminal Services doc. Date published 5/2/2007.

Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack Guide is currently missing from download but is described in the overview, so it might soon be available.

Overview:
This download contains the following documentation for System Center Operations Manager 2007:
• Operations Manager 2007 Deployment Guide:
This guide steps you through the deployment process for System Center Operations Manager 2007.
• Active Directory Management Pack Guide for Operations Manager 2007:
This document includes a Management Pack overview, deployment procedures, and monitoring scenarios for the two Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Management Packs
• Exchange Management Pack Guide for Operations Manager 2007:
This guide includes a Management Pack overview, deployment procedures, and monitoring scenarios for the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.
• SQL Management Pack Guide for Operations Manager 2007:
The SQL Server Management Pack provides both proactive and reactive monitoring of SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 for an enterprise environment.
• Windows Server Operating System Management Pack Guide for Operations Manager 2007:
The Microsoft Windows Server Management Packs monitor the performance, health, and availability of Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
• Windows Client Operating System Management Pack Guide:
The Windows client operating system Management Packs are intended for use in gathering data on client computers or individually monitoring designated mission-critical client computers. • This guide includes an overview of the Management Pack, deployment procedures, and monitoring scenarios for the Terminal Services Management Pack. • Operations Manager 2007 Security Guide: This guide provides you with security-related information as it pertains to Operations Manager 2007. For this release of the Security Guide, two major topics are discussed: Accounts and Authentication and Data Encryption • Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack Guide: This guide includes a Management Pack overview, deployment procedures, and monitoring scenarios for the Microsoft Windows Server Internet Information Services 2000 and 2003 Management Packs for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.