Go out and download the evaluation version. Learn about what’s new and improved! Try it out in the virtual lab. Or watch a quick video by Sacha Dawes, Senior Program Manager for Operations Manager, on a tour of all the new features in R2.
It’s not on MSDN downloads quite yet, but it should be there soon.
convert this post to pdf.
Be sure to add them to your list of places to check for all things Operations manager related http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/systemcenteroperationsmanager
As usual, Anders is the first post over there!
convert this post to pdf.
I’ve added a suggestion on Connect, #436472, that I think would really assist with the creation of custom reports. In HP’s System Insight Manager, when you generate a report for something, like number of CPUs per server, at the very bottom of the report is a link that says “Show SQL query used to generate this report”.
A feature like that added to OpsMgr reporting would go a long long way to allowing us to generate custom reports.
Why?
Well, the SQL schema for OpsMgr is not, and never will be, given out. It’s like that because once they’ve shared a schema, then they are more or less stuck with it and it makes adding, removing, or making more efficient sql much more difficult. So they just don’t share it. They didn’t in MOM2005 either, but it was significantly easier to figure things out there, since we had the one MOM database, and all of the warehousing data was pulled from that one via DTS packages, so the whole thing functioned easier. With OpsMgr 2007, data is written to the OpsMgr database and the reporting database concurrently, and they are more less independent of each other. Because of that a lot of the tables and such are a lot more confusing and a lot more happens behind the scene. So adding something simple like “Show me the SQL used to generate this query” would open up a whole new world to us.
Let’s face it. For the vast majority of us, we’re either System Administrators that handle day to day duties as well as the OpsMgr infrastructure, or we’re full time OpsMgr Admins. We’re IT renaissance men, Jacks (and Jills) of all trades. We know a little bit about all of the applications, operating systems, hardware, etc of our company, but we’re not an expert in one thing. Since OpsMgr uses SQL Reporting Services to issue up reports, that means we need either:
What I normally run across is:
But, if we had a way of looking at the SQL queries a particular report uses to pull up it’s information, we’d be able to bang something together. Jonathon Hambrook showed us how to create the report model and get started. Kevin Holman shows us a different way, and also shows us a real world query to use.
While those are great starting points, I want more information. I want to create a report through the reporting tab - let’s say we want to look at the CPU usage over a 4 week period for all of the exchange servers. I then want to see exactly what SQL voodoo was run, and then re-create the report myself in the SQL BI suite, that way I can prepare something for a presentation, and make sure this report adheres to my companies style and branding guides. Just that one simple change would be the bridge that lets us go from “No idea” to “Hey, I have a great idea!”.
Hopefully I’ve got you fired up enough to rate my suggestion - if we get it high enough there’s a good chance it’ll be included! So open up suggestion #436472, and rate it! If you’ve never been to MS Connect before, login to the site and subscribe to the OpsMgr connection, #446. Then you’ll be able to click on the suggestion above to go directly to it. In the mean time, I’m trying to figure out how to pull up this info via ‘other means’.
Until next time!
convert this post to pdf.
Yes, it’s true. You can have fun with Operations Manager. Right now I’m currently on the bench, and then probably unemployment soon since jobs are scarce, but it won’t be slowing me down1 In fact, I’ll be able to work on a lot of the wacky creative uses for OpsMgr - things like:
So I’m rebuilding my current SP1 environment and turning it into an R2 RC one. Then I’ll start adding wacky monitors. And I’ll create a full management pack to do it, and you’ll learn step-by-step. It’ll be a fun time! So stay tuned, and you stay classy, San DIego!
convert this post to pdf.Have you noticed that the command shell performance is lacking? Tab-completion can take over 15 minutes to complete, depending on how many servers you’re monitoring. I’m not 100% sure of the exact reasons behind it, but it seems that the auto-complete will first traverse the local path you’re in when it attempts to complete a command. And when you’re trying to do this from the monitoring:: provider, that means it will possibly look through tens of thousands of objects.
I thought that behavior was a little odd, because most other providers will attempt to auto-complete known cmdlets first THEN go through the local directory. So I went to MS Connect and logged a bug report, bug ID #436239.
And this morning I received a response from Cory Delamarter, the Senior Program Manager for Operations Manager. He wrote:
Jeremy - Thank you very much for reporting this. We’ve confirmed this behavior and we will defintely look into how we can improve this in future releases.
The feedback is much appreciated!
So hopefully we’ll get that fixed soon and it’ll be just as fast as all the other providers out there! There really isn’t a work-around for this, as most (If not all) of the OpsMgr commands need to be run from the monitoring:: provider, or else they will fail. So we’ll have to live with it for just awhile longer.
convert this post to pdf.
I’ve been seeing a lot of questions on just how to enable the sending of SMS inside of SCOM. The ‘configuration’ inside OpsMgr is very simple; just a little check box that says "Enable short message service notifications".
To figure this all out, I talked to my friends up the street at MultiTech and had them send me a few of their SMS modems so I could figure it all out. They sent me 3 GPRS modems1. This article will focus on the USB and RS-232 versions, which are almost completely identical in setup, and the same in operations. 
The MultiTech MultiModem GPRS2 is a small (4 inches long, 2.5 inches wide, 1 inch high) device that accepts a SIM3 card and talks to your computer (Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003, Server 2008) via USB or RS-232 Serial (They have an additional model which uses Ethernet, that will be in part 2). Here’s the Cliff’s Notes Version:
Now, if you want a more indepth step by step via, with plenty of pretty pictures to look at read on after the jump! Read More
convert this post to pdf.
MultiTech GPRS MultiModems
I’ve seen a lot of questions, both in the MVP email list and on the forums/newsgroups, about how to setup OpsMgr to use SMS. The easiest way is with these, GPRS (Cellular) modems.
So I sent an email to my friends at MultiTech and the above showed up - a USB, RS-232, and Ethernet GPRS modems. I will be setting them up, documenting the process, then posting it here for you all to take in.
I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how simple it is to setup and, more importantly, how much more cost effective it is versus a paging solution like Telelink, Hiplink, etc. No more needing to know the carrier a number is under, no more global gateways to license. An unlimited messaging plan with no voice can be had for as little as $7/month.
So look for that coming soon!
convert this post to pdf.
One of the problems with having an active, creative imagination is that you come up with multiple little ‘projects’ to work on. Some of those, you know well and can bang out fairly quickly - others, well they require you to beef up some of your weaker skills.
I guess what I’m getting at is I’m sorry my posts have been fairly light recently. My contract at my current client ends March 31st, and as such I’ve been working on shoring up the small details and getting ready to transfer knowledge over.
And now I’m getting ready to head to the 2009 MVP Summit. I’ve seen my schedule, and while it’s jam packed with workshops (Literally until 9pm or later some nights) I’ll come back with an incredible amount of new knowledge to pass on to you.
That said, I’ve been spending a lot of time recently just looking over the SDK framework. Unlike any other version of OpsMgr, this one is quite full and robust, giving us access to many many things. This makes building custom tools a cinch (Well, if you’re a programmer, anyway).
The Operations Manager SDK Framework
One of the things I had been wracking my brains about is something that comes up every now and then in mailing lists and IRC: How do we give non-administrators some privleges that make their (And our) life easier, but not giving them access to the whole thing.
I think I’ve figured out a decent solution, and then like I’m known to do, I kept adding and adding. We can do this all via the web. And hopefully soon, I’ll be able to show you a nifty little OpsMgr Self-Service portal.
Expect some updates next week, when I can, with pictures and such all from the summit. Meet the team!
convert this post to pdf.
This particular issue happens a lot on Domain Controllers, and especially DCs that you’re running as a gateway server. In the OpsMgr event log, you’ll receive a lot of events from the Health Service Script source with event IDs 1 and 1000.
OpsMgr Event ID 1000 Warning from Health Service Script
The text of the alert is:
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Health Service Script
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 2/13/2009
Time: 12:18:16 PM
User: N/A
Computer: BADDC01
Description:
AD Database and Log : The script ‘AD Database and Log’ failed to create object ‘McActiveDir.ActiveDirectory’.
The error returned was: ‘ActiveX component can’t create object’ (0×1AD)
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
and
OpsMgr Event ID 1 Warning from Health Service Script
the text of which is:
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Health Service Script
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1
Date: 2/13/2009
Time: 12:18:09 PM
User: N/A
Computer: BADDC01
Description:
AD Op Master Response : The script ‘AD Op Master Response’ failed to create object ‘McActiveDir.ActiveDirectory’. This is an unexpected error.
The error returned was: ‘ActiveX component can’t create object’ (0×1AD)
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Cause: For whatever reason, the Active Directory helper object is not being installed as part of the active directory management pack.
Solution: Install the helper object OOMADs.msi. This can be found in 1 of 2 places.
First, look in the install directory of OpsMgr on the server with the issue - typically that would be C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\HelperObjects
If it’s not there, then you can also find it on the install media under \HelperObjects\<ARCH> (Where arch is amd64, i386 or ia64).
Restart your agent, and it should clean itself up.
convert this post to pdf.
I’ve been incredibly busy doing the basic administration work that comes in an OpsMgr implementation, and as such I have nothing to interesting to write about. Though I have some ideas ticking in the back of my head 
I’ve also switched webhosts, and am playing with different solutions for the new pavleck.net, so that eats up some time.
But I wanted to bring to everyone’s attention the very excellent post my friend Kevin Holman wrote - Which hotfixes should I apply?
I was actually missing one or two and once installed they actually resolved a lot of issues that I didn’t even know about - stuff started working great!
So I suggest you run on over there and get yourself fixed up!
convert this post to pdf.