Enter a Group into Maintenance Mode using SCOM the Console (No Scripts Required)

I know this is a short post, but the idea is simplicity. Sometimes, we make things unnecessarily too complicated, and native functionality is sometimes overlooked. As a consultant, I strive to keep solutions for my customers as simple as possible while providing the required functionality.

Posts regarding group or class maintenance mode using powershell, scripts, new management packs, and otherwise complicated solutions are all over the internet. Is it really necessary to go to all this trouble? Not really. Yes, I use powershell to enter groups into maintenance mode for certain reasons, such as scheduled patching. But not everyone is a SCOM/scripting guru, and wants to use powershell.

I never see posts about entering groups into maintenance mode using the SCOM Console. It's simple, quick (much quicker than powershell), and effective.
There a couple of ways to enter a group into maintenance mode, but I will cover a single easy way - use discovered inventory.

How to enter a Group into Maintenance Mode the Easy Way

1. Open the SCOM Console
2. Go the the Monitoring Pane
3. Select "Discovered Inventory"
4. Select "Change Target Type"
5. Type in your Group Name
6. Select it and click OK
7. On the Discovered Inventory View, select your Group
8. Click "Start Maintenance Mode"
9. Edit the Maintenance Mode Settings
10. Click OK
11. VIOLA!
12. SIMPLE!
13. DONE!

A simple post for a simple, yet effective solution using native features of SCOM.If you need some help or have any questions, leave a comment and I will be happy to help.

Create Quest Event-o-Pedia Online Event Search View in SCOM

Quest software has a nice online website that allows easy searching or browsing of events. While it contains almost all windows events, it also contains events from VMWare and Juniper. I thought this would be a nice little utility to have in a SCOM view, so I created a SCOM webpage view with the advanced search. Here's how you do it.
http://eventopedia.cloudapp.net/

The webpage: http://eventopedia.cloudapp.net/Advanced_Search.aspx

 Open SCOM, go to Monitoring, right click the top Monitoring View, New, Web Page View













Enter a name and the link, click ok.

SCOM Agent Supported in SCSM 2012 SP1

System Center 2012 – Operations Manager

System Center 2012 – Operations Manager agents were not supported with System Center 2012 – Service Manager. However, the agent that is automatically installed by System Center 2012 – Service Manager SP1 is compatible with System Center 2012 – Operations Manager and System Center 2012 – Operations Manager SP1.  After Service Manager Setup completes, you must manually configure the agent to communicate with the Operations Manager management server.

To validate that the Operations Manager Agent was installed, open Control Panel and verify that the Operations Manager Agent is present. To manually configure the Operations Manager agent, see Configuring Agents.

You can upgrade Service Manager servers in the presence of an System Center 2012 – Operations Manager console.

Source: MS Documentation

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27850

All Management Servers Resource Pool Unavailable Hack/Fix

I have seen a lot of posts regarding the "All Management Servers Resource Pool Unavailable" error since SCOM 2012 RC, and I am still seeing numerous posts. I have also not seen anything in SP1 regarding fixing this error. The "All Management Servers Resource Pool Unavailable" error seems to cause trouble where no trouble really exists.

This is what I have found under normal circumstances:

1. Everything is fine
2. Then, you get the error
3. You might get a couple of other errors, saying stuff doesn't work
4. The agents on the affected management server all serve up a false heartbeat failure
5. The agents fail to a different management server
6. The heartbeat failures resolve
7. The affected management server says, "oh, I'm fine now, turns out nothing was really wrong with me"
8. The agents change back to their primary management server
9. Everything is now fine again...except you now have inaccurate availability, a bunch of auto-resolved false alerts, unnecessary state stages, unnecessary e-mails, and probably an upset server team who received those e-mails.
10. Then, it all happens over again...

A Microsoft article existed at one point, which provided a registry change to workaround/fix the issue, but then the article disappeared. If you make this registry change on all of your management servers, it might just fix the issue. It fixed it for me, as well as other people. As far as I know, this change is unsupported, but it is also easily reversible.

Here is the fix/workaround:

Some Notes First:

1. As always, before making any changes, back up your registry and SCOM databases.
2. Make this change on ONE Management Server at a time, and give the management server some time to recover after the restart - about 15 minutes should do.
3. As far as I know, Microsoft does not support this, so use at your own risk.

The Actual Steps:

1. Open you Registry editor (Start > Run > regedit)
2. HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\HealthService\Parameters
3. Select the PoolManager Folder/Key. (If it does not exist, create it under Parameters)
4. Create 2 new D-Words
1. PoolLeaseRequestPeriodSeconds
2. Give it a Value of 600 (Decimal)
3. PoolNetworkLatencySeconds
4. Give it a Value of 120 (Decimal)
5. Restart the Management Server
6. Give it Time to Recover
7. Repeat on all Management Servers
8. Let things calm down (probably an hour or more)

Good luck!

Monitoring Service Manager 2012 with Operations Manager 2012

Note that if you are using System Center 2012: Service Manager, you will not be able to install Operations Manager 2012 agents on the machines. You must use agentless management; this is fine because the Service Manager 2012 Management Pack accounts for agentless monitoring. However, you might want to think about where you place you Service Manager Self Service Portal. If it is placed on a shared SharePoint server, you will not be able to install the 2012 agent to monitor that SharePoint server - It will have to be agentless as well.

The Service Manager MP is fairly thorough and now monitors workflows.
You can download the Management Pack Documentation at the link below.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29980 

Notifications not working in SCOM 2012

Notifications not working in SCOM 2012: "Notifications not working in SCOM 2012"

'via Blog this'

Operations Manager 2012 RC Console Memory Leak

As you may know by now, the Operations Manager 2012 console has a memory leak. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue, and put it into the release notes for RC. It isn't that big of a deal. Just close the console and reopen it, if it begins taking too much memory. They will probably fix it in RTM.

Having said that, this is the real warning I want to give. Many administrators will log into the management server and use the console for various reasons. Many times an administrator will disconnect his session, rather than logging out. If you do this, make sure you close the console...because I didn't. The console "ate" all the memory and brought the management server to its knees. I closed and reopened the console, it freed the memory, and all was good.