Monthly Archives: July 2015

XPost: What SQL maintenance should I perform on my SCOM 2012 databases?

Kevin Holman has updated his article on which SQL maintenance to perform on your SQL databases to now cater for the SCOM 2012 data structures.

The article which is available here and makes special mention of the types of maintenance which is run by SCOM itself which does not need to be handled by a SQL DBA.

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SCOM: Updated Exchange 2013 MP v15.0.666.19

A new version of the Exchange 2013 MP has been released version 15.0.666.19 is available for download here.

Fixes in this version:

  • Fixed a bug that was unable to run Exchange 2013 performance reports when the console is running on a locale different from EN-US.

Exception:
System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: GroupList

  • Fixed a bug that was causing the collection of Synthetic mailbox performance count data to fail when there are more than 2 management servers. Event 102 is logged on the management servers with the below exception.

Exception:
System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException: Type ‘System.Object[]’ with data contract name ‘ArrayOfanyType:http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays’ is not expected.

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SCOM: Update Rollup for Microsoft Monitoring Agent

Microsoft has released a new Update Rollup for the Microsoft Monitoring Agent it is available through windows update or via the catalog link in the KB article here.

Issues that are fixed in this update rollup

  • Support for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista. Add support for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista on-boarding to the Microsoft Operations Management Suite.
  • Maintain original identification after Operations Management Suite is disabled and then re-enabled or after agent is reinstalled. Preserve the identification of the system during upgrades or when enabling and disabling the Operations Management Suite. Previously, disabling and then re-enabling a connection to the Operations Management Suite caused a new agent identification to be generated.
  • Always use the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 for loading managed modules if it is available. Set a preference for the .NET Framework 4.0 when managed code is loaded in management packs. The .NET Framework 2.0 is used if the .NET Framework 4.0 is not available. Previously, the .NET Framework 4.0 would be used on Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, or later versions of Windows operating systems while the .NET Framework 2.0 was loaded on earlier versions of Windows.
  • Fix the Apply button that is not working in the Microsoft Monitoring Agent control panel.
  • Remove a dialog box that is displayed during a silent installation when a restart was required.

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SCOM: Deleting a MP with a Microsoft.SystemCenter.SecureReferenceOverride dependency

This situation will occur when you try and remove a management pack that utilities a Run As account. You’ll get an error that the management pack is dependent on Microsoft.SystemCenter.SecureReferenceOverride and removing that can be a little bit painful.

Anyone one who has ever removed a management pack with a dependency knows the old method of exporting the management pack, removing the offending refference and importing it back again. The steps for Microsoft.SystemCenter.SecureReferenceOverride are slightly different but the principle is the same.

1. First you need to remove the Run AS account from the Run As Profile
2. Export the Microsoft.SystemCenter.SecureReferenceOverride management pack
3. Edit the management pack and remove the references as you would with any other dependency
4.  Increment the management pack version
5. Re import the management pack

Here is a nice method from Matthew Long which uses powershell and doesn’t require any XML editing.

The below is copied for my records, original posting here

  1. Open a powershell session with the Operations Manager module/snappin loaded.
  2. Type: $MP = Get-SCOMManagementpack -Name Microsoft.SystemCenter.SecureReferenceOverride
  3. Now we can view the referenced management packs by typing $MP.References
  4. From the list of items in the Key column, note down the alias of your MP you wish to delete.  If you are having trouble finding it, the Value column will list the full ID of the MP.
  5. Now that we know the MP alias, we can remove it from the Secure Reference MP by typing $MP.References.Remove(“yourMPAliasGoesHere“)
  6. Now we can verify the MP is valid by entering $MP.Verify()  to ensure there are no orphaned overrides, etc.
  7. Finally, we can save our changes by typing: $MP.AcceptChanges()

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Management Pack Recap – June 2015 Wave

This is a summary of the wave of Management Packs that were released in June 2015. Information and download location in the links provided:

Skype for Business Server 2015 MP v9319.0here

NiCE Domino MP v7.01 here

PKI Certificate Verification MP v1.3.0.0here

OpsLogix VMWare MP v1.3.0.98here

Windows Azure Pack (WAP) MP V2 – here

SQL management packs v 6.6.0.0here

NiCE Oracle Management Pack version 3.10here

If you know of any other Management Packs that have been released recently that I may have missed leave me a note in the comments and I’ll add them.

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