Tag Archives: #2012 R2

SCOM: Management Pack for Microsoft Azure (Technical Preview) v1.3.22.0

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An update for the Azure MP technical preview has been releasd and is available here

New in this version

  • Fixed issue: due to deadlock of Storage Account Capacity Probe threads, Storage Account Size Performance Collection rule did not work, and the corresponding performance counters were not collected
  • Fixed issue: service type page did not display all instances in the authoring wizard when there were more than 1000 instances
  • Fixed issue: storage account state view did not display non-classic storage accounts
  • Fixed performance stability issue observed while monitoring large subscriptions (1000+ objects): all MP components (objects monitoring, objects discovery and counters collection) did not work.
  • Added support for China subscriptions; for details, see Azure in China and Azure for the US Government section
  • Fixed issue with “Add subscription” wizard pertaining to China subscriptions; added a corresponding guidance regarding the required user activity for China subscriptions monitoring, see the corresponding Note
  • Added monitoring of Azure Application Insights alerts for web tests; for more details, see Application Insights Configuration section
  • “Known Issues” section of the guide is updated
  • Updated information about Run As Profiles configuration: Run As Profile Proxy is to be configured manually; see Security Configuration section for details

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SCOM: Update from NiCE Oracle MP 4.00

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Over at NiCE they’ve released an update for their Oracle MP, version 4.00 has the below improvements and you can get more information here. Including how to join their webinar on September 7th, 4pm UTC+1.

New with this Release
The following changes have been implemented for this release:

  • Improved Oracle Real Application (RAC) Monitoring
  • Oracle Service Monitoring
  • Over 50 new monitors and 50 new performance counters
  • Ease of use: Easy adding new instance to Monitoring
  • Collection scheduler: Performance and usability improvements
  • Improved alert description texts
  • Customizability: New metric filter
  • Performance counter naming improvements
  • Updated display names for MP objects
  • Size monitoring of listener and Oracle alert logs
  • Diagnostic task improvements

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SCOM: Updated SQL Server Management Packs v6.7.2.0

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After many iterations of community previews there is now a non-preview release of the SQL management packs they can be downloaded from the below locations:

Due to the many issues with some of the recent versions of the SQL management packs I would strongly advise extensive testing before deployment to production systems.

SQL Server 2016 v6.7.2.0 – here
SQL Server 2014 v6.7.2.0- here
SQL Server 2005 / 2008 / 2012 v6.7.2.0- here
SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services v6.7.2.0- here
SQL Server Dashboards v6.6.7.6 – here
SQL Server 2016 Replication v6.7.2.0- here
SQL Server 2014 Replication 6.6.4.0 – here
SQL Server 2012 Replication v 6.7.2.0 – here
SQL Server 2008 Replication v6.7.2.0 – here
SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services (Native Mode) v 6.7.2.0- here

Changes and Fixes

SQL Server Replication

  • Decreased database timeout value for some workflows to match new connection logic
  • Updated the visualization library

SQL Dashboards

  • Changed some stored procedures to improve Dashboards performance

SQL Server 2005 / 2008 / 2012 / 2014

  • Added rules for alerting when an Availability Replica changed its role and/or a Database Replica changed its role
  • Created a group for WOW64 SQL Server instances and disabled launching of some workflows for these instances
  • Added MP version line into MP’s events generated by the scripts
  • Fixed the display strings and Knowledge Base articles
  • Fixed issue: some scripts were not returning data when one of the few installed instances was stopped
  • Fixed issue: SPN configuration monitor used stale data
  • Fixed: mirroring monitoring scripts were failing when the instance was stopped

SQL Server 2016

  • Changed EventID for MP events generated by the scripts (became 4202 for the Always On scripts and 4211 for the others)
  • Disabled Memory-Optimized Data workflows for SQL Server 2016 Express
  • Added new performance rules for Always On Log Apply Pending/Ready Queue counters
  • Added rules for alerting when an Availability Replica changed its role and/or a Database Replica changed its role
  • Added MP version line into MP events generated by the scripts
  • Fixed the display strings and Knowledge Base articles
  • Fixed issue: some scripts was not returning data when one of the few installed instances was stopped
  • Fixed issue: SPN configuration monitor used stale data
  • Run As profiles are now presented in GPMP library and ready to become generic profiles for all SQL Server MPs starting with 2016
  • Fixed issue: mirroring monitoring scripts were failing when the instance was stopped

SQL Server Analysis Services and Reporting Services (Native Mode) 

  • Updated the visualization library
  • Run As profiles are now presented in GPMP library and ready to become generic profiles for all SQL Server MPs starting with 2016

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SCOM: Updated Exchange 2013 MP Documentation v15.0.666.20

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The Exchange Server 2013 management pack  documentation has been updated and is available for download here.

New in this version

Updated supported configuration to include Exchange Server 2016.  References to Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 functionality in this guide apply equally to Microsoft Exchange Server 2016.

Note:  The management pack will not group or monitor servers running Exchange Server 2016 separate from Exchange Server 2013 in console UI elements, or reporting.

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SCOM: Understanding Optimized Collection

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This posting is a follow on in my SCOM basics series.

Lets start with what is Optimized Collection?

Optimization for a collection rule only collects a value if it differs from the previous sample by a specified tolerance. This is used to reduce network traffic and the amount of data stored in the Operations Manager database.

1

How does this affect me?

When viewing performance data you need to bear in mind that if the collection rule has optimization enabled then you may see gaps in your graphs if the value has not changed significantly for some time. The below image is an example of how this might look:

2

Note: Optimization should be used for performance counters that are expected to only change gradually. For counters that are expected to vary significantly from one value to the next, optimized collection should be disabled.

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SCOM: Preview MP for Windows Server 2016 Guarded Fabric v10.0.0.0

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A preview has been released for the Windows Server 2016 Guarded Fabric management pack it is available for download here.

          The Windows Server 2016 Guarded Fabric Management Pack enables discovery and monitoring of guarded hosts and Host Guardian Service instances in your environment with System Center Operations Manager. The alerts surfaced by this management pack will help you quickly detect and remediate service availability issues with the Host Guardian Service and Hyper-V host misconfigurations that could prevent you from succesfully starting up shielded VMs. Please note that this is a preview release of the management pack and is not suitable for production deployments.

 

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SCOM: SQL Server MP (Community Technical Preview 2.1)

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An update to the SQL management packs Community Technical Preview is now available here.

There have been additions for SQL Server 2016 SSRS and SSAS and minor improvements to the other existing management packs. Hopefully when this reaches public release it will avoid the issues of previous SQL mp versions.

Newly released
SSRS Native Mode 2016
SSAS 2016

Updates and fixes

SQL Server 2005/ 2008 / 2012 / 2014 / 2016

  • Updated the visualization library

SQL Server 2008 /2012 / 2014 / 2016 Replication

  • Updated the visualization library

Dashboards

  • Improved Dashboards performance.

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SCOM: Windows Server MP updated to 6.0.7310.0

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Note: it looks like 6.0.7310.0 has been pulled and replaced with 6.0.7297.0 no reason has been given at this time.

The windows Server MP has been updated to v 6.0.7310.0 it is available for download here.

Changes in this version

  • Several bugs located in Clustered Shared Volumes MP were fixed (see below); error handling migrated to common recommended scenario. Enabled quorum monitoring via changing the monitoring logic. The monitoring logic is splitting for Nano Server (with usage of PowerShell) and all other operation systems.

o    Fixed bug: disk free space monitoring does not work on Quorum disks in failover clusters.
o    Fixed bug: logical disk discovery did not discover logical disk on non-clustered server with Failover Cluster Feature enabled.
o    Fixed bug: clustered shared volumes were being discovered twice – as a clustered shared volume and as a logical disk.
o    Fixed bug: mount points were being discovered twice for clustered disks mounted to a folder – as a clustered Disk and as a logical disk.
o    Fixed bug: Clustered Shared Volume was being discovered incorrectly when it had more than one partition (applied to discovery and monitoring).

  • Added support for Nano Server Failover cluster disk monitoring: the monitoring logic was fixed based on improved cluster discovery with registry and WMI. Error handling was also corrected. Logical disk correct discoveries on non-cluster server with Failover Clustered Server Feature is installed.
  • Created new overrides for Clustered Shared Volume MP, as long as the old ones did not work.
  • Some cosmetic changes were introduced for cluster disk monitors alert messages.

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Xpost: SCOM getting resource pool members with powershell

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A post I came across from Ian Blyth with a short powershell script to show which Resource Pools your management servers are part of. It’s quite useful to see all of the resource pool members in one place without having to open each one in the console, particularly in larger environments.

For a single managementserver

$Member = Get-SCOMManagementServer -Name “FQDN”
$Pools = Get-SCOMResourcePool -Member $Member
$Member.DisplayName
$Pools.DisplayName

For all management servers

$Members = Get-SCOMManagementServer
foreach ($member in $members)
{
write-host “”
$Pools = Get-SCOMResourcePool -Member $Member
write-host “Management Server – “$Member.DisplayName
$Pools.DisplayName
}

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SCOM: SQL MP (Community Technical Preview 2) v6.7.0.0

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Version 6.7.0.0 of the Community Technical Preview 2 for the SQL management packs have been released, they are available for download here.

Microsoft seems to be very cautions now with releases of the SQL MP which is good considering the issues with the last 4 live versions,

What’s new?

New Releases
MP for SSAS 2016
MP for SSRS 2016 (Native Mode)

Updates and fixes

SQL Server Dashboards

  • Added a feature to support Virtual Groups (groups defined by classes, not by real group instance). This will help users with partial access to use our predefined dashboards.
  • Added a feature to Bulk Add tiles from the class definition.
  • Added a feature to ignore some states while calculating the worst state for the Datacenter View State Tile; added a feature to set this ignorance up for each group
  • Added a feature to show/hide Instance path in the list on the Instance view
  • Added instance path to the Instance Details
  • Implemented deferred loading of the instance tiles to make the instance view operation faster
  • Implemented a new format for Dashboards configuration providing a smaller size and a single binding
  • Implemented a converter from old to new format providing preservation of user changes
  • Improved error reporting
  • Improved performance of initial load process
  • Improved data sources performance
  • Improved performance of instance selection (made it asynchronous)
  • Improved performance of Datacenter and Instance View Tiles, loading and loaded animations
  • Fixed animation issues and minor visual glitches (positioning, size of elements, fonts, main loading animation)
  • Updated Summary dashboard
  • “Known issues and Troubleshooting” section of the guide is updated

SQL Server 2016 / 2014

  • Fixed Smart Admin policies monitoring
  • Fixed Always On Database replica discovery incorrect behavior; fixed Always On policies discovery and monitoring
  • Fixed Database policies discovery and monitoring
  • Fixed and optimized CPU Usage monitoring scripts (the issue appeared when only one core was assigned)
  • Added support for more than 32 processors count in CPU Usage monitoring.
  • SQLPS module is now used for the tasks instead of deprecated SQLPS.EXE
  • Implemented FILESTREAM filegroup monitoring
  • FILESTREAM is now supported on the summary dashboard
  • Multiple Ports are now supported in SQL Server TCP/IP parameters
  • Fixed error occurring when no port is specified in SQL Server TCP/IP parameters
  • Fix filegroup read-only state discovery
  • Fixed RunAs profiles mapping for some workflows
  • Added support for new SQL Server 2016 Memory-Optimized Data implementation
  • Implemented support for TLS 1.2 in connection logic
  • Implemented support for different client drivers in connection logic
  • Updated connection logic error logging
  • Updated Availability Group Automatic Failover monitor
  • Added rules to collect new Always On performance counters
  • Updated SMO usage in Always On workflows to support the new connection logic
  • Upgraded the used PowerShell version to 3+, since SQL Server 2016 uses .Net 4 Runtime
  • Fixed issue: CPU usage monitor ignored SQL server limitations on CPU core count
  • Fixed display strings and Knowledge Base articles
  • Fixed error reporting in the scripts
  • Fixed threshold percentage comparison of deactivated subscriptions workflow in Distributor.

SQL Server 2016 / 2014 / 2012 / 2008 Replication

  • Reviewed threading implementation
  • Fixed issue: Distributor Discovery could fail for Replication
  • Fixed error logging, added more details
  • Fixed “Availability of the Distribution database” monitor issue: added missing overridable parameter
  • Assigned SDK profile to the Replication Database Health Discovery
  • Fixed replication monitoring issue: compatibility with SQL 2005 as a part of Replication
  • Fixed Publisher Discovery issue: unable to cast object of type ‘System.DBNull’ to type ‘System.String’
  • Added timeout support for .Net modules
  • Fixed issue: SQL Server Event Log Collection Target was not discovered Associate due to invalid path in DataSource
  • Fixed Replication Agent State monitor type cookdown issue
  • Fixed issue: failing replacement warning in “One or more of the Replication Agents are retrying on the Distributor” monitor
  • Dashboards fixes: added bindings to the tiles; added Datacenter Classes (L1 dashboard for Replication)
  • Fixed upgradeability
  • Fixed Knowledge Base articles and display strings
  • Updated Known Issues and Troubleshooting section of the guide

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