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Community management pack: SCOM check update mp’s

Every once in a while a great management pack hits the community that could really make the SCOM admins out there their lives a little bit easier.

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Some are very complex and solve very complex problems others are very simple and add just another functionality to SCOM. Sometimes a community management pack fills a gap that has been left in the product.

This is a nice example of the last category: Let SCOM check for updated management packs.

OK it’s possible to do this periodically by opening up the Management pack catalog in scom and do a search on updated management packs but this management pack gives you proactively an alert when there’s a new management pack available!

How convenient!

So head over to Michaels blog and grab the management pack to free up the time you spend with management pack update checking and let scom do it for you:

http://michelkamp.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/let-scom-check-for-updated-management-packs/

This management pack is also added to my new list of cool community management packs which can be found here: http://scug.be/dieter/2012/12/30/scom-2012-overview-link-blog/

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Techdays 2013 session Scugbe now online

 

The past edition of Techdays 2013 Belgium was one of the best so far with a great outcome and a real buzzz in the community for all different new products and evolutions that were showcased.

Scugbe was also present with a System Center 2012 SP1 overview session giving you a quick drilldown of all the different new features in SP1.

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8 members of the Scug went through almost all the different products of System Center and highlighted the improvements in SP1.

If you could not make it to Techdays this valuable info is now available online on the Technet site. Believe me all this info in one place will save you a lot of research on what’s new in System Center 2012 SP1.

View the video here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/tdbe13-what-s-new-and-improved-in-service-pack-1-for-the-system-center-2012-suite

View the slidedeck here: http://www.slideshare.net/technetbelux

Overview of ALL the session of Techdays: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/ff832960?Category=TechDays+Belgium+2013&page=2

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Scugbe hosting Live Meeting Tuesday 23/04/2013

 

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Scugbe is proud to announce that we are hosting one of the Technet Belgium Tuesday Live meeting sessions.

There will be 1 session in the morning and 1 in the afternoon hosted by Kenny Buntinx and Dieter Wijckmans.

Morning session (10AM): SCEP 2012 inside CM12 : Install , maintain and manage

Kenny Buntinx will guide you through the process of monitoring your Configmgr 2012 with System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP). Forefront Endpoint Protection is now System Center Endpoint Protection and its integrated in ConfigMgr 2012. Attend this session to discover what’s new and hear how we successfully deployed Microsoft System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection on System Center 2012 Configuration Manager.

Register here: https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032548938&Culture=en-us&community=0

Afternoon session (2PM): Jump start your application monitoring with APM

So you heard about the new feature in SCOM 2012:  APM. But what exactly is APM?
Join Dieter Wijckmans to get a jump start on monitoring your applications with APM.
Learn to configure APM and use it to gain the knowledge about your apps to quickly answer the reoccurring question: “Why is my app so slow?” ​

We’ll go over the setup and walk you through the steps to get your app monitored in no time. APM will hand you the tools to quickly set up your app monitoring so you are armed and ready when there’s again a new fingerpointing game why an application was yet again not available during business hours.

Register here: https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032548936&Culture=en-us&community=0

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SCOM: Input and Pass user input parameters to Console Task

 

This is a small thing I figured out to request user input and pass it as a parameter to a console task by using PowerShell.

Issue:

The client wanted to be able to create tickets from an alert in the console if they were missed by an operator or notification script. The notifications pass the different parameters to a PowerShell script that generates the ticket. So far so good. But they wanted to call the notification from a Alert Console task. There are different parameters that need to be customized per alert to generate the correct ticket. One option was to create an Alert Console task for ALL the different classifications of alerts which would be a nightmare from manageability perspective + clutter the console.

Solution:

I came up with a small PowerShell script which will ask the user for input and use that input to generate the ticket with the correct info. The user still needs to know what to fill in but still it’s better than creating all the different Alert Console tasks.

This script is reusable in all your scripts you need to make interactive so you can prompt users for input during a console task.

Example:

In this example I’ve created a small Alert Console Task to connect to a Remote server via Remote desktop connection which can be different than the server which is generating the alert you’ve selected.

The PowerShell script I used in this example can be downloaded here

1. Creating the console task:

First things first. We need to create the console task.

Navigate to the Authoring pane > Management pack objects > tasks > create new task.

In the selection window select a Console Task > Alert Command line (This is necessary if we want to pass parameters from the alert to the script we would like to run)

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Name your task.

Note: This will be the actual name which will appear in your console so keep it short and simple but clear enough so someone will know what the task will do.

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Note: I’ve created a separate management pack for all my Console Tasks

Specify the command line options:

  • Application: %windir%\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\Powershell.exe
  • Parameters: C:\scripts\consoletask\remotedesktop.ps1 $ID$ “$Managed Object Name$”
  • Working Directory: c:\scripts\consoletask\

Note: The script must be copied to the local computer where the console is installed. In this case: c:\scripts\consoletask\

Hints:

  • If you want to check what alert parameters you can pass to your script click the arrow behind the parameters field
  • Keep the “Display output when this task is run ticked as this is a great tool to check whether there are issues with your script during execution. If you are convinced after testing that the task is working you can change it to hidden.

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2. Check the Console Task

When saved, the Task will appear between the Alert Tasks in the task pane when you select an alert.

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When you click the task the Console Task Output window will pop up together with a window asking the user to put in a servername. If the user clicks cancel the task is terminated.

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Success! The remote connection is started with the server we have put in!

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3. Disable the Output window

Now that we have verified everything is working we can disable the task console window so only the prompt for input is shown.

Open the task properties and deselect the box “Display output when this task is run”

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4. PowerShell Script

The PowerShell script I used in this example can be downloaded here

 

The section which is responsible for the input is here so if you have existing scripts this is what you are looking for to make them interactive:

#Get the server to connect to
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName(‘Microsoft.VisualBasic’) | Out-Null
$server =  [Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::InputBox(“Enter a Servername”, “Servername”, “”)

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System Center 2012 SP1 UR1 released

This morning the System Center community is once more buzzing with excitement.

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 is live since a couple of weeks and already Microsoft has released the first Update Rollup (UR1) for it.

This show great dedication of Microsoft to keep this product up to date and regularly release updates. The good thing these Update Rollups are all cumulative so no need to perform a series of updates.

Although you need to install SP1 first to install the UR1 of course.

More info on the updates is found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2785682

Note: Pay special attention to the “how to install” section as the correct version of the file needed according to your CPU architecture and local  is identified:

Example for SCOM:

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So if you have an agent on X86 machine you will need to run the file with F2 at the end and not the 5A.

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SCOM 2012: Overview link blog

This post will be my (and hopefully yours) one stop to post all the relevant info to SCOM 2012. I will try to generate an overview of all the different steps you need to start from scratch and continue to build your environment to a level that suites your environment.

If you feel there are things missing or you’ve found dead links please do not hesitate to leave a comment and I will update this post. This post has grown out of my favourite list of SCOM related topics and info I found on forums, technet and blogs.

Note:

    • I’ll sometimes post more than 1 link at a topic so you can combine the different blogposts to get the bigger picture.
    • Most of the info is relevant for SCOM 2012 and SCOM 2012 SP1 (if there’s specific info for a specific version it will be pointed out.)
    • This is a link post to relevant info I found on the web. All credits and copyright belong to the respective authors.

SCOM 2012 R2:

General information:

This section lists all links that will give you a general overview of SCOM.

Design and Topology

This section lists all links that will help and guide you to make a proper design and take the correct decisions concerning topology

How to install

This section lists all links to the install walkthroughs and possible issues.

Configuring scom

This section lists all links to help you quickly setup scom after you have succesfully installed it.

 

Specific configuration

This section lists all the different aspects of SCOM that need additional installation or configuration

Dashboards

ACS

APM (Application Performance Monitoring)

Gateway configuration

Network Monitoring

Azure Monitoring:

Management pack basics

This section lists all the links to give you the basics about management packs

 

Management pack advanced

This section liste all the links to the more advance management pack tips and tricks.

Community Management packs

A list of must have community management packs to increase your productivity and solve some gaps and functionalities in scom.

Note: These management packs are written by members of the community so no warranty is given. Test before you use in production!

Integration possibilities

This section lists links to different integration possibilities between the different System Center products.

 

Usefull blogs and sources for this list (In random order of importance)

Note: System Center Blogs: Now on iPhone, Android and Windows Phone

Tips & Tricks

Cool Showcases with SCOM

Partner solutions for SCOM (in random order)

Videos

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System Center Universe 2013 Be Simulcast registration is open

 

System Center User Group Belgium is proud to announce the fact that the registration for the Belgian multicast for this online event is now open.

Make sure to reserve your physical seat for this virtual travel through the System Center Universe broadcasted from Dallas US.

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The speaker list is already out of this world: http://www.systemcenteruniverse.com/presenters.htm and still not complete…

Wally Mead Cameron Fuller Maarten Goet
Jason Sandys Michael Washam Travis Wright
Pete Zerger More to come…
For more info please check http://www.systemcenteruniverse.com or keep an eye on #scu2013 on Twitter.

Reserve your seat today because the seats in our spacecraft in Brussels are unfortunately limited: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4989971138/eorg#

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MMS 2013 registration open

 

On the 3th of December the registration for MMS2013 opened.

In spite of all the rumors and earlier announcements the venue is again held in Las Vegas from the 4th until the 12th of April.

More info + registration link here: http://www.2013mms.com/register

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Early bird pricing saves you 300$ on the registration fee. Make sure to book early. Last year the venue sold out during early bird!

Check out my guide for MMS (which will be rebranded with extra tips for MMS 2013. http://scug.be/dieter/2012/03/06/a-travel-guide-how-to-survive-mms2012

I can’t wait for another week packed with System Center fun and meet peers.

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System Center Team Blog Relaunch

 

I came across a post of Travis Wright who announced the “rebrand” of the System Center Team blog.

The blog will be more technical because it is now maintained and updated by the engineering team instead of the marketing team.

New items will include more technical content and cross System Center product collaboration options.

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As Travis points out all System Center announcements from the engineering team will be posted on this blog so you definitely will want to subscribe to the RSS feed attached to it and check frequently.

So start updating your bookmarks to the new and improved System Center Team blog for your one stop for all new System Center announcements.

Link to the original post of Travis Wright: http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenter/archive/2012/11/26/system-center-blog-relaunch.aspx

Link to the RSS feed: http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenter/rss.aspx

At the bottom of the post is also a handy list of all the different specific team blogs so make sure to check them out as well!

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LiveMeeting 22/11/2012: System Center Products better together…

 

On the 22th of November I’m hosting a LiveMeeting on how to integrate the different System Center products.

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We’ll go over the different steps to integrate the different System Center products to get past the standard “just monitor it” scenario with SCOM but truly integrate the different products together.

All the products will be positioned within the System Center stack and integrations will be showcased.

If you are looking for a session to convince your boss to install more system center products or just want to convince yourself of the force of system center products brought together…

Look no further this is your session.

Register here:https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032533093&Culture=en-us&community=0

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