SCOM: SNMP Configuration

Truesec company sends useful newsletters.

One of the latest (Sept 25th, 2014) contains an advice related to SNMP monitoring with SCOM (by Kare):

The right way of Network Monitoring in SCOM 2012R2

Monitoring Network devices in SCOM 2012R2 is plain simple but unfortunately have a kind of bad reputation. Let me try to clear things out.

You do NOT have to install any SNMP features from Microsoft nor start any SNMP trap service.

This is a common misunderstanding, and unfortunately even in a lot of blogs and books around state you should install SNMP = Don’t. Please just create a discovery and then your Microsoft Monitoring Service (Healthservice.exe) begin listening and using port UDP: 161, 162 (bi-dir) and ICMP as well. This work without installing anything else than SCOM 2012 R2.

Monitoring Netapp, HP and Dell with Windows SNMP

In some situations of HW monitoring the Monitor agent/Proxy only works with Microsoft Windows SNMP, then you need to install Microsoft SNMP on the box that communicate with Netapp/HP/Dell. In this case, either dedicate a Management Server to a Resource Pool and let this Pool take care of the HW SNMP or dedicate a “Machine” to act as a proxy. Otherwise, you end up having two SNMP/ICMP interfaces receiving information not exactly knowing who is taking care of what.

So two things to remember – Do not install any SNMP and if monitoring HW that needs Windows SNMP – keep it away from the Management Server or create a dedicated Resource Pool.

//Kare

SCOM 2012 R2: Prerequisites installation script

Inspired by this script  by Richard Qi I created a modified version for SCOM 2012 R2 on Windows Server 2012. The difference is Report Viewer 2012 (and its prerequisite – SQL Control Types)

Here is the script content (copy it to .ps1 file and run from Power Shell)

NOTE: ReportViewer URL is updated April 14th 2014

#This section installs the .NET and IIS Prereqs for Windows Server 2012# Import-Module ServerManager Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-Core,AS-HTTP-Activation,Web-Static-Content,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Dir-Browsing,Web-Http-Errors,Web-Http-Logging,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Filtering,Web-Stat-Compression,AS-Web-Support,Web-Metabase,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Windows-Auth –restart#This section will download SQL System CLR and the Report Viewer 2012 Runtime Prereq for Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012# #to a folder called C:\SCOM2012SP1Prereqs. Once the file has been downloaded it will automatically install       # $dwnld = “C:\SCOM2012SP1Prereqs” if (!(Test-Path -path $dwnld)) { New-Item $dwnld -type directory } $object = New-Object Net.WebClient $RPTurl = ‘http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=239644&clcid=0x409′ $object.DownloadFile($RPTurl, “$dwnld\SQLSysClrTypes.msi”) Start-Process -FilePath “msiexec.exe” -ArgumentList ” -i $dwnld\SQLSysClrTypes.msi /qb” -Wait $RPTurl = ‘http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/B/7/FB728406-A1EE-4AB5-9C56-74EB8BDDF2FF/ENU/x86/ReportViewer.msi‘ $object.DownloadFile($RPTurl, “$dwnld\ReportViewer.msi”) Start-Process -FilePath “msiexec.exe” -ArgumentList ” -i $dwnld\ReportViewer.msi /qb” -Wait

SCOM 2012: How to test e-mail notification channel in SCOM

A nice step-by-step from Microsoft is here. In addition to test the channel gives an example of basic operations.

SCOM 2012: Set-SCOMLicense cmdlet fails

I attempted to add my SCOM Product key to SCOM 2012 R2 installation using Set-SCOMLicense cmdlet as recommended by setup program.

It failed with the following error:

Requested registry access is not allowed

solution is to start a standard (non-SCOM) Power Shell as Administrator, run “Import-Module OperationsManager“  and retry Set-SCOMLicense from that window.

the solution was found in Michael’s blog  here

SCOM 2012: Setup failed–Account validation error

SCOM 2012 R2 installation failed with the following error:

One or more accounts provided could not be validated. Please provide valid user names and passwords

 

Only one account validation failed. This account was created while setup application was running; other accounts were pre-created.

To bypass the error I used one of pre-created accounts instead of the new one and the error disappeared.

SCOM: How to set Agent Proxy on all Clients

Ken posted a nice PowerShell script that can be ran on a scheduled basis to set it up (requires a single parameter – RMS name)

 

param($RMS)
## prepare OpsMgr shell 
if ((Get-PSSnapin | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq 'Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.OperationsManager.Client'}) -eq $null) 
{ 
   Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.OperationsManager.Client -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -ErrorVariable Err 
   if ($Err) { $(throw write-Host $Err) } 
} 
if ((Get-ManagementGroupConnection | Where-Object {$_.ManagementServerName -eq $RMS}) -eq $null) 
{    
   New-ManagementGroupConnection $RMS -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -ErrorVariable Err 
   if ($Err) { $(throw write-Host $Err) } 
} 
if ((Get-PSDrive | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq 'Monitoring'}) -eq $null) 
{ 
   New-PSDrive -Name: Monitoring -PSProvider: OperationsManagerMonitoring -Root: \ -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -ErrorVariable Err 
   if ($Err) { $(throw write-Host $Err) } 
} 
Set-Location Monitoring:\$RMS

## connect to management group 
$ManagementGroup = New-Object Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ManagementGroup($RMS) 
$ManagementGroup.Reconnect()

## set proxy enabled for all agents where it is disabled
$NoProxy = get-agent | where {$_.ProxyingEnabled -match "False"}
$NoProxy|foreach {$_.ProxyingEnabled=$true}
$NoProxy|foreach {$_.ApplyChanges()}

System Center: SQL installation guide

I was always a bit upset because of missing SQL installation guide for System Center (and other products using SQL as a back—end). Usually a product manual says – install SQL as per SQL installation guide. I guess SQL should be install customly for a specific front-end though.

 

I finally found a white paper prepared by Paul Kelly from Infront describing the process in greater details: http://paulkeely.blogspot.ca/2013/02/sql-server-guide-for-system-center-2012.html

Thank you, Paul!

SCOM 2012: Custom Dashboards –Performance counters are not available

I tried new SCOM 2012 Custom Dashboard wizard and found I cannot add Performance Counters to the Dashboard Performance Widget:

I basically saw (All) in all fields and nothing was available in drop lists.

at the same time I could successfully see Performance metrics for my objects in SCOM console.

Resolution:

Fortunately Nicolas Li from Microsoft helped me and pointed to a right direction: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2711375

1. I ran two SQL queries against my Operations Manager Database

Select ManagementGroupId from __MOMManagementGroupInfo__

Select Id_6B1D1BE8_EBB4_B425_08DC_2385C5930B04 from MT_ManagementGroup

and found GUIDS are different

as per KB I run another query to change GUID

in “__MOMManagementGroupInfo__”  table:

Update __MOMManagementGroupInfo__ SET ManagementGroupId = ‘<GUID>’

where <GUID> is output of my second query. After that I double checked the GUID was changed:

and finally restarted the System Center Data Access Service, the System Center Management Configuration and the System Center Management services on the Management server.

The last step is to start the SCOM console with /clearcache key. Im my case I brought command line and put

“D:\Program Files\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Console\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Monitoring.Console.exe” /clearcache

I am able to add Performance objects to the Widget now:

SCOM 2012: Web Console–red cross instead of dashboard

As soon as I select a counter to display on a graph SCOM displays a red cross instead:

This post discusses the issue and points to a solution proposed by Microsoft.

In my case “remove Button” was not available. So I just performed IISRESET  

Surprisingly dashboard displayed correctly after that…

SCOM 2012: WebConsole fails with “"An unexpected error has occured"”

I tried to access WebConsole on my SCOM 2012 (upgrade from 2007). HTTP access was ok, but SSL failed with and IE brought me an error: "An unexpected error has occurred".

Resolution:

1. Add/Remove Program – System Center Operation Manager 2012 – Change – Remove Feature – Web Console

–  REBOOT  —

2. Install it back with SSL option.

3. Install SCOM 2012 CU3 (for WEB console)

4. re-register IIS (as described here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2015129 ) since I had error: "Could not load type ‘System.ServiceModel.Activation.HttpModule’

5. IISRESET