Operations Manager

The System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed book included a set of scripts on the CD (Chapter 12 content) that provided an automated backup process you could then schedule to execute as a regular task. These were also discussed at MMS 2009 as part of the SO34 “Don't Flirt With Disaster” presentation by Kerrie Meyler and Andy Dominey.

With Windows Server 2008 the process to schedule these backups has changed, because the task scheduling mechanism has changed. The following process constitutes the steps involved to schedule this batch job to run on each of the different OpsMgr servers in your environment:

1. Install the backup programs as discussed on the CD with the OpsMgr 2007 Unleashed book.
   • Copy the full "\backups" folder on the CD accompanying this book to each OpsMgr 2007 server (including database servers). (This content should include backup.bat, exportmp.ps1, and savekey.exe.)
   • On the RMS, copy SecureStorageBackup.exe to the %ProgramFiles%\System Center Operations Manager folder from the installation media within the \SupportTools folder.
2. Customize the script to enable the installed components on the server for each of your OpsMgr 2007 servers.
3. Perform the following procedure for Windows Server 2008:
   • Start –> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Task Scheduler (or go to search and type in Task Scheduler)

• Create a New Basic Task

• Schedule it to run Daily

• Schedule for just before midnight and to recur every day

• Set the action to Start a program

• Specify the location of the batch file (in this example it is stored in c:\backups, but in general it is most likely on another drive such as e:\backups)

• The Finish screen should look like this

• Change the properties running the scheduled task to run as a user account that will have permissions and configure it to run whether a user is or is not logged on.

   

And there you go! Backups are now configured to be run daily on the server you were configuring the scheduled task for. The output backup folders should be picked up by an enterprise backup program to complete the process.

The following URLs are provided in conjunction with the presentation made April 29, 2009 by Kerrie Meyler and Andy Dominey during MMS:

http://www.out-law.com/page-4464 – Forrester Research Consulting study on the cost of downtime

Backups:

• http://systemcenterforum.org/wp-content/uploads/UnsealedMPBackup.zip – Backup Unsealed Management Packs MP
• Backup script automating Operations Manager backups, available on companion CD to System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed under Chapter 12 content

Log Shipping:

• http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2008/04/12/what-sql-maintenance-should-i-perform-on-my-opsmgr-databases.aspx – by Kevin Holman, also has some good tips on caring for your databases
• http://blogs.technet.com/mgoedtel/archive/2008/10/31/opsmgr-2007-sql-server-log-shipping-guide.aspx – Matt Goetdel
• http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=331402 includes a quick overview of the concept

High Availability and Clustering:

• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb309428.aspx – supported High Availability configurations for Operations Manager 2007
• http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/6/b/36bfac7b-b585-413b-91f5-dbc6e4ed0405/OpsMgr2007_Deployment.doc – OpsMgr Deployment Guide, including supported clustering scenarios
• http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/6/f/76f3db2f-6f43-4624-bfde-ff731e3c1f96/GDClusters.doc – Geographically Dispersed Clusters, now supported for all OpsMgr 2007 roles
• http://www.systemcenterforum.org/news/deploying-opsmgr-in-highly-available-and-distributed-enterprise-environments-download/ – Andy’s whitepaper on deploying OpsMgr in Highly Available and Distributed Environments

AD Integration:

• http://blogs.msdn.com/steverac/archive/2008/03/20/opsmgr-ad-integration-how-it-works.aspx – How AD Integration works, by Steve Rachui
• http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/archive/2007/09/11/setting-specific-failover-management-servers.aspx – Boris Yanushpolsky’s PowerShell script on specifying particular failover servers when not using AD Integration

Database Grooming:

• http://ops-mgr.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3D3B8489FCAA9B51!176.entry – Kerrie’s write-up on database grooming process and data retention used by Operations Manager 2007 (more detail provided in Chapter 12, System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed)
• http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2008/05/14/data-warehouse-data-retention-policy-dwdatarp-exe.aspx – Daniel Savage’s command-line tool for grooming the Data Warehouse database
• http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2008/01/30/operations-manager-data-retention-and-grooming-information.aspx – Daniel Savage’s documentation on data retention and grooming 

Partitioning the Data Warehouse database – see Chapter 12, System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed, pp 550-552

The following article provides a summary of the topics presented in the MMS session “Common Mistakes When Using Operations Manager and How to Avoid Them” and a reference for all links which were referenced within the presentation. These are sorted in alphabetical order by the main topic presented below.

 

Anti-Virus:

AV Exclusions:

http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2007/12/12/antivirus-exclusions-for-mom-and-opsmgr.aspx

 

Authoring Management Packs:

Debugging Discovery failures:

http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/archive/2008/12/19/what-if-my-discovery-script-fails.aspx  http://ianblythmanagement.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/discoveries/

 

Hotfixes with OpsMgr:

Hotfixes that didn’t really install:

http://www.systemcenterforum.org/news/critical-hotfixes-for/

http://nocentdocent.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/scom-patching-blues/

What hotfixes to apply?

http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2009/01/27/which-hotfixes-should-i-apply.aspx

Hotfix Matrix:

 http://weblogwally.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!A913F865098E0556!560.entry

Hotfix potential side-effects:

http://nocentdocent.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/patching-blues-qfe-958490-pumps-up-healthservice-cpu-usage-on-agents/.

Automated deployment of hotfixes with ConfigMgr:

http://ops-mgr.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3D3B8489FCAA9B51!1285.entry

 

Management Packs:

Alert Storms:

http://pavleck.net/2008/10/06/its-bound-to-happen-how-to-handle-alert-storms/  

All-in-One environment for testing:

http://cameronfuller.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A231E4EB0417CB76!903.entry

Cleaning up the default MP:

http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2008/11/11/cleaning-up-the-default-mp.aspx, http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2007/05/03/removing-dependencies-on-the-default-management-pack.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/tnmag/archive/2009/04/01/blog-tales-cleaning-up-the-default-mp.aspx  

SCCM/ConfigMgr and Performance counters: http://blogs.technet.com/configmgrteam/archive/2009/02/13/monitoring-configuration-manager-2007-with-operations-manager-2007-in-a-64-bit-environment.aspx  

MP bugs:

http://nocentdocent.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/kms-management-pack-bug/

 

Ops Databases:

Useful queries in the opsmgr database for Information gathering: http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2007/10/18/useful-operations-manager-2007-sql-queries.aspx

Modify grooming settings:

http://ops-mgr.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3D3B8489FCAA9B51!176.entry

Database maintenance:

http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2008/04/12/what-sql-maintenance-should-i-perform-on-my-opsmgr-databases.aspx

Reducing retention periods:

http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2008/11/04/boosting-opsmgr-performance-by-reducing-the-opsdb-data-retention.aspx

Localized text table grows and does not clean up. This is fixed in R2: http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2008/10/13/does-your-opsdb-keep-growing-is-your-localizedtext-table-using-all-the-space.aspx

 

Password Changes:

Challenges changing passwords for account in OpsMgr:

http://thoughtsonopsmgr.blogspot.com/2009/04/resetting-sdk-and-action-account.html

 

Resetting Monitors:

Reset all Monitors:

http://blogs.msdn.com/mariussutara/archive/2009/01/19/how-to-restart-monitoring-of-my-environment-another-version-update.aspx   

Reset to green:

http://blogs.technet.com/timhe/archive/2009/01/15/announcing-the-greenmachine-utility-for-operationsmanager-rtm-sp1-and-r2.aspx

 

Root Management Servers & Management Servers:

Memory Examples for the RMS:  http://cameronfuller.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A231E4EB0417CB76!1180.entry

Moving the Operations Manager Folder: http://cameronfuller.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A231E4EB0417CB76!1247.entry

RMS promotion:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc540401.aspx

Deploying agents using ConfigMgr:

http://ops-mgr.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3D3B8489FCAA9B51!1034.entry    

How many consoles are connected:

http://blogs.technet.com/kevinholman/archive/2008/10/27/how-many-consoles-are-connected-to-my-rms.aspx

High Handle count KB:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951979

Work-around for High Handle Count: http://r0nwilliams.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!62A0019E9E556103!330.entry

 

Virtualization with OpsMgr:

Thoughts on what to virtualize:

http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2007/10/02/virtualizing-opsmgr-2007-roles.aspx

Virtualization support policy:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897615

 

Windows 2008:

5 part series for OpsMgr installation on Windows 2008:

http://ops-mgr.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3D3B8489FCAA9B51!768.entry)

UAC and OpsMgr:

http://cameronfuller.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A231E4EB0417CB76!1557.entry,

Installing Web console on 2008:

http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2008/12/17/installing-web-console-on-windows-server-2008.aspx

Windows 2008 with Hyper-V counter issues: http://cameronfuller.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!A231E4EB0417CB76!1318.entry  

 

If you’re attending MMS, here are the OpsMgr 2007 breakout sessions. Cameron’s session is S032 on Tuesday, and Kerrie and Andy are co-presenting at S034 Wednesday.

• SO01 – Overview of Ops Mgr 2007 R2 (Tue @ 11:45)
• SO02 – Ops Mgr 2007 R2 Platform Architecture (Tue @ 2:15)
• SO03 – Administrative and Implementation Best Practices (Tue @ 4:00)
• SO04 – Understanding Ops Mgr 2007 Performance & Scalability (Wed @ 10:15)
• SO05 – Developing Custom Reports and Operational Dashboards (Thu @ 4:00)
• SO06 – Monitoring .NET Web Applications (Wed @ 4:00)
• SO07 – Monitoring Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Exchange 2007 (Wed @ 11:45)
• SO08 – Advanced Management Pack Authoring (Fri @ 10:00)
• SO09 – Monitoring UNIX/Linux (Wed @ 2:15)
• SO10 – Understanding the LAMP stack and monitoring it (Thu @ 8:30)
• SO11 – Interop Connectors for System Center (Thu @ 10:15)
• SO12 –SO15 – Management pack Design Series 1-4 (Mon @12, 1:30, 3:00 and 4:30)
• SO25 – Targeting in Operations Manager 2007 (Thu @ 2:30)
• SO26 – Monitors, Aggregations, Dependencies, Rollup (Thu @ 11:45)
• SO30 – Taking Control of Ops Mgr Alerts (Thu @ 11:45)
• SO31 – Inside Active Directory Integration in Large Environments (Fri @ 8:30)
• SO32 – Common Mistakes when using Ops Mgr and how to avoid them (Tue @ 4:00) Cameron Fuller
• SO33 – Operation Manager 2007 R2: Driving Compliance with ACS (Fri@ 11:30)
• SO34 – Configuring Ops Mgr for High Availability (Wed @ 10:15) Kerrie Meyler and Andy Dominey

Cameron, Kerrie, and Andy will be giving out copies of System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed for the best questions asked during their sessions.

Tonight Microsoft announced the availability of the Operations Manger 2007 R2 Release Candidate on Connect (http://connect.microsoft.com). There are a number of enhancements over the beta released in November, including:

• New Power Management MP template (the monitored system must be either Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7)
• Updated branding across all user interfaces, including a new skin
• Improved trace configuration tools to help support issues escalated to Customer Support (if applicable)
• Improved Run As Account Distribution Configuration
• Ability to run inline tasks for non-Microsoft servers
• Support for upgrade from Beta deployments to the Release Candidate
• New and updated documentation, including the Usage Guide, Design Guide, Deployment Guide, Upgrade Guide, Security Guide, and Operations Guide

The RC should be upgradeable to the RTM version once that is available, but since this is a test version, do not run it in a production environment unless you have made special arrangements with Microsoft.