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Blog: SCVMM Tip: Testing PRO Integration in VMM / OpsMgr 2012

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:17:39 GMT

PRO Integration still has an important place in VMM / OpsMgr integration System Center 2012 and I expect many people will be leveraging it in a private cloud environment. Once you setup Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) integration (for info on how, see “Configuring PRO integration between OpsMgr 2012 and VMM 2012”), you now have a ‘Test PRO’ button in the VMM interface to verify you’ve configured the feature properly. Let’s go to the Jobs workspace and see what the job details look like.

In the job details, we see a job called ‘PRO diagnostics’ started when we hit the Test PRO button. And from the details below, we can see it runs a cmdlet called Test-SCPROTip. This means we can test integration at any time using this cmdlet.

Testing from PowerShell

The Test-SCPROTip cmdlet tests integration between System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) and OpsMgr 2012. After creating a connection with Operations Manager and configuring PRO monitors, run Test-SCPROTip to validate that PRO integration is functioning correctly. Test-SCPROTip creates a new warning PRO alert in Operations Manager, invokes a remediation, and then implements the fix for the PRO tip.

To test this anytime from your admin workstation, open the VMM Command Shell and type Test-SCPROTip
Related Articles

Here are a few additional private cloud-related posts featuring System Center 2012 and related technologies that may be of interest

Configuring PRO integration between OpsMgr 2012 and VMM 2012

[Private Cloud]: Configuring anti-affinity between VMs on Hyper-V 2008 R2 SP1 and VMM 2012

Implementing rapid scale-out of a machine tier in VMM 2012 via PowerShell

Cloud: A quick note on accurately measuring Hyper-V host performance and utilization

What’s new in the Cloud Services Process Pack (CSPP) Release Candidate for System Center 2012?

Private Cloud in the real world: 5 lessons from the private cloud fabric

How to prepare for Orchestrator? Learn Opalis in a month of Friday afternoons! (free online resources)

PowerShell Scripts for System Center (Master Collection)

RE: Agent Multi Homing Issues?

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:32:35 GMT

Pua, you can multi-home an agent to up to 4 management groups. Is that the info you're looking for?

RE: Re: Resolution state change on Resolved Alerts by Alert Update Connector

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:13:20 GMT

Thx for the reply Maybe I did not explain it right. We not trying to manually close or Ack the Alerts.If that was the case , its a no brainer.Its part of the automatic workflow that a new alert goes through.All new alerts are acted upon by the ALert Update Connector to enable them to go to a third party monitoring product. So, the issue, we having is that in cases where the issue is auto-resolved (ex- a service comming back online too quickly) , the Connector acts upon them & changes the state from "Closed" to "Acked by Connector". The end-result is that alert(that are quickly resolved) stay up on the Console & the Operators think its a new\open incident. They have to actually go & check Alert history to figure out that the alert was closed & acked by Connector later.

Forums: Re: Resolution state change on Resolved Alerts by Alert Update Connector

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:02:20 GMT

Well you don't need to update the alert, that "Ack by Connector" is redundant. You only have to acknowledge the alert.

Agent Multi Homing Issues?

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:46:44 GMT

We are considering System Center Advisor, which would require dual homing agents. We are also planning on SCOM 2012 migration, one option would to dual home to the new 2012 Management Group. So this brings me to this question- Is it possible to do triple homing? Is this even suggested? Nothing set in stone yet, just looking for input to help planning. Thanks.

Resolution state change on Resolved Alerts by Alert Update Connector

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:27:55 GMT

We have an Alert Update Connector, which updates Custom Fields on Alerts. Have been noticing that when a Critical alert comes in from a monitor(say a SQl Agent monitor) , & the state changes immediately back to resolved(ex SQL Agent hiccup), the Alert Update connector kicks in & changes the status from Closed\Resolved to "Ack by Connector".This results in the Alerts staying Open on the Console. We've noticed this issue when state change's happens too quickly. Is there a way to add more logic into the connector, so that it wont update Auto-Resolved Alerts ?

Forums: Re: Add all agent's instances to group

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:33:21 GMT

:D what are you doing? Of course it won't find System.Entity, you have to tell it in which Management Pack that class is.

Ever wondered what this is for: MicrosoftSystemCenterInstanceGroupLibrary6172210! <- it tells it in which Management Pack it has to search for. Well if you leave it out make an educated guess what will happen... it won't know in which Management Pack it has to search for.

Add a reference to the System.Library, then take the reference alias configured for it, add a !, add System.Entity. Usually looks like this: System!System.Entity

Forums: Re: Add all agent's instances to group

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:53:00 GMT

$ComputerName='FQDN'
$MC = Get-MonitoringClass -Name System.Entity
$MOS = $MC | Get-MonitoringObject

foreach ($MO in $MOS)
{
if ($MO.Path -eq $ComputerName)
{
write-host $MO.GetLeastDerivedNonAbstractMonitoringClass().name
}
}

Working like a charm!

Second script is still problem.
Even I create/change to "System.Entity"

- $MPElement[Name="System.Entity"]$
$MPElement[Name="MicrosoftSystemCenterInstanceGroupLibrary6172210!Microsoft.SystemCenter.InstanceGroupContainsEntities"]$
-
...paste result from script
xxxx.xxxx.xxx.xxx

... I can not see objects in my group as members..

Can you please paste your XML file .. maybe I am doing something wrong?

Blog: Moving the #SCVMM database when it’s running in a virtual controlled by SCVMM

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:31:31 GMT

When I was building my System Center 2012 testing lab I installed SQL server in a virtual running on my HyperV systems I was controlling with SCVMM 2012 RC. I’ll admit it, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I put all of the System Center products into one database server with two instances running in a virtual on my HyperV systems controlled by SCVMM. The host that I put this database on was a quad processor AMD box with 8 gb of memory and pretty good drives so I figured this would be a good home for the various databases (it seemed like a good idea at the time but in retrospect this was Strike 1). The challenge hit me when I realized that I had bottlenecked on memory on my SQL server. At first I just increased the dynamic memory for that system but eventually it took all available memory which I had available from the host. I restricted the memory on the various SQL pieces but performance started really decreasing in the environment. My plan was to move this database to another HyperV system with more memory…. Here’s where my bad choices landed me in trouble. I do not have shared storage in my lab [Strike two] – each HyperV system is running it’s own local drives but they transfer pretty quickly because I have each of the hosts gigabit networked linked to each other. Now however I can’t migrate my virtual which has the SQL database from one node to another because the current host is an AMD system and my other HyperV hosts are all Intel systems. [Ouch, that was Strike 3]

Ok, at this point I’m pretty sure that this isn’t going to be good. I can’t move this virtual in SCVMM when it’s shut down because the SCVMM database is on it. And most likely I couldn’t move it in the first place because it’s the database which is running the SCVMM environment I’m trying to move it with. So I’ve got myself nicely in a catch-22.

What’s the resolution? It’s time to go old-school virtual moving.

0) Identify a host with sufficient resources (disk and memory in this case) to be the new home for this server.

1) Shut down all virtuals which will be accessing the database (including the SCVMM console)

2) Log into the HyperV system which is running the virtual, connect to the virtual with Server Manager and shut down the SQL Server.

3) Find where the VHD files are associated with this system and copy them to the new location (break for a long lunch here depending on the size of the VHD’s and the network connectivity levels).

[For the geek trivial pursuit, this is what it looked like on one of my hosts during the transfer in terms of the impacts on network and disk. As a geek I admit I like stress testing the network like this once in a while. It makes me feel better for actually having upgraded from a 100 MB to a 1 GB switch.] [Screenshot failed to paste but available on http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/cfuller/archive/2012/02/03/moving-the-scvmm-database-when-it’s-running-in-a-virtual-controlled-by-scvmm.aspx]

4) In HyperV on the original server, renamed it to indicate it was the old version of the virtual by adding _OLD to the name.

5) Logged into the new HyperV server and created a new virtual with the same configuration as the original virtual.

6) Configured the new virtual to use Dynamic Memory and to start with 4 gb of memory and to expand to up to 12 gb of memory.

7) Started the SQL virtual on the new host. Logged in and configured the network adapter to the IP address which had originally been hard-coded for the system (replacing the original network adapter IP address).

8) Validated the SQL services were running and the SQL instances would connect through SQL Server Management Studio.

9) Restarted the SCVMM server from saved state and re-opened the SCVMM console. In SCVMM the original SQL database server appeared as _OLD on the original host. A little while later, the new database server appeared on the new host.

10) Re-activated all of the servers which were saved to disk prior to the migration. Validated functionality of the servers which were accessing the database and that performance was increased in the new configuration.

11) After validating functionality, the original VHD files for the database server could now be removed.

12) The next step will be to rebalance by moving some of my processor intensive virtuals from the current host which also has the SQL database server to the now empty HyperV host but that will wait a little while.

Start to finish on this my migration of this SQL server took about three hours. Another option would potentially have been to have disabled dynamic memory on the SQL virtual, exported it from one system and imported it to the other system. This might have simplified the process but would not have changed the time required significantly.

Summary: Even if you mistakenly put your SCVMM database on a virtual which SCVMM controls and you are unable to migrate the database server from one host to another in SCVMM that doesn’t mean that you can’t go back to the old way of moving around virtuals. It’s just not as much fun.

RE: Add Update Server fails on VMM 2012 when WSUS is intalled locally

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:42:22 GMT

Because the VMM installer tries to install an agent on the server running WSUS, I suspect only way this is going to work is if you install WSUS before you install VMM on your server. Not even sure that would do it, but would be worth a try in the lab.

Forums: Re: Add all agent's instances to group

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:06:01 GMT

Ooops, well the method Getmonitoringclass() doesn't exist, there's GetMonitoringClasses() but that's not what you need. What you need is: $MO.GetLeastDerivedNonAbstractMonitoringClass().name

And, I already explained to you that have to target System.Entity, otherwise it won't work.
Btw. I just tested this on my system, works just fine.

RE: Add all agent's instances to group

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:48:07 GMT

This is not working from some reason:
$ComputerName='FQDN'
$MC = Get-MonitoringClass -Name System.Entity
$MOS = $MC | Get-MonitoringObject

foreach ($MO in $MOS)
{
if ($MO.Path -eq $ComputerName)
{
write-host $MO.GetMonitoringClass().Name

}
}

In other hand your script is working perfectly, and I get all instances ID for selected agent, but as I said that is not enough (can not simply insert in XML).

When I add instance true FORM, MP's XML contains (example):

-
$MPElement[Name="MicrosoftWindowsInternetInformationServices20086076000!Microsoft.Windows.InternetInformationServices.2008.AspNetWebApplicationEndpoint"]$
$MPElement[Name="MicrosoftSystemCenterInstanceGroupLibrary6172210!Microsoft.SystemCenter.InstanceGroupContainsEntities"]$
-
1aac8472-5649-07fd-c133-f475a06c8a35
28bbe10c-75ed-1fb7-e216-859a535f9cb8

so, I can not simple copy/paste MonitoringObjectID randomly.. in any IncludeList.

For every MonitoringObjcetID I need to know Monitoring Class name and RelationshipClass name..

Is there any way to get these two info for listed MonitoringObjectID?

Forums: Re: How to create alarm for failover cluster server event - Cluster group online/offline

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:27:16 GMT

Thanks again, this works! I got email, and alert in console.

Is there any way to get this with monitors, in order to get alerts auto-closed (what I can't get with rules)?

Forums: Re: SCOM 2007 - Obtain IP Address in alert description

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:14:40 GMT

Hi

I dont have SCOM 2012 RC in lab environment.

I add the following property: $Target/Host/Property[Type="Windows!Microsoft.Windows.Computer"]/NetworkName$ and it works fine. I think there is problem with ipaddress property.

Yes i have edit the alerting in Operations console.

The $Target/Host/Property[Type="Windows!Microsoft.Windows.Computer"]/PrincipalName$ service $Target/Property[Type="MicrosoftSystemCenterNTServiceLibrary!Microsoft.SystemCenter.NTService"]/ServiceName$ has stopped running. $Target/Host/Property[Type="Windows!Microsoft.Windows.Computer"]/NetworkName$

Forums: Re: How to create alarm for failover cluster server event - Cluster group online/offline

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:11:15 GMT

Thanks! It means if I create rule for this event, I can get email only if it is alerting rule? In that case, I have to close alert manually.

Forums: Re: How to create alarm for failover cluster server event - Cluster group online/offline

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:00:10 GMT

Subscriptions are only available for alerts, not for collections.

Forums: Re: Opsmgr 2012 Web Console Timeout

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:49:38 GMT

Hey SteveO, I tracked this down with Microsoft and blogged on the results here: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/cfuller/archive/2012/02/02/opsmgr-2012-scom-overriding-the-default-autosignout-value-for-the-web-console.aspx. I hope it helps / it worked well in my lab!

Forums: Re: How to create alarm for failover cluster server event - Cluster group online/offline

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:43:03 GMT

For me is important to get email, alert is not necessary.

Target of collection rule is ''Monitoring Cluster Service'', and I don't get mail.

Forums: Re: How to create alarm for failover cluster server event - Cluster group online/offline

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:18:00 GMT

What is the target of the collection rule? Use that one for your alerting rule and see if that works out for you.

RE: Add all agent's instances to group

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:11:59 GMT

The issue you have is that you target the DBEngine class, change that to System.Entity otherwise you can't get anything but DB Engine instances. The relationship is just fine.
Regarding "all classes": You have to have a parent (reference point) for which you can get "all classes". In my suggestation that parent was Windows Computer which is the ultimate parent to which all classes related to a computer are attached. There's nothing above it hierarchically.

You can use the method GetMonitoringClass() to get the class of a monitoring object. Therefore: $MO.GetMonitoringClass().Name
The Path approach isn't perfectly bad, but in a big environment you'll have a fun time getting ALL instances of a management group, which you do if you get all monitoringobjects of System.Entity as it's everyone's base class.

This is basically what you need I guess:
$ServerName = "servername.domain.local"

function Get-RelatedMonitoringObjects($monitoringObject)
{
    trap { continue }
    $ChildArray = @()
    $Childs = $monitoringObject.GetRelatedMonitoringObjects()
    $ChildArray += $Childs

    foreach ($Child in $Childs)
    {
        $RelatedMonitoringObjects = Get-RelatedMonitoringObjects $Child
# note, this actually adds $nulls to the array but they are ignored later on.
        $ChildArray += $RelatedMonitoringObjects
    }

    return $ChildArray
}

# get windows computers
$Class = Get-MonitoringClass -name "Microsoft.Windows.Computer"
$Mons = $Class | Get-MonitoringObject

# here we get a certain server
$Server = $Mons | where {$_.Name.ToLower() -eq $ServerName.ToLower()}
$Childs = Get-RelatedMonitoringObjects $Server

foreach ($Child in $Childs) { $includeitem = "" + $Child.Id + ""; if ($Child -ne $null) { write-host $includeitem } }

Forums: Re: How to create alarm for failover cluster server event - Cluster group online/offline

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:03:56 GMT

I implemented this at work. when every time a cluster resource has failed over to the other node, there's an event logged in the cluster event log. you can simply setup a rule to detect this event and generate alert. Sorry I can't remember the event ID on top of my head.