Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Adding a powershell script in SCOM as a recovery task.

Adding a powershell script in SCOM as a recovery task.
Open the properties of the monitor.



Add the recovery task






 















Export the management pack  and open it in any text editor. You have to change the write action to powershell write action. Locate the enrty for write action and replace it with a powershell write action ID.
Replace
TypeID="Windows!Microsoft.Windows.ScriptWriteAction"

with

TypeID="Windows!Microsoft.Windows.PowerShellWriteAction"



Remove the <Arguments /> section.

Increment the version and import the management pack.

Adding license to SCOM

System center licensing guide:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/9/A/89A3F8B9-94DE-4956-A56E-F6D2B215D0E6/SystemCenter2012R2_Licensing_Guide.pdf

License check commands:

Get-SCOMManagementGroup | ft skuforlicense, version, timeofexpiration –a

Set-SCOMLicense -ProductId "Enter your license key"



Tuesday, March 21, 2017

ConfigMgr device collection queries

WQL query to create a device collection based on installed software.

select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_INSTALLED_SOFTWARE on SMS_G_System_INSTALLED_SOFTWARE.ResourceID
= SMS_R_System.ResourceId where SMS_G_System_INSTALLED_SOFTWARE.ProductName like "%NetScaler Gateway%" and SMS_G_System_INSTALLED_SOFTWARE.ProductVersion = "10.5.52.11"

Deploying Configmr updates step by step

Good post on technet.

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Deploy-Software-Updates-87a403fc

 

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Task to restart health service on agents

Here is a good link that should help in adding a recovery task in SCOM.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/scom_atlas/2015/05/21/task-to-restart-scom-health-service/ 

Once the management pack is added go to Monitoring-Windows Computer. You should see the task in the Tasks pane under Windows Computer Tasks. 

SCOM agent less monitoring access denied

Today I was facing and error with monitoring agentless servers. The agent proxy was getting access denied to event logs. In my environment the health services run under the local system account.
I added the server account to administrators on the agentless server but it did not help.
I had to change the default action account profile in console for the server to run under another action account instead of the local system action account.
Then everything was peachy…

Scom Maintenance mode scheduler

#SCOM Maintenance mode scheduler. The assemblies can be found in this folder on your management servers  C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012 R2\Operations Manager\Server\SDK Binaries
$scriptdir = Get-location
$ScriptDir = split-path -parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
$void = [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile(“$scriptdir\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.OperationsManager.dll”)
$void3 = [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile(“$scriptdir\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Runtime.dll”)
$void1 = [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile(“$scriptdir\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Core.dll”)
$server = “testsql”
$RootMS = “testdc01”
$Minutes =  60
$Comment = “Scheduled Maintenance Request”
$MGConnSetting = New-Object Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ManagementGroupConnectionSettings($RootMS)
$MG = New-Object Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ManagementGroup($MGConnSetting)
$Admin = $MG.GetAdministration()
$Agents = $admin.GetAllAgentManagedComputers()
$agent = $Agents | ?{$_.Computername -match $server}
$monitoring =$MG.Monitoring
$AllClasses = $MG.GetMonitoringClasses()
$MyClass = $AllClasses | ?{$_.name -eq “Microsoft.Windows.Computer”}
$Objects = $Mg.GetMonitoringObjects($Myclass)
$Object = $Objects | ?{$_.name -match $server}
$Object.schedulemaintenancemode
$startTime = [Datetime]’12/21/2016 04:26:00′
$StartTimeUTC = $startTime.ToUniversalTime()
$EndTime = $startTimeUTC.AddMinutes(’10’)
$Object.ScheduleMaintenanceMode($startTimeUTC,$EndTime,”PlannedOther”,$Comment)

Microsoft Azure mp configuration for Azure Government cloud

The Microsoft Azure Management pack for SCOM 2012 R2 requires a little different configuration than the commercial cloud. I am going to write down some of the configurations that have to be done.
Link to download the mp:

Install the management pack and import the mp’s in your scom environment. 
The management pack documentation does a fairly good job in explaining the configuration. If you have an user who has read permissions to your Azure active directory and subscription then you can add your Azure subscription using the credentials for the user. But if you have an environment where dual authentication is “enforced” you can use the steps given below. Because apps may not be able receive calls or enter the code in the messages :D

Login to the new portal using your credentials. https://portal.azure.us/
Creating the App for login:
Click Azure Active Directory–App Registrations
Click Add in the top pane and fill up the following parameters for your app.
Name: AnyName [Make a note of this name.]
Application Type: Web App/API
Sign-on URL: http://anyurl  This url does not have to be a working url.
Then click create.
Now select your app under App Registration and in the next blade that opens select Keys.
There is no add button here. If you enter a description for your key then the next values are populated.
Select the expiry duration. As of now the values are 1 year,2 years and Never expires.
Once you hit save then the key value will be displayed.


Important Note:
This will be shown only once so make sure that you copy this key value somewhere safe.

If you have exited then go back to Active directory–App registrations select your app and copy the Application ID from the portal.
Click Active Directory–Domain Names and copy the Name of your domain if you don’t already know it.
These three values App id,domain name,Key will be required when you add your subscription in SCOM.

Now in the portal click on subscriptions. 
Select the subscription you wish to monitor.
Click Access Control in the next blade.
Click Add,select role Reader,Click add users if not already populated. 
In the search under Add users your app would not show up as it shows only users.
Enter the name of your app and click select.Click ok and your app should have reader permissions on your subscription.
Next open the SCOM Operations Console and create a new resource pool in Administration– -Resource Pools called “Azure monitoring resource pool”. 
Add the server that you want to be a member of this pool.

This is recommended because the operations are very resource intensive and if you have a dedicated management server for this pool you will not load the management group.

Navigate to Administration-Microsoft Azure.
Click Add subscription and click the radio button for Service Principal Name.
Remember the three values that i had asked your to copy. You will need them here.
Enter your domain name
Enter the Application ID in the Client ID field.
Enter the key in the password.

Click the advanced box and enter the following values. The forward slash “/” is also required in the ARM Management URI.

Management Service URI: https://management.core.windows.net
Storage Service DNS Suffix: core.usgovcloudapi.net

Your subscription should be populated in the next screen. Select the Azure monitoring server pool.
Next is self explanatory.

After this is done you should be able to see the subscription in
Monitoring–Microsoft Azure–Subscription State.

Now click Authoring and select Microsoft Azure Monitoring Template to configure the resources that you want to monitor.
More about that next time….