Extending HP network devices with CPU and Memory counters

Hi,

This blog I had prepared a long time ago but never published it. So now it’s the time to do it.  Since we all know that SCOM 2012 has build in network device monitoring we of course want to use it. This works perfectly , except I you are using devices that are not certified by SCOM. In that case you will not get the CPU and memory counter and Fan/PSU states. For example most of the Procurve network devices from HP are left in the dark. So..

The problem

We want to monitor also CPU and Memory usages from HP network devices.

The solution

I will keep it simple and clear. I will demonstrate the steps using VSAE and give you as bonus the MP at the end. I will use VSAE management pack templates just to illustrate the power of it.

The steps will be:

1. [Classes] create the memory and CPU classes

We just simple make use of on the memory and processor classes that are already present in the system center network library. So we create 2 classes based on that:

 

2. [Datasources] create the memory and CPU discovery datasources

Now we have to create the datasources for the discovery of the CPU and memory targets

The most important is that you set the device key correctly to the parent node. Otherwise the relationship between the new CPU / memory class and the network device node will not be set. And you will not see any CPU / Memory targets. This can sometime be a ‘error and retry’ process.

3. [Discovery's] create discovery’s for the CPU and Memory targets

Now we have the discovery datasource we can create the 2 discovery rules for the CPU and Memory targets. We will use the VSAE discovery templates for this. Just simple add new ‘Discovery’ template and you add the 2 rules below.

Create the 2 new discovery’s and specify the correct datasources.

You specify the datasources we created above to the correct discovery rule. Fill in the correct OID to match the HP processor and Memory OIDs.

If you now import the MP will will see at a HP node the CPU and Memory classes created. So continue the the next step.

4) [Rules] create the memory and CPU collection rules

So now we can make the stuff we wanted to see. The Memory and CPU counters. So we just simple use the add new item ‘Rule (Performance Collection)’ template and make the 2 new rules. We are going to use the already build in performance collection rules for the network nodes.

 

The most important is to specify the correct OID for the Memory and CPU counters at the datasource configuration. See below:

CPU: .1.3.6.1.4.1.11.2.14.11.5.1.9.6.1.0
Memory: .1.3.6.1.4.1.11.2.14.11.5.1.1.2.2.1.1.7 and .1.3.6.1.4.1.11.2.14.11.5.1.1.2.2.1.1.5

I am not going to do a deep dive on this. You can just simple reference to the downloadable project source at the end of this post to check the details out.

The results

Now you import the MP and you will see you most wanted performance counters !! Open the Network Summary Dashboards and Node dashboard for the CPU Usage to check it out.

And the ‘free Memory (Percent)’ performance view for the memory usage.

 

And below the relation ship diagram.

The End

The next step could be to add monitors to alert on high Memory or CU usages. I am not going to give you this bonus because its better to get some VSAE practice you self’s… You can do this the same way you did with the collection rules. There is a template for monitors also.

Download VSAE project (for the diehards): http://sdrv.ms/11mkq9j

Download Management Pack example: http://sdrv.ms/11mku8S

Happy Scomming

Michel Kamp

How To fix the 500 Error using Favorite Reports in the SCOM web console.

First mention this is a non official solution.

The Problem

You have installed SCOM 2012 Sp1 UR2 and have implemented the scom webconsole and reporting service to be running under HTTPS mode. You have created using the native scom console a favorite report and now when you try to open this favorite report in the scom webconsole you get a error 500.

Analyzing

To see the real error we have to do some web.config changes. So open the web.config file on this location: C:\Program Files\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\WebConsole\MonitoringView

Now we enable the SCOM error logging

And to get it displayed on the user page we do

Now when you run the favorite report again we get in the webconsole  the real error

Okay looks like the reportviewer web component binary dll can’t be found. Hmm but wait wasn’t this a prereq at installation time. So I checked if the 2010 ReportViewer components where installed and yes it was and the dlls where also spotted in the assembly cache. It looks like the webconsole has problems finding the correct version of the Microsoft.ReportViewer.WebForms.dll in the assembly cache.

The Quick non Official Solution

Copy the missing dlls to the correct directory will force the web runtime to first look in this directory for the dlls and then go to the assembly cache. So that’s what i did.

Copy the Microsoft.ReportViewer.WebForms.dll file from the assembly cache to path : C:\Program Files\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\WebConsole\MonitoringView\bin

Come on give me some script to do that ! Okay open PowerShell as admin and run

Copy-Item c:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.ReportViewer.WebForms\10.0.0.0*\*.dll “C:\Program Files\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\WebConsole\MonitoringView\bin”

And now you try to run the favorite report again in the webconsole …

… and Yes its working!

The End.

For me this looks  like a bug and I will address this to Microsoft.

Happy Scomming!

Michel Kamp

SCOM Console Hidden Feature ??

A really short post. A member of a NOC operations team reported a problem with his SCOM console.

The Problem.

Using the operations native console and opening a windows computer state view resulted in gray computer targets.

Analyze

Normally when for example the computer targets are gray you know it’s a gent connectivity problem or the MS health service is stalled / crashed.  But this time non of this was true. Looking at the agents and MS states its was all green and okay.

The solution

First the root cause was assumed to be the computer of the NOC operator. Yes I have rebooted it twice and I have installed all the patches was the first response   . But however I am running Windows 8. Okay .. could this be the case ?… After a while of figuring out what could be the problem we detected that on other NOC computers the problem was also reproduced. And yes now we had found the problem .. And what do you think ? If you have a target state view (for example the windows computer view) and you personalize this view and remove the State column you will facing the problem above. So we added the State Column again and the problem was fixed.

The End

Of course you can ask you’re self why remove the state column it’s a very important one. Lets say the most important one in a state view…. I have ask it my self’s but I think it was a human error by mistake and not noticed earlier… But the question remains this still looks like a bug in the SCOM console.. What do you think ?

Happy Scomming

Orchestrator and PowerShell Actions returned from a marriage therapy session…

 

Yes I know I blog a lot on SCOM related posts but this don’t imply that I don’t use the other system center products. As you know or not know that I work for a company that hosts SCOM as private clouds. So I use also a lot of Orchestrator runbooks to automate the boring and complex hand work and to glue all the components together.

The problem

As one of my best practice rules I try to use only the out of the box delivered actions (IPs). Some times I can’t find the correct action and have to use PowerShell to get it working. So I use the Run Dot Net Script PowerShell action. And now the bad marriage starts. You all know when you try to type the PowerShell code into the action window you get very strange line breaks and you completely miss the code IntelliSense and error/debug features that you will have in power shells ISE or other PowerShell editors. So what do you do ?

(1) Open the PowerShell editor lets say ISE and program your script.

(2) After testing you SAVE IT TO YOUR SOURCE SAFE solution. for example TFS

(3) Now you copy and paste your PowerShell code from the ISE editor to the orchestrator PowerShell action.

(4) you replace the the input parameters with the correct orchestrator subscriptions.

(5) you check-in the runbook.

So far so good… but .. Now you have detected a bug in your PowerShell action (and I think I am not the only one that has bugs in his work) . You will have to do the reverse actions and repeat the steps in forward order again. Pffff very time consuming…

The solution

After some thinking I came with a solution. I have made a PowerShell ISE plugin that does the following.

(1) connects to the Orchestrator database . You must supply the connection settings in the Config tab first.

(2) You Press on LOAD and it shows you a list of PowerShell actions you have in your workbook(s)

(3) You select the correct PS action by double click on it.

(4) the PowerShell code from that action will be opened in the ISE editor.

(5) the subscription parameters are collected also and a extra PowerShell code is created for you to fill in the parameters with values for off site testing. *^{Planned for next release.}

(6) you bug fix and test the script.

(7) you press in the ISE orchestrator plugin on Save and the script will be saved to the orchestrator workbook action. (be sure that it is checked out , save will work but’s better to do so)

Now you will have the workbook action with the fixed script. You even don’t have to worry about the parameter subscriptions because the are all there… Press refresh in the Orchestrator designer and look at the properties again to check it out.

Cool isn’t it !!

And that’s why I also share it with the community !

See download link below:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=2FFA0FC5B0B89EED!1391&authkey=!AGXGNQLdATUuMDg

1) unzip the file and read the readme.txt file for setup instructions.

2) go to the config tab and specify the correct SQL and DB. Remember its using integrated security.

Next release is coming soon. This version will also have a feature that replaces all the Orchestrator parameter subscriptions with real values from a runbook run history. So you can debug with real parameter values. I had some troubles making it stable so its coming later on…

Happy SCOMMING … Orchestrating.  

Michel Kamp

Discovery’s at your demand , yes sir!

Hi,

This time a short post. But I think this could be useful  for SCOM admins.

The challenge.

We all know that one of the big powers of SCOM is the self maintaining of the monitor targets. SCOM uses discovery’s for this that run at regular intervals. Lets say you install a new SQL database instance on a server that has already a SCOM agent on it. Normally you have to wait for 4 hours before the new database instance is discovered. Yes you can speed this up to restart the SCOM agent but now we have a better way.

Analyze

First, all the credits go to the SCOM product team it self’s. It seems the feature was already build in but making it globally known was somehow left behind. There is a agent task called ‘Trigger On Demand Discovery’ that can help you out. But how to operate this task can be painful.

The solution

I have written a PowerShell script that does the hard work for you. Running this script and supplying the correct Discovery and target will result in a instantly run of that discovery. So now you don’t have to wait for the discovery interval of 4 hours to trigger.

How it works:

1) You fill in the $OMserver with the SCOM SDK server FQDN.

2) You fill in the $discoveryname with the display name of the discovery rule you want to trigger. Just copy and paste the displayname from your author pane in the scom console. See picture below.

3) You fill in the $targetdisplayname with the name of the main target where this discovery should run. You can find this name by looking at the target from the discovery rule you got from step 2.

And fill this in the inventory view.

The name “servicemanager.systemcenter.local” is the target display name to use.

btw. of course you can use PowerShell to do this for you…

Below the script:

It triggers the discovery task and then waits for the results and displays it. Be sure to look at the output results property because it only is okay when it contains :

The script.

## ======================================================= ## Trigger SCOM discovery for a discovery rule and target ## ====================================================== ## Michel Kamp Import-Module operationsmanager ## OM sdk server $Omserver=”scom01.systemcenter.local” ## discovery display name $discoveryname=”Service Manager Management Server Properties Discovery” ## target display name $TargetDisplayName=”servicemanager.systemcenter.local” ## —————————————————- ## MAIN ## —————————————————- # connect to OM server $credentials = get-Credential new-ScommanagementGroupConnection -Computer $Omserver -Credential $credentials # get task to execute $task=get-scomtask -name Microsoft.SystemCenter.TriggerOnDemandDiscovery # make override params $discovery=get-scomdiscovery -DisplayName $discoveryname $TargetInstanceId= (Get-SCOMClass -Id   $discovery.target.id  | Get-SCOMClassInstance | ?{$_.displayname -eq $TargetDisplayName}).ID.Tostring() $DiscoveryID=$discovery.id.tostring() $override=@{DiscoveryId=$DiscoveryID;TargetInstanceId=$TargetInstanceId} $instance=get-scomclass -name Microsoft.SystemCenter.ManagementServer | get-scomclassinstance | ?{$_.displayname -eq $Omserver} # run the task $task_run=start-scomtask -task $task -instance $instance -override $override # wait for result while ( (get-SCOMTask -Id $task_run.TaskId).Status -eq “Started” ) {     write-Output “Waiting…”     Sleep -Seconds 2 } # show task output get-SCOMTaskResult -BatchID $task_run.BatchId ## —————————————————- ## end script ## —————————————————-

The End.

I already did some more investigation on this topic because I think when you can do it for a discovery you can also do it for every workflow that contains a timed interval trigger module. Can you imagine that you can now trigger every rule or monitor at your demand… so cool and so handy while debugging.  When I have it working I will of course share it with you “the community”.

Happy SCOMMING

Michel Kamp

Let SCOM check for Updated Management Packs

The challenge

Using the SCOM native console the import from the Microsoft Management Pack Catalog is a nice feature. I like also the feature to check and import updated MPs that you have already imported in your management group. But what I really miss and don’t understand : why did the product team removed the monitor that gives us a alert when a new MP version is in the MP catalog ?. This monitor was build in MOM 2005 but removed in the begin of SCOM 2007.

The solution

So since we are SCOM author diehards we are going to build our own MP update monitor. I am going to use VSAE to build it all. But wait even if you aren’t a SCOM author diehard it still worth reading this post because this time I will share the VSAE project and even the MP with you at the end!!!

Analyze

So I used my good old friend ‘Fiddler’ to backward-engineer what the scom console is doing when I press the ‘check for updated management packs’ button. It seems it sends a SOAP request to a webservice. The SOAP request contains a MP list of the MPs that you have already imported. The answer result of this request will be a MP list with the updated MP versions or an empty list if there aren’t any updates for you.

Building time

Below I’m going to give you a overview what I have done. You can look in the VSAE project for details on it. If you have any questions just let it know and I will help you out.

1) The datasource

So now we are going to make a datasource that runs a PowerShell script. This PowerShell script is simulating the webservice request.

Below a snippet of the code. (the full code is in the VSAE project). What I am doing here are 3 steps:

1) Build a SOAP request message that contains all my MP version meta data from all MPs that I have already imported in my management group.

2) I call the “ManagementPackCatalogWebService.asmx” and execute the method “FindManagementPacks”

3) as last step I check if there are any MPs returned and set the $Status flag according the result. And I return the scom property bag.

# step 1 $MPSoap = get_MP_List $ret = Do-SOAPRequest -SOAPRequest $MPSoap -URL $MPCatalogURL -SOAPAction $SOAPAction # step 2 ## show MPs that have a Update $MpList = $ret.Envelope.Body.FindManagementPacksResponse.FindManagementPacksResult.CatalogItem | where { $_.IsManagementPack -eq $true} | select-Object DisplayName # step 3 ## check MP returned if ( $MpList.Count -eq 0) { $Status=”UPTODATE” } else { $Status=”NOTUPTODATE” }   # Create the property bags $pb = $oAPI.CreatePropertyBag() $pb.AddValue(“Status”,$Status) $pb.AddValue(“MpList”,($MpList | Out-String)) $pb

The script above we are going to use in the datasource below

2) The Monitor

Now we are going to compose a 2 state UnitMonitorType that uses this datasource. The health state check is done with the “Status” value in the returned property bag.

Having this UnitMonitorType composed we can now use it in the real monitor KPI. See below for the KPI. The target is the Management server. I choose this target because I have only one MNG server in my test lab but if you have more it’s better to choose the RMS emulator target.

Now when the monitor is unhealthy it will generate an alert message constructed below:

 

The result

Building and importing the MP in your SCOM management group will show you the result below:

 

And of course a nice ALERT message also:

 

So now the part you are waiting for..

As promised I will share the VSAE project and the MP it self. Please notice that it is a show case alias prototype MP and so it is far from complete. For example not all display strings are applied and no knowledge is supplied. But that’s up to you to complete…. In my production version I have even build in a recovery/console task that also automatically imports the updated MPs.. Just a idea for you to work out…

MP download: http://sdrv.ms/XPl38e

VSAE project download: http://sdrv.ms/YDUn7T

The End

Feel free to comment or contact me if you have any questions.

Happy SCOMMING

Michel Kamp

SC 2012 SP1 UR2

 

Hi ,

It isn’t any new news , since I twitted also 2 days ago the UR2 release of System Center 2012 SP1 is released.  ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2802159 )

As I write now not all software download links are working jet. So don’t get frustrated as I did…

For Installation experience see here for again an excellent post from Kevin Holman:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2013/04/11/applying-update-rollup-2-ur2-to-opsmgr-2012-sp1.aspx

O wait what’s missing ?:

If you read the release notes you will notice that it mentions patching the Gateways but if you look at the software downloads you won’t see any gateway patch.

I don’t know if the gateway patch is simply forgotten to publish but if you have a environment that uses a gateway you will be stuck for now… because your agents behind the gateway will not be patched using the pending actions in SCOM.

Or not…

The solution is however not far away.
1) Just copy the Agents msp binarys to the agent management directory on the GW servers.

Path : C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager\Gateway\AgentManagement

1) So copy file KB2826664-AMD64-Agent.msp to

C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager\Gateway\AgentManagement\amd64

2) copy file KB2826664-AMD64-Server.msp to

C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager\Gateway\AgentManagement\x86

And at last the KB2826664-ia64-Agent.msp file to the ia64 directory.

3) approve the pending actions in your scom console. And you will see the agents behind your GW will be patched.

The end

Hope Microsoft will clear this confusion soon. Because I can’t imagine that the GW it self’s doesn’t have any fixes…

Happy scomming

Michel