Tuesday, October 5, 2010

CU#3 for SCOM R2 and some things to reckon with

05-10- 2010 Update: Kevin Holman has posted a great article about his installation experiences. It contains very good information so my advice is to RTFM it in order to gain a deep insight about installing CU#3. Posting to be found here.

With CU#3 for SCOM R2 there are some things to reckon with which I would like to share with the community:

  1. Test it
    Test the deployment of this CU before putting it into production. When all goes well and SCOM R2 is still functioning as it was before, it is time for some good Change Management and file those RFCs.

  2. Elevated cmd-prompt
    On any Windows 2008 based server, the msi-file containing CU#3 needs to be run from an elevated cmd-prompt.
    image

  3. User Account Control (UAC)
    For any SCOM R2 Management Server (RMS, MS or Gateway Server) with UAC enabled, the Agent updates will not be copied to the Agent staging folder on those servers (~:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\AgentManagement). This will result in the SCOM R2 Agents, reporting to those servers, will not go into the Pending Management folder:
    image

    Two approaches to solve this:
    - Stop UAC and run the installation from an elevated cmd-prompt, or:
    - Copy the files (~:\System Center 2007 R2 Hotfix Utility\KB 2251525\Agents) manually to the AgentManagement folder and the correct architecture.
    image

  4. SQL Scripts
    With CU#1 one SQL script was required to be run against the OpsMgr DB (DiscoveryEntitySProcs.sql). When you haven’t applied CU#1 OR CU#2 (which also contains CU#1), so CU#3 is the first CU you apply, you are required to run this script against the OpsMgr DB.

    With CU#2 no new scripts were introduced besides the former script coming from CU#1. However, with CU#3 two new sql scripts are introduced which must be run against the OpsMgr DB (CU3_Database.sql) and the OpsMgrDW DB (CU3_DataWarehouse.sql). Don’t forget that!

    Like with all SQL scripts: Backup both DBs first in order to have a way back.

  5. Windows 2000 Support
    Nice one. Heard this one today: ‘With CU#3 SCOM R2 no longer supports the monitoring of Windows 2000 based systems. I was a bit surprised so I read the KB article again since I did not believe it. And the good news is, Windows 2000 is still supported with SCOM R2 and CU#3 in place.

    BUT:

    CU#3 contains an update for the file HealthServiceRuntime.dll which remedies this issue: ‘The monitoring host process does not start the workflows immediately when tasks are received.’. However, on Windows 2000 based agent-computers this fix is NOT applied and will not be addressed in upcoming CUs. That’s all there is to it.

    So SCOM R2 with CU#3 still supports the monitoring of Windows 2000 based systems.

  6. Management Packs
    Do not forget to import the MPs which this CU contains:
    image

  7. Subscriptions
    Noticed the Subscriptions did not work anymore after applying CU#3 in one of mine test environments. Got them running again by opening them one by one (subscribers and subscriptions) and saving them again. Don’t know whether this is an isolated thing or not.

RTFM is actually key here. Just read the relevant KB article (KB2251525) at least twice.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice post. I have a problem that my agents don't appear in Pending Management. CU3 was installed UAC disabled and AgentManagement folder contains the new version. There was no error displayed.

Any ideas?

Marnix Wolf said...

Hi Previ.

First think which comes to my mind is whether these Agents aren't pushed from the Console. In that case, all these Agents require to be updated manually or a process initiated from a product like SCCM.

Also, does the AgentManagement folder contain TWO files?

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Marnix Wolf

Unknown said...

Hey Marnix,

i´m fighting at the same point as Previ.
I updated my RMS and any additional Server without any error.

But now none of the previously pushed Agents seems to be updated by the RMS. If I uninstall the Agent by using the OpsMgr Console and rediscover the Server by another MS, CU3 Version of the Agent is installed. Seems like my RMS is still providing the CU2 Agent, ´cause if the Machine is discoverd by the RMS, then it installs the CU2 Version Agend again. Weard. Any ideas on that, besides reupdating the RMS?

Can i check the Version of my RMS somwere outside the OpsMgr-Console?

Thank´s a lot in advance.

btw: You r doing a nice job here on your blog. I found a whole bunch of help here.

Marnix Wolf said...

Hy CyberTom.

Thanks for your nice words. Looking at the issue you describe tells me that the update files for the Agents aren't copied to the Agent Staging folder on the RMS (~:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\AgentManagement).

The files you need are to be found in the folder where the CU#3 package is installed, normally ~:\Program Files (x86)\System Center 2007 R2 Hotfix Utility\KB2251525\Agent.

Please keep an eye on the Agent update files: there are two per architecture type (x86, x64 and ia64. Also copy the correct files to the correct folders but that goes without saying.

Cheers,
Marnix