New DNS Management Pack released

Since december 19th, Microsoft has released the newest DNS MP, version 6.0.6480.0.

This MP contains the fixes for high cpu-usage and DNS servers which disappeared from the discovery.

The new MP can be downloaded from here

SCOM R2 Highlights. Posting 1, the WebConsole

SCOM R2 is certainly different compared to SCOM SP1. Eventhough the RTM is still some months away from now (planned for Q2 2009), there are certainly many things worthwhile to be mentioned on my blog.

With this posting - and others which will come later - I will talk about the most noticable changes to be seen and found in R2.

This posting is about the WebConsole of R2. Certainly this component is worth being posted about.

In SCOM SP1 one of the most heard questions about the WebConsole was: where is the Health Explorer to be found? Well, nowhere actually. It just isn't there...

This component though is very important for the daily operations of SCOM.

Let me first explain some things:
When an alert is raised within SCOM and this issue has been resolved, just closing the Alert in the Monitoringpane doesn't - in many cases - alter the HealthState of the related server. One needs to open the Health Explorer and to recalculate the HealthState or, a bit more rough, to reset it.

This way the related server will show up healthy again in the Monitoringpane of SCOM. When one doesn't do this, and the related component goes into errorstate again, a new Alert won't be triggered since this component was already before in errorstate.

So a WebConsole without HealthExplorer has very limited functionality and one finds himself in distributing the SCOM console to the Servicedesk colleagues since the WebConsole doesn't help them with their job at a sufficient enough level.

However, too many SCOM Consoles opened at the same time can be a bit of a drain on the RMS since every SCOM Console connects directly to the RMS. And the RMS is busy enough already. So just giving everyone involved the SCOM Console isn't a good choice as well.

That being said, let's go on about the WebConsole.

But now with R2, Microsoft has learned from its clients and payed attention to their remarks about SCOM SP1. So, the WebConsole in R2 does have a good working HealthExplorer.

Before one can use this WebConsole, the (IIS) server hosting the WebConsole needs an extra component to be installed. This component is solely needed for the HealthExplorer of the WebConsole. This is ASP.NET AJAX 1.0. No worries here, since the Prerequisite Viewer, included with the installationset for SCOM R2, will report on it.

Here are some screendumps of the WebConsole with the HealthExplorer:

1. HealthExplorer in the ActionsPane:
   
   


2. HealthExplorer in the Contextmenu's:
   
   
   
3. HealthExlporer itself:
   

Conclusion:

Now the HealthExplorer being an integrated part of the WebConsole, it leverages this component to a higher level of usage. Now one can give the url of the WebConsole to many IT-departments without being afraid giving a tool without enough options for the users to perform their daily duties. Microsoft has done a good job here.

SCOM Reporting, Installation issues. Posting 2, error ‘The XML page cannot be displayed’

This and the previous postings are about the most common errors one can bump into when testing SQL Reporting Services (SRS), and how to resolve these. SRS is needed to make SCOM Reporting work. So this posting - and the others to come - presume SRS is already installed AND configured.

The most common way to test SRS is to go to the website of SRS on the local server hosting the SRS services AND website. This latter is important since this server hosts the website with the SRS components.

When one tries to open the SRS website (http://localhost/reports) one can bump into this error:


Cause
There has been no ASP.NET selected for this website, or the wrong version.

Solution

1. Open IIS Manager
   
2. Open the properties for the website Reports
   
3. Go to tab ASP.NET
   
4. Select at ASP.NET Version version 2.0.50727
   
5. Close IIS Manager
6. Open a cmd-prompt
7. type iisreset followed by an enter

All should be fine now.

SCOM Reporting, Installation issues. Posting 1, error ‘Server Error in '/Reports' Application.’

SCOM without Reporting installed is using SCOM at is best at 50% of it capacity and benefits

That having said, making SCOM Reporting work can be a bit of a challenge. One can bump into all kinds of errors. My personal experience though is that 80% of these errors are directly related to SQL Reporting Services (SRS) or IIS. So one has to test the correct workings of SRS first before one starts installing SCOM Reporting.

With this posting - and others which will come later - I will talk about the most common errors one can bump into when testing SRS, and how to resolve these. So this posting - and the others to come - presume SRS is already installed AND configured.

Some errors are easy to fix, others can be puzzles on themselves. This one explained here is an easy one to fix.

The most common way to test SRS is to go to the website of SRS on the local server hosting the SRS services AND website. This latter is important since this server hosts the website with the SRS components.

When one tries to open the SRS website (http://localhost/reports) one can bump into this error:


Wow! There is not only an errorstatement but it is an understandable one as well. How neat! One doesn't need to be a rocketscientist to know what goes wrong: authorizations are at matter here.

All one has to do is to adjust the permissions on this folder in such a manner that the group ‘Users( \Users)’ has write permissions on that folder. All will fine afterwards.

BridgeWays Management Packs for SCOM

Finally! Xandros has announced the betaprogram for their BridgeWays Management Packs for SCOM.

With these MPs one can monitor non-Microsoft Enterprise applications like:

01 VMware,
02 PostgresSQL
03 Apache Tomcat
04 J BOSS
05 Oracle
06 IBM Websphere
07 MySQL
08 Apache
09 PostFix
10 DB2
11 Blackberry

Want to know more or even to participate in their Beta program? Look here.

Unique about it is the cooperation between Microsoft & Xandros. So these MPs should integrate tightly into SCOM. I have seen some demo's at TechEd Barcelona and it certainly looks good. No more crappy software like others (SNMP based!) which polutes the SCOM enviroment with a load of messages without any real meaning nor quality.

Novell has also setup this kind of cooperation with Microsoft and they will also deliver hig quality MPs for monitoring non-Microsoft Enterprise applications.

Al these products will make SCOM more heterogeneous, especially SCOM R2.

SCOM hotfixes won't install

This posting with the solutions is based on the input of Kevin Holman. Therefore all credits go to him.

However, since this issue can be a bit tedious and is one SCOM users can easily bump into, I have decided to post this case on my blog as well. With this posting the 'internetpresence' of this issue AND the solution will be raised, enabling SCOM users to find more easily the answer for this issue.

Issue
When one installs a certain SCOM hotfix, the installation states it was succesful. However, when one checks the dll's which had to be replaced, these are still of the older version. When one checks the MomPatch.LOG file, there will be an errorstatement, like this one:


Cause
Certain hotfixes for SCOM which have been previously installed have modified some registry entries which the OpsMgr installation uses.

Microsoft knows about this issue and is fixing the Hotfixes. Therefore it is recommended to download the most recent hotfixes. Older hotfixes, downloaded some weeks ago can better be disgarded.

However, one can still bump into issue. Errormessages can be displayed as well, like this one:

Product: System Center Operations Manager 2007 -- Error 1334.The file
File196.2FD07918_9082_437D_99BC_FD43602A4625 cannot be installed because the file cannot be found in cabinet file Data.Cab. This could indicate a network error, an error reading from the CD-ROM, or a problem with this package.

The workaround is easy, but can be tricky since one has to edit the registry. Have you SCOM RTM installed and later on installed SP1? There are some extra things to reckon with. Even more so, when the server is x64 based, one has to look for other strings (GUIDS) as well. This posting describes what to do in all these situations.

Solution
Open the registry. Go to HKCR\Installer\Products\DF6E5EFF035E66C49971553D96AA0E4D\Patches.Backup this key (patches) by exporting it.

DO NOT FORGET THIS !!!

So far so good. These two steps are the same for every situation. Now the different steps are coming:

One has SCOM with SP1 installed (not first SCOM RTM and later on SP1 afterwards, but directly 'out-of-the-box' SCOM with SP1 included), follow these steps:

Once backed up... delete the REG_SZ GUIDS, and then open the "Patches" REG_MULTI_SZ key, and delete all guids from there.

Only an empty Patches multi string value should remain

When you run the setup, all should work. Import afterwards the key and all should be well.

One has SCOM RTM installed and later on SP1 and has done so on a x64 box, follow these steps:

Leave these two GUIDS in place:
727B3A3ADCF2D1945BFF1FD34105570A (this references MOM2007QFEPreSP1.msp)

88817A55B3D84652468BCF9B1E587B78F (this references MOM2007SP1.msp for AMD64)

These GUIDS must remain in the Patches multi string

When you run the setup, all should work. Import afterwards the key and all should be well.

One has SCOM RTM installed and later on SP1 and has done so on a x86 box, follow these steps:

Leave these two GUIDS in place:
727B3A3ADCF2D1945BFF1FD34105570A (this references MOM2007QFEPreSP1.msp)

8CABA70B215243145A51419A9073262F (this references MOM2007SP1.msp for x86)

These GUIDS must remain in the Patches multi string

When you run the setup, all should work. Import afterwards the key and all should be well.

WMI, SCOM and Windows 2003 server

On many W2K03 servers WMI can get hosed when the SCOM Agent is installed. This is not due to the SCOM Agent but due to the fact that WMI on W2K03 servers is a bit instable.

Since the SCOM Agent utilizes WMI to its fullest extend, the less stronger parts of WMI will be giving problems. There are ways to 'reset' WMI but there is also a hotfix for it. Look here for this hotfix.

Always read the KB article completely so one knows whether this hotfix applies to their situation as well.

However, when one wants to reregister the WMI repository on a W2K03 server this script will do the trick:

net stop winmgmt
c:
cd %windir%\system32\wbem\
for %i in (*.dll) do RegSvr32 /s %i
for %i in (*.mof, *.mfl) do Mofcomp %i
net start winmgmt

Be careful running this script on productionservers since it can cause high cpu-cycles for some time. Be also sure when to run it since it dives deep into the WMI repository of the server.

Another method is to 'reset' WMI. This script can be used for it:

net stop winmgmt
c:
cd %windir%\system32\wbem\
rmdir /s /q Repository
rmdir /s /q Logs
mkdir Logs
net start winmgmt

Eventhough this script has most of the times a low impact on a productionserver, be careful to run it as well.

Thanks go out to multiple other webpages which supplied the above mentioned scripts. I have run these on some occasions and found them to be the solution to many WMI related errors.

SCOM Console shows different information to different SCOM Admins

At a customers site I had this strange behaviour of the SCOM Console:

1. SCOM Administrator A starts the SCOM Console with A's credentials
   
2. SCOM Administrator B starts the SCOM Console with B's credentials
   
3. A creates a new Operator Role named Test A
   
4. B looks into the SCOM Console and sees the new role
   
5. A renames this role to Test A NEW NAME
   
6. B look into the SCOM Console and sees the renamed role
   
7. B renames this role to TEST AGAIN A NEW NAME
   
8. A look into the SCOM Console and will not see this name but the previous name Test A NEW NAME
   

This behaviour happens through the whole SCOM Console: with subscriptions, new views/folders in the Monitoring Pane, and so on. It puzzled me very much.

I searched through the SCOM Database with some queries but it revealed nothing strange. Starting the console with the /ClearCache switch didn't help either, nor deleting the local cache (C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft.Mom.UI.Console\momcache.mdb). Even removing the SCOM Console and reïnstalling it didn't resolve the issue.

Finally this customer opened a supportcase at Microsoft. However, they were just as puzzled as this customer was and couldn't reproduce this behaviour as well which made it hard for them to solve it.

A day ago however, I bumped into another error of this situation, but now it gave a real error message:

This gave me something to look for on the internet. However I didn't get much hits (2 in fact) but one hit gave me a direction:

In the past – being a systems engineer – I had some strange issues with another tooling/application. Finally (after long and frustrating searching) the cause was simple: the regional options of a server were different of the SQL-server hosting the applications databases. Could this be the cause now as well?

I checked the regional settings of the RMS, MS and SQL server. And YES they were different! The SQL-server (hosting the SCOM databases) and the RMS had the correct settings applied: English (United States). These settings are the standard for this company. However, the MS had these settings set to Dutch (Netherlands). After changing this to English (United States), closing the SCOM Console and deleting the local cache (C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Microsoft.Mom.UI.Console\momcache.mdb) of all SCOM users, all was well again!

So if you ever experience this strange behaviour, follow these steps and all is well again:

1. Close all SCOM Consoles

2. Check the regional options of the RMS, MS and SQL-server.

3. Make sure they match with each other (in my case English (United States) did the trick)

4. Adjust these settings as needed

5. Delete all local cached databases of the SCOM Consoles (whether they are local on the systems of the SCOM Admins, or on a terminalserver, or the SCOM servers them selves, make sure these caches are deleted)

6. Wait about 15 minutes

7. Open the SCOM Console

8. Refresh the panes one by one (Monitoring / Authoring / Reporting / Administration / My Workspace)

9. The information shown in the SCOM Consoles is the same again, no matter which SCOM Admin has the Console opened. Changes are reflected to every SCOM Admin again.

THERE IS A CHANGE THAT SOME LAST APPLIED CHANGES TO THE NAMES OF SUBSCRIPTIONS, USERROLES, USERPROFILES AND SO ON ARE GONE. THEY HAVE TO BE RECREATED. THIS TIME HOWEVER THESE CHANGES WILL BE SHOWN TO ALL SCOM ADMINS.

SCOM Database Owner

When one is installing a SCOM environment (for a customer for instance) one will do so with a certain account. However, this account becomes automatically the owner of the database. On it self no worries there. But what happens when this accounts gets disabled or removed?

Certain issues will arise, like SCOM not being able to discover new systems.

Therefore it is better to change the ownership of the SCOM databases to an account which never will be deleted. Even better is to use a specific Acitve Directory (AD) account for it. Be sure to grant this account only the needed permissions and nothing more.  

Otherwise these errors will pop-up in the SQLSERVER log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSSQLSERVER
Event Category: (2)
Event ID: 28005
Date: xx-xx-xxxx
Time: xx:xx:xx
User: N/A
Computer: BLA
Description:
An exception occurred while enqueueing a message in the target queue. Error: 15404, State: 19. Could not obtain information about Windows NT group/user 'DOMAIN\ACCOUNT', error code 0xea.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 65 6d 00 00 10 00 00 00 em......
0008: 08 00 00 00 53 00 43 00 ....x.x.
0010: 4f 00 4d 00 53 00 51 00 x.x.x.x.
0018: 4c 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 x.......
0020: 6d 00 61 00 73 00 74 00 m.a.s.t.
0028: 65 00 72 00 00 00 e.r...

Follow this procedure for correcting this issue:

First you have to create a dedicated AD account and grant it just enough permissions. This account will be used in the procedure:

1. Start SQL Server Management Studio
2. Go to Databases --> System Databases
3. Select Properties
4. On the Select a Page select Files
5. On the right under header Database the current owner is displayed
6. Check the account. It's not the dedicated AD account? Click the button with the 3 dots
7. The screen 'Select Database Owner' appears
8. Click Browse. Select the dedicated AD account
9. Save the modifications
10. Close all screens

Repeat these steps for all SCOM related databases.

New DHCP MP solves perfomance issues

At a customers site – with already a SCOM implementation in place - there were performance issues with an Agent monitored DC.

Eventhough the server wasn't very dimensioned, the cpu peaked for long times at 100%.

First I tried the overrides for the DNS MP since the DC involved also functions as a DNS server. It helped but only for a short period of time. The same DC also functions as one of the DHCP-servers. After removing the DHCP MP and replacing it for the newest version (6.0.6452.0, a QFE release to fix the high CPU utilization issues), all is well again. The DC performs neatly, the cpu doesn't flat out at 100% anymore and it is monitored by SCOM.

So don't hesistate and replace any old version of the DHCP MP with the most recent one, to be found here.

SCOM R2 Beta & upgrading existing SCOM SP1 Reporting component

When one upgrades an existing SCOM SP1 installation to R2 and this installation already has the reportingfunctionality installed, this component must be seperately upgraded. Otherwise the eventlog of OpsMgr will show these two events:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Health Service Modules
Event Category: Data Warehouse
Event ID: 31565
Date: 20-11-2008
Time: xx:xx:xx
User: N/A
Computer: blah
Description:
Failed to deploy Data Warehouse component. The operation will be retried.Exception 'SqlScriptException': Batch ordinal: 5; Exception: Invalid column name 'SchemaName'.

One or more workflows were affected by this.

Workflow name: Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Deployment.Component
Instance name: xxxx.xxxx.local
Instance ID: {DB2FC0CC-CC92-834B-6C5A-387AB914C800}
Management group: xxxx

and

Event Type: Error
Event Source: HealthService
Event Category: Health Service
Event ID: 1108
Date: 20-11-2008
Time: xx:xx:xx
User: N/A
Computer: blah
Description:
Secure Reference Override with id:"{63B43DA7-B8B1-6BBB-7EC0-2DC564855F6E}" requesting credentials identified by SSID:"007341DBB34FB8216AFD79D1C51874024D79A41F4100000000000000000000000000000000000000" cannot be resolved while loading configuration for instance "tempdb" with id:"{F142C30D-F3FC-AA12-9DF4-A5010B5E6A80}" in management group "xxxx".

This issue is similar to the upgrade from SCOM RTM to SP1. For this upgrade the Datawarehouse database had to be upgraded seperately as well.

Just start the setup of SCOM R2 again and select now 'Install Operations Manager 2007 R2 Reporting'. This setup will start the Operations Manager 2007 R2 Reporting Setup Upgrade Wizard. Just follow the onscreen instructions and take a cup of coffee since - based on the size of the database - it can take a while. Afterwards (a succesful upgrade that is) the earlier mentioned events are gone and SCOM R2 will show the newly added reports in its reportingpane.

SCOM R2 Beta 1 released!

Microsoft has just released SCOM/OpsMgr R2 Beta 1. Downloadable from the Connect site

Service Level Dashboard Management Pack

14-04-2009 Update: In SCOM R2 RC Service Level Tracking has been integrated. Want to know more? Read about it in this posting.

For some time now Microsoft has released the latest version (6.0.6278.6) of this Management Pack. It is meant for monitoring, reporting and tracking on line-of-business (LOB) application service level compliance. It displays the performance and availability of these LOBs against their Service Level Agreements (SLAs). An executive overview can be found here.

This overview is very important since it contains a diagram about the workings of this MP. Without a proper understanding of it, there is a great change this MP will deliver a wrong view upon the LOBs against their SLAs thus delivering wrong information!

In order for this to work a set of components have to be created into OpsMgr:

1. SLA
   This action happens outside OpsMgr, but it is the most important one since the SLA for the LOB has to be defined. This information will be used by OpsMgr
   
   
2. Web Application Monitors & Synthetic Transactions
   Watcher nodes have to be deployed and to configured in order to perform synthetic transactions such as connecting to the Web site and log on with a special account, starting a (bogus) transaction and logging off. Another example is querying the related database(s). The Web Application runs on the watcher node and uses the synthetic transactions to check whether the webapplication is available and measures its perfomance.
   
   
3. Distributed Application
   A DA has to be built which represents the LOB/service. Here the monitors mentioned in step 2 are grouped and related to each other. For every component defined in this DA the availability and performance will be measured. With a certain override the SLA levels are to be set. The same override offers also the option to group the monitored LOBs based on a logical name, titled 'Dashboard Group'. Any name can be given. This name will later on be present in the reports and can be selected while defining the parameters for this report. This way the LOBs can be logically grouped together in one report.
   
   
4. Dashboard Reports
   With importing this MP an new set of reports will be loaded as well. These reports will work based on the defined DAs earlier on. Every report will evaluate the LOB over the given defined reporting period whether it was compliant or not with the SLA, based on the levels set for this LOB. The Dundas Gauges are available in the summary reports and enable the viewer with a single glance to know whether or not the SLAs are met. Ofcourse all of these reports offer hotlinks so one can drill down to a certain aspect of it.
   

Conclusion

The ease of the usage of the MP can cause one to overlook the hardest part: defining the SLA and translating it in OpsMgr to a DA. But when this has been done properly the IT Management will find they have a good and easy to use tool to monitor the SLAs of the LOBs. With this MP it leverages OpsMGr to a new level of 'awareness'. It shows the dedication of Microsoft of making OpsMgr to a success and THE monitoring tool for today and tomorrow. In OpsMgr R2 this MP becomes an integrated part and as such will even be more better and easier in its usage. A must have for organizations dealing with LOBs, SLAs.

 

Screendumps

Image 1: (Example of a Web Application Monitor)

 

Image 2: (Example of a DA based on the new DA template with added components)

Image 3: (Setting the SLAs specifics for this LOB and defining a logical name)

 

Image 4: (Checking out whether the override has done it's work. Can take up to 15 minutes)

 

Image 5: (Running a summary report. Check out the Dundas Gauges!)

OpsMgr gets hosed: EventID 5300 & the Dell MP version 3.1 A01

Dell MP version 3.1 A01 has many issues. It can even cause the whole OpsMgr environment to become unstable. The Healthservice of the RMS stalls and the eventlog of the RMS displays EventID 5300

Event Type: Error
Event Source: HealthService
Event Category: Health Service
Event ID: 5300
Date: xx-xx-xxxx
Time: xx:xx:xx
User: N/A
Computer: blah
Description:
Local health service is not healthy. Entity state change flow is stalled with pending acknowledgement.

Management Group: xxx
Management Group ID: xxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

When one restarts the Health Service all is well again (for a short period of time that is)

When you don't have the Dell MP inported there can be other issues at hand:
Networkproblems between the RMS & SQL server hosting the OpsMgr database

SQL server hosting the OpsMgr database is overloaded

Wrong authorizations for OpsMgr on the SQL server hosting the OpsMgr database

However, when you are running the most recent version of the Dell MP it is very likely this MP is the culprit. One can run a few queries on the OpsMgr database to see what components are causing the most noise in the OpsMgr environment. These queries will show many components of the Dell MP being the noisiest.

A faster way though is to simply remove the Dell MP and to see whether the EventID 5300 disappears.

Dell has acknowledged this issue and is working on a new MP. This MP is to be released in december this year.

1/16/2009 - Update : Dell has stated the new MP won't be released before April 2009.

Cause: the latest version of the Dell MP contains many SNMP rules & monitors. In fact far too many. They create so much noise the RMS sooner or later stalls by the flood created by these monitors and rules. These rules & monitors are mostly meant to monitor DRAC.

There is a modified MP to be found on the internet from which all these SNMP monitors and rules have been removed. However as stated before the Dell MP has also other problems which aren't nice as well. Kevin Holman has written an article about it. Certainly worth reading it.

Error 1334 when trying to modify an existing OpsMgr installation

This posting is outdated. See for the update this posting on my blog.

Issues with DNS MP version 6.0.6278.27

12/23/2008 : Look here for the update on this posting

This MP causes high cpu spikes on underdimensioned DNS servers. It is caused by the fact that many scripts issued by this MP are running simultaneously on the DNS server. This might cause the cpu to run on 100% making the DNS server unavailable.

It is a known issue for Microsoft and they are about to release a new version with these bugs fixed.

For now there is a workaround look here.

R2 comes!

On TechEd 2008 in Barcelona Microsoft announced the newest release of OpsMgr: OpsMgr R2. Beta will come this month (november 2008), RC Q1 2009 & RTM Q2 2009.

The demo's were really spectacular.

For what I've seen I must say R2 is the grown up version of OpsMgr SP1. Can't wait for the beta release to fieldtest it! And... pigs DO fly at Redmond....

Eventhough much has/will be changed in R2 these are the main issues:

Native support for monitoring Linux/Unix
Out of the box R2 will support the monitoring of 14 types of Linux/Unix distributions. Monitoring of the seven mostly used deamons and all services on a non-Windows box is supported.

Performance Enhancements
Engine has been made more intelligent. It shows only the information queried for. So not everything will be loaded, but just those parts needed. Demovideo was impressive. Like OpsMgr SP1 on steroids!

Service Level Tracking
In SP1 with a special Management Pack. In R2 out of the box and improved.

Process Monitoring
Ever wanted to know about certain (un)wanted processes running on monitored boxes? R2 provides this kind of monitoring and last but not least enables automatic start/closure of these very same processes

Improvement the way Management Packs are imported
Directly out of the OpsMgr UI connecting to the catalog, searching the needed MPs and importing them directly into OpsMgr. When a underlying MP isn't there OpsMgr R2 will notify on it and propose corrective actions

One-click Alert Subscriptions
Back from MOM 2005: with a right-click one can subscribe to an alert

Power to the WebConsole
Health Explorer and the import of MPs are now available in the WebConsole

Overrides
Easy to obtain overview of the applied overrides. View is easily to be customized.

Management Pack Templates
More are available, the ones already present in OpsMgr SP1 are improved. Better Distributed Applications can be built now.

Reporting
No more empty reports because the wrong objects have been selected. With the selection of a report only the related objects will be shown (filtered) so the change of ending up with an empty report becomes very small.

Monitoring non-Windows applications
3rd parties like Novell & Xandros will deliver high quality MPs for monitoring Oracle, Apache, Samba, Linux based DNS, DHCP.