SCOM & Maintenance Mode

16-04-2009 Update: A new blogposting answers the top 3 questions I do get the most about MM. Read all about it here.

SCOM has an option which is called Maintenance Mode. Whenever a monitored server will have maintenance, one doesn't want to see all kinds of alerts in SCOM related to this object. Neither will the reports show relevant data concerning the availability of this server, since the time it received maintenance, SCOM will report on this server being unavailable and thereby the SLAs will be negatively influenced.

By using Maintenance Mode in SCOM one can overcome these issues. However, Maintenance Mode in SCOM isn't complete. For instance one cannot schedule Maintenance Mode in advance. One has to start it right away. But what if some monitored servers receive maintenance during the night? Does the SCOM administrator have to come out of his/her bed, set the related servers and objects into maintenance mode and go back to bed?

Well, according to Microsoft the answer is a YES. But thanks to Tim McFadden, the answer is NO. He has made a very good tool which enables SCOM administrators to plan Maintenace Mode in advance. Moreover, it is GUI-based so it is easy to use.

I have seen many other solutions for the above mentioned issue, but I must say Tim McFadden's solution is the best. It works like a charm and is very straightforward.

One can download it here.

All credits go to Tim McFadden who runs a very good blog.