SCOM and Dashboards – Part II – The SCOM Console

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Postings in the same series:
Part   I – Some Questions
Part III – Visio 2010 Add-In for SCOM R2
Part IV – Savision LiveMaps
Part V  – SharePoint 2010 Integration
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In the second posting of this series I will describe how to create some Dashboards based on purely the SCOM R2 Console. These Dashboards are nothing fancy nor flashy. No bling bling here but even an empty Dashboard (when all systems are well) where the credo ‘Less is More’ is more at hand.

But before we continue we need to know what SCOM R2 defines as a Dashboard. For SCOM R2 a Dashboard is a collection of different available Views which are present in the SCOM R2 Console. So when you want to add a customized View to a Dashboard, that View needs to created first.

A Dashboard can contain 2,3,4,5,6 or 9 Views:

Per amount of Views presented in the Dashboard a different type of layout may be chosen:

But how to use this in a good and understandable manner? A Dashboard showing tons of information is easily created. But a Dashboard which shows some good information to the right people/departments is a different story. I will show 3 different Dashboards which I use often on my projects.

Again, nothing fancy they are. But they show some good information.

First of all, we need a MP. For this i have created a MP with the name _Dashboards. The underscore assures us that the folder related to the MP will show up on top in the Monitoring Pane. This folder will be used through out this posting. By doing so all Views will be saved to that MP and NOT the Default MP.

01 – Windows Server Dashboard
This Dashboard is mainly targeted at the people who manage the systems engineers. It shows all relevant data related to the Windows Servers the System Engineers do have to manage. The Server OS MP is required for this Dashboard.

For this Dashboard I use the ‘Less-is-More’ approach. Only issues are shown, nothing else. So when the Dashboard is empty, all is well. When something is shown, the manager knows something is amiss. The Dashboard looks like this:

It is a 4 Views Dashboard, containing these four Views:

1. Active Alerts
   This View is already present and comes from the Server OS MP (Monitoring > Microsoft Windows Server > Active Alerts).
   
   
2. W2Kx Servers – Unhealthy/Unmonitored
   This View is a customized State View with these settings:
   
   By showing only the servers which are in a Warning or Critical state, it will keep the Dashboard clean (as long as the System Engineers are doing their work that is :)).
   
   
3. Disks W2K08 – Unhealthy/Unmonitored
   Many times when there are issues with servers these are related to the logical disks. Which are either to full or do suffer an error. With this Dashboard I try to show the most relevant information and this part is always welcome. This View is also a customized State View with these settings:
    
   
   
4. Disks W2K03 – Unhealthy/Unmonitored
   This View is a customized State View with these settings:
   

Exactly how this Dashboard is created? Good question. For this Dashboard I will explain it. The others do use almost the same approach so only the most important settings will be shown for those.

• Start the SCOM Console with Admin permissions > go to Administration > click right on the tree structure > select Create Management Pack > name it _Dashboards > Save it;
  
  
• Go to Monitoring > right click on the folder _Dashboards, select New > Folder. Name it Servers
  
  
  
• Right click on the folder Servers, select New > State View. Use the name and settings as shown in the screen dump at Step 2. Repeat this procedure for the screen dumps shown at Steps 3 and 4;
  
  
• Right click on the folder Servers, select New > Dashboard View. Select 4 Views:
  
  Give it a good name, select a good layout template and click OK;
  
  
• The Dashboard is created now, but is still empty:
  
  Click on the top link ‘Click to add a view’. Now this screen is opened:
  
  Select the required View (as described in Step 1) and click OK. Repeat this procedure for all other Views within the Dashboard. When you select a wrong View you can easily delete it by right clicking on the right portion of the Dashboard and selecting the option Remove View.
  
  
  
• When the Dashboard is created, you can reopen it in a new screen by right clicking it and selecting the option Open in New Window
  
  

02 – Active Directory Dashboard
This Dashboard is targeted at the IT department which is responsible for the AD infra. It shows information about the DCs and the DNS infra as well. Without DNS their is not much AD going on. So DNS is important as well here. For this Dashboard the AD and DNS MPs need to be imported AND configured.

A 6 View Dashboard is used here and mostly Views which are already present in the AD and DNS MPs are being used. Only one customized View is created. These six Views are being used here:

1. DNS Server Alerts View
   The only customized View which is an Alert View. It is almost the same compared to the DNS Alerts. Only the name is different so it easy to differentiate from when used in the Dashboard.
    
   
   
2. DC Active Alerts
   AD MP. Go to: Monitoring > Microsoft Windows Active Directory > DC Active Alerts.
   
   
3. DC State View
   AD MP. Go to: Monitoring > Microsoft Windows Active Directory > DC State.
   
   
4. Topology
   AD MP. Go to: Monitoring > Microsoft Windows Active Directory > Topology Views > Topology.
   
   
5. Domain Health State View
   DNS MP. Go to: Monitoring > Microsoft Windows DNS Server > Domain Health State View.
   
   
6. DNS Server Events
   DNS MP. Go to: Monitoring > Microsoft Windows DNS Server > DNS Server Events.

Create a 6 Views Dashboard and add the Views as required. Now you have something like this:

03 – Alerts Dashboard
This Dashboard is targeted at managers of IT departments and other departments as well. It enables them to see what Alerts do get in and what their status is. New Alerts which are unassigned are not OK. It means that no one in particular is taking care of it. A requirement for this Dashboard is that SCOM R2 is being used properly, that some one is in control and deciding what Alerts are assigned to whom.

It also requires that some good Alert Resolution States are present in SCOM R2:
 

 

1. Alert View: Unassigned Alerts / Critical and Warnings
   These settings are used:
   
   
   Please reckon with the second tab ‘Display’ and make sure to copy the yellow highlighted settings which are important for ALL Alert Views:
   
   
   
2. Alert View: Assigned Alerts / Critical and Warnings
   These settings are used:
   
   
   
3. Alert View: All Closed Alerts / Critical and Warnings
   These settings are used:
   
   
   
4. Alert View: All Unclosed Alerts / Critical and Warnings sorted by count
   These settings are used:
   
   and:
    

Create a 4 Views Dashboard and add the Views as required. Now you have something like this:

Wrap up:

With this posting one gets a better understanding with the available possibilities for creating Dashboards in SCOM R2. With using groups and User Roles one can scope who gets to see what.

Third posting in this series will be about the Visio Add-in and how to create some nice SCOM R2 Dashboards with it.