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.
   
   
   
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:
   
   
   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.
   
   
   
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:
   
   
   
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.