Q&A Savision Webinars ‘The Saga Continues’

As stated before, Insight24 and Savision had a joined effort, all about Service Pack 1 for System Center 2012.

For this joined effort I had the honors to write a whitepaper, titled: The Saga Continues: SP1 for SCOM 2012, which is still available for download from the websites of Insight24 and Savision.

Based on this whitepaper there were two webinars, one for Europe and another for the US. At the end of these webinars the audience had time to ask questions. All those questions and their answers are to be found in this posting.

SP1 webinars Q&A Sessions

1. Do you recommend hosting the OpsManager & DW DBs on seperate servers?
   This depends on your situation. When you’re running a SCOM environment with many monitored servers, network devices and services/applications and the number is 1000+, it is to be advised to separate the OpsMgr and Data Warehouse databases. Another situation which justifies this approach is when you’re going to use the SCOM Reporting component to a great extend. Rendering reports, querying the Data Warehouse may create a high IO on the CPU, RAM and disks. In cases like that it’s better to separate bot databases.
   
   
2. Does SCOM 2012 have a web console view for mobile devices?
   No, it doesn’t. Or perhaps only on Windows phones since the web console of SCOM 2012 depends on Silverlight™ instead of HTML 5. However, with third party add-on from Jalasoft (Wings) you have a ‘console’ on your mobile devices, whether they run iOS, Android or Windows.
   
   
3. Does SP1 bring anything more to a "full monitoring suite" that adds network intelligence?­
   For what I’ve heard and understood, network monitoring in SCOM 2012 won’t become a full network monitoring tool. Network monitoring in SCOM 2012 is related to the 360 degree monitoring view. So network monitoring plays an important role here but won’t make SCOM 2012 to a pure bred network monitoring tool. Network monitoring in SCOM 2012 relates to the monitored (Windows) servers so a mesh is automatically created based on their dependencies and connections.
   
   
4. ­Do you know is the problem with running SCOM-console in other regional setting than english is fixed in SP1­?
   No, not at this moment.
   
   
5. With 2007 R2 it was better to use SQL Enterprise. Is this still the case with SQL 2012 or can we use the Standard edition?­
   This isn’t totally true and needs more clarification. With SCOM 2007 R2 the standard edition of SQL Server was OK as well, depending on your situation. For instance when you’re monitoring huge numbers of servers, network components, services and applications, the Enterprise edition of SQL Server is a better choice. But when your SCOM environment is ‘limited’ to a couple of hundred servers, network components, applications and services, the Standard edition of SQL server will most certainly fit the bill esspecially when you separate the OpsMgr and Data Warehouse databases. This scenario is still valid in SCOM 2012 (SP1).
   
   
6. ­Is there any fix for the problem of mac address insted of name presentation in network devices performance views?­
   No, not at this moment.
   
   
7. ­Just need to know difference between the web transaction monitoring , synthtic monitoring & web availability­.
   There is much to tell, too much actually. The biggest difference however is that web availability does as stated: monitoring the availability of a particular website or part of a website. The remaining two go deeper and check the functionality of a website, like placing orders for instance.
   
   
8. In SCOM will microsoft extend the dashboard views and widgets in the future­
   Yes, they will.
   
   
9. Can you explain more about new rollup on april 2013? SP1 is already avalaible, what is this new coming­?
   First of all, Update Rollup #2 (that’s what we’re talking about here) will only touch the System Center 2012 SP1 components it’s meant for. In other words, UR#2 will mainly contain hotfixes for the System Center SP1 components involved. Besides this UR#2 release a new Exchange Connector for SCSM 2012 SP1 will be released which is more stable and has gained more functionality as well.
   
   
10. Is there a command line available to install the SCOM agent through SCCM?­
    Yes there is. When a SCOM 2012 (SP1) Agent is deployed its control panel applet is installed with a specific DLL file which contains special .NET functions. These functions can be referenced by using VBScript and PowerShell for instance. Kevin Holman blogged about it in more detail (read the WHOLE posting ): http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2011/11/10/opsmgr-2012-new-feature-the-agent-control-panel-applet.aspx.
    
    
11. Why is Microsoft not dividing 2012 MPs and 2007?­
    Simply because there is still a market out there using SCOM 2007. Also because SCOM 2007 has mainstream support up to july 2014: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=13876. None the less, some MPs are only for SCOM 2012, using Management Pack Bundles and/or the special widgets. With time passing by I think/expect to see MPs using these SCOM 2012 specific functionalities more and more.
    
    
12. ­How does multi-home clients work?
    Any SCOM (2007/2012) Agent can communicate with up to four different SCOM Management Groups (MGs). Per MG the relevant Rules and Monitors are loaded and executed. The collected results are send back to the relevant MG.
    
    
13. Currently we have SCOM 2007 R2, can we run it "in parallel" with brand new 2012 SP1 making sure 2012 is all working good then shut down 2007 environment ?
    Yes you can. The best approach here is to install SCOM 2012 Agents since these are backwards compatible with SCOM 2007 Management Groups. So these Agents become multihomed and communicate with the SCOM 2007 MG and the SCOM 2012 MG.
    
    
14. Should we wait for SC2012 SP1 before implementing SCOM2012 SP1?­
    SP1 for SC2012 (and SCOM 2012) is already General Available. So there is no need to wait.
    
    
15. What is the best way to decomission the old SCOM servers after you have SCOM 2012 in place­?
    Depends on the situation. When you have started an inplace upgrade path there won’t be any SCOM server left after the upgrade to SCOM 2012 is finished, simply because the old SCOM 2007 servers are upgraded to SCOM 2012 servers. However when you an alongside scenario where the SCOM 2012 Agents are multi-homed and they talk to a SCOM 2007 Management Group (MG) and the SCOM 2012 MG as well, you have to set those Agents to talk ONLY to the SCOM 2012 MG. See Q/A #10 how to go about that. Then you can safely remove the SCOM 2007 MG by first removing the SCOM 2007 Management Servers and then the Root Management Server.
    
    
16. Will all the 2007 R2 MPs work with 2012?
    Yes they will. Even with the RMS removed in SCOM 2012, there is a RMS Emulator Role, simply for backwards compatability for certain MPs like the Exchange 2010 MP for instance.
    
    
17. Does SP1 bring anything more to a "full monitoring suite" that adds network intelligence?­
    See Q/A #3.
    
    
18. What is a Rollup to a SP supposed to provide and can you just get all inclusive SP1 inclusive of the Rollup?
    A Rollup contains mostly hotfixes and patches, along with some added/extended functionality, started from the point the SP was introduced and became General Available. There won’t become a full blown ISO available containing the SP with the Rollups. However, at a certain point in time a new SP will become available, containing the previous SP and the Rollups with added functionality as well.
    
    
19. Also Do my Management Points require a seperate SP1 and rollup?
    When you mean with Management Points the related Management Servers, the answer is yes. The SP and Rollups touch all components of SCOM: the Management Servers, the Agents and sometimes the core Management Packs and SQL databases as well. With a SP these are always ‘touched’ with a Rollup it depends on the hotfixes/updates it contains.
    
    
20. I was told i can upgrade my VMM and my DPM to SP1 seperate from SCOM2012 is this correct?
    Yes, it’s correct. But make sure the interconnectivity between these products is updated as well so it requires additional attention, like the connections between SCVVM <> SCOM for instance.
    
    
21. Currently running OpsMgr 2012 in Windows 2008 R2 enviroment. Is it recommended to upgrade all systems to Windows Server 2012 and then install OpsMgr 2012 with SP1?
    No, simply because SCOM 2012 RTM doesn’t support Windows Server 2012 as the Server OS upon which the Management Servers are installed. That support is only available from SCOM 2012 SP1. So the way to go is: SCOM 2012 RTM > SCOM 2012 SP1 > Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 > Windows Server 2012.
    
    
22. In a multi-homed agent (SCOM 2007+2012), if you uninstall the agent from the SCOM 2007 console, will it uninstall the agent completely and also stop reporting to 2012?
    No, it won’t. Simply because the multi-homed Agent in this case is ONE Agent, based on SCOM 2012. So that SCOM 2012 Agent will be removed. See Q/A #15 and Q/A #10 for more information.

Advice
Whenever you want to know more about upgrading to SCOM 2012 (SP1) or/and Windows Server 2012 / SQL Server 2012 (SP1), go here, an aggregation of many blog postings all about upgrading and the various paths and products.

Also, when you want to KNOW EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT SCOM 2012 (SP1), simply BUY THE SCOM 2012 BOOK: System Center 2012 Operations Manager Unleashed. Written by Cameron Fuller, Kerrie Meyler, Pete Zerger and John Joyner. And the contributing authors are Jonathan Almquist, Alex Fedotyev, Scott Moss, Oskar Landman and Marnix Wolf which is me !