My Personal Experiences Upgrading To Windows 8.1 Preview Pro Edition

The notebook I use for my work ran Windows 8 RTM Enterprise edition and I enjoyed it very much. As soon as Windows 8.1 Preview became available on TechNet I downloaded the ISO file for the Pro edition and ran an in-place upgrade. This posting is about my experiences of this in-place upgrade process.

Preparations
Since I already had partitioned the hard disk (OS and applications on C:\ and all personal data on D:\) there wasn’t much to do. I could have made an image of the system before I ran the in-place upgrade, but decided against it.

Simply because the preview release of Windows 8 was really good and stable, I trust the preview bits of the Windows 8.1 edition to be on the same level of quality.

Of all the installed applications I had the iso’s and product keys already at hand.

ISO was downloaded pretty fast, mounted and setup.exe started.

The in-place upgrade process
It ran smooth and pretty fast. After having answered some basic questions and agreed with losing my applications/apps (my personal data wouldn’t be touched at all) the in-place upgrade started and finished within 45 minutes, providing personal information for the first boot included!

Afterwards I had to install all my applications and apps which was done pretty fast simply because I refrained myself from installing everything back at once. Instead I installed the applications I needed at that moment. For now I installed Office 2013, Remote Desktop Connection Manager, Snagit, Visio 2013, Lync client 2013 and Acrobat Reader. Enough to get me through a standard working day.

Afterwards I added the features .NET Framework 3.5 (for backwards compatibility issues with some applications I need to install later on), enabled Hyper-V and added all my VMs again.

Basically within two hours, counted from the moment I started the in-place upgrade process, the notebook was up and running again and ready for a normal day of work.

The day after
The first day I went to work with my notebook Windows 8.1 went well. No issues what so ever. The notebook seems to respond faster and applications seem to be snappier. Even when additional software was installed.

Up to now the notebook performs great. No issues what so ever or any blue screens, system freezes or other preview related stuff.

As stated before, the preview edition of Windows 8 was very stable and trust worthy. Until now the preview version of Windows 8.1 seems to be on the same level, awesome!

IE 11 & Office 365 online
Yes, Windows 8.1 runs IE 11. Funny thing is, the Office 365 portal and websites aren’t compatible with that version yet. When I log on to my Office 365 account online, I am presented with the same old web interface of Outlook other non supported browsers get .

Since the development of Office 365 goes very fast I expect this to be solved before Windows 8.1 goes RTM and becomes GA.

Some URLs
The good news is that EVERYONE can run Windows 8.1 Preview. This edition can be downloaded from this website, no TechNet nor MSDN subscription required!

When you want to know what’s new in Windows 8.1, go here. Please know that the Preview edition may contain code that can be discontinued in the RTM edition of Windows 8.1. Also some features announced for Windows 8.1 might be lacking in the preview edition since it’s still work in progress.

!!!Hot News!!! R2 Preview Bits Available On TechNet & MSDN!

For a few hours the R2 Preview bits for Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2 are available for download on TechNet and MSDN, subscription required.

I myself have a MSDN subscription, level: Visual Studio Professional with MSDN. For that subscription level these R2 Preview bits aren’t available:

However, with my TechNet subscription (TechNet Professional (Retail)) I am more lucky:

So it’s time to download these bits and put them through their paces in one of my labs! Awesome!

High Level Overview: HP Blade Monitoring With HP Blade MP

This posting contains a high level overview of the required steps in order to monitor HP Blades using the HP Blades MP, version 2.1.0, part of HP Insight Control which consists out of two components: HP Device Monitor Service (version 1.1.2.0) and HP Device Monitor Console (version 1.1.3.0). 

Requirements
This MP has some requirements. Without having them in place AND properly configured, the HP Blade MP won’t work. So make sure everything is in place, configured and fully operational.

1. HP ProLiant Server MP;
2. Windows PowerShell 1.0 (or higher );
3. SNMP Trap Service;
4. SCOM 2012 SP1 (SCOM 2007 R2 will work as well).

Other things which are good to know:

1. This MP is part of a bigger toolset, HP Insight Control. So without this MP won’t function;
2. HP Insight Control must be installed on the server hosting the RMS Emulator Role (typically the first SCOM 2012 Management Server of the SCOM 2012 MG);
3. This introduces a SPoF (Single Point of Failure): when that SCOM 2012 Management Server goes down, monitoring of the HP Blades will stop functioning. Haven’t tested yet what happens when this tool is installed on the other SCOM 2012 Management Servers;
4. Configure the Onboard Administrator servers they’ll send their SNMP Traps to the SCOM 2012 Management Server hosting the RMS Emulator Role.

This high level overview is based on only the SCOM 2012 Management Server hosting the RMS Emulator Role.

Step 01: SNMP
In this step SNMP Service feature is installed on the SCOM 2012 Management Server hosting the RMS Emulator Role.

• Add this feature to this server as you normally would do;
• Configure the SNMP service:
• Tab: Traps. Add the correct Community String;
• Tab: Security: Add the IP addresses of the Onboard Administrator servers.

Step 02: HP Insight Control Framework
In this step the two components of HP Insight Control Framework are installed: HP Device Monitor Service and HP Device Monitor Console. This step takes place on the SCOM 2012 Management Server hosting the RMS Emulator Role.

(When HP Insight Control Framework is already installed on another server, you can skip the installation of this component.)

1. Start the file Autorun.exe > select Install > select HP SCOM Management Packs > allow UAC by selecting Yes;
2. > Next > accept UELA > select all features:
   
3. > Next > Install. After some minutes the installer will finish successfully.

Step 03: Importing the MPs
After Step 02 the two MPs need to be imported into SCOM 2012. These MPs are located on the same server where Step 02 was executed and are located in the folder ~:\Program Files\HP SCOM Management Packs\Management Packs. This directory contains many more MPs. These are the ones you need:

1. HewlettPackard.Servers.BladeSystem.mp;
2. HewlettPackard.Servers.Library.mp.

Step 04: Adding connections with HP Blade Onboard Administrator systems
This is where it all comes together. But before you start some additional preparations are required:

• SNMP traps have to be send to the SCOM 2012 Management Server hosting the RMS Emulator Role and where HP Insight Control Framework runs.
• Make sure you have the correct SNMP Community String;
• On the HP Blade Onboard Administrator systems an additional account with at least User permissions has to be created. This account will be used by the HP Insight Control Framework to connect to the HP Blade Onboard Administrator systems.

When all that is done, it’s time to go these steps:

1. Go to Start > HP SCOM Management Packs > HP Device Monitor Console;
2. In the screen Connect to HP Device Monitor Service enter the FQDN of the server hosting that server. (in this case, the SCOM 2012 Management Server hosting the RMS Emulator Role) > Connect > now this server will be added to the list Device Monitor Connections. Click on it so this server is selected;
3. On the right side of the screen there is an Actions pane. Click on Add Onboard Administrator. A new wizard will be launched;
4. In the screen Add Onboard Administrator add the FQDN or IP address of the Onboard Administrator system with the correct credentials as previously described;
5. > OK. The information will be validated which can take some time. So be patient . After a while the Onboard Administrator system will be shown in the middle of the Console under Discovered Devices;
6. Repeat Steps 3 to 5 for all other Onboard Administrator systems;
7. When all Onboard Administrator systems are added, restart the Health Service on the SCOM 2012 Management Server hosting the RMS Emulator Role and soon all HP Bladed and their related components will be Discovered and monitored.

Resources
These are the resources you’re going to need:

1. HP Passport in order to obtain all resources. The creation of a HP Passport is free.
2. HP Insight Control Integrations
3. HP Insight Control
1. Insight Management 7.2. Log on with your HP Passport. Select Insight Control for System Center 7.2. DVD ISO – Mar 2013
2. PDF file HP Insight Control for Microsoft System Center Installation Guide, to be found in the ISO file mentioned in Resource 3.1, folder ~\Documents, file name: InstallationGuide.pdf.
4. Other HP Insight documents
1.  HP Insight Control for Microsoft System Center Installation Guide;
2. HP Insight Control (v 7.2) for Microsoft System Center Release Notes;
3. HP SCOM Management Packs User Guide;
4. HP BladeSystem Management Pack (v 2.x) for Microsoft System Center User Guide.

Overall impression
It’s good to see HP puts time and effort into making SCOM 2012 capable to monitor HP Blades. The documentation itself however is a bit of a challenge. Yes, everything is documented but on different places in different documents. And those documents are on different locations (internet/ISO) as well. But when having read it all the installation went without any hassle at all.

New Community MP: Hyper-V MP Extensions 2012

As we all know is the Hyper-V MP very basic. Yes, when you have VMM in place the VMM MP adds more value to the mix. But still, the Hyper-V MP on itself doesn’t deliver that much to the mix.

Therefore it’s good to know the community has decided to built their own MP on top of it, the Hyper-V MP Extensions 2012. This MP can be downloaded from CodePlex.

This MP monitors the performance of Hyper-V servers and clusters based on Windows Server 2012 technology. This MP works with SCOM 2012 RTM, however SCOM 2012 SP1 is recommended.

What this MP does (taken directly from the website):

• VMs Integration Services Version monitor
• Hyper-V Replica Health Monitoring Dashboard and States
• SMB Shares I/O latency monitor

Already present since the previous version:

• Hyper-V Hypervisor Logical processor monitoring
• Hyper-V Hypervisor Virtual processor monitoring
• Hyper-V Dynamic Memory monitoring
• Hyper-V Virtual Networks monitoring
• NUMA remote pages monitoring
• SLAT enabled processor detection
• Hyper-V VHDs monitoring
• Physical and Logical Disk monitoring
• Host Available Memory monitoring
• Stopped and Failed VMs monitoring
• Failed Live Migrations monitoring

Two additional comments:
1: Please take note of the other requirements as well, as stated on the same webpage.
2: Kevin Holman has written a posting about this MP providing some additional solid information.

Huge Collection Of Free Microsoft eBooks

Eric Ligman, Sales Excellence Program Manager for Microsoft, has written an awesome posting in which he shares links to FREE Microsoft eBooks on all kinds of topics, like (but not limited to!):

1. Office;
2. Office 365;
3. SharePoint;
4. SQL Server;
5. System Center;
6. Visual Studio;
7. Web Development;
8. Windows;
9. Windows Azure;
10. Windows Server.

Want to get some FREE ebooks? Go here.

New KB Article: Installing/Discovering UX Agent Fails

Microsoft has published KB2653882 all about troubleshooting an issue where the Discovery – after the installation – of the OM12 Agent on an UX system fails with an error like Access Denied, Error number: -2147024891 0x8007005.

KB2653882 describes this issue, its cause and how to solve it.

New KB Article: Regular Expression Support In SCOM

Microsoft has published KB2702651 all about the regular expressions supported in SCOM.

For any one involved with MP authoring this is a must-read.

SCUG Belgium: Best Of MMS 2013 Slide Deck

On Wednesday I presented a session at the event Best of MMS 2013, organized by System Center User Group Belgium (SCUG Be).

This session was all about migrating from SCOM 2007 R2 to OM12 SP1. About the potential pitfalls, the do’s and don’ts. Also two other options, besides the inplace upgrade was discussed.

As promised I have converted this slide deck to a PDF file and put it on my SkyDrive for download. This PDF has working links to the URLs present in the slide deck. This file can be downloaded from here.

I want to say a BIG word of thanks to the organizers of this awesome event. They have done their utmost best to make it a good event, and IMO they succeeded very well in it. It was good to be a (small) part of it. Thank you all guys!

OM12 SP1 UNIX/Linux Agent Troubleshooting Table

Even though there are already many good postings and articles out there, all about this topic (will list them at the end of this posting) I still want to add my experiences as well.

For a customer quite a few Linux servers had to be monitored. During the roll-out of these OM12 SP1 Agents to the Linux systems several errors popped up. Thanks to a highly experienced Linux guru working for this customers these issues were sorted out pretty fast. Based on this experience I have made a table with the most occurring errors and their possible causes and their fixes.

Issue	Cause & Resolution
DNS Configuration error	01: Faulty reverse DNS Lookup Zone. When fixed all went just fine 02: Linux system had multiple names, all registered in DNS. After a couple of retries the Agent landed properly. 03: System resided in an old segment which didn’t have a zone on the new DNS servers. When fixed all went just fine
Failed during SSH Discovery	01: SSH was locked down to ROOT only. When fixed for the OM12 SP1 account used by Linux all went just fine. 02: An outdated version of SSH which isn’t compatible with the .NET SSH implementation Microsoft uses on the OM12 SP1 side. SSH requires an update. 03: An outdated version of SSH which doesn’t accept certain SSH calls. SSH requires an update.
Failed to install kit	01: Home folder of the OM12 SP1 Linux account was missing. After having added this folder all went just fine. 02: Certain files were locked. When retried the installation of the OM12 SP1 Agent some hours later all went just fine.
Installation hangs	On some systems the installation of the OM12 SP1 Linux Agent just hanged. Had to hard stop the OM12 SP1 Console. Then a second attempt went just fine.
Unexpected Discovery Result	01: Reason unknown. Second attempt (some hours later) ran just fine. 02: A restart of the OM12 SP1 services on the OM12 SP1 MS running the Discovery (be careful though): http://www.opsman.co.za/?p=50
WinRM cannot complete the operation	Firewall was blocking WinRM service. After having opened that port (TCP 1270) it still didn’t work. See this posting to get it working: http://blogs.technet.com/b/chandanbharti/archive/2011/12/21/linux-agent-install-issue.aspx
Agent verification failed	Multiple DNS issues: 1: Linux system has a different hostname compared to the FQDN. Correct it (hostname or FQDN) and all is just fine. 2: DNS record isn’t present. Add the record and all is just fine.

Other resources for troubleshooting OM12 SP1 UNIX/Linux Agent installation issues:

1. Bob Cornelissen: http://www.bictt.com/blogs/bictt.php/2011/05/29/scom-trick-15-cross-platform
2. Microsoft TechNet Wiki: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4966.troubleshooting-unixlinux-agent-discovery-in-system-center-2012-operations-manager.aspx
3. Stefan Roth: http://blog.scomfaq.ch/2012/09/11/scom-2012-linux-discovery-unspecified-failure/
4. Enabling logging and debugging in OM12: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh212862 
5. Microsoft TechNet – Trouble shooting UNIX/Linux monitoring: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh212885

Other useful resources, all related to UNIX/Linux monitoring with OM12:

Tasks
Install Agent on UNIX and Linux Using the Discovery Wizard

Concepts
Using Templates for Additional Monitoring of UNIX and Linux
Troubleshooting UNIX and Linux Monitoring
Accessing UNIX and Linux Computers in Operations Manager
Required Capabilities for UNIX and Linux Accounts
Management Pack Issues
Operating System Issues
Certificate Issues
Managing Certificates for UNIX and Linux Computers
Managing Resource Pools for UNIX and Linux Computers

OM12 SP1 Consoles: Mind The Differences When Monitoring Network Devices…

Even though the OM12 SP1 Web Console has added value for many organizations and many types of operators, there are situations where the OM12 SP1 Web Console simply won’t fit the bill.

For instance, when monitoring network devices one might bump in to Alerts related to ports of those same network devices. And now something happens. The Alert shown in the OM12 SP1 Web Console doesn’t show the network device experiencing issues with a certain port. Instead the MAC address is shown, which is the value of the Path: property of the related Alert:

In an environment where you’re monitoring 350+ network devices this isn’t good. Simply because for the bulk of the monitored network devices this Alert isn’t really critical. Not too many users will be affected, if any at all. But what when the port having this issues is from a key network device? Now we’re having a total different kind of situation.

Therefore the FQDN should be shown instead. As it turns out, the OM12 SP1 Console does that. It doesn’t show the Path: property of the Alert but the Full Path Name: property instead, which is the FQDN of the related network device:

Conclusion:
For network operators using OM12 SP1 it’s better to use the OM12 SP1 Console instead of the OM12 SP1 Web Console instead since crucial information – the FQDN’s of the related network devices – isn’t shown for certain Port related Alerts.

New Community Effort: Whiteboard Wednesday

From today a new community effort is launched, titled Whiteboard Wednesday, by fellow MVP Maarten Goet.

As Maarten states: ‘…The whole goal is to provide visitors every Wednesday with 5-minute videos where a community experts draws out how a certain technology or feature on the Cloud OS (Hyper-V, System Center, Azure) works, with some narration, as if it were on a whiteboard…’

Other good news: This new community effort is going to be an open community.

The first video is already out there, all about Hyper-V Recovery Manager.

Want to know more? Go here.

New KB Article: Removing An OM12 Management Servers Causes Issues

Microsoft released KB2853431, all about the issue where removing an OM12 Management Server from the All Management Servers Resource Pool (AMSRP) causes the same OM12 Management Server to become grayed out.

KB2853431 describes this issue in more detail, like the cause and how to solve it.

Russ Slaten has also written a posting about the same issue some weeks ago, to be found here. Personally I think his posting served as a basis for the earlier mentioned KB article .

Bug Alert + Workaround: SharePoint Server 2013 MP & Web Console HTTP 500 Error

Bumped into this issue what I think is a bug: When the SharePoint Server 2013 MP, version 15.0.4420.1017, is imported and properly configured, the SCOM 2012 Web Console throws an HTTP 500 error when opening the View Microsoft SharePoint > Services:

I have reproduced this issue in all my OM12 test environments and see this happening at a customers location as well.

Workarounds
There are two workarounds to ‘deal’ with this bug. The first is running the full blown OM12 Console. But sometimes that isn’t possible for some operators, based on various valid reasons. So the Web Console is their only interface to interact with OM12. This is where the second workaround comes in.

Simply follow these six steps:

1. Log on to the OM12 Console with admin permissions. Go to Administration and create a new MP with the name of the department requiring the Microsoft SharePoint Views in OM12;
2. Give this name an underscore so it comes on top of the tree shown in the Monitoring pane;
3. Go to Monitoring and right click on the name of the new MP you created in Step 1 > New > State View and copy these settings:
    
4. Go to the second tab, Display and copy these settings:
   
   > OK;
5. The new View will be saved now in the MP you created in Step 1.Test the View in the Web Console. It will work as intended:
   
6. Don’t forget to assign this View to the proper User Roles as defined in your OM12 environment.

As stated in previous postings the SharePoint Server 2013 MP has some serious issues. Hopefully an update for this MP will be released containing fixes. Until then this is what we have to work with.

Bug Alert + Workaround: SharePoint Server 2013 MP & Web Console HTTP 500 Error

Bumped into this issue what I think is a bug: When the SharePoint Server 2013 MP, version 15.0.4420.1017, is imported and properly configured, the SCOM 2012 Web Console throws an HTTP 500 error when opening the View Microsoft SharePoint > Services:

I have reproduced this issue in all my OM12 test environments and see this happening at a customers location as well.

Workarounds
There are two workarounds to ‘deal’ with this bug. The first is running the full blown OM12 Console. But sometimes that isn’t possible for some operators, based on various valid reasons. So the Web Console is their only interface to interact with OM12. This is where the second workaround comes in.

Simply follow these six steps:

1. Log on to the OM12 Console with admin permissions. Go to Administration and create a new MP with the name of the department requiring the Microsoft SharePoint Views in OM12;
2. Give this name an underscore so it comes on top of the tree shown in the Monitoring pane;
3. Go to Monitoring and right click on the name of the new MP you created in Step 1 > New > State View and copy these settings:
    
4. Go to the second tab, Display and copy these settings:
   
   > OK;
5. The new View will be saved now in the MP you created in Step 1.Test the View in the Web Console. It will work as intended:
   
6. Don’t forget to assign this View to the proper User Roles as defined in your OM12 environment.

As stated in previous postings the SharePoint Server 2013 MP has some serious issues. Hopefully an update for this MP will be released containing fixes. Until then this is what we have to work with.

High Level Overview: NetApp SAN Monitoring With DATA ONTAP MP

Update 06-12-2013:
Cameron Fuller posted today a blog article all about how to tune this MP. Awesome. So for more information about how to tune this MP when all is in place, go here. Thanks Cameron!

This posting contains a high level overview of the required steps in order to monitor a NetApp SAN with the DATA ONTAP MP, titled OnCommand PlugIn by NetApp. This high level overview is based on version 3.2 of the OnCommand Plugin.

For a full installation manual please use the PDF files supplied by NetApp. These manuals are part of the downloadable executable (OnCommand-PlugIn-Microsoft_3.2_x64_NetApp.exe).

Dependencies
This MP has some dependencies. Without having them in place AND properly configured, the OnCommand Plugin won’t work. So make sure all is accounted for.

1. PowerShell version 3.0 has to be installed on ALL OM12 Management Servers;
2. NetApp OnCommand PlugIn has to be installed on ALL OM12 Management Servers;
3. SNMP on ALL NetApp Filers must be enabled and configured;
4. ALL NetApp Filers must be present in OM12 as network devices (so run a Discovery);
5. The OM12 Action account requires permissions on the NetApp Filers;
6. A SQL server for hosting the SQL database the OnCommand Plugin uses. The SQL Server hosting the OpsMgr SQL database will do the trick.

Dependencies 1, 3, 4 and 5 must be in place before you start with installing the OnCommand PlugIn. Dependency 2 will be taken care of when installing and configuring the OnCommand PlugIn.

Installation & configuration
The installation of the OnCommand PlugIn starts really simple with installing the OnCommand Plugin on ALL OM12 Management Servers. Please make sure PS 3.0 is installed and operational before you start. Otherwise the installation will fail.

1. Installing OnCommand Plugin on all OM12 Management Servers
   1. Start the file OnCommand-PlugIn-Microsoft_3.2_x64_NetApp.exe with elevated permissions.
   2. Follow the wizard and select the required components, e.g: SCOM Management Packs, Storage Monitoring, SCOM Console Integration, Cmdlets, Documentation and OnCommand Discovery Agent;
   3. When having SCORCH and/or Hyper-V you can also select the components related to those technologies;
   4. The account you have to specify requires local admin access on the OM12 Management Servers. Many times using the OM12 Action account works best;
   5. From version 3.2 this MP uses a SQL database as well. Using the same SQL server which hosts the OpsMgr database works fine for me.
      
      
2. Configuring the NetApp MP
   Make sure all NetApp Filers are already discovered and monitored in OM12 as network devices.
   1. During the installation of the OnCommand PlugIn on the OM12 Management Servers two NetApp MPs are imported: OnCommand Data ONTAP and OnCommand Data ONTAP Reports;
   2. When you had the OM12 Console open when installing OnCommand PlugIn, close it and open it again;
   3. Create a MP for the overrides created for the NetApp MPs;
   4. Go to Monitoring > Data ONTAP > Storage Systems > Management Server. Select one of the listed OM12 Management Servers and click on the right side of the OM12 Console under the header Health Service Tasks on Data ONTAP: Add Controller;
   5. Add all NetApp controllers, one by one;
   6. Go to Monitoring > Data ONTAP > Storage Systems > Controllers. Select one of the listed Controllers and select in the right side of the OM12 Console under the header Data ONTAP Controller Tasks > Data ONTAP Manage Controller Credentials;
   7. Add per Controller the required credentials. Best Practice here is to use an AD based account. When SSL isn’t required, remove the selection. Because of a bug removing the SSL requirement might fire an error. Simply click Continue and go on.
      
      
3. Discovering the NetApp components
   Now all NetApp components need to be discovered. Otherwise no monitoring .
   1. Search for the Rule Data ONTAP: Discovery Rule. Use this shortcut for this search: go to Tools (top menu bar of the OM12 Console) > Search > Rules. Saves you a lot of time;
   2. By default this Rule is turned off. Enable it through an override and store it in the MP created in Step 2.3;
   3. Now the Discovery has to be started. Go to Monitoring > Data ONTAP > Storage Systems > Management Server. Select one of the listed Controllers and select in the right side of the OM12 Console under the header Data ONTAP Controller Tasks > Data ONTAP: Run Discovery Task;
   4. When the OM12 Action account is authorized for accessing the NetApp SAN, you don’t need to enter credentials for running this task;
   5. After an hour or so all NetApp components are discovered and will have a monitored state a bit later.
      
      
4. Required: Tuning!
   This MP is really good and really appreciated by many of my customers. However, many of the Monitors in this MP are set to zero so those Monitors require some good tuning in order to get the best out of this MP.
   
   Other Monitors use wrong thresholds. This isn’t a bug is done on purpose, forcing you to tune them according your environment. When done this MP will really deliver added value.

Compliments!
Compliments to NetApp for delivering such a good MP. When properly tuned (like any other MP ), this MP really delivers added value for any organization running one or more NetApp SANs and OM12. I have seen many third party MPs but not many are of this level. A job well done NetApp!

OM12 Web Console: Where Are My Alerts?!

Bumped into this issue.

What?
The OM12 Web Console didn’t show some particular Critical Alerts. And no matter what I did nor tried the issue remained the same. Somehow the OM12 Web Console simply ‘refused’ to show some Critical Alerts which were neatly shown in the OM12 Console…

Why?
So I contacted my MVP buddies and soon I got a solid question: ‘Are those Alerts older then 7 days?’. BINGO! By default the OM12 Web Console shows only Alerts which are less then 7 days old. And the Alerts which weren’t shown were older then 7 days!

How it was solved
After a quick reconfiguration of the related web.config file (open it from an elevated cmd-prompt!) used by the OM12 Web Console (located in ~:\Program Files\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\WebConsole\MonitoringView) based on this posting.

In this case I added this entry: <add key="AlertsDaysBefore" value="24" />, as shown here:

I saved the file and ran an IIS reset from an elevated cmd-prompt.

Afterwards everything was just fine and the Alerts showed in the OM12 Web Console!

Recap
Even though the OM12 Web Console doesn’t deliver the same functionality as the full blown OM12 Console, it still servers many purposes. Also good to know is that the OM12 Web Console can be modified in its behavior. This posting, eventhough aimed at SCOM 2007 R2, works on many occasions with the OM12 Web Console as well.

NEVER EVER FORGET TO MAKE A COPY OF THE WEB.CONFIG FILE BEFORE MAKING ANY MODIFICATIONS. SO THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY BACK!

A BIG word of thanks to my MVP buddies for helping me out here. Thanks guys!

Community Event Extravaganza

Wow! It seems like the communities in the Netherlands and Belgium are having a competition about organizing events since this month June and July are packed with events:

1. SCUG Belgium
   Organizes the event Best of MMS 2013 on the 19th of June.
   The list of speakers is impressive. Among them the legend Wally Mead!
   Details about this event can be found here.
   I have the honor to present a session there as well . Awesome!
   
   
2. SCUG Netherlands & Hyper-V.nu
   Organizes the event System Center Summer Night R2 on the 3rd of July.
   This event will be all about the R2 releases for Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012.
   Details about this event can be found here.
   
   
3. WMUG Netherlands
   Organizes the event Meeting with Wally Mead on the 17th of June.
   As the title of this event states, Wally is the guest of honor and will present 3 sessions all about SCCM 2012 SP1 & SCCM 2012 R2.
   Details about this event can be found here.
   

As you can see, the communities in the Netherlands and Belgium are very busy. This makes me very happy since it shows the communities are thriving, alive & kicking!

Cross Post: How To Bring Back The BUILTIN\Administrators Group In OM12

When OM12 is installed by default the local group BUILTIN\Administrators is added to the User Role Operations Manager Administrators.

In the Console this Group can only deleted when another Global Group is added to it. Even though it seems smart to do so (this way only members of that Group have admin access in OM12) , its always handy to have a backdoor into OM12 giving you admin access.

Suppose the Global Group allowing admin access in OM12 is deleted by accident? When the backdoor (BUILTIN\Administrators) is deleted, you have a big issue at hand. In situations like these it’s better to have a backdoor in place.

So far so good. But suppose you have deleted the ‘backdoor’ and want to undo it? Now you find yourself in a strange situation. In the OM12 Console you’re ONLY allowed to add Global Groups to this User Role. You can’t add local accounts not local groups. So adding the local group BUILTIN\Administrators by using the Console won’t work…

Gladly former MVP and now a well known and respected PFE Łukasz Rutkowski has written a posting how to solve this situation. Advice: ALWAYS backup BOTH OM12 SQL databases before you perform actions like these.

And another tip: CLEAR the cache of the OM12 Console afterwards. Otherwise the changes won’t be shown…

A BIG word of thanks to Lukasz for sharing. Awesome!

Transformers: Microsoft Is All In!

Only a few years ago Microsoft started the biggest transformation ever: from a company which produces packaged software to a company which delivers devices and services. And of course, the true value of those devices is enriched by the services delivered by Microsoft as well.

In order to give it more attention many – if not all – Microsoft employees signed those days their e-mail messages with the slogan We’re all in.

Basically meaning everybody working for Microsoft was working hard to make this transformation a success.

And no, this transformation is far from over. But none the less, if there is one message which stands out at TechEd 2013 USA, it’s Microsoft's transition to the cloud. It’s driven top down as this internal mail sent by Satya Nadella, Microsoft Server & Tools president, to all Microsoft employees.

Since Microsoft is very serious about it (and proud as well!), Satya has posted this internal mail on The Official Microsoft Blog. Any one involved with Microsoft technology should read this posting and mail at least twice since it clearly shows the future path Microsoft has chosen.

His mail states clearly: ‘…Every one of our division’s nearly 10,000 people now think and build for the cloud – first. Our engineers live a “live-site” first culture to better respond to our customers in real time. And we are laser-focused on building more complete end-to-end service scenarios, or modern workloads, to deliver more value to our customers and partners…’

So Microsoft isn’t only changing but much of that change has already taken place. From now on in the public Microsoft embraces AND executes the Cloud-First Strategy.

Paul Thurrot has written an excellent posting about this Cloud-First Strategy, to be found here.

OM12: Creating SNMP Monitoring MPs

With OM12 the network monitoring capabilities are hugely improved, compared to SCOM 2007 (R2). However, monitoring network devices which aren’t certified by OM12 (SP1) poses a challenge.

Therefore it’s good news that Daniele Grandini (fellow MVP and top notch programmer) has started a whole series of blog postings how to bring the uncertified network devices on par with the certified ones.

First posting of this series is to be found here.

Thanks Daniele for sharing!

WMUG NL: Second Event With Wally Mead!!!

On the 17th of June the Windows Management User Group Netherlands (WMUG NL) will host the second event. This event will be a special one since the legend Wally Mead (Program Manager of the Enterprise Client Management team) will present three sessions!

Want to know more? Go here. You can register yourself here. The event will be hosted by VX Company in Baarn.

A big word of thanks to our sponsors since they enable you to join this awesome day for FREE!

Savision Web Console & SSL: Getting Rid Of Nagging Message ‘There is a problem with this website's security certificate.’

When one installs Savision Live Maps and all the related components, the Savision Web Console defaults to SSL. When this Web Console isn’t published to the internet, it’s not required to use a third party SSL certificate. Instead one could use a self-signed certificate. The installer of the Savision Web Console aids you in that. Simply hit the Create Certificate button and on the fly a certificate, required for SSL, will be created:

And:

So far so good. However, now one might bump into the error message ‘There is a problem with this website's security certificate’.

Simply because the self signed certificate has the FQDN of the server where the Savision Web Console runs from. However, the URL used doesn’t have the FQDN but only the NETBIOS name of that server. So now the security of the browser kicks in, telling you the certificate doesn’t match with the URL you used:

This is a nagging issue which keeps on coming back. So basically there are two solutions:

1. You buy a SSL certificate from a well known CA (they come cheap nowadays);
2. Or, when you have a CA (based on Microsoft technology) in place, create a Domain Certificate with the NETBIOS name as Common Name instead.

Option 1 is to be advised when the Savision Web Console will be published on the internet or internal security requirements demand it. Option 2 is to be used only when the Savision Web Console will be used internally.

And of course, you could also disable SSL. But that’s a bad idea all together. After all, SCOM collects sensitive data and you don’t want to send that unencrypted over your network…

Already in 2010 I blogged how to secure the SCOM 2007 R2 Web Console with SSL by using a Domain Certificate. So when Option 2 is at play here for you, simply read that posting and of you go.

With Option 1, you most certainly have the CA where you buy your certificates from. Simply buy a SSL certificate and use ONLY the NETBIOS name of the server hosting the Savision Web Console as the Common Name for the SSL certificate.

So now we have a new certificate, whether we used option 1 or 2. So how to attach it to the Savision Web Console? This is very easy, simply follow these 3 steps:

1. Start a RDP session with the server hosting the Savision Web Console and log on with an account which has local admin permissions. Start IIS Manager;
2. Go to [SERVER NAME] > Sites > Live Maps 2012 Web Console > click right > Edit Bindings > Select the one and only SSL binding, it looks like this:
    
3. > Edit > under the header SSL Certificate: there is a drop down menu. Select the new SSL certificate (in this example I created a Domain Certificate named MS01 SSL For Savision Web Console)
   And:
   
   Click OK > Close.

Now the Savision Web Console opens in IE without the nagging message:

Using the Savision Web Console? Don’t FORGET Windows Firewall!

Bumped into this issue myself and felt a bit stupid afterwards.

For a customer I installed Savision Live Maps (Web Console included). Built some nice dashboards and today was the time to showcase those dashboards. Just before the demonstration started I tested everything in order to keep demo devil outside .

Everything worked perfect. The Savision Web Console however worked only on the OM12 Management Server where it was installed. But outside it didn’t work. IE just timed out… But I was a bit in a hurry so I had no time to take a better look at it.

During the demonstration/presentation I showed the dashboards from the local OM12 Management Server and the audience was very impressed. But afterwards I wanted to know why the Savision Web Console didn’t work outside the OM12 Management Server. And of course, solve it as well…

Bummer! It turned out the firewall was turned on and there wasn’t a Rule in place which allowed traffic over TCP port 52909!
 

When the required Inbound Rule was created and saved, everything worked like a charm!

And:

Lesson learned:
ALWAYS check the firewall on the related server whether it’s running and requires some modifications.

SCOM 2012 R2 Announced!

During the keynote for TechEd 2013 USA, Brad Anderson, corporate vice president of Windows Server division, made some very interesting announcements.

(Picture is borrowed from PCWorld.com.)

These are the most important product-/service related announcements about future releases for:

1. Blue = Windows 8.1;
2. Windows Server 2012 R2;
3. System Center 2012 R2;
4. Windows Intune;
5. SQL Server 2014.

For Windows 8.1 a public preview version will be released on the 26th of June! For all other products (Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center 2012 R2 and SQL Server 2014) also a preview release will be available at the end of June .

The RTM releases of these products/services (except for SQL Server 2014 that is) will be available at the end of this year.

Already in 2012 Microsoft told the public they were stepping up the pace and would deliver new versions of their major products at least once per year. Their cloud based service offerings develop way much faster and see many new iterations per year.

But their more ‘on-premise’ related software is on schedule now and starts having a new major release once per year. Guess working at Microsoft is anything but a dull job .

New Community MP: SQL File Disk Performance MP

My friend and fellow MVP Bob Cornelissen did it again: he made a new MP for the community, this time all about SQL file disk performance.

As he states: ‘…This management pack brings together I/O statistics for SQL data files and log files directly from the SQL virtual file stats view into SCOM where you can report on these for any period of time. It can collect data from SQL 2005, 2008 and 2012…’

This MP can be downloaded from here. Bob also wrote a posting about this MP on his own blog, containing additional information.

Awesome Bob! A job well done. And good to share it with the community.