Community MP: SCOM Agent Management Properties & Tasks

Some time ago Kevin Holman authored a MP as an example what SCOM can do for you. The funny thing is, I’ve put this MP on my list of community MPs which are a MUST have for any SCOM environment, just like the SCOM Health Reports and Tao’s OpsMgr 2012 Self Maintenance MP.

What Kevin’s MP does? Good question! The answer is easy: It simplifies the administration of your SCOM Agents in many ways. It does this by adding useful properties of the SCOM Agent and by adding useful tasks.

Properties added to the SCOM Agent and as such shown in the Console(*):

1. The “real” agent version;
2. The UR level of the agent;
3. Any Management Groups that the agent belongs to;
4. A check if PowerShell is installed and what version;
5. OS Version and Name;
6. Primary and Failover management servers;
7. The default Agent Action account.

Tasks added to the SCOM Agent (or Console)(*):

1. Computer Management;
2. Create Test Event;
3. Execute any PowerShell;
4. Execute any Service Restart;
5. Execute any Software from Share;
6. Export Event Log;
7. HealthService – Flush;
8. HealthService – Restart;
9. Management Group – ADD and Management Group – REMOVE;
10. Ping – (Console Task);
11. Remote Desktop – (Console Task).

(*: For descriptions what a certain property means or task precisely does, please visit this webpage on TechNet Gallery.)

As you can see, this is an IMPRESSIVE list with properties and tasks which should have been there by default. None the less, this FREE MP adds them, empowering you to run SCOM even more smoother.

Go here to download the MP for FREE and read about the MP in more detail.