Updated SCOM Management Packs

Some SCOM management packs have been upated as of 27th August 2014.

Those updated includes

1) DHCP MP

2) DNS MP

3) MSMQ MP

4) Cluster MP

5) AD MP

6) Windows Server Core MP

More details is available here

Customizing Information in SCOM Subscriptions

Custom Properties for Alert Description and Notification:

Alert Description Variables:

For event Rules:

EventDisplayNumber (Event ID):             $Data/EventDisplayNumber$

EventDescription (Description):               $Data/EventDescription$

Publisher Name (Event Source):              $Data/PublisherName$

EventCategory:                                    $Data/EventCategory$

LoggingComputer:                                $Data/LoggingComputer$

EventLevel:                                          $Data/EventLevel$

Channel:                                              $Data/Channel$

UserName:                                           $Data/UserName$

EventNumber:                                      $Data/EventNumber$

Event Time:                                          $Data/@time$

For event Monitors:

EventDisplayNumber (Event ID):            $Data/Context/EventDisplayNumber$

EventDescription (Description):              $Data/Context/EventDescription$

Publisher Name (Event Source):             $Data/Context/PublisherName$

EventCategory:                                    $Data/Context/EventCategory$

LoggingComputer:                                $Data/Context/LoggingComputer$

EventLevel:                                         $Data/Context/EventLevel$

Channel:                                             $Data/Context/Channel$

UserName:                                          $Data/Context/UserName$

EventNumber:                                     $Data/Context/EventNumber$

Event Time:                                         $Data/Context/@time$

For Repeating Event Monitors:

EventDisplayNumber (Event ID):              $Data/Context/Context/DataItem/EventDisplayNumber$

EventDescription (Description):                $Data/Context/Context/DataItem/EventDescription$

Publisher Name (Event Source):              $Data/Context/Context/DataItem/PublisherName$

EventCategory:                                      $Data/Context/Context/DataItem/EventCategory$

LoggingComputer:                                  $Data/Context/Context/DataItem/LoggingComputer$

EventLevel:                                            $Data/Context/Context/DataItem/EventLevel$

Channel:                                                $Data/Context/Context/DataItem/Channel$

UserName:                                             $Data/Context/Context/DataItem/UserName$

EventNumber:                                         $Data/Context/Context/DataItem/EventNumber$

Performance Threshold Monitors:

Object (Perf Object Name):                    $Data/Context/ObjectName$

Counter (Perf Counter Name):                $Data/Context/CounterName$

Instance (Perf Instance Name):              $Data/Context/InstanceName$

*Value (Perf Counter Value):                  $Data/Context/Value$

**Last Sampled Value                            $Data/Context/SampleValue$

*Value will show the actual performance value for simple and avg monitors. It will show number of samples for consecutive threshold monitors.

**Last Sampled Value works to show the last value evaluated in a consecutive sample value monitor.

Service Monitors:

Service Name                         $Data/Context/Property[@Name='Name']$

Service Dependencies             $Data/Context/Property[@Name='Dependencies']$

Service Binary Path                $Data/Context/Property[@Name='BinaryPathName']$

Service Display Name             $Data/Context/Property[@Name='DisplayName']$

Service Description                 $Data/Context/Property[@Name='Description']$

Logfile Monitors:

Logfile Directory :                  $Data/Context/LogFileDirectory$

Logfile name:                        $Data/Context/LogFileName$

String:                                  $Data/Context/Params/Param[1]$

Logfile rules:

Logfile Directory:                   $Data/EventData/DataItem/LogFileDirectory$

Logfile name:                        $Data/EventData/DataItem/LogFileName$

String:                                  $Data/EventData/DataItem/Params/Param[1]$

General:

To show the name of the Windows Computer host:

$Target/Host/Property[Type="Windows!Microsoft.Windows.Computer"]/NetworkName$

Notifications:

$Data/Context/DataItem/AlertId$                                       The AlertID GUID

$Data/Context/DataItem/AlertName$                                   The Alert Name

$Data/Context/DataItem/Category$                                    The Alert category

$Data/Context/DataItem/CreatedByMonitor$                       True/False

$Data/Context/DataItem/Custom1$                                     CustomField1

$Data/Context/DataItem/Custom2$                                    CustomField2

$Data/Context/DataItem/Custom3$                                    CustomField3

$Data/Context/DataItem/Custom4$                                    CustomField4

$Data/Context/DataItem/Custom5$                                    CustomField5

$Data/Context/DataItem/Custom6$                                     CustomField6

$Data/Context/DataItem/Custom7$                                     CustomField7

$Data/Context/DataItem/Custom8$                                     CustomField8

$Data/Context/DataItem/Custom9$                                     CustomField9

$Data/Context/DataItem/Custom10$                                  CustomField10

$Data/Context/DataItem/DataItemCreateTime$                      UTC Date/Time of Dataitem created

$Data/Context/DataItem/DataItemCreateTimeLocal$               LocalTime Date/Time of Dataitem created

$Data/Context/DataItem/LastModified$                                 UTC Date/Time DataItem was modified

$Data/Context/DataItem/LastModifiedLocal$                          Local Date/Time DataItem was modified

$Data/Context/DataItem/ManagedEntity$                               ManagedEntity GUID

$Data/Context/DataItem/ManagedEntityDisplayName$             ManagedEntity Display name

$Data/Context/DataItem/ManagedEntityFullName$                   ManagedEntity Full name

$Data/Context/DataItem/ManagedEntityPath$                          Managed Entity Path

$Data/Context/DataItem/Priority$                                          The Alert Priority Number (High=1,Medium=2,Low=3)

$Data/Context/DataItem/Owner$                                           The Alert Owner

$Data/Context/DataItem/RepeatCount$                                  The Alert Repeat Count

$Data/Context/DataItem/ResolutionState$                               Resolution state ID (0=New, 255= Closed)

$Data/Context/DataItem/ResolutionStateLastModified$                 UTC Date/Time ResolutionState was last modified

$Data/Context/DataItem/ResolutionStateLastModifiedLocal$          Local Date/Time ResolutionState was last modified

$Data/Context/DataItem/ResolutionStateName$                       The Resolution State Name (New, Closed)

$Data/Context/DataItem/ResolvedBy$                                     Person resolving the alert

$Data/Context/DataItem/Severity$                                          The Alert Severity ID

$Data/Context/DataItem/TicketId$                                           The TicketID

$Data/Context/DataItem/TimeAdded$                                       UTC Time Added

$Data/Context/DataItem/TimeAddedLocal$                               Local Time Added

$Data/Context/DataItem/TimeRaised$                                      UTC Time Raised

$Data/Context/DataItem/TimeRaisedLocal$                              Local Time Raised

$Data/Context/DataItem/TimeResolved$                                  UTC Date/Time the Alert was resolved

$Data/Context/DataItem/WorkflowId$                                      The Workflow ID (GUID)

$Data/Recipients/To/Address/Address$                                    The name of the recipient

The Web Console URL:

$Target/Property[Type="Notification!Microsoft.SystemCenter.AlertNotificationSubscriptionServer" /WebConsoleUrl$

The principalname of the management server:

Target/Property[Type="Notification!Microsoft.SystemCenter.AlertNotificationSubscriptionServer" /PrincipalName$

New Office 365 MP

On July 29th 204, Microsoft has released System Center Management Pack for Office 365 and it can be downloaded from here. 

This management pack can be used to

1.       Add and configure Office 365 subscriptions to be monitored in Operations Manager

2.       Proactively monitor connection health for subscriptions

3.       Automatically discover services and features available for each subscription

4.       Proactively notify when Office 365 Incidents that affects services operational status appear, being changed or resolved

5.       Reflect Office 365 Incidents and informational Messages for the subscription to Operations Manager alerts

Intuitively visualize subscriptions health and corresponding alerts via dashboard

I will blog about this in future after importing this into my environment.

How to enable the Disk Cleanup tool on Windows Server 2008 R2

For some odd reason Microsoft decided to leave this feature disabled by default, and place it within a optional feature set called "Desktop Experience".

If your hard drive is getting full and you wish to do a disk cleanup, there are two ways to enable the Disk Cleanup tool. We recommend using option #2 below for several reasons:

- Installing the Desktop Experience feature will not only install Disk Cleanup, but a lot of other utilities you likely don't need on a server (sound recorder, desktop themes, etc).

- Installing the Desktop Experience feature will require a server reboot


How to enable the Disk Cleanup tool:

1) Go to Programs & Features, and in the Features section, enable/install "Desktop Experience". The downside to this is that you will need to reboot your server after installing this and it installs other components you do not need on a server.


2) [RECOMMENDED] - All you really need to do is copy some files that are already located on your server into specific system folders, as described at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff630161(WS.10).aspx


The location of the files you need to copy depend on your version of Windows:


Once you have located the files move them to the following locations:

Copy Cleanmgr.exe to %systemroot%\System32
Copy Cleanmgr.exe.mui to %systemroot%\System32\en-US.

You can now launch the Disk cleanup tool by running Cleanmgr.exe from the command prompt.