Run custom discovery using a custom resource pool

Question

I've created a custom discovery that is working as expected. However I would like to target a specific resource pool to run the discovery. I know I can target it to the all management servers pool, but I don't want to install the powershell modules required for the discovery on all of the management servers. Does anyone know where I can find the documentation on to do this?

All management servers: Target="SC!Microsoft.SystemCenter.AllManagementServersPool"

Answer 1

Short answer : it depends. You're welcome :p

Longer answer :
A resource pool is "just" an instance of a class like mostly everything else in SCOM, but there is a slight difference between most of "out of the box" Resource Pools (All Management Servers, AD Assignment, Notification...) and the ones you create through the GUI.
Out of the box ones are based on what's called a "Singleton Class". Said otherwise, they have their own class and only one instance of that class can exist. So All Management Servers is Microsoft.SystemCenter.AllManagementServersPool, AD Assignment is Microsoft.SystemCenter.ADAssignmentResourcePool, Notification is Microsoft.SystemCenter.NotificationsResourcePool etc.
They all use Microsoft.SystemCenter.ManagementServicePool as their Base Class, and since they are Singleton classes they do not need to be discovered : their sole instance simply "exists" just by declarating their ClassType.
And because each of them is a distinct class, it's easy to target a discovery at them.

However, the resource pools that you create through the GUI are all instances of the same class called Microsoft.SystemCenter.ManagementServiceRuntimePool. Said otherwise, if you target a discovery at that class, it will run on all resource pools that were created through the GUI.
You can think of it in the same way as you would for Windows Servers : you have many instances of the Microsoft.Windows.Computer classes in your environment, and if you target a discovery at that class it will run on all of them. If you want a more precise target for your discovery, you need a more specific class.

So the easiest way to achieve what you want is to create your own Resource Pool singleton class inside your custom MP. You can have a look at how Daniele Grandini did it in his OMS MP for example : https://github.com/QuaeNocentDocent/OMS-ManagementPack/blob/master/QND.OMS/Pool.mpx

And then you'll be able to target your discovery at your custom Resource Pool class :)

Answer 2

Thanks for the reply CyrAz.

What I did yesterday after posting was added the following line and then used it as the target and that appears to work in our dev environment. I wanted to double check this is correct before doing it in production.

<ClassType ID="REMOVED.Patching.Automation.Pool" Accessibility="Public" Abstract="false" Base="SC!Microsoft.SystemCenter.ManagementServicePool" Hosted="false" Singleton="true" Extension="false" />

When I try inside of MPStudio to add the target to the discovery, it crashes MPStudio. If what I've done above is correct, I'll open a ticket with support.

Answer 3

That's basically what is done in the OMS MP, except it also has a discovery for the associated Pool Watcher which you should add as well.
But not having it should never crash MPStudio.

Answer 4

As a side note, a more elegant way of deploying the required powershell modules would be to embed them in your mp instead of installing them manually on each MS.
Read here : https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/15693.operations-manager-management-pack-authoring-management-pack-formats.aspx#Creating_a_management_pack_bundle
Or here : http://web.archive.org/web/20170706175753/http://www.systemcentercentral.com/scom-2012-create-an-mpb-to-deploy-files-using-vsae/