If you define a monitor and bind that to a server where the service isn’t installed you can get an error and at the detailed description you can see the following.

The Option “State” 8 means, that the service wasn’t found.

Here is a list of State types

0 = MOM_SERVICE_UNKNOWN_STATE
1 = MOM_SERVICE_STOPPED
2 = MOM_SERVICE_START_PENDING
3 = MOM_SERVICE_STOP_PENDING
4 = MOM_SERVICE_RUNNING
5 = MOM_SERVICE_CONTINUE_PENDING
6 = MOM_SERVICE_PAUSE_PENDING
7 = MOM_SERVICE_PAUSED
8 = MOM_SERVICE_NOT_FOUND
9 = MOM_SERVER_NOT_FOUND

On the one hand the customer want a monitor which knows that the service was installed on that server and the other hand to define many services to monitor easily.

For that solution I create a custom management pack to handle that requirements.

Here are the entries of that management pack

Management Pack files:

I guess the name of the management pack is clear enough.

Classes:

The Class “Class.DynamicServices” is the main class where the monitor and the dynamic service discovery are defind.

The Class “Class.Monitor.DynamicServices.on.Host” is a sample class where you can define servers on which the services will be searched. I will show the sample solution later on.

Discoveries:

 

DynamicServiceDiscovery (Default= Disabled:True)

The discovery “DynamicServiceDiscovery” is the main discovery where you can define a search expression for your custom service expression which you want to monitor.

The discovery is a powershell script discovery!

There are some override able parameters defined which are described here:

CheckStartupState (Default=True)

If true, then only services with Startup Type “Automatic” will be monitored. If false, booth Startup Types (“Automatic and Manual") will be monitored.

Debug (Default=False)

If the debug mode is set to true, a detailed debug event will be written into the Operations Manager log on each discovered server.

Sample:

I’ve defined a warning, error and success event which has the default values.

• Success: 850
• Warning: 851
• Error: 852

You can change those EventID’s by the override parameters.

DebugSuccessEvent

DebugWarningEvent

DebugErrorEvent

SearchExpression (Default=samplesvc1;*samplesvc2*)

Here you can define the service names which you want to discover. You can write the full service name or a service name with a wildcard. If you want to discover more than one service the separator is “;”

DynamicServiceDiscovery.on.Host

This discovery is a sample registry discovery where you also can define a search expression (with or without wildcard). The Discovers DynamicServiceDiscovery is per default disabled but there is an override which enables that discovery for the class where that discovery was bind.

The discovery has only one custom override able parameter.

SearchExpression (Default=scom*)

You can define  a search expression to find one ore more computer objects in you SCOM environment here.

Monitors:

I’ve define only one Monitor which is bind to the Class “Class.DynamicServices” and the name is “Dynamic Service Discovery Monitor”.

That monitor will check each service which you have defined in your search expression. The only not perfect thing is that the monitor name isn’t dynamic. You find a description for that reason on the following link, written by a colleague of mine.  Link.

Recoveries (Optional):

I also create a recovery for that monitor which can be enabled if needed.

Views:

I create one view where the discovered services and their states are shown.

Sample Configuration:

In that section I will show you a sample configuration.

Scenario:

1. Get the services “DNS Client, DHCP Client” on all Windows computers in your SCOM environment.
2. Enable the Debug mode on all discovered services on all Windows servers.
3. Monitor on all Domain Controller only the “Active Directory Certificate Services” service
4. Disable the Debug mode on all Domain Controller

View Result:

How does it work:

First I define an override for the Class “Windows Server” with the following parameters.

Then I define an override for the Class “Windows Domain Controller” with this parameters.

Important!! In my test case I change the parameter “IntervalSeconds” to 60. Don’t do this in your production environment!

You can see that all your servers discovered the service “DHCP*;DNS*”except your Domain Controllers. On your Domain Controller only searches for the Service “CertSvc”.

You can check this in your “Dynamic Service Discovered Objects” View:

Hope that management is useful and it will make me happy if i get a feedback. Please let me know if you have any other things which I can add to that MP.

DiscoverServicestoMonitorDynamic.zip

So why this happend?

In my case I have a german region but english operating system defined and this is the problem.

!!BUT!! I don't want to change my region settings!

So what you can do?

Here is the answer:

1.) Open the “Control Panel” an search for “Language”

2.) Open the language settings and click on “Change date, time, or number formats”

3.) Select the “Additional settings” at the Formats tag in the region window

4.) Okay and here is the ping point, you have to change the “Decimal symbol” from “,” to “.”

5.) Click Apply and OK

6.) Open the System Center Operations Manager Powershell and try it again.

Now you have no problems to add new locations. When you have all locations defined change the region settings back to the default and it’s done.

2 Monitors which are bind to the Class Hyper-V Virtual Network, 3 Monitors which are bind to the Class Hyper-V Virtual Network Adapter 1 Monitor which is bind to the Class Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk 1 Rule which is bind to the Class Server running Hyper-V 2012

Hyper-V-Network-Admin Hyper-V-Image-Management-Service-Admin

Most of the time this happends because a Proxy Server is using in the customer Environment. To define a Proxy Server for the SCOM Console you Need to add the following lines at the buttom of the file

• C:\Program Files\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Console\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Monitoring.Console.exe

<system.net>
   <defaultProxy enabled="true" useDefaultCredentials="true">
      <proxy usesystemdefault="True" />
   </defaultProxy>
</system.net>

Looks like this.

If you import the Microsoft Active Directory Management Pack I often see that the following warnings are occur.

• AD Replication Monitoring : encountered a runtime error. Failed to obtain the InfrastructureMaster using a well known GUID.
• AD Replication Monitoring : encountered a runtime error. Failed to write the adminDescription attribute of XXX The error returned was: 'The object already exists.

1.) Failed to obtain the InfrastructureMaster using a well known GUID

This error can happened when a Domain Controller will be demoted.

The problem is that the AD Attribute “fSMORoleOwner” for the infrastructureMaster is set to an Old DC.

The Microsoft way is to use the script MSLink

-------fixfsmo.vbs------------------
const ADS_NAME_INITTYPE_GC = 3
const ADS_NAME_TYPE_1779 = 1
const ADS_NAME_TYPE_CANONICAL = 2

set inArgs = WScript.Arguments

if (inArgs.Count = 1) then
    ' Assume the command line argument is the NDNC (in DN form) to use.
    NdncDN = inArgs(0)
Else
    Wscript.StdOut.Write "usage: cscript fixfsmo.vbs NdncDN"
End if

if (NdncDN <> "") then

    ' Convert the DN form of the NDNC into DNS dotted form.
    Set objTranslator = CreateObject("NameTranslate")
    objTranslator.Init ADS_NAME_INITTYPE_GC, ""
    objTranslator.Set ADS_NAME_TYPE_1779, NdncDN
    strDomainDNS = objTranslator.Get(ADS_NAME_TYPE_CANONICAL)
    strDomainDNS = Left(strDomainDNS, len(strDomainDNS)-1)
     
    Wscript.Echo "DNS name: " & strDomainDNS

    ' Find a domain controller that hosts this NDNC and that is online.
    set objRootDSE = GetObject("LDAP://" & strDomainDNS & "/RootDSE")
    strDnsHostName = objRootDSE.Get("dnsHostName")
    strDsServiceName = objRootDSE.Get("dsServiceName")
    Wscript.Echo "Using DC " & strDnsHostName

    ' Get the current infrastructure fsmo.
    strInfraDN = "CN=Infrastructure," & NdncDN
    set objInfra = GetObject("LDAP://" & strInfraDN)
    Wscript.Echo "infra fsmo is " & objInfra.fsmoroleowner

    ' If the current fsmo holder is deleted, set the fsmo holder to this domain controller.

    if (InStr(objInfra.fsmoroleowner, "\0ADEL:") > 0) then

        ' Set the fsmo holder to this domain controller.
        objInfra.Put "fSMORoleOwner",  strDsServiceName
        objInfra.SetInfo

        ' Read the fsmo holder back.
        set objInfra = GetObject("LDAP://" & strInfraDN)
        Wscript.Echo "infra fsmo changed to:" & objInfra.fsmoroleowner

    End if

End if

Copy this VB Script into a file and execute this with the following parameter.

• cscript fixfsmo.vbs DC=DomainDnsZones,DC=contoso,DC=com
• cscript fixfsmo.vbs DC=ForestDnsZones,DC=contoso,DC=com

2.) Failed to write the adminDescription attribute of XXX The error returned was: 'The object already exists.

This error happend when the Default Action Account for the Domain Controller is running under local system. You have to define an Action Account which have Domain Admin privileges or write Access to the Organisation Unit “OpsMgrLatencyMonitors” and bind it to all Domain Controller at the Default Action Account Profile.

This issue can have 4 reasons:

• Wrong IIS configuration
• Wrong SharePoint configuration
• Wrong IE Settings
• Certificate not trusted

I will show you the right way to install SCSM Portal with self sign SSL Certificate and SharePoint 2010 foundation Server installed.

1.) First of all we have to generate a self sign IIS Certificate. Please always use the FQDN Servername like this:

2.) The next Step download the SharePoint Fundation 2010 Server (Link).

3.) Install the SharePoint 2010 “Software prerequisits” and then the “SharePoint" Foundation Server”

4.) Now you can install the SCSM Web Portal (use both ‘Web Content Server’ and ‘SharePoint Web Parts’)

If you now open the SCSM Portal you will see a blank Website. Why is that issue?

Okay let’s Check the 5 reasons (above) Step By Step:

Wrong IIS configuration

1.) Open your IIS Manager and select your SCSM Portal Site. In my solution “Service Manager Portal”

2.) Select Application Settings and edit the option “SMPortal_WebContentServer_URL”. It’s important that you insert the same Server Name as your “Issued To” Name in your SSL Certificate:

From NetBios Name:

To FQDN Name:

Click okay and reset your IIS (iisreset)

Okay now you have fixed your first isse but I think the Website is still blank. Let’s go to the secound reason.

Wrong SharePoint configuration

1.) Open your SharePoint 2012 Central Administration application:

2.) Select “Manage web applications”  in the section “Application Management”

3.) Now navigate to your SCSM Portal Site. In my solution “Service Manager Portal”, select the entry and goto “Application Management:

4.) Select “Configure alternate Access mappings” in the section “Web Application”

5.) Now you can see all Web Urls configure in you SharePoint Site. Select the WebSite (in my solution) “https://xxx:444” and Change it:

From NetBios Name:

To FQDN Name:

Click okay and you resolved the second issue. Man there are many things to Change :) but the end is closely.

Wrong IE Settings

It’s important that the Portal Website is in you

• “local Intranet sites” Security Zone and
• the “Integrated Authentication” is enabled

The third issue where solved.

Certificate not trusted

Import you Website Certificate to the trusted Publishers.

Now you solved all SCSM Portal issues and I hope your Site Looks like this:

This links are very usefull to administrate, configure, and troubleshoot System Center Operations Manager.

In a seperate post I will give you more information about Management Pack Authoring and some Management Packs which are written by myself.

Create Monitors Windows

• Create a two state script Monitor
  Really useful, to understand PropertyBags and the Scripting Mechanismus
• A secound two state script Monitor
  It also shows the Monitor creating steps

Create Monitors Linux

• Creating a Syslog Monitor
• Creating Linux Syslog Monitor
• Creating a two State Linux script Monitor
  It isn't the same as a Windows Script Monitor. This link can help to understand the Linux Script Monitor mechanismus

Network Monitoring

• Simulate monitoring of Network devices

Database Grooming

• Everything about SCOM Data Warehouse Grooming
• Partitioning And Grooming Has Not Completed Recently
• Manually run partitioning and grooming on SCOM database

Dashboard

• Configure Service Level Dashboard

AEM (Agentless Exeption Monitoring)

• AEM Custom Reporing
• AEM Installation and FAQ

ACS (Audit Collection Service)

• ACS Internals Part1
• ACS installation
• ACS Configure Query
• ACS Filtering
• User AdtAdmin.exe

Usefull scripts and Management packs

• PKI Monitor script 

Troubleshooting

• Remove orphaned/ghost objects in scom
• Agent Pending Actions can get out of synch between the Console, and the database

Installation

• Installing System Center Operations Manager on a Single Server
    I prefere this installation only for test und developer enviroments, because there is no
    HA (High Avaibility) and maybe performance issues happen.
• Distributed Deployment of Operations Manager

Migration

• Upgrade SCOM 2007 R2 to SCOM 2012
    The supported upgrade Path SCOM 2007 R2 is:
    SCOM 2007 R2 > SCOM 2012 > SCOM 2012 R2
• Upgrade SCOM 2012 to 2012 R2
• Exporting and Importing user roles Sample1
• Export and Import user roles Sample2
• Migrate subscriptions between Operations Manager enviroments
• System Center Operations Manager Sizing Helper

Agent installation

• Install Windows Agent
• Windows Agent Deployment Ports

Usefull Tools SCOM 2012

• Export Monitoring Configuration in SCOM 2012 (Powershell CmdLet)
• SCOM 2012 Task Collection

Usefull Tools SCOM 2007 R2

• Show Rules, Monitors and Discoveriers running on Agent

Performance Optimizations

• Permformance Optimizations for Operations Manager 2007 R2 and 2012

This template lets you monitor applications and web services that are hosted in Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0. You can select one or more applications or services discovered by the IIS 7.0 management pack and configure monitoring of performance and exception events. You must have the Windows Server 2008 Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 management pack installed to monitor applications and web services.

For System Center 2012 SP1, you can use the template to monitor applications and web services that are hosted in Internet Information Services (IIS) 8.0. You can select one or more applications or services discovered by the IIS 8.0 management pack and configure monitoring of performance and exception events. You must have the Windows Server 2012 Internet Information Services (IIS) 8.0 management pack installed to monitor applications and web services.

Testscenario for Server 2012 (R2)

• Install Server 2012 or 2012R2
• Install DotNetNuke Link

Once the Installation is done you can configure System Center 2012 R2 to Monitor this Website.

First you have to Import the Management Pack for IIS 8 (Server 2012) and then the APM 2012 Management Pack from the Installation CD.

Step 1.) Import IIS 8 Management Pack from Microsoft Catalog.

Open the Operations Console > Administration > Management Packs and then "Import Management Packs" Add\Add from catalog

In find selection insert  "IIS" and press search

Now you can see many Types of IIS (IIS 2000, 2003, 2008,...) Please select both Management Packs from IIS 2012 and press install.

Okay let's have a look at the Monitoring Tab in the Operations Console

There is a new Folder like "Microsoft Windows Internet Information Services" which are sealed

After few minutes you can see the discovered Application Pool's, FTP Sites and so on.

In the Operations Manager Eventlog on one of you IIS Server you can see the Eventlog 1201 with the description "New Management Pack with id:"Microsoft.Windows.InternetInformationServices.2012", version:"7.0.10165.0" received."

Step 2.) Import APM Management Pack from Installation Media.

The First Import from Management Packs is done. Now you have to Import the APM 2008 Management Pack from Installation Media.

Add your System Center Operations Manager 2012 CD into the CDROM (virtual or physisch).

Open the Operations Manager Console and go to the Administration > Management Packs Tab.

Import new Management Pack from Disk

and select the Management Pack File "Microsoft.SystemCenter.Apm.Web.IIS8.mp" from the ManagementPacks Folder in the Installation Media.

Now go back to the Monitoring Tab and you can see a new State View on Application Monitoring\.Net Monitoring with the Name "IIS 8.0 ASP.NET Web Application Inventory"

The next Steps are similar like the TechNet Site

This Application is perfect to demonstrate the System Center Operations Manager APM (Application Perfomance Monitoring)

1.Download and start DDN Setup

2.Configure the Prerequesites for DNN

Define SA Password (SQL Express is installed)

3.Install DNN

The IIS 8 and its configuration will automatically installed.

4. Configure IIS for DNN

5. Once the Installation and IIS Configuration is finished, you can launch the webpage

https://localhost/dotnetnuke/Install/InstallWizard.aspx

Sometimes i get an 404.17 - Not Found Error.

This can happend while the ASP .Net 4.5 Role isn't installed.

Open the Server Manager and activate the Server Roles Option:

Web Server (IIS) > Application Development > ASP .Net 4.5

6. Once that is done you can refresh the Web Browser and see the following Screen

Define Username and Password for Management Tasks.

You can leave the Default Website.

7. Enable SQLEXPRESS TCP/IP Settings to create a Database via SQLCMD

Open the SQL Server configuration console. Expand "SQL Server Network Configuration" and enable the TCP/IP Option

Once this is done you can open the cmd (Command Line) and create a connect to the Database via SQLCMD

Type: sqlcmd -S localhost\$InstanceNAME -U sa -P $Password   > Press Enter

$InstanceNAME  > SQL Instance Name

$Password > you defined sa Password

Now you can use the following command to create a Database:

Type: Create Database DNN  > Press Enter

Type: go > Press Enter

8. Configure SQL Settings

To Configure your DNN Database you have to select "SQL Server/SQL Server Express Database and under Security "User Defined". Then add the Database Name (you have previously created) and the sa Password to configure the Database.

  Congratulations the DNN Application is now finished installed