1.       Export a XMLA file from the corrupt DB and modify a bit.

2.       Take back up of all SM DBs and Cubes (DWDatamart, DWRespository, DWStagingAndConfig , Sevicemanager, DWASdatabase)

3.       Uninstall all the cube Management Packs from Service Manager

4.       Let the  MPsync job run to  sync the deletion in the DW

5.       Create a new DWASDatabase, by using the modified XMLA file

6.       Import two Cube related Management packs

7.       Wait for MPsync to complete again

8.       Cubes and dimensions are rebuilt automatically following this.

1.    Open SQL Management studio and connect to the Analysis instance

2.   If you can still access the DWASDatabase, you can extract the XMLA and modify it to create a new database. (Otherwise read the last section of this blog post)

a.       Right click on the DWASDatabase, Script Database as, Create to, File

3.     Save the file and open it for edit in a XML Editor. Since it’s a very large file, I normally use Notepad ++.

4.     Delete everything within Dimensions section (in my case 51000 lines)

5.     Delete everything within the Cubes section (in my case 690.000 lines)

6.     Save the file for later use.

7.     Open the Service Manager console, Administration, Management Packs

8.     Delete all the MPs related to cubes:

9.     Let the MPSyncjob run to sync the deletion. Do not continue until the Cube MPs are NOT listed in the Data Warehouse Management packs view.

10.  Open SQL Management studio and connect to the Analysis instance again

11.  Delete the DWASDatabase

12.  Open a new XMLA Query and paste in the XMLA file you edited in the earlier steps.

13.  Click on Execute and a new DWASDatabase is created, but without the cubes and dimensions, as we deleted those earlier when editing the script.

14.  Next you need to import all the cube MPs again. The files are either located within C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012\Service Manager or else you have to extract them from the SCSM 2012 R2 install media:

a.     Locate the SM.MSI file (Installmedia\amd64\Setup\Server\) and run e.g:
msiexec /a SM.msi /qb TARGETDIR=C:\temp\SCSM2012Installfiles

b.    Files are  now located in C:\temp\SCSM2012Installfiles\Program Files\Microsoft System Center\Service Manager

c.     First Import the ServiceCatalogCubes.mpb and then the Cubes.mpb

15.   Wait for the MPSyncjob to finish, after this, the cubes and dimensions will be created again.

16.  The cubes then start to get processed

Hopefully, you now have a new and functioning SSAS database.

1.     ID and NAME to reflect the name of the corrupt DB

2.     For each datasource, update the ID, Name, ConnectionString and Account

3.     After the database has been created, you have to manually add the users and groups, by using the SQL Management Studio, to the SCDW_Report_Readers and SCDW_Adminstrators roles, as they are not defined in this file.

CreateNewDWASDatabase.xmla

By uploading to SharePoint, the customer kept track of all changes made to the request document and also had a long term storage of all requests.

I ended up creating a Orchestrator runbook, that was initiated during the execution of the Service Request:

The activities in the runbook are as follows:

1. Load the SR that has started the runbook

2. Extract all attachments to a temporary fileshare, in a folder named as the SR ID.

The script to extract attachments from a WI, is more a less a raw copy of the work Patrick has blogged about: https://blogs.litware.se/?p=1369 

3. Run a powershell script to upload the specific folder and files to a site in SharePoint Online.

4. Update the SR with the URL of where the attachments are stored.

You can download the runbook here.

Extract Attachments.zip

To see the current retention settings of the DW databases, you can use the cmdlet that comes with SCSM.

Get-SCDWRetentionPeriod
NOTE: if not using the correct syntax, it returns the setting of the DWRepository DB and not the DWDataMart.

So to get the retention setting for the DWDatamart you use the following syntax:

Get-SCDWRetentionPeriod –ComputerName <Data Warehouse Management Server name> –DatamartComputerName <SQLServer\SQLInstance> -DatamartDatabaseName DWDataMart

e.g. Get-SCDWRetentionPeriod –ComputerName SCSM-DW –DatamartComputerName SCSM-SQL\DW -DatamartDatabaseName DWDataMart

You can also change the settings for the OMDWDataMart and CMDWDataMart this way. But my customer is only interested in the DWDataMart data.

So to change the retention of the DWDatamart to 5 years ( 5 years * 365 days * 24 hours * 60 minutes = 2628000 minutes) the commandline is:

Set-SCDWRetentionPeriod –ComputerName SCSM-DW –DatamartComputerName SCSM-SQL\DW -DatamartDatabaseName DWDataMart -DurationInMinutes 2628000

After running the command and rerun the Get-SCDWRetentionPeriod cmdlet, you will see the new retention period in minutes.

Remember to estimate the size of the DWDataMart when storing data for 2 more years.

If you want to run a SQL Query to verify the retention setting, you can do like this:

use DWDataMart

Recently they published a series of videos, that demonstrates their different solutions capabilities.

I would recommend you to have a look at one or more of these videos, to learn what they have to offer:

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_self_service_portal/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_workflow_optimizer/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_assigned_to_me/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_sla_management/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_list_to_assignee/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_asset_management/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_force_list_selection/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_mandatory_fields/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_auto_assignment/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_enterprise_change/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_advanced_views/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_related_items/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_request_user_input/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_advanced_reporting/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_decision_activity/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_auto_closure/

https://www.caseddimensions.com/scsm_stop_the_clock/

Read the blog post on Service Manager blog: https://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager/archive/2014/05/08/support-and-roadmap-for-cspp-it-grc-and-aaw.aspx

For that reason I have created a couple of runbooks to help with this scenario.

The setup for my customers are:

When a review activity is 'In Progress', the manager gets a mail with instructions to either reply to a mail or enter the Portal to accept or deny the request. Normally the managers preferre to use the mail, as that is easy and can be done remotely.

When the manager rejects the request, the RA and SR is changed to Failed and the remaining activities are left pending.

Instead I want it to look like this; After an RA is rejected the remaining activities are cancelled.

 This is accomplished by the following runbook:

When to manager decides to Deny the request, via clicking the hyperlink in the mail, a new mail is opened and he/she can add a comment. (optionial)

Then by using the Exchange connector and the keywords, it is possible to get the Review activity updated accordingly.

So lets have a look at the runbooks:

The first Monitor Object, is looking for Review Activites that are changed to the status of Failed.

(Gennemsynsaktivitet = Review Activity), (Mislykket = Failed)

The next activities loads the reviewers and their comments and only forwards the reviewers that has added a comment. (This is usefull in the case of more than one reviewer). Since my customer is replying via mail (Exchange Connector) I assume there always is some content in the comments field of the rejection.

(Kommentarer = Comments)

I then load the related Service Request and call a sub-policy to cancel the remaining activities.

In order not to change the status of already completed activities, the load of both the MA and RA are filtered by status not being Completed.

(Fuldført = Complete)

I then load the requesting user from Service Request and only return the affected user to the the users mail address.

(Berørt Bruger = Affected User)

I then prepare to send a mail to the user, based on the manager input.

The mail is formatted like this:

Since I know the mail the manager has replied to has the following content:

Any additional comments regarding the request [Rejected]:

I use the Field manipulation to only include the text after the ‘:’ and send a mail like the following to the user:

I’ve attached the runbook for you to download and use.

ReviewActivities.ois_export

Despite downloading the shell from the link and installing it, the error remained.

I then tried to edit the Authoring_PrerequisiteInputFile.xml and took out the third pre-req check. To bypass the check to see if the installation would complete.

But this just returned a new error

And in the log:

RunCommand: Executing:C:\WINDOWS\Installer\MSI3A4F.tmp-\RegPkg.exe /ranu "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft System Center 2012\Service Manager Authoring\PackagesToLoad\MainEditorPackage.dll"
RunCommand: 'C:\WINDOWS\Installer\MSI3A4F.tmp-\RegPkg.exe' failed with Exit code -532459699
RunCommand: Error:
Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.9.0, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
File name: 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.9.0, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.RegPkg.Main(String arguments)
RegisterPackage: **Error**: Failed to Register Package

Solution:

It turns out the installation of the AppEnvRedist.exe DOES NOT always install Visual Studio 2008 Shell Isolated Mode Redistributable Package completely. You have to do this manually.

When you download and run the AppEnvRedist.exe it creates a folder named C:\VS 2008 Shell Redist\Isolated Mode\

In this folder run on the VS_Shell_isolated.enu.exe to perform the installation.

After the installation completes, the prereqs are good and the installation is also a success.

You can download the authoring console from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40896

Kudos to Winds Wu for figuring this out.

The book is titled Optimizing Service Manager and is written by Kathleen Wilson, John Clark, Karsten Nielsen and my self.

There are several ways to the get the book:

• Download the book as PDF from Microsoft Download - here
  
  
• Get the Kindle Edition - here
  
  
• Buy the paperback - here

The book is one of the many free eBooks from MSPress, you can pick and choose from other great books here

The Optimizing Service Manager book is written with three different roles in mind: business and technical decision makers; IT architects; and Service Manager administrators. You can either read this book in its entirety from A to Z, or you can follow one of the learning paths below depending on your role:

 Business and technical decision makers:
 Chapter 1 Business reasons to choose Service Manager
 Chapter 2 Deployment costs and non-IT usage

 IT architects
 Chapter 3 How to plan for Service Manager
 Chapter 4 How to prepare for a Service Manager installation

 Service Manager administrators 
 Chapter 5 Management packs
 Chapter 6 Optimizing the Service Manager environment
 Chapter 7 Service Manager configuration and customization

I hope you wíll enjoy reading the book and if you have any questions please let me know.

Also note that some of the fixes addressed in the R2 release are also fixed in the SCSM2012 SP1 UR4 release.(https://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager/archive/2013/09/24/service-manager-sp1-ur4-fixes.aspx)

It then turned out that only a few people in the User Role could see the new templates. But if a user logged onto another PC it worked fine, so the problem was quickly isoloated to each users local PC.

The solution turned out to be more simple than expected:

On a PC where the user couldn’t see the new templates, we closed the SCSM console, deleted the c:\Users\%Username%\Appdata\Local\Microsoft\System Center Service Manager 2010 folder and started the SCSM console.

What the reason for some users not to download an updated configuration,, I haven’t figured out yet,