Main new feature is the "Turbo" mode for the CLI launcher, which allows direct remote execution of the runbooks, without using a XML file at all. Obviously there is no parameter validation then, but at least it provides a way to launch any remote runbook without first using the UI Generator. I guess that could come handy sometimes :-)

Changes in v2.51:

 - Corrected an issue when working with a “initialize data” runbook without any parameters at all

-  Added help in the CLI tool

Changes in v2.5:

 - New! Added an ORTXML parameter to specify an alternate XML template. This allows to save several XML templates for different policies in the same folder, and run them. You can still run the tool without specifying the ORTXML parameter, and it will look for the default policy_template.xml file, which is the name generated by
the UI Generator.

 - New! “Turbo” in the CLI launcher : It is now possible to directly pass the path to the runbook to execute, and configuration information (web service server and port, database server and name)

• Note : Turbo mode requires remote access to the database, which is not the case when running in standard mode where all the information has already been stored in the database.

 - Corrected an issue with numeric value ranges in the Runbook Launcher

The "Orchestrator Remote Tools" are the follow up to my "Opalis UI Generator" from Opalis, but with many enhancements :-)

These tools provide a way to launch Orchestrator runbooks remotely from a UI or a command-line, and complement other out of the box capabilities like Web Service calls. They also provide optional parameter validation as well (for example, you might want to make sure that someone sends “Yes” or “No” for a specific parameter, or provides a parameters that starts with “VM*”).

The Orchestrator Remote Tools provide 3 components:

 - The UI Generator lets an Orchestrator administrator browse graphically through all runbooks with an “Initialize Data” start activity, pick one of them, configure parameters and generate a XML template

 - The Remote Runbook Launcher is a generic executable that will use that XML template as long as it sits in the same directory. This executable adapts its UI to the XML file and makes sure that parameter validation is correct.

 - The Remote Runbook Launcher CLI does the same job, but from a command line.

  
  
The remote launch itself is done using a web service call to the new Orchestrator Web Service. This will run under the user’s credentials, and a “Run As” launch would also be possible to leverage other credentials.

A scenario to use these could be as a System Center Operations Manager delegated task for example.

The download is available from CodePlex : https://orchestrator.codeplex.com/releases/view/76983

New features in v2.0:

 - New! Support for Orchestrator 2012. This was tested with the RC release. Note : If you need to use this tool with Opalis Integration Server 6.3, you need to use version 1.1

 - New! The Runbook launcher now has a CLI-mode as well

 - New! Parameter validation in the tool. You can set if parameters should be string, integer, Booleans and assign patterns to be used in the Runbook Launchers (GUI or CLI)

 - The Remote Runbook Launcher UI actually uses the expected controls, like a checkbox for Booleans or a listbox for a list of values

 - The UI Generator now inherits the runbook description from the Runbook designer

 - Since this is now leveraging the brand new web service, there is no need to pass credentials at runtime. Launching the application using RunAs is also possible if you need to launch it with a different user context

 - The “Create Web Page” feature has been temporarily removed from the tool

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I have uploaded v1.3 of the Opalis VSD Generator on CodePlex. At the same time, I renamed the tool to reflect the Word export capabilities and also the new support for Orchestrator (RC release).

https://orchestrator.codeplex.com/releases/view/75824

Most of the features remain identical.

Here is the UI:

And how a workflow would be exported in Visio and Word:

Feel free to send any feedback/comments/bugs!

It detects which virtual machines are Dynamic Memory-enabled, and adds a subclass to these VMs to monitor and tracks Dynamic Memory usage. One monitor specifically rolls up at the performance level for the VM object, and several performance counters provide more detailed information. See the sample screenshots section of this guide.

Note that while this community MP provides better insight on how Dynamic Memory is being used and can be useful for virtualization administrators, it is not mandatory for a good monitoring experience of Dynamic Memory-enabled machines. The guide gives examples how the Core OS MP copes with memory management to avoid unwanted noise whether or not Dynamic Memory is enabled.

Dynamic Memory.zip

This MP discovers and monitors instances of the Task Scheduler services and the task it is configured to run. The service and the tasks - and actions on Windows Vista/7 and Windows Server 2008/R2 - are configured automatically as a parent-child relationship, which makes it easy to see what is going right or wrong:
 

  
  
Some proactive configuration checks are done at the scheduled tasks level, like : is the account disabled or locked? Does the target executable exist?

Some tasks are added to help troubleshooting, on top of the existing monitors.

Some properties are also discovered, like the account of the scheduled tasks. This means that changing the account of a task results in a configuration change, which is easily identified in availability reports (which are available for each instances too, task scheduler and scheduled tasks)

Specics about this latest version 1.0.0.23:

• Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows 7 support (Task Scheduler 2.0)
• These new supported platforms needed some changes in the class model: created an abstract class for Scheduled Tasks, and derived “Task 2003” and “Task 2008” classes from it. Also defined a new “Action 2008” class to handle “Task 2008” sub elements.
• More meaningful alerts, with context details in the description
• More logging in the “Operations Manager” event log, and created the associated event views
• Added “Task Scheduler Account Management” RunAs Profile to provide flexibility on the action account

ScheduledTasksMPv23.zip

This is the same version that was on OpsManJam.

Description for the MP:

Automatic Services MP.zip

Version 1.2 of the Opalis VSD Generator is avaiable, and it brings the ability to request the generation of a Word document as well. This provides more details about each object configuration, and this is certainly an area of the tool which could/will be enhanced in the future. This option is available if Word is installed on the machine running the tool, and if the corresponding option is checked):

The UI has also been simplified:

You can get the tool from CodePlex here : https://opalis.codeplex.com/releases/view/57084

More generally, here is the actual change log for version 1.2 adds the following features and enhancements:

•  
  • Less restrictions and clearer requirements when exporting images from policies. All IPs shipping with the product should work now.
  • Usability enhancements thanks to a separate settings page with additional automatic checks about your configuration:
    • Is Visio installed or not
    • Detection of the extensions path while still providing the ability to override the detection (for installations on other volumes than C: for example)
    • Automatic listing of the databases
    • Automatic listing of the Visio stencils and callouts for the chosen VSS file, etc.)
    • Ability to choose the connectors attachments on the Visio objects (e.g. bottom->top or right-> left)
  • First version of Word document generation. The idea is to provide a companion document with more details about the policies, instead of piling more data in the Visio diagram itself

Many thanks to Robert Hearn for his help and suggestions on the first two topics!

See also this updated blog post for new features in v1.2 : https://blogs.technet.com/b/yasc/archive/2010/12/14/opalis-vsd-generator-1-2-now-with-word-document-generation.aspx

Here is v1.0 of the Opalis VSD Generator.

This tool lets you export an Opalis policy as a Visio diagram.
For example, this policy will result in this diagram:

Components exported as of v1.0 are :
- Title of the policy
- Activities and their names/thumbnails/description (description is displayed as a callout in the visio diagram, attached to the shape of the activity)
- Links and their names/colors
- Looping and their interval
Thumbnails and activities are grouped in the Visio diagram, for easy manipulation of the diagram before saving the final layout.

Other items could be exported in the future, like the activites properties, to document policies.

This has been developed and tested for Visio 2010.

As always, feedback is always welcome :-)

Here is v1.1 of the Opalis UI Generator. The main new feature is an easier to use tree view when browsing for policies.

Planned in next version is a command-line version of the trigger tool, in addition to interactive and web triggers.

Again, feedback is always welcome :-)

Update : This is also available on CodePlex : https://opalis.codeplex.com/releases/view/57082

Opalis UI Generatorv11.zip

The goal of the Opalis UI Generator is to let an Opalis administrator browse graphically through all policies with a custom start activity, pick one of them, and generate one of these two files, or both:

-          A XML template that can be used by the Remote Policy Launcher executable – also provided in this package. This single executable adapts its UI to the XML file generated by the Opalis UI Generator

-          A Web page that can be used on an IIS server running ASP.NET. The web page is crafted for the chosen policy, also enabling its remote launch

Screenshot of the Opalis UI Generator

Screenshot of the Remote Policy Launcher UI (leveraging the XML file generated by the tool)

Screenshot of the Web page (also generated by the tool)

The remote launch itself is done using an URL call to the Opalis Operator Console, not yet using native Web Services calls. See the caveats and potential evolutions in the attached readme.

You might also wonder about the need to actually trigger those policies from a remote UI? While it is true that most custom start enabled policies would be triggered from other policies at run time, there are use cases for triggering policies from a UI:

-          Provisioning scenarios for machines, etc : the corresponding web UI could be the basis for larger on-demand scenarios

-          First level actions for operators working monitoring solutions

Enjoy, and let me know about any bug fixes or potential enhancements, I'll see what I can do if time permits :-)