New Module Documentation

In our documentation for authoring Operations Manager management packs, we regularly reference the Management Pack Development Kit, mainly the Module Type Reference that includes reference documentation for the modules that are included in the standard Operations Manager 2007 R2 libraries.   Once you know how to build a custom discovery, monitor, or rule in a management pack, then your next question is often what modules are available to provide the various logic that you need.  Of course, when you find such a module you need to know how it works.  While we had most of the modules documented for some time though, there were some critical modules that were not included.

We just finished some work to close those gaps.  The Module Type Reference now includes all of the modules in the R2 libraries that we recommend for custom management packs. While most of the modules have been documented for some time, we had some glaring omissions.  Examples include System.PassThroughProbe, System.LogicalSet.ExpressionFilter, and Microsoft.SystemCenter.ICMProbe.  We even were able to provide details and samples for Microsoft.SystemCenter.WebApplication.UrlProbe and the modules that go along with it.

There are some modules that you could find digging through the libraries that we have not included in the reference, but these modules are either intended for internal use or for very specialized scenarios.  The general rule to keep in mind is that if we didn’t document a module, then you probably don’t want to use it.

While we were at it, we did some general reorganization of the modules.  As more modules got added to the reference, the categories got a bit mixed.  We’re hoping the new organization helps in locating the module that you’re looking for, as well as other related modules that you may find interesting.  We are going to also have a completed alphabetized list of all the modules coming shortly.