David Allen - Cloud & Datacenter Management MVP

So, Tech.Days UK starts tomorrow and runs through until the end of Friday, and it is all available online.  Take a look at the session schedule here, https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032543696&Culture=en-GB&community=0, and register if you want to attend any of the sessions.

And, if you want to hear me present, I am presenting on Friday morning, "Appy Monitoring with System Center 2012…

Hi All,

This week sees the start of a new MVP Speaker Series covering Windows Server and System Center technologies.  Many of the presentations will be sessions that couldn't be accommodated at MMS, and others will be brand new, but they will all be available online for everyone to attend through the use of Lync!

For more details, check out this post by Travis, http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenter/archive/2013/04…

One of the features I love in the Visual Studio Authoring Extensions is IncludeFileContent.  This feature enables you to include script files into a management pack, without needing to write the script with the relevant XML tags such as <ScriptBody>.

In MP development up to now, you would need to write your script in the XML of the management pack, like this:

<ScriptBody><![CDATA[
Option Explicit

SetLocale…

The winner of the Infront Consulting Group Full MMS Conference Pass giveaway has been announced by Rory McCaw in a video on Facebook.  Get over there now to see if you’re the lucky winner, http://www.facebook.com/InfrontConsulting.

David

Want to know all the OpsMgr sessions that are going to be on this year at MMS, well here they are.  http://blogs.technet.com/b/momteam/archive/2013/03/12/system-center-operations-manager-sessions-microsoft-management-summit-2013-4-8-4-12.aspx

The listed includes all sessions by the product engineering team at Microsoft, and the sessions by MVP’s and partners.

Take a look and add the sessions that interest you to your schedule…

There has been a very useful TechNet Wiki page posted that lists all the currently available management packs, and the relevant links to download them.  The page also includes all management packs currently in pre-release that are due for release in the near future.  As this is a wiki page, it can be easily updated when new MP’s or updates are released, so hopefully this page will stay up to date.

Visit the page at, http…

Over the years there has been a number of management packs from Microsoft that have left some customer wanting, with both the level of monitoring and knowledge provided within them.  That being said, over time the quality of most management packs has improved, but not at the pace everyone had hoped for, and every now and then another “bad” management pack made it out to release.

Now, to help understand what is being done…

Using the Visual Studio Authoring Extensions to build your management packs, one extremely useful piece of functionality is the ability to create multiple rules/monitors/discoveries/tasks/views etc. using management pack template groups.  The reason this functionality is so good is because:

1.  Easy to Create

Working with Visual Studio will put a lot of IT Pro's off using the Visual Studio Authoring Extensions, so they…

Today the System Center 2012 Operations Manager book became available in Amazon.  I would recommend this book to anyone that works with Operations Manager!

Purchase the book (paperbook or Kindle) here, http://www.amazon.co.uk/System-Center-Operations-Manager-Unleashed/dp/0672335913/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361888853&sr=8-1.

Congratulations to Kerrie, Cameron, John, and Pete!

David

Using the alert widget in the new dashboards in SCOM 2012 exposes a very useful new column, which is worth knowing about, "Is Monitor Alert".  This new column simply informs you whether the alert was generated by a monitor or a rule, and the reason this is really useful is because it helps you to decide which alerts you can close, and which you need to leave.  In general, most monitor generated alerts will not…

For the past couple of months I have been using the Visual Studio Authoring Extensions quite extensively to build management packs for System Center, so I thought I would share some of what I have learnt, and I am starting with “Go To Definition”.  Now, for experienced users of Visual Studio this will be nothing new, but if you are starting with VS because of the Authoring Extensions, this is really helpful.

The Go To Definition…

My good friend and colleague Paul Keely just posted a SQL Server guide for System Center 2012 on the TechNet Gallery.  Here’s the description of what document covers:

“This is a guide to help you make design decisions and maintenance plans for SQL Server 2008 R2 to support System Center 2012.  In the guide you will learn to make server and instance specific changes to support SQL server for the different workloads that System…

Back in 2007, Kevin Holman at Microsoft compiled a list of variables that can used to display monitoring data within an alert description, http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2007/12/12/adding-custom-information-to-alert-descriptions-and-notifications.aspx.  This is extremely useful, but is not a complete list of every possible variable, as that would just be massive.

Today on the MS forums (http://goo.gl/M…

On my old blogging site (www.aquilaweb.com) I had an article about how to change the default banner on reports in SCOM.  Unfortunately my old website content got “lost” by the provider at the time, and I lost all the content on the site.  Since then, I have had a number of requests about a particular article I had on changing the report banner in SCOM, so I thought I would post about it again…

As SCOM relies on SSRS for…

When installing SP1 for System Center 2012 Operations Manager, a number of changes need to be made in the database.  These changes are made when the SP1 upgrade is run on the first management server within the management group.  This means that the installation of SP1 must complete on the first management server before starting the installation on any other management servers, otherwise the subsequent installs will try…

Back in November, I hosted a virtual event for SquaredUp to present their product.  This event was recorded, and you can view it here

www.youtube.com/watch

I recommend taking a look at this as SquaredUp does make consuming OpsMgr data far easier and also helps with certain admin tasks that can be frustrating, such us updating company knowledge and configuring notification subscriptions.

If you have any questions or…

The evaluation VHD’s are now available to download from MS. 

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 Configuration Manager – Evaluation (VHD)

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 – Service Manager – Evaluation (VHD)

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 – Operations Manager – Evaluation (VHD)

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 – Orchestrator – Evaluation (VHD)

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 – Service Manager (Data Warehouse) – Evaluation…

Recently on the TechNet forums, someone asked a question about a guide on ACS noise filtering.  I remembered instantly that there used to be a nice guide available from SecureVantage, but on checking it seems like it is no longer available (well, I couldn’t find it).  So, I checked my PC and managed to find a copy

It may not have everything you need, but it provides some real good examples and common events to monitor…

In System Center 2012 – Operations Manager the PowerShell cmdlets have changed since 2007 R2, therefore so have the commands to change the primary management server for a gateway server.  As I had to change the primary MS for a gateway a couple of days ago, I thought I would share the new command, and what is wrong with the help for the relevant cmdlet.

As I wasn’t aware of the new cmdlet in 2012, I ran “get-command –module…

Hi,

My good friend and colleague, Paul Keely, is conducting a survey on how people use and configure SQL Server with the System Center products.

Please take a few minutes and complete the survey at, https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/sql_sc.

Thanks!

David

Hi All,

Apologies, but due to technical issues, the SquaredUp event has been rescheduled until the 7th November.

For details on the rescheduled event, visit http://wmug.co.uk/hubs/wmug_event_content/w/wmug_event_content-pages/53.wmug-event-squaredup-7th-november-2012-virtual.aspx

Again, apologies to all those that tried to attend, but rest assured the issue has been resolved and the rescheduled event will take place…

Hi All,

This Thursday (1st November) WMUG is proud to be hosting a virtual event with SquaredUp.  

Squared Up is all about simplifying IT monitoring using SCOM, with a flexible new web interface that gives you fast access to SCOM, making it easy to deliver intuitive dashboards, visualise data and get on top of your alerts. And because it doesn't need any browser plugins, Squared Up works just as well on smartphones…

Just over a week a ago, Microsoft made available a new integration pack, and this integration pack is one that many people have been after for some time now.  Yes, Microsoft released an Integration Pack for FTP, and you can download it now from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34819&WT.mc_id=rss_alldownloads_all.  The IP is only currently available for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 Beta, but…

Today MS published links to download VHD’s for the System Center 2012 products with SP1 Beta, as well as the link for downloading the installable bits.  So if you don’t already have them, here they are:

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 Beta – Install Bits

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34607

App Controller – Service Pack 1 Beta

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=347…