AD Management Pack update coming in August?

July 11, 2008 · Filed Under Operations Manager · Comment

It appears that Microsoft may be planning to release an updated AD MP for Ops Mgr 2007 in August sometime to correct some well-known and no so well-known issues (bugs) with version v6.0.6278.6. I wasn’t able to get any specific details or information about specific items to be corrected though.

Two items are that I think are definitely getting fixes would be the AD Client Update process (AD_Client_Update_DC.vbs) and the AD Client Connectivity process (AD_Client_Connectivity.vbs). From what I’ve seen, you would be lucky to get one of these scripts running smoothly, but not both…sometimes neither depending on the structure of your Active Directory organization. I’m sure there are additional updates and improvements, but those are definitely two big ones. Maybe the documentation will be improved as well to actually list exactly what permissions on what objects are needed for the Run As account to have for the AD MP.

Tags: Active Directory, bug, Management Pack

Exchange Server 2007 MP for Ops Mgr Updated

June 26, 2008 · Filed Under Operations Manager · 2 Comments

The Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 SP1 was finally updated in the past week. This release is very welcome, I’m sure, by many Operations Manager and Exchange Server admins alike. You can download the updated MP from the MP Catalog here.

Also, there is a discrepancy in the requirements for the first hotfix. The information in the documentation included with the MP indicates you are to installt he hotfix on all of the Exchange servers being monitored by Ops Mgr: “Install the agent update specified in Knowledge Base article 950853 on all Exchange-based servers managed by Operations Manager before importing the Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack. This update addresses an agent memory leak issue.“ The hotfix KB article indicates the hotifx is to be installed on the Ops Mgr servers: “You must apply this hotfix on all Operations Manager Management Server computers.“ From the notes inside the hotfix (emphasis added):

Note: This patch applies to SCOM 2007 SP1 Only

Summary

A problem has been identified with SCOM 2007 SP1 agent, which leaks memory when processing rules/monitors specific to exchange 2007 MP. This hot-fix resolves this issue.

Symptoms

When affected by this issue, SCOM 2007 RTM agents will leak memory aggressively only if you have imported Exchange 2007 into your Management group.

After applying this fix the issue should go away.

Installation
This hotfix must be applied to each computer that meets the following criteria:

Hosts a Microsoft Operations Manager Management Server

The updates and prerequisites are below (emphasis added), copied from the included documentation (a nice change to have included documentation!). Pay special attention to the three items below in red. Note that the 950853 hotfix is not publicly available yet…so you’ll either need to call in and get it or, if you have a Premier Support contract, you can download it from the Premier Support portal. The other two hotfixes do have a download available.

The May 2008 update to the October 2007 version of the Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack, version 6.0.6278.12, includes the following changes:

All updates included in the 08.01.0240.001 version of the Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, except updates relating to reports.

Overrides were documented in the Management Pack Guide for the LDAP Search Time and Failure DSNs Total rules and monitors.

The management pack was updated to support the renamed performance counters in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1. Performance counters for the Database object were renamed to MSExchange Database.

The management pack was updated to support non-default names of the Reporting data warehouse.

The OWA Connectivity performance view was updated to show performance data.

Fixed an issue where cluster virtual servers where discovered as type Microsoft Exchange 2007 Mailbox Servers Installation.

The Management Pack was updated so that alerts are correctly generated for events logged by physical cluster nodes in an Exchange Server 2007 cluster.

Fixed an issue where the Exchange cluster virtual servers were discovered as type Microsoft Exchange 2007 Mailbox Servers – Physical Computers Installation.

The Microsoft_Exchange_Server_Exchange_2007_Mailbox_Replication_Health_Test_ReplicationHealth_Events view was updated to target the Microsoft.Exchange.2007.Microsoft_Exchange_2007_Mailbox_Servers___Physical_Computers_ComputerGroup.

The reports were updated to support non-US locales on the Reporting Server.

The date/time picker was added to the reports, allowing for more flexibility in report scheduling.

The Failure and Delay DSNs Total monitors were updated to look for deltas. Previously, the monitors measured the averages for the sampling interval.

Fixed an issue where the cluster virtual servers were discovered as type Microsoft Exchange 2007 All Servers Installation.

Before You Import the Management Pack

Before you import the Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack, note the following limitations of the management pack:

There is no support for agentless monitoring.

Before you import the Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack, take the following actions:

Ensure that all systems running Exchange Server 2007 that are managed by Operations Manager use Local System as the Agent Action Account.

If you are monitoring Exchange Server 2007 clusters, ensure that all physical nodes of the cluster are monitored by Operations Manager 2007 and that Agent Proxy is turned on for each physical node in the cluster.

Install the agent update specified in Knowledge Base article 950853 on all Exchange-based servers managed by Operations Manager before importing the Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack. This update addresses an agent memory leak issue.

Install the update specified in Knowledge Base article 951979. This update contains an updated agent restart script and fixes issues with cluster discovery.

If you are monitoring Exchange Server 2007 clusters, ensure that you have installed the agent update specified in Knowledge Base article 951380 on all Exchange Server 2007 cluster nodes managed by Operations Manager. This update addresses an issue with cluster discovery.

Note: The agent updates require System Center Operations Manager Service Pack 1. If you do not install the above updates before you install the Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack, your installation will not work optimally.