Interesting (For many of my customers anyway) ...
... this Management Pack lets you "manage" a downstream System Center Essentials environment at a customer site from an upstream Operations Manager 2007 environment at a NOC. This solution is being developed for Managed Services Providers who want to deliver their customers a "hosted" monitoring offering.
Read more at source
Showing posts with label MOM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MOM. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Consolidating security event
Finally, a decent solution seems to appear in SCOM (System Center Operations Manager - got to learn those acronyms) for this.
I learnt it here.
I learnt it here.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Citrix Presentation Server now integrated with MOM 2005
According to a press release from Citrix, they have just released a new MP integrating Presentation Server 4 and MetaFrame (Presentation Server 3) with MOM 2005.
This is great news for customers having both products.
This is great news for customers having both products.
Thursday, August 18, 2005
One Management Pack to Monitor them all...
The management pack called Microsoft Management Pack Notifier is very useful as you do not have to monitor the Microsoft sites to get the latest MPs. This MP will do the job for you. Unfortunately, it does not monitor report versions.
To benefit from it, first download and install the MSI package. It creates Microsoft Management Pack Notifier.akm (and an EULA and a readme) below %programfiles%\MOM 2005 Management Packs\Microsoft Management Pack Notifier.
It seems to be old stuff, now being released for the public. The file is dated November 11th 2004.
Next import this MP from the administrator console using the Management Pack Import/Export Wizard. Remember to select 'Import Management Packs only' or you may be stuck in the Wizard when you must specify report to import (you can though step back).
The MP creates a new rule group called Microsoft Operations Manager MPNotifier, creates a new computer group called Microsoft Operation Manager MPNotifier MOM Server. The rule group contains a rule that check the versions against microsoft.com. This rule has a provider called MPNotifier-Schedule daily which runs the Microsoft MPNotifier Version Check script daily. Another rule fires off an alert when the versions mismatch. Finally an alert rule forwards the alerts to the Operation Manager Administrators notification group. I do not know why, but on my RTM test system, it does not fire off any alerts - I only get events.
An event looks like this -
You must manually add the server you want to check microsoft.com for updates to the new computer group. Keep in mind that the agent account on the server in question must have http access to microsoft.com across any firewall in the path. The actual URL it uses can be found in the script and is http://www.microsoft.com/management/mma/momnotifier.xml.
Unfortunately, the XML does not provide a direct download link. Let us hope, that will be added in the next release. Ideally, it should provide the option of downloading the files and even upgrade the MPs. The latter for test environments only naturally ;).
To benefit from it, first download and install the MSI package. It creates Microsoft Management Pack Notifier.akm (and an EULA and a readme) below %programfiles%\MOM 2005 Management Packs\Microsoft Management Pack Notifier.
It seems to be old stuff, now being released for the public. The file is dated November 11th 2004.
Next import this MP from the administrator console using the Management Pack Import/Export Wizard. Remember to select 'Import Management Packs only' or you may be stuck in the Wizard when you must specify report to import (you can though step back).
The MP creates a new rule group called Microsoft Operations Manager MPNotifier, creates a new computer group called Microsoft Operation Manager MPNotifier MOM Server. The rule group contains a rule that check the versions against microsoft.com. This rule has a provider called MPNotifier-Schedule daily which runs the Microsoft MPNotifier Version Check script daily. Another rule fires off an alert when the versions mismatch. Finally an alert rule forwards the alerts to the Operation Manager Administrators notification group. I do not know why, but on my RTM test system, it does not fire off any alerts - I only get events.
An event looks like this -
You must manually add the server you want to check microsoft.com for updates to the new computer group. Keep in mind that the agent account on the server in question must have http access to microsoft.com across any firewall in the path. The actual URL it uses can be found in the script and is http://www.microsoft.com/management/mma/momnotifier.xml.
Unfortunately, the XML does not provide a direct download link. Let us hope, that will be added in the next release. Ideally, it should provide the option of downloading the files and even upgrade the MPs. The latter for test environments only naturally ;).
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Tidbits on security and Windows 2003 SP1 - TechEd Europe day #1
As I wrote earlier I attended the "Active Directory Internals: the Sequel" a couple of hours in the late morning and there were a couple of interesting topics.
As you may know Windows Server 2003 contains a reanimation (undelete) API which recovers objects without buying third-party tools. SP1 now also recovers the sIDHistory of an object. Restore is quite easy if you know the ldp tool - just set LDAP control flags in LDP to show deleted objects, find the object and in one operation set the isDeleted attribute to NULL and set the DN appropriately (To where you want to locate your object). Find more on the subject of reanimation in KB 840001 under the topic "How to manually undelete objects".
Also SP1 introduces the notion of confidential attributes that can't be seen by default by Authenticated Users (As most attributes can). Just set the searchFlags bit 7 to 1 (Confidential / True) or 0 (False).
Steve Riley and Jesper Johansson on security
The presentation wasn't by anyway boring - I kept my eyes open all day (a first ;-) - but I'm sad to say that the overall technical content wasn't satisfactory. Most of the day wen't with plain vanilla stuff on security based on the Implementing Client/Server Security presentations used earlier, administrative templates and other plain/old information. Luckily it was nicely beefed up with good stories, discussions and provocating thoughts by Steve and Jesper.
So what was interesting? -Well "Passwords has passed the end of their useful lifetime." I do agree with that and it has also been discussed by other security experts than Jesper and the solution isn't always just to buy a two factor authentication device as Schneier discusses in his essay - To Little, To Late. But personally I do prefer to use Password Safe instead of jotting down my password ;-)
There was an interesting discussion on security and outsourcing and they stated that China doesn't even have the concept of Intellectual Property and that outsourcing companies that may have loads of internal information on their customers probably will be the next point of attack.
ISA 2004 was as usual well appraised especially the fact that Application Proxy’s are much more usable than standard Packet filtering firewalls. I do agree that ISA 2004 is a great firewall with one exemption - the application filters aren't updated on a frequent basis and there are no new ones coming unless there is a product upgrade. Like MOM Management Packs it should be a requirement that each product group, if applicable, should release a new/updated application filter at the same time or just after releasing their product (E.g. for Live Communications Server). I discussed this with Steve and he told me that there are no plans for this (And he already had a discussion with the product group around this without luck).
On the point of SP1 it was emphasized that in an Exchange scenario SCW is used to secure the OS itself - NOT exchange so we should still use the Exchange 2003 Security Hardening Guide to secure Exchange.
Also I discussed with Steve on when the Firewall actually is disabled; a discussion I’ve had earlier with Susan Bradley on my article Microsoft Security Initiatives in SP1 and SP2 - nothing but a complex toy? (Check the comments). There’s apparently some confusion on this topic – in my experience with the RTM release the Firewall is always disabled after an upgrade or on in case of a new slipstreamed SP1 installation after you press Finish in the Post Setup Security Updates (PSSU) wizard.
As I mentioned in the start I wasn't bored at anytime but each time a topic looked a bit interesting (Like on Network Isolation or Wireless Security) the comment was We have a session during the week on X and X go listen to that instead and we want to make sure that we have enough attendees to our other sessions - Well why do you think we paid for a pre-conference day ? To listen to security for one day so that we could follow other tracks or the hands on labs the rest of the week! (To Steve and Jespers defence they were provided with a set of standard slideware that they were required to follow).
As you may know Windows Server 2003 contains a reanimation (undelete) API which recovers objects without buying third-party tools. SP1 now also recovers the sIDHistory of an object. Restore is quite easy if you know the ldp tool - just set LDAP control flags in LDP to show deleted objects, find the object and in one operation set the isDeleted attribute to NULL and set the DN appropriately (To where you want to locate your object). Find more on the subject of reanimation in KB 840001 under the topic "How to manually undelete objects".
Also SP1 introduces the notion of confidential attributes that can't be seen by default by Authenticated Users (As most attributes can). Just set the searchFlags bit 7 to 1 (Confidential / True) or 0 (False).
Steve Riley and Jesper Johansson on security
The presentation wasn't by anyway boring - I kept my eyes open all day (a first ;-) - but I'm sad to say that the overall technical content wasn't satisfactory. Most of the day wen't with plain vanilla stuff on security based on the Implementing Client/Server Security presentations used earlier, administrative templates and other plain/old information. Luckily it was nicely beefed up with good stories, discussions and provocating thoughts by Steve and Jesper.
So what was interesting? -Well "Passwords has passed the end of their useful lifetime." I do agree with that and it has also been discussed by other security experts than Jesper and the solution isn't always just to buy a two factor authentication device as Schneier discusses in his essay - To Little, To Late. But personally I do prefer to use Password Safe instead of jotting down my password ;-)
There was an interesting discussion on security and outsourcing and they stated that China doesn't even have the concept of Intellectual Property and that outsourcing companies that may have loads of internal information on their customers probably will be the next point of attack.
ISA 2004 was as usual well appraised especially the fact that Application Proxy’s are much more usable than standard Packet filtering firewalls. I do agree that ISA 2004 is a great firewall with one exemption - the application filters aren't updated on a frequent basis and there are no new ones coming unless there is a product upgrade. Like MOM Management Packs it should be a requirement that each product group, if applicable, should release a new/updated application filter at the same time or just after releasing their product (E.g. for Live Communications Server). I discussed this with Steve and he told me that there are no plans for this (And he already had a discussion with the product group around this without luck).
On the point of SP1 it was emphasized that in an Exchange scenario SCW is used to secure the OS itself - NOT exchange so we should still use the Exchange 2003 Security Hardening Guide to secure Exchange.
Also I discussed with Steve on when the Firewall actually is disabled; a discussion I’ve had earlier with Susan Bradley on my article Microsoft Security Initiatives in SP1 and SP2 - nothing but a complex toy? (Check the comments). There’s apparently some confusion on this topic – in my experience with the RTM release the Firewall is always disabled after an upgrade or on in case of a new slipstreamed SP1 installation after you press Finish in the Post Setup Security Updates (PSSU) wizard.
As I mentioned in the start I wasn't bored at anytime but each time a topic looked a bit interesting (Like on Network Isolation or Wireless Security) the comment was We have a session during the week on X and X go listen to that instead and we want to make sure that we have enough attendees to our other sessions - Well why do you think we paid for a pre-conference day ? To listen to security for one day so that we could follow other tracks or the hands on labs the rest of the week! (To Steve and Jespers defence they were provided with a set of standard slideware that they were required to follow).
Saturday, April 23, 2005
MOM Admin Console may fail with Windows Server 2003 SP1
Quote -
A problem has been identified in the MOM Administrator Console. After Microsoft Windows Server 2003 has been upgraded to Service Pack 1, the Administrator Console may fail when the Computer Groups node is selected. This fix resolves the issue.
Symptoms
When affected by this issue, the Administrator Console may fail with “The remote procedure call failed” error message. This will occur when the MOM 2005 Management Server is running on a server that has Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 installed.
A problem has been identified in the MOM Administrator Console. After Microsoft Windows Server 2003 has been upgraded to Service Pack 1, the Administrator Console may fail when the Computer Groups node is selected. This fix resolves the issue.
Symptoms
When affected by this issue, the Administrator Console may fail with “The remote procedure call failed” error message. This will occur when the MOM 2005 Management Server is running on a server that has Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 installed.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
SMS and MOM are NOT going to merge
New directions for System Center! System Center is now a brand for number of products. Read it from the horse's mouth from the MMS press room. Or from the WinInfo Daily UPDATE. You can find it on the net here, and I just realized, that I can get it as RSS feed instead of by email.
Deploying MOM agent on WS2003 SP1 problem
Read the short titled ;) The Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 agent does not install on computers that are running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) kb for more information.
Shortly, if you are running Windows Firewall, you have either to do a manual setup - or tweak the firewall to allow pushing the agent.
After the release of SCW, the articles start getting plastered with Important These steps may increase your security risk. These steps may also make your computer or your network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We recommend the process that this article describes to enable programs to operate as they are designed to, or to implement specific program capabilities. Before you make these changes, we recommend that you evaluate the risks that are associated with implementing this process in your particular environment. If you choose to implement this process, take any appropriate additional steps to help protect your system. We recommend that you use this process only if you really require this process.
The funny thing is though - if just the programmers did check what they received from the network, no per-computer firewall was ever necessary. The claim above must mean that the programmers at Microsoft is not there yet... (but anyway this is how it was before SP1)
Shortly, if you are running Windows Firewall, you have either to do a manual setup - or tweak the firewall to allow pushing the agent.
After the release of SCW, the articles start getting plastered with Important These steps may increase your security risk. These steps may also make your computer or your network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We recommend the process that this article describes to enable programs to operate as they are designed to, or to implement specific program capabilities. Before you make these changes, we recommend that you evaluate the risks that are associated with implementing this process in your particular environment. If you choose to implement this process, take any appropriate additional steps to help protect your system. We recommend that you use this process only if you really require this process.
The funny thing is though - if just the programmers did check what they received from the network, no per-computer firewall was ever necessary. The claim above must mean that the programmers at Microsoft is not there yet... (but anyway this is how it was before SP1)
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Warning about importing Exchange MPs in MOM 2005
I came across a Microsoft KB about a bug in the import management pack process. It seems like only packs sharing common rule groups have the problem. The Exchange MPs are such a case.
Monday, February 21, 2005
MOM 2005 Core MP Updated
An update of the MOM 2005 Management Pack versioned v05.0.2803.0000 was released February 9th. My existing is 2746. You can get it here. The changes can be viewed by using the MP2XML and MPDiff tools of the Resource Kit -
- Convert the old and the new AKM files to XML with MP2XML AKM-file XML-file
- Run MPDiff.Console.exe /src:old.xml /tgt:new.xml /v:cad. You can also run it with one of the cad (changed, added, deleted) letters at a time.
- View the output or view diffout.xml with Internet Explorer
Sunday, January 02, 2005
MOM 2005 Performance and Sizing White Paper
First, happy 2005. Vacation is over and its is time to get back to work tomorrow.
Next, Microsoft ended 2004 by finally releasing a white paper on MOM sizing. It is going to be fun to see whether the systems I have implemented meets the requirements... ;)
Next, Microsoft ended 2004 by finally releasing a white paper on MOM sizing. It is going to be fun to see whether the systems I have implemented meets the requirements... ;)
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Exchange 2003 Operations Checklists
Microsoft has released a set of Exchange Server 2003 Operations Checklists that contains "guidelines for disaster recovery tasks, and for daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance tasks".
I would classify the content in these checklists as very good things-to-remember lists - as they by no means are complete. But they are indeed a good start when preparing the disaster recovery procedures and operational processes for an Exchange 2000/2003 deployment (and of course many of the checks on the lists could be implemented in e.g. MOM 2005 instead of doing it manually).
I would classify the content in these checklists as very good things-to-remember lists - as they by no means are complete. But they are indeed a good start when preparing the disaster recovery procedures and operational processes for an Exchange 2000/2003 deployment (and of course many of the checks on the lists could be implemented in e.g. MOM 2005 instead of doing it manually).
Saturday, December 04, 2004
msgoodies - not an experimental blog anymore
We've been blogging for approx. 2 months now and have found it to be really fun to share some of our knowledge and experiences that we've until now only have shared with our customers and internally (and a bit in newsgroups).
We've already been mentioned on the MS Exchange blog (Thanks Chris ;-) and also our favorite MS bloggers at You Had Me At EHLO... has created a link to our blog (Check the front page under "Other Exchange Blogs") - so now we have decided to remove the "experimental" word from our about box, 'cause Per and I have decided to continue posting and enhancing the content and features of this blog.
Personally I'm finally back from my paternity leave (See my daughter Ida here) and will be back with more info on Exchange, IMF and ISA and updates to some of the topics I've been posting earlier (use our Atom Site Feed for subscription to new/updated posts) .
Per will continue to cover his main areas - from security, networking, AD over to management (MOM 2005 and SMS 2003).
We've already been mentioned on the MS Exchange blog (Thanks Chris ;-) and also our favorite MS bloggers at You Had Me At EHLO... has created a link to our blog (Check the front page under "Other Exchange Blogs") - so now we have decided to remove the "experimental" word from our about box, 'cause Per and I have decided to continue posting and enhancing the content and features of this blog.
Personally I'm finally back from my paternity leave (See my daughter Ida here) and will be back with more info on Exchange, IMF and ISA and updates to some of the topics I've been posting earlier (use our Atom Site Feed for subscription to new/updated posts) .
Per will continue to cover his main areas - from security, networking, AD over to management (MOM 2005 and SMS 2003).
Friday, November 26, 2004
Improvements in Management of Dells
Seems like our job got a little easier.
Microsoft and Dell reports that Dell will deliver management software working with the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) (what we in the real world call SMS and MOM). Read more at Dell Unites with Microsoft to Provide Better Management Solutions and at Dell, Microsoft make a patch pact for servers
Microsoft and Dell reports that Dell will deliver management software working with the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) (what we in the real world call SMS and MOM). Read more at Dell Unites with Microsoft to Provide Better Management Solutions and at Dell, Microsoft make a patch pact for servers
Friday, November 05, 2004
Microsoft PasswordUpdater.exe
The MOM 2005 Resource Kit contains a cool utility called passwordupdater.exe. This tool updates passwords (after you change it for the user in AD) on multiple servers in:
- Windows Services (Account Name)
- COM+ Applications (Identity)
- Task Scheduler (Run As)
- AT (Service Account)
- VDirs in IIS (Anonymous User & UNC User)
- Windows Services (Account Name)
- COM+ Applications (Identity)
- Task Scheduler (Run As)
- AT (Service Account)
- VDirs in IIS (Anonymous User & UNC User)
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
MOM Product feedback center ...
For a while now it has been been possible to interact directly through the Product feedback center with Microsofts development teams on their development tools/technologies. This has now been extended to include Microsoft Operations Manager (Select MOM under Product/technology and search). Use your chance to provide MS with suggestions on how to further develop MOM and on Bugs they need to resolve - and not least get a response from the development team!
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
MOM 2005 resource kit - updated
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