System Center Delta Force

Here is a list that I follow for installing the prereqs for Ops Mgr.  Sometimes order matters, like enabling ASP before installing the frameworks.

Operations Manager SQL Cluster

Software Prerequisites (in order):

• Windows 2003 SP2 Enterprise Edition OR
• Windows 2003 SP1 Enterprise Edition
• SQL 2005 SP2 with workstation components (Mgmt Studio)
• System databases, TempDB, Data and Log files should be all be on separate spindles.

Root Management Server / Management Servers

Software Prerequisites (in order):

• Windows 2003 SP2 Enterprise Edition OR
• Windows 2003 SP1 Enterprise Edition
• Win2K3 hot fix (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943875)
• IIS / ASP.Net
• .NET Framework 2.0 (dotnetfx.exe)
• .NET Framework 3.0 (dotnetfx3.exe)
• Windows Powershell

Web Console with Reporting

Software Prerequisites (in order):

• Windows 2003 SP2 Enterprise Edition OR
• Windows 2003 SP1 Enterprise Edition
• Win2K3 hot fix (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943875)
• IIS / ASP.Net
• .NET Framework 2.0 (dotnetfx.exe)
• .NET Framework 3.0 (dotnetfx3.exe)
• Windows Powershell
• SQL Reporting Services w/ SP2

Agent Prerequisites:

• Opening Remote procedure call (RPC) ports beginning with endpoint mapper TCP 135 and the Server Message Block (SMB) port TCP/UDP 445.
• Enabling the File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks and the Client for Microsoft Networks services (this ensures that the SMB port is active).
• If enabled, Windows Firewall Group Policy settings for Allow remote administration exception and Allow file and printer sharing exception must be set to Allow unsolicited incoming messages from: to the IP address and subnets for the primary and secondary Management Servers for the agent. For more information, see How to Configure the Windows Firewall to Enable Management of Windows-Based Computers from the Operations Manager 2007 Operations Console.
• An account that has local administrator rights on the target computer.
• Windows Installer 3.1. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=86322.
• MSXML 6.0  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=76343.

It sounds a little funny, but this is actually an issue in the new millennium.  The Engyro Remedy connector leverages the COM / .Net API's from BMC and they are only executable in 32bit windows.

If your attending the Microsoft Management Summit this year, you'll hear our latest updates on the new MSFT branded versions being developed but in the meantime here is a workaround that I figured out to keep your Ops Mgr infrastructure running 64 bit with Remedy integration.

Given that this is a COM / .Net API issue we have to get those pieces of the connector to run in a 32bit context.  The API's are leveraged by the connector service itself for normal operations and the Web Config for setting up the relationship between Ops Mgr alerts and Remedy tickets.

You would think that the solution is to move the Web Config off the server, but Kerberos delegation issues aside (there's a work around!) it is actually the Engyro service that needs to run on a separate 32bit server.  In my test architecture I leveraged a SQL Reporting Services Server for this; you'll see why shortly.

This server should be running 32 bit OS, IIS and SSRS.  Install the Engyro connector here according to the instructions for running the connector on a server that is not the RMS.  I also recommend running the Ops Mgr Web Console here for sanity's sake, unless you run it on one of the other Management Servers to leverage 64bit IIS.  I don't recommend running it on the RMS because we haven't tested the web console running in a 32bit IIS instance on 64 bit OS.

Now, in order to get the Web Config to work, you first have to set IIS to run ASP 1.1 and 2.0 in 32bit mode.  This KB article will explain how to do this:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894435

Now that you've effectively set up IIS to run as a 32bit server, you can follow the Engyro install for separate Web Config and connector systems.

Once everything is installed, you will get to deal with all of the permission issues connecting to Remedy.  I'll have to blog this later, but the errors you will see are fairly clear that you are connected to Remedy, but it doesn't like your permission levels.  One carrot that I'll give you that isn't documented, is that you actually need two remedy accounts.

The Engyro connector service with Sub-Admin rights, along with field-level "change" permissions on the status form AND a second account (can be your test user) that has app-admin rights.  This second account is used as the credentials for the Web Config.

Send me questions if you need more info.

This is some definite must read material:

http://www.systemcenterforum.org/mp-authoring-guide-for-operations-manager-and-essentials-2007-now-available/

Here are some others, just in case:

What rules are available in a management pack?

http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/archive/2007/10/11/what-s-in-my-management-pack-take-2.aspx

Ops Mgr Tools and Utilities

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/bb625978.aspx

Ops Mgr Documentation

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/bb498235.aspx

Ops Mgr Authoring site

http://www.authormps.com/dnn/

Visual Studio tools for Office – required, along with Word, to edit Company Knowledge tab.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=f5539a90-dc41-4792-8ef8-f4de62ff1e81&displaylang=en

MVP / Product Group blog sites

http://blogs.msdn.com/eugenebykov/

http://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky

http://blogs.msdn.com/komal/

http://www.systemcenterforum.org/

http://blogs.technet.com/cliveeastwood/

And the blog roll catchall from SysCenterForum:

http://systemcenterforum.org/system-center-blogroll/

Ops Mgr KB Articles

http://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?catalog=LCID%3D1033&1033comm=1&spid=12584&query=&pwt=false&title=false&kt=ALL&mdt=0&res=20&ast=1&ast=2&ast=3&ast=4&ast=7&ast=10&ast

Infrastructure Optimization Model

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/infrastructure/default.mspx

Microsoft Operations Framework (ITIL)

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators/cits/mo/mof/default.mspx

Dynamic Systems Initiative

http://www.microsoft.com/business/dsi/default.mspx

All too often when we are tuning Ops Mgr the noise in the console can become an issue.  I won't get into the pros and cons of MP tuning here but at the end of the day, especially in our dev environments, we sometimes need to reset the clock.

Here is a snippet of cmd shell code that will allow you to close all open alerts not generated by a monitor.  Let me know if there is a need for an explanation as to why we would not want to close monitor based alerts.

I often see that people aren't aware of the cmd shell in Ops Mgr, so just in case; the command shell is an add in to PowerShell.  When you are frustrated by the UI functionality, understand that what you are trying to do is likely possible in the command shell.

To run this command, simply open Start>>Programs>>System Center Operations Manager>>Command Shell

paste this command:

Get-alert -criteria "IsMonitorAlert = 0 and ResolutionState <> 255" | resolve-alert

Hit enter and watch it close all of those Script Failure alerts!