System Center

Update: SCSM Discovery Report v1.3

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I have made some more updates to the SCSM Discovery Report script. It is now version 1.3. The updates include:

First: Updated the SCSM Version Checker code to version 2. Microsoft MVP Steve Beaumont worked with Samuel Erskine to optimize the PowerShell in the SCSM version checker. This optimization is now a part of the SCSM Discovery Report script. This also detects up to UR7 now.

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Second: Fixed Service Manager Management Group Name section not displaying the name.

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Third: Updated the Display Data Warehouse Information section to use UR7’s Get-SCDWInfraLocation CMDlet.

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The script can be downloaded here: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Service-Manager-Discovery-a25c7d80

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System Center 2012 R2 UR7 Highlights

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Its been a while since I have posted a new blog. I have been busy working on multiple System Center projects and other behind the scene activities. Today update rollup 7 for System Center 2012 R2 was released and this is definitely worth a post. This UR includes DPM, SCSM, SPF, VMM, , SCORCH, Azure Pack, but not Operations Manager. UR7 for Operations Manager will be coming within a few weeks. More info here.  It is interesting that SCOM is not in this UR and we actually see SCORCH included. Here are some highlights from UR7:

For Orchestrator The Monitor SNMP Trap activity has an issue fixed and there is a fix for Stop Job and Stop Runbook. The SCORCH UR also includes some fixes for SMA.

For Service Manager we see a bunch of fixes. Some fixes I want to call out are MPSync Data Warehouse job stop responding and the Get-SCDWInfraLocations cmdlet introduced in update rollup 5 have been fixed. Great work from the Service Manager team. Keep it up.

Beyond just fixes we see new features in two of the System Center components VMM and DPM. As always its exciting to see new features added via UR’s.

In VMM we see support for Windows 10, the ability to provision and customize Debian 8 Linux as a Guest Operating System, support for VMWare vCenter 5.5, the ability to have Multiple External IP Addresses per Virtual Network, the ability to re-associate orphaned virtual machines to their service or VM role, and support for VMM DHCP Extension PXE/TFP Forwarding. There also is a ton of great fixes for issues in VMM. This is great work from the team and should make VMM more stable.

In DPM we see support for Windows 10 client protection, and a really cool feature being the ability to use alternate DPM servers to recover backups from Azure Backup vault. These means if you sent your backup data to Azure from one DPM server and it croaks you can connect a different DPM server to your Azure Backup subscription and recover data from Azure! I have a feeling we will continue to see greater collaboration between on premise backup/DR (DPM) and cloud backup/DR Azure Backup in the future.

To access update rollup 7 visit this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3069110

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SCRIPT: Schedule Maintenance Mode SCOM 2012 R2

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I know scheduled maintenance mode functionality is coming to SCOM 2016 as shown here. However I have clients that are still on SCOM 2012 R2 that need to schedule maintenance mode in SCOM right now. There are options out there for this already the best solution is a tool called SCOM 2012 Maintenance Mode Scheduler . It has a small fee but is well worth it. Sometimes I have clients that would prefer to run a script vs. pay the fee for a tool especially when this is coming to SCOM 2016.

There are a bunch of scripts out there for this but most are old and or don’t work. I have been using my own script to do this for a while. I recently updated it and have decided to share it. I run this script from Windows task scheduler. It could also just as easily be scheduled to run from Orchestrator, SMA or Azure Automation. I will put the download link at the end of this blog post. This script will put a SCOM group in maintenance mode. It also sets the duration in minutes but can easily be changed to hours.

Here is the PowerShell script:

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System Center Futures 2016 and Beyond

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UPDATE 9-4-2015:

***There is an upcoming FREE event covering the Future of System Center. This will be held on Sep 25, 2015 at the Microsoft MTC in Minnesota (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mtc/locations/minneapolis.aspx). This is a must attend event for any company running System Center. For more info on this event visit: http://bit.ly/1JIHS48***

Last week I was able to attend the first ever Microsoft Ignite conference in Chicago. There was a lot of exciting news announced at this conference around the many Microsoft products and technologies. Everything was covered from SharePoint, Exchange, Unified Communications, Office, Windows server, Windows 10, all things Azure and more. This post is focused for any System Center professional that was unable to attend the MS Ignite 2015 conference but what’s to know what’s up with System Center. If you had any concern about System Center going away or just want to know about the future of System Center in general this post is for you.

During conference there were many sessions related to the various System Center components however there were a couple of critical sessions that covered the future of System Center. These are the Platform Vision & Strategy sessions. These are titled:

Windows Server & System Center Futures—Bring Azure to your Datacenter (Platform Vision & Strategy)

And

Platform Vision & Strategy (6 of 7): What’s New in System Center for Management

These sessions are important because they featured System Centers top guy Jeremy Winter and he talked about future direction of the management solutions. In this post I will sum up key information from each of these sessions.

NOTE: This post is my perspective on the Platform Vision & Strategy sessions from Ignite and do not represent the opinions of Microsoft.

Traditionally System Center has been a complete management stack for IT Operations. This is not going to change but will continue to get better. The stack consists of: Managing endpoints (PC’s/Mobile device/servers) – *SCCM/Intune* | Monitor – *SCOM* | Automation – *Orchestrator (SMA)* | Provision – *VMM* | Service Management – *SCSM* | Protection – *Data Protection Manager* | Self-service – *Azure Pack* also represented in the following screenshot from one of the session slides.

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So we are now in the year 2015 and have not had a new major version of the entire stack since 2012. However since the release of System Center 2012 we have seen a steady progression of enhancement to the stack. We have seen it move from SP1 to R2 and now updates and new features through update rollups.

These update rollups have been released on a faster cadence at a speed we have not seen from Microsoft before. In fact we have recently seen a round of new features in update rollup 6 and more announced at Ignite. Below is a list of key features that stuck out to me along with slides from one of the Platform Vision & Strategy sessions giving insight into where the System Center components are headed next.

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Book dedicated to System Center Reporting

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A new System Center book is set to publish this Friday March 27th. This one has me very excited because the focus is on reporting in System Center. And it is not just one or two System Center components they cover them all. This book dives in and gives you recipes’ as to how to build reports that are useful so you can start producing them in your environment today. What I love about this book is that it was developed with the IT pro in mind. The IT pro with no SQL background. Most System Center folks dont have a past in SQL but after some time working with the product they know SQL well. 🙂 This book will help those that want to get going with reporting for System Center and those that want to pick up some new skills. The title of the book is Microsoft System Center Reporting Cookbook. I was approached to be a technical reviewer on this book and jumped at the opportunity. The authors of this book are Samuel Erskine, Kurt Van Hoecke, Dieter Gasser, Nasira Ismail.

This is a book you will want to add to your collection!

Here is the cover for the book and some links with more information:

SCReportingBook

Amazon link to the book:

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-System-Center-Reporting-Cookbook/dp/1782171800

Interview with Sam Erskine about the new Microsoft System Center Reporting Cookbook:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmmthUYszxw&feature=youtu.be

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Update to the SCSM Discovery Report

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  I have made a couple of updates to the Service Manager Discovery report. The first one is that the report will now display the update rollup level within the report along with the version number. This was courtesy of Samuel Erskine and Natascia Heil. Thanks for contributing the the report! They have recently built … Read more

Service Manager Discovery Report

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I recently built a PowerShell script that creates a discovery report for System Center Service Manager. The idea behind the script was to have something that I could run to gather all of the information I would want about a Service Manager deployment. I searched online and could not find anything so that’s when I decided to put something together.

This report can be used by consultants doing assessments or SCSM admins as an easy way to document what you have in your environment. This is a first pass at the report so it is version 1.1. I plan to add more information/functionality to the report in the future. Keep in mind I am not a PowerShell expert so feel free to take the script tweak it and share your updates with the community.

When the script is run it will output a report of System Center Service Manager in HTML format. This script should be run on a management server within your Service Manager’s management group. The script should be run with an account that has administrative access to Service Manager and the local server it will be running on.

The script will run on Service Manager 2012 SP1 and above. It uses SCSM 2012 SP1/R2 CMDLETS along with SMLets. If you don’t have the SMLets installed you can download them here: https://smlets.codeplex.com/

Discovered in the report:

These are the sections of information in the report.

  • Management Server Name
  • Service Manager Version
  • Management Server HDD CPU Memory
  • Service Manager Management Group Name
  • Service Manager Data Warehouse Information
  • Users connected to Service Manager
  • Service Manager Run as accounts
  • Service Manager User Roles
  • Service Manager Notification Channels
  • Service Manager Connectors
  • Service Manager Email Templates
  • Service Manager Subscriptions
  • Service Manager Groups
  • Service Manager Queues
  • Service Manager Service Offerings
  • Published Service Manager Request Offerings
  • Draft Service Manager Request Offerings
  • Service Manager Views
  • Service Manager Tasks
  • Service Manager Un-sealed Management Packs
  • Websites local to the Service Manager Server
  • Last 10 Service Manager error event logs

Example Link:

This will take you to an online example of the report.

https://www.buchatech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Service-Manager-Discovery-Report.html

Example Output:

Here is a screenshot of the report.

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Download It:

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Service-Manager-Discovery-a25c7d80

NOTE: The PowerShell report is provided AS-IS without warranty of any kind. It is recommended to run in a lab environment before running it in a production environment.

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Whitepaper – Service Management’s Role in the Private Cloud

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I am happy to announce that today Savision just published a new whitepaper authored by me. It is titled:

Service Management’s Role in the Private Cloud
Dispelling the Myopic Perception

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This whitepaper sets out to define Private Cloud, the layers of Private Cloud, and those layers within which service management operates.

The whitepaper also explores having ultimate visibility into your organization’s business services. Business services discussed in this paper consist of configuration items (CIs), monitoring, and application maps; they are underpinned with incident, change management, and modern day self-service. In addition, the whitepaper explores the integration between Operations Manager and Service Manager, and the role Savision Live Maps Unity plays in this area. Here is an excerpt from the whitepaper:

“Technology needs of the business are changing, often faster than can be addressed by most internal IT departments.

It is critical for IT departments to shift away from the image of black box cost centers and slow moving dinosaurs that are hard to work with and become viewed as revenue-generating centers that are agile, fast moving, and business enablers with modernized IT services.

From the perspective of internal IT, there are some key steps that can be made to prepare and deliver “modern IT services” – with service management being a critical component of those services. This whitepaper explores these key steps from a Microsoft technology perspective as it applies to System Center.”

A huge thanks to both Kerrie Meyler and Sam Erskine for doing the technical review on this whitepaper!

To download visit:

http://savision.com/resources/white-paper/free-whitepaper-mvp-steve-buchanan-service-managements-role-private-cloud?utm_source=Twitter&utm_content=Whitepaper+by+MVP+Steve+Buchanan&utm_campaign=General

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Community tools: Manage SCSM DW Jobs & SCORCH Reporting

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One of the many great things about System Center is the rich eco-system within the community. Many System Center guru’s contribute their time to making tools that improve or fill gaps within System Center and they release these to the community for FREE. Two new community tools have recently been released one for Service Manager and one for Orchestrator. I wanted to post about them today and give them some shine.

SCSM DW Jobs Management Tool

The first tool is from Sam Erskine. We have seen a lot of great stuff from Sam lately such as System Center books, speaking at conferences and now another Service Manager tool. This tool gives you a GUI to execute all the Server Manager Data Warehouse actions.

ViewJobs-executed

As of right now you cannot do this directly in the Service Manager console. You can only do this via PowerShell. This tool gives you a centralized and organized way to handle the DW jobs. This is especially helpful when upgrading Service Manager or applying update rollups.

Sam has posted a blog about the tool with more information. You can find it here:

http://itprocessed.com/2014/11/838/

You can download this tool here:

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/SCSM-DW-Jobs-Management-f69fb703

Orchestrator SSRS Reports

This one is from Steve Jesok. He is the man when it comes to automation. Steve has taken the time to share some very useful Orchestrator reports with the community.

summary

Orchestrator does not come with any reporting out of the box. For insight into your Orchestrator environment you have to create your own reports. Here is a blurb from the description of the reports:

“This collection of reports was put together to help me spot check the health of my servers and identify usage and failure patterns easier.  The reports are based on a number of common Orchestrator SQL queries you find used to gather different bits of information, this is simply an attempt to put more of those bits in one place.”

You can download the reports here:
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Orchestrator-SSRS-Reports-ac304a7d

Thanks Sam and Steve!

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New UR’s for SC 2012 R2 & SP1, Updated Exchange 13 MP & more

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Wow another exciting day for Microsoft and specifically System Center! Microsoft is moving at a fast pace and doing some cool things. There were several announcements today. These included: Update Rollup 4 for System Center 2012 R2 http://aka.ms/yktkfk App Controller is not included in this. I am not surprised by this. Configuration Manager and Orchestrator … Read more