My parents live in Biloxi. They were smart and headed to my sister's in Atlanta Sunday morning. After reading all the details from the storm, looks like their house may be toast.
Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
-JFH
I was thinking back to all the Microsoft betas in which I have been involved. I can honestly say that all have been well executed. But, they have almost all had a common failing.
One item or another was not in any beta or RC, prior to RTM. This is not something I like.
I have decided to make sure that I voice this issue with MS. We shall see....
I have been working on scripts to capture tasks into events and alerts.
A problem I ran into is that the WScript Shell item RUN is not supported under the MOM script host. So, I thought about using the command line response, and run the script that way. Kinda KLUDGEY.
Once I get this done, I will post a link to it...Hopefully, I will come up with something more elegant.
I had a hardware failure on a Virtual Server 2005 box. The motherboard was replaced. I had moved the VMs off to another VS during the downtime. Once the original VS was up, I tried to move the VMs back...But they would not see the NICs.
SO...I tried a reinstall...same issue...Uninstalled and deleted the Virtual Network files, reinstalled and whammo.
It appears that there isn't a good way to edit the Virtual Network files to reinitial them...
Let some VS person reply with a real solution...
I have seen a number of posts around the newsgroups and public forums wanting to respond to changes in state for alerts and agents.
What I mean is:
- An Alert's Problem State is changed to Inactive
- An Agent is flooded by alerts
These types of state changes would require a method outside of MOM or some serious scripting. Escalation and these types of changes have to watch the open alerts and keep track of changes to trigger addition alerts...I am going to continue to think about this, but if anyone has thoughts...Let me know.
I am in the MOM v3 TAP. That means that I get to play with the MOM v3 beta and RC code.
Microsoft has shown TAP customers the new UI and given a number of presentations on the new concepts with MOM v3.
MOM v3 KICKS ASS! I am extremely impressed by the new UI and functionality in MOM v3.
Competitors should be afraid....very afraid.
I am going to be honest, MOM v3 looks to be much more complicated, but with the complication comes many new levels of function. Its going to be very interesting seeing MOM v3 unfold....
Microsoft's Management Pack Notifier: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a24cea3a-1920-4b18-8cf2-8bf78c94c917&DisplayLang=en
This MP queries an XML document on MS' website that contains the current version of MS MPs and checks them against what you have loaded in MOM 2005. It creates alerts to let you know when a newer version of an MP is available. Microsoft releases updates to MPs all the time....But the version number of the MP doesn't always change, so I use this MP to let me know when a REAL update has been made to Management Packs.
He moved it to here: http://marcusoh.blogspot.com/
He is an SMS MVP...and he does MOM as well.
The other day, I was noticing that it TOOK FOREVER to load a view of some events in the Ops Console.
Out of curiosity, I checked the Reindex job on the MOM Onepoint database. It was set to run once a week, Sundays at 3AM.
I manually ran the job, and lo and behold...views were a lot snappier! I have scheduled the Reindex job to run daily...
After talking to a MOM PM.....The WMI parts of the script are from MOM 2000 and you can just set the resolution state with the ScriptContext alert object.
Dim objAlert Set objAlert = ScriptContext.Alert objAlert.ResolutionState = 255
The script is so small because you are getting the alert information from the alert that triggered the script with the ScriptContext statement.
Then, just set the resolution state...
Scripting for Beginners: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/begin/default.mspx
MOM Scripting: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/hubs/mom.mspx
Scripting Tools: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/createit.mspx
Marcus Oh (http://myitforum.techtarget.com/blog/moh/archive/2005/08/17/12870.aspx) posted about a thread on the MOM List(http://lists.listleague.com/mailman/listinfo/msmom/).
I ALWAYS copy rules that I modify to a custom rule group and echo the computer group assignment from the original rule group, then I disable the original rule.
So what this means is that I have custom rule groups for Exchange, AD, SMS, MOM, etc Management Packs. That way I can always use the REPLACE option when importing new MPs. I do this so that I don't miss any rules or functionality of updated MPs.
It is a hassle to go back and look for the rules that I have customized, make sure they are the same, and disable them, but I feel better knowing I have the up-to-date MP loaded.
I looked at an example at MOMSolutions.org: http://www.momsolutions.org/Scripts/AutoResolve/autoresolve.txt
And come up with this:(Gotta tweak it some...but you should get the idea)
Dim objAlert Dim strRuleGUID Dim strQuery Dim objWMIAlerts Dim alert Set objAlert = ScriptContext.Alert strRuleGUID = objAlert.ID strQuery = "select * from MSFT_Alert where RuleGUID=""" + strRuleGUID + """" Set objWMIAlerts = GetObject("winmgmts:!root\MOM").ExecQuery(strQuery) For Each alert In objWMIAlerts objWMIAlert.ResolutionState = 255 objWMIAlert.Put_ Next Set objAlert = Nothing Set objWMIAlert = Nothing
Forgot about the auto-resolve part...
You would create a script that is a response to an Alert rule that would be fired whenever an alert for computers in the computer group occurs. You could only fire it on Alerts of Warning or higher severity. Then, in the script, you would get the alert object, change the resolution state to Resolved (255) and save the change....I'll post the script later.
One possible solution:
If all the computers are in a computer group....you would have created a rule group and assigned that computer group to it....then create an alert rule to send the notification....but not at night...Scehdule the rule to run only during the day.
I saw a post on the MOM public newsgroup(NNTP) about wanting to auto-resolve alerts for any alerts that happened after hours for a specific computer group. The servers were non-production servers and no one wanted to be alerted after hours for these servers.
So what do ya do? First I thought write a script to auto resolve the alert if the agent belonged to a computer group. Problem is the notification will already have been sent. So what do ya do?
I am gonna keep thinking and hopefully come up with a solution
I figured I better let you know what will NOT be posted to my blog.
MP announcements...You should use the MP Notifier, it will let you know when new MP versions are out
KBs...Not all KBs apply to everyone, so if you have an issue, check http://support.microsoft.com
I will post about new Guides and Docs on MOM....because these can be very informative.
I will also share any information that I learn as an MVP....if it is not NDA.
The agent’s Action Account is used to gather information about, and run responses on, the managed computer. The MOMHost.exe processes runs under the Action Account as well as specific threads within the MOMServic.exe. Because more than one data provider or more than one response might be running at one time, MOM runs these as separate processes to protect other MOMHost.exe processes, should one of them fail. Therefore, there might be more than one MOMHost.exe process running at any given time on the agent.
Specifically, the MOMHost.exe can perform the following tasks:
Monitors and collects Windows event log data.
Monitors and collects Windows performance counter data.
Monitors and collects Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) data.
Monitors and collects application-specific log data, such as IIS logs.
Runs management pack responses, such as scripts or batches
Runs managed code responses (“managed code” refers to code written upon the .NET Frameworks)
The separation of the MOMService process from the MOMHost process and the use of multiple MOMHost processes means that if a script running on the managed computer becomes stalled or fails, this will not affect the functionality of the MOM Service or other responses on the managed computer. This makes MOM 2005 agents more robust.
Using a Low-Privileged Account
You can use a low-privileged account for the agent’s Action Account under certain circumstances. On Windows 2000, the Action Account must be a member of the local administrators group or Local System. On Windows Server 2003, the account must have the following minimum privileges:
Member of the local Users group
Access to Windows Event logs
Member of the local “Performance Monitor Users” group
“Manage auditing and security log” permission (SeSecurityPrivilege)
“Allow log on locally” permission (SeInteractiveLogonRight)
ImportantThe minimum privileges above are the lowest privileges that MOM 2005 supports. The actual privileges required for the Action Account will depend upon which Management Packs are running on the computer and how they are configured. For more information about what specific privileges are required, see the appropriate Management Pack Guide.A low-privileged account can be used only on Windows Server 2003. On Windows 2000, the Action Account must be a member of the local administrator security group or Local System.
From the “Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Management Pack Guide, Deploying the Microsoft SQL Server Management Pack”:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/mom/mom2005/maintain/sqlservermpguide_3.mspx
“Excluding Agent Jobs from Long Running Agent Job Monitoring
You can exclude specific agent jobs from being monitored for long running agent jobs. This allows you to continue to monitor long running agent jobs without being alerted to agent jobs that typically run longer than the threshold you specify for monitoring.
To exclude agent jobs, create a text file list of agent jobs. List agent jobs, one per line using the following format: instance_name\job_name, where:
The instance_name is the instance that the job originates from.
The job_name is the name of the job as it appears in the sysjobs table in the msdb database.
The following is an example of a typical entry for a default instance.
Server01\agentjobname
The following is an example of a typical entry for a named instance.
Server01\instancename\agentjobname
Save the file as SQLMPAgentExclude.txt and place it in c:\ on the monitored servers.
The SQL Server Management Pack allows administrators to exclude individual databases from script-based monitoring. By adding databases to an exclusion file, alerts are not generated for the following monitoring scenarios:
Database space monitoring
Transaction log space monitoring
Database health
Exclusions are implemented by using a text file on the monitored server. Use the following guidelines:
List database names, one per line.
If databases that are to be excluded are in named instances, precede the database name with the instance name(for example, “Instance1\database”).
All databases are assumed to be in the default instance unless an instance is specified.
Save the file as SQLExclude.txt and place it in c:\.
The exclusions file is parsed when read. If an entry is invalid, the entry line is not applied. Reading continues at the next line until the end of the file is reached. An exclusion file can contain any number of databases; however, an exclusions list places an overhead on monitoring and should not be overused.
The following example shows a typical exclusion file.
Northwind Master Pubs Instance1\Northwind Instance1\Pubs Instance2\Northwind”
For most rules in MOM, you can use regular expressions to match items....Problem is there isn't a reference for Regular Expressions.
In the MOM 2000 on-line help:
You can perform advanced text pattern matching using regular expressions. Regular expressions provide more flexibility than simple wildcards in defining rules or views. To match an exact regular expression character, precede the character with a backslash (\). The following table lists regular expression operators and their definitions.
The following table provides examples of regular expressions and example matches.
st.n
st[io]n
st[^io]n
^houston
ston$
dall|hart
dal(l|h)art
il?e$
il*e$
il+e$
ad{2}
(la.*){2,}
il{,1}e$
(a.*){2,3}
not ville