Ops Manager - John Hann

Cyberlink DVD Suite 6 Ultra - Review

jfhann — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:31:00 GMT

As a Microsoft MVP, I get access to discounted and free software from other companies. CyberLink DVD Suite 6 Ultra is a product I requested and thought I would share my experience.

The Cyberlink DVD Suite 6 Ultra combines DVD playback with a media creation set of software to meet most of your needs. You can watch and burn HD-DVD and Blu-ray given the proper hardware. Excellent screen scaling, and TrueHD sound with Dolby Digital Plus. It even has a HDCP compatibility tester.

If you want to create your own DVD, you use PowerDirector to edit your video and PowerProducer to package it. The whole process of creating your own DVD is pretty painless and I found it easy using these software tools.

Another KEWL option is to create a photo slide show on a DVD and send that to the parents...MediaShow is the software that allows you to do this.

Although I am in not a multimedia guru, I found this software suite exceeded my needs for DVD playback and authoring on my PC. I do have a healthly PC I use for multimedia (P4 3.2GHz, 2GB RAM, and nVidia 8800GTX) with a Samsung 24" wide-screen monitor. So, I give the Cyberlink DVD Suite 6 Ultra a GREAT rating....9 out of 10.

-JFH

Upgrading MOM 2005 Infrastructure - Part 1 - SQL 2000 to SQL 2005

jfhann — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:32:00 GMT

Wow...its been over a month since I first mentioned I was gonna blog about the upgrade of my MOM 2005 infrastructure servers...Sorry.

I started the upgrade at the SQL Server. I had originally had a Windows 2000 Server running SQL 2000 before I implemented the Notification Solution Accelerator. I upgraded that box to Windows Server 2003 so, it had already been upgraded one. I was able to convince management to authorize a new server for the SQL Server, so I got an Intel E7340 4-way with 16 GB of RAM...so its a 64-bit monster.

I configed the new server with SQL 2005 EE 64-bit. I followed the instructions to move the OnePoint DB to a new server. And I found a few other docs after searching the web about moving to SQL 2005. Problem was, I was going from SQL 2000 32-bit to SQL 2005 64-bit. That was not strictly covered by any of the documents. Most documents said to use the MOM 2005 setup program to install the database on the new server. This won't work on a 64-bit box. You have to run the 64-bit create database command. Once the database was created, detached the old DB from the old server and copied them the new box. I changed the registry entries for database server on the Consolidators and rebooted them. I changed the DTS job for the Data Warehouse job, and......Amazingly, it all worked.

So, I have a monster 64-bit SQL 2005 Server...and two Windows 2000 Consolidators...they are next.

-JFH

Adventures in MOM 2005

jfhann — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:08:00 GMT

I have been upgrading my MOM 2005 implementation: Upgrade the Database to SQL 2005 and Upgrade the Management Servers from W2K to W2K3..

I will be posting the trials in the next couple of days.

Also, I was planning on posting Ops Mgr 2007 items too.

-JFH

MOM 2005 Backwards Compatibility MP

jfhann — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:26:00 GMT

The MOM 2005 Backwards Compatibility MP is used in Operations Manager 2007 to work with MPs that are converted using the MPConvert utility.

As changes are made to accomidate rules in MOM 2005, the MOM 2005 Backwards Compatibility MP is updated. So, this means that if an MP is converted from MOM 2005, you need to have the MOM 2005 Backwards Compatibility MP installed.

Microsoft has updated the MOM 2005 Backwards Compatibility MP and released it to the web.

According to Peter Schmatz:

"MP convert and Back Compat MP (and related MPs) work together, that is we created additional monitortypes in the Back Compat MP and change MPconvert to take advantage of these. The main issues that have been fixed:-

2-state threshold monitors: These are now converted to a new monitortype that exposes overrides (and allows to seal the converted MP and change the threshold) (5000.1-)
3-state threshold monitors: Same as above, this time for 3-state (the SMS MP gets re-released using this type) (5000.12)-
Note that in MOM 2005 you could create n-state monitor logic, which we had to handle: The n-state gets still converted to a generic monitortype that doesn’t allow overrides.

We are catching the common 95% cases for 2-state and 3-state monitors however. Clustered Back Compat discovery: This was not working, and the Exchange 2007 MP did not work: This is a Back Compat MP fix only (no MPConvert issue). (5000.12)

MOM 2005 Windows service monitoring: It was possible to create a “wildcard” Windows Service monitor in MOM 2005 which did not get converted correctly. (Biztalk MP, ForeFront etc), and we had to a major fix to Back Compat, and MPconvert, including a module change (5000.12)"

The thing to remember here is, if you use a converted MOM 2005 MP in Ops Mgr 2007, you need to make sure you have the newest MOM 2005 Back Compat MP.

-JFH

SQL 2000 Error

jfhann — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:36:00 GMT

While working on a server that was configed from an image, I received the following error when trying to delete a SQL Agent job:

"Error 14274: Cannot add, update, or delete a job (or its steps or schedules) that originated from an MSX server. The job was not saved."

The following KB Article pointed to the issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/281642

But, instead of renaming the box back to the original name, I went hunting in the msdb database, in the sysjobs table. I found the offending job and deleted it. So that is an option if you don't need to get the original job back.

-JFH

Moved the MOM 2005 DB and the Reindex job Fails

jfhann — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:10:00 GMT

I have to move the MOM 2005 DB to a new server. One thing I forgot was the issue with the reindex and optimization jobs failing with strange codes.

Listed in the job history is: "sqlmaint.exe failed. [SQLSTATE 42000] (Error 22029). The step failed." That is too generic.

Looking at the Database Maintenance Plan History you get the real issue: "[Microsoft SQL-DMO (ODBC SQLState: 42000)] Error 1934: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]DBCC failed because the following SET options have incorrect settings: 'QUOTED_IDENTIFIER, ARITHABORT'."

Looking that up and you find: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902388/en-us

I know I have done this before...and I look at the old server, the -S option and the -SupportComputedColumn was in my Reindex job

-JFH

Tech Ed 2007 - Orlando

jfhann — Thu, 31 May 2007 21:26:00 GMT

So I will be at Tech Ed next week. I'll be the really huge guy, that looks like me.

I'll be with Lee . Everyone knows him, so I am sure you can spot me.

Pete is going too...He will be one in the embroidered shirt

Marcus won't be there, neither will Rory

There won't be a night on the town like last year...

-JFH

MOM Team's post on Best Practice for Overrides

jfhann — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:24:00 GMT

Jonobie Ford posted a great article on the Best Practice for Creating Overrides in Ops Mgr 2007. Check it out on the MOM Team Blog.

-JFH

Ops Manager 2007 RTM SDK and Samples Released

jfhann — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 08:03:00 GMT

The RTM version of the SDK and samples have been release to Connect, just like the Performance and Scale Guide.

-JFH

Ops Manager 2007 Performance and Scale Guide

jfhann — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:26:00 GMT

Microsoft has released the Ops Manager 2007 Performance and Scale Guide. Satya Vel posted this in the public newsgroups:

Folks,

As promised we have now made the Performance and Scale guide for OpsMgr 2007 available to you all. This document describes general performance and scalability guidance for OpsMgr 2007 and recommends hardware configurations for a variety of loads.

Steps to download the guide

1. Go to the website http://connect.microsoft.com/

2. On the left hand navigation bar choose "My Participation"

3. Provide your Microsoft connect credentials

4. Once logged in on the left hand navigation bar choose "Available Connections"

5. Scroll down and for "Programs" choose "System Center Capacity Planner 2007"

6. Navigate back to "My Participation"

7. Select the "System Center Capacity Planner 2007" entry for System Center Operations and Service Management

8. On the left hand navigation bar choose "Downloads"

9. There should be a download package called "Operations Manager 2007 performance and scalability guide"

Thank you,

Satya"

-JFH

Great PowerShell Demo for Ops Manager 2007

jfhann — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:47:00 GMT

http://powergui.org/shares/powergui/sbin/docs/OpsManagerDemo/OpsManagerDemo.html

Thanx to Stefan

-JFH

Mixin' up a new Pitcher...Kool-Aid - OH YEAH!!

jfhann — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 20:07:00 GMT

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the MVP Summit. All of the MOM MVPs met with the PMs and upper level managers of the MOM Team. We talked about almost every aspect of Ops Manager 2007.

I must say I am very, very impressed. There has been a great bit of work put into this new product. The MOM Team truely believe in this product. We all drank deep from the Kool-Aid pitcher.

I intend on continuing to discuss MOM 2005 since I will still be using it day-to-day for quite some time. But I will be posting on Ops Manager 2007 from time-to-time as I come across differences and nuances.

-JFH

PS: A new SystemCenter site: http://www.systemcentertraining.com/ Watch this site for training and articles

Ops Manager 2007 Health State

jfhann — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:17:00 GMT

I have been testing Ops Manager 2007, and found a strange Health State for two servers:

The top two servers show their Health State as Grayed-Out. This is because they lost communication with the Management Server.

After communications was restored, you can see the changes in status in the Health Explorer for this Agent:

-JFH

Ops Manager 2007 RTMs!

jfhann — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 07:30:00 GMT

I thought I would jump on this band-wagon and tout that OM 2007 has RTMed!!!

I am really excited about Ops Manager 2007. I will be blogging about some of its new components.

Check out Pete "Look at my Shirt" Zerger's new site: SystemCenter Forum

-JFH

Drinkin' the Kool-Aid

jfhann — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 21:19:00 GMT

I was at the MVP Summit last week. All of the MOM MVPs met with the Product Team over a day and a half. We got to talk to the designers and coders who made Operations Manager 2007. I must say that I was really impressed with them and their attitude.

Operations Manager 2007 is a very very different animal from MOM 2005. Watch all the videos at the Microsoft site I mentioned in my last post.

More to come...

-JFH