DNS Management Pack Optional Configuration

When you have imported the DNS management pack and configured it there are some optional configuration options:

External Resolution Monitor
Global Zone Resolution Monitor
Forwarder Availability Monitor

External Resolution Monitor

When imported the DNS management pack the external resolution monitor that performs an NSLOOKUP query for a host(NS) record at www.microsoft.com to verrify that external resolution is functioning properly. If you want, you can change the Host, Query or disable te monitor.

Open the System Center Operations Manager Console 2007 r2, and click the "Authoring" workspace.
In the "Authoring" workspace, expand "Management Pack Objects, and select "Monitors"
In the "Monitors" pane, use the "Look for:" box to find "External Resolution Monitor"
Right Click "DNS 2008/R2 External Resolution Monitor", select "Overrides", select "Override the Monitor", click "For all objects of class: DNS 2008/R2 Server"
On the "Overrides Properties" page, select "Host" and change the "Override Value" to the value that you want
On the "Overrides Properties" page, Select a "Destination management Pack" click "Apply" and click "OK"

Global Zone Resolution Monitor

The Global zone resolution monitor performs an NSLOOKUP query for a test(A) record named "placeholder" to verify that global zone resolution is working. If you want it to work you can create a DNS A record named "placeholder" or you can create a override to change the target name.

When you are going to change the target name you need to create a override to change the target name

Open the System Center Operations Manager Console 2007 r2, and click the "Authoring" workspace.
In the "Authoring" workspace, expand "Management Pack Objects, and select "Monitors"
In the "Monitors" pane, use the "Look for:" box to find "Global Zone Resolution Monitor"
Right Click "Global Zone Resolution Monitor", select "Overrides", select "Override the Monitor", click "For all objects of class: DNS 2008/R2 Global Zone"
On the "Overrides Properties" page, select "Host" and change the "Override Value" to the value that you want
On the "Overrides Properties" page, Select a "Destination management Pack" click "Apply" and click "Ok"

Forwarder Availability Monitor

The forwarder availability monitor uses www.microsoft.com as a host in an NSLOOKUP query by default for unconditional forwarders. If your environment does not have A type records for all zones, you can override the default record type to Start of Authority (SOA) type record in Forwarder Availability Monitor with the following steps:

Open the System Center Operations Manager Console 2007 r2, and click the "Authoring" workspace.
In the "Authoring" workspace, expand "Management Pack Objects, and select "Monitors"
In the "Monitors" pane, use the "Look for:" box to find "Forwarder Availability Monitor"
Right Click "Forwarder Availability Monitor", select "Overrides", select "Override the Monitor", click "For a specific object off class: DNS 2008/R2 Forwarder"
On the "Select Object" page, select the object that you want to Override and click "OK"
On the "Overrides Properties" page, select "Debug flag" and change the "Override Value" to the value "True"
On the "Overrides Properties" page, Select a "Destination management Pack" click "Apply" and click "Ok"

The DNS management Pack can be found here. The Management Pack guide can be found here

Agentless Monitoring Part 2

In Part 1 of agentless monitoring I explained how to configure Agentless Monitoring. In this Part I will explain Agentless Exception Monitoring(AEM).

Agentless Exception Monitoring is an extension of Dr. Watson. Dr Watson is responsible for capturing application errors and the forward the to Microsoft if needed. When you are a home user this could be a viable option. When you are working in a organisation , the data that is collected by Dr Watson is could contain insight information of the organization that you don’t want to share with Microsoft.

When you implement Agentless exception Monitoring, Dr Watson collects the application errors and stores them in on the AEM infrastructure that is hosted by your organization.

AEM Relies on two configuration options to Function:

Run the configuration Wizard from the System Center Operations Console
Create a Group Policy to configure the Clients

Run the configuration Wizard from the System Center operations Console

Start the System Center Operations Manager Console 2007 r2
Select the "Administration" workspace
Expand "Device Managed" and select "Management Servers"
Right click the RMS and select"Configure Client Monitoring"
On the "Introduction" page, click "Next"
On the "CEIP Forwarding" page, click "Yes, use the selected management server to collect and forward CEIP data to Microsoft", Clear the "Use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol" and click "Next"
On the "Error Collection" page, Fill in the "File Share Path", Check of the "Collect error from Windows Vista-based or later clients" is checked and clear the "Use Secure Sockets (SSL) protocol" check box. In the Organization Name type the name you want to Use
On the "Error Forwarding" page, Click "Next"
On the "Create File Share" page, Click "Other user account(will not be saved)" and fill in a domain administrator account
On the "Create File Share: Task Status" page, click "Next"
On the "Client Configuration Settings" page, Select a location where you want to store the administrative template and click "Finish"

Create a Group Policy to Configure the clients

Start the Group Policy Management Console
Browse to the Organizational Unit where you want to create the Group Policy
Right click the Organizational Unit and click "Create a GPO in this domain, and link it here…"
Give the New GPO a name and click "OK"
Edit the GPO
Navigate to "Computer Configuration, Policies, Administrative Templates"
Right click "Administrative Templates" and click "Add/Remove Templates"
On the "Add/Remove Templates" dialogue click "Add" and select the created template from above click "Open". Click "Close"
Navigate to "Computer Configuration, Policies, Administrative templates, Classic Administrative Templates(ADM), Microsoft Application, System Center Operations Manager (Scom)"
Select "Scom Client Monitoring CIEP Settings", Open "Configure CEIP (Customer Experience Improvement Program)" click "Enable" and configure the CEIP Settings "http://rms.ms-opsmgr.eu:51907/" Click "Apply", click "OK"
Select "Scom Monitoring", Open "Configure Error Reporting for Windows Vista and later operating Systems" , click "enable" and verify that the correct settings are configured and click "Apply" and click "OK"
Select "Scom Monitoring", Open "Configure Error Notification", click "Enable" and verify that "ShowUI" in unchecked and "DoNotDebugErrors" is checked. CLick "Apply" and "OK"
Navigate to "Computer Configuration, Policies, Administrative templates, Classic Administrative Templates(ADM), Microsoft Application, System Center Operations Manager (Scom), Scom Monitoring"
Select "Advanced Error Reporting settings", open "Application reporting settings (all or None)", "Enable" check if all options are selected and Click "Apply" and "OK"
Select "Advanced Error Reporting settings", open "Report Operating System Errors", "Enable" check if all options are selected and Click "Apply" and "OK"
Select "Advanced Error Reporting settings", open "Report unplanned shut-down events, "Enable" check if all options are selected and Click "Apply" and "OK"
Navigate to "Computer Configuration, Policies, Administrative templates, Classic Administrative Templates(ADM), Microsoft Application, System Center Operations Manager (Scom)"
Select "SCOM Client monitoring for Office 10.0 Applications" open "Configure Error Notification, "Enable and make sure that the Option "ShowUI" is not selected. Click "Apply and "OK"
Close the Group Policy Management Console

Now the configuration is done. Time to do some testing and see if it’s working. You can add a registry key to a client computer to add the feature to generate a crash.

Start the registry editor on your windows test system
browse to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters"
Create a new DWORD Value. Name the new key "CrashOnCtrlScroll", and set value 1
Restart the computer

When you computer is up and running again, you should be enable to generate a blue screen by holding down the right Ctrl key and click Scroll Lock twice.

When you open the System Center Operations Manager Console and you select Agent less acceptation Monitoring. You could select a view to see the alerts generated

Big thank’s to Pete Zerger and Anders Bengtsson who wrote a great article on Agent less Exception Monitoring. This can be found at System Center Central

Agentless Monitoring Part 1

In this blog post I will explain how to configure agentless monitoring in System Center Operation Manager 2007 r2. There are two types off Agentless Monitoring:

Agentless Monitoring
Agentless Exception Monitoring

In this Part I will explain how to configure Agentless-Monitoring.

AgentLess Monitoring

Agentless management of computers is different from Agentless Exception Monitoring. Agent Exception Monitoring is used tot aggregate, vies and report on error reports that are sent by the Windows Error Reporting Service

The discovery wizard can find and Setup systems for agentless management. It is almost the same as deploying a agent to a client. The difference is that you need configure a proxy for each agentless-managed system.

Configure a Proxy for agentless-managed computers

Start the System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Operating Console
Click the tab "Administration"
Select "Agent Managed"
Open the "Agent Properties" and click the "Security" tab
On te "Security" tab, select "Allow this agent to act as proxy and discover managed objects on other computers" and click "OK"

When you enabled enable a agent to serve as proxy. You will see the following event logged on your System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Server and on the server that you configured as agent Proxy

When you remove the agent Proxy the agentless systems are no longer managed.

Discover windows Computers to manage them as Agentless-managed Computers

Start the System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Operating Console
Click the tab "Administration"
Start the "Discovery Wizard"
On the "Discovery Type" page, select "Windows Computers" and click "Next"
On the "Auto or Advanced" page, select "Advanced discovery"
On the "Auto or Advanced" page, in the "Computer and Device Classes" list, select "Server and Clients"
On the "Auto or Advanced" page, in the "Management Server" list, select the Management Server you want to use to discover the computer and click "Next"
On the "Discovery Method" page, select "Browse for, or type-in computers name",browse for the computer you want to discover and click "Next"
On the "Administrator Account" page, select "User selected Management Server Action Account" and click "Discover"
On the "Select Objects to Manage" page, select the discovered Server. Click "Change" and select the Proxy Agent you want to Use. In the "Management Mode" select "Agentless" and click "Next"
On the "Summary" page, click finished
In the System Center Operations Manager Console, click Administration and select "Agentless Managed" and check if the windows computer is monitored

More Information on agentless Monitoring can be found here.

Management Pack XML Architecture Explained

Roel Knippen

Microsoft System Center Operations Manager

Month: October 2012

DNS Management Pack Optional Configuration

Agentless Monitoring Part 2

Agentless Monitoring Part 1

Management Pack XML Architecture Explained