OpsMgr 2007 Base Concepts and Helpful Links

OpsMgr is a beast, here are some tips for understanding what it is and does. I’ve included a few links to great resources as well.

General Info

As said in the blog post below, the workflow engine is the heart of Operations Manager. It has 4 basic parts or modules, think of them like OpsMgr Lego’s.

1. Data Source – this is anything that provides data. There are a bunch of them built-in, like Syslog, Events, Performance, etc.
2. Probe Action – this is a way to create data by checking on something, running a script, etc.
3. Condition Detection – this can be used to map between data types, or decide whether or not to keep working on something.
4. Write Action – this takes data and does something — changes a health state, writes an event or alert, etc.

These modules are used to build -rules-. Rules are essentially scripts that do things.

Some other concepts:

• Classes – a class is a template for an object. For example, in my previous post about monitoring Syslogs we create a class called “Syslog Receiver”, with a few properties.
• Discovery Rule – a special rule that ‘discovers’ objects. It can create an instance of a class and populate it’s properties.
• Monitor – a special rule that watches something for problems.
• Views – a way to look at OpsMgr data like Events, Health States, Performance Graphs, etc.
• Reports – when a view isn’t good enough, you can generate Reports. Reports offer a lot more flexibility (and complexity) than views, and can be saved\exported\scheduled.

All of these elements are bundled up into a file called a Management Pack (MP).

For a working example, check out my previous post “Monitoring ESXi Syslogs with OpsMgr 2007 R2“.Working through the post to create a management pack is a great way to learn this stuff.

Links!

SNMP

• SNMP Series: SNMP Monitoring in Operations Manager and Essentials 2007 (Part 1)
• SCOM, SNMP and TRAPS or The Good, the Bad and the Ugly : Part 1

Syslog

• Cookdown problems when grabbing syslog data
• Kiwi Syslog Generator — works perfectly

Scripting

• OpsMgr Scripting: WYWINNWYG
• OpsMgr: Probing a Web Service with with PowerShell 2.0 in a Two-State Monitor
• Microsoft.Windows.PowerShellPropertyBagProbe
• Creating XML in Powershell: Hey PowerShell guy !, The Games Are Afoot! Oh, and Some XML, Too

Views

• Create (Scoped) View in SCOM Authoring Console
• $MPElement

Discovery

• A neat vbs discovery Extending System Center Operations Manager Classes & Discovery
• Discovery not working…(wrong class) Discovery based on registry keys

Working with MP’s

• Registry Discoveries: HOWTO: Registry Attribute Definition explained
• Working with XML files directly: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff461073.aspx
• Reprocessing Data Sources: OpsManJam Library
  • you want mpauthor.processDataSource.Powershell
• Management Pack Basics: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff381341.aspx
• Events
  • Authoring Event Rules in OpsMgr
  • Data Source Module Types
  • Common Module Types
• Amazing Info: Workflow Tracer! (Part 1 of 4)
• PowerShell Scripts in MP’s
• Using Scripts to write events
• Using Probe-Based Script Event Rule to Create Events
• About X-Path Replacements When to use which XPath replacements

Reports and SQL

• Great guide on custom Performance reports: Creating a Custom Report for SCOM 2007 R2 with SQL 2008 reporting in Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
• Missing Event and Performance report models? Deploying the report models
• OpsMgr 2007 PropertyBags to type or not to type
• MOMScriptAPI.CreateTypedPropertyBag Method
• Property bags and Variant Types
• How to make a custom report from scratch (long and involved!): OpsMgr Custom Reporting Tips & Tricks
• Creating Custom Reports (good, incl’ the DW db schema). Creating Custom Reports
• The DB Views and what they mean: OperationsManagerDW – views
• The guy who posted the comment is doing what I want — parsing the XML in a SQL query.: Using the Data Warehouse Part 2 – Event Data

There are a few more links on my Chemistry Wiki page, but they’ll be fairly unorganized.

If you see something out of place, please leave a comment!