Category Archives: System Center Operations Manager

Monitor EqualLogic Using System Center Operations Manager 2012

In this post I’ll describe the process of configuring monitoring of EqualLogic storage using System Center Operations Manager 2012 (SCOM).

Firstly, download the EqualLogic management pack suite from the EqualLogic download centre.  Import the management pack into SCOM according to the instructions in the user guide.

Log into the EqualLogic group configuration.  Click on Group Configuration, then the SNMP tab and if necessary, create a read only SNMP community.  In the screenshot below I have the SANHQ-RO community already created as I use EqualLogic SAN Head Quarters.

EqualLogic SCOM 2

In the SCOM management console, open the Administration tab and click on Discovery Wizard.

EqualLogic SCOM 3

When the wizard starts, click on Network devices.

EqualLogic SCOM 4

In the following screen enter a name for the group you’re going to monitor, select your management server and resource pool and click Next.

EqualLogic SCOM 5

On the Discovery Method screen choose Explicit discovery.

On the Default Account screen click on Create Account to create the SNMP Run As account.  Enter a display name and click Next

EqualLogic SCOM 6

Enter the read only community string from EqualLogic group configuration and click Create.

EqualLogic SCOM 7

Click Next to continue the discovery wizard.

EqualLogic SCOM 8

On the Devices screen click Add.  On the following screen enter the EqualLogic Group IP address, change the access mode the SNMP and select the Run As account you just created.

EqualLogic SCOM 9

Click Next to schedule discovery.  As this is a one-off discovery, choose Run the discovery rule manually.

EqualLogic SCOM 10

Click Next and Create to complete the wizard.  Choose to run the discovery rule when the wizard closes.

EqualLogic SCOM 11

After a few minutes you should see an entry under Network Devices with the IP address of your EqualLogic group.

EqualLogic SCOM 12

If you navigate to the Monitoring pane and expand Dell -> State Views -> EqualLogic Devices you should see your EqualLogic group listed.

EqualLogic SCOM 13

Upgrading System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 To 2012

I needed to upgrade System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007 R2 running on Windows Server 2003 x64 with SQL Server 2005 to System Center Operations Manager 2012.  All SCOM components and SQL Server were installed on the same server.  These are the steps I followed.

  1. Upgrade the drivers and firmware on the server to the latest versions
  2. Backup the SQL databases
  3. Install SQL Server 2005 SP4
  4. Upgrade Windows Server 2003 x64 to Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
  5. Install the server drivers for Windows Server 2008 R2
  6. Install  SCOM 2007 R2 Cumulative Update 6 (CU6), the latest available update at the time of writing http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2626076
  7. Follow the instructions to enable the SQL Server upgrade to work successfully http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd789004.aspx.  This fixes the “No Custom Security Extensions” and “No Custom Authentication Extensions” errors when upgrading SQL Server.  For CU6, SRSUpgradeTool.exe can be found in C:\Program Files (x86)\System Center 2007 R2 Hotfix Utility\KB2449679\SupportTools\amd64
  8. Upgrade SQL 2005 to SQL 2008 R2
  9. Run the SRSUpgradeTool.exe PostSQLUpgrade step
  10. Run the SRSUpgradeHelper program step
  11. Install SQL 2008 R2 SP1
  12. Uninstall SQL 2005 Management Tools
  13. Follow the steps here to upgrade SCOM to 2012 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh205978
  14. Update SCOM 2012 to the latest update rollup, at the time of writing this is System Center Update Rollup 2 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2706783
  15. Change the SCOM databases to run in SQL 2008 compatibility level http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2700028
  16. If you only have one Management Server, add the registry keys detailed here to fix the “The All Management Servers Pool has not reported availability” error http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2714482
  17. Add the license key to convert the evaluation edition to the full edition.  Run Set-SCOMLicense –ProductID <XXXX> from the Operations Manager Shell
  18. Restart the System Center Data Access Service on all management servers to pickup the license change

View System Center Operations Manager Alerts As An RSS Feed

When you install System Center Operations Manager 2007, you have the option to install a Web Console Server component, see here.  The Web Console Server provides a browser based view of the monitoring pane from the Operations Console.  A useful feature of the web console is that it exposes an RSS feed of alerts.  In the screenshot below you can see an RSS button.  This loads an RSS feed of active alerts.

Other alerts related to management packs you’ve installed are also available as RSS feeds.  The example below shows the RSS button for Dell MD storage alerts.

Monitoring Dell PowerVault MD3000/MD3000i With System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2

Dell produces two management packs for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 (OpsMgr), the MD Storage Array Management Pack Suite for Dell PowerVault storage and the Dell Server Management Pack Suite for PowerEdge/PowerVault servers, Dell Remote Access Controllers and Chassis Management Controllers.  In this post I’ll walk through the setup of the MD Storage Array Management Pack (MD MP) in OpsMgr.

First, download the MD MP from www.dell.com/support .  Enter the Dell Service Tag of your array and navigate to the Systems Management section.  The MD MP is at version 4.0 at the time of writing.

Log onto the OpsMgr Management Server as an administrator and run the Dell MD Storage Array exe and unzip to the default location

Run DellDiscoveryUtility.exe from the C:\Dell_MDStorageArray_ABB folder, input the appropriate IP range, or IP of the MD3000/MD3000i array(s)

Continue through the wizard, save to the dell_MDStorageArray_ip.cfg file and click Discover

Next, import the storage management pack into OpsMgr.  You should now see additional Dell information in the OpsMgr console

For additional information see Dell_MDStorage_Management_Pack_Suite_v4.0_UserGuide.pdf, which is included as part of the MD MP download.