Adding to the robust set of features and assessment scenarios that System Center Advisor provides by means of Intelligence packs for capacity planning, configuration assessment, security, system update, malware assessment, log management and change tracking, the Advisor team at Microsoft has released a new Intelligence Pack for SQL Server assessment. This marks an evolution in the configuration assessment scenarios that Advisor typically provides by, in this case, providing assessment information for a specific workload/ technology – SQL Server. I imagine that this is the first of many such workload/ technology specific Intelligence packs. Let’s take a tour and see what this Intelligence Pack entails. The intelligence pack provides deep operational insight into various key focus areas as … Read More
New Preview Build Released for Windows 10 Technical Preview
In the wake of the recently released Windows 10 Technical Preview, Microsoft has just issued an update. The update takes the form of a new preview build that’s available for installation from the update and recovery section of PC setting. This comes on the heels of the speculation around the updates KB3008956, KB3008931 and KB3008956 which were readily available for download in the 9841 build of Windows 10 Technical preview, but failed to install because of a build incompatibility. As Microsoft continues to develop Windows 10, the latest preview build (9860) refines a few of the already existing features, as well as adds some new features. Noteworthy is the Notification Center (Action Center) which collects alerts … Read More
Data Aggregation Fails in Operational Insights Capacity Planning IP after Applying VMM Update Rollup
I recently encountered an issue in Azure Operational Insights (OpInsights). Data aggregation appeared to be failing for the OpInsights capacity planning intelligence pack when only hours before, data aggregation was working as expected. I couldn’t help but wonder what could have severed the connection. In my experience with OpInsights, data aggregation failures usually indicate a problem with OpsMgr sending data to OpInsights Analytics. I didn’t know of any configuration changes had been made on the OpsMgr side, but decided to double check everything. While scouring OpsMgr, I noticed some 2127 event IDs in the Operations Manager log on the management server, with message “health service HTTP module in management group …failed to POST data to/from url (https://ods.systemcenteradvisor.com…)” This event ID … Read More
New System Center 2012 – Service Manager Book Published!
A new System Center 2012 – Service Manager book has been authored by some renowned MVPs and SCSM experts including my colleague, Steve Buchanan. The authors include: Kerrie Meyler Kurt Van Hoecke Samuel Erskine Steve Buchanan This is the second book written for this specific major iteration of Service Manager – 2012, and the first book about this SCSM iteration from Sams Publishing, the outfit behind some other good books about System Center. I wish the authors a hearty congratulations on getting the book published. It’s no small feat. The book is available in both Kindle and paperback-version from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/System-Center-Service-Manager-Unleashed/dp/067233707X
Monitoring Azure IaaS with OpsMgr 2012 – Part 2
In the first part of this article, I introduced the concept of monitoring Azure IaaS VMs with OpsMgr, and briefly reviewed the prerequisite steps for setting up connectivity from your corpnet to the Azure network. In this part of the article, I will demonstrate the necessary configuration steps for monitoring the Azure VMs with OpsMgr. Recall that my lab is comprised of a AD domain, a OpsMgr Management group, and a Microsoft PKI, and that I have configured cross-premises connectivity to my Azure virtual network which contains my Azure VMs. We also confirmed that the test Azure VM, AppSrv2, can connect to the OpsMgr Management Server in my lab. The Azure VM is outside of the trusted environment of the … Read More
Monitoring Azure IaaS with OpsMgr 2012 – The basics
A customer recently posed a question, and it was one that coincided with a subject I had been meaning to write about for some time. Can virtual machines (VMs) running applications in Microsoft Azure be monitored with OpsMgr and if so, how does one configure this monitoring? Yes, a VM running in Windows Azure IaaS is essentially a VM running an OS, and as such the VM and any applications that reside on it can be monitored with OpsMgr just like you would monitor any other on-premise VM. There are however two important considerations for the monitoring of the VMs in Azure. Cross-premises connectivity would have to be configured between your corporate network and the Azure network in order for … Read More
Microsoft Azure Operational Insights Preview
There were several announcements during TechEd North America 2014, but of particular interest to me was that of the System Center Advisor (now Azure Operational Insights) preview. UPDATE: System Center Advisor is now a part of the new Microsoft Azure Operational Insights. With the recently-announced Public preview, Microsoft introduces Operational Insights Intelligence packs, unveils a new Operational Insights Portal based on HTML5, and introduces a powerful new search feature that allows you to combine and correlate machine data from multiple sources within your environment. The intelligence packs are powered by the Operational Insights search functionality to bring you metrics that pivot around a particular problem area, and the new portal makes for a rich and consistent experience across multiple device platforms … Read More