Discuss IT now - Microsoft Operations Manager: Manage EVERYTHING

Having been on the TAP program for Exchange 2010 I have had some experience with the beta version of this management pack.  MSFT released the Exchange 2010 management pack yesterday and you can get it here.

There are a few pre-requisites before installing this management pack.  Basically they are hotfixes that need to be applied to either your SCOM 2007 SP1 or R2 environments.  These are documented in the MP guide and information on how to obtain them are listed as well.  Be sure you get these and apply them to your environment before installing this MP.

MSFT also has a list of recommended additional management packs that should be installed, but not necessary for all environments (I.E. Labs, etc).

One thing that you will notice that is different for this management pack is that it will install a service on one of your management servers.  The RMS is recommended, but that decision is up to you.  This new service is called the Correlation Engine (reminds me of what HP does with it’s EVA systems using something called WEBES).

So when you install this MP you will see two directories for data to be extracted in.  After the install you simply import the MP (there are two mp files one for monitoring and one for reporting) and wait for discovery to be completed.

One thing to note, is that you must enable agent proxying on all Exchange 2010 agents in order for this MP to work (as well as have the service run as local system).  It might be a good idea also to verify that those agents did receive the hotfixes necessary before importing the MP as well as proxy enabled (both of these things can easily be checked by creating state views to display this data).

In the guide there is a warning that if you have the Cluster Management pack installed, you will be told how to exclude Exchange 2010 clusters from this management pack.  I looked through the guide and didn’t find those instructions.  I contacted the MSFT party responsible for the MP and he said that note should have been removed prior to it releasing, so if you see this and get concerned, then don’t worry it wasn’t meant to be in the guide.

As always, read the guide carefully before installing this MP and ensure you understand how alerts bubble up, and how components are discovered.  Overall the deployment was relatively simple and I am looking forward to seeing just how well this MP will manage our Exchange 2010 infrastructure.

MSFT announced a new connect site portal that will allow OM users the chance to give feedback directly to the OM MSFT team.  Register and start to use this new feedback channel today!

HTTPS://connect.microsoft.com/opsmgr

MSFT is in the process of doing away with the NNTP newsgroups for System Center Operations Manager.  Going forward you can now post questions to the new categories on the TechNet Social OpsMgr Forums found here.

SCOM R2 RTM has been released to get it go here.  To find about what is new and for more information read this.

Just got a note about a new site launched by a few of the SCOM MVP’s.  You should probably visit it, register, and subscript to one or all of the RSS feeds that are available.

System Center Central

We are proud to announce SystemCenterCentral.com, the site to visit for “Everything System Center”.

SystemCenterCentral.com was founded by three System Center community members; Pete Zerger, Rory McCaw and Maarten Goet. SystemCenterCentral.com is a community initiative that will combine a number of existing Internet properties under a single community site and strive to become the leading community landing page for all System Center technologies.

As Microsoft continues to invest in its System Center brand, we feel that there is a need for a community site that focuses exclusively on the technologies included in this suite of products. Unlike other community sites, the motivation behind this site is to continue to give back to the community at large, one of the reasons why each of the founders have been awarded the Microsoft MVP title.

The official launch of SystemCenterCentral.com will be at the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) in Las Vegas, NV, the week of April 27 to May 2, 2009. SystemCenterCentral.com has a dedicated community area where you can check out the site, get more information or become a member!

At this time you will find blogs, where well-known MVPs will start blogging in the coming days, a download area, a community “pack catalog” and forums. Later in May, we will be launching a wiki and a ‘community feedback’ platform and other exciting features.

SystemCenterCentral.com is a strong supporter of user groups. We have the commitment of the following user groups to user SystemCenterCentral.com as the main landing page to find their user group and some of these groups will transfer their internet presence to SystemCenterCentral.com in the following weeks:

Atlanta Systems Management User Group, Microsoft Enterprise Management User Group (Denver), System Center Professional’s User Group of Jax (Florida), New York System Center User Group, Portland EPG System Center User Group, Northwest System Center User Group (Seattle), Windows Management User Group (UK), System Center User Group (Netherlands), System Center User Group (Belgium), System Center User Group (Malaysia), System Center Virtual User Group and the Powershell Virtual User Group.

We would like to thank our sponsors for making this possible. Both Quest Software and Microsoft are supporting SystemCenterCentral.com as Gold Sponsors and will be active participant in this new online community. By having them as gold sponsors, we are confident this will become the go-to, online community for all things System Center..

Also, we would like to thank Bridgeways and SecureVantage, who are supporting SystemCenterCentral.com as Silver Sponsors.

Not going to MMS, but still want to check out this new System Center community site? Go to www.systemcentercentral.com now and join!

Best regards,

Peter Zerger, Rory McCaw and Maarten Goet