If your plans involve monitoring Windows Server 2008 and you are running Windows Server 2008 DCs, check to see that the Active Directory Object Helper file (oomADs.msi) is installed on those systems. My initial testing shows that the helper file doesn’t install automatically on a DC running Server 2008 when the Ops Mgr 2007 agent installs through a push install from the console.

You can install the oomADs.msi manually by navigating to Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\Helper Objects on each DC and running it from there.

For great Ops Mgr 2007 training, with tips and tricks learned from our numerous worldwide deployments, check out www.infrontconsulting.com/events.htm.

All the MP guides used to be located at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/bb498235.aspx and this will still take you to the Ops Mgr product documentation but you will not find the MP Guides any longer.

The guides have been removed from that page. The guides are typically available in the .msi for the MP, and are supposed to be available (soon!) online in the TechCenter at (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb310604.aspx).

As you have likely noticed, only some of the guides were listed previously on http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/bb498235.aspx. You may have also noticed that the MPs released with SP1 did not have updated guides. This is something that Microsoft is aware and is working to fix.

This is a question we get all of the time...

According to TechNet, MS supports virtualization but only on virtual server.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=897615

Here’s an excerpt pulled directly from the article listed above...

“Hardware virtualization software lets you run multiple operating system instances at the same time on a single computer. Microsoft has two software offerings, Microsoft Virtual PC and Microsoft Virtual Server, that provide this functionality. Third parties also have software in the market that provides this functionality. This article describes support provided by Microsoft for its software running together with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software.

Except as described in this article, Microsoft does not test or support Microsoft software running together with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. For Microsoft customers who do not have a Premier-level support agreement, Microsoft will require that the issue to be reproduced independently from the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. Where the issue is confirmed to be unrelated to the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software, Microsoft will support its software in a manner that is consistent with support provided when that software is not running together with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software.

For Microsoft Premier-level support customers running non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software from vendors with which Microsoft does not have an established support relationship that covers virtualization solutions, Microsoft will use commercially reasonable efforts to investigate potential issues with Microsoft software running together with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. As part of that investigation, Microsoft may require the issue to be reproduced independently from the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. Where issues are confirmed to be unrelated to the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software, Microsoft will support its software in a manner that is consistent with support provided when that software is not running together with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software.

Microsoft will jointly support certain non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software from vendors with which Microsoft has established a support relationship that covers virtualization solutions. This joint support will include coordinating with the vendor to investigate support issues. As part of the investigation, Microsoft may require the issue to be reproduced independently from the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. Where issues are confirmed to be unrelated to the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software, Microsoft will support its software in a manner that is consistent with support provided when that software is not running together with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software.

For more information about third-party vendors who will suppot virtualization software, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

944987 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944987/) Support partners for non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software”

Override Properties dialog box

When you attempt to create an override in Operations Manager 2007 SP1, and the change the override setting, you are often presented with a red exclamation mark. 

This red exclamation mark prevents you from saving your changes by clicking OK.

Two different things appear to resolve this. First, you can toggle the override setting value from False back to True and then back to False and click OK.  Annoying yes, but a quick fix. Second, you can change from the Default Management Pack to one of your own unsealed MPs and this too will allow you to save your changes.

Are you interested in seeing the workflows (rules and monitors) that are running on an Ops Mgr 2007 agent in your environment? If you are, you will want to take a look at the tasks targeted at the Health Service. In particular, the Show Running Rules and Monitors for this Health Service task.

In the Monitoring node, expand the Operations Manager folder and the Agent sub folder. Within the agent folder you will find the Agent Health State dashboard view which is a combination of both the Agent State view and the Agent State from Health Service Watcher state view.

In this dashboard view, select one of the computers in the Agent state view and select the Rules and Monitors for this Health Service task. Run this task to return a list of the workflows that are running on the agent.

Any member of the Operators user role is able to create their own views within the Operations Console. One view that is quite popular is an alerts view to see all resolved alerts.

1. To create a new alert view that displays all resolved alerts, navigate to the Monitoring node.
2. Right click on Monitoring and select New | Alert View.
3. Type Resolved Alerts as the name of the new view and select with specific resolution state.

4. Click on the specific hyperlink and select Closed in the Resolution State dialog box and click OK.
5. Click OK in the Properties dialog box and you have created a new Resolved Alerts view.

If you are looking for more great information and the best technical training available on Operations Manager 2007, check out www.infrontconsulting.com/events.htm.