Enable the Upgrades classification in ConfigMgr Current Branch (again)

Recently I was troubleshooting an environment where Windows 10 upgrades didn't came in. I did check if hotfixes were installed, which was the situation indeed.
-KB3095113: Update to enable WSUS support for Windows 10 feature upgrades (Server 2012 and 2012R2)
-KB3127032: Windows 10 upgrades are not downloaded in System Center Configuration Manager (CM1511 only)

I decided to remove the Upgrade checkbox, too put it on at later time. Then a new pop-up was displayed: Additionally, to service Windows 10 Version 1607 and later, you must install and configure KB3159706 using the guidance. Oops, I missed that one! Installed it a the WSUS/SUP and other Site server(s) and did have a look at additional steps too. This because of the following post on Microsoft TechNet: WSUS Breaks after KB3159706, released 5/5/2016

It mentions: Manual steps required to complete the installation of this update:
1. Install the hotfix and restart the WSUS/SUP server!
2. Open an elevated Command Prompt window, and run "C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools\wsusutil.exe postinstall /servicing" (case sensitive)
3. Select HTTP Activation under .NET Framework 4.5 Features in the Server Manager Add Roles and Features wizard.
4. Restart the WSUS service.

I skipped steps mentioned on "If SSL is enabled on the WSUS server" at first try, but they seems to be needed too!
1.Open an elevated Command Prompt window, and assign ownership of the Web.Config file to the administrators group
-takeown /f web.config /a
-icacls "C:\Program Files\Update Services\WebServices\ClientWebService\Web.config" /grant administrators:f

2. Make the following changes in the file > add the lines displayed in bold, don't make the mistake (as me) to replace those lines!

3. Add the multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" attribute to the bottom of the Web.Config file
4. Restart the WSUS service.

Start a Software Update sync in ConfigMgr and watch wsyncmgr.log and WCM.log closely. Everything should be fine now!

Didn't see Windows 10 Servicing working yet, but hope too see it in near future. On Microsoft Ignite there was no session or demo about it too, given the fact that it may be working.

Will be continued in a next blogpost :-)

Health attestation in ConfigMgr Current Branch (1602)

Within ConfigMgr Current Branch (1602) a new feature called Health Attestation is available. It can be found in 'Client Settings > Enable communication with Health Attestation Service = Yes' and in 'Monitoring > Security > Health Attestation'.

With Health Attestation lets the administrator ensure that client computers have the following trustworthy BIOS, TPM, and boot software configurations enabled:

-Early-launch antimalware (ELAM) - protects your computer when it starts up and before third-party drivers initialize.
-BitLocker - software that lets you encrypt all data stored on the Windows operating system volume.
-Secure Boot - a security standard developed by members of the PC industry to help make sure that your PC boots using only software that is trusted by the PC manufacturer.
-Code Integrity - a feature that improves the security of the operating system by validating the integrity of a driver or system file each time it is loaded into memory.

Very nice to see there's a new dashboard to, which shows the following information:
-Health Attestation Status - share of devices in compliant, noncompliant, error, and unknown states
-Devices Reporting Health Attestation - percentage of devices reporting Health Attestation status
-Noncompliant Devices by Client Type - share of mobile devices and computers that are noncompliant
-Top Missing Health Attestation Settings - number of devices missing the health attestation setting, listed per setting

Unfortunately the functionality is not working yet. Hope it will be available in a later release. Very nice to see new functionality every few months! Microsoft is doing a good job here :-)

Update 5-4: After some time waiting there is something visible now. A mobile device is added, which misses BitLocker and Early-launch antimalware. Not as much as expected.. Hope to see more soon!

Savision Live Maps Unity for System Center Operations Manager

SCOM alerts
Let's have a look at a common situation you find many times at customer sites: when using Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), you know that alerts can be overwhelming. When multiple management packs are imported for more functionality and many agents are enrolled on servers with different applications and roles installed on them, you must configure Operations Manager to benefit from it! Otherwise there can be so many SCOM alerts and e-mail messages a day, that monitoring isn't effective anymore. I did see black television screens (monitoring screens turned off) and IT admins deleting all alerts each day (doing monitoring from that point), often. You can find an in-depth article about SCOM alert storms here.

On the other hand, no graphical Service dashboard is available for a perfect monitoring overview by design. The default built-in SCOM dashboards are using a column or grid layout, with performance, state, alert, and details widgets. They’re good for a basic overview, but nothing more than that. Dashboards can be created in Microsoft Visio, as well as you may know. By using SharePoint Extensions for System Center 2012, they can be connected with the Operations Manager environment. The problem is you need to create those dashboards yourself and have SharePoint Enterprise edition installed. It’s not so easy and user-friendly to create dashboards that way.

Let's introduce Savision Live Maps Unity here. With 700 organizations worldwide using Live Maps Unity, it's the business service management solution you want!

Savision’s SCOM dashboards
With Live Maps Unity, which is used for both monitoring service health and performance, this perfect monitoring overview (as mentioned before) is available! It can be used for a graphical Service dashboard instead, but it's much more than that. Savision's Live Maps Unity speaks the language of the business by focusing on service delivery. It includes unlimited HTML5-based SCOM dashboards for monitoring both service health and performance. With Savision’s SCOM dashboards (based on HTML5-code, which is fast and lightweight), there is no need to look at alerts all day. Just focus on the information Live Maps Unity sends to you.

There won't be many e-mail messages anymore as well. This because Live Maps Unity notifies only when necessary, giving IT admins the time needed to research and solve issues instead of wasting time on notifications. With the Service dashboard in-place, IT admins can use Operations Manager proactive again instead of reactively. The Service dashboard gives you all information needed on a single screen. It’s generated automatically, based on applications found in your environment and gives a total overview of business-critical services, like Exchange, SharePoint, Active Directory and more.

No need to design all those dashboards yourself. Live Maps Unity has the capability to examine your entire IT infrastructure. Additional dashboards can be created with a few clicks by using the built-in drag-and-drop interface. This is really different than using Microsoft Visio, mentioned before. This data is connected with real components and applications by default. These dashboards can be shown from anywhere on any device! This can be done on a mobile device (tablet or smartphone) or desktop if you prefer. This isn’t possible with the default SCOM solution; you have to use another solution for this.

Business Service Management Solution
With Live Maps Unity, you have that solution. The product can be used to monitor entire IT infrastructures, with features like: performance monitoring, .NET application discovery, easy-to-build dashboards, and a Services dashboard. It offers a lightweight web console with support for all major browsers; so no need to have a physical console installed. It offers interactive geographical maps and native System Center integration. It allows quick visualizations of the IT environment through SCOM dashboards. It has everything inside for monitoring service health and performance. It’s the Business Service Management Solution that makes SCOM the perfect monitoring solution!

As a result: With SCOM and Savision’s Live Maps Unity, you have best of both worlds and true power in SCOM finally. No need to focus on alerts anymore, because it helps to deal with the root cause of notifications. Just focus on alerts which really need your time and attention to manage the healthiest environment possible.

Included are some web links to find more information on the product and even more functionality as well. There are some videos and datasheets available too.

Happy monitoringJ!
(Sponsor post)

My personal experience with Jalasoft Xian Wings (part 2)

Sponsor post

In an earlier blogpost I was mentioning my personal experience on Jalasoft Xian Wings. More about that can be found here. This time I will have a look how Wings looks like on a Windows Phone 8.1 and Apple iPad 3 device. Let's have a look at the possibilities on both a Phone and Tablet device. Screenshots are taken from my own OpsMgr demo environment. You can ask Jalasoft for credentials on a demo showcase also. Just use comments for that.

Windows Phone
The Xiang Wings app can be found in the MS store, just install it and put in account details. Within the app the following can be seen:

Within Xian Wings you can find Summary (health, alerts, notifications), Navigation (states, alerts, graphs, task status, notifications, settings) and Recent graphs. Within Settings you can find State view (selection of groups and objects wich are same as in OpsMgr console), Notification (all severity, resolution state possible) and Receive notifications. Much to see here if you ask me.

When you choose an specific alert, you can run Tasks, Knowledge and Properties. You can watch the alert rule with the specific description and monitors, watch knowledge base with even more information presented on your screen at once, and tasks to start troubleshooting. Within properties there's even a History field, so when the issue happens before, you can find earlier comments here.

When troubleshooting is needed some (basic) tasks can be started as well. In this case I started the Microsoft System Center Data Access Service. Very nice this can be done by mobile phone or any other device. Stopping the Data Access Service is not that handy, because communication is broken after that ;)

Apple iOS
The Xian Wings app can be found in the Apple store, just install it and put in account details. Within the app the following can be seen: 

Nice to see that the interface is optimized for a tablet device. No screens like Windows Phone here, in this app you can create custom dashboards known from OpsMgr console. Within the dashboard you can configure widgets to display information you like to see. Let's have a look at some possibilities on custom dashboards.

Just created a (basic) dashboard with choices in Alerts, States and Graphs. You can use as many monitors and/or rules what you want. You can create multiple dashboards also to show different parts of the IT infrastructure. Servers, services, network, applications, processes, databases, just choose it yourself on a tablet device.

When tapping on a server (for example) you will see additional information on the object. In my case (OpsMgr server) you see Alerts, Details, Options (Maintenance mode, Remote PowerShell) and Inventory. Much to see here if you ask me. Just to give a quick overview of dashboard functionality here.

Same as on Windows Phone, you can start remote Tasks, put a device in Maintenance mode and set a specific Resolution state (for example: Assigned, Scheduled or Resolved). Very nice this can be done on a tablet device. In my situation it runs very smoothly.

When troubleshooting is needed some (basic) tasks can be started as well. In this case I started the WMI Service. Hope to give you a quick overview of possibilities within Xian Wings. Just ask Jalasoft if you want to know or see more on this.

Personally I like the idea to see much more information on devices like phones and tablets. When thinking about SMS and E-mail messages this seems more advanced and offers more possibilities to start remote management. Jalasoft did a great job on Xian Wings for iOS (iPhone, iPad), Windows Phone (and Android)! Hopefully you now have a good overview on this product. Thanks!

More blogposts on this topic:
My personal experience with Jalasoft Xian Wings (part 1)
Taking my OpsMgr with me… with Xian Wings

My personal experience with Jalasoft Xian Wings (part 1)

Sponsor post

A few weeks ago I did an online session with Jalasoft, to see more about Xian Wings. Let's see what's my personal experience so far. When installing OpsMgr at customer locations, I setup a management server with web functionality most of time. This way you can open weblinks in notification messages when inside the office or have a remote connection. You can click the weblink or have a look at the alert message available. Nothing special about that.

With Xian Wings it's getting even better. Jalasoft has this product created to view dashboards and health statistics on iOS (iPhone, iPad), Android and Windows Phone! You can create customized dashboards, monitor the object state of devices and see alerts and performance data. Just visit your local App store and give it a try! In my case (Windows Phone 8.1) it's shows the following message:
What do you do when you receive an email notification from OpsMgr 2007 or 2012 on your smartphone? Do you head back to your office? Or do you use the Operations Manager web console? Now we have made all of this easier for you! With Xian Wings for Microsoft Operations Manager (OpsMgr) 2007 and 2012, you have a real client application for your smartphone, which gives you easy access to states, alerts, performance graphs, tasks and more.

Within Wings you can find default dashboards, remote tasks and remote PowerShell (!). All tasks started are running on the OpsMgr server locally. Alerts can be shown on the icon (iOS) or in the notification center (Android). Because it's real-time, there's no delay in notifications. Licensing is done per device connected to the server. Besides of servers, you can use it for network devices too. Dashboards can be changed to custom-made, but you can start with the default ones. Just download the server and mobile client software and get started! Information for all platforms is included in the software.

Free trial: Jalasoft

In a next blogpost I will show some custom-made dashboards. Stay tuned for more!

More blogposts on this topic:
My personal experience with Jalasoft Xian Wings (part 2)
Taking my OpsMgr with me… with Xian Wings

Using the SQL 2012 dashboard within Operations Manager 2012 R2

Within System Center Operations Manager (OpsMgr) 2012 R2 you can use the new great SQL 2012 dashboard. The dashboard can be used for SQL 2012 only however. Let's have a look.
 
The System Center Management Pack for SQL Server can be found here: Download Center. The Management Pack for SQL Server provides the capabilities for Operations Manager 2007 R2 and Operations Manager 2012 to discover and monitor SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012 and their components such as SQL instances, databases, and SQL Server agents.
 
When installing the Management pack from the online catalog, you will not found the SQL 2012 dashboard at all. That's why you need to download it from Download Center. The Management packs you need to import are:
-Microsoft SystemCenter Visualization Component Extensions Library
-Microsoft SQLServer Presentation
 
After this you will find the SQL 2012 dashboard in the Microsoft SQL server, Databases, SQL Server 2012 Databases Summary Dashboard. Remember that only SQL 2012 databases will be showed in the dashboard. One of the new features is the widget that will show the related health state color. With that you have a quick overview of the selected SQL 2012 database.

 

After installation I did not see any health state at all however. That's because the monitors, which are needed for that, are disabled by default. To override these monitors go to Authoring Pane, Management Pack, Monitors. Now paste the monitor “Transaction Log Free Space” into the search bar and select the monitor in the "SQL 2012 DB management pack". You can now enable this monitor when right click and select override “For all object of the class: SQL 2012 DB” and choose enable with the check box.
 
In the override column change false to true and save this setting in a "Overrides SQL server Management pack". Do this for all changes needed in OpsMgr by default! The following four Monitors which must be enabled for the dashboard are:
-Transaction Log Free Space (%)
-DB Total Space
-Disk Read Latency
-Disk Write Latency

After configuration I still did not see any health state at all. Bummer! That's because security is not in place by default too. When SQL 2012 is installed by default - we no longer place BUILTIN\Administrators in the security access list, AND we restrict NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM to “public” access. Therefore a RunAs account is needed for communication now. This RunAs account will be granted Local Admin over the OS and SA (SysAdmin) rights to SQL. After that you will see the widget that will show the related health state color.

Just a beautiful dashboard isn't it!?

Sources:
System Center Dynamics by wwwally
Microsoft TechNet Forums
Kevin Holman's System Center Blog

Update: Albert Neef mentions MSDN Blogs to manage SQL 2008 databases within the dashboard as well. Very nice indeed!

Creating multiple dashboards in OpsMgr 2012 R2

As mentioned before I did a Operations Manager (OpsMgr) 2012 R2 installation already. One of the great items in OpsMgr (for myself) is creating dashboards. In OpsMgr dashboards can be created multiple ways. Some can be created in OpsMgr by default, some can be created with additional software needed. It's not my point to describe how to build them, but to point you in the right direction which is possible. Here we go!

Dashboards can be created mutiple ways, following is possible:
-Default dashboards (which can also be a Service Level Dashboard or Summary Dashboard)
-Microsoft Visio dashboards (which is published in SharePoint)
-Savision Live Maps (many possibilities, but additional licenses needed)
-Distributed Applications (chain monitoring of .NET applications)

Default dashboards are created with a layout and widgets. Widgets are powerful objects which can be used many ways. First decide how to build the framework, you can choose between:

-Column Layout (enables up to 5 vertical columns to displayed in a row)
-Grid Layout (allows layouts of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 9 cells)
-Service Level Dashboard (shows the data for a pre-configured SLA)
-Summary Dashboard (adds 3 default widgets in a 3-cell configuration)

Widgets can be choosen from the following list:
-Objects by Performance Widget (sort of Top 10 dashboard)
-Object SLA Widget (group that has an SLA applied to it)
-Performance Widget (creates a performance graph)
-State Widget (can be based on multiple configurations)
-SLA Widget (shows the data for a pre-configured SLA)
-SLA Configuration (Service Level tracking)
-Alert Widget (allows the display of alerts)
-Details Widget (shows the details of selected alerts)
-Instance Details Widget (show details of a selected group or instance)
-SLA Configuration Note (monitor Service Level Objectives)

Microsoft Visio dashboards are created with SharePoint 2010 using Microsoft Visio 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Extensions for System Center 2012. Just make sure you have SharePoint 2010 Enterprise edition installed, because only this edition has the Visio Web Service available. Within Visio a dashboard can be created and used in SharePoint with Extensions. That way a graphical dasboard can be created with OpsMgr Health Explorer access on all items. Have a look here for installation: http://blog.scomfaq.ch/2013/07/10/scom-2012-sp1-publish-visio-dashboard-in-sharepoint-2010-walkthrough/

Live Maps for System Center is the enterprise visualization solution for Microsoft System Center. Their interactive dashboards, maps and diagrams add business context to every alert and incident, making sure your limited resources can focus on the things that really matter to your business. Live Maps is ready for R2! The upcoming release of Live Maps is compatible with System Center 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1. The release will be available on October 18. No SharePoint 2010 or Visio 2010 are needed with Live Maps. Just install the product and get started. All objects in OpsMgr will be automatically available for dashboard creation.

A Distributed Application in OpsMgr is an application that is comprised of multiple objects. These objects may be defined by different management packs and may be managed on the same agent or on different agents. The purpose of the distributed application is to provide an overall health for an application that is comprised of different objects. Distributed applications do not provide any additional monitoring for the objects in an application. Instead, they include objects that are already being monitored. The value of the distributed application is to provide a relationship between the health of objects that are part of a single application. You can create distributed applications using the Distributed Applications Designer in the Operations console.

A few examples on this:

Summary Dashboard in SharePoint 2010

 

A Distributed .NET Application

 

MAP View with Active Locations

 

Integration with Microsoft Visio

 

Performance Widget - Grid Layout

 

Service Level Dashboard

 

Network Monitoring

 

SLA Widget - Grid Layout

 

They look just great isn't it? Possibilities are many on this point.
Want to know more? Just leave a comment on this post.