musc@> $daniele.rant | Out-Blog

Just some shameless personal plug here, pointing out that I recently wrote two technical posts on the momteam blog about the APM feature in Operations Manager 2012 – maybe you want to check them out:

1. APM object model – describes the object model that gets created by the APM Template/Wizard when you configure .NET application monitoring
2. Custom APM Rules for Granular Alerting – explains how you can leverage management pack authoring techniques to create alerting rules with super-granular criteria’s (building beyond what the GUI would let you do)

Hope you find them useful – if you are one of my “OpsMgr readers”

Go read the announcement at http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2011/11/10/system-center-operations-manager-2012-release-candidate-from-the-datacenter-to-the-cloud.aspx

This is the first public release since I am part of the team (I started in this role the day after the team had shipped Beta) and this is the first release that contains some direct output of my work. It feels so good!

Documentation has also been refreshed – it starts here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh205987.aspx

The part specifically about the APM feature is here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh457578.aspx

Enjoy!

I just saw that my former colleague (PFE) Tristan has posted an interesting note about the use of SetSPN “–A” vs SetSPN “–S”. I normally don’t repost other people’s content, but I thought this would be useful as there are a few SPN used in OpsMgr and it is not always easy to get them all right… and you can find a few tricks I was not aware of, by reading his post.

Check out the original post at http://blogs.technet.com/b/tristank/archive/2011/10/10/psa-you-really-need-to-update-your-kerberos-setup-documentation.aspx

Hey, I have just realized that I have been in my new PM role for a month already – time flies!

If you are one of my OpsMgr readers, in case you haven’t noticed, I have been silent here but I have published a post on the momteam blog – check it out: http://blogs.technet.com/b/momteam/archive/2011/08/12/application-performance-monitoring-in-opsmgr-2012-beta.aspx

If you are one of those few readers interested in following what I do, instead – I can tell you that I am loving the new job. Lot to do, of course, and that also applies to  the private sphere – did you know that relocating to another continent takes some energy and effort? – but we are settling in nicely and things are going very smooth overall.

I have been in Premier Field Engineering for nearly 7 years (it was not even called PFE when I joined – it was just "another type of support"…) and I have to admit that it has been a fun, fun ride: I worked with awesome people and managed to make a difference with our products and services for many customers – directly working with some of those customers, as well as indirectly thru the OpsMgr Health Check program – the service I led for the last 3+ years, which nowadays gets delivered hundreds of times a year around the globe by my other fellow PFEs.

But it is time to move on: I have decided to go thru a big life change for me and my family, and I won't be working as a Premier Field Engineer anymore as of next week.

But don't panic – I am staying at Microsoft!

I have actually never been closer to Microsoft than now: we are packing and moving to Seattle the coming weekend, and on July 18th I will start working as a Program Manager in the Operations Manager product team, in Redmond. I am hoping this will enable me to make a difference with even more customers.

Exciting times ahead – wish me luck!

That said – PFE is hiring! If you are interested in working for Microsoft – we have open positions (including my vacant position in Italy) for almost all the Microsoft technologies. Simply visit http://careers.microsoft.com and search on “PFE”.

As for the OpsMgr Health Check, don't you worry: it will continue being improved – I left it in the hands of some capable colleagues: Bruno Gabrielli, Stefan Stranger and Tim McFadden – and they have a plan and commitment to update it to OpsMgr 2012.

This has been sitting on my hard drive for a long time. Long story short, the report I posted at Permanent Link to Audit Collection Services Database Partitions Size Report had a couple of bugs:

1. it did not consider the size of the dtString_XXX tables but only the size of dtEvent_XXX tables – this would still give you an idea of the trends, but it could lead to quite different SIZE calculations
2. the query was failing on some instances that have been installed with the wrong (unsupported) Collation settings.

I fixed both bugs, but I don’t have a machine with SQL 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 anymore… so I can’t rebuild my report – but I don’t want to distribute one that only works on SQL 2008 because I know that SQL2005 is still out there. This is partially the reason that held this post back.

Without waiting so much longer, therefore, I decided I’ll just give you the fixed query. Enjoy

--Query to get the Partition Table
--for each partition we launch the sp_spaceused stored procedure to determine the size and other info

--partition list
select PartitionId,Status,PartitionStartTime,PartitionCloseTime
into #t1
from dbo.dtPartition with (nolock)
order by PartitionStartTime Desc 

--sp_spaceused holder table for dtEvent
create table #t2 (
    PartitionId nvarchar(MAX) Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS,
    rows nvarchar(MAX) Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS,
    reserved nvarchar(MAX) Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS,
    data nvarchar(MAX) Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS,
    index_size nvarchar(MAX) Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS,
    unused nvarchar(MAX) Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
)

--sp_spaceused holder table for dtString
create table #t3 (
    PartitionId nvarchar(MAX) Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS,
    rows nvarchar(MAX) Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS,
    reserved nvarchar(MAX) Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS,
    data nvarchar(MAX) Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS,
    index_size nvarchar(MAX) Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS,
    unused nvarchar(MAX) Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
)

set nocount on

--vars used for building Partition GUID and main table name
declare @partGUID nvarchar(MAX)
declare @tblName nvarchar(MAX)
declare @tblNameComplete nvarchar(MAX)
declare @schema nvarchar(MAX)
DECLARE @vQuery NVARCHAR(MAX)

--cursor
declare c cursor for
    select PartitionID from #t1
open c
fetch next from c into @partGUID

--start cursor usage
while @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
begin

--tblName - first usage for dtEvent
set @tblName = 'dtEvent_' + @partGUID

--retrieve the schema name
SET @vQuery = 'SELECT @dbschema = TABLE_SCHEMA from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.tables where TABLE_NAME = ''' + @tblName + ''''
EXEC sp_executesql @vQuery,N'@dbschema nvarchar(max) out, @dbtblName nvarchar(max)',@schema out, @tblname

--tblNameComplete
set @tblNameComplete = @schema + '.' + @tblName

INSERT #t2
    EXEC sp_spaceused @tblNameComplete

--tblName - second usage for dtString
set @tblName = 'dtString_' + @partGUID

--retrieve the schema name
SET @vQuery = 'SELECT @dbschema = TABLE_SCHEMA from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.tables where TABLE_NAME = ''' + @tblName + ''''
EXEC sp_executesql @vQuery,N'@dbschema nvarchar(max) out, @dbtblName nvarchar(max)',@schema out, @tblname

--tblNameComplete
set @tblNameComplete = @schema + '.' + @tblName

INSERT #t3
    EXEC sp_spaceused @tblNameComplete

fetch next from c into @partGUID
end
close c
deallocate c

--select * from #t2
--select * from #t3

--results
select #t1.PartitionId,
    #t1.Status,
    #t1.PartitionStartTime,
    #t1.PartitionCloseTime,
    #t2.rows,
    (CAST(LEFT(#t2.reserved,LEN(#t2.reserved)-3) AS NUMERIC(18,0)) + CAST(LEFT(#t2.reserved,LEN(#t2.reserved)-3) AS NUMERIC(18,0))) as 'reservedKB',
    (CAST(LEFT(#t2.data,LEN(#t2.data)-3) AS NUMERIC(18,0)) + CAST(LEFT(#t3.data,LEN(#t3.data)-3) AS NUMERIC(18,0)))as 'dataKB',
    (CAST(LEFT(#t2.index_size,LEN(#t2.index_size)-3) AS NUMERIC(18,0)) + CAST(LEFT(#t3.index_size,LEN(#t3.index_size)-3) AS NUMERIC(18,0))) as 'indexKB',
    (CAST(LEFT(#t2.unused,LEN(#t2.unused)-3) AS NUMERIC(18,0)) + CAST(LEFT(#t3.unused,LEN(#t3.unused)-3) AS NUMERIC(18,0))) as 'unusedKB'
from #t1
join #t2
on #t2.PartitionId = ('dtEvent_' + #t1.PartitionId)
join #t3
on #t3.PartitionId = ('dtString_' + #t1.PartitionId)
order by PartitionStartTime desc

--cleanup
drop table #t1
drop table #t2
drop table #t3

The following article by Jimmy Harper explains very well how to set up agents and gateways’ failover paths thru Powershell http://blogs.technet.com/b/jimmyharper/archive/2010/07/23/powershell-commands-to-configure-gateway-server-agent-failover.aspx . This is the approach I also recommend, and that article is great – I encourage you to check it out if you haven’t done it yet!

Anyhow, when checking for the actual failover paths that have been configured, the use of Powershell suggested by Jimmy is rather slow – especially if your agent count is high. In the Operations Manager Health Check tool I was also using that technique at the beginning, but eventually moved to the use of SQL queries just for performance reasons. Since then, we have been using these SQL queries quite successfully for about 3 years now.

But this the season of giving… and I guess SQL Queries can be a gift, right? Therefore I am now donating them as Christmas Gift to the OpsMrg community

Enjoy – and Merry Christmas!

--GetAgentForWhichServerIsPrimary
SELECT SourceBME.DisplayName as Agent,TargetBME.DisplayName as Server
FROM Relationship R WITH (NOLOCK)
JOIN BaseManagedEntity SourceBME
ON R.SourceEntityID = SourceBME.BaseManagedEntityID
JOIN BaseManagedEntity TargetBME
ON R.TargetEntityID = TargetBME.BaseManagedEntityID
WHERE R.RelationshipTypeId = dbo.fn_ManagedTypeId_MicrosoftSystemCenterHealthServiceCommunication()
AND SourceBME.DisplayName not in (select DisplayName
from dbo.ManagedEntityGenericView WITH (NOLOCK)
where MonitoringClassId in (select ManagedTypeId
from dbo.ManagedType WITH (NOLOCK)
where TypeName = 'Microsoft.SystemCenter.GatewayManagementServer')
and IsDeleted ='0')
AND SourceBME.DisplayName not in (select DisplayName from dbo.ManagedEntityGenericView WITH (NOLOCK)
where MonitoringClassId in (select ManagedTypeId from dbo.ManagedType WITH (NOLOCK)
where TypeName = 'Microsoft.SystemCenter.ManagementServer')
and IsDeleted ='0')
AND R.IsDeleted = '0'

--GetAgentForWhichServerIsFailover
SELECT SourceBME.DisplayName as Agent,TargetBME.DisplayName as Server
FROM Relationship R WITH (NOLOCK)
JOIN BaseManagedEntity SourceBME
ON R.SourceEntityID = SourceBME.BaseManagedEntityID
JOIN BaseManagedEntity TargetBME
ON R.TargetEntityID = TargetBME.BaseManagedEntityID
WHERE R.RelationshipTypeId = dbo.fn_ManagedTypeId_MicrosoftSystemCenterHealthServiceSecondaryCommunication()
AND SourceBME.DisplayName not in (select DisplayName
from dbo.ManagedEntityGenericView WITH (NOLOCK)
where MonitoringClassId in (select ManagedTypeId
from dbo.ManagedType WITH (NOLOCK)
where TypeName = 'Microsoft.SystemCenter.GatewayManagementServer')
and IsDeleted ='0')
AND SourceBME.DisplayName not in (select DisplayName
from dbo.ManagedEntityGenericView WITH (NOLOCK)
where MonitoringClassId in (select ManagedTypeId
from dbo.ManagedType WITH (NOLOCK)
where TypeName = 'Microsoft.SystemCenter.ManagementServer')
and IsDeleted ='0')
AND R.IsDeleted = '0'

--GetGatewayForWhichServerIsPrimary
SELECT SourceBME.DisplayName as Gateway, TargetBME.DisplayName as Server
FROM Relationship R WITH (NOLOCK)
JOIN BaseManagedEntity SourceBME
ON R.SourceEntityID = SourceBME.BaseManagedEntityID
JOIN BaseManagedEntity TargetBME
ON R.TargetEntityID = TargetBME.BaseManagedEntityID
WHERE R.RelationshipTypeId = dbo.fn_ManagedTypeId_MicrosoftSystemCenterHealthServiceCommunication()
AND SourceBME.DisplayName in (select DisplayName
from dbo.ManagedEntityGenericView WITH (NOLOCK)
where MonitoringClassId in (select ManagedTypeId
from dbo.ManagedType WITH (NOLOCK)
where TypeName = 'Microsoft.SystemCenter.GatewayManagementServer')
and IsDeleted ='0')
AND R.IsDeleted = '0'

--GetGatewayForWhichServerIsFailover
SELECT SourceBME.DisplayName As Gateway, TargetBME.DisplayName as Server
FROM Relationship R WITH (NOLOCK)
JOIN BaseManagedEntity SourceBME
ON R.SourceEntityID = SourceBME.BaseManagedEntityID
JOIN BaseManagedEntity TargetBME
ON R.TargetEntityID = TargetBME.BaseManagedEntityID
WHERE R.RelationshipTypeId = dbo.fn_ManagedTypeId_MicrosoftSystemCenterHealthServiceSecondaryCommunication()
AND SourceBME.DisplayName in (select DisplayName
from dbo.ManagedEntityGenericView WITH (NOLOCK)
where MonitoringClassId in (select ManagedTypeId
from dbo.ManagedType WITH (NOLOCK)
where TypeName = 'Microsoft.SystemCenter.GatewayManagementServer')
and IsDeleted ='0')
AND R.IsDeleted = '0'

--xplat agents
select bme2.DisplayName as XPlatAgent, bme.DisplayName as Server
from dbo.Relationship r with (nolock)
join dbo.RelationshipType rt with (nolock)
on r.RelationshipTypeId = rt.RelationshipTypeId
join dbo.BasemanagedEntity bme with (nolock)
on bme.basemanagedentityid = r.SourceEntityId
join dbo.BasemanagedEntity bme2 with (nolock)
on r.TargetEntityId = bme2.BaseManagedEntityId
where rt.RelationshipTypeName = 'Microsoft.SystemCenter.HealthServiceManagesEntity'
and bme.IsDeleted = 0
and r.IsDeleted = 0
and bme2.basemanagedtypeid in (SELECT DerivedTypeId
FROM DerivedManagedTypes with (nolock)
WHERE BaseTypeId = (select managedtypeid
from managedtype where typename = 'Microsoft.Unix.Computer')
and DerivedIsAbstract = 0)

Have you ever wondered what would happen if, in Operations Manager, you’d delete a Management Server or Gateway that managed objects (such as network devices) or has agents pointing uniquely to it as their primary server?

The answer is simple, but not very pleasant: you get ORPHANED objects, which will linger in the database but you won’t be able to “see” or re-assign anymore from the GUI.

So the first thing I want to share is a query to determine IF you have any of those orphaned agents. Or even if you know, since you are not able to "see" them from the console, you might have to dig their name out of the database. Here's a query I got from a colleague in our reactive support team:


-- Check for orphaned health services (e.g. agent).
declare @DiscoverySourceId uniqueidentifier;
SET @DiscoverySourceId = dbo.fn_DiscoverySourceId_User();
SELECT TME.[TypedManagedEntityid], HS.PrincipalName
FROM MTV_HealthService HS
INNER JOIN dbo.[BaseManagedEntity] BHS WITH(nolock)
ON BHS.[BaseManagedEntityId] = HS.[BaseManagedEntityId]
-- get host managed computer instances
INNER JOIN dbo.[TypedManagedEntity] TME WITH(nolock)
ON TME.[BaseManagedEntityId] = BHS.[TopLevelHostEntityId]
AND TME.[IsDeleted] = 0
INNER JOIN dbo.[DerivedManagedTypes] DMT WITH(nolock)
ON DMT.[DerivedTypeId] = TME.[ManagedTypeId]
INNER JOIN dbo.[ManagedType] BT WITH(nolock)
ON DMT.[BaseTypeId] = BT.[ManagedTypeId]
AND BT.[TypeName] = N'Microsoft.Windows.Computer'
-- only with missing primary
LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.Relationship HSC WITH(nolock)
ON HSC.[SourceEntityId] = HS.[BaseManagedEntityId]
AND HSC.[RelationshipTypeId] = dbo.fn_RelationshipTypeId_HealthServiceCommunication()
AND HSC.[IsDeleted] = 0
INNER JOIN DiscoverySourceToTypedManagedEntity DSTME WITH(nolock)
ON DSTME.[TypedManagedEntityId] = TME.[TypedManagedEntityId]
AND DSTME.[DiscoverySourceId] = @DiscoverySourceId
WHERE HS.[IsAgent] = 1
AND HSC.[RelationshipId] IS NULL;

Once you have identified the agent you need to re-assign to a new management server, this is doable from the SDK. Below is a powershell script I wrote which will re-assign it to the RMS. It has to run from within the OpsMgr Command Shell.
You still need to change the logic which chooses which agent – this is meant as a starting base… you could easily expand it into accepting parameters and/or consuming an input text file, or using a different Management Server than the RMS… you get the point.

Similarly, you might get orphaned network devices. The script below is used to re-assign all Network Devices to the RMS. This script is actually something I have had even before the other one (yes, it has been sitting in my "digital drawer" for a couple of years or more…) and uses the same concept – only you might notice that the relation's source and target are "reversed", since the relationships are different:

• the Management Server (source) "manages" the Network Device (target)
• the Agent (source) "talks" to the Management Server (target)

With a bit of added logic it should be easy to have it work for specific devices.

Disclaimer

The information in this weblog is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. This weblog does not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my employer. It is solely my own personal opinion. All code samples are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose.

I got this sticker last APRIL at MMS2010 in JUST ONE COPY, and I waited till I got a NEW laptop in SEPTEMBER to actually use that…
It also took a while to stick it on properly (other than to re-install the PC as I wanted…),  but this week they told me that, for an error, I got given the wrong machine (they did it all themselves, tho - I did not ask for any specific one) and this one needs to be replaced!!!!

This is WORSE than any hardware FAILure, as the machine just works very well and I was expecting to keep it for the next two years

Can anyone be so nice to send me one of those awesome stickers again?

Some time ago I was reading www.caffeinatedcoder.com/book-review-the-c-programming-la…

[...] Since a good portion of the C# books are between the 500 and 1000 page range, it was refreshing to read a book that was less than 200 pages. Partly this is because when the book was published the surface area of the reusable API was a small fraction of what it is now. However, I also wonder if there was an expectation of disciplined conciseness in technical writing back in the late 80’s that simply no longer exists today. [...]

I think this is a very important point. But then, again, it was no secret – this was written in the Preface to the first edition of that book:

[...] is not a "very high level" language, nor a "big" one, and is not specialized to any particular area of application. But its absence of resrictions and its generality make it more convenient and effective for many tasks than supposedly more powerful languages. [...]

I think it all boils down to simplicity, as Glenn Scott says in glennsc.com/start-a-revolution-with-confident-simplicity

[...] To master this technique you need to adopt this mindset that your product is, say, simple and clean, and you just know this, and you are confident and assured of this. There is no urgent need to “prove” anything. [...]

Another similar book on a (different) programming language, is "Programming Ruby, the pragmatic programmer's guide" which starts with

[...] This book is a tutorial and reference for the Ruby programming language. Use Ruby, and you'll write better code, be more productive, and enjoy programming more. [...] As Pragmatic Programmers we've tried many, many languages in our search for tools to make our lives easier, for tools to help us do our jobs better. Until now, though, we'd always been frustrated by the languages we were using. [...]

Of course that language is simple and sweet, very expressive, and programmers are seen as having to be "pragmatic". No nonsensical, incredibly complex cathedrals (in the language itself and in the documentation) – but quick and dirty things that just WORK.

But way too often, the size of a book is considered a measure for its quality and depth.
I recently read on Twitter about an upcoming "Programming Windows Phone 7" book that would be more than a thousand pages in size: twitter.com/#!/MicrosoftPress/status/27374650771

I mean: I do understand that there are many API's to take a look at and the book wants to be comprehensive…but…. do they really think that the sheer *size* of a book (>1000 pages) is an advantage in itself? it might actually scare people away, for how I see things. But it must be me.

In the meantime the book has been released and can be dowloaded from here blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2010/10/28/free-…

I have not looked at it yet – when I will have time to take a look at it I'll be able to judge better…

for now I only incidentally noticed that a quick search for books about programming the iPhone/iPad returns books that are between 250 and 500 pages maximum…

And yet simplicity CAN be known to us, and some teams really "Get it": take Powershell, for example – it is a refreshing example of this: the official powershell blog has a subtitle of "changing the world, one line at the time" – that's a strong statement… but in line with the empowerment that simplicity enables. In fact, Bruce Payette's book "Powershell in Action" is also not huge.
I suppose it must be a coincidence. Or maybe not.