Configuring System Center Essentials 2007 Integration with Virtual Machine Manager 2008

  • Article

This document explains how to configure integration of System Center Essentials 2007 with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (VMM) to support the following features of VMM:

  • Monitoring the health of virtual machines, hosts, and other VMM components by using Essentials 2007

  • Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO)

  • Diagram view in the VMM Administrator Console

  • VMM reports

Configure Essentials

This section explains the major steps in the configuration process:

  1. Prepare the VMM server for Essentials integration.

  2. Configure the Essentials management server.

  3. Configure VMM to recognize the Essentials management server.

  4. Configure the VMM Diagram view.

To prepare the VMM server for Essentials integration

  1. Install the Virtual Machine Manager server if you have not already done so. For more information, see Installing the VMM Server.

    Important

    You must perform step 1 before you perform any other steps. To avoid potential access permissions issues, wait a few minutes to allow replication of Active Directory updates to domain controllers before running the Setup wizard.

  2. Unless the VMM server also is serving as your Essentials management server, install a VMM Administrator Console on the VMM server. For more information, see Installing the VMM Administrator Console.

  3. If the VMM server is not also the computer that is hosting the Essentials management server, install an Essentials remote console on the VMM server.

To configure the Essentials management server

  1. Log on to the Essentials management server by using an account that is a member of the Administrators group on the local computer. You cannot perform this procedure without Administrator privileges.

  2. If a VMM Administrator Console has been installed on the Essentials management server, use Add or Remove Programs to remove the console.

  3. Open the Essentials console. To do this, on the Start menu, click All Programs, click System Center Essentials 2007, and then click System Center Essentials Console.

  4. To display the Administration workspace, click the Administration navigation button in the Essentials console.

  5. In the Administration pane, click Management Packs to view the currently imported management packs.

  6. Ensure that the following management packs, which are prerequisites for the VMM 2008 Management Pack, have been imported. You can download the management packs from the System Center Essentials 2007 Catalog. To import the management packs, on the Actions menu, click Actions, and then click Import Management Packs.

    Microsoft SQL Server 2000/2005 management pack:

    • Microsoft.SQLServer.Library

    • Microsoft.SQLServer.2005.Monitoring (Recommended)

    • Microsoft.SQLServer.2005.Discovery (Recommended)

    Microsoft Windows Server 2000/2003 Internet Information Services (IIS) Management Pack:

    • Microsoft.Windows.InternetInformationServices.CommonLibrary

    • Microsoft.Windows.InternetInformationServices.2003

  7. If the prerelease version of any of the VMM 2008 management packs has been imported, delete those management packs. Specifically, delete all management packs with names that begin with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. To delete a management pack, right-click the management pack and then click Delete.

  8. On the Essentials management server, run Setup.exe from your VMM 2008 installation media, and select the Configure Operations Manager option. The Setup Wizard performs the following tasks:

    • Imports the VMM 2008 management packs, including all management packs that are required for Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) in VMM.

    • Grants the Run As account on the VMM server the permissions necessary to gain access to Essentials.

    • Installs a VMM Administrator Console on the Essentials management server.

    Before proceeding further, you must update the VMM 2008 Management Pack with the latest version, which provides reports for Virtual Machine Manager. In addition, because the Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager.Pro.2008.Public class in the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 PRO Library management pack has been redefined as an abstract class, you must delete the PRO management packs before you import the new management pack files.

To replace the previous VMM 2008 management pack

  1. In the Administration pane of the Essentials console, expand Management Packs to view a list of management packs that have been imported. Delete all management packs with a name that begins with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 PRO in addition to any dependent management packs. To delete a management pack, right-click the management pack, and then click Delete.

    Note

    If any other imported management packs depend on the VMM 2008 Management Pack, the Dependent Management Packs error message appears. You must remove the dependent management packs before you can complete the task. You must update any PRO-enabled management packs that were developed before this release of the VMM 2008 Management Pack. To update an existing PRO-enabled management pack, contact the organization that developed it.

  2. Download the VMM 2008 Management Pack from the Microsoft Download Center, and then import the management pack into Essentials 2007. For more information, see How to Import a Management Pack in Essentials 2007 in the Essentials 2007 TechCenter Library.

To add the Essentials default action account to the Administrator role in VMM

  1. Open the VMM Administrator Console and connect to the VMM server.

  2. Click the Administration navigation button in the VMM Administrator console to open the Administration workspace.

  3. In the navigation pane, click User Roles.

  4. In the results pane, right-click Administrator, and then click Properties.

  5. On the Members tab of the User Role Properties for Administrator dialog box, add the default action account for the Essentials server, and then click OK.

On the Essentials management server and on the VMM server, enable the Windows PowerShell – Virtual Machine Manager snap-in to run scripts remotely. This is needed to enable PRO to run scripts remotely on the server.

To enable VMM to run scripts remotely

  1. To open a VMM PowerShell session, on the Start menu, click All Programs, click System Center, click Virtual Machine Manager 2008, and then click Windows PowerShell – Virtual Machine Manager.

  2. At the prompt, select Always to always trust remote signed scripts from this snap-in. If you don’t see a prompt, the policy already allows PRO to run scripts.

To configure the Essentials management server in VMM

  1. Click the Administration navigation button in the VMM Administrator console to open the Administration workspace.

  2. In the Administration view, click System Center.

  3. In the results pane, right-click Operations Manager Server, and then click Modify.

  4. In Server name, enter the computer name, NetBIOS name, or fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the Essentials management server. In a disjoint namespace, you must enter the FQDN.

To configure the VMM Diagram view

  1. On the VMM server, open a command prompt window (using cmd.exe) and navigate to the folder in which Essentials is installed (the default folder is %programfiles%\System Center Essentials 2007).

  2. Use the fsutil.exe tool to create a hardlink in the file system for the Operations Manager console executable (Microsoft.MOM.UI.Console.exe) that will launch the Essentials console executable (Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.SCE.UI.Console.exe). The command should appear as follows:

    Fsutil hardlink create microsoft.mom.ui.console.exe microsoft.enterprisemanagement.sce.ui.console.exe

Verify a Successful Integration

To verify a successful Essentials integration, check the Diagram views in the Essentials console to ensure that a view has been added for the VMM server.

To verify a successful integration

  1. In the Essentials console, click the Monitoring navigation button to open the Monitoring workspace.

  2. In the Monitoring pane, expand Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Views. The list should contain a diagram view for the VMM server.

  3. Display the VMM server diagram view to see the objects that Essentials is monitoring in the VMM management group. After you configure the Essentials server in VMM, the diagram view should begin populating immediately. For very large VMM virtualized environments, the initial discovery might take as long as an hour to complete.

    Note

    Essentials does not begin monitoring a host group until at least one host has been added. For this reason, the diagram shows the status of any empty host groups as Not Monitored.

    If Essentials integration is not successful, a Discovery Failed error is added to the Virtual Machine Manager event log on the VMM server.

Troubleshooting Essentials Integration with VMM

The most common issue that arises after an Essentials configuration relates to PRO tip failures:

  • Access is denied during a PRO action. Ensure that the default action account for the Essentials management server has been added to the Administrator user role in VMM.

Next Steps

  • Deploy Essentials agents on your hosts and virtual machines. To collect data for PRO, you must install an Essentials agent on each Hyper-V host and Virtual Server host and on the guest operating system of each virtual machine.

  • Enable PRO in VMM. Enable PRO for individual host groups and host clusters and for VMM server-level actions. For more information, see Enabling PRO in VMM 2008.

  • Set up reporting in VMM. VMM reports are generated by Essentials and are available in VMM. Until you configure reporting, the Reporting view is not displayed in the VMM Administrator Console. For more information, see How to Specify the Essentials Reporting Server for Virtual Machine Manager 2008.