Monitoring Pack Monitoring Scenarios for Configuration Manager 2007

Applies To: Operations Manager 2007 R2, Operations Manager 2007 SP1, System Center Configuration Manager 2007, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2, System Center Operations Manager 2007

The Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Monitoring pack provides new and improved capabilities for Configuration Manager 2007 monitoring. The following sections describe the primary scenarios that the Configuration Manager 2007 Monitoring pack supports, along with a description of its features.

Service Availability

Service Discovery

Availability Monitoring

Computer State Monitoring

Site Hierarchy State Monitoring

Site State Monitoring

Agentless Monitoring Support

Performance Threshold Monitoring

Performance Monitoring

Critical Configuration Manager Status Message Monitoring

Site System Status Monitoring

Executive Crash Dump Monitoring

Backlog Monitoring

General Health Monitoring

Configuration Manager Software Update Management Monitoring

Configuration Manager Site Backup Monitoring

Product Knowledge Content for All Alerts

Computer Groups for All Configuration Manager Server and Client Roles

Expanded Monitoring

Software Distribution Program Run Status

Configuration Manager Task Monitoring

Component Log File Monitoring

Configuration Manager 2007 Inbox Monitoring

Service Availability

Service availability monitors the availability of Configuration Manager services by using both the Service Availability feature of System Center Operations Manager 2007 and the Service Control Manager events in the NT Event System Log. Service availability monitoring generates the following:

  • An alert when Configuration Manager-based services stop on Configuration Manager Site systems.

  • An alert when a critical Configuration Manager dependent service, such as Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), stops or fails to start on Configuration Manager site systems.

  • An alert when other Configuration Manager dependent services, such as Microsoft SQL Server™, Internet Information Services (IIS), and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) stop or fail to start on Configuration Manager site systems.

  • An alert when the Configuration Manager Site Backup service is started and stopped, so you can monitor backup durations and correlate stop events from other Configuration Manager services to Configuration Manager Site Backup.

Service Discovery

Service discovery is the process of discovering data, server roles, and components on managed computers. Service discovery returns information about Configuration Manager servers and Configuration Manager clients. It also supports the presentation of the Configuration Manager Server and Configuration Manager Client roles in the state monitoring views.

Server-specific service discovery data is collected and begins to display in the System Center Operations Console after the monitoring pack is deployed to an agent. Features that require identifying roles, computer groups, and target computers for specific tasks are not available until after service discovery data is collected for the first time.

The Configuration Manager Monitoring Pack uses the following event processing rule:

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Service Discovery

to launch the appropriate service discovery scripts:

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Service Discovery - Server

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Service Discovery - Client

  • The scripts use an asynchronous timed provider to collect service discovery data once every 24 hours by default.

Availability Monitoring Reports

The Configuration Manager 2007 Monitoring Pack includes the following availability reports, which monitor the heartbeat of the following server roles:

  • Server Availability

  • Distribution Point Availability

  • Management Point Availability

  • PXE Service Point Availability

  • Site Server Availability

  • Software Update Point Availability

  • System Health Validator Availability

  • State Migration Point Availability

  • Site Database Server Availability

All reports run against the OperationsManager database, which allows you to specify reporting time durations.

For more information about server availability reports, see the Reports for the Monitoring Pack for Configuration Manager 2007.

Server Role Availability Monitoring

Availability is monitored for the following roles:

  • Management Point

  • NLB Management Point

  • Device Management Point

  • System Health Validator

  • State Migration Point

  • PXE Service Point

  • Software Update Point

  • Distribution Point

  • Site Database Server

Component Availability Monitoring

Availability is monitored for the following components, which generate a periodic heartbeat reporting their availability state:

  • INBOX MANAGER

  • INBOX MONITOR

  • SITE COMPONENT MANAGER

  • MP CONTROL MANAGER

  • MP FILE DISPATCH MANAGER

  • OUTBOX MONITOR

  • WAKEONLAN COMMUNICATION MANAGER

  • WAKEONLAN MANAGER

  • WSUS CONFIGURATION MANAGER

  • WSUS SYNC MANAGER

  • WSUS CONTROL MANAGER

  • DATABASE NOTIFICATION MONITOR

  • OFFER STATUS SUMMARIZER

  • COMPONENT STATUS SUMMARIZER

  • SITE SYSTEM STATUS SUMMARIZER

  • COMPONENT MONITOR

  • STATE MIGRATION POINT

  • PXE SERVICE POINT

Computer State Monitoring

Computer state monitoring provides a tabular representation of the health of all Configuration Manager servers and clients. Server roles and components are managed through service discovery. Component health state is managed by a set of rules and monitors.

The table below shows the health states that are monitored for Configuration Manager components by color.

Configuration Manager Server State Monitoring

ConfigMgr Server Component

Green

(Successful)

Yellow

(Warning)

Red

(Critical)

Site Server (SS)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Management Point (MP)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Site Database (DB)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Distribution Point (DP)

Yes

Yes

Server Locator Point (SLP)

Yes

Yes

Reporting Point (RP)

Yes

Yes

State Migration Points (SMP)

Yes

Yes

Yes

PXE Service Points (PSP)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Fallback Status Points (FSP)

Yes

Yes

Yes

System Health Validator (SHV)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Software Update Points (SUP)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Provider

Performance

Yes

Yes

Yes

Configuration Manager Client State Monitoring

ConfigMgr Client Component

Green

(Successful)

Yellow

(Warning)

Red

(Critical)

Client Service

Yes

Yes

Site Hierarchy State Monitoring

Site hierarchy state monitoring provides a tabular representation of the health of all the Configuration Manager 2007 managed systems in the site hierarchy. System health state is managed by a set of rules and monitors.

The table below shows the health states that are monitored for Configuration Manager systems by color.

Configuration Manager Site Hierarchy State Monitoring

ConfigMgr Server Component

Green

(Successful)

Yellow

(Warning)

Red

(Critical)

Availability

Yes

Yes

Yes

Performance

Yes

Yes

Yes

Site State Monitoring

Site state monitoring provides a tabular representation of the health of all Configuration Manager managed servers. Site health state is managed by a set of rules and monitors.

The table below shows the health states that are monitored for Configuration Manager site states by color.

Configuration Manager Site State Monitoring

ConfigMgr Server Component

Green

(Successful)

Yellow

(Warning)

Red

(Critical)

Availability

Yes

Yes

Yes

Performance

Yes

Yes

Yes

Agentless Monitoring Support

The Configuration Manager Monitoring Pack supports monitoring on agentless managed computers except for the features listed below:

  • Critical Configuration Manager status message monitoring

  • Site system status monitoring

The following scripts support the above features:

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Monitor Collection Evaluation Tasks

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Monitor Site Maintenance Tasks

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Monitor Site System Summarizer

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Monitor SMS Executive Crash Dumps

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Monitor SMS Status Messages

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Monitor State Message Summary Tasks

These scripts must run locally to access the Configuration Manager resources. If the scripts cannot access a resource, a script error event and alert occurs.

Performance Threshold Monitoring

Reduced performance levels might create delays and affect customer service level agreements (SLAs) in terms of time, performance, and data accuracy. It is important to detect and resolve critical performance problems in the Configuration Manager infrastructure. Performance threshold monitoring generates an alert when the monitored condition exceeds certain levels:

  • General computer-wide health metrics relating to CPU, paging file, and memory on Configuration Manager site systems.

  • The total number of Configuration Manager files, such as scheduler jobs, send requests, software metering records, discovery data records (DDRs), and software inventory and hardware inventory records, in the Configuration Manager site server inboxes.

  • The total number of Configuration Manager messages relating to status messages, DDRs, software inventory, and hardware inventory in the Configuration Manager management point message queues.

  • SHV responses and conditions.

  • Files in SMS Outboxes.

  • PSP requests.

  • SMP total clients and disk space.

  • WOL packets.

Performance Monitoring

Performance monitoring enables you to watch for trends in backlogs, processing rates, and total counts of key Configuration Manager objects to help identify and proactively resolve problems. Performance trending monitors the following trends graphically by using Operations Manager 2007 Views and Reports:

  • Backlog files in inboxes relating to scheduler jobs, send requests, software metering records, DDRs, hardware inventory, software inventory, WOL packets, and state and status messages on Configuration Manager site servers.

  • Processing rates of scheduler jobs, send requests, software metering records, DDRs, hardware inventory, software inventory, WOL packets, SUP updates, and state and status messages on Configuration Manager site servers.

  • Total number of scheduler jobs, send requests, software metering records, DDRs, hardware inventory, software inventory, WOL packets, SUP updates, and state and status messages on Configuration Manager site servers.

  • Backlogs of messages relating to DDRs, hardware inventory, software inventory, software metering, state and status messages, and other Configuration Manager objects on Configuration Manager management point server message queues.

  • Processing rates of DDRs, hardware inventory, software inventory, software metering, state and status messages, SDM package requests, and other Configuration Manager objects on Configuration Manager management point server message queues.

  • Totals of DDRs, hardware inventory, software inventory, relays, SDM package requests, and status messages on Configuration Manager management point server message queues.

  • Computer-wide health metrics relating to CPU, paging file, and memory on Configuration Manager site systems.

  • Total number of Configuration Manager Executive threads that are running.

  • Rate of ISAPI extension requests to IIS.

  • Backlogs in outboxes on site systems.

  • SMS Server Availability requests.

  • SHV Condition and SoH requests.

  • PSP request processing.

  • SMP client state processing and free disk space.

  • Processing rates of DDRs, hardware inventory, software inventory, software metering, status messages, and other Configuration Manager objects on Configuration Manager device management point server message queues.

Critical Configuration Manager Status Message Monitoring

The Configuration Manager infrastructure generates Configuration Manager status messages. It is important to identify the critical server-related Configuration Manager status messages and resolve them in a timely manner. These typically indicate problems in the availability, performance, security, configuration, and overall health of the Configuration Manager infrastructure.

Critical Configuration Manager status message monitoring generates an alert when status messages critical to Configuration Manager are detected (such as component installation, database connectivity, and site connectivity). The Configuration Manager site database is scanned for critical Configuration Manager status messages once every half hour synchronous to the hour.

Site System Status Monitoring

Configuration Manager monitors the basic health of its site systems periodically through its site system status summarizer, which polls Configuration Manager site systems once every hour, on the hour. To benefit from this feature, this status must be acted on quickly to prevent degradation of Configuration Manager functionality. Site system status monitoring provides the ability to monitor and generate an alert when Configuration Manager site system summarizer status critical to the health of the Configuration Manager site system is detected. Some of the monitored status includes a Configuration Manager site system being down, a SQL Server that is running out of database space or log space, and Configuration Manager site systems running out of physical disk space on NTFS drives.

Executive Crash Dump Monitoring

Configuration Manager Executive service failures impact Configuration Manager availability, and it is important to know when crash dumps occur and to investigate the root causes. When the SMS Executive service fails, it creates a crash dump log subdirectory under the <ConfigMgrInstallationPath>\Logs\CrashDumps directory. Creation of this subdirectory is monitored, and an alert is generated for any Configuration Manager server role that depends on the SMS Executive service.

The Configuration Manager 2007 Monitor SMS Executive Crash Dumps script reports only the most recent crash dump. This applies no matter how long ago the last crash dump occurred, from the first time that the script is run to anytime SMS Executive is uninstalled and later reinstalled.

The related rules target the Microsoft Configuration Manager 2007 Component Servers based on SMS Executive class:

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Crash Dumps: Monitoring SMS Executive

ConfigMgr 2007 Crash Dumps: Monitoring SMS Executive launches the script every 60 minutes to synchronize at 00:10. Summary information is provided on the Knowledge property page of the rule.

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Crash Dumps: Monitoring SMS Executive script error

ConfigMgr 2007 Crash Dumps: Monitoring SMS Executive script error monitors for and alerts on any script error events that might be raised. There is only one script error event, number 1102, which reports all script errors. Information about resolution of the alert is provided on the Knowledge property page of the rule.

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Crash Dumps: SMS Executive crash

ConfigMgr 2007 Crash Dumps: SMS Executive crash monitors for and alerts on the crash dump event. Information about resolution of the alert is provided on the Knowledge property page of the rule.

Backlog Monitoring

Backlogs create delays that affect customer SLAs in terms of time, performance, and data accuracy. It is important to promptly detect and resolve critical performance problems in the Configuration Manager infrastructure. An alert is generated when a backlog is above a threshold over a given period of time for the following:

  • The total number of Configuration Manager files, such as scheduler jobs, send requests, software metering records, DDRs, software inventory and hardware inventory records, WOL requests, and state and status messages, in Configuration Manager site server inboxes.

  • The total number of Configuration Manager objects, such as scheduler jobs, send requests, software metering records, DDRs, software inventory and hardware inventory records, WOL requests, and status messages, in Configuration Manager site server queues.

  • The total number of Configuration Manager messages relating to status messages, DDRs, software inventory, and hardware inventory in Configuration Manager management point message queues.

  • The total number of files, such as software metering records, DDRs, software inventory and hardware inventory records, and state and status messages, in site system outboxes.

General Health Monitoring

General health monitoring generates an alert when a health metric on a Configuration Manager server is above a certain threshold over a period of time. General health monitoring checks the following metrics:

  • Processor Time at 95% over 3 hours

    • Smsexec

    • Ccmexec

    • Total

  • Paging File Usage at 98% over 3 hours

Configuration Manager Software Update Management Monitoring

Configuration Manager administrators depend on Configuration Manager software update management features to keep client and server computers in their enterprises current with the most recent security updates. Patch management monitoring detects any failure in the Configuration Manager software update management processing and configuration. Configuration Manager software update management monitoring generates an alert when the following situations occur:

  • The WSUS Server cannot be configured.

  • Configuration Manager cannot subscribe to updates from the WSUS Server.

  • The Configuration Manager software update management synchronization process fails.

  • The Configuration Manager software update management process fails to update Configuration Manager distribution points with the updates.

Configuration Manager Site Backup Monitoring

Knowing when Configuration Manager Backup started, completed, or failed can help Configuration Manager administrators audit backup activities. You can schedule Configuration Manager Backup to run periodically to back up the data, policies, and configuration of Configuration Manager.

It is important to monitor failures of this backup process and to take corrective action. Even when Configuration Manager Backup succeeds, it affects service availability because this process stops and starts the SMS Site Component Manager, and SMS Executive. Monitoring Configuration Manager Backup helps track known downtimes in these services because alerts about these services stopping are suppressed during the backup process. The following rules support monitoring Configuration Manager Site Backup:

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Status: Site Backup completed successfully

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Status: Site Backup failed

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Status: Site Backup cannot begin the backup process until the current backup task completes

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Status: Site Backup found that the SQL backup path is empty or invalid

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service stopped running: SMS_SITE_BACKUP

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service started running: SMS_SITE_BACKUP

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_BACKUP terminated unexpectedly

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_BACKUP hung on starting

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_BACKUP failed to start

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_BACKUP was unable to log on

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_BACKUP depends on another service which failed to start or is nonexistent

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service running: SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER terminated unexpectedly

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER hung on starting

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER failed to start

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER was unable to log on

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_VSS_WRITER depends on another service which failed to start or is nonexistent

Product Knowledge Content for All Alerts

Administrators can reference product knowledge content for all alerts to assist them in specifically identifying a problem and resolving it. To access product knowledge content, right-click any rule name, click Properties, and then click the Product Knowledge tab.

Computer Groups for All Configuration Manager Server and Client Roles

Computer groups map to specific Configuration Manager server and client roles. Rule and monitor targeting is based on classes that also map to Configuration Manager server and client roles. This provides administrators with the appropriate level of control for targeting for monitoring pack rules.

Expanded Monitoring

The rules provided in the Configuration Manager Monitoring Pack cover basic service, performance measuring, and performance threshold monitoring for dependent technologies: SQL Server, IIS, BITS, Windows operating system, WMI, WSUS, Windows Deployment Services, and Trivial FTP. Some of this support is disabled by default. You can enable and use this limited support in the Configuration Manager Monitoring Pack, but it is recommended that you also import and use the monitoring packs for these specific products.

  • Use the SQL Server Management Pack to expand monitoring of Configuration Manager Site database servers, management points with replicated site database, and software update points that have SQL Server dependencies.

  • Use the IIS monitoring pack to monitor IIS on reporting points, management points, server locator points, state migration points, and fallback status points. The IIS monitoring pack can also monitor distribution points with BITS enabled.

  • Use the Microsoft Windows Operating System Management Pack to monitor basic Windows components, such as CPU, disk, and memory statistics.

Other monitoring packs, for which the Configuration Manager 2007 Monitoring Pack does not provide rules, enhance the monitoring of your Configuration Manager infrastructure.

  • Use the Windows Network Load Balancing Management Pack if you are using Network Load Balancing to support multiple management points in your Configuration Manager hierarchy for scalability reasons.

  • Use the Windows Active Directory® Management Pack to monitor the health of your Active Directory infrastructure.

If you deploy multiple monitoring packs in your environment, you might receive redundant alerts based on rules that exist in both monitoring packs. If you disable redundant monitoring rules, you might be affecting the accuracy of the state view for your deployed monitoring packs. You should carefully consider the trade-off between receiving redundant alerts and having state monitoring work for each monitoring pack that you deploy. Depending on which additional monitoring packs you have deployed, you should review these redundant rules to identify any rules that you might want to enable in your environment. After installing these monitoring packs, confirm that they are customized as necessary, configured properly, and have the appropriate rules enabled.

Software Distribution Program Run Status

The Configuration Manager Client can report program failures through the monitoring pack.

Administrators can select the Generate Operations Manager alert if this program fails check box on the MOM Maintenance Mode tab in the Program Properties dialog box.

Procedure

Enabling Operations Manager 2007 alerts if a Configuration Manager 2007 program fails to run requires the following steps:

To enable Operations Manager 2007 alerts for a Configuration Manager program

  1. In the Configuration Manager console, navigate to Systems Center Configuration Manager / Site Database - <site server name> / Computer Management / Software Distribution / Packages / <PackageName> / Programs.

  2. In the details pane, right-click the program, and select Properties.

  3. Click the MOM Maintenance Mode tab.

  4. Select the Generate Operations Manager alert if this program fails to run check box. Click OK.

ConfigMgr Task Monitoring

Tasks that run against the ConfigMgr Site Database, such as collection evaluation, state message summarization, and site maintenance, are all monitored for completion status and duration. If a task should fail or run beyond its expected maximum duration, an alert is raised.

Component Log File Monitoring

The following rules are based on monitoring the sender.log, distmgr.log, and policypv.log files:

  • SMSv4 Component: The sender cannot connect to a remote site over the LAN (Standard Security).

  • SMSv4 Component: The sender cannot connect to a remote site over the RAS connection.

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Component: The sender cannot connect to a remote site over the LAN (Advanced Security).

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Component: Distribution Manager failed to process a package.

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Component: Distribution Manager failed to insert an SMS Package because SDM Type Content is not present in the CI_Contents table.

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Component: Policy Provider failed to get new software update policies from the SMS Site Database.

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Component: Policy Provider failed to create a new software update policy.

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Component: Policy Provider failed to get new compliance policies from the SMS Site Database.

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Component: Policy Provider failed to create a new compliance policy.

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Component: Policy Provider failed to notify Hierarchy Manager of a policy change.

Configuration Manager 2007 Inbox Monitoring

Configuration Manager 2007 does most of its key server-side activities by reading from and writing to files in its inboxes. When Configuration Manager 2007 inboxes get unusually full, it is a strong indication that Configuration Manager 2007 processing is falling behind. This could be for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to bad files, stopped processes, lack of disk space, or unusual software distribution activity level. Such problems are rare but serious for customers with a substantial number of sites.

An inbox monitor running as a thread of the SMS Executive service monitors the number of items queued by the service component and not the actual number of items waiting to be processed on disk.

All rules are located in the ConfigMgr 2007 Site Servers – Common processing installation class that targets these rules at central, primary, and secondary sites.

Schedule and Optional Configuration

To minimize the performance impact of inbox monitoring, the pertinent rules will be synchronized to run once per day. The rules are staggered at 15-minute intervals, beginning at 01:00 A.M., so that only one rule runs at a time. For example, the first rule counts the files present in the first inbox at 01:00 A.M. The next rule counts the files present in the second inbox at 01:15 A.M., and so forth, until all inboxes have been counted.

You can modify this schedule following the usual steps you take in scheduling a rule script to run in Operations Manager 2007. No initial configuration is required to activate this feature. Following are optional configuration changes you can perform:

  • Change the default threshold value for each inbox.

  • Change the schedule for individual inbox rules.

These optional configuration changes can be made by following the usual steps to configure threshold event rules in any monitoring pack.

Threshold Alerts and Values

One alert is generated whenever the configured threshold value for a specific inbox rule is reached each time the monitoring rule is processed.

To edit the performance threshold values

  1. In the Operations Manager 2007 Administrator console, click Authoring.

  2. In the Authoring pane, navigate to Authoring > Management Pack Objects > Monitors.

  3. In the Monitors pane, look for ConfigMgr server.

  4. Navigate to ConfigMgr Server > Entity Health > Availability, and then expand one of the following server roles to be edited:

    • DB - Database Servers

    • DP - Distribution Points

    • FSP - Fallback Status Points

    • MP - Management Point Servers

    • PSP - PXE Service Points

    • SS - Site Servers

    • Provider - Providers

    • RP - Reporting Points

    • SHV - System Health Validators

    • SLP - Server Locator Points

    • SMP - State Migration Points

    • SUP - Software Update Points

  5. Right-click the monitor whose performance you want to edit, navigate to Overrides > Override the Monitor, and then click the category of objects to be affected by the override.

  6. Select the check boxes to configure the Override Properties of the monitor to suit your environment. Click OK.

For more information about inbox folders and how they are used in Configuration Manager, see the topic “A description of inbox folders and how they are used in Configuration Manager” Web page (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=99539).

See Also

Other Resources

Deploying the Monitoring Pack for Configuration Manager 2007
Reference for the Monitoring Pack for Configuration Manager 2007