System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager: Survival Guide
Introduction
What is a survival guide? It is a page we created as a pointer to the best information on the web. You can use the information below to learn the fundamentals; increase your current knowledge, or stay current on Operations Manager and events. If you think we missed some great article out there, please add it below! Many links take you to topics and articles that apply to System Center 2012 SP1 also, so the content is linked where necessary.
Getting Started
- Announcing the availability of the System Center Technical Preview
- System Center Technical Preview VHDs
- Release Notes for Operations Manager in System Center 2012 R2
- Overview and Enhancements in Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
- How Microsoft Does IT: Monitoring Best Practices
- Infrastructure as a Service Product Line Architecture↑ Back to top
Planning and Deployment
- System Requirements
- Supported Configurations / Interoperability
- System Center 2012 Operations Manager Sizing Helper Tool
- Designing Operations Manager 2012 R2 architectures when you have IaaS virtuals running in Azure
- Install Prerequisites for SCOM 2012R2 via PowerShell
Installation
- Deploying System Center 2012 - Operations Manager
- Environmental Prerequisites for Operations Manager
- Single-Server Deployment of Operations Manager
- Distributed Deployment of Operations Manager
- How to Enable High Availability for the Data Access Service
Upgrade
- Do I need a specific Cumulative Update Release (UR) in order to upgrade to SCOM 2012 or 2012 SP1 or 2012 R2?
- Upgrade Sequencing for System Center 2012 R2
- How to Upgrade from the Evaluation Version of Operations Manager
- Upgrading System Center 2012 SP1 - Operations Manager to System Center 2012 R2
- Pre-Upgrade Tasks When Upgrading to System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
- How to Upgrade a Single-Server Management Group to System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
- How to Upgrade a Management Server to System Center 2012 - Operations Manager - Upgrading a Distributed Management Group
- How to Upgrade an ACS Collector to System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
- How to Upgrade a Gateway Server to System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
- How to Upgrade an Operations Console to System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
- How to Upgrade an Agent to System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
- How to Upgrade a Web Console to System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
- How to Upgrade Reporting to System Center 2012 - Operations Manager
- Post-Upgrade Tasks When Upgrading to System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
- How to Upgrade OM2012 SP1 Agents to OM2012 R2 Parallel Environments
Operations / Features
- Backup and Disaster Recovery in Operations Manager 2012 R2
- Maintaining the System Center 2012 R2 - Operations Manager Infrastructure
- Operations Guide for System Center 2012 R2 - Operations Manager
- Quick Reference to Operations Manager Tasks
- .NET Application Performance Monitoring Template
- System Center Operations Manager 2012: Network Devices with Extended Monitoring Capability
Integration
- Upgrade Sequencing for System Center 2012 R2
- System Center 2012 Integration Guides
Operations Management Suite (formerly known as System Center Advisor, Operational Insights)
- Microsoft OMS Overview
- OMS Near Real-Time Performance Data Collection Footprint On Windows Servers
- Security Threat Analysis – Using Operations Management Suite
- OMSSearch Module Sample Runbook: Invoke-OMSSavedSearch
- You can now ingest Syslog data into OMS from Azure Linux VMs
- Thinking of upgrading your OMS plan?
- Monitoring #MSOMS the other way around
- Operations Management Suite Log Search How To: Part IX – the DISTINCT command
- Backstage ticket to OMS: Setting up the debug environment
- Taking control of your #MSOMS data flow
- OMS agent now supports W2K8 SP1 OS and 32bit systems
- Updated: OMSSearch PowerShell Module
- SCOM & OpInsights Sessions at Ignite Conference in Chicago
- SCOM & OpInsights Sessions at Ignite Conference in Chicago
- UPDATE: Upcoming URL change for OpsMgr-attach to Azure Operational Insights
- Azure Operational Insights (AOI): How About The Intelligence Packs?
- Connect servers directly to Operational Insights
- Access your Operational Insights on the Go
- New SQL Server Assessment Intelligence Pack in Advisor!
- Your Own Dashboard in Advisor!
- IIS Log Format Requirements in System Center Advisor
- Wish you knew what configuration change caused an issue? Or what changed on a server? (Now available in Advisor)
- Debugging System Center Advisor integration with Operations Manager
- You can now export Advisor's search results to Excel!
- Integrate System Center Advisor into Operations Manager Dashboards
- How does Advisor work when integrated into Operations Manager?
- How to disable weekly emails in System Center Advisor
- New Twitter Handle for System Center Advisor - Limited Public Preview
- Fixing the JavaScript error when registering the Advisor Service
- SC Advisor - Error 3000: Unable to register to the Advisor Service & Onboarding Troubleshooting Steps
- SCOM 2012 R2 & SCA Integration: When Not Used Disable It
- Azure Operational Insights Search How To: Part I – How to filter big data
- Azure Operational Insights Search How To: Part II – More on Filtering, using Boolean Operators, the Time Dimension, Numbers and Ranges
- Azure Operational Insights Search How To: Part III – Manipulating Results: the pipeline “|” and Search Commands
- Azure Operational Insights Search How To: Part IV – Introducing the MEASURE command
- Azure Operational Insights Search HowTo: Part V – Max() and Min() Statistical functions with Measure command
- Azure Operational Insights Search How To: Part VI – Measure Avg(), and an exploration of Type=PerfHourly
- Azure Operational Insights Search How To: Part VII – Measure Sum() and Where command
- W3C IIS Logs Search in Microsoft Azure Operational Insights
- Useful Operational Insights Search Query Collection
- Anatomy of an Event Collection Rule for Azure Operational Insights (Advanced targeting when using OpsMgr attach)
Tools
- Technical Documentation Download for System Center 2012 – Operations Manager v2.0
- System Center Operations Manager 2012: Network Devices with Extended Monitoring Capability(Includes download lists for both 2012, and additional devices added inSP1. Both lists are required for a full view of all devices covered in SP1)
- Modify Alert and Subscription Tool (MASTool) V 1.0
- Modern Style Visio Stencils for System Center 2012 Operations Manager
- Daniele Muscetta: MPViewer, Override Explorer, Proxy Settings, and Override Creator
Management Packs and Management Pack Authoring
- MP Author (Silect)
- Visual Studio Authoring Extensions 2013
- Channel 9 Complete Video Series on System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager Authoring
- System Center Management Pack Authoring Guide
- Microsoft Management Packs
- System Center Marketplace (Microsoft & 3rd Party Management Packs & Add-ons)
- Operations Manager Management Pack and Report Authoring Resources
- Dashboard Authoring
- Dashboard Script Library
- OpsMgr: Sample Dashboard with In-Place Navigation/Drill-in Capabilities
- Integrate System Center Advisor into Operations Manager Dashboards
- New PowerShell Grid Widget Walkthrough
- System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager - UR2 PowerShell dashboard samples
- Sample Management Pack - SQL Server 2008 Summary Dashboard UI Template
- OpsMgr Dashboard Fun: Google Maps
- Edge Show – New Widgets & Dashboards with Operations Manager in System Center 2012 R2
- Controlling OpsMgr 2012 PowerShell Contextual Script Widgets Behavior
- QuickTricks: Removing Images from the Topology and Image Widgets
- Updates to Sample Dashboard Management Packs using the Performance Tile Component
- Installing SCOM 2012 Visio Dashboards in SharePoint 2013
- ReSearch This – Dashboard Edition
- Effective Monitoring Configuration Dashboard
Update Rollups
- Download the update packages for System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager Update Rollup 1
- Download the update packages for System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager Update Rollup 2
- Download the update packages for System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager Update Rollup 3
- Download the update packages for System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager Update Rollup 4
- Description of Update Rollup 5 for System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
- A new Update Rollup for Microsoft Monitoring Agent is now available
- Update Rollup 6 for System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
- UR6 for SCOM 2012 R2 – Step by Step
- UR7 for SCOM 2012 R2 - Step by Step
- UR8 for SCOM 2012 R2 – Step by Step
- UR9 for SCOM 2012 R2 – Step by Step
- UR11 for SCOM 2012 R2 - Step by Step
Partner Solutions
Troubleshooting
- Top Support Solutions Blog
- System Center Operations Manager KB RSS-Feed
- Advisor
- APM
- Agent
- Agents that never connect to the management server
- Agent Health tips and fixes for System Center Operations Manager
- Agents on Windows 2012 R2 Domain Controllers can stop responding or heart-beating
- WMI Leaks Memory on Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller / DNS server roles – Hotfix available
- Operations Manager Health Service Restarts due to Exceeding Handle Count Threshold
- Some or all Cluster resources are not discovered by the OpsMgr agent
- Resetting all SCOM 2012 instances for a specific monitor
- Console / Web Console
- SCOM 2012 – Console Crash On Windows 7 x86 (32-bit)
- Add Object Wizard displays only 500 objects even if more objects exist
- Error message when you click "Edit" on the "Company Knowledge" tab in the Operations Manager console
- SCOM 2012 R2 ��� Web Console Error “Connection session is not found”
- Performance views still show counters when performance collection rules are disabled in System Center Operations Manager
- Environment (roles and configuration)
- KB: Error 11823 when Operations Manager integration is refreshed from the VMM 2012 console
- KB: Operations Manager stops working after you use msiexec.exe to uninstall features on management Servers
- KB: "Connection to EndPoint Service failed" error after you import the Office 365 Management Pack for Operations Manager
- KB: How to troubleshoot SQL time-outs in Data Warehouse after you install System Center Operations Manager R2 Update Rollup 5
- Critical alerts when failing over the Operations Manager database in Always On configuration
- Performance data "missing" in the OpsMgr warehouse and Health Service Modules event 31553
- Wildcard matching rule fails and Event ID 10303 is logged in Operations Manager 2012 and 2007
- Unable to approve Gateways in SCOM 2012
- Subscriptions
- Upgrade
- Management Packs
- Windows 8 Client OS MP doesn’t discover Windows 8.1
- SQL MP 6.4.1.0 – SQL 2012 DB Engine group does not contain all SQL Servers
- When the BizTalk Management Pack for Operations Manager does… well, nothing.
- The case of the Dell (Detailed) MP – beware of large environments
- Undiscovered / Stop Monitoring SQL 2005/2008/2012 Express Editions
- Lync Server 2010 MP Bug Alert: ‘Consolidator Module Failed Initialization’
- Dashboards
- Distributed Applications
- VSAE
- Views
How-To
- Authoring / Dashboards
- Discovering Multiple Services of an Application
- Controlling OpsMgr 2012 PowerShell Contextual Script Widgets Behavior
- Find base class, hosting class, and all properties using powershell
- SCOM 2012 – Find Workflow From Windows Event
- How to get nice Logical Disk State View using PowerShell Grid Widget
- Food for Thought - OpsMgr Group Calculation Polling Interval
- Creating dynamic groups for objects which exist behind a gateway in OpsMgr Part 1
- Agent
- Monitoring
- Monitoring processes and using diagnostics to track what caused a monitor to change state in Operations Manager
- Getting SQL information from SCOM discovered inventory
- New Guided Walkthrough for troubleshooting UNIX and Linux agent discovery in OpsMgr 2012
- Using the Health Service Watcher Computer Not Reachable monitor for alerting and availability reporting
- Operations Manger 2012 & 2012 R2 Disk Defragment Monitor Bulk Reset
- SCOM 2012x & UX Monitoring. What UX Agents Are Present? And What Version, Build & Architecture?
- Using the Jalasoft SNMP device simulator with Operations Manager
- SNMP Trap monitoring with SCOM 2012 R2
- Alerting when performance counters cannot be resolved by SCOM
- Management Packs
- Creating your own MP store – Part 1: Fundamental thoughts (by Dirk Brinkmann)
- Creating your own MP store – Part 2: Getting the latest Management Packs (by Dirk Brinkmann)
- Creating your own MP store – Part 3: Automating most of that stuff (by Dirk Brinkmann)
- How to verify that all Management Packs in a SCOM Management Group are up-to-date? (Dirk Brinkmann)
- Enabling Lync 2013 Watcher Nodes for Operations Manager 2012
- Configuring the SharePoint 2010 Management Pack
- SQL MP Challenge: Run As Accounts & - Profiles
- SQL Run As Account Configuration for SCOM Made Easy
- SQL MP Run As Accounts – NO LONGER REQUIRED
- Monitoring Office 365 health
- Tools
- Deployment
- Maintenance
- Quick Tricks
Blogs
- Operations Manager Engineering Team Blog
- Kevin Holman's System Center Blog
- Daniele Muscetta's blog
- Dirk Brinkmann'S blog
- Mihai Sarbulescu's blog
- Jonathan Almquist's blog
- OpsMgr Unleashed
- Contoso.se by Anders Bengtsson
- Bob Cornelissen (MVP) on System Center
- Marnix Wolf (MVP) on System Center
- Cameron Fuller (MVP) on System Center
- Kevin Greene (MVP) on System Center
- Daniele Grandini (MVP) on System Center (Quaue Nocent Docent)
- Scott Moss (MVP) on System Center
- Stanislav Zhelyazkov (MVP) on System Center
- Stefan Roth (MVP) on System Center
- Tao Yang (MVP) on System Center
- MPAuthor Blog
- Pete Zerger (MVP) on System Center (System Center Central)
- Everything System Center -Tim McFadden's Blog
- OpsConfig
- Stefan Roth
- SystemCenterTipps
- Lynne Taggart's Guide to Being "ALL THAT"
Community
- The System Center Twitter feed - All the latest System Center news and information
- Operations Manager (Unofficial SCOM aggregator)
- Operations Manager Doc Team
- SMDocs (Various System Center component documentation)
- myITforum.com
- MPAuthor
Podcasts
- Inside Podcast Network (Inside Central and Skilling Up podcasts)