I am new to SCOM R2, I have already installed SCOM and downloaded Core OS MP, AD MP and some other Dell MP's. I need to enable basic monitoring on SCOM to get critical alerts. 1) Server UP/Down Alert 2) Critical errors on the servers. 3) Dell servers management through SCOM 4) Juniper and Nortel alerts. Please guide me to configure the above. I really appreciate your help. Thanks a lot. Soma

For each MP, you need to download the related MP guide that is linked from the main download center page. You can access these pages from the system center catalog listings for each MP via the download button/link. The MP catalog is at http://pinpoint.microsoft.com/systemcenter. The guides walk you through the steps (if any are special) and setup for each MP. Since you are new - downloading and running the MP setup.exe does not install the MP. You have to then use the console to import the MP into your management group. This is done from the administration section, right click on the Management Packs node of the treeview, and then select "import". For each MP you have unpackaged via the setup program do two things (always) 1. Save a copy of the directory and files in it that were created by the installer for each management pack in an archive location that you keep permanent for your business. 2. when you import, select ALL of the files with .MP extension that were extracted by each setup program for a given MP directoryMicrosoft Corporation

Thanks a lot for your reply. I have already Imported the .mp in to OM console and configured subscriptions to get critical email alerts. It is not doing any thing, I dont know how to enable traps and get the critical system alerts. After importing the management packs do I have to enable any thing else? I have imported Core OS(2003/08) pack and I need to enable System up and down, system critical alerts like that for now. I really appreciate your help. Please help me. Thanks,

This may be a silly question, but have you deployed the agent to any machines? Once the agent is installed, discoveries are run against them automatically, and the appropriate management packs begin monitoring. The system up/down alerts are confusing in SCOM, as they don't come from the agents themselves, but from something called a Health Service Watcher, which runs on the Root Management Server. The alerts you're probably talking about called Health Service Heartbeat Failure, and Computer Not Reachable. They are part of the System Center Core Monitoring MP, which is already installed. If you've installed the agent on non-server operating systems, these alerts are disabled by default. See the following for more information. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc540380.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/jonathanalmquist/archive/2010/01/11/health-service-heartbeat-failure-diagnostics-and-recoveries.aspxLayne

Layne, Thanks for your reply. Ofcouse I have installed agents on the servers. It is monitoring some how but eventhough server is up it is sending as heartbeat failed / server is not reachable. I tried at that moment but server was up and reachable. Some false up/down alrams are hard to understand. I want to configure the minimum alerts for servers. Thanks,

Ahhh. That's the thing you want to fix first. No monitoring is going to happen if the agent and server are not communicating. The symptom is heartbeat, the cause is usually security or SPN related. There are a lot of threads on troubleshooting heartbeat. Don't ignore it - you will only get frustrated. Heartbeating is the sign that the agent and server are happy together (how is the weather?) Once you get your agents ALL healthy, you can start learning to tune management packs. Silect MP Studio is a WELL WORTH IT investment that will save you tens of thousands in labor hours tuning management packs (this is what you are calling false up-down). Otherwise, tuning management packs is a rule by rule effort. First step though is to learn best practice #1 - never use the default MP file for _anything_. Always match overrides (which are MP tuning instructions) to a file with a name you understand that you associate with each MP. So, for example, base OS mp, make overrides live in one file associated with that MP (my base os overrides.mp), etc.Microsoft Corporation

Thanks a lot for your valuable suggestions. I really appreciate your help in this. I just requested a trial of Silect MP studio and I will try. Mean while I will start troubleshooting the agents to get basic alerts running. If you have any small documents for best practices that would be more helpful. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Soma

Hi, I would like to share the following article about troubleshooting SCOM alert notification: http://blogs.technet.com/b/operationsmgr/archive/2010/08/11/alert-notification-troubleshooting-in-system-center-operations-manager-2007.aspxPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks for the Article. I have installed SCOM and DB on same physical server. My requirement is pretty simple and straight forward. I need to enable the below alerts on around 150 physical and 200 VM's. 1) I need to monitor Windows 2000/2003/2008 servers for server up/down alerts and critical alerts. 2) I have to create a group and for that group I need to monitor Harddrive failures, hard drive disk size and RAM performance. 3) For Dell servers using Dell management pack, I need to monitor power and reboot monitoring. 4) Using SNMP, I have to monitor the Juniper and Nortel switches availability and critical errors. I am really reading lot of whitepappers and docs on this and able to do some thing but not much improvement. I need to have some expert advise on this. If any SCOM guru is here, please help me to do the above tasks. Thanks a lot for the help in advance. Thanks, Soma

Hi Soma, I would like to verify if the heartbeat failed / server is not reachable issue was resolved. As LayneR mentioned above, if the MPs were installed, discoveries are run against them automatically, and the appropriate management packs begin monitoring. Please refer to the links he recomened to monitor Windows 2000/2003/2008 servers for server up/down alerts and critical alerts. For performance reports such as hard disk and RAM, please refer to the following articles: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jonathanalmquist/archive/2009/02/21/performance-reports-the-easy-way.aspx http://ianblythmanagement.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/disk-space-cpu-report-table/ For Dell MP, please refer to the MP guide and the following article: http://ops-mgr.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!3D3B8489FCAA9B51!252.entry?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=407789503 Here are more information about SNMP monitoring: http://svintinner.blogspot.com/2008/05/example-snmp-management-pack-for-scom.html You can also contact our Technical Support for a real-time support as below: https://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&x=10&y=15&c1=508&gprid=14227&&st=1&wfxredirect=1&sd=gn Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Layne, Thanks for your reply. Ofcouse I have installed agents on the servers. It is monitoring some how but eventhough server is up it is sending as heartbeat failed / server is not reachable. I tried at that moment but server was up and reachable. Some false up/down alrams are hard to understand. I want to configure the minimum alerts for servers. Thanks, I am having the same issue: when the server comes back online, it is sending the same alert as it was not reachable. Is there any solution for this? Thank you.

>>I am having the same issue: when the server comes back online, it is sending the same alert as it was not reachable. Is there any solution for this? Thank you. Change the subscription to only be for alerts with New status, not New and Closed.Layne