I am trying to get Subscription setup for a set of users to be notified when a Windows Server within a specific groups is down (I.E.  Alert: Failed to Connect to Computer).  I don't want a notification to go out when just any server is down, JUST for servers defined in a Group as Production.  I thought it was going to be easy at the beginning of the day when I started this and now I am very annoyed and frustrated with my repeated failures.  My assumption was I could take a test server that is being monitored, shut it down so it would generate an alert, and then right click on the "Failed to Connect to Computer" Alert when it comes in and choose "Notification Subscription --> Create".  Setup a Subscription for a set of Techs by choosing "raised by an instance in a specific group" and identifying the Group of Prod servers, and leaving the "created by specific rules or monitors (e.g., sources)" with Computer Not Reachable. It only works when I leave the Group off and let it notify me of ANY server that goes down.  It seems like this should be very easy but I am not grasping something.  Any assistance would be GREATLY appreciated.  Thank y

what is your custom group membership?

It  is strong recommend that your custom group membership should include HealthService Watcher instance.

Roger

Hi

There are a number of blogs on this:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2014/04/09/creating-groups-of-health-service-watcher-objects-based-on-other-groups.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/manageabilityguys/archive/2015/08/14/dasnippet.aspx

You won't be able to do this from the SCOM console. You'll either need to export your MP and hack the xml or, better still, use Visual Studio. I have an authoring series here which hopefully helps:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/manageabilityguys/archive/2015/08/14/dasnippet.aspx

Cheers

Graham

It is a dynamic group that is pulling membership of any OU that contains "Prod".  I wanted to be able to direct the membership to specific groups but was having trouble with the query to return what I was looking for so I just used "contains" and "Prod" and it got pretty much what I wanted, but is sloppy and not as exacting as it should be.  

OK, that sounds like that would be what I am looking for, but I am not sure how to add a Health Service Watcher instance.  Below is my query to create the Group and I have the Health Service Watcher Class selected but I don't know what that query would look like.  I am sorry if this is an easy dumb question, I am on the upside of a learning curve for SCOM, and very much appreciate the assistance. 

When I started to setup this notification I thought it would be really easy.  One of the most basic functions for a tool that would predominately monitor Windows Servers would be an easy method of being notified of when a given server is down.  I can be notified of ANY server, but that is a bit of overkill as Dev and Test servers go down all the time for various reasons.  We have all of our Production servers in one of two OU's and I would just like to be able to target those.  It seems like that should be very easy to do.  Maybe it is and I am a tard and just thinking about this wrong.  If so, please say so, I am happy to learn from anyone.  Thanks again!

Hi Larry

As per my response below - you won't be able to do this from the SCOM console. You'll either need to export your MP and hack the xml or, better still, use Visual Studio.

There are a number of blogs on this:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2014/04/09/creating-groups-of-health-service-watcher-objects-based-on-other-groups.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/manageabilityguys/archive/2015/08/14/dasnippet.aspx

I agree it should be simpler but when the product was first designed (current version with regard to authoring about 8 years ago) the computer object and the health service watcher object were separated at birth. This is causing the issue you are facing.

What precisely do you want in this instance? If I understand correctly:

1. A computer group based on OU contains Prod

2. A Health Service Watcher group containing the health service watcher objects of computers in group 1?

I can do up some sample xml for this if that is what you require.

Regards

Graham

I've posted up an example management pack here -it is provided on an as-is basis with no warranties and for informational purposes only. Use at your own risk. Test it out in Dev and make sure that it does what you want. Let me know if it needs amending.

Graham,

Thank you very much for the info, and what you described is exactly what I am looking for, but will need to repeat this potentially a few dozen times depending on the servers and who should be notified, so I would LOVE a example if you could.  That would save me a lot of time I think.  Thank

Hi Larry

If you are going to try and do this via the SCOM Console along with exporting the management pack and manually updating the XML then it could be a long job and error prone due to the way the coding works.

I'd suggest considering using Visual Studio to create the groups in one management pack that you then seal. This MP can then be referenced elsewhere and you could also use the health service watcher groups for availability reports.

I've done a set of intro articles which walk through Visual Studio: http://blogs.technet.com/b/manageabilityguys/archive/2015/08/24/visual-studio-management-pack-authoring-series-part-1-download-pre_2d00_requisites.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/manageabilityguys/archive/2015/08/24/visual-studio-management-pack-authoring-series-part-2-create-key-to-seal-management-packs.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/manageabilityguys/archive/2015/08/25/visual-studio-management-pack-authoring-series-part-5-create-a-computer-group-class-and-discovery.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/manageabilityguys/archive/2015/08/25/visual-studio-management-pack-authoring-series-part-6-create-a-health-service-watcher-group-class-and-discovery.aspx

What I'll need to do is provide an alternative set of code for you to plug into part 5 and part 6. I'll probably not get time to this until Friday but will try to post something up sooner.

It does look complicated but honestly, it isn't. Once you've done a few you'll be able to fly through them with just a find \ replace on the group name details.

Regards

Graham

Hi Larry

Hopefully this helps:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/manageabilityguys/archive/2015/09/04/groups-based-upon-ou-membership.aspx

If you let me know what other groups you want to create then I'll see if I can do up some more fragments.

Regards

Graham