Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published this morning. This one discusses regular expression support in System Center Operations Manager.

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Summary

The authoring of management packs may need to include regular expression matching in discoveries and groups, as well as for pattern matching in expression criteria in monitors and rules.

There are two different types of regular expression support in the SCOM product, and you have to know which element you are working in to choose the correct one. Specifically, Group membership calculation and expression filters use distinctly different syntaxes for pattern matching.

More Information

Group calculation uses PERL regular expression syntax. By default, the matching is case insensitive, but in the XML you can specify that an expression needs to be….

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For the rest of this article please see the following:

2702651 - Regular expression support in System Center Operations Manager

J.C. Hornbeck| System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/appv/
ConfigMgr Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/
DPM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/dpm/
MED-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/medv/
Orchestrator Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/orchestrator/
Operations Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/
SCVMM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/scvmm
Server App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/serverappv
Service Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager
System Center Essentials Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenteressentials
WSUS Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/sus/

The Forefront Server Protection blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/fss/
The Forefront Endpoint Security blog : http://blogs.technet.com/b/clientsecurity/
The Forefront Identity Manager blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ms-identity-support/
The Forefront TMG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/isablog/
The Forefront UAG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/edgeaccessblog/

Cumulative Update 6 for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 is available. Cumulative Update 6 for Operations Manager 2007 R2 resolves the following issues:

• RMS promotion fails if NetworkName and PrincipalNames are not in sync for agents.
• UI is limited to only 100 MB for the Memory Usage field in the wizard.
• Additional OIDs in auth certificate are not processed correctly.
• AEM creates duplicate computer objects in OpsMgr based on Agents NetBIOS name.
• Cannot open reporting pane on OpsMgr 2007 R2 remote console.
• Cannot view schedule for scheduled report.
• ManagementServerConfigTool with the option "promoterms" fails because it stops polling the SDK Service.
• OpsMgr reports are failing on Windows 7 with the error: "Cannot initialize report."
• ACS events have "n/a" as their category in the ACS database.
• Watch agentless monitoring listener to detect failure to respond.
• SCOM SDK memory leak on cryptography keys and cryptography contexts.
• After you click Edit Schedule, a message box appears, and you cannot save the change value.
• Audit events can be lost when the AdtServer process crashes.

• The installation process for the IBM AIX 6.1 agent incorrectly checks for AIX 5.3 packages.
• After a system restart, the OpsMgr agent for Solaris may start to run before local file systems are mounted.
• On Red Hat Linux version 4 and SUSE Linux version 9, LVM disks are not discovered and cannot be monitored.
• The OpsMgr agent for AIX does not report the arguments for monitored processes.
• When Microsoft security update MS12-006 is installed on an OpsMgr management server, that management server can no longer communicate with the OpsMgr agent on any Linux or UNIX server.
• On HP-UX, OpsMgr cannot discover and monitor a logical volume that is composed of more than 127 physical volumes.

• Support for IBM AIX 7.1 (POWER).
• Support for Oracle Solaris 11 (x86 and SPARC).

For all the details and a download link, see the following Knowledge Base article:

KB2626076 - Cumulative Update 6 for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 is available

J.C. Hornbeck| System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/appv/
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MED-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/medv/
Orchestrator Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/orchestrator/
Operations Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/
SCVMM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/scvmm
Server App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/serverappv
Service Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager
System Center Essentials Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenteressentials
WSUS Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/sus/

The Forefront Server Protection blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/fss/
The Forefront Endpoint Security blog : http://blogs.technet.com/b/clientsecurity/
The Forefront Identity Manager blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ms-identity-support/
The Forefront TMG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/isablog/
The Forefront UAG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/edgeaccessblog/

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published. This one is a basic overview of what Maintenance Mode is and when/how you’d want to use it, plus a couple common issues you may run into.

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For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2704170 - Understanding Operations Manager Maintenance Mode

J.C. Hornbeck| System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

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App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/appv/
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Orchestrator Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/orchestrator/
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System Center Essentials Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenteressentials
WSUS Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/sus/

The Forefront Server Protection blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/fss/
The Forefront Endpoint Security blog : http://blogs.technet.com/b/clientsecurity/
The Forefront Identity Manager blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ms-identity-support/
The Forefront TMG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/isablog/
The Forefront UAG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/edgeaccessblog/

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published. This one talks about an issue where an Operations Manager AD Replication Monitor generates an "Invalid Script Parameter Configuration" error message.

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Symptoms

System Center Operations Manager 2007 generates alerts on Domain Controllers regarding incorrect script parameters with an alert context similar to the following:
Script Parameters are configured incorrectly And Invalid Script Parameter Configuration

AD Replication Monitoring : detected an error with one or more parameters. The error is:
InterSiteExpectedMaxLatency must be greater than the IntrasiteExpectedMaxLatency parameter. IntersiteExpectedMaxLatency = 15
IntrasiteExpectedMaxLatency = 30
IntersiteExpectedMaxLatency will be set to the value 90 for this execution of this script.
You also see an event with ID 66 in the Domain Controller's Operations Manager log:
Log Name: Operations Manager
Source: Health Service Script
Date:
Event ID: 66
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: DC1.contoso.com
Description:
AD Replication Monitoring : detected an error with one or more parameters. The error is:
InterSiteExpectedMaxLatency must be greater than the IntrasiteExpectedMaxLatency parameter. IntersiteExpectedMaxLatency = 15
IntrasiteExpectedMaxLatency = 30
IntersiteExpectedMaxLatency will be set to the value 90 for this execution of this script.
To correct the error, find the rule 'Script - AD Replication Monitoring' and from the response tab of its properties, edit the script and modify the parameter in question.

Cause

Though the alert context points us towards fixing the AD Replication Monitor and a script, the error occurs due to a rule that has incorrect values specified in the overrides.

Resolution

To resolve this issue follow these steps:

1. Go to Authoring pane in the SCOM Admin Console.
2. Select Overrides under Management Pack Objects.
3. Look for overrides on "AD Replication is occurring slowly" rule.
4. In the list of overrides on 'AD Replication is occurring slowly' rule, check for overrides on Instrasite Expected Max Latency parameter. If the overridden value for this parameter is lesser than the value of Intersite Expected Max Latency parameter, modify it to a lesser value.
5. By default Instrasite Expected Max Latency = 5 and Intersite Expected Max Latency = 15 and we can see that Intrasite value is lesser than Intersite value.
6. Once you change the override, click on OK.
7. Allow the configuration to be propagated to all the Domain Controllers. Slowly, you should stop receiving further alerts.

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For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2722619 - Operations Manager AD Replication Monitoring generates "Invalid Script Parameter Configuration" error

J.C. Hornbeck| System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

Get the latest System Center news onFacebookandTwitter:

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System Center Essentials Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenteressentials
WSUS Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/sus/

The Forefront Server Protection blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/fss/
The Forefront Endpoint Security blog : http://blogs.technet.com/b/clientsecurity/
The Forefront Identity Manager blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ms-identity-support/
The Forefront TMG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/isablog/
The Forefront UAG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/edgeaccessblog/

The information below applies to the monitoring of HP-UX PA-RISC computers with:

• Operations Manager 2007 R2
• System Center 2012 – Operations Manager

Background

Operations Manager uses the WS-Management protocol over SSL/TLS to communicate with UNIX and Linux agents. A certificate used for SSL/TLS is generated on each UNIX and Linux computer during agent installation and signed by a Management Server during agent discovery. For all cases except for HP-UX PA-RISC computers, the certificate is generated with a 2048 bit key. By default, HP-UX PA-RISC computers use a 512 bit key to generate this certificate, due to increased CPU utilization that has been observed on HP-UX PA-RISC computers when establishing SSL/TLS connections with a larger key size.

A Windows update expected to release on August 14, 2012 will block the use of RSA keys less than 1024 bits in length for any Windows computer where the update is installed. More information about this Windows update can be found in the More Information section below. When this update is installed on Operations Manager Management Servers or Gateways that are managing HP-UX PA-RISC computers, the HP-UX computers will generate heartbeat and SSL certificate alerts, and all monitoring of the computers will be interrupted until remediation is performed.

Only HP-UX PA-RISC computers monitored by Operations Manager are affected by this Windows update. HP-UX Itanium and all other UNIX and Linux operating systems and architectures are not affected.

Symptoms

Following installation of the Windows server update that requires certificates associated with keys greater than 1023 bits on Operations Manager Management Servers and Gateways, the following symptoms will occur:

· HP-UX PA-RISC computers (11iv2 and 11iv3) will generate heartbeat alerts and all Operations Manager monitoring of the computers will fail. An “SSL Certificate Error” will also be generated with the description: The SSL Certificate used by the Agent has a configuration error.

· Operations Manager will fail to discover new HP-UX PA-RISC computers due to a “signed certificate verification” error.

Resolution

There are two options to restore monitoring communication between Operations Manager and HP-UX PA-RISC computers:

1. Allow RSA keys less than 1024 bits on each Management Server and Gateway that manages HP-UX PA-RISC computers

2. Creating and signing a new certificate with a 1024 bit key on HP-UX PA-RISC computers

Both of these options restore communication between Operations Manager and HP-UX PA-RISC computers. Allowing RSA keys less than 1024 bits on the Operations Manager server effectively disables the changes made by the Windows update. Creating and signing a new certificate with a 1024 bit key on HP-UX PA-RISC computers allows the changes made by the Windows update to stay in effect on Operations Manager servers, but may have some performance impact on HP-UX computers. We recommend that you try option #2 in a pilot environment to ensure that the additional CPU overhead on the HP-UX PA-RISC computer does not impact your production workloads.

Allowing RSA keys less than 1024 bits on Operations Manager servers

On each Operations Manager Management Server or Gateway that manages HP-UX PA-RISC computers, perform the following steps:

1. Launch a command prompt as administrator

2. In the command prompt, run the following command:

Certutil -setreg chain\minRSAPubKeyBitLength 512

Creating and signing a new certificate with a 1024 bit key on HP-UX PA-RISC computers

For each HP-UX PA-RISC computer monitored by Operations Manager, perform the following steps:

1. Establish a console session with the HP-UX computer, locally or via Secure Shell (ssh), as the root user

2. Change to the Operations Manager agent tools directory: cd /opt/microsoft/scx/bin/tools

3. Run the scxsslconfig utility to force certificate generation with a 1024 bit key:

./scxsslconfig –v –f –b 1024

where:

-v = verbose
-f = force overwrite of existing certificate
-b = number of key bits

The output of this command will display the Host Name, Domain Name, and Cert Length used in certificate generation. Confirm that the Cert Length value is 1024. Confirm that the Host Name and Domain Name are appropriate for the FQDN used by Operations Manager to reach the computer. These values can be explicitly specified when running the scxsslconfig command with –h and –d switches.

4. The new certificate must now be signed by the Operations Manager server. Using a secure file transfer protocol such as sftp or scp, copy the file: /etc/opt/microsoft/scx/ssl/scx-host-<hostname>.pem (where <hostname> is the hostname of the HP-UX computer) to the Operations Manager server that manages the HP-UX computer.

5. On the Operations Manager server, launch a command prompt as administrator

6. In the command prompt, change directories to the program directory for Operations Manager.
Default paths are:

a. Operations Manager 2007 R2: C:\Program Files System Center Operations Manager 2007

b. System Center 2012 – Operations Manager: C:\Program Files\System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Server

7. Run the scxcertconfig.exe command:

scxcertconfig -sign <path to certificate .pem file> scx_new.pem    

Where <path to certificate .pem file> is the full path to the certificate file copied from the HP-UX PA-RISC computer

8. Using a secure file transfer protocol such as sftp or scp, copy the scx_new.pem file to the directory: /etc/opt/microsoft/scx/ssl on the HP-UX computer. Rename the scx_new.pem file in the /etc/opt/microsoft/scx/ssl directory to overwrite the existing: /etc/opt/microsoft/scx/ssl/scx-host-<hostname>.pem file

9. Restart the Operations Manager agent with the following command (executed in a console or ssh session on the HP-UX computer):

/opt/microsoft/scx/bin/tools/scxadmin -restart

Bringing new HP-UX PA-RISC computers under OpsMgr management

If the second resolution approach is taken (Creating and signing a new certificate with a 1024 bit key on HP-UX PA-RISC computers), newly discovered HP-UX PA-RISC computers that are brought under management by OpsMgr will experience the same symptoms because the automatically generated certificate will have a 512 bit key. The steps outlined above must be taken on each new HP-UX PA-RISC computer to create and sign a new certificate with a 1024 bit key.

In the future, Microsoft will release an update to the OpsMgr agent for HP-UX PA-RISC computers. For HP-UX PA-RISC computers that are newly brought under OpsMgr management with this updated agent, the automatically generated certificate will have a 1024 bit key, and no additional resolutions steps will be needed. But for already managed computers, installing this updated agent does not automatically a new certificate, and the above outlined resolution steps must still be followed.

More Information

Windows PKI Blog posts about the Windows update:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/pki/archive/2012/07/13/blocking-rsa-keys-less-than-1024-bits-part-2.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/pki/archive/2012/06/12/rsa-keys-under-1024-bits-are-blocked.aspx.

J.C. Hornbeck| System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

Get the latest System Center news onFacebookandTwitter:

App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/appv/
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DPM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/dpm/
MED-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/medv/
Orchestrator Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/orchestrator/
Operations Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/
SCVMM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/scvmm
Server App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/serverappv
Service Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager
System Center Essentials Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenteressentials
WSUS Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/sus/

The Forefront Server Protection blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/fss/
The Forefront Endpoint Security blog : http://blogs.technet.com/b/clientsecurity/
The Forefront Identity Manager blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ms-identity- support/
The Forefront TMG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/isablog/
The Forefront UAG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/edgeaccessblog/

With the latest update rollup we resolved 2 major user experience issues customers have given us feedback on.

1. Hostname\Display Name in “Object by Performance” widget is empty

I am happy to announce that we addressed the issue where the display name in Object By Performance widget was never returned. I showed that we fixed this issue at my MMS 2013 dashboarding session last Tuesday and all 850 people that attended applauded. I know this was a big hurdle for most of you and I apologize in any delay in getting this issue resolved.

 2. OpsMgr Web Console Performance Improved

We have made some significant web console performance improvements with this update rollup in particular view load times. We made some changes in the code which now helps views like the alert view loads in a couple of seconds. This is another big customer request where we have addressed with this update.

You can download the update from here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2802159

We wanted to gauge our OpsMgr Customers interest in doing an informal round table discussion with OpsMgr product team to influence the future of this product.

If you are planning to attend TechEd 2014 in Houston could you please take this quick survey to let us know. If there is enough interest we will setup a meeting and details on this event will be posted to this blog site.

Note we do not collect any information about you(name, company) in the survey.

Link to the survey:https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TXQWBP7

We would like to invite you to join us for a discussion on the future of System Center Operations Manager. This is an opportunity for you to meet the OpsMgr leadership team and influence the direction of the product. We will have dedicated tables which will be discussing various topics with members of the product team. This is a free event for TechEd attendees.

Please RSVP by clicking “Accept” on the meeting invite linked to the image above and sending a response back. We would like to get a headcount for beverages.

A map of the meeting room can be found below. Hilton Americas is a 2 min walk from the convention center and is linked via a SkyBridge.

Below are the list of the System Center Operations Manager sessions at TechEd 2014 North America(Houston) where the product team will be presenting. Hope you can join us and we look forward to seeing you all there.

DCIM-B329 Building Highly Effective Dashboards in Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager

Speaker(s):Jeremy Winter, Ryan Benson

Track: Datacenter and Infrastructure Management

Topic: System Center Operations Manager

This session covers the brand new innovations in the Operations Manager dashboard infrastructure that allows you to build custom dashboards for any audience.

DCIM-B369 Extending Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager

We have an exciting new session (DCIM-B369 Extending Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager) at TechEd 2014 this year where we will show you how the brand 'new' Advisor capabilities we have added will change the way you investigate Operational issues. This will be the first time we will be showcasing this functionality and we hope to see you all there.

Looking forward to meeting you all.

Satya Vel

My original blog post on the OpsMgr Customer-Product team meet up at TechEd had some issues with the outlook meeting invite as reported by some of you. I update the meeting invite below to reflect the Central Standard Time and fixed the .ics file issue. You click the image to open the outlook meeting invite or open it via the attached file to this blog post.

Hope you all can make it.

We would like to invite you to join us for a discussion on the future of System Center Operations Manager. This is an opportunity for you to meet the OpsMgr leadership team and influence the direction of the product. We will have dedicated tables which will be discussing various topics with members of the product team. This is a free event for TechEd attendees.

 Please RSVP by clicking “Accept” on the meeting invite linked to the image above and sending a response back. We would like to get a headcount for beverages.

We now have a new twitter handle for System Center Advisor Limited Public Preview. You can tag and follow us @mscAdvisor

@mscAdvisor

https://twitter.com/mscadvisor

We are looking for System\Server Administrators to take a 10 question anonymous survey on challenges around Configuration Change tracking. This would be extremely helpful to us on the product team.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/393YQQC

- Satya Vel

We are looking for System Administrators\Security Analysts to take a very short anonymous survey that will take only a minute to complete regarding managing Security Threats in your environment. This will be extremely helpful to us on the product team.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5GMSCHP

Thank you in advance,
- Tigran Shahbazian

We are looking for Operations Manager admins to fill out a short 10 question anonymous survey to better understand how you use the OpsMgr web console today. This will take only few minutes. We appreciate your help in building better products.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HZCFZ3X

Leyla Kazemi

Microsoft

Have you heard about System Center Advisor Preview Service at TechEd or read some of the customer blogs? Need a single solution to gather, correlate and search all your log data, forecast your data center capacity needs or check if your servers have the latest software updates? Advisor maybe your answer. This service is FREE for the preview period. Here’s a quick 2 minute video to bring you up to speed on what the buzz is all about.

(Please visit the site to view this video)

We would love to have you join the rapidly growing Advisor community. If you have any questions or need help onboarding please feel free to email me (Satya) at scdata@microsoft.com

Prerequisite:
- Operations Manager 2012 SP1 with update rollup 6 orOperations Manager 2012 R2 with update rollup 2. Details on how to onboard can be found here

Note: No additional hardware is required to leverage this service and there is no impact to your OpsMgr on-premise environment.

Looking forward to having you join this new family.

Have you ever spent hours troubleshooting an operational issue only to realize that someone on your team changed a setting or a software update was made that caused the issue?

Backed by popular demand we are proud to announce the availability of the Change Tracking Intelligence pack in System Center Advisor. With this intelligence pack you can now track all Softwareand Windows Service changes on your servers.

With rich, out-of-the-box views you can get insights into key scenarios, including:

• What changed (Software and Windows Service) on a single or groups of servers, for any time period 
• Logon Account, Startup Type, Status changes in the last 24 hours or any time period
• Changes applied to a specific workload like Exchange, SQL, SharePoint etc.
• Did patch A get applied on a particular set of servers
• On what servers is a particular application installed
• Top computers with the most configuration changes

What's next?We are going to continue to light up more scenarios for Change Tracking but would like to get your input first. Please take this 2min survey and share you feedback here

The proud Engineers that delivered this intelligence pack. 

 Operations Manager engineering team is looking for Operations Manager customers who can provide feedback on pain points, preferences, and usage behavior.

We are starting a customer panel for Operations Manager customers to help influence the future of the product.

What are my commitments as a panel member?

• 1 hour meeting once a week for 4 weeks

• Actively share your views constructively on the conference calls

• Completing questionnaires or taking part in surveys

 What do I get out of it?

• Ability to influence the future of Operations Manager

• Direct access to the System Center engineering team

• Improve a product you love

The goal is to hear customer feedback frequently as development of features progress.

If you are interested, please fill out the information here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S2MWSMQ

Thank you,

Satya Vel

I am proud to announce an update for System Center 2012 R2 Management packs for Java EE http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44576. Java application monitoring was first released in System Center 2012 and this marks the third iteration for Java EE server management with Operations Manager. Past updates have included support for IBM WebSphere 8 and Oracle WebLogic 12cR1. With the fall 2014 update, we have extended management capability to three new Java application server versions and extended existing support to WebSphere Network Deployment.

In order to use these management packs with UNIX/Linux ensure that Update Rollup 4 for UNIX/Linux Management Packs is installed. Update Rollup 4 is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29696

The Java Application Server Management Packs now contain these new management packs

• Microsoft.JEE.Tomcat.8.mp
• Microsoft.JEE.JBoss.7.mp
• Microsoft.JEE.Wildfly.8.mp

These management packs enable monitoring of Tomcat 8, JBoss 7, and Wildfly 8. Additionally with JBoss 7 and Wildfly 8, monitoring of Standalone and Domain mode are both supported.

Additionally the following management packs have been updated

• Microsoft.JEE.WebSphere.8.mp
• Microsoft.JEE.Tomcat.5.mp
• Microsoft.JEE.Tomcat.6.mp
• Microsoft.JEE.Tomcat.7.mp

- WebSphere Network Deployment automatic discovery is now supported for Windows, AIX, and Linux

- Tomcat rpm and deb installations no longer report blank version numbers in the Operations Manager console.

For a full list of platforms support please reference the matrix below

*Supported Linux OSes include major platforms Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Debian Linux, Ubuntu Linux, Oracle Linux, and CentOS Linux. For version information please view supported Linux distributions in System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh212713.aspx

Java Application Server management with System Center Operations Manager has been available since 2010, and with the latest Management Pack update http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44576 JBoss Application Server 7 support is finally available.

JBoss Application Server 7 can be booted in two distinct operating modes: standalone and domain mode. Standalone mode is the most familiar to past JBoss Application Server users, and consists of an independent process. The second operating mode is the newly introduced domain mode. Domain mode allows multiple JBoss Application Server instances to be managed from a single domain controller spanning the same or different servers. For more information on operating modes refer to the following JBoss documentation https://docs.jboss.org/author/display/AS7/Operating+modes

The latest Java EE Management Pack update allows for both of these operating modes to be monitored on Linux* and Windows.

*Linux platforms are limited to those that are supported by System Center Operations Manager. Refer to the JBoss Management Pack guide for a complete list of platform and version support.

This blog series details managing a JBoss AS 7 application server running in first standalone mode and then domain modes on a CentOS Linux machine. This first blog post goes through a guided setup of a JBoss AS 7 running in standalone mode.

Basic Setup

My environment consists of a clean CentOS 7 64-bit Linux machine without JBoss Application Server 7 installed. My CentOS 7 64-bit machine is already managed by Operations Manager 2012 R2 with Update Rollup 4 installed. For more details on managing a Linux machine with System Center Operations Manager please refer to the following http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2012/03/18/deploying-unix-linux-agents-using-opsmgr-2012.aspx

In addition we also need the UNIX/Linux UR4 Management Packs http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29696 and the new Management Packs for Java EE - linked above

Obtaining the Java EE Management Pack and JBoss MP Guide 

Go online and download the MSI and the Management Pack Guide

Once the download is complete run the MSI and then navigate to the installation directory. The files are installed in “C:\Program Files (x86)\System Center Management Packs\System Center 2012 R2 Management Packs for Java EE” by default.

After verifying that the management packs are present, begin importing the following management packs to manage JBoss Application Server

• Microsoft.JEE.Library.mpb
• Microsoft.JEE.JBoss.7.mp
• Microsoft.JEE.JBoss.Library.mp
• Microsoft.JEE.Templates.Library.mpb

Once imported switch to the Linux machine to set up JBoss Application Server.

Installing JBoss Application Server 7 on CentOS Linux 7 x64

Downloading the JBoss application server files 

• On the CentOS machine create a directory “/jboss” to store the application server and then change into that directory.

• Inside this new /jboss directory download the 7.1.0.Final.zip from the JBoss download site.

• • Alternatively, the zip file can be directly downloaded from the website and transferred to the Linux box.

Setting up the application server

• After the application server is downloaded unzip the contents

• Once the package has fully inflated, change into the application server's bin directory

• Let's make sure that all our important files are present by issuing an `ls`
  
• There are a couple of configuration programs, admin programs, and start up scripts for both standalone and domain mode

Starting the server in standalone mode

• One of the selling points of JBoss AS 7 is quick setup and launch, and with these steps completed we can go ahead and kick the server off. Within the bin directory issue the following command.

• If you run into errors here make sure that Java is installed on the Linux machine and ensure that port 8080 is not blocked by common applications (e.g. Apache HTTP Server)
• The application server starts up, and prints a list of services running and ports that are active for your configuration.

Checkpoint for basic monitoring

• Switch back to the Operations Manager console to see the base configuration of the JBoss Application Server discovered.

• Discovery for the JBoss Application Server runs initially after Management Pack import and then runs on a time interval of 4 hours. This setting can be adjusted if faster discovery is required.

Configuring the JBoss Application Server

Background

The basic JBoss Application Server monitoring is useful if you only want to monitor the availability of the server; Operations Manager allows for much more meaningful metrics through a setting known as “deep monitoring”. Deep monitoring, at its core, consists of a monitored Java Application Server running a lightweight Microsoft developed Java component known as BeanSpy.

BeanSpy is a Java application that utilizes Java Management Extensions (JMX) to gather useful statistics from Managed Beans (MBeans). MBeans are object representations of resources running inside the Java virtual machine and can contain valuable data attributes and operations. BeanSpy can retrieve data from attributes, and invoke operations based on server permissions granted to the application.

BeanSpy is included the Management Packs for Java EE through a management pack task, or can be locally built from source located here https://github.com/MSFTOSSMgmt/BeanSpy. Once deep monitoring is enabled Operations Manager communicates directly with the BeanSpy running on the application server over HTTP/HTTPS.

Adding a JBoss management user

A JBoss management user has full access to the JBoss web management console, and can perform all the required configuration operations for deploying BeanSpy. The management user is only needed if using the JBoss web management console for configuration. This blog details configuring the JBoss application server with the included JBoss command line utility. Important Note: this is not the same user we monitor our MBeans with.

• Add a user using the included script program in the application server's bin directory

• The add-user program guides you through a series of options for configuring your management user.
  • For the type of user select (a), selected by default.
  • For the Realm name option leave the option blank.
  • For username and password enter your choice - I selected to use the classic admin and admin for my management user.
  • The program terminates with messages indicating the changes to the properties files in standalone and domain configuration directories.

Adding an Operations Manager monitoring user

In order to monitor the application server's jvm metrics we need to add a monitoring user who has monitoring and invoke privileges with BeanSpy.

• Change into the configuration directory of the server

• In this directory create the following files
  • opsmgr-users.properties
    • this file contains the username and password
  • opsmgr-roles.properties
    • this file contains the username and associated role (e.g monitoring, invoke)
• Edit the opsmgr-users.properties file and add the following username and password
• Edit the opsmgr-roles.properties file and add the following username and password

Configuring the JBoss security domains

After adding the OpsMgr monitoring user proceed to configuring the security domain. this configuration can be done through the JBoss web management console, http://localhost:9990 by default, or by a JBoss command line program (jboss-cli.sh) installed with the server. This walkthrough uses jboss-cli to set up the needed security domains.

• In the JBoss bin directory run the program jboss-cli.sh with the "-c" option to connect to the running server

• A prompt with operating mode, bind-address, and port indicates a successful connection to the application server

• Run the following command ,"starting with /subsystem", in the JBoss command line program to create a security domain named "opsmgr"
  • These commands are also available in the MP guide

• The printed outcome property indicates success or failure

• Run the following command in the JBoss command line program to associate the opsmgr monitoring user with the newly created security domain

• Another prompt indicates success, as well as an additional reload requirement

• Restart the server - I terminate the JBoss process and then start it again using standalone.sh

Deploying BeanSpy and enabling deep monitoring

Now that the server is correctly configured, deploy BeanSpy and enable deep monitoring on the server.

Retrieving BeanSpy

BeanSpy can be retrieved through a management pack task, or by building from source located here https://github.com/MSFTOSSMgmt/BeanSpy . This blog uses the management pack task to retrieve the file.

• On the management server under the JBoss configuration view locate the "Application Server Instance Tasks" on the right hand side

• Select "Copy BeanSpy and Universal discovery files" and run the task
• The files are now located in C:\Windows\Temp

• • BeanSpy.ear and BeanSpy.war allow for monitoring over HTTP/HTTPS with user authentication
  • BeanSpy.HTTP.NoAuth.ear and BeanSpy.HTTP.NoAuth.war allow for monitoring over HTTP without user authentication
• This blog uses BeanSpy.war to monitor the JBoss application server over HTTP.
• Move BeanSpy.war to the root folder on the Linux server

Deploy BeanSpy

• Once BeanSpy is located on the Linux server start the JBoss command line interface again

• Run the following command in the JBoss command line program to deploy BeanSpy.war to the server

• The application server output prints out confirmation and deployment information

• Ignore the “Failed to connect to com.interopbridges.scx.jmx” WARNINGs in the log messages.
  • They are expected based on which type of application server BeanSpy is deployed to

Validating correct BeanSpy deployment

• Once BeanSpy is deployed, go to a web browser enter the following url http:<Jboss server ip-address>:8080/BeanSpy/Stats
  • this is the same page Operations Manager parses to retrieve performance information about the application server
• A prompt pops up asking for credentials. Enter the opsmgr monitoring username and password
  • Username: opsmgrmonitor
  • password: secret

Creating the Run as profile

• Now that BeanSpy is setup we create a run-as profile that Operations Manager uses to access the data BeanSpy pumps out
• Navigate to the administration pane of the Operations Manager console and select profiles under "Run As Configuration" option

• There are two types of JEE accounts: one for monitoring MBeans, and one for invoking MBean operations
• Earlier in opsmgr-roles.properties I granted the opsmgrmonitor user the role for both monitoring and invoke, allowing us to use this account for both profiles
• Double click "JEE Monitoring Account" and click on the Run As Accounts on the left hand side

• Click the "Add" button then "New..." in the pane that pops up
• For "Run As account type" select "Simple Authentication"

• Under "Credentials" enter the previously used username and passwords
  • Account Name: opsmgrmonitor
  • Password: secret

• Under "Distribution Security" I select "Less Secure", as this is a lab system, and then hit "Create" to finish.
• After my account is created, the "Run As Account" field is populated with the new account
• Select the option for "All targeted objects"

• Click "OK" and "Save" in the Run As Profile Wizard
• For the JEE Invoke account repeat the same steps

Enabling deep monitoring

• Now that BeanSpy is deployed and Run As accounts are created, we enable deep monitoring to get all the metrics into Operations Manager
• Because our application server and BeanSpy is running with HTTP , run the management pack task "Enable deep monitoring using HTTP"
• Switch to the Deep Monitored Configurations" views and a new instance is now present

• You now have a fully configured JBoss Application Server 7 managed by Operations Manager!!!

Part 2

Join me in part two where will manage a JBoss Application Server instances running in domain mode across multiple machines. Coming Soon ....