Integrate SCOM and SolarWinds

Steve Irwin quote - what a beauty!
Steve Irwin quote – what a beauty!

I’m ISO (in search of) the mythical single pane of glass.  In my best Steve Irwin voice…  Integrate SCOM and SolarWinds – We are strong together.  To me, integration occurs everywhere, at home, in your job, anyone you work with.  Contribute, don’t consume 🙂   Everyone is unique, including preferences, and past experiences.  In my career, I’ve been lucky to administer both tools for Fortune 100 companies (and more tools) across my career.  I hope this blog provides a way to use both tools to get the full value for the least cost!

 

 

 

Integration typewriter picture - stronger together - integrate SCOM and SolarWinds
Integration typewriter picture – stronger together – integrate SCOM and SolarWinds

Integration

The real meat of this is how to get the most for the least cost!

Let’s ‘Integrate SCOM and SolarWinds’ into our unicorn.  To date, getting data from SolarWinds into SCOM allows for easiest PowerBI Apps/reports

In my experience, the MSI requires Solarwinds Support login to download the SolarWinds Management Pack for SCOM.msi.  Downlload and configure article here.

SCOM view of SolarWinds data
SCOM view of SolarWinds data

3rd party options (free)

Cookdown vendor method to grab SolarWinds data into SCOM

Webhooks SolarWinds – Cookdown details

 

SolarWinds Thwack entries – you can find my Thwack submissions there as well 😊

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/resources/thwack-command-center/f/forum/39833/scom-connector

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/product-forums/network-performance-monitor-npm/f/forum/70676/scom-integration

 

One possible PowerBI report

PowerBI App with multiple reports, dashboards
PowerBI App with multiple reports, dashboards

 

 

ITSM integrations

Remedy

Most times the Remedy application is old, deprecated, outside it’s service life, rarely integrated with monitoring.  One customer’s PowerBI report shows the utility at a glance (see picture below)

PowerBI report referencing ITSM insights for teams, totals, volume
PowerBI report referencing ITSM insights for teams, totals, volume

ITSM integration for ServiceNow (SNow)

Free – https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/explore-your-servicenow-data-with-power-bi/

SNOW PowerBI Connector (pay – requires support contract login)

https://store.servicenow.com/sn_appstore_store.do?#!/store/application/87a42573879e0110fb5033773cbb354f/

 

Documentation

2021 Blog https://www.upguard.com/blog/solarwinds-vs-scom

Blog https://www.trustradius.com/compare-products/microsoft-system-center-operations-manager-scom-vs-solarwinds-server-application-monitor

WebConsole APM hotfix for SCOM2012R2 and above

Vaccination Record - SCOM hotfix released for WebConsole/APM on SCOM2012R2 and above
Vaccination Record

SCOM hotfix released for WebConsole/APM on SCOM2012R2 and above, time for another SCOM shot!  Don’t forget your vaccination card 🙂

 

Let’s get started.  Time to fix the vulnerability for ‘SCOM hotfix released for WebConsole/APM on SCOM2012R2 and above’.  Read the support article, and assess what versions you have in your sandbox and production.  Once assessed, it’s time to test/implement/verify the fix applied.

 

Support article

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/update-for-idor-vulnerability-in-system-center-operations-manager-kb5006871-0e3a513a-ad80-4830-8984-2fc5a40ee7f7

 

 

SCOM WebConsole Hotfix links

(support.microsoft.com articles)

Specific support article for SCOM2019 UR3 Hotfix

SCOM2019 UR3 Hotfix support.microsoft.com article link

Specific support article for SCOM2016 UR10 Hotfix

SCOM2016 UR10 Hotfix support.microsoft.com article link

Specific support article for SCOM2012R2 UR14 Hotfix

SCOM2016 UR10 Hotfix support.microsoft.com article link

 

# Download (same EXE has all 3 SCOM versions)

https://download.microsoft.com/download/3/e/e/3eec1274-64d5-4285-84b9-c50800eb2dd2/KB5006871.EXE

 

 

Hotfix updates two paths on SCOM management server with the WebConsole role

Paths updated

(don’t forget to add File Version property to your display)

NOTE Drive letter depends on where you installed SCOM (typically D:)

 

SCOM2019 paths

D:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center\Operations Manager\WebConsole\AppDiagnostics\Web\bin

D:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center\Operations Manager\WebConsole\AppDiagnostics\AppAdvisor\Web\Bin

SCOM2016 paths

D:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2016\Operations Manager\WebConsole\AppDiagnostics\Web\bin

D:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2016\Operations Manager\WebConsole\AppDiagnostics\AppAdvisor\Web\Bin

 

Screenshot of paths

AppDiagnostics File Path - SCOM hotfix released for WebConsole/APM on SCOM2012R2 and above
AppDiagnostics File Path
AppDiagnostics AppAdvisor File Path - SCOM hotfix released for WebConsole/APM on SCOM2012R2 and above
AppDiagnostics AppAdvisor File Path

 

Just in case you forgot how to add properties in Windows Explorer…

In the columns (Name, Date modified, etc,) right click > More

Add file property - SCOM hotfix released for WebConsole/APM on SCOM2012R2 and above
Add file property

Hit F to move down to the F named details > hit check box for ‘File Version’ or click on File Version and hit space bar

Click on OK

Add file property File Version - SCOM hotfix released for WebConsole/APM on SCOM2012R2 and above
Add file property File Version

 

Sort by ‘Date Modified’ Column

Verify File Version - SCOM hotfix released for WebConsole/APM on SCOM2012R2 and above
Verify File Version

 

File versions AFTER installing hotfix

Depending on which SCOM version you’re running, the path stays pretty much the same, and you want to verify that files were updated for the ‘SCOM hotfix released for WebConsole/APM’

SCOM2019

UR3 = 10.19.10505.0 > Hotfix file version = 10.19.10550.0

SCOM2016

UR10 = 7.2.12324 > Hotfix file version = 7.2.12335.0

Standard UR10 files are 8.0.10918.0

 

Voila > SCOM hotfix complete

Notify your Security team you’ve patched, because sometimes the scanner software isn’t accurately updated (where Security needs to open a case with their vendor!)

 

Complete:  Patched environment for ‘SCOM WebConsole/APM on SCOM2012R2 and above’

Mining Windows Event Log

Mining Ore from the Windows Event Log and finding a way to make it portable

 

Use Get-WinEvent to use XML and filters from event viewer, to mine an event, including examples for a specific string, from a specific event, in a specific event log?

 

 

Hopefully this post will help with a few tips to simplify monitoring for events, whether in AzMon, SCOM, or via PowerShell.

 

 

Let’s start with the Dr Scripto blog post from quite a while ago –

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/data-mine-the-windows-event-log-by-using-powershell-and-xml/

 

Not sure how many people use get-WinEvent, but this is one tool in PowerShell that can help an admin parse the XML side of an event.

 

Example 1

Query Application Event Log for Severity, Event, and Event Data contains lync.exe

$query = @”

<QueryList>

  <Query Id=”0″ Path=”Application”>

    <Select Path=”Application”>*[System[Provider[@Name=’Application Hang’]

    and (Level=2) and (EventID=1002)]]

    and *[EventData[Data=’lync.exe’]]</Select>

  </Query>

</QueryList>

“@

Get-WinEvent -FilterXml $query

 

PowerShell output

Use Get-WinEvent to use XML and filters from event viewer
Lync.exe event example output

 

 

 

Use Get-WinEvent to use XML and filters from event viewer

The Tip or Trick part of this – leverage your Event Viewer Filter as a query to use with get-WinEvent

Credit for this tip comes from Andrew Blumhardt!

See below for examples to ‘use Get-WinEvent to use XML and filters from event viewer’

 

Navigating via Event Viewer:

Hop onto your favorite server, or connect to another server via Event Viewer

Go to the Event Log > Click Filter Current Log

Build out your filter (i.e. choose specific Event Sources, exclude events, include severities, timeframe (start/end), etc.)

Use Get-WinEvent to use XML and filters from event viewer
SCVMM Application Log Event ID 25933

Switch to the XML tab (and note you can edit your query further!)

SCVMM query example screenshot
Event Viewer filter XML tab

You can copy the query from the Event Viewer into your Get-WinEvent syntax

$query = @”

<QueryList>
<Query Id=”0″ Path=”Application”>
<Select Path=”Application”>*[System[Provider[@Name=’Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager.2012.Monitor.UserRoleQuotaUsageMonitor’ or @Name=’Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager.2012.Report.ServiceUsageCollection’ or @Name=’Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager.2012.Report.VMUsageCollection’ or @Name=’Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager.2016.EnableCredSSPClient’ or @Name=’Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager.2016.Monitor.UserRoleQuotaUsageMonitor’ or @Name=’Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager.2016.Report.ServiceUsageCollection’ or @Name=’Microsoft.SystemCenter.VirtualMachineManager.2016.Report.VMUsageCollection’] and (Level=2 or Level=3) and (EventID=25933)]]</Select>
</Query>
</QueryList>

“@

Get-WinEvent -FilterXml $query

 

PowerShell output

Use Get-WinEvent to use XML and filters from event viewer
SCVMM query example screenshot

 

 

 

 

Example 3

Grab System Event Log, Event ID 5827  (NetLogon denied events)

get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable @{LogName=’System’; ID=’5827′;}

 

PowerShell output

Use Get-WinEvent to use XML and filters from event viewer
get-WinEvent filter by logname and event ID

 

 

Documentation:

Get-WinEvent https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.diagnostics/get-winevent?view=powershell-7.1

MSFT DevBlogs https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/data-mine-the-windows-event-log-by-using-powershell-and-xml/

Troubleshooting Service Map pack

 

 

 

Updated 14 Mar 2019

 

If you get these exceptions like me, the issue has been raised, with a deliverable targeted for SCOM2019UR1.

Disable the rule to reduce noise.

 

 

Are you using Service Map Management pack, and getting errors?

 

This alert is based on the 46651/46652 event ID in the Operations Manager event log

From SCOM Console > Authoring Tab > Management Pack Objects > Rules

Search in ‘Look for:’ bar GenericException (yes no space in between)

 

Rule

 

 

Rule Details

 

To enable debug on the MS

 

For collecting logs, please do the following:

  • Create folders “c:\Debug\ext\”
  • Now, Wait for an hour(which is the default time interval set in the rule for running service map api).
  • You will see some log files created in that folder “ext”. Please share the same in email.

 

The file showed up after the alerts, and listed debug INFO and WARN lines, and the time stamps match up to the generic exception rules.

 

Stay tuned for more information, I have been trying to get more answers on the exception

{WARN} [12:35:20.966] [ScomUtils] failed to export XML for Management Pack: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

   at ScomBridge.ScomUtils.WritePackXmlToFile(ManagementPack pack, String filename)