It is recommended that you perform the following tasks on a daily basis:

Review All Open Alerts

Many of the alerts in the Configuration Manager 2007 Management Pack are displayed in the following alert description format:

$Computer$ <Rule Name>

$Description$

Event details

Review all alerts in Operations Manager 2007 to ensure that they are addressed in a timely manner. You can use any of the following methods to review open alerts:

  • In the Operations Console, click the Monitoring button, expand Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, and click Alerts.

  • In the Operations Console, click the Monitoring button, expand Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, and click General. Select Alerts that are New in the last 72 hours.

  • Alerts can be viewed by computer or computer group by clicking Authoring Mode and selecting Groups. Right-click the Configuration Manager 2007 computer group that you want to examine, select State View, and then select Open Alerts.

  • Alerts can be viewed through the Computer State view. The view displays a list of computers and their discovered classes. Right-click any computer, and select Open Alerts View to get a listing of its current alerts prioritized by severity.

  • Alerts can be viewed through the Site State view. The Site State view displays a list of sites and their discovered classes. Right-click any site, and select Open Alerts View to get a listing of its current alerts prioritized by severity.

  • Alerts can be viewed through the Site Hierarchy State view. The Site Hierarchy State view displays the site hierarchy and its discovered classes. Right-click the hierarchy instance, and select Open Alerts View to get a listing of its current alerts prioritized by severity.

  • Alerts can be viewed through the Site Hierarchy Diagram view. The Site Hierarchy Diagram view displays a graphical representation of the Configuration Manager 2007 site hierarchy. Right-click any of the objects displayed in the diagram, and select Open Alerts View to get a listing of its current alerts prioritized by severity.

It is recommended that you review all new alerts in the following order:

  1. Configuration Manager 2007 installation failure alerts

  2. Configuration Manager 2007 core service alerts

  3. Configuration Manager 2007 dependent service alerts

  4. Configuration Manager 2007 script error alerts

  5. Configuration Manager 2007 server role alerts

  6. Configuration Manager 2007 component alerts

  7. Configuration Manager 2007 site system status summarizer-based alerts

  8. Configuration Manager 2007 status message-based alerts

  9. Configuration Manager 2007 performance threshold alerts

  10. Configuration Manager 2007 Inbox monitoring alerts

  11. Configuration Manager 2007 Outbox monitoring alerts

  12. Configuration Manager 2007 task monitoring alerts

  13. Configuration Manager 2007 Site Backup failed alerts

  14. Configuration Manager 2007 program failed alerts

Review Computer Group Membership

Computer group membership can be verified by using Operations Manager 2007.

In the Operations Console, click the Authoring button, click Groups, and then right-click the appropriate Microsoft Configuration Manager 2007 computer group. Verify that each of the displayed computer groups contains the correct computers.

Verify That Agents Are Communicating with the Operations Manager 2007 Server

Communication failure between the agent and the monitoring infrastructure prevents you from receiving alerts. Verify that the agent and the server running Operations Manager 2007 are communicating by verifying that the health state of the Configuration Manager servers in the Computer State View are not grayed out.

Review Performance Backlogs and Performance Processing Rates

The Performance Backlogs and Performance Processing Rates are extremely useful in detecting daily trends and understanding what is happening in the Configuration Manager hierarchy. Performance Backlogs and Performance Processing Rates can be viewed in Operations Manager 2007.

To Review Performance Backlogs

To review performance backlogs, perform the following steps:

To review performance backlogs
  1. In the Operations Console, click the Monitoring button, and then expand Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

  2. Expand Performance, and then expand Backlogs. Next, click the appropriate server role subfolder and view. Click the Show button to specify the computers displayed in the counter graph.

To Review Performance Processing Rates

To review performance processing rates, perform the following steps:

To review performance processing rates
  1. In the Operations Console, click the Monitoring button, and then expand Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

  2. Expand Performance, and then expand Processing Rates. Next, click the appropriate server role subfolder and view. Click the Show checkboxes to specify the computers displayed in the counter graph.

To Review Performance Conditions

To review performance conditions, perform the following steps:

To review performance conditions
  1. In the Operations Console, click the Monitoring button, and then expand Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

  2. Expand Performance, and then expand Conditions. Next, click the appropriate server role subfolder and view. Select the Show checkboxes to specify the computers to display in the counter graph.

Configuration Manager 2007 Backup Monitoring

You should enable the Configuration Manager 2007 Site Backup maintenance task and schedule backups as required in your enterprise environment. The Configuration Manager Site Backup process supports VSS but does not support runtime backups during the following processes:

  • Copying portions of the Configuration Manager installation folder to the backup export path

  • Backing up the various Configuration Manager registry values

  • Backing up the Configuration Manager site database in a server running Microsoft SQL Server™

When backup is complete, the Configuration Manager Site Backup service restarts the SMS services. These service stops and starts are normal during the backup process and do not indicate any critical error. The alerts that would normally occur from these stopped services are suppressed during Configuration Manager Site Backup because backup will pause the MOM Agent, essentially putting it into an agent maintenance mode. To correlate the start and completion of a site, you should enable the following rules, which raise informational alerts when the SMS Site Backup service starts or stops:

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service stopped running: SMS_SITE_BACKUP

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service started running: SMS_SITE_BACKUP

The following alerts are raised when the Configuration Manager Site Backup service fails to start or unexpectedly stops:

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_BACKUP terminated unexpectedly

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_BACKUP hung on starting

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_BACKUP failed to start

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_BACKUP was unable to log on

  • ConfigMgr 2007 service failure: SMS_SITE_BACKUP depends on another service that failed to start or is nonexistent

If you see an alert indicating that the service terminated unexpectedly, verify that all stopped services have been restarted. The Configuration Manager Site Backup service might have terminated before restarting those services.

The following status message alerts are generated to show the success or failure of the backup process:

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Status: Site Backup completed successfully

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Status: Site Backup failed

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Status: Site Backup cannot begin the backup process until the current backup task completes

  • ConfigMgr 2007 Status: Site Backup found that the SQL backup path is empty or invalid

The failure alert might have been raised because of access issues, low disk space, failure to start or stop certain services, or failures in SQL Server operations.

Review Events

It is recommended that you review events on a regular basis because they indicate noncritical failures and provide insight into how the Operations Manager 2007 agent is functioning.

To Review Events

To review events, perform the following steps:

To review events
  1. In the Operations Console, click the Monitoring button.

  2. Expand Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, and then click Events.

See Also