Logical Disk Free Space Override in OM 2007

In Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM), it was difficult to monitor the logical free disk space on managed servers, especially when the environment included a multitude of disk sizes.  Script parameters could be modified but there might still be disks that always exceeded the alert thresholds.

Operations Manager 2007 allows you greater flexibility by allowing you to override the monitor for a specific object.  In the navigation pane of the Operations Manager console, navigate to Windows Server 2003 Logical Disk > Entity Health > Availability.  Right-click on the Logical Disk Free Space monitor and select Overrides > Override the Monitor > For a specific object of type: Windows Server 2003 Logical Disk.  This will display a dialog box that lists every logical disk instance.  Select the drive that you want to apply the override to and set the properties of the override.

Alternatively, you can create a new group in the Authoring space of the console that contains the specific disks that are to have their thresholds overriden. An override can then be applied to the group by following the steps previously outlined except you should select the For a specific group option when configuring the override.

How to Rename a SharePoint Site with STSADM

Today I woke up and decided that I did not like the URLs that I had given the site collections in the demonstration portals that I referenced in yesterdays post.  Unfortunately, there is no option to right-click and rename a site but the STSADM utility makes the process quite painless.

1. On the SharePoint server, open a command prompt by selecting Start > Run and typing cmd in the textbox.  Click the OK button.
2. Navigate to the directory that contains the utility by typing cd %systemdrive%\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin at the command prompt and pressing [Enter].
3. Now the original site can be backed up by typing stsadm -o backup -url http://server/sites/site1 -overwrite -filename %systemdrive%\backup.dat at the command prompt and pressing [Enter]. Replace server and site1 as appropriate for your environment.
4. If you are restoring the site to the same virtual server, you must first deleted the original site because the globally-unique identifiers (GUIDs) for SharePoint lists are preserved in the backup file.  The SharePoint content database requires that all list GUIDs be unique.  Delete the original site by typing stsadm -o deletesite -url http://server/sites/site1 at the command prompt and pressing [Enter].   Replace server and site1 as appropriate for your environment.
5. Now the site can be restored to its new site name by typing stsadm -o restore -url http://server/sites/site2 -filename %systemdrive%\backup.dat at the command prompt and pressing [Enter].  Replace server and site2 as appropriate for your environment.

Now your SharePoint site has been fully restored into a new site collection with a new name!

Shared Services Provider Provisioning

Today I began creating a MOSS 2007 portal for our sales team to use for demonstration purposes.  I installed MOSS and created the Web application in SharePoint Central Administration.  The next step involved creating the Shared Services Provider (SSP) for the Web application.  When I clicked the OK button to create the SSP, MOSS began provisioning the SSP, displaying a status of “Provisioning in progress”.  Having created a few portals with MOSS 2007, I quickly realized that the provisioning process was not going anywhere.

I began troubleshooting by searching the Internet with Google.  I came across a post on Serve’s SharePoint Blog that described my problem exactly.  He resolved his problem by starting the Windows SharePoint Service Timer service which had stopped for some unknown reason.  I opened the Services applet on my server and, sure enough, the WSS Timer service was not running.  I tried to start it but it failed to start due to a logon failure.  I reset the logon credentials and the service start successfully.  Within a few minutes, my Shared Services Provider had been provisioned and I was able to proceed.

DCDIAG userAccountControl Issue

While recently troubleshooting some replication alerts in Operations Manager 2007 from a couple of managed domain controllers, I ran DCDIAG and there was one response that indicated a possible issue.  Internet research revealed a posting from Jorge de Almeida Pinto on the PCreview Web site.  I am posting here for my personal convenience and, hopefully, to assist others that might experience the same problem.

In the DCDIAG results, the userAccountControl attribute for one of the domain controllers was 0×82020 (532512) rather than 0×82000 (532480), which is the default value for a domain controller.  Apparently, the precreation of the computer account is one possible cause.  To restore the default domain controller (DC) userAccountControl attribute, use ADSIEDIT as follows:

1. Click on Start > Run, type adsiedit.msc in the Open textbox, and click the OK button.
2. In ADSIEDIT, connect to the domain.
3. Navigate to the Domain Controllers OU.
4. Right-click on the domain controller for which you want to change the userAccountControl attribute and select Properties from the pop-up menu.
5. Locate the userAccountControl attribute.  The value of the attribute should be something other than 532480.  I my case, the value was 532512.
6. Change the value to 532480 and exit ADSIEDIT.

This eliminated the replication alerts that we were receiving from this particular domain controller.  Thanks to Jorge de Almeida Pinto for his insight!

Exchange 2007 Outlook Web Access Connectivity Monitoring

External Outlook Web Access (OWA) connectivity monitoring is enabled by default in the Exchange 2007 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007; however you will likely receive alerts initially because you must set an external URL on the OWA virtual directory.  To set an external URL, you need to open the Exchange Management Shell and run the Set-OwaVirtualDirectory cmdlet.  The syntax of the cmdlet is as follows:

set-owavirtualdirectory “<Server name>\owa (Default Web Site)” -externalurl:https://<Fully Qualified Domain Name>/owa

For example, if the name of the server is PEGASUS and the domain is named atlanta.contoso.com, the proper syntax of the cmdlet would be as follows:

set-owavirtualdirectory “PEGASUS\owa (Default Web Site)” -externalurl:https://pegasus.atlanta.contoso.com/owa

Note that the examples listed above assume that you have SSL enabled on the OWA virtual directory.  If SSL is not enabled in your domain (and it should be), substitute http:// in place of https://.

Operations Manager Send Queue Issue

I was recently troubleshooting an Operations Manager 2007 alert from one of our managed servers regarding the Send Queue % Used Threshold exceeding 95%.  I found the following information while searching on the Internet and am posting it here for my personal reference but hope it might help others as well.  These steps do not necessarily resolve the problem of a Send Queue filling up; however, they do allow you to flush the Send Queue in order to see if your troubleshooting efforts have provided the desired results.

1. Stop the OpsMgr Health Service.
2. Delete the files in the C:\Program Files\System Center Operations Manager 2007\Health Service State\Health Service Store directory.
3. Restart the OpsMgr Health Service.

In order to check the status of the Send Queue % Used counter, you can use Performance Monitor by following these steps:

1. Click on Start > Run, type perfmon.msc in the Open text box, and click the OK button.
2. With System Monitor selected in the left pane of Performance Monitor, click the Add button at the top of the right pane.
3. In the Performance Object drop-down list, select Health Service Management Group.
4. In the Select counters from list listbox, select Send Queue % Used.
5. Click the Add button.  This will add the Send Queue % Used counter to the graph and you can monitor the Send Queue in real time.