Optimizing and reducing the noise on Admin Packs Scom

I have been working with my customer around reducing the noise and also optimising SCOM 2007 R2. The main emphasis of my work has been around the Active Directory Managment pack, but some of the techniques that I have highlighted and the links that I have used can be used more generic

https://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2010/02/19/opsmgr-2007-r2-mp-version-6-1-7599-0-is-released.aspx

Check whether you have Configured for any Clusters, Active Directory, & Exchange “Agent Proxying” The reason this should be set is as follows;

When deploying the AD or Exchange management packs you need to enable proxying on agents in order for discovery to work properly. This is further detailed in the blogs below. There is also listed a tool that can be used to enable this across multiple Domain Controllers at once, otherwise you have to go to each individual server.

a. https://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/archive/2007/08/02/enabling-proxying-for-agents.aspx

b. https://blogs.msdn.com/boris_yanushpolsky/archive/2008/01/24/troubleshooting-event-id-33333-logged-by-the-data-access-layer.aspx

c. https://ops-mgr.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3D3B8489FCAA9B51!1077.entry?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=673832820

d. https://cameronfuller.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A231E4EB0417CB76!1152.entry

e. https://ops-mgr.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3D3B8489FCAA9B51!1077.entry

2. Another good technique to reduce noise is to run the following reports from the ODR Reporting Library .

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3. In addition we can be more specific by focussing in on a particular Management Pack.

By choosing the following under the Generic Report Library.

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These above reports can then enable us to identify the most noisiest errors .We can then take this information and then go to the specific Monitor and modify or disable it in the following way;

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4. Also certain Alerts even though their health has been restored do not close down the Alert view thus creating unnecessary noise. Therefore you can carry out the following to address this.

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5. Also you may or may not be aware of this , which can cause noise from Domain Controllers if the agent is deployed manually . OOMADS

OOMADS.MSI which is the active directory helper object.
From Technet - "If an agent is manually deployed to a domain controller, and
an Active Directory management pack is later deployed, errors might occur
during deployment of the management pack. To prevent errors from occurring
before deploying the Active Directory management pack, or to recover from
errors that might have already occurred, you will need to deploy the Active
Directory management pack helper object. This is done by deploying the file
oomads.msi on the affected domain controller. The file oomads.msi can be
found on the computer hosting the agent at C:\Program Files\System Center
Operations Manager 2007\HelperObjects.
After an agent has been manually deployed to a domain controller, locate the
oomads.msi file and double-click the file to install the Active Directory
management pack helper object.
You need to manually deploy oomads.msi only to domain controllers that will
host an agent and will be monitored via the Active Directory management
pack. The Active Directory management pack helper object is automatically
installed when the agent is deployed using the Discovery Wizard."
Although the article talks about Domain Controllers, it will apply equally
to computers you want to use as Clients for AD monitoring as they also use
OOMADS.MSI

Installation Checklist for Active Directory Managment Pack

1.Import the Active Directory Server Pack
Create a Management Pack in which to store customizations, such as overrides (for details on why, see this post)
2.(Optional) Import the Active Directory Client Management Pack and override the AD Client 3.Monitoring Discovery Rule
4.Enable the Agent Proxy Setting on all Domain Controllers
5.Configure an account for Replication Monitoring (associated with the Active Directory 6.Management Pack Account Profile)
7.Create a RunAs account and associate it with the AD MP Account Profile

Optional Configuration1.Configure the maximum time allowed for change to replicate across a forest
2.Disable collection of warnings, performance data, and miscellaneous noncritical events to decrease network traffic.

3. Enable data collection for the Replication Latency Report
Set parameters for tasks

Common Problems

  • Oomads not installed
  • Oomads 64-bit issues
  • Agent proxy settings enabled on all Domain Controllers
  • AD MP Account Profile Run As Account Password is not validated by the application when entered