OpsMgr 2007: No Health State for DFS Link Targets

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Here's an interesting issue uncovered by Michael Sadoff, one of our top Support Escalation Engineers out in North Carolina.  If you're looking to monitor DFS Link Targets with the Microsoft Windows Server DFS 2003 management pack then you'll definitely want to check this out:

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Issue: When you import the Microsoft Windows Server DFS 2003 management pack, the State View for the MP does not include DFS Link Targets. If you create a state view to show 2003 DFS Link Targets, they appear as "Not monitored."

Cause: This is by design. The State View for the DFS MP only lists Windows computers that are running the Distributed File System service. Because DFS Link Targets do not require the DFS service, they won't necessarily appear in this view.  The reason DFS Link Targets do not have health state is that the DFS MP does not have any unit monitors targeted at this class.

Resolution:  DFS Link Target monitoring is done through the DFS Root Monitors when you set the PingLinkTargets override values to True. Doing so will cause the DFS Root Monitor to verify availability of link targets. If a target is unavailable, this will
affect the state of the DFS Link and trigger an alert. The alert description will provide the name of the target that is unavailable.

Use the following steps to enable the PingLinkTargets override:

  1. In the SCOM 2007 Console, open Authoring.
  2. Find the monitors named DFS Root Monitor. There are two: One targets the 2003 DFS Link class and the other targets the 2003 DFS Root class.
  3. Right-click the monitor that is targeted at 2003 DFS Root, point to Override, point to "Override the Monitor", and then click "For all objects of type: 2003 DFS Root".
  4. Check the box for the PingLinkTargets override and change the Override Setting to True.
  5. Select a destination MP for the override and click OK.
  6. Repeat Steps 3 - 5 for the monitor that is targeted at 2003 DFS Link. Override this monitor for all objects of type: 2003 DFS Link.

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Thanks Michael!

J.C. Hornbeck | Manageability Knowledge Engineer