In this article, we will provide a comprehensive guide on our MP Baseline Automation Process. This process is designed to save you a significant amount of time by fully automating the baselining procedure.

Additionally, as a bonus, you will receive up-to-date documentation of your existing baseline monitoring for every management pack (MP) that you optimize using our tool.

Why? Link to heading

From our experience with clients, we know that efficient configuration of Management Packs (MPs) in the SCOM environment is essential. Especially in larger environments with more than 1000 systems, the default configurations of individual MPs can quickly lead to an overload of information. Blindly deploying a Management Pack often results in high database server load, ultimately negatively impacting the overall system performance.Especially performance counters and events as database entries produce significant load, sometimes leading to overload.

To avoid this scenario and make monitoring more efficient by reducing alert noise, it is best to decide which monitors and rules must be active before importing a Management Pack. Overrides can then be used to adjust the default values accordingly, ensuring a more stable system.

Creating an Override MP with all necessary monitor and rule overrides in the SCOM GUI can be very, very time-consuming. Therefore, we have written a small script that automates the essential steps of this process and significantly facilitates the documentation of the current status. This is particularly helpful for monitoring specific applications within the company. We would like to mention Ruben, who gave us the necessary impetus to further develop his approach with his preliminary work.

As an added benefit, you will receive up-to-date documentation of your baseline monitoring for all your Microsoft MPs, optimized with our tool.

How? (Step-by-Step) Link to heading

For these reasons, the following approach has been established from us:

  1. Prerequisites

    • The OperationsManager module must be installed on the system.
    • Install OpsMgrExtended from GitHub via Install-Module -Name OpsMgrExtended.
    • Permissions to modify the SCOM environment.
    • Execute the script on your SCOM management server.
    • Download Management Pack.
    • Download our Tool from: MP_Baseline_Automation.
    • Download MPViewer from: MPViewer.

  2. Import Discovery and Disable Seed-Discovery in SCOM

    • If possible, import the Discovery-Part of the Management Pack and disable the Seed-Discovery to prevent automatic deployment.

  3. Open MPViewer and Load the Management Pack

  4. Export Management Pack with MPViewer as Excel XML

    • Export your MP with MPViewer as an Excel XML to the same directory as the script and name it SourceMPName.xml (sourceMP properties “ID”, e.g., Microsoft.SQLServer.Windows.Monitoring.xml).

  5. Coordination with Application Responsibles

    • Before making monitoring adjustments, consult the application responsibles and jointly decide which monitors and rules are essential and which are not.
    • From a SCOM perspective, it is advisable to disable as many rules and monitors as possible, especially performance and event collectors. However, from an application perspective, there is often a demand to enable as many rules and monitors as possible. To efficiently address this issue, we have introduced an additional Debug Group. Rules and monitors configured with the “Debug” value are disabled by default and only activate when Objects are added to the corresponding Debug Group. This allows systems to be placed under debug monitoring as needed during incidents, providing application owners with deep insights into the systems. This approach offers an attractive solution to meet the needs of both sides.

  6. Modify XML Worksheets “Monitors - Unit” and “Rules”

    • Open the XML and modify the worksheets “Monitors - Unit” and “Rules” with “Enabled” = “Debug” or “Disabled”.

  7. Export Modified XML Again as Excel XML

    • Export the modified XML as Excel XML. It is important not to simply save it as XML but to explicitly save or export it as Excel XML.

  8. Place MPTool and XML in the Same Folder

    • Place the adjusted XML together with the script in a folder and ensure that no other XML files are present.

  9. Obtain Written Confirmation from Application Responsibles

    • To be covered in case of problems and errors, wait for written confirmation from the application responsibles.

  10. Run MPTool Script

    • Run the script with a PowerShell started as Admin.

  11. Check New Overrides in the Operations Manager Console

  12. Enable Seed-Discovery in SCOM

  13. Save the Excel XML for Documentation Purposes

  14. Use Debug Group for Additional Troubleshooting Monitoring

    • In case of troubleshooting and the need of further monitoring-information, place all requierd objects in the DebugGrp.

  15. Enjoy SCOM Admin life