SCSM.SE

I got a great and encouraging e-mail in my inbox today! I’ve been awarded with the MVP title for my contributions in the “System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management” community! I’m really glad and honored to recieve the MVP award and this really encourages me to continue to share my thoughts and ideas.

A big thanks to everyone who’s supporting me in my work, and an extra big thanks to my lovely girlfriend Anna because she puts up with all the time I spend infront of the computer!

Best Regards
//Anders Asp

There are already some great blogs about how to notify the “assigned to” user when an incident is updated by the affected user. Those explains how to do this with the Exchange connector or with the SSP for SCSM 2010.

The solution for the Exchange connector also works in SCSM 2012, but since there are a new SSP in 2012 we have to find another way to do it for the SSP.

In SCSM 2012 there is a field for user input and a button “Update request” for the affected user of an incident on the SSP. If the user updates the incident from the SSP, an entry will be added in the action log for that incident.

So to be able to notify the assigned to user that the incident is updated, we need to trigger on when a new End-User comment is added in the action log. To do that we have to create a relationship subscription in XML.
Thanks to Travis that has wrote this blog that describes how to do that: http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager/archive/2010/08/30/notifying-the-affected-user-when-the-analyst-has-updated-the-action-log.aspx

To get this to work for the SSP I used the management pack that Travis have created and made some changes.
In the subscription I changed RelType from WorkItem!System.WorkItem.TroubleTicketHasAnalystComment to WorkItem!System.WorkItem.TroubleTicketHasUserComment and for TargetType I changed from WorkItem!System.WorkItem.TroubleTicket.AnalystCommentLog to System.WorkItem.TroubleTicket.UserCommentLog

I also made changes to the WriteActions. Instead of adding a notification template and a user to notify directly in the XML, I add an incident template that I have created. The only thing my template does is that it sets the UpdatedByEndUser to true.
There is a great blog from my colleague Anders Asp “A smarter way to notify the assignee when the affected user updates his incident” that describes the UpdatedByEndUser solution. http://www.scsm.se/?p=564

So when we add a template that changes the UpdatedByEndUser to true, and have configured the rest in Anders solution it will send an e-mail to the assigned to user.

Below is the management pack that I have used.
You need to change the GUID (A035C6E5-2ADA-334A-3D01-24F4398A5BB1) for the incident template to the GUID of the template that you want to use.
To get the GUID for your template, login in to your SQL Server and run this query against the ServiceManager database.(put in the display name of your template)

“select Objecttemplateid from ObjectTemplate where ObjectTemplateName=’DisplayNameOfYourTemplate’

<ManagementPack ContentReadable=”true” SchemaVersion=”2.0″ OriginalSchemaVersion=”1.1″ xmlns:xsd=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema” xmlns:xsl=”http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform”>

<Manifest>
<Identity>
<ID>ActionLogAddRelationshipSubscription</ID>
<Version>1.0.0.0</Version>
</Identity>
<Name>Action Log Add Relationship Subscription</Name>
<References>
<Reference Alias=”Console”>
<ID>Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.UI.Console</ID>
<Version>7.0.5826.859</Version>
<PublicKeyToken>31bf3856ad364e35</PublicKeyToken>
</Reference>
<Reference Alias=”NotificationsLibrary”>
<ID>System.Notifications.Library</ID>
<Version>7.0.5826.0</Version>
<PublicKeyToken>31bf3856ad364e35</PublicKeyToken>
</Reference>
<Reference Alias=”WorkItem”>
<ID>System.WorkItem.Library</ID>
<Version>7.0.5826.0</Version>
<PublicKeyToken>31bf3856ad364e35</PublicKeyToken>
</Reference>
<Reference Alias=”ServiceManager.IncidentLibrary”>
<ID>ServiceManager.IncidentManagement.Library</ID>
<Version>7.0.5826.0</Version>
<PublicKeyToken>31bf3856ad364e35</PublicKeyToken>
</Reference>
<Reference Alias=”System”>
<ID>System.Library</ID>
<Version>7.0.5826.0</Version>
<PublicKeyToken>31bf3856ad364e35</PublicKeyToken>
</Reference>
<Reference Alias=”IncidentLibrary”>
<ID>System.WorkItem.Incident.Library</ID>
<Version>7.0.5826.0</Version>
<PublicKeyToken>31bf3856ad364e35</PublicKeyToken>
</Reference>
<Reference Alias=”Subscriptions”>
<ID>Microsoft.SystemCenter.Subscriptions</ID>
<Version>7.0.5826.0</Version>
<PublicKeyToken>31bf3856ad364e35</PublicKeyToken>
</Reference>
<Reference Alias=”Administration”>
<ID>Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.UI.Administration</ID>
<Version>7.0.5826.859</Version>
<PublicKeyToken>31bf3856ad364e35</PublicKeyToken>
</Reference>
</References>
</Manifest>
<Categories>
<Category ID=”Category.ActionLogAddRelationshipSubscriptions.ManagementPack” Value=”Console!Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.ManagementPack”>
<ManagementPackName>ActionLogAddRelationshipSubscription</ManagementPackName>
<ManagementPackVersion>7.0.5826.0</ManagementPackVersion>
</Category>
<Category ID=”Category.ActionLogAddRelationshipSubscriptionRule” Target=”ActionLogAddRelationshipSubscriptionRule” Value=”Administration!Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.Rules.WorkflowSubscriptions” />
</Categories>
<Monitoring>
<Rules>
<Rule ID=”ActionLogAddRelationshipSubscriptionRule” Enabled=”true” Target=”ServiceManager.IncidentLibrary!System.WorkItem.Incident.WorkflowTarget” ConfirmDelivery=”true” Remotable=”true” Priority=”Normal” DiscardLevel=”100″>
<Category>System</Category>
<DataSources>
<DataSource ID=”DS” TypeID=”Subscriptions!Microsoft.SystemCenter.CmdbInstanceSubscription.DataSourceModule”>
<Subscription>
<RelationshipSubscription RelType=”$MPElement[Name=’WorkItem!System.WorkItem.TroubleTicketHasUserComment’]$” SourceType=”$MPElement[Name=’WorkItem!System.WorkItem.TroubleTicket’]$” TargetType=”$MPElement[Name=’WorkItem!System.WorkItem.TroubleTicket.UserCommentLog’]$”>
<AddRelationship />
</RelationshipSubscription>
<PollingIntervalInSeconds>30</PollingIntervalInSeconds>
<BatchSize>100</BatchSize>
</Subscription>
</DataSource>
</DataSources>
<WriteActions>
<WriteAction ID=”WA” TypeID=”Subscriptions!Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.SystemCenter.Subscription.WindowsWorkflowTaskWriteAction”>
<Subscription>
<EnableBatchProcessing>true</EnableBatchProcessing>
<WindowsWorkflowConfiguration>                <AssemblyName>Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.Incident.Workflows</AssemblyName>
<WorkflowTypeName>Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.Incident.Workflows.AutomaticIncidentChangeWorkflow</WorkflowTypeName>
<WorkflowParameters>
<WorkflowArrayParameter Name=”InstanceIds” Type=”guid”>
<Item>$Data/BaseManagedEntityId$</Item>
</WorkflowArrayParameter>
<WorkflowParameter Name=”IncidentTemplate” Type=”guid”>A035C6E5-2ADA-334A-3D01-24F4398A5BB1</WorkflowParameter>
<WorkflowParameter Name=”NotificationRulesEnabled” Type=”boolean”>False</WorkflowParameter>
</WorkflowParameters>
<RetryExceptions />
<RetryDelaySeconds>60</RetryDelaySeconds>
<MaximumRunningTimeSeconds>7200</MaximumRunningTimeSeconds>
</WindowsWorkflowConfiguration>
</Subscription>
</WriteAction>
</WriteActions>
</Rule>
</Rules>
</Monitoring>
<LanguagePacks>
<LanguagePack ID=”ENU” IsDefault=”true”>
<DisplayStrings>
<DisplayString ElementID=”ActionLogAddRelationshipSubscription”>
<Name>Action Log Add Relationship Subscription</Name>
</DisplayString>
<DisplayString ElementID=”ActionLogAddRelationshipSubscriptionRule”>
<Name>Action log entry added to action log</Name>
</DisplayString>
</DisplayStrings>
</LanguagePack>
</LanguagePacks>
</ManagementPack>

Here is a summarize of the steps that is needed for this: (since I use Anders solution for templates and workflows, there is a more detailed description how to do that in his blog http://www.scsm.se/?p=564.

1. Create an Incident Template with settings that you want to apply for an updated incident. This is the template that we adds in the management pack with a GUID. My template just changes the UpdatedByEndUser to true. I think this is a great solution to use, but you can also have a template that for example just change the status to updated.(read Anders blog to see the advantages with his solution)
2. Create a workflow that triggers on when your template is added that will send an e-mail to the Affected User. (see more information in Anders blog)
3. Copy my mp and change the GUID to match your incident template.
4. Import the mp

In step 3 in Anders article where he adds a template for the Exchange Connector I use a template that doesn´t do any change at all. We don´t need to set the UpdatedByEndUser to true since that will be done by our mp when an End-User comment is aded to the action log )

Step 5 in Anders description where you creates two workflows is little special in 2012 or at least in my environment. I don´t know if it´s a bug or if it´s unique in my environment.
I can´t create the criteria changed from NOT EQUAL true for the UpdatedByEndUser.
I have to set criteria EQUAL and then change it to NOT EQUAL in XML after I have exported the mp.
If I then import the mp again it work as expected but when you look at the workflow in the console it still says EQUAL. If I export the management pack again I can see that it says NOT EQUAL in XML as it also should do in the console.

This solution doesn´t send a notify if the Affected User resolves the incident on the SSP by clicking “cancel request”. Because when they do that it doesn´t creates an End-User comment in the Action log, it will create a “Record Resolved” entry instead. If I find a good solution for how to cover that I will create a new blog post.

To do the same for a service request you need to use a different relationship type. I haven´t created that mp yet but will create a blog for that also when I´m done with that.

While working on a project for a customer of mine which involves a lot of approval steps, I realized that the whole process would be halted if someone forgets to cast their vote on a review activity. In order to prevent this from happening I created a powershell script to remind the reviewers who hasn’t voted for a certain period of time that we are awaiting their approval.

There’s a couple of parameters to configure in the script, but otherwise it’s ready to use. This is how the reminder e-mail might look:

Read more and download the script at the TechNet gallery:
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Mail-notification-Remind-1167b6c5

A new feature in Service Manager 2012 is the ability to create parent and child incidents. You’re probably already aware of this and how it works, but if you want to read more about it, I suggest you take a look at Marcels blogpost here:
http://blog.scsmfaq.ch/2011/10/30/news-in-scsm12-beta-5-parentchild-incidents/

Anyway, the other day when I was demoing this feature for a customer, I discovered a new function. Let’s say you have one or more parent incidents in your system, and you are about to register a new incident. When you select a category on this new incident, Service Manager will look for any parent incidents that are registered with the same category and ask if you want to relate this incident to that parent, like this:

And if you have more than one parent incident in the same category, it will be shown as this:

Isn’t that a cool and really useful function? 😀
Let’s hope for something similar for relating incidents to problem records in the future!

I’ve seen and heard this question a couple of times now, so I figured I might do a quick blogpost about it.

After you’ve installed the SSP you will have a header which looks something like this:

So the question is, how to we change the text (SMportal) and is it possible to add a logotype to do some branding?

Yeah, ofcourse it is 🙂

To do so, hit the Site Actions menu in the top left corner, then select Site Settings.

This will bring you to the Site Settings page – now press the “Title, description and icon” under the “Look and Feel” header

You are now able to edit the Title and to specify the URL to the logotype you might want to display. Just press Ok when you’re done.

The result:

Another short blogpost 🙂

For the third year in a row, I’ll be going to the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas in April. I’m expecting this years MMS to be huge – considering all the System Center 2012 products.

Will you be going as well? Post a comment!

Short blogpost. I’m pretty sure that most of you (if not all) have seen this already as it posted on all System Center related sites on the internet.

Two things:
– Microsoft has changed the licensing form for all the System Center products and it’s now available as a suite licens only.
– System Center 2012 RC is now available

Read more here:
http://systemscentre.blogspot.com/2012/01/microsoft-private-cloud-system-center.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager/archive/2012/01/17/system-center-2012-rc-released-amp-new-licensing-information.aspx?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Download the System Center 2012 RC here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/private-cloud/trial.aspx

For those of you who are interested in the session I held at the Nordic Infrastructure Conference during friday, it’s now available on the web:

System Center 2012 Service Manager: What’s new and exciting
http://vimeo.com/nicconf/review/35055712/992ede541f

I guess most of the readers of this blog also follows the official Service Manager blog at http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager but for those of you who doesn’t, I just wanted to tell you that Microsoft now has released CU3 for SP1. To me this was rather unexpected but a patch of bugfixes is always welcome!

Here’s the complete list of fixes:

• MP Import: When a data type is a decimal sometimes the decimal becomes an integer
• Corruption of the Type ManagementEntity table when importing a type extension
• Updates to properties are not brought forward to DW if updates to the instances happens in the same transaction or right before deleting the instance
• AD Connector not bringing in new updates
• When creating a new CR using the new CR form, clicking the Apply button sometimes creates a duplicate record
• Console intermittently freezes when updating/creating incident and clicking apply
• HealthService fails to stop at the end of SP1 DW patch if previous start action takes too long
• When launching the SCSM console on client machines and server the Reporting Wunderbar doesn’t appear
• High CPU in monitoringhost.exe when creating or updating an incident that triggers a notification workflow

Download CU3 here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28159

Please note that the KB article related to the patch seems unavailable at the moment.

The KB article is now available here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2588492

I’ve been playing around with the Service Manager 2012 Beta quite alot and testing all the new features. One of the new features is the improved SLA function that has support for business hours and holidays. The thing is, all these holidays needs to be added one by one – by hand, to every SLA calendar you create. While this isn’t really a problem, it can be quite time consuming and rather boring and that’s why I and Andreas Baumgarten started to discuss how we could make this process easier.

We realized that the easiest way to solve this was to utilize the CSV import of Service Manager, so I and Andreas wrote a powershell script that generates a CSV holiday file for the calendar of your choice, based upon the file containing all the holiday information from outlook!

Read more and download this solution from the TechNet gallery at this link:
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Generate-SCSMHolidaysCSVps1-a32722ce