Can Alert Names contain dynamic data?

A customer wanted to place dynamic data into the Alert Name field.  Can this be done?

Yes, it can.

It works the same way that we display resolved dataitems in the workflow, into the alert description.  For instance, here is an alert description that uses many resolved dataitems from the workflow:

What this does in the XML – is define each DataItem as an Alert parameter in the Alert write action:

          <WriteAction ID="Alert" TypeID="Health!System.Health.GenerateAlert">
            <Priority>1</Priority>
            <Severity>1</Severity>
            <AlertOwner />
            <AlertMessageId>$MPElement[Name="opsmgrnet.Custom.Rules.TestRuleEvent100.AlertMessage"]$</AlertMessageId>
            <AlertParameters>
              <AlertParameter1>$Data/EventNumber$</AlertParameter1>
              <AlertParameter2>$Data/LoggingComputer$</AlertParameter2>
              <AlertParameter3>$Data/EventSourceName$</AlertParameter3>
              <AlertParameter4>$Data/EventLevel$</AlertParameter4>
              <AlertParameter5>$Data/EventDescription$</AlertParameter5>
              <AlertParameter6>$Data/@time$</AlertParameter6>
              <AlertParameter7>$Target/Host/Property[Type="MicrosoftWindowsLibrary6062780!Microsoft.Windows.Computer"]/IPAddress$</AlertParameter7>
            </AlertParameters>
            <Custom1>$Data/Params/Param[1]$</Custom1>
            <Custom2 />
            <Custom3 />
            <Custom4 />
            <Custom5 />
            <Custom6 />
            <Custom7 />
            <Custom8 />
            <Custom9 />
            <Custom10 />
          </WriteAction>

However, when you look at the DisplayString, which is how the text will be viewed into the console – you will see:

        <DisplayString ElementID="opsmgrnet.Custom.Rules.TestRuleEvent100.AlertMessage">
          <Name>{0} Custom - Test alert on event 100 from rule {1}</Name>
          <Description>A test event was detected.
The Event ID is: {0}.
The Logging Computer is: {1}.
The Event Source is: {2}.
The Event Level is: {3}.

Event Description = {4}

Time event generated = {5}

Custom IP Address:  {6}</Description>
        </DisplayString>

As you can see, {0} corresponds to the first alert parameter, {1} corresponds to the second, etc…

So – in the Alert Name field, we can do something like this:

Which turns out really nice looking alerts in the console:

Now – the big downside?  Email notifications display this field as text, and do not resolve the Alert Data Items.  

Kevin Holman

Silect MP Author releases SP3

This tool is getting more and more powerful every day!

Check it out:   http://www.silect.com/mp-author

From their page:

MP Author is better than ever. The SP3 release of MP Author includes the following updates:

• Improved knowledge viewing and editing in multiple language environments
• Improved XML editing
• New feature to "Check for missing display names"
• Added ability to use base classes other than LocalApplication when creating new classes
• Additional MP elements are displayed
• Added a drop down list of $$ parameters for alert messages
• Schedule property grid made more user friendly
• Improvements to memory usage
• We've also fixed a number of bugs in this release.

Request your free download here:   http://www.silect.com/content/mp-author-free-download-form

SCOM 2012 R2 now has support for SQL 2014

In case you missed the announcement, you can now deploy SCOM 2012 R2 CU5 and use SQL 2014 as your database server platform. 

The product group announcement and caveats are here:  http://blogs.technet.com/b/momteam/archive/2015/02/23/opsmgr-2012-r2-now-offers-additional-support-for-sql-server.aspx

SNMP Trap monitoring with SCOM 2012 R2

Kevin Holman

There are several really good blogs out there which document some of the struggles and workarounds with getting SNMP TRAP monitoring to work.  I’ll reference some of them at the bottom, but this will be mine to document what worked, what didn’t, and some MP authoring examples that don’t exist anywhere else on the web.
In order for SCOM 2012 to accept traps from network devices, there is a laundry list of configuration prerequisites.  Lets just jump in.
First clarification (and update to this blog post) – There is NO NEED to install or configure the SNMP service on the management server.  We don’t use the SNMP stack.  In fact – if the SNMP TRAP service is running (it does not by default) then only thing I need to do is make sure it is disabled!
There are LOTS of blogs out there saying the SNMP service is required, and quite frankly – it isn't…. the SCOM SNMP trap listener uses a MonitoringHost.exe process and does not interact with the Windows SNMP stack.  I initially posted about configuring this because ALL of the blog resources pointed to the need for the SNMP service, but in my testing this is totally not required.  Thanks to Mihai for setting me straight again.  

Open Services.  The only thing we need to make sure is that the SNMP Trap service should be disabled.  There were lots of incorrect postings about the trap service early on.  Notice – the SNMP service is not even installed here:



Next, I create a network monitoring resource pool in SCOM.  I want to lock down which management server I will use to receive traps, and to lock this to a single management server for any troubleshooting.



I’ll assign a single MS to this pool for the purposes of trap reception:



Next – in order to accept traps from any network device – that device MUST be discovered and use SNMP as an access mode.  See: http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2011/07/21/opsmgr-2012-discovering-a-network-device.aspx
In this example, I will discover a Linux System running Ubuntu, because that is easy to generate SNMP traps.  Remember – SCOM 2012 filters out any SNMP traps and will not discover a Windows Computer as a SNMP device, therefore using a Windows Computer and trapgen is not suitable for testing.
Here is a good walkthrough on setting up the Ubuntu Server:  http://www.it-slav.net/blogs/2009/02/05/install-and-configure-snmp-on-ubuntu/
Once you install and config SNMPD on Ubuntu, you can send test traps from Ubuntu to the SCOM 2012 server from the command line.  First – we need to discover the Ubuntu server:
Under SCOM Administration, Run As accounts, create a new account, of type Community String.  I will be using “public” for mine but you can use anything configured for your network, as long as you used this on the Ubuntu server.   Remember, this is a password, and it is case sensitive.




Distribute the account to your Management server and/or resource pool for network monitoring.
Next, create a discovery for the Ubuntu server:



Make sure this device discovers correctly:



Next up – we need a “catch all” rule in SCOM to collect all received traps, and collect them as events.  This will be helpful for troubleshooting.  If you are going to receive a large number of traps, you will probably want to turn this off later.
New SNMP Trap event collection rule:


Give your rule a name, and target class MUST BE “Node”


For the configuration of the SNMP trap provider – you can leave this blank – it will then match on all:


Click Create.
Now – create an event view in the Console in our management pack for SNMP monitoring, and configure it to show data related to Node:



Nice – now we need to export our MP to XML, and do a very specific edit.  This is outlined at:  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/wei_out_there_with_system_center/archive/2014/02/15/opsmgr-customizing-the-snmp-trap-collection-rule-for-all-snmp-version-traps.aspx
When we receive traps by default – we ONLY accept taps in the same SNMP version as we discovered the device in.  This is not really optimal, because some devices send SNMP v1 traps but are discovered as an SNMP v2 device.  We can strip this filter from the XML by finding our rule, and removing the lin defining “Version”:



Delete that entire line containing Version to remove this as a filter for the rule:



Now increment the XML version of the MP in the Manifest section, and re-import the MP.  This will limit confusion and SNMP version issues down the road.

Lets’ take a recap:
1.  We ensured SNMP Trap service is not running on the SCOM server.
2.  We created a resource pool and community string run as account for network monitoring.
3.  We discovered our network device that will send us SNMP Traps.
4.  We created a “catch all traps” event rule to collect all SNMP traps received as events.


Next up – we should send some SNMP traps from the Ubuntu server to the SCOM server:
The command line to send a SNMP V2 trap would be something like this:

snmptrap –v 2c –c public 10.10.10.13 “” .1.2.3.4.0

That is basically stating to run the snmptrap command, with a SNMP V2 version, public community string, ip address of the remote SCOM server, two double quotes to encapsulate “uptime” value (a require parameter), and then a trap OID, which I just made up as .1.2.3.4.0
The command to send an SNMP V1 trap would look something like this:

snmptrap –v 1 –c public 10.10.10.13 .1.2.3.4.0 10.10.10.44 .1.2.3.4.0.1 s “this is my test trap”

10.10.10.13 is destination, 10.10.10.44 is the source (Ubuntu server)  All the rest is just dummy data.
If we did everything right, we should be able to see this TRAP on a network trace.  I will use Wireshark to see this.  Install wireshark on the SCOM server, and start it up.  You can create a filter to ONLY see traffic to and from your Ubuntu server by using this filter:

ip.addr==10.10.10.44     (or whatever your Ubuntu server IP is)

Send a trap from your Ubuntu server or network device, and you should see it register in Wireshark:


If everything went perfectly – you will also see this collected as an event in SCOM:



Click the “View Event Data” to see how SCOM breaks down each dataitem:
I will format this out a little better to make it more understandable:

<EventData>
  <DataItem type="System.SnmpData" time="2015-02-03T11:44:01.6480756-06:00" sourceHealthServiceId="BA5D0090-EDAA-EFF4-10BB-3882E6B231E0">
  <Source>10.10.10.44</Source>
  <Destination>127.0.0.1</Destination>
  <ErrorCode>1</ErrorCode>
  <Version>2</Version>
    <SnmpVarBinds>
      <SnmpVarBind>
        <OID>.1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0</OID>
        <Syntax>67</Syntax>
        <Value VariantType="19">489831453</Value>
      </SnmpVarBind>
      <SnmpVarBind>
        <OID>.1.3.6.1.6.3.1.1.4.1.0</OID>
        <Syntax>6</Syntax>
        <Value VariantType="8">.1.2.3.4.0</Value>
      </SnmpVarBind>
    </SnmpVarBinds>
  </DataItem>
</EventData>

This is important, if we want to manipulate the data, or create further filters/condition detections.  Note the SNMPVarBinds – these are essentially event parameters in an SNMP Trap event. (more on this later)
Next up – lets create a generic Alert rule for SNMP traps, which will help us in testing and troubleshooting future more specific alert rules.
Create an Alert generating SNMP trap rule:


Leave OID blank:


Configure your alert page like this:


Notice in the Alert description – you can gather each data item associated with a specific OID like an event parameter.  This will help us create better, filtered alerts later.
Save the new Alert Rule.  Don’t forget to export the MP and delete the line with the filter in it for V1 vs V2 SNMP traps.
Also – create a new view in our MP, for Alerts.  Scope it to “Node” class so we will see open alerts for SNMP traps.

Now – when we create a trap on the Ubuntu server, we should collect it as an event, AND alert on it.  This time, on the trap command line, lets add two more OID’s to the trap to simulate a more realistic trap:

snmptrap –v 2c –c public 10.10.10.13 “” .1.2.3.4.0 .1.2.3.4.0.1 int 12345 .1.2.3.4.0.2 int 67890

Event Collected:


Alert Generated:


Notice in the alert – the alert description variables we added previously help us interpret which SNMP Varbind (parameter) is which.  In the collected event, it breaks down like this:



You can also express this based on the OID in an Xpath query, such as:

SnmpVarBinds/SnmpVarBind[OID=".1.2.3.4.0.1"]/Value

See more on this at:  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh563870.aspx

Ok, next up – lets build an alert rule based on a specific OID.
Create a new alert rule, and this time lets input the specific OID of our test trap, “.1.2.3.4.0”



And customize the alert description as before:


Now – when we send a trap based on OID .1.2.3.4.0 this workflow will alert, but a trap based on .1.2.3.4.1 will not:


However, what if we want to get even more specific?  What if the OID of a trap is generic in nature, and there is data inside a trap that we want to alert ONLY when that data inside a trap matches specific criteria?
In this case, we need to add a condition detection to a rule.  I could not find any examples of how to do this on the web, and for some reason we don’t have a built in datasource which allow for SNMP trap data and a simple expression filter.  We could create an advanced composite datasource for this, and reuse it, but I want to show something much simpler, which still allows you to author the rule in the UI and just make a simple tweak.
So, in this case, we will want to make an alert when the OID is .1.2.3.4.0, and when SNMPVarbind3 (the 3rd parameter down) Equals 12345.
Start by creating the EXACT same rule we did before with a new name:




But on the alert description – let’s get a little sexier:
You can use the flyout on the right to create these:




Now – we need to export this MP to XML and do a manual edit.
Increment the version in the manifest.
Find the rule with all the sexy alert description stuff we just wrote (hint – look in the write action section of the rule)
We need to insert the following code in between the and the sections.  Here is the code:

   <ConditionDetection ID="FilterSpecificVarbind" TypeID="System!System.ExpressionFilter">
     <Expression>
       <SimpleExpression>
         <ValueExpression>
           <XPathQuery Type="String">EventData/DataItem/SnmpVarBinds/SnmpVarBind[3]/Value</XPathQuery>
         </ValueExpression>
         <Operator>Equal</Operator>
         <ValueExpression>
           <Value Type="String">12345</Value>
         </ValueExpression>
       </SimpleExpression>
     </Expression>
   </ConditionDetection>

Rule before:

      <Rule ID="Demo.SNMP.monitoring.AlertOnTrapOidAndVarbind" Enabled="true" Target="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node" ConfirmDelivery="false" Remotable="true" Priority="Normal" DiscardLevel="100">
        <Category>Alert</Category>
        <DataSources>
          <DataSource ID="DS" TypeID="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.SnmpTrapEventProvider">
            <IP>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/SNMPAddress$</IP>
            <Version>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/SNMPVersion$</Version>
            <OIDProps>
              <OIDProp>.1.2.3.4.0</OIDProp>
            </OIDProps>
            <EventOriginId>$Target/Id$</EventOriginId>
            <PublisherId>$Target/Id$</PublisherId>
            <PublisherName>Snmp Event</PublisherName>
            <Channel>SnmpEvent</Channel>
            <LoggingComputer />
            <EventNumber>1501</EventNumber>
            <EventCategory>5</EventCategory>
            <EventLevel>10</EventLevel>
            <UserName />
            <Params />
          </DataSource>
        </DataSources>
        <WriteActions>
          <WriteAction ID="Alert" TypeID="Health!System.Health.GenerateAlert">
            <Priority>1</Priority>
            <Severity>0</Severity>
            <AlertName>SNMP Alert Rule - Alert on Specific OID and Specific Varbind</AlertName>
            <AlertDescription>We received an SNMP Trap from {0}
with a critical event with ID {1}

The source IP address is {2}
The primary owner is {3}
The vendor is {4}
The location is {5}</AlertDescription>
            <AlertOwner />
            <AlertMessageId>$MPElement[Name="Demo.SNMP.monitoring.AlertOnTrapOidAndVarbind.AlertMessage"]$</AlertMessageId>
            <AlertParameters>
              <AlertParameter1>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/sysName$</AlertParameter1>
              <AlertParameter2>$Data/EventData/DataItem/SnmpVarBinds/SnmpVarBind[3]/Value$</AlertParameter2>
              <AlertParameter3>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/SNMPAddress$</AlertParameter3>
              <AlertParameter4>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/PrimaryOwnerContact$</AlertParameter4>
              <AlertParameter5>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/Vendor$</AlertParameter5>
              <AlertParameter6>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/Location$</AlertParameter6>
            </AlertParameters>
            <Suppression />
            <Custom1 />
            <Custom2 />
            <Custom3 />
            <Custom4 />
            <Custom5 />
            <Custom6 />
            <Custom7 />
            <Custom8 />
            <Custom9 />
            <Custom10 />
          </WriteAction>
        </WriteActions>
      </Rule>

Rule after:

      <Rule ID="Demo.SNMP.monitoring.AlertOnTrapOidAndVarbind" Enabled="true" Target="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node" ConfirmDelivery="false" Remotable="true" Priority="Normal" DiscardLevel="100">
        <Category>Alert</Category>
        <DataSources>
          <DataSource ID="DS" TypeID="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.SnmpTrapEventProvider">
            <IP>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/SNMPAddress$</IP>
            <Version>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/SNMPVersion$</Version>
            <OIDProps>
              <OIDProp>.1.2.3.4.0</OIDProp>
            </OIDProps>
            <EventOriginId>$Target/Id$</EventOriginId>
            <PublisherId>$Target/Id$</PublisherId>
            <PublisherName>Snmp Event</PublisherName>
            <Channel>SnmpEvent</Channel>
            <LoggingComputer />
            <EventNumber>1501</EventNumber>
            <EventCategory>5</EventCategory>
            <EventLevel>10</EventLevel>
            <UserName />
            <Params />
          </DataSource>
        </DataSources>
        <ConditionDetection ID="FilterSpecificVarbind" TypeID="System!System.ExpressionFilter">
          <Expression>
            <SimpleExpression>
              <ValueExpression>
                <XPathQuery Type="String">EventData/DataItem/SnmpVarBinds/SnmpVarBind[3]/Value</XPathQuery>
              </ValueExpression>
              <Operator>Equal</Operator>
              <ValueExpression>
                <Value Type="String">12345</Value>
              </ValueExpression>
            </SimpleExpression>
          </Expression>
        </ConditionDetection>
        <WriteActions>
          <WriteAction ID="Alert" TypeID="Health!System.Health.GenerateAlert">
            <Priority>1</Priority>
            <Severity>0</Severity>
            <AlertName>SNMP Alert Rule - Alert on Specific OID and Specific Varbind</AlertName>
            <AlertDescription>We received an SNMP Trap from {0}
with a critical event with ID {1}

The source IP address is {2}
The primary owner is {3}
The vendor is {4}
The location is {5}</AlertDescription>
            <AlertOwner />
            <AlertMessageId>$MPElement[Name="Demo.SNMP.monitoring.AlertOnTrapOidAndVarbind.AlertMessage"]$</AlertMessageId>
            <AlertParameters>
              <AlertParameter1>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/sysName$</AlertParameter1>
              <AlertParameter2>$Data/EventData/DataItem/SnmpVarBinds/SnmpVarBind[3]/Value$</AlertParameter2>
              <AlertParameter3>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/SNMPAddress$</AlertParameter3>
              <AlertParameter4>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/PrimaryOwnerContact$</AlertParameter4>
              <AlertParameter5>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/Vendor$</AlertParameter5>
              <AlertParameter6>$Target/Property[Type="SystemNetworkManagementLibrary71102260!System.NetworkManagement.Node"]/Location$</AlertParameter6>
            </AlertParameters>
            <Suppression />
            <Custom1 />
            <Custom2 />
            <Custom3 />
            <Custom4 />
            <Custom5 />
            <Custom6 />
            <Custom7 />
            <Custom8 />
            <Custom9 />
            <Custom10 />
          </WriteAction>
        </WriteActions>
      </Rule>

Now import this MP back in, and test your traps.
When we send a trap that contains both the OID and the data in Varbind3, we should get a very specific alert, with a nice Alert Description pulling from data within the trap:


Summary:
1.  We ensured the SNMP Trap service is not running on the SCOM server
2.  We created a resource pool and community string run as account for network monitoring.
3.  We created an Ubuntu server to send test SNMP traps from.
4.  We discovered our network device that will send us SNMP Traps.
5.  We created a “catch all traps” event rule to collect all SNMP traps received as events.
6.  We modified our rules to strip the SNMP filter from them so we can receive traps of any version.
7.  We demonstrated using Wireshark to validate that SNMP traps are received by the network interface.
8.  We create an alert rule to alert on all traps, and modified the alert description to show the SNMP Varbinds and how they related to data collected in a SNMP trap event.
9.  We created an alert rule for specific OID’s in a SNMP Trap.
10.  We created an alert rule that matches on OID and specific dataitems within the SNMP Trap data, with a rich alert description

I will attach my example MP to this article.

Demo.SNMP.monitoring.xml.zip