Microsoft Management Pack Notifier

By last count, there are over 70 management packs available on the Management Pack and Product Connector Catalog. Of course, this is a mixed count of MOM 2000 and MOM 2005 management packs, but you get the idea. There are a lot of MPs available! With the vast number of management packs out there, trying to keep up with all of them can be a time-consuming endeavor. For any administrator who is interested in keeping up with any new releases, the MP Notifier can assist.

Using this MP, a designated MOM server will check the Microsoft site for updated management packs. If any of the new MPs match MPs installed for the Management Group, an alert is raised.

Installation

The Microsoft Baseline Management Pack Notifier consists of the following files:

• Microsoft Management Pack Notifier.akm

• Microsoft Management Pack Notifier Readme.doc

As of this writing, the latest version number is 01.0.0004.0000. After downloading the management pack, extract the contents to a common location and follow the steps in Chapter 8 to import the management pack. After importing the management pack, check the version number against the version number stated in the Management Pack and Product Connector Catalog.

Don't expect to find additional documentation on this one. The good news is you won't need it.

Configuration

Getting this management pack started is simple enough. The goal is to have only one of the Management Servers in a Management Group check for new MPs. This way, if there are new management packs, the alert is sent out only once. For this reason, configuration is handled manually. Just add one of the MOM servers of a Management Group (assuming there is more than one) to the Microsoft Operations Manager MPNotifier MOM Server Computer Group. After a MOM server is added, it'll run the script to check for MPs and generate alerts on any that it finds.

The designated MOM Server requires Internet access because it must be able to access the site file http://www.microsoft.com/management/mma/momnotifier.xml. If there are any published MPs newer than the installed MPs for the MOM Server, event ID 1002 is written.

Components

This management pack consists of the following:

Attributes	None
Computer Groups	Microsoft Operations Manager MPNotifier MOM Server
Notification Groups	Operations Manager Administrators

As mentioned previously, no attributes are defined by this management pack. All Computer Group associations are manual.

Scripts

There's only one script with this management pack. The Microsoft MPNotifier Version Check script handles reading the XML file, parsing the information, and writing the appropriate events. This script contains no parameters to define.

Tasks

No tasks are available with this management pack.