Summary

The SCOM Plugin is an add-on to Neverfail Continuity Engine, which provides protection for System Center Operations Manager Agent.

What's new

• Support for the new versions of System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) platforms
• Automated deployment with Neverfail Continuity Engine
• Fixes and improvements for the new features and changes released in the previous version (201.5.1) of this plug-in

Supported Versions of SCOM

• System Center Operations Manager 2007
• System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2
• System Center Operations Manager 2012
• System Center Operations Manager 2012 R2
• System Center Operations Manager 2016
• System Center Operations Manager 2019

Automated deployment

SCOM Plugin version 201.5.2 is bundled with Neverfail Continuity Engine, starting with v8.5 Update 5. The SCOM plug-in will be automatically installed on the target managed server if the Microsoft Monitoring Agent (SCOM Agent)  is detected as being installed.

Fixed Issues

• EN-4012: SCOM Plug-in is being installed automatically now, if the SCOM Agent is detected on the server.
• EN-705: Queue or WAN Smart Performance data is now collected in SCOM.

Design Considerations

The Neverfail SCOM Plug-in works as a component of the Neverfail Engine Management Pack. When Microsoft System Center Operations Manager is deployed to monitor the health of Neverfail Engine, the Neverfail SCOM Plug-in is used to manage the Microsoft Monitoring Agent (HealthService) service ensuring that anytime the active server identity is changed within the Neverfail Engine cluster, the Neverfail SCOM Plug-in automatically stops the HealthService service on the node that was previously active and starts it on the node that will become active. Additionally, the Neverfail SCOM Plug-in changes the HealthService service Startup type on the passive node to Manual and on the active node to Automatic ensuring that the HealthService service is always running on the active server regardless whether Neverfail Engine itself is running or not when the active server node is being restarted.

For more information about the Neverfail SCOM Plug-in, please see the SCOM Solution pack technical manual.

Deployment Considerations

Contents of the Neverfail SCOM Solution pack

The SCOM solution pack is bundled with Neverfail Continuity Engine and it contains the following components:

• Neverfail.Engine.mp -  management pack file to be imported on the SCOM Server
• SCOMNFPlugin.dll - plug-in file, automatically deployed on the SCOM managed server

The Neverfail SCOM Solution pack is named SCOMNFPlugin.201.5.<build-number> and it is available on the Neverfail CE Management Service (EMS) node, in C:\ProgramData\Neverfail\VAD\catalog\plugins\ folder.

Import Neverfail SCOM Management Pack on the SCOM server

Neverfail SCOM Management Pack (Neverfail.Engine.mp) can be imported on the SCOM server anytime after installing EMS (before or after installing Engine on the managed server). 

Procedure

• Prerequisite: The managed server (where Engine will/was installed) must be configured in the SCOM Operations Console to Allow this agent to act as a proxy and discover managed objects on other computers.  
• Extract the Neverfail.Engine.mp from the EMS node (location specified above)
• On the SCOM server, import the Neverfail SCOM Management pack

Automated installation of Neverfail SCOM plug-in on the managed SCOM server 

The Neverfail SCOM plug-in will be automatically installed on the managed server, along with Continuity Engine solution considering the following mandatory prerequisite is met:

• Microsoft Monitoring Agent (SCOM Agent) must be installed on the target management server. In other words the target server is Agent Managed Server (Agentless Managed servers are not supported).

Install/Uninstall the SCOM Plugin Via the Advanced Management Client

To install the SCOM Plugin, follow the steps below:

1. Unzip the SCOM Plugin to the desired location. 
2. Launch the Advanced Management Client.
3. Navigate to Application -> Plugins.
4. Click on the Install button.
5. Click the Browse button and navigate to the location of the SCOMNFPlugin.dll file.
6. Click OK to complete the installation.

Applies To

SCOM Plugin v201.5.2