Sunday, September 30, 2012

OM12 Update Alert Connector (UAC) Is Available Now

For a few days now the UAC for OM12 is made publicly available. UAC is a tool mainly used in large enterprises and – as the related websites states – ‘…can modify alert custom fields with additional information useful for situations like controlling alert forwarding to incident management systems and help reduce noise in the incident creation process…’

In other words, it helps you to integrate OM12 with ticketing, alert or incident management systems.

Kevin has written a good posting all about UAC for OM12, including a manual how to install it, to be found here UAC itself can be downloaded from here.

Orchestrator?
IMHO, UAC is a nice tool (implemented it once for a customer running SCOM R2) but nowadays much of its functionality can be replaced by Orchestrator. With System Center 2012 it comes for the same price so no questions there. Today I would look into the possibilities to replace UAC with Orchestrator.

Another piece of advice, taken directly from Kevin’s blog posting: ‘…I don't recommend that customers deploy the AUC unless you have a good business need for it.  It becomes a link in the chain of events to get in your incident management system, and could be one more thing to break…’ and I totally agree with him on that one.

Want to know more? First of all READ Kevin’s posting since it contains tons of good information you should know BEFORE you start using this Connector. UAC itself can be downloaded from here. It’s a single MSI file which also contains a guide (AlertUpdateConnector.rtf) about this Connector. READ it as well please before installing it so you know what you’re doing.

One more thing
Since this tool is similar to a Resource Kit Tool, it isn’t directly supported by Microsoft.

Addendum MP: Performance Collection Rules For Cluster Disks

Some days ago Kevin posted a comprehensive blog article about the latest Windows Server OS MP. In that same posting he wrote: ‘…There is no free space perf collection rules for “Cluster Disks”…’. In that same posting he promised to write a posting about how to do that and to share that addendum MP.

The good news is Kevin has written that posting AND attached the addendum MP as well for the ‘lazy’ OpsMgr admins among us Smile.

Want to know more? Go here. And thanks Kevin for sharing!

One piece of advise
When you want to use his addendum MP seal it before you import it into your environment. Read this posting (credits go to Jonathan Almquist) all about sealing MPs.

Friday, September 28, 2012

OM12 APM Troubleshooting: APM Websites Don’t Work With Error ‘An error has occurred’

Issue
Bumped into this issue where both APM websites (Applications Diagnostics and Application Advisor) didn’t work as expected. Instead both websites threw this error:
image

Cause
As the error states the application log showed more information about the why of this error:
image

And:
image

So it was time for an investigation of things on the side of the related websites, or better the related Application Pools in IIS Manager (OperationsManagerAppMonitoring and OperationsManagerMonitoringView):
image

Hmm. That’s not good. Identities like these don’t have access to the related SQL database.

Resolution
Let’s change the identity to an account which has SQL permissions on that DB. In this case I have chosen an AD account which has SA permisions on the related SQL instance. No big deal here since it’s an OpsMgr SQL instance only Glimlach.
image

I recycled both Application Pools and tried both APM websites after waiting a few minutes:
Application Advisor
image

Application Diagnostics
image

So whenever you bump into a similar issue check the identities used by the two Application Pools used for the APM websites (OperationsManagerAppMonitoring and OperationsManagerMonitoringView). Changes are they use the default ones which don’t have access to the SQL database.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

OM12 Web Console: How To Remove The Nagging ‘Web Console Configuration Required’ By Automating It

Sometimes there are pearls of blog postings which deserve way much more exposure. Today I bumped into one of those pearls.

You all know this screen when you open the OM12 Web Console for the first time in your IE browser:
image

This configuration is really needed since it creates an important registry key and a certificate as well. Without it the OM12 Web Console won’t work.

Therefore it’s good news to know that Tim McFadden has written a posting about how to automate it all by using GPOs. This posting is detailed and shows you every step you need to take in order to make it work.

Want to know more? Go here.

Credits
A BIG thanks to Tim for sharing this kind of helpful information. Awesome!

New MPs: Monitoring Windows Server 2012

Yesterday Microsoft released a set of new MPs all targeted at monitoring Windows Server 2012:
  1. Monitoring Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003, 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2 and 2012 Operating System;
  2. Monitoring Windows Server 2012 Internet Information Service 8;
  3. Monitoring Windows Server 2012 AD RMS (Active Directory Rights Management Services);
  4. Monitoring Windows Server AD CS 2012 (Active Directory Certificate Services).

Until now I am not sure how or what SCOM 2007 R2 is capable of monitoring Windows Server 2012 or any component based on this latest Windows Server technology. When I am 100% sure about it I will post it on my blog.

Friday, September 21, 2012

OM12 Installation Quick Trick 02: OM12 Database Owner & Why To Change Them

In the second posting of this series I’ll describe the owner of the OM12 databases and why it’s important to change that.

Situation
When installing OM12 the databases are created as well. Automatically the owner of those very same databases is the same account which is used for installing OM12, like this example where I installed OM12 with the domain admin account:
image

On itself nothing bad. But suppose you install OM12 under your own account and after some time you decide to pursue your career else where. Now your account – the same one you used to install OM12 and thus the owner of the OM12 databases – will be deleted in some point in time.

Now you have an issue at hand since the OM12 databases don’t have an owner any more. The results may vary from some nagging events in the SQLServer log, like this one:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSSQLSERVER
Event Category: (2)
Event ID: 28005
Date: xx-xx-xxxx
Time: xx:xx:xx
User: N/A
Computer: BLA
Description:
An exception occurred while enqueueing a message in the target queue. Error: 15404, State: 19. Could not obtain information about Windows NT group/user 'DOMAIN\ACCOUNT', error code 0xea.

Or – worse – Discoveries not running anymore. This is unwanted behavior. So therefore it’s Best Practice to change the owner of the OM12 databases right away.

Quick Trick
Change the owner of the OM12 databases to an AD account which is specially made for it. Normally when I design and implement an OM12 environment, I request a series of service accounts. Among them I always request a SQL account specifically for OM12, like OM-SQL for instance.

This account is added to the SQL Admin group during the installation of the SQL Server instance used for OM12. Therefore this AD service account is a great candidate for becoming the owner of the OM12 databases.

How to change the DB owner you ask? Just follow this procedure:

  1. Open SQL Server Management Studio with an account which has SA permissions on the SQL Server instance which hosts the OM12 databases and connect to that very same SQL Server instance;
  2. Right click on the OperationsManager database > Properties > second option on the left Files > click on the button with the three dots next to the text Owner;
    image
  3. > Browse > Select the AD account which must become the new owner of the database, in this example SC\OM-SQL > OK > OK. Now you have this situation:
    image
  4. Click OK and after a few seconds the new owner of the OperationsManager database is set;
  5. Repeat Steps 2 to 4 for the OperationsManagerDW database as well. Oh, and while your at it, check the owner of the ReportServer database as well. Sometimes it has a wrong owner as well.

This way you have covered possible issues with the OM12 database owner. It’s better to get it right from the start and not later on to bump into strange issues because of it…

Thursday, September 20, 2012

New MP: SharePoint 2010 Monitoring For OM12

Yesterday Microsoft released a new MP for monitoring SharePoint 2010 with OM12. Since this is a brand new MP the version of the MP is 1.0.0.0. However, this isn’t a new MP at all but a very welcome add on for OM12 environments running the SharePoint 2010 MP. First I was mistaken. In order to prevent you making the same mistake, read this posting… 

My mistake
When I took a first look at it (and didn’t read the related website in a proper manner…) I thought this wasn’t a good MP at all since the related guide only covers a mere two pages. But then again, RTFM (Read The Friendly Manual) is crucial, always…

What the new MP actually is and does…
However, the website states: ‘…This Management Pack enables operators and administrators to manage Microsoft SharePoint 2010 based on System Center 2012. It needs to be used together with SharePoint 2010 Management Pack…’

So this MP actually helps OM12 administrators to configure the SharePoint 2012 MP by adding two additional Console tasks:
image

And:
image

So any one running OM12 and monitoring SharePoint 2010 environments with it, this MP is a welcome addition to the SharePoint 2012 MP which is already in place. The new MP can be found here.

OM12 Installation Quick Trick 01: OM12 Database Sizes & When To Set Them

In a series of postings I will share some quick tricks for installing OM12. This is the first posting in this series.

When installing OM12 one needs to enter the sizes required for both OM12 databases. Of course, you have done your homework and calculated the required sizes for both OM12 databases using the OM12 Sizing Helper Tool (this file is way down the list):
image

However, the question is WHEN do you set the sizes of those databases? My advice is not to set them during the installation, as shown in these two screenshots for the OperationsManager and OperationsManagerDW databases:
image

image

But leave those sizes at their defaults (1000 MB) during the installation. Why?

Already in the days of SCOM (R2) I noticed when I changes the size of those databases during the installation, it could take a really long time for setup to finish. Which isn’t a good thing since the installation is a basic thing to be performed and the time saved during that phase can be used in a better way, like configuring SCOM R2.

With OM12 the same thing is still happening. When changing the sizes of the databases to their proper values during the installation, it takes a long time to create those databases. Therefore I always use this approach:

  • Calculate the required size of your OM12 databases on the amount of servers, network objects and APM enabled devices;
  • Use the result of that calculation for your OM12 databases sizing;
  • Install OM12 and both databases using the default values as presented by the installer (1000 MB for both databases);
  • When the whole OM12 infrastructure is installed (OM12 Management Servers, OM12 databases and OM12 Reporting) modify the size of the OM12 databases using SQL Server Management Studio.
  • Open the properties of the OperationsManager database > Files and changes the size of the MOM_DATA file to the correct size in MBs.
    image
  • Click OK and after a while the size is modified.
  • Repeat Step 5 and 6 for the OperationsManagerDW database.
  • In the next posting I’ll tell you more about the owner of the OM12 databases which is easily overlooked but needs some attention as well.

    Crosspost: Making DELL management packs lighter for your management servers

    Daniele Grandini has written a posting all about the latest Dell MP for monitoring Dell servers.

    Even though I have planned to write a posting myself about this latest version, I think anyone using the Dell MP should read it since it contains good advices. Posting to be found here.

    OM12: Performance Optimizations

    For MMS 2012 Matt Goedtel presented a session all about Performance Optimizations for Operations Manager 2007 R2. Based on that session he wrote a posting on his blog with more details about it.

    This posting is updated now for OM12 as well. Since it contains many good advices, it is a must read for any OpsMgr 2012 administrator.

    Want to know more? Go here.

    Credits
    Thanks to Henk Hoogendoorn who pointed this updated posting out to me.

    Monday, September 17, 2012

    OM12 And The Exchange 2010 MP

    Somewhere in August 2011 Microsoft published a KB article all about ‘Guidance, Tuning and Known Issues for the Exchange 2010 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager‘.

    Even though this KB article is already on the 8th revision level and tells you it applies to OM12 as well, much has changed. Not only in OM12 but also in the Exchange 2010 MP as well. So be careful when you read that KB article and don’t follow it blindly since some parts of it simply don’t apply anymore.

    For instance, the ‘queue’ sizes which allow for better resource utilization (like Persistence Cache Maximum, Persistence Version Store Maximum and Persistence Checkpoint Depth Maximum) are changed in OM12 compared to SCOM R2. When simply adjusting those sizes according to the KB article, you would REDUCE the resource utilization on those OpsMgr 2012 Management Servers instead of improving it…

    Another important one: this KB talks about the RMS but that role is no more in OM12. However, the Correlation Engine (introduced with the Exchange 2010 MP, hurray…) requires the OM12 Management Server which is also the RMS Emulator. So it’s unclear whether only that OM12 Management Server requires those adjustments, or all OM12 Management Servers.

    IMO, this makes a MP which is difficult to master even a bit tougher as it already is.

    Soon I hope to share some personal experiences in tuning the latest version of this MP in conjunction with OM12 and how it relates to the earlier mentioned KB article.

    For now, just be careful and check and double check before you change ANYTHING.

    Tuesday, September 11, 2012

    Patching Issue On SQL Server HA Cluster

    On a customers location a colleague of mine bumped into this strange issue. For OM12 a SQL HA Cluster was installed, based on SQL Server 2008 R2 x64 Standard edition (yes, standard edition of SQL Server can be clustered, up to a maximum of two nodes Glimlach).

    So far so good. But when he tried to apply SP1 for SQL Server 2008 R2 the installation failed, on both cluster nodes.

    After some searching my colleague found the cause and the solution as well:

    1. Cause
      Setup of SP copies and unpacks all the files to the disk with the most free space available. In many cases it’s a a shared cluster disk. When the setup of SP is processing the SQL server, it takes SQL Server and the disks offline which results in a failed setup…

    2. Solution
      Extract the SP file on a disk which isn’t a shared cluster disk and run the setup from there. How to extract such a file? Run this command: SQLServer2008R2SP1-KB2528583-x64-ENU.exe /X. A dialog box will appear now prompting you to specify the path to where the extracted files must be saved:
      SNAGHTML181eb40
      When done, install the SP from that folder by running Setup.exe with elevated permissions.

    All credits go to Kapil SQL DBA who posted this solution on his blog. Thanks Kapil!

    Best Practices When Creating Dashboards In OM12

    Many times I tell customers NOT to use the Default MP for storing anything, whether it’s a View, Dashboard, Override. Simply don’t use it. Period.

    After a short explanation they understand it and promise not to use it. Which is great. But now the OM12 UI kicks in and creates a pitfall for the unaware administrators, resulting  in saving Views in the Default MP. Ouch!

    Therefore this posting, showing the mistake commonly made by many OM12 administrators and the proper way how to go about it. So let’s start.

    The WRONG way
    First some background information. When looking at the tree shown in the Monitoring pane of the OM12 Console, there are some Views which are present in the Default MP:
    image
    The Views highlighted in yellow are the ones which are part of the Default MP.

    Want some proof? Let’s simply remove the Default MP (after I made an export first of course) and take a new look in the Monitoring pane:
    image
    As you can see, only the View UNIX/Linux Computers remains, the other default Views are gone. Ouch.

    OK, let’s continue. When you click anywhere in that area where the default Views are present in order to create a new View or Dashboard, it will be saved in the Default MP. Let me show it to you:

    1. I create a new Dashboard with the name Dashboard Company X
      image
    2. As you can see, the new Dashboard is present in the Monitoring pane of OM12:
      image
    3. Let’s export the Default MP and open the XML file in Notepad++. Search for the entry Company and hit the Count button:
      image
      15 matches! So the Default MP contains this View.

    As shown in this example it’s easy to put Views into the Default MP. Which is a bad thing since the Default MP is off limits. Good news is though, when one wants to create a Folder, this dialog screen is shown:
    image

    So now one is prompted to select a MP where to store the Folder.

    The PROPER way
    OK, now we know what NOT to do, let’s talk about how to create new Views/Dashboards in a proper manner.

    1. Go to Administration > Management Packs > in the Action Pane (right side of the UI), click on Create Management Pack;
    2. For the name use an underscore as a prefix, followed by the name you want to see in the Monitoring Pane of the OM12 Console. Reason behind the underscore is that the folder will be shown right after the other default Views in the Monitoring pane. Also give the MP a proper description;
      image
    3. Create the MP as you normally do. Go to the Monitoring pane of the OM12 Console:
      image
      There is the new Folder;
    4. When you want to create a new View/Dashboard, simply right click on the same folder and create a new Dashboard:
      image
    5. When you export the Default MP now, open it in Notepad++ and search for the string AWESOME DASHBOARD, nothing will be found:
      image
    6. On the other hand when you export the unsealed MP _Company X and search for the same string, you’ll find a couple hits:
      image
    7. And this is the way it should be.

    Recap:
    Whenever you want to create new Views/Dashboards, create FIRST a new MP with an underscore as prefix for the name. That very same name will show up as a Folder in the Monitoring pane of the OM12 Console. From that folder, use it to create your Views/Dashboards. That’s the only way to keep the Default MP neat and tidy.

    Special Note: This posting works the same for SCOM (R2) as well.

    Monday, September 10, 2012

    System Center 2012 SP1 Beta Is Available

    A few hours ago Microsoft released the public beta of SP1 for System Center 2012, to be found here.

    Files available in this download:
    image

    Please take note of the following:
    The Beta is for evaluation purposes only and not to be used in production as described in the EULAs associated with the product.

    The Beta includes updates and enhancements to the following System Center 2012 components:

    • Virtual Machine Manager
      • Improved Support for Network Virtualization
      • Extend the VMM console with Add-ins
      • Support for Windows Standards-Based Storage Management Service, thin provisioning of logical units and discovery of SAS storage
      • Ability to convert VHD to VHDX, use VHDX as base Operating System image
    • Configuration Manager
      • Deployment and management of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
      • Distribution point for Windows Azure to help reduce infrastructure costs
      • Automation of administrative tasks through PowerShell support
      • Management of Mac OS X clients and Linux and UNIX servers
      • Real-time administrative actions for Endpoint Protection related tasks
    • Data Protection Manager
      • Improved backup performance of Hyper-V over CSV 2.0
      • Protection for Hyper-V over remote SMB share
      • Protection for Windows Server 2012 de-duplicated volumes
      • Uninterrupted protection for VM live migration
    • App Controller
      • Service Provider Foundation API to create and operate Virtual Machines
      • Support for Azure VM; migrate VHDs from VMM to Windows Azure, manage from on-premise System Center
    • Operations Manager
      • Support for IIS 8
      • Monitoring of WCF, MVC and .NET NT services
      • Azure SDK support
    • Orchestrator
      • Support for Integration Packs, including 3rd party
      • Manage VMM self-service User Roles
      • Manage multiple VMM ‘stamps’ (scale units), aggregate results from multiple stamps
      • Integration with App Controller to consume Hosted clouds
    • Service Manager
      • Apply price sheets to VMM clouds
      • Create chargeback reports
      • Pivot by cost center, VMM clouds, Pricesheets
    • Server App-V
      • Support for applications that create scheduled tasks during packaging
      • Create virtual application packages from applications installed remotely on native server

    All I can say: TEST it and be amazed how many new ‘goodies’ are added to SC2012!

    OM12 and SQL Collation Settings: ONLY ‘SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS’ Works

    Since SCOM 2007 became RTM there was some confusion about the supported collation settings. But from day one there was only ONE supported collation setting:

    SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.

    None the less, I bumped in many SCOM (R2) environments running the wrong collation settings. Even made the mistake myself once which took me many hours to correct it since the only way is to remove the SQL instance and to reinstall it. Makes you wonder what such a thing does to an existing SCOM (R2) installation…

    With OM12 the same collation setting is still a requirement and the only supported collation setting as well. So

    SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

    is the way to go here, and nothing else. When you don’t have that collation setting in place these MPs will give you some real issues:

    1. Windows Server OS MP
      The Report Windows Server Operating System Reports\Performance by Utilization won’t work and give you this kind of error message about a conflicting collation, like between "SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS" and "Latin1_General_CI_AS".

    2. Exchange Server 2010 MP
      Like I already blogged about here. The reporting part is very picky about the correct Collation settings.

    3. Veeam MP for monitoring VMware
      The reporting component requires the correct collation settings as well. (Mind you this is NOT a Veeam issue but a pure OM12 issue!)

    One would assume Microsoft is very clear about this collation setting so the documentation should reflect that. How ever, in real life one is too easily taken of the right track resulting in all kinds of errors shown in you OM12 environment. Let’s take a look at the different websites:

    1. OM 12 Supported Configurations, Minimum Software Requirements:
      image
      This makes one think there are other supported collation settings as well…

    2. System Center Service Manager Engineering Blog:
      image
      So this a clear statement. Only SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS is supported…
    3. KB958979, a rapid publishing article:
      image
      image
      So only SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS is the way to go…

    Already I heard from some people the expectation that SP1 for SC2012 will change all this. However, until the mentioned MPs will be modified as well, it won’t change anything.

    So again, when installing SCOM R2 or OM12 (I hope the latter Glimlach), there is only ONE correct collation setting for your SQL server instance:

    SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

    Hopefully this will save you all a lot of frustrations AND hard work to make it right when you’ve made the wrong selection…

    What’s New In OM12 SP1

    Even though SP1 for System Center 2012 isn’t RTM yet, already much is to be found on the internet about what SP1 is going to deliver. For OM12 an updated TechNet article is published all about the new capabilities and changes to found in the beta version of SP1 for OM12.

    Please note:
    Since SP1 for OM12 is still in beta the related TechNet article is pre-release documentation and subject to change in future releases.

    Things I like very much are:

    1. AVIcode was capable of monitoring services build on the .NET Framework. Now it’s back in APM;
    2. APM: Automatic discovery of ASP.NET MVC3 and MVC4 Applications. So APM can cover them now as well;
    3. APM: New Transaction Types: MVC Pages and WCF Methods;
    4. APM is now enabled for SharePoint 20120;
    5. APM: Integration with Team Foundation Server 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2012;
    6. New MPs and support for Windows Server 2012 and IIS 8 (also for APM!);
    7. 360 degree .NET Application Monitoring Dashboards;
    8. ACS support for Dynamic Access Control;
    9. Additional UNIX and Linux Monitoring Capabilities:
      1. CentOS,
      2. Debian,
      3. Ubuntu Linux;
    10. Improved Heartbeat Monitoring.

    So a good product is about to become even better! Want to know more? Go here.

    Friday, September 7, 2012

    New KB Article: Suggested hotfixes For WMI Related Issues On Windows platforms

    Today Microsoft released KB2591403, all about: ‘…hotfixes associated with the operation and functionality of the Windows Management Intrumentation (WMI) service and its related components…’

    The same KB article continues:

    The following are a few examples of high-level symptoms noted in support incidents that may be resolved with the application of the indicated hotfixes:

    • Loss of functionality with enterprise management/monitoring software for various machines. Software examples: Microsoft SCOM/SMS, IBM Tivoli, LANDesk Management, HP OpenView, BMC Patrol, etc.

    In other words, any one running SCOM/OM12/SCCM or equivalent tooling from other vendors, should run those hotfixes which make WMI more robust.

    Want to know more? Go here.

    Thursday, September 6, 2012

    How To Repair SSRS When ResetSRS.exe Fails?

    Even though the installer of OM12 is hugely improved compared to the one used by SCOM R2, sometimes an installation might go wrong. Yesterday evening I had such an event. The installation of the OM12 Reporting component failed, resulting in a defect SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) environment.

    The tool will help me, or not?
    Normally the tool ResetSRS.exe comes to the rescue (found on the installation media, in the folder ~\SUPPORTTOOLS\<architecture>) and restores the SSRS instance back to a working condition. When one opens the url http://localhost/reports afterwards all will be fine again.

    But sometimes that tools fails to run as well, for instance when SSRS is suffering too much from the installation failure of the OM12 component. So now what?

    Back to the old days…
    In the SQL Server 2005 days, it was easy. No removal of SSRS was required. Only a deletion of the related websites, databases and with some tools a fresh SSRS instance was created. But with SQL Server 2008 the IIS dependency was removed since SQL Server 2008 introduced it’s own ‘IIS’ component for SSRS. This is a huge improvement since it made SSRS way more robust. However, it makes it harder to fix when SSRS turns sour. And yes, there are some ways to ‘refresh’ SSRS without removing it. But it’s like gutting a SQL Server which isn’t a good idea at all.

    Therefore this posting contains an overview about the steps you need to take in order to restore SSRS when it’s broken AND the tool ResetSRS.exe won’t fix it for you. Let’s start.

    Step 01: Removal of the SSRS component
    In this step you’ll remove the defect SSRS component from the SQL Server instance.

    1. Go to Control Panel > Uninstall a Program > select Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) > right click > click on Uninstall/Change;
      image
    2. Click on Remove;
      image
    3. OK > !!! select the correct SQL Server instance !!! > Next > place a checkmark for Reporting Services;
      image
    4. Next > Next > Remove. Follow the rest of the wizard and SSRS will be removed.
    5. Open SQL Server Management Studio and logon to the SQL Server instance from which SSRS is removed. Remove both the SSRS databases (ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB);
    6. A reboot of the SQL Server is required now. Otherwise Step 02 won’t work…

    Step 02: New installation of the SSRS component
    In this step you’ll reinstall the SSRS component on the correct SQL Server instance.

    1. Start the utility SQL Server Installation Center (64-bit) on the SQL Server (found under Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 > Configuration Tools);
    2. Go to Installation > click on New installation or add features to an existing installation;
    3. If needed, point the wizard to the installation media of SQL Server 2008 R2;
    4. OK > Install (Setup Support Files will be installed now…);
    5. Next > select the option Add features to an existing installation and select the correct SQL Server instance;
    6. Place a checkmark for Reporting Services;
      SNAGHTML21a5396
    7. Next > Next > Next > enter the credentials of the account used by SSRS;
    8. In an ideal world you could select the option Install the native mode default configuration. But since the SQL instance is already in place you can only select the option Install, but do not configure the report server (yes, that’s right, Step 03 is going to cover that Glimlach);
      image
    9. Select the error reporting options > Next > Next > Install;
    10. Now SSRS will be installed. Just be patient and follow the instructions of the wizard.

    Step 03: Configuration of the freshly installed SSRS component
    In the final step you’ll configure the freshly installed SSRS component .

    1. Go to Start > Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 > Configration Tools > and start Reporting Services Configuration Manager;
    2. Go to Web Service URL. The wizard already proposes some suggestions. Many times they’re OK and comply with your environment. Simply click Apply and look in the Results pane. When all is well, (all green check marks)
      image
      go to the next option Database;
    3. Click on the button Change Database simply because there isn’t no SSRS database yet:
      image
    4. Follow the wizard Report Server Database Configuration Wizard and select the option Create a new report server database;
    5. Enter the correct SQL Server instance name and hit the Test Connection button. When all is well this screen is shown:
      image
    6. Accept the Database Name ReportServer and ascertain yourself Report Server Mode is set to Native Mode. Also the option Language must be set to English (United States) > Next;
    7. When required enter the credentials > Next. A summary is shown. Check it, when all is OK > Next;
    8. The SSRS database is created now. This takes a few minutes. When all is well this screen is shown:
      image
      Hit Finish.
    9. Go to Report Manager URL. The wizard already proposes some suggestions. Many times they’re OK and comply with your environment. Simply click Apply and look in the Results pane. When all is well, (all green check marks)
      image
    10. SSRS is fully configured now > Exit. Test SSRS by starting IE with elevated permissions. Go to the url http://localhost/reports. It might take a while before the page is loaded but when all is well, this page is shown:
      image
    11. Now everything is OK, except for ONE thing: DON’T FORGET TO INSTALL THE SP and CUs for SQL SERVER AGAIN! Otherwise SSRS won’t be on the correct patch level compared to the SQL instance…

    Now the OM12 Reporting component can be installed. Simply insert the OM12 installation media and hit Install. Soon the installer will detect the missing component (OM12 Reporting). Select it and follow the wizard. Within a few minutes all will be fine Glimlach.