Basic Management Pack Creation Overview

While YAMPAT is not meant to teach the ins and outs of Management Pack authoring, but this section will go over some of the basics.

Here is a short, step-by-step process overview of the components that a typical pack contains, and what they do.

1. Determine the Seed Class
   • Basically create a class for the application as a whole.
   • If the software has multiple componenets, create a parent class (also known as a seed class) for the suite, and a seperate class for each component.
2. Create the Discovery
   • Decide how you will instruct SCOM to discover the application (class). This is primarilly done via Registry key or value, a PowerShell script, or a Shell Command in Linux.
3. Create Monitors
   • Monitors are usually services that the application installs that you want to monitor, or it can be a simple PowerShell script that checks for a condition.
   • Try using Aggregate Monitors in cases where the application has more than one service. Make an Aggregate that only alerts once saying a service is down, rather than a separate alert for each service Monitor. This will help with alert storms.
4. Create Rules
   • Rules are usually Event IDs that indicate errors have occurred, or other information. They do not have to trigger alerts. Rules are beneficial for information gathering.
5. Create Folders and Views
   • Create a Folder to be listed in the SCOM Console.
   • Create Alert and State views in the folder to see the computers and instances of the application.