Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance
Management Pack Guide
Microsoft Corporation
Published: December, 2010
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Contents
Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack Guide ......................................... 4
Introduction to the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack ...................... 4
Getting the Latest Management Pack and Documentation ...................................................... 4
What's New ............................................................................................................................... 4
Supported Configurations ......................................................................................................... 4
Getting Started ............................................................................................................................. 5
Before You Import the Management Pack ............................................................................... 5
How to Import the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack ................... 6
Create a New Management Pack for Customizations .............................................................. 7
Security Considerations ............................................................................................................... 7
Low-Privilege Environments ..................................................................................................... 8
Run As Profiles ......................................................................................................................... 9
Groups .......................................................................................................................................... 9
Understanding Management Pack Operations .......................................................................... 10
Objects the Management Pack Discovers .............................................................................. 10
Classes ................................................................................................................................... 10
Key Monitoring Scenarios ....................................................................................................... 11
Troubleshooting.......................................................................................................................... 12
Discovery Fails to Run ............................................................................................................ 12
Appendix: Scripts ....................................................................................................................... 13
Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance
Management Pack Guide
The Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack helps you discover, monitor,
and manage your Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance units.
Document Version
This guide was written based on the 1.0.103.0 version of the Microsoft Business Intelligence
Appliance Management Pack.
Revision History
Release Date
Changes
December, 2010
Original release of this guide
Introduction to the Microsoft Business
Intelligence Appliance Management Pack
Getting the Latest Management Pack and Documentation
You can find the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack in the System
Center Operations Manager 2007 Catalog (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=82105).
What's New
The following features are new in this release of the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance
Management Pack:

Discover and monitor Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance units.

Provide two state views: with Appliance Units and with contained servers.

Provide alert view which focus user on SQL Appliance monitoring problems.
Supported Configurations
The Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack supports version 1.0 of
Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance.
4
Getting Started
This section describes the actions you must take before you import the management pack, any
steps you must take after you import the management pack, and information about
customizations.
Before You Import the Management Pack
Before you import the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack, note the
following limitations of the management pack:

Agentless monitoring is not supported.

All servers within a multi-node Appliance (such as Consolidation Appliance or Premium OLTP
Appliance) must have an Operations Manager 2007 Agent installed.
Before you import the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack, take the
following actions:

Make sure System Center Essentials 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Operations Manager 2007
Service Pack 1 (SP1), or Operations Manager 2007 R2 is installed.

If you are running Operations Manager 2007 SP1, make sure all Quick Fix Engineering
(QFE) repairs that enable Operations Manager 2007 to run on Windows Server 2008 are
installed. For more information and to download the QFEs, see Support for running System
Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 and System Center Essentials 2007
Service Pack 1 on a Windows Server 2008-based computer
(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=136509).

The Windows Firewall is enabled on the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance server by
default, so you must first configure it with Group Policy before deploying the agent from the
Operations Console. For more information, see How to Configure the Windows Firewall to
Enable Management of Windows-Based Computers from the Operations Manager 2007
Operations Console.
Warning
SCOM Agent does not function unless you configure the Windows Firewall with
Group Policy.

The following prerequisite management packs must be installed and configured before
importing Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack:
1. Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Management v. 14.0.4744.1000
2. Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Management Pack v. 14.0.4744.1000
3. SQL Server 2008 Management Pack v. 6.1.314.36
4. Microsoft Windows Server OS Base Management Pack v. 6.0.6794.0

Enable the Agent Proxy setting on all the agents that are installed on Microsoft Business
Intelligence Appliance servers.
5
Warning
Discoveries and monitoring will not function unless the proxy is enabled.
To enable the Agent Proxy setting on all agents
1. Open the Operations console, and then click Administration.
2. In the Administrator pane, click Agent Managed.
3. Double-click an agent in the list.
4. Click the Security tab.
5. Select Allow this agent to act as a proxy and discover managed objects on other
computers.
6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 for each agent that is installed on a Microsoft Business
Intelligence Appliance server.
Files in This Management Pack
The Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack includes the following files:

Microsoft.SQLServerAppliance.Library.mp

Microsoft.SQLServerAppliance.BI.Discovery.mp

Microsoft.SQLServerAppliance.BI.Monitoring.mp

EULA.doc
How to Import the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance
Management Pack
For instructions about importing a management pack, see How to Import a Management Pack in
Operations Manager 2007 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=142351).
After the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack is imported, do the
following.
To finish your initial configuration
1. Enable the Agent Proxy setting on all the agents that are installed on Microsoft Business
Intelligence Appliance servers.
Warning
Discoveries and monitoring do not function unless the proxy is enabled. For more
information, see “Before You Import the Management Pack” earlier in this guide.
2. Create a new management pack in which you store overrides and other customizations.
Warning
6
This management pack discovers Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance units
only. When you import this management pack over the SQL Server Appliance Base
management pack, then a specific Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance
discovery substitutes a generic discovery provided by the Base Management Pack.
During the short time (two periods of discovery max—8 hours by default), you can
see two objects that represent the same Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance
server.
Create a New Management Pack for Customizations
Most vendor management packs are sealed so that you cannot change any of the original
settings in the management pack file. However, you can create customizations, such as overrides
or new monitoring objects, and then save them to a different management pack. By default,
Operations Manager 2007 saves all customizations to the Default Management Pack. As a best
practice, instead create a separate management pack for each sealed management pack you
want to customize.
Creating a new management pack for storing overrides has the following advantages:

It simplifies the process of exporting customizations that were created in your test and preproduction environments to your production environment. For example, instead of exporting
the Default Management Pack that contains customizations from multiple management
packs, you can export just the management pack that contains customizations of a single
management pack.

You can delete the original management pack without first needing to delete the Default
Management Pack. A management pack that contains customizations is dependent on the
original management pack. This dependency requires you to delete the management pack
with customizations before you can delete the original management pack. If all of your
customizations are saved to the Default Management Pack, you must delete the Default
Management Pack before you can delete an original management pack.

It is easier to track and update customizations to individual management packs.
For more information about sealed and unsealed management packs, see Management Pack
Formats (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=108355). For more information about
management pack customizations and the Default Management Pack, see About Management
Packs in Operations Manager 2007 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=108356).
Security Considerations
Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack includes the two registry
discoveries that are running under Default Action Profile. You don’t need to update the security
configuration to discover a SQL Server Appliance.
You may need to customize your management pack. Certain accounts cannot be run in a lowprivilege environment or must have minimum permissions.
The following topics are covered in this section:
7

Low-Privilege Environments

Run As Profiles

Groups
Low-Privilege Environments
This section describes how to configure the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance
Management Pack for low-privilege access (monitoring).
Setting up a Low-Privilege Environment
Note
The following procedure describes the steps needed to configure low-privilege monitoring
for Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack.
To configure the low-privilege environment in Active Directory
1. In Active Directory, create a domain user that will be commonly used for low-privilege
access to all target Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance instances:
a. BIMonitor
To configure the low-privilege environment on the agent machine
1. Grant the “Enable Account” permission to WMI namespace “Root\CIMV2” for the
BIMonitor domain user (via wmimgmt.msc console).
2. Grant Component Services “Local Access” and “Remote Access” permissions for the
BIMonitor domain user.
3. Grant Component Services “Local Launch”, “Remote Launch”, “Local Activation”, and
“Remote Activation” Launch and Activation Permissions for the BIMonitor domain
user.
4. Grant the “Allow Log on Locally” permission for the BIMonitor domain user.
To configure System Center Operations Manager 2007
1. Import the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack if it has not been
imported.
2. Create a BIMonitor Run As account with the “Windows” account type for the BIMonitor
domain user. For more information about how to create a Run As account, see How to
Create a Run As Account in Operations Manager 2007. For more information about
various Run As Account types, see Run As Accounts and Run As Profiles in Operations
Manager 2007.
3. On the System Center Operations Manager console, configure the Run As profile for the
Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack as following:
a. Associate the BIMonitor Run As Account with the “Microsoft Business Intelligence
Appliance Monitoring Profile” Run As Profile. For more information, see How to
8
Create and Configure a Run As Profile in Operations Manager 2007.
Run As Profiles
When the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Discovery Management Pack is first
imported, it creates two new Run As profiles:

SQL Server Appliance Default Action Profile
This profile is not used in this management pack.

Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Monitoring Profile
This profile is associated with the “Backup Volume Size Insufficient” rule.
By default, all discoveries, monitors, and tasks use the accounts defined in the “Default Action
Account” Run As profile. If the default action account for a given system does not have the
necessary permissions to discover or monitor the instance of Microsoft Business Intelligence
Appliance, then those systems can be bound to more specific credentials in the SQL Server
Appliance Run As profiles, which do have access.
The following steps help you configure Run As profiles for Microsoft Business Intelligence
Appliance:
To configure Run As profiles
1. Identify the names of the target computers where the default action account has
insufficient rights to monitor Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance.
2. For each system, create or use an existing set of credentials that have at least the
Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance privileges discussed in the Low-Privilege
Environments section of this management pack guide.
3. For each set of credentials identified in step 2, make sure a corresponding Run As
account exists in the management group. Create the Run As account if necessary.
4. Set up the mappings between the targets and the Run As accounts on the Run As
Accounts tab of each of the Run As profiles.
For more information, see Run As Profiles and Run As Accounts in Operations Manager 2007
and the Low-Privilege Environments section.
Groups
The following groups are added when you import the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance
Management Pack:

Appliance Servers

Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Servers
9
Understanding Management Pack Operations
This section provides information about the types of objects that the Microsoft Business
Intelligence Appliance Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 discovers and
information about classes.
Objects the Management Pack Discovers
The Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack automatically discovers the
following object types:

Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Unit

Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Server

SQL Server Generic Appliance Seed Object
Classes
The following diagram shows the classes defined in this management pack. Shaded boxes
indicate classes that are defined in other management packs; the management pack that defines
a class is listed in parentheses.
Relationship Diagram
MICROSOFT.SQLSERVERAPPLIANCE.COMPUTERGROUP
Microsoft.SQLServerAppliance.Appliance
Microsoft.SQLServerAppliance.Server
MICROSOFT.SQLSERVERAPPLIANCE.BI.SERVERGROUP
Microsoft.SQLServerAppliance.BI.Server
Inheritance Diagram
10
System.Perspective
Microsoft.Windows.Server.Computer
IsVirtualNode : bool
Microsoft.SQLServerAppliance.Appliance
+ApplianceID : string
ApplianceName : string
ApplianceVersion : string
ApplianceType : string
Microsoft.SQLServerAppliance.Server
ApplianceName : string
ApplianceType : string
Role : string
Microsoft.SQLServerAppliance.BI.Appliance
Microsoft.SQLServerAppliance.BI.Server
Microsoft.SystemCenter.ComputerGroup
MICROSOFT.SQLSERVERAPPLIANCE.COMPUTERGROUP
_Microsoft.Windows.LocalApplication
MICROSOFT.SQLSERVERAPPLIANCE.BI.SERVERGROUP
_Microsoft.SQLServerAppliance.ApplianceSeed
Key Monitoring Scenarios
The Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Management Pack provides discovery capability to
find Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance servers in the network, distinguish them from other
servers, and understand their structure. It also provides some monitoring scenarios.

Last Onboard Backup status
By default, this scenario is fully enabled in the management pack. This monitor detects Windows
backup failure on the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance server. You can apply an override
to disable this monitor in the case that the onboard backup is no longer used.

Backup Volume Size Insufficient
11
The Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance backup job is available from Appliance Web
Console and stores all content of drives C:, D:, and R: to volume E:. Volume E: has a limited
capacity and backup capability and cannot be used in the case of a large amount of data on drive
D:. You can apply an override to disable this rule in the case that the onboard backup is no longer
used.
Open SharePoint Central Administration
This console task opens the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance central administration
page.
Open Appliance Management Console
This console task opens the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance management console
page.
Open Appliance Onboard Backup History
This console task opens the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance backup history page.
Open Appliance System Information
This console task opens the Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance system information page.
Troubleshooting
You can use the following tips for troubleshooting issues with the Microsoft Business Intelligence
Appliance Management Pack.
Discovery Fails to Run
If the Management Pack views do not display any discovered objects, but the Windows
Computers view displays a Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance Server instance, then it is
probably because the Agent proxy is not enabled. In addition, an alert indicates that the Agent
proxy is not enabled. In this case, enable the Agent proxy.
If the Agent proxy is enabled, make sure there are no Alerts in the Microsoft Business
Intelligence Appliance / Alerts alert view. An alert about one of the following problems might
appear:

Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance script problem: general script error. It might be
caused by the incorrect configuration of Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance local
security. To address this problem, review the alert details and the related knowledgebase
article.

Microsoft Business Intelligence Appliance discovery problem. It usually means that the
SQL Appliance configuration is corrupted. To address this problem, review the alert
details and the related knowledgebase article.
12
Appendix: Scripts
The following scripts are included in this management pack.
Script
Purpose
SSBIApplianceDiscovery.vbs
Discover the Microsoft Business
Intelligence Appliance Servers and
Units objects
VolumesStateProvider.vbs
Rule/Task
Discover Microsoft
Business
Intelligence
Appliance Units
Check if the backup volume size of Backup Volume
Size Insufficient
drive E: is enough to backup
volumes C:, D:, and R:.
13