As may or may not have read on the MP Author website Microsoft has decided to partner with Silect to create a MP Authoring tool targeted to IT Pros. This tool is called MP Author and is completely free for all System Center Customers and will be the tool we recommend to IT Pros who need to do MP Authoring.
It replaces previous tools we have piloted such as the Visio Authoring Tool which will be no longer recommended or supported.
Software Prerequisites
- System Center Operations Manager Console 2012 or above must be installed
In this blog post I walk you through the installation steps after you have downloaded the MP Author tool and some MP creation steps. You can also review the BridgeWays_MP_Author_Installation_Guide and BridgeWays_MP_Author_User_Guide PDF Guides that come with the installation.
Steps:
- Unzip MPAuthor.zip file
- Run MPAuthorSetup.exe
Step 1. Unzip File
Steps 2. Run MPAuthorSetup.exe
Click Yes
Click Next
Accept License Agreement and click Next
Enter Folder to store application and click Next
Click Install
Hit finish
Open MP Author as an Admin
This will help you get started with the creation of your Management Packs.
Let’s create a new Management Pack with an Event Monitor.
Steps:
- Click on New in MP Author Console
- Follow the Wizard
- Save MP
- Import Management Pack
Click on Next
Enter the config needed for the Manifest section of the MP and click on Next.
Enter folder to store you MP and click on Next
Add needed references and click Next
Choose the Template you want to use for creating your MP and click on Next
Define the Role the MP will monitor
Let’s only monitor Gold servers, which we retrieve from a registry value.
Click on Browse
Select Registry we want to use and click on OK.
Identify registry target and click on Next
Click on Next
Enter expression and click on Next
Enter Discovery Schedule and click Next
Click on Finish
Continue with the Monitor creation
Click Next
Select Event Monitor
Click Next
Specify Unhealthy Event and click Next
Specify Health timer or Event and click Next
Click Next
Specify Health States and click Next
Specify if an Alert needs to be created and Click Next
Click Finish
You can add more monitors are click Next to continue
Choose Rollup Algorithm and click Next
Click Finish to finalize MP.
We can verify the MP using the tools and we can also run the Best Practices Analyzer.
Let’s import the MP
We can check in the Discovered Inventory for the Target we specified in the MP.
And finally an Alert is shown after creating the Event in the Eventlog.
Hope you enjoy this new tool.
References:
- MPAuthor website
- Self-Service MP Author Support Portal
- Blog post on System Center: Operations Manager Engineering Blog