UR3 for SCOM 2016 – Step by Step

 

 

KB Article for OpsMgr:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4016126/update-rollup-3-for-system-center-2016-operations-manager

Download catalog site:  http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=4016126

Updated UNIX/Linux Management Packs:  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29696

Recommended hotfix page:  https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/kevinholman/2009/01/27/which-hotfixes-should-i-apply/

 

NOTE:  I get this question every time we release an update rollup:   ALL SCOM Update Rollups are CUMULATIVE.  This means you do not need to apply them in order, you can always just apply the latest update.  If you have deployed SCOM 2016 and never applied an update rollup – you can go straight to the latest one available. 

 

 

Key fixes:

• The Application Performance Monitoring (APM) feature in System Center 2016 Operations Manager Agent causes a crash for the IIS Application Pool that’s running under the .NET Framework 2.0 runtime. Microsoft Monitoring Agent should be updated on all servers that use .NET 2.0 application pools for APM binaries update to take effect. Restart of the server might be required if APM libraries were being used at the time of the update.
• Organizational Unit (OU) properties for Active Directory systems are not being discovered or populated.
• The PatchLevel discovery script was fixed to properly discover patch level.
• SQL Agent jobs for maintenance schedule use the default database. If the database name is not the default, the job fails.
• When the heartbeat failure monitor is triggered, a “Computer Not Reachable” message is displayed even when the computer is not down.
• An execution policy has been added as unrestricted to PowerShell scripts in Inbox management packs.
• The Microsoft.SystemCenter.Agent.RestartHealthService.HealthServicePerfCounterThreshold recovery task fails to restart the agent, and you receive the following error message:  (LaunchRestartHealthService.ps1 cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system.)   This issue has been resolved to make the recovery task work whenever the agent is consuming too much resources.
• The Get-SCOMOverrideResult PowerShell cmdlet doesn’t return the correct list of effective overrides.
• The Event ID: 26373 event, which happens when there are large amounts of rows returned from an SDK query, has been changed from a “Critical” event to an “Informational” event (because there is nothing you can do about it).
• When you run System Center 2016 Operations Manager in an all-French locale (FRA) environment, the Date column in the Custom Event report appears blank.
• The Enable deep monitoring using HTTP task in the System Center Operations Manager console doesn’t enable WebSphere deep monitoring on Linux systems.
• When overriding multiple properties on rules that are created by the Azure Management Pack, duplicate override names are created. This causes overrides to be lost.
• When creating a management pack (MP) on a client that contains a Service Level (SLA) dashboard and Service Level Objects (SLO), the localized names of objects aren’t displayed properly if the client’s CurrentCulture settings don’t match the CurrentUICulture settings. In cases where the localized settings are English English, ENG, or Australian English, ENA, there’s an issue when the objects are renamed.
• The UseMIAPI registry subkey prevents collection of processor performance data for RedHat Linux system. Also, custom performance collection rules are also impacted by the UseMIAPI setting.
• This update adds support for OpenSSL1.0.x on AIX computers. With this change, System Center Operations Manager uses OpenSSL 1.0.x as the default minimum version supported on AIX, and OpenSSL 0.9.x is no longer supported.

 

 

Lets get started.

 

From reading the KB article – the order of operations is:

1. Install the update rollup package on the following server infrastructure:
   • Management server or servers
   • Web console server role computers
   • Gateway
   • Operations console role computers
2. Apply SQL scripts.
3. Manually import the management packs.
4. Apply Agent Updates
5. Update Nano Agents
6. Update Unix/Linux MP’s and Agents

 

 

1.  Management Servers

It doesn’t matter which management server I start with.  I simply make sure I only patch one management server at a time to allow for agent failover without overloading any single management server.

I can apply this update manually via the MSP files, or I can use Windows Update.  I have 2 management servers, so I will demonstrate both.  I will do the first management server manually.  This management server holds 3 roles, and each must be patched:  Management Server, Web Console, and Console.

The first thing I do when I download the updates from the catalog, is copy the cab files for my language to a single location, and then extract the contents:

 

 

Once I have the MSP files, I am ready to start applying the update to each server by role.

***Note:  You MUST log on to each server role as a Local Administrator, SCOM Admin, AND your account must also have System Administrator role to the SQL database instances that host your OpsMgr databases.

 

My first server is a management server, and the web console, and has the OpsMgr console installed, so I copy those update files locally, and execute them per the KB, from an elevated command prompt:

 

This launches a quick UI which applies the update.  It will bounce the SCOM services as well.  The update usually does not provide any feedback that it had success or failure….  but I did get a reboot prompt.  You can choose “No” and then reboot after applying all the SCOM role updates.

 

You can check the application log for the MsiInstaller events to show completion:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        MsiInstaller
Event ID:      1036
Computer:      SCOM1.opsmgr.net
Description:  Windows Installer installed an update. Product Name: System Center Operations Manager 2016 Server. Product Version: 7.2.11719.0. Product Language: 1033. Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation. Update Name: System Center 2016 Operations Manager Update Rollup 3 Patch. Installation success or error status: 0.

 

You can also spot check a couple DLL files for the file version attribute. 

 

Next up – run the Web Console update:

 

This runs much faster.   A quick file spot check:

 

Lastly – install the console update (make sure your console is closed):

A quick file spot check:

 

Or help/about in the console:

 

 

Additional Management Servers:

Windows Update contains the UR3 patches for SCOM 2016.   For my second Management Server – I will demonstrate that:

 

 

Updating Gateways:

Generally I can use Windows Update or manual installation.  I will proceed with manual:

 

The update launches a UI and quickly finishes.

Then I will spot check the DLL’s:

 

I can also spot-check the AgentManagement folder, and make sure my agent update files are dropped here correctly:

***NOTE:  You can delete any older UR update files from the AgentManagement directories.  The UR’s do not clean these up and they provide no purpose for being present any longer.

 

I could also apply the GW update via Windows Update:

 

 

 

 

 

2. Apply the SQL Scripts

In the path on your management servers, where you installed/extracted the update, there is ONE SQL script file: 

%SystemDrive%Program FilesMicrosoft System Center 2016Operations ManagerServerSQL Script for Update Rollups

(note – your path may vary slightly depending on if you have an upgraded environment or clean install)

Next – let’s run the script to update the OperationsManager (Operations) database.  Open a SQL management studio query window, connect it to your Operations Manager database, and then open the script file (update_rollup_mom_db.sql).  Make sure it is pointing to your OperationsManager database, then execute the script.

You should run this script with each UR, even if you ran this on a previous UR.  The script body can change so as a best practice always re-run this.

 

Click the “Execute” button in SQL mgmt. studio.  The execution could take a considerable amount of time and you might see a spike in processor utilization on your SQL database server during this operation.  

I have had customers state this takes from a few minutes to as long as an hour. In MOST cases – you will need to shut down the SDK, Config, and Monitoring Agent (healthservice) on ALL your management servers in order for this to be able to run with success.

You will see the following (or similar) output: 

 

IF YOU GET AN ERROR – STOP!  Do not continue.  Try re-running the script several times until it completes without errors.  In a production environment with lots of activity, you will almost certainly have to shut down the services (sdk, config, and healthservice) on your management servers, to break their connection to the databases, to get a successful run.

Technical tidbit:   Even if you previously ran this script in any previous UR deployment, you should run this again in this update, as the script body can change with updated UR’s.

 

 

 

3. Manually import the management packs

There are 33 management packs in this update!   Most of these we don’t need – so read carefully.

The path for these is on your management server, after you have installed the “Server” update:

Program FilesMicrosoft System Center 2016Operations ManagerServerManagement Packs for Update Rollups

However, the majority of them are Advisor/OMS, and language specific.  Only import the ones you need, and that are correct for your language.  

This is the initial import list: 

 

What NOT to import:

The Advisor MP’s are only needed if you are using Microsoft Operations Management Suite cloud service, (Previously known as Advisor, and Operations Insights).

DON’T import ALL the languages – ONLY ENU, or any other languages you might require.

The Alert Attachment MP update is only needed if you are already using that MP for very specific other MP’s that depend on it (rare)

The IntelliTrace Profiling MP requires IIS MP’s and is only used if you want this feature in conjunction with APM.

 

So I remove what I don’t want or need – and I have this:

 

These import without issue.  If the “Install” button is greyed out – this means you have an MP in your import list that is already imported and not updated.  The “Microsoft System Center Advisor Resources (ENU)” MP was causing this for me – since it hasn’t been updated, I simply remove it from the list so I can install.

 

 

 

4.  Update Agents

Agents should be placed into pending actions by this update for any agent that was not manually installed (remotely manageable = yes):  

 

If your agents are not placed into pending management – this is generally caused by not running the update from an elevated command prompt, or having manually installed agents which will not be placed into pending by design, OR if you use Windows Update to apply the update rollup for the Server role patch.

You can approve these – which will result in a success message once complete:

 

You can verify the PatchLevel by going into the console and opening the view at:  Monitoring > Operations Manager > Agent Details > Agents by Version

 

I also recommend you take a look at this community MP, which helps see the “REAL” agent number in the “Agent Managed” view console:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/kevinholman/2017/02/26/scom-agent-version-addendum-management-pack/

 

 

5.  Update UNIX/Linux MPs and Agents

 

The UNIX/Linux MP’s and agents have been updated to align with UR3 for SCOM 2016.  You can get them here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29696

The current version of these MP’s for SCOM 2016 UR2 is 7.6.1076.0 – and includes agents with version 1.6.2-339

 

Make sure you download the correct version for your SCOM deployment:

 

Download, extract, and import ONLY the updated Linux/UNIX MP’s that are relevant to the OS versions that you want to monitor:

 

This will take a considerable amount of time to import, and consume a lot of CPU on the management servers and SQL server until complete.

Once it has completed, you will need to restart the Healthservice (Microsoft Monitoring Agent) on each management server, in order to get them to update their agent files at Program FilesMicrosoft System Center 2016Operations ManagerServerAgentManagementUnixAgents

 

You should see the new files dropped with new timestamps:

 

Now you can deploy the agent updates:

 

Next – you decide if you want to input credentials for the SSH connection and upgrade, or if you have existing RunAs accounts that are set up to do the job (Agent Maintenance/SSH Account)

 

If you have any issues, make sure your SUDOERS file has the correct information pertaining to agent upgrade:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/kevinholman/2016/11/11/monitoring-unixlinux-with-opsmgr-2016/

 

 

 

 

6.  Update the remaining deployed consoles

This is an important step.  I have consoles deployed around my infrastructure – on my Orchestrator server, SCVMM server, on my personal workstation, on all the other SCOM admins on my team, on a Terminal Server we use as a tools machine, etc.  These should all get the matching update version.

 

 

 

 

Review:

Now at this point, we would check the OpsMgr event logs on our management servers, check for any new or strange alerts coming in, and ensure that there are no issues after the update.

 

Known Issues:

None!