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How to Configure File Attachments for Operations Manager Alerts in System Center 2012 SP1

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Operations Manager

The information in this topic applies only to System Center 2012 SP1.

Some management packs for Operations Manager attach additional information to alerts. This information is stored as files on the network share, and it is updated by workflows that run on the management servers. Only management servers write to this network share. Other computers in the management group can add attachments to alerts. They do so by uploading files to the management server first. Therefore, these other computers do not need direct access to the file share. Files are uploaded to the management server using the same secure Operations Manager channel that agents use to communicate with the management servers. A separate Run As profile controls the credentials that the management servers use to access the network file share.

System_CAPS_security Security Note

As a preliminary action, you must configure file attachments for Operations Manager alerts in System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1). This will enable integration with Team Foundation Server (TFS), IntelliTrace Historical Profiling, sharing Application Performance Monitoring events with developers, Global Service Monitor web tests, and any other scenarios that require files to be associated with Operations Manager alerts.

To configure file attachments for Operations Manager alerts

  1. Create an Alert Attachment network file share with enough space to accommodate your anticipated storage needs.

    Important

    Some alert attachments can be very large. For example, a typical production IntelliTrace Historical Profiling snapshot might be several hundred megabytes (MB). Make sure you allocate enough storage space to meet your business needs.

  2. Create an active directory account that has read/write permission to the Alert Attachment network file share. Make this account a local administrator on each management server that you plan to use for synchronizing with Team Foundation Server. Make sure that the disk space quota on the network file share does not restrict this account from writing a large amount of information. This account will be used to retrieve the files that are uploaded to the management server and will place those files on the Alert Attachment network file share.

  3. In the Operations Manager console, click the Administration button, click Management Packs, and then in the Tasks pane, click Import Management Packs. In the Import Management Packs Wizard, click Add, and then click Add from disk. Import the Alert Attachment Management Pack (Microsoft.SystemCenter.AlertAttachment.mpb) from the ManagementPacks folder on the System Center 2012 SP1 Operations Manager installation media. Click Install, and then click Close.

  4. Configure the Run As profile to use the account that you created for file attachments. In the Operations Manager console, click Administration, expand Run As Configuration, and then click Profiles. Double-click Alert Attachment Management Account. Locate and configure the Alert Attachment Management Account for all targeted objects. For more information about using Run As profiles, see Managing Run As Accounts and Profiles.

    The location of the Alert Attachment Management Account to be configured

    Highlight Run As Profile to configure

  5. Enable the Alert Attachment discovery rule, and configure the override to point to the Alert Attachment file share location. In the Operations Manager console, click Authoring, expand Management Pack Objects, and then click Object Discoveries. To set the object discovery scope, click Scope, and then click View all targets. Locate and select Alert Attachment File Share. Click OK.

    In the list of scoped objects, expand Discovered Type: Alert Attachment File Share, right-click Alert attachment file share discovery, click Overrides, click Override the Object Discovery, and then click For all objects of class: Collection Server.

    Override menus

    Configure override for Alert Attachment file share

    On the Override Properties page, set Enabled to True, and then set Path to the alert attachment file share to the location of the network file share you created.

    Important

    You must specify the Path to the alert attachment file share in Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) format. For example, this is a valid format: \\contoso1\share. You cannot use a path to a hard drive, such as C:\AttachmentFiles.

    In the Management pack section, select a target management pack or create a new management pack to save the override values. For more information, see Applying Overrides to Object Discoveries.

    Override Properties page

    Override Properties page