Microsoft: Windows Server PowerPack, version 115

Version 115 of the Microsoft: Windows Server PowerPack includes a new credential test, a new device template, and updates to Dynamic Applications.

Minimum Required SL1 Version: 11.2.0

Before You Install or Upgrade

Ensure that you are running version 11.2.0 or later of SL1 before installing "Microsoft: Windows Server" PowerPack version 115.

For details on upgrading SL1, see the relevant SL1 Platform Release Notes.

Installing or Upgrading to this Version

By default, installing a new version of a PowerPack will overwrite all content in that PowerPack that has already been installed on the target system. You can use the Enable Selective PowerPack Field Protection setting in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior) to prevent the new version of the PowerPack from overwriting local changes for some commonly customized fields.

If you are currently using the Dynamic Applications in this PowerPack to monitor devices, collection errors might occur for one or two polling cycles during the installation of a new version. To prevent collection errors during an upgrade, you can optionally disable collection for monitored devices before performing the following steps and re-enable collection after the upgrade.

To install this PowerPack:

Search for and download the PowerPack from the PowerPacks page (Product Downloads > PowerPacks & SyncPacks) at the ScienceLogic Support Site.
In SL1, go to the PowerPacks page (System > Manage > PowerPacks).
Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. The Import PowerPack modal appears.
Click Browse and navigate to the PowerPack file from step 1.
Select the PowerPack file and click Import. The PowerPack Installer modal displays a list of the PowerPack contents.
Click Install. The PowerPack is added to the PowerPack Manager page.

The "Microsoft: Windows Server IC Cache Trigger" Dynamic Application is disabled by default and needs to be manually enabled for systems using concurrent PowerShell collection

For more information about using the PowerPack, see the Monitoring Windows Systems with PowerShell manual.

Features

This release includes the following features:

Dynamic Applications that collect configuration and performance data about Windows Servers
Event Policies that are triggered when Windows Server devices meet certain status criteria
Device Classes for each type of Windows Server

NOTE: The Device Classes include older device types that can be discovered but are no longer supported by ScienceLogic.

Run Book Policies and Run Book Actions that align a more detailed device class with each discovered device
A sample Credential for discovering Windows Server devices
A Credential Test to ensure that your Windows credential works as expected

Enhancements and Issues Addressed

The following enhancements and addressed issues are included this release of the "Microsoft: Windows Server":

Added the "Windows Server Credential Test" to ensure that Windows PowerShell credentials work as expected. The name resolution step in the credential test will be skipped when utilizing a non-Active Directory PowerShell account.
Added the "Microsoft: Windows Server Concurrent PowerShell Discovery Template" device template.
A new version of the Windows configuration script (winrm_configuration_wizard_v3.3.ps1) was included with the PowerPack. The script will remove an existing HTTP listener and re-add them each time it is run to pick up any changes in certificates.
Updated snippet code to force a new poll every 5 minutes when using legacy PowerShell collections for the following Dynamic Applications:

Microsoft: Windows Server Service Configuration.
Microsoft: Windows Server IC Service Performance.

Improved the efficiency of the "Windows Server Service Details - ICDA" PowerShell request in the "Microsoft: Windows Server IC Process Service Cache" Dynamic Application to filter out per-user services.(Support Case: 00316545)
Updated the "Windows Server OS Configuration" PowerShell request in the "Microsoft: Windows Server Configuration Cache" Dynamic Application to fix an error that stated the Caption property was a read-only property. (Support Case: 00274824)
Reduced collection time by 20% after improving the "Windows Server Service Details - ICDA" PowerShell request in the "Microsoft: Windows Server IC Process Service Cache" Dynamic Application and the following PowerShell Requests in the "Microsoft: Windows Server Performance Cache" Dynamic Application:

Windows Server CPU Performance
Windows Server Disk Performance
Windows Server Memory Performance

Improved the "Windows Server Service Details - ICDA" PowerShell request in the "Microsoft: Windows Server IC Process Service Cache" Dynamic Application.
Updated the "Microsoft: Windows Server Service Configuration" Dynamic Application with a more efficient query to retrieve the services blocklist and to allow the use of regex to add services to the blocklist.
The "Microsoft: Windows % Disk Time (Logical Disk) exceeded threshold" and "Microsoft: Windows % Disk Time (Physical Disk) exceeded threshold" event policies in the "Microsoft: Windows Server Disk Performance" Dynamic Application were disabled by default to improve the out-of-the-box experience.
Added the "Windows Server Interface Performance" request to the "Microsoft: Windows Server IC Cache Trigger" Dynamic Application to support internal collections when the "Microsoft: Windows Server Interface Performance" Dynamic Application is not aligned.
Updated the "Microsoft: Windows Server Performance Cache" Dynamic Application to avoid "PercentDisktime" greater than 100%. (Support Case: 00312052)
Updated the "Windows Server Interface Performance" PowerShell request in the "Microsoft: Windows Server Performance Cache" Dynamic Application to skip errors when adding adapters with a duplicate name. (Support Case: 00344215)
Updated the "Storage Size", "Storage Units", and "Storage Used" collection objects in the "Microsoft: Windows Server IC Filesystem Inventory" Dynamic Application to collect the correct data. (Support Case: 00303982)
Updated the snippet code to be compatible with both Python 2 and Python 3 in the following Dynamic Applications:

Microsoft: Windows Server IC Detail
Microsoft: Windows Server IC Filesystem Inventory
Microsoft: Windows Server IC Filesystem Performance
Microsoft: Windows Server IC Interface Inventory
Microsoft: Windows Server IC Interface Performance
Microsoft: Windows Server IC Port Performance
Microsoft: Windows Server IC Process Inventory
Microsoft: Windows Server IC Process Performance
Microsoft: Windows Server IC Service Inventory
Microsoft: Windows Server IC Service Performance

Known Issues and Workarounds

The following known issues affect version 115 of the Microsoft: Windows Server PowerPack:

Windows Server Process and Service monitoring will not work in environments in which Constrained Language mode is enabled for PowerShell.
If the list of IP addresses assigned to an interface is longer than 235 characters, the "Microsoft: Windows Server Interface Configuration" Dynamic Application will strip the list of IP addresses after 235 characters and the following will appear in the logs:

90.PoolWorker-2.Extended_Internal_Collection: Skipping IPv6 Address due to powershell collector characters limit of 235 chars. did: <did> app_id: <app_id> Interface: <if>

90.PoolWorker-2.Extended_Internal_Collection: Skipping IPv4 Address due to powershell collector characters limit of 235 chars. did: <did> app_id: <app_id> Interface: <if>

If an IPv4 address is invalid, the "Microsoft: Windows Server Interface Configuration" Dynamic Application will remove the address and the following notice will appear in the logs:

90.PoolWorker-2.Extended_Internal_Collection: Skipping IPv4 Mask due to powershell collector characters limit of 235 chars. did: <did> app_id: <app_id> Interface: <if>
When updating the PowerPack, in the "Microsoft: Windows Server IC Interface Inventory" Dynamic Application, corrupted IPs with empty spaces, curly brackets ({}), or ellipses (...) will need to be deleted.

The first step is to review the rows that will be deleted with the following query in the SL1 database:

SELECT id, did, ip, netmask FROM master_dev.device_ip_addr WHERE ip REGEXP '(^([{])|([}]$)|([.]{3}$)|([...}]$)|(\\s))';

(This step is very important because it will display all rows that will be deleted in the second step.)

The second step is to delete the rows if the customer is satisfied with the results. Use the following query in the SL1 database:

DELETE FROM master_dev.device_ip_addr WHERE ip REGEXP '(^([{])|([}]$)|([.]{3}$)|([...}]$)|(\\s))';

(After running this query, it can't be reverted.)

Dynamic Applications will produce errors and data will not be collected if your language is set to anything other than English (i.e. Turkish, Portuguese).
For mount point paths, all instances of "\" have been changed to "/" in the "Windows: Server IC Filesystem Inventory" and "Windows: Server IC Filesystem Performance" Dynamic Applications. Drives that are hidden will not be loaded, but will be visible in the "Microsoft: Windows Server Disk Configuration" Dynamic Application.
The Collector Affinity setting for Windows Server IC Dynamic Applications changes to Default if there are any changes made under the Properties tab. To keep the setting as Assigned Collector, run the following query:

UPDATE master.dynamic_app SET cu_affinity=2 WHERE ppguid IN ('<PP-GUID>');

If you use the "Microsoft: Windows Server IC Interface Performance" Dynamic Application to populate interface performance data, then you cannot enable the Packets setting on the Interface Properties page (Registry > Networks > Interfaces > interface wrench icon) without causing an unhandled exception.
The "Microsoft: Windows Server Software Configuration" Dynamic Application cannot properly parse installation dates that are not in yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss format, such as "Wed Jul 05 12:41:46 EDT 2017".
The Dynamic Applications with "Microsoft: Windows Server IC" in the name may not align to newly discovered devices until Nightly Discovery runs.