Microsoft: Windows Server PowerPack, version 116

Version 116 of the Microsoft: Windows Server PowerPack includes a new relationship with generic virtual machines and updates the PowerPack to be Python 3-compatible.

  • Minimum Required SL1 Version: 12.1.0

Before You Install or Upgrade

Ensure that you are running version 12.1.0 or later of SL1 before installing "Microsoft: Windows Server" PowerPack version 116.

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:

  1. Search for and download the PowerPack from the PowerPacks page (Product Downloads > PowerPacks & SyncPacks) at the ScienceLogic Support Site.
  2. In SL1, go to the PowerPacks page (System > Manage > PowerPacks).
  3. Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. The Import PowerPack modal appears.
  4. Click Browse and navigate to the PowerPack file from step 1.
  5. Select the PowerPack file and click Import. The PowerPack Installer modal displays a list of the PowerPack contents.
  6. 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 Microsoft: Windows Server 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 in version 116 of the "Microsoft: Windows Server" PowerPack:

  • Updated the PowerPack to be Python 3-compatible.
  • Created a generic virtual machine relationship that can be used by other PowerPacks to establish a DCM+R relationship to the Windows Server device.
  • Updated the "Microsoft: Windows Server Service Configuration" Dynamic Application to restore exact-match capability when checking for a blocklisted service. (Support Case: 00356687)
  • Updated the "Windows Server Interface Performance" request in the "Microsoft: Windows Server Performance Cache" Dynamic Application to properly collect interface data when multiple interfaces share the same name.

Known Issues and Workarounds

The following known issues affect version 116 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.

     

    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 will display all rows that will be deleted in the next step.


    Use the following query in the SL1 database to delete the rows:

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

    The deletion cannot be reversed after running this query.

  • 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.