SCOM Pulse release notes

Every change since SCOM Pulse 1.3.0.

SCOM Pulse 1.3.14 is the current release. These notes cover every change since 1.3.0; the version in brackets is the release that first carried it.

New features

  • Choose exactly when maintenance ends (1.3.13). Starting maintenance from an object page, the state and alert grids or Instant MM, and extending any window, now offers Custom… (minutes, hours or days) and Until a time… beside the 30-minute to 24-hour presets, and shows the resulting end before you confirm. A window can run from 5 minutes to 30 days.
  • Group alerts by Custom Field 1–10 (1.3.11). Works like Group items by in the Operations console, in the alert grid and in dashboard alert cards. Opening a group filters to that exact value; the “(empty)” group always sorts last.
  • Four new alert columns (1.3.2): Latency (how long the alert took to reach SCOM after it was raised), Last modified by, Connector and Forwarding status. All four sort, and the column chooser now offers 43 columns.
  • A sign-in page, as a preview, off by default (1.3.11). For HTTPS installs, an administrator can offer a user name and password page that password managers can fill, with browsers that stay signed in — for Macs and PCs that can’t sign in with Windows automatically. Turn it on with the installer’s Advanced checkbox, PULSESIGNIN=1, or PulseSetup.exe -signInPage; once on, Settings → Access → Browser sign-in switches it off and back on. With it off, sign-in works exactly as before.
  • Guidance for signing in without a password prompt (1.3.11). Settings → Access and Configure’s last screen show the browser policies that let Edge, Chrome and Firefox sign people in with Windows silently, filled in for your site’s own address, with Copy all settings and one-PC commands to try it first.
  • Standby kit (1.3.2): a signed script and guide for keeping a standby SCOM Pulse server in sync.

Improvements

  • Maintenance mode is blocked on SCOM’s own infrastructure (1.3.11). SCOM Pulse no longer puts management servers, gateway servers, resource pools or the management group itself into maintenance, nor any group or distributed application whose maintenance would include one of them. It applies everywhere maintenance can start: a single object, bulk or by-class selection, Instant MM (page and script), and SCOM maintenance schedules (save, enable and extend). Each dialog explains why as soon as it opens; a bulk request leaves the protected targets out and lists what was skipped. A red banner on every page warns while a management server, gateway or the management group is in maintenance — for example, set from the Operations console — with End maintenance for those allowed to end it.
  • Maintenance calendar and history (1.3.11). A server put into maintenance with its contained objects shows as one entry, with those objects listed in its details. Extend… is on the object page, and the extend dialog shows the planned end, adds durations to it and shows the new end before you confirm; an extension made in the Operations console is followed. Times on the object page and in Instant MM show in your own time zone.
  • Dialogs keep your work (1.3.11). Dialogs close only on X, Cancel or Escape: a stray click outside no longer discards a half-filled override or maintenance dialog, and Escape in an open dropdown closes just the dropdown.
  • Installer (1.3.11). The last page of a first install says it’s installed and configured and names the one step left — the browser policy — on a cleaner page. The Configure window always fits the screen: Advanced folds away while setup runs, and the window scrolls when the screen is short.
  • Clearer Data Warehouse status (1.3.1). A slow warehouse is reported as not answering in time, naming the step, instead of Cannot reach SQL Server; optional checks that time out no longer fail the whole connection check.
  • Dashboard layout (1.3.2). Table cells line up under their headers, and the mini-list severity icon is centred.
  • Documentation (1.3.11). The Installation Guide has a new section, Sign people in without a password box; the Quick Start covers pushing the browser policy before you announce the address; the User and Administration Guides point to it.

Bug fixes

  • Some one-time maintenance schedules could not be moved to a new date (1.3.14). Editing certain existing one-time schedules, Save in SCOM greyed out as soon as a new date was picked, with The series end is before the start, and there was nothing on screen to change. The schedule’s end date now moves with its window, and the editor says so before you save.
  • Extending a running schedule could shorten its window (1.3.13). The extension counted from the time you clicked rather than from the window’s planned end. Every extension now counts from the planned end.
  • A chosen end time that had already passed (1.3.13). If a request with a chosen end time could not run until after that time, SCOM Pulse started a window of the default length instead. It now changes nothing and says why, so you can start it again with a new end.
  • Long pop-up menus closed while you scrolled them (1.3.12). A menu with a long list — many custom resolution states, In N groups, saved views — closed as soon as you scrolled it with the mouse wheel or its scrollbar, or moved past the visible items with the arrow keys. It now stays open while you scroll it, and still closes when the page itself scrolls.
  • Data Warehouse timeout on large warehouses (1.3.1). The connection check could run out of time on large production warehouses and showed it as “Cannot reach SQL Server”. It now completes in under a second on the warehouse where it was reported.
  • Wrong message after an upgrade (1.3.3). The installer’s last page said the service password had not been carried over and the service was not running, when the upgrade had restored the account and started the service. It now shows the right message in each case.
  • Groups that slipped past the maintenance block (1.3.11). A group containing a resource pool, a pool member or the management group object, and a SCOM schedule naming a management server SCOM Pulse had not finished syncing, could still start maintenance. Both are refused now, and when SCOM cannot confirm a target is safe, SCOM Pulse refuses with the reason instead of allowing it.
  • Wrong Edge policy name (1.3.11). The guidance named Chrome’s policy, Authentication server allowlist, for Edge. Edge’s is Configure list of allowed authentication servers.

Upgrading

  • No database migration. The schema has been 37 since 1.3.2.
  • Silent upgrade: msiexec /i SCOMPulse-1.3.14.msi /qn keeps settings, the service account, the website and data, and leaves IIS settings unchanged.
  • Download: get SCOM Pulse 1.3.14 — the signed installer, the four guides and SHA256.txt. The installer’s SHA-256 is 35580603E2136AA7BEA15F35F7C195FA8C27A820784E6CED75D9F510C8618720.