SCOM Remote Maintenance Mode Scheduler v1.7

Version 2.0 has been released that replaces v1.7

https://www.scom2k7.com/scom-remote-maintenance-mode-scheduler-20/

 

SCOM Remote Maintenance Mode Scheduler is a GUI based tool that lets administrators easily schedule maintenance mode for a server or group of servers inside System Center Operations Manager 2007.

 The reason I created this tool is that I have a lot of people ask me how to properly setup the powershell maintenance mode scripts to run. Most of the problems are syntax related. This tool will create the syntax for you on the fly.

The are also many cases when a windows server admin will want to schedule maintenance mode for a one server. Instead of having to clone a task in task scheduler I can now just give them the tool and they can schedule it themselves.

Updates to Version 1.7

– Fixed Bug where if you hit Get Computers multiple times it would
populate multiple times.

– Fixed Sort Order of Group and Computer list.

– Removed limitation of 100 min for scheduled maintenance mode

 

https://www.scom2k7.com/maintenance-mode-scheduler-20/

 

If you find any bugs please let me know!

34 Responses to SCOM Remote Maintenance Mode Scheduler v1.7

  1. Patrick July 24, 2008 at 7:37 am #

    I couldn’t test your tool because I start SCOM design and deployment within next few weeks but it seems to be very nice.

    At the moment we use Unicenter and one of my (and I’m sure most SystemManagers) problems is, that some admins have the thinking “turning off monitoring = have less work”. So, how can I have an overview about these schedules? Is there any reporting (for every new created task and for all schedules)?

    Thanks from austria,
    Patrick

  2. Richard July 28, 2008 at 10:06 am #

    This tool solves the issue with SCOM maitenance mode very well, Is it possible to change in the app the scheduled command string from C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\ to C:\Winnt\system32\WindowsPowerShell\ it works if i manually change in scheduled task.

  3. Joshua July 28, 2008 at 10:42 am #

    I cannot seem to get this to work.

    I installed this directly on my RMS according to the PDF instructions. Then I tried to run the client from both the RMS and also my Laptop and I get the error message that it cannot connect to the RMS when I click “Get Groups/Computers” button.

    Any idea what might be causing it to not connect to the RMS… even from the RMS?

  4. Joshua July 28, 2008 at 10:46 am #

    Disregard. It seems there is a slight bug, but after I get the error, the list of servers/groups is then populated… but you can’t tell until you click on the drop down.

    Thanks!

  5. Olaf August 4, 2008 at 7:47 am #

    Hi, i just installed the scheduler, and the creation of a test task worked very well. But when the task starts, it hangs. I copied the run line of the task in a command prompt, and got a security warning.
    Is that a known problem, and what can i do to fix that?

    regards
    Olaf

  6. admin August 6, 2008 at 9:27 pm #

    http://www.hanselman.com/blog/RemovingSecurityFromDownloadedPowerShellScriptsWithAlternativeDataStreams.aspx

    This is how you can remove this warning.

    Security Warning
    Run only scripts that you trust. While scripts from the Internet can be useful,
    this script can potentially harm your computer. Do you want to run
    C:\MaintenanceModeV4\GroupMaintenanceModeV4.ps1?
    [D] Do not run [R] Run once [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is “D”):

  7. Phr00z0 August 12, 2008 at 4:01 pm #

    Hello,
    I am not sure if I got this right..
    I installed the two ps1 to the rms server c:/
    I ran the scheduler from my desktop.
    It gave the window that scheduled successfully.
    checked on the rms server and there is a task created..
    BUT when I go to the monitoring window of scom, it does not display a maintenance icon for the server which I created the task for.
    Am i understanding this tool or its used for some other kind of maintenance mode? Probably just to run some scripts or something?

  8. Will Kaiser August 13, 2008 at 2:37 pm #

    Great work and an excellent solution. I got this to to work successfully earlier today.

    Some hints for those having trouble:

    – Follow all of the the included PDS instructions, in particular the execution policy update

    – Update the data streams on your PS1 files as documented here:
    http://www.hanselman.com/blog/RemovingSecurityFromDownloadedPowerShellScriptsWithAlternativeDataStreams.aspx

    (I used the properties> unblock method from my XP workstation)

    – Make sure that ALL fields of the C# app are populated when creating a scheduled task (was stuck for quite a while because I did not have a comment for my tasks & the PS scripts were failing)

    – Remember to include Domain\Username in the C# app username field

    Once I did all that it worked perfectly. When machines go into maintenance mode the typical MM icon appears in the state view.

    Note – I only tested with a handful of agents, nothing large scale.

  9. Phr00z0 August 15, 2008 at 8:08 am #

    Will and all,

    I tried all the instructions and did unblock the files on my workstation.. (not sure why we would need to unblock from workstation, when the files would be on the server) but still when i check my scheduled task, the task is just sitting there.. never run.
    And the server does not go into maintenance mode..
    This would be very useful tool for us, as we are monitoring like 400+ servers and the admin for those servers could directly schedule the mainenance from their desktops..

    Any help?

  10. Phr00z0 August 15, 2008 at 8:43 am #

    further found that I keep on getting the 0x1 error on the scheduled task log, indicating that an incorrect function was called.
    I didn’t do any changes to the script, and my scheduled task is checked to allow to interact with desktop.
    any ideas?

  11. Ty L. August 15, 2008 at 4:55 pm #

    To Phr00z0,

    I’m guessing the failure you’re experiencing is from a syntax error (technically)… Two things you can try:
    1. Go to the properties of that scheduled task created, then check the syntax in the run box. Most likely you need to change c:\windows to c:\winnt. (You can confirm that by checking which folder your powershell is installed.)
    2. If above is not the reason, go to your scheduled task, and click on Advanced | View Log. That will show may indicate the reason for the failure.

  12. Will Kaiser August 18, 2008 at 9:41 am #

    I performed some basic troubleshooting by first running the command in the scheduled task from a command line to see exactly what’s failing. Once I got that working I manually created some scheduled tasks with the command, and once those worked I started creating them w/ the GUI.

    I have now tested this tool successfully in 2 different SCOM environments.

    A note to the author: A small cosmetic change is needed when you get a chance. ‘Task server’ on the interface actually says ‘task sever’. Thanks.

  13. Rick August 25, 2008 at 10:55 am #

    I’ve been trying to download the zip, but the file is only 189kb and is an invalid zip. Is it just me?

  14. admin August 25, 2008 at 11:06 am #

    I tested it and it is working fine. There is something wrong with your connection.

  15. Tom September 9, 2008 at 10:30 am #

    I tried this out and it works great. The only issue that I found was when I put in the username and password it still uses the account I’m logged in as to create the task and not the account I specified. Is this a bug?

  16. admin September 9, 2008 at 10:56 am #

    No that is by design. It uses your account to create the task. It uses the account you specify to run the task.

  17. Sameer September 25, 2008 at 12:03 pm #

    I have a strange problem… hope someone can help me resolve this.

    I have like 3 management servers in US and one in Europe.
    For certain admins the scheduler works fine. but for few we are getting the error
    Access is denied. (exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E-AccessDenied))

    I can access all the US servers, and face the error when I try to connect to Europe MP server. We all are domain admins, so permissions would not be an issue.
    For some admins though they are domain admins and Ops admins, they still get this access denied error on some management servers, while the other management server it works fine..

    Any help on this?

    Thanks.

  18. Sameer September 26, 2008 at 8:43 am #

    Anyone? 🙂

  19. 6raeme October 6, 2008 at 8:10 am #

    I don’t suppose that there are any plans to add the ability to set maintenance mode on a daily basis as apposed to just one off’s and weekly schedules?

    All of our Citrix servers reboot on a nightly basis so it would be handy if we could create one task to cover this as apposed to 7 (one weekly task for each day)

    If this is already possible but i’m just missing something then please accept my apologies and kick me in the right direction.

    Cheers

    Graeme

  20. Sameer October 6, 2008 at 11:29 am #

    anyone?

  21. admin October 6, 2008 at 12:39 pm #

    Try to use a run-as account to launch the application with an account the the. The application uses integrated auth to schedule the tasks and uses the user name and password as the account to run the tasks.

  22. 6raeme October 7, 2008 at 4:05 am #

    Well you’ve just made my life a whole lot easier!!!

    Thank you!!

  23. Sameer October 9, 2008 at 9:11 am #

    I really wished if this had an option of right click runas.
    Currently I can’t distribute to all the system admins, as they don’t want to do a command line runas..

  24. Sameer October 10, 2008 at 4:23 pm #

    My Bad.. one has to go to the exe to do the RunAs.. From Program Files – Scom Scheuler, RunAs does not show up. But all good now… All my sys admins would be sooo happy to use this. Thanks a lot!!

  25. Matstar October 14, 2008 at 4:52 am #

    I’ve installed the SCOM Remote Maintenance Mode Scheduler v2 with the PDF file. When i try to create an scheduled task for a group, an error “Adresse réseau non valide.(Exeption de HRESULT : 0x800706AB). I’m not the only one with this error. Thanks for your help

  26. admin October 14, 2008 at 9:22 am #

    That means that you are not making a connection to the computer you are trying to schedule the tasks on. Do you have the firewall running on that computer? Do you have admin access to it?

  27. Franz February 16, 2009 at 6:37 am #

    Has anyone tested this tool with System Center Essentails 2007, or does anyone know if it is working with SCE 2007 as well?

  28. Nate. April 29, 2009 at 2:40 pm #

    I was wondering if you could set the installer to install to a more convenient location like “c:\Program Files\*”? and install for All Users?

  29. Fabian July 1, 2009 at 7:47 am #

    Hello together,
    great tool but I have some problems with the scheduling. There is no AM / PM visible as shown in the manual. Can anyone help. This would be great. Otherwise I could maintenance my servers only in the morning. Users wouldn`t agree with it:-)
    regards Fabian

    • Tim July 1, 2009 at 10:43 am #

      Huh. Of course you can choose AM or PM. See where it says Start: Then the Date. Then the Time. You can toggle AM or PM there.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

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  3. New Community MPs « Ian Blyth - System Center Technologies - August 7, 2008

    […] With the Remote Maintenance Mode Scheduler you can schedule PowerShell maintenance mode scripts for computers or groups of computers in OpsMgr 2007 (System Center Operations Manager 2007) through a simple graphical user interface, rather than using the task scheduler directly. The tool also supports scheduling of scripts on any remote computer with the OpsMgr UI components installed. Tim McFadden said:Please download the newest version 1.7 that has some bug fixes. https://www.scom2k7.com/scom-remote-maintenance-mode-scheduler-v17/ […]

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