This is something that an OpsMgr admin does on a regular basis but I have added some additional bits to the process.
When a new override management pack is needed then the following steps are required.
If there is a specific alert that needs to be overridden then click on that alert and in Alert Details click on the Alert Rule/Alert Monitor. This will show which Management Pack the alert was generated by.
For example - the SQL Server 2008 (Monitoring) management pack.
It is best practice to create an override Management Pack for the sealed MP and put the overrides for the sealed MP into that MP. I prefer to create a new MP in the Administration tab so I can control the process rather than create the MP on the fly when overriding an alert.
Note that unsealed MPs do not need a separate MP as the override will be written directly into the MP.
Go to the Administration tab and click on Management packs.
In this case I have filtered the MPs to the SQL 2008 ones.
Double click on the SQL Server 2008 (Monitoring) MP.
The 2 important fields are ID and Name. The ID must match the filename of the MP and the Name will be the name that shows up in the list of MPs.
Highlight the Name and copy (Ctrl C).
This will give you the name of the MP – SQL Server 2008 (Monitoring).
Close the dialogue box.
Right click in the Management Pack area and chose Create Management Pack.
This will start the Create a Management Pack Wizard
Paste the name that was copied into the Name field and add Overrides.
Some organizations put Overrides at the beginning of the name so that they show up in the MP list together. It is easy to find all MPs with overrides in the name using the Find search box on the tool bar. Therefore I do not think that it is necessary to put the word overrides at the beginning. Putting it at the end means that the override MP shows up in the MP list next to the sealed MP so that you know that there are overrides for that MP.
Note that it creates the ID name for you. But importantly does not include numbers. When the MP is created it is checked in the console to make sure it is unique. If the 2012 one was done next it would create an MP with ID of SQL.Server.Monitoring.Overrides0. This can be fixed later to match the version with the name.
The version can be any number but leave it at 1.0.0.0 for now.
If you click Edit to add knowledge you will get this error message.
In order to edit Knowledge you must have Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime installed along with Word on the computer that is running the console.
Once it is created it can be seen in the console. It can now be used for overrides but the following steps are recommended before you create overrides. If you go to the Monitoring pane you will see a new View folder with the name of the MP.
All new MPs created in the console create a top level folder so that views can be created underneath. As this will only be used for overrides the empty view is not necessary and clutters the console.
Highlight the folder and press Delete.
Click yes.
As noted earlier the MP created does not have 2008 in the file name. When the 2012 MP is made it will have a very similar name. I have found it is better to rename the filename to have 2008 in the name to make it easier to distinguish files outside of the console.
Go back to the Administration pane and click Management Packs.
Click on the new management pack and right click to Export Management Pack.
Once exported open the MP in a text editor.
The contents will now look like this.
The key fields are ID and Name.
The ID has to be a unique name for the Management Group and MUST match the name of the file. If these two do not match you will not be able to import it back into the Management Group.
The Name is the friendly name that is seen in views and can be left.
Change the contents of the ID field from SQL.Server.Monitoring.Overrides to SQL.Server.2008.Monitoring.Overrides.
You must also change the Display String Element to match otherwise you will get a message like this.
The highlighted text shows that it is the Display String Element in the Language section that is wrong as it still refers to the original name.
Change the version number to 1.0.0.1 to show that the view has been removed, that the file name has changed.
Do a File Save As and ensure that the file name is the same as the ID.
Import the new MP into the Management group.
As this has a unique name (ID) it does not overwrite the original MP.
The 1.0.0.0 MP can now be deleted and the new MP is ready for overrides.
Rather than going through the whole process again for the SQL Server 2012 overrides the existing XML file can be edited by changing 2008 to 2012 in the 4 lines highlighted.
Do a file save as SQL.Server.2012.Monitoring.Overrides.xml and the new MP can be imported in.
This template can now be used for any new override MP.
When a new MP is need replace FILENAME with the name of the file which reflects the MP name and must be unique with no spaces and in the 2 Name fields replace MPNAME with a friendly name.
Here is the text file to use as a template.
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<ManagementPack ContentReadable=”true” SchemaVersion=”2.0″ OriginalSchemaVersion=”1.1″ xmlns:xsd=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema” xmlns:xsl=”http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform” >
<Manifest>
<Identity>
<ID>FILENAME.Overrides</ID>
<Version>1.0.0.1</Version>
</Identity>
<Name>MPNAME Overrides</Name>
<References>
<Reference Alias=”SystemCenter”>
<ID>Microsoft.SystemCenter.Library</ID>
<Version>7.0.8432.0</Version>
<PublicKeyToken>31bf3856ad364e35</PublicKeyToken>
</Reference>
</References>
</Manifest>
<LanguagePacks>
<LanguagePack ID=”ENU” IsDefault=”false”>
<DisplayStrings>
<DisplayString ElementID=”FILENAME.Overrides”>
<Name>MPNAME Overrides</Name>
</DisplayString>
</DisplayStrings>
</LanguagePack>
</LanguagePacks>
</ManagementPack>
NOTE – when copying this text ensure that the quotation marks are the straight ones (“”) and not the curly ones(“ “). This can happen when copying and pasting from certain programs and web pages.
