JeffVandervoort

Marius, I know you're thinking it's been too long since I last bugged you about pushing PCM configs via Group Policy. Please accept my apologies, and let's fix that now<g>. I've been thinking (always dangerous) that instead of ADM/ADMX, or home-brewed Group Policy Registry Preferences as I've proposed before, how about giving us a subfolder in %ProgramData% where we can drop XML exports. PCM will check the folder every 15 minutes and import them when it finds them, then delete them. Symantec Antivirus worked that way for years. We'd also have to have a way to delete monitored Events, Rules, etc. using the magic folder. Maybe export an XML file of the setting, and edit it to include something that would tell PCM to delete that setting, sort of like using a minus sign in a .reg script. That would be real easy to implement on our end with Startup Scripts, or Group Policy Files Preferences, or even Task Scheduler in workgroup systems. And I suspect it wouldn't be very difficult to implement on your end since you're all set up for XML imports. Pleeeeeeeeeeease???

I've found that my PC Monitor configuration changes tend to be retroactive. When something goes wrong with a machine, I think, "Sure wish I had a Notification set up for that." And that's when I do it. Currently, PC Monitor gives us a tool but it's up to us to make it useful. So we all have to reinvent the wheel. For example, in the Windows world, we all want to know when System/EventLog/6008 occurs (unexpected shutdown) but we might not think of creating a Notification until it happens. Many more are less universal, but would still have broad appeal. I'd like to see a PC Monitor Repository containing exports of useful PCM settings. User-submitted & MMSoft-submitted. Ideally, something like the Technet Script Repository: With similar categories you can browse and search by OS, hardware vendor, PC Monitor "tab", storage, AD, security, RDS, SQL, Exchange, Hyper-V, Networking, Power Management, etc. http://gallery.techn...om/scriptcenter Just browsing what others have done would give me ideas for my system, even if I had to modify them for my specific hardware or software. (And then I could post my changes.) The BEST way to implement this would be if we could browse and submit these directly from the "tabs" in PC Monitor & Dashboard (and the PCM server product, which I've not yet seen), instead of downloading them from the web site, copying them to a server and importing them.

The right answer, yet again!

Please add auto-update for Dashboard.

Danielle, I hope, someday, the mobile client will allow configuration, too. Adapting it for a 3.5" screen won't be easy...but...sure would be nice.

This would be useful to me, too. Currently there's no good way to tell if it was successful because PCM doesn't reports events in Event logs beneath the top "level" in Event Viewer, and the only place to find successful WSB events is in the WSB log. But you CAN detect WSB failures by setting up the following Event Log notification (this was from an SBS 2008 machine, but should work with any Win 6.x machine):

Please add a Search feature that lets you search on keywords, and a Filter feature that filters the list to a specific time range, event ID, and event source. Especially important on the phone.

When I tap the "More" label 10-15 times to go back through the Event logs and open 2 or 3 Events to read them, when I close the 2nd or 3rd Event, I lose perhaps half of the Event list and have to tap "More" again to get back to where I was.

I'd like to be able to set Event Log notifications for logs in the "Microsoft" folder & subfolders on Win 6.x. (And other vendors' folders, if found on the system.)

Ahah...then that, along with the machine name & ID, is probably a good entry for me to remove from the .REG when pushing initial settings by GPO.

I oversimplified a bit...the other piece that would be needed is to eliminate the index numbers of the other values in each key. For example, in Services, instead of this: Service0 = AppHostSvc Service1 = AppInfo ... ServiceN = wuausrv It would need to be: AppHostSvc = "" AppInfo = "" ... wuausrv = "" Or else use value 1 for monitored, 0 for not monitored. That's probably obvious to anyone who's ever worked with the Registry, but I also don't want you to go to all the trouble to create something I still can't use! And, by the way, if you ever DO decide to add ADMX support, you'll be in really good shape to do so.

Agent 2.5 installed over the last 24 hours on my 10 machines. Of those, 5 posted an "up and running" notification when the Agent launched after the update, 5 did not. My Event notification that notifies me when it finds the Event that PCM logs when it discovers an update lets me know what's going on. With that, I'm less concerned by the bogus "up and running" notification that otherwise implies a restart. But be aware that I'm still getting them.

Take your time...I'm just happy that you're going to do this!

Thanks, again, for listening!

OK, I'll look into the server product when I get closer to production. But in perspective, Linux & Mac already require a separate client. And Linux & Mac don't have Registries, or .Net, do they. So you're already knee-deep in tri-platform support. To your credit, you're not relying on Java (at least on Windows) for cross-platform AND PLEASE KEEP IT THAT WAY. THAT'S ONE OF THE REASONS I LIKE PCM. So when Mac or Linux have their own equivalents for Group Policy--and maybe they already do, I'm not expert on that--you can and should support that just as you do the OS's themselves. Meanwhile, the 95+% of us that use Windows could be using ADMXs RIGHT NOW. And Group Policy works really, really, really well. ****************************************** Meantime--and I can't stress this enough--if you stop using the "Count" value to store the upper bound of your arrays, we can roll our own homebrew Group Policies using Group Policy Preferences. This is not a difficult programming problem to solve, and it would give small PCM sites a LOT more functionality. And I'd not keep harping on this like I am now! ******************************************

Thanks; I know you're improving it as fast as possible! And it sounds like the PCM Server may address my biggest concern. But the web site doesn't describe the admin tool, or provide any screenshots. I don't want to fuss with installing the trial version to get this answer: Does the admin tool allow me to set up a new machine whose config matches an existing machine, and have the correct PC Monitor configuration applied to it automatically, without touching the machine or the admin tool, as Group Policy would?

Marius, this was among my first threads here. I think I read here recently that the PCM service will now auto-start after install in the next version, which will help. You've already acknowleged that PCM isn't quite enterprise ready, so I'm sorry to beat a dead horse. But this isn't even on your Roadmap. IMHO, it seriously needs to be. The more I get into this, the more I realize how CRITICAL it is going to be for PCM to support Group Policy ADMXs (or at least ADMs) to be usable in the Enterprise. And/Or SCCM. My current preference would probably be ADMXs. Would prefer that you avoid using a proprietary management console, but if you do, make sure it's a genuine MMC snap-in and not one of those sluggish, clumsy Java- (or PowerShell-) based consoles that too many vendors use these days. Esp. if it ties us to a specific Java or PowerShell version. Those are the worst. Bad enough I have to install .Net 4 everywhere for PCM! I've found that causes some headaches with MS App-V and Forefront UAG. MMCs avoid all that (in the Windows world, anyway). I'm doing a pilot system right now that, if all goes well, will scale to dozens, then 100s of servers in the next few years. I'd like to bring PCM with me; I think it's a great product. In pilot, I'm trying to design everything with an eye toward that scalable future while keeping costs down. But PCM, while handy and inexpensive at my current scale, is not scalable. Right now, the need to touch each machine is merely a nuisance. Ultimately, I need to be able to drop a machine in an OU and have all its settings--including PCM--applied automatically so I can stamp out new servers as quickly and consistently as possible. With PCM's current design, it is very difficult to manage with the only tools I have available: .REG scripts and Group Policy Preferences. If PCM Server included ADMXs, I'd have already purchased a license. In the long run, I won't consider a PCM Server license without ADMXs. Even wearing my former SMB consulting business hat, I'd be asking for the same thing. Even when you have 8 or 10 servers, if you also have a tight IT budget, GPOs become your best friend. PCM really needs to support this. A STOPGAP: If you do nothing else in the short term, the "Count" registry entry is a KILLER; that HAS to go away ASAP. That would make those 2 tools MUCH more usable until you have Policy support. In fact, I could probably forgive lack of ADMXs for a while if I could just use GPP.

Oops...never mind. I can already monitor ports on a remote computer. Just didn't notice it in the GUI!

...but not enough. I'd like to configure PCM to attempt a TCP or UDP connection to specific port(s) on remote computer(s) to verify that they're listening. For example, verify that TCP 3389 is listening on a Remote Desktop Session Host, or UDP 53 on a DNS server. You don't have to have much running for a PING test to pass, so it's a pretty minimal test. But in addition, Ping is often exempted from IPSec. So by checking for other protocols that aren't exempted from IPSec, you can also get an idea if IPSec is your connectivity problem.

Assuming 2.5b6 includes this fix, I've just installed it on the server with the problem (the SBS box) after PCM false-alarmed again tonight on the 6 Sep Event.  From your description, I'm sure it's fixed, but will monitor and let you know.

Great! Thanks, again, Marius.

PC Monitor agent 2.5 beta 5 I have an Event Log monitor that notifies me if it finds an Application event from source "Backup" of level "Error". There are a few in the log, the last occuring 30 Sep 2011. However, PC Monitor has sent me 3-4 Notifications AFTER that last event. The latest bogus notification was at 2:07AM this morning, and I realized from the Notification details that it was actually reporting an Event that occured 6 Sep 2011; currently, the first such event in the log. I did not record which Events the prior Notifications were reporting, but I do know there were no Events coincident with the Notifications.

Thanks; I guess I didn't make my question clear. When using PC Monitor's Exchange module for remote monitoring of Exchange 2010, I'm required to enter user credentials. What are the least permissions for the monitoring account that I enter? Is a Domain User account enough?

1. In an Exchange 2010 Organization with multiple servers, using PCM Remote Monitoring, do I need to monitor each EX2010 server from another server, or if I monitor one, does that monitored server report health of all Exchange servers? 2. I assume the reason remote is recommended is for performance, compatibility, or both. But please advise as to what your recommendation is based on. Thanks!

What are the least permissions for the account used for Exchange 2010 Remote Monitoring?