SC Operations Manager 2007 - Resolving the 'Cluster Node Discovery' Issue Effecting Exchange 2003 Cluster Nodes using Exchange 2003 Management Pack

In several recent SC Operations Manager 2007 Deployments I am working I encountered a challenge that took some assistance from Microsoft Premier Engineers and a Colleague of mine from Microsoft who formerly worked as a Professional Consultant (and who now works as a Product TS for System Center).  Special thanks to Chris Urban for his willingness to engage and offer input to solve this issue!

Here was the Challenge:

         In a healthy SC Operations Manager configuration including the Exchange 2003 Management Pack and the Windows Server Base OS Management Pack the Exchange 2003 Cluster Nodes cannot be discovered (and thus, the Exchange 2003 Management Pack was not functioning for the Exchange 2003 Rules, Alerts, Performance Data, Health Explorer, etc.).


Here's the Scenario:

1.  Windows 2003 Domain and Forest (Single Domain) in Windows 2003 Native Mode.

2.  Single SC Operations Manager 2007 Installation
       a.  Root Management Server Role
       b.  No Gateway Server Role
       c.  No ACS Server Role
       d.  Single Management Server
       e.  No Agentless Management Server Function
       f.   50 Servers Agent Managed

3.  Management Packs Installed
      a.  Windows Server Base OS Management Pack
      b.  Active Directory Management Pack
      c.  Information Worker Management Pack
      d.  Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack
      e.  SQL 2005 Management Pack
      f.   IIS Management Pack
      g.  Exchange 2003 Management Pack

Here's one possible Solution:

I found following this sequence (for these particular configurations) remedied this issue and allowed the Exchange 2003 Cluster Nodes to be Discovered (once discovered the Exchange 2003 Management Pack components began collecting Alerts, Performance Data, Health Monitor values, etc.).

1.  Uninstall the Exchange 2003 Management Pack (not absolutely necessary as it will work if you do not).
2.  Move to the Administration Space.
3.  Move to the 'Agent Managed' Node.
4.  Select the first Exchange 2003 Cluster Node.
5.  Select 'Properties' on the first Exchange 2003 Cluster Node.
6.  Select the 'Security' Tab.
7.  Enable the 'Allow this agent to act as a proxy and discover managed objects on other computers' under the 'Agent Proxy' section of the dialogue.
8.  Complete Steps 1-7 on the second (and any additional) Exchange Cluster Nodes.
9.  Wait approximately 30 minutes.
10.  Open the SC OM2k7 Management Console.
11.  Move to the 'Discovered Inventory' View.
12.  Observe (if this process was successful) the Exchange 2003 Virtual Server Cluster Node(s).
13.  Move to the Administration Space in the SC OM2k7 Management Console.
14.  Re-Import the Exchange 2003 Management Pack (if you Uninstalled it in Step 1).
15.  Move to the Monitoring Space in the SC OM2k7 Management Console.
16.  Move to the Exchange 2003 Management Pack. 
17.  Move to the 'All Server State' View in the Exchange 2003 Management Pack.
18.  Observe the Exchange 2003 Virtual Server Cluster Node by Name.
19.  Observe and configure Performance Views for the Exchange 2003 Virtual server Cluster Node.

I understand a modified Exchange 2003 Management Pack will be release by Microsoft for the SC OM2k7 Management Pack Catalog in the near future that will mitigate having to follow Steps 1-19 above - in the meantime I hope this helps!

Lynn Lunik
Independent Security Consultant
Windows(R) Platform
IT Pro Secure Corporation
blog <at> itprosecure.com