MOM Notification Workflow Solution Accelerator

Quickstart Guide

 

 

Introduction.. 2

IMPORTANT NOTICE /DISCLAIMER: 2

Prerequisites.. 2

Installation Tasks.. 2

Install SQLXML SP3. 2

Install SOAP Toolkit 3.0. 3

Install SQL Notification Services SP1. 4

Install Notification Workflow Solution Accelerator. 6

Verifying installation is successful 8

Configure ASP.NET Impersonation. 10

Configure Default Page. 11

Post Installation Tasks.. 11

To Verify the FROM: Address. 11

To Configure the Remote SMTP server: 12

Registering AppConfig.xml Changes. 12

Subscribing to Alerts.. 13

Additional Resources.. 13

Revisions.. 13

 

 

Introduction

 

This document was created out of a need to simply the NWSA installation process, which is not fully documented in any single document, and is lacking on a couple of the dependencies and installation steps in my humble option. To be fair, the information exists in the NWSA user and installation of guides plus a couple of MSKB articles, but I wanted to gather up all the details and boil it down to the essential elements into a quick study so folks could get NWSA up and running quickly and easily….without the need for knowledge of SQL Notification Services.

 

If you find this document helpful...or lacking in some way, I welcome your feedback.

I can be reached at pete.zerger@gmail.com or you may leave feedback on my weblog.

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE /DISCLAIMER:

 

·     Install components in the order shown. 

·     These instructions assume NWSA is being installed on the MOM database server, as that is where the NWSA installation BITS seem to direct the actual SQL database creation.

 

A distributed installation is possible (database and web components on different servers), but since the web component overhead is low, these instructions assume installation of all components on the MOM database server. If you have ultra-high performance requirements, consider a distributed installation and size hardware components appropriately.

 

Prerequisites

 

Verify the following on your MOM database server prior to beginning the installation process

 

·     Verify .NET Framework 1.1 is installed and ASP.NET is enabled prior to installation of remaining components.

·     IIS 6.0 should be installed and the default website running on the server where you intend to install the NWSA.

·     SQL Server and SQL Agent components should be running at the time of installation.

·     Your MOM 2005 installation should be installed and fully functional.

·     A valid SMTP server (Windows SMTP Server, Exchange Server must be available on your network for

·     Default script engine is set to CSCRIPT.

·     Verify time is synchronized on MOM management and database servers.

·     Visit Windows Update and make sure any critical updates have been applied, such as critical .NET framework updates.

 

 

Installation Tasks

Install SQLXML SP3

Download the software from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=51d4a154-8e23-47d2-a033-764259cfb53b&DisplayLang=en

 

  1. Double-click the sqlxmlsp3.msi executable
  2. On the Welcome screen, click Next.      
  3. On the End User License Agreement screen, accept the license agreement and click Next.
  4. On the Customer Information screen, enter the appropriate user and organization information
  5. On the Choose Setup Type screen, select the Install Now button.

 

 

 

  1. When complete, click Finish. No reboot is necessary.

 

Install SOAP Toolkit 3.0

Download the software from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C943C0DD-CEEC-4088-9753-86F052EC8450&displaylang=en

 

  1. Double-click the soapsdk.msi executable
  2. When prompted to install the Soap Toolkit, click Yes.
  3. On the Welcome screen, click Next.
  4. On the End User License Agreement screen, accept the license agreement and click Next.
  5. On the Customer Information screen, enter the appropriate user and organization information
  6. On the Custom Setup screen, accept the defaults and click Install.

 

 

  1. When installation is complete, click the Finish button.     

 

Install SQL Notification Services SP1

Download the software from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ae73472b-5d7c-4266-94d4-7dde7e315b98&DisplayLang=en#filelist

 

  1. Double-click the MSSQLNS20SP1.Std.en.exe executable
  2. On the Welcome screen, click Next.
  3. On the End User License Agreement screen, accept the license agreement and click Next.
  4. On the Customer Information screen, enter the appropriate user and organization information. In the install this application for section, select Everyone.

 

 

  1. On the Custom Setup screen, deselect Sample Applications and click Next.

 

 

  1. On the Database Components Setup screen, select the name of the SQL instance you wish to use. This will generally be the same instance as your MOM database server.

 

 

  1. On the SQL Server Login Information screen, select Windows authentication. This meets with MS best practices and should match your original selection when installing SQL 2000 on the MOM database server. Click Next.

 

 

  1. Ready to Install the Program screen, click Install. Installation will take only a minute or two.

 

 

  1. When complete, click Finish. You are now ready to install the MOM 2005 Notification Workflow Solution Accelerator.

 

Install Notification Workflow Solution Accelerator

Download the software from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8D25C80D-C978-4B23-825A-7AE7B4775B0F&displaylang=en

 

For additional info, see the "Notification Workflow Installation Guide.doc" in the folder where you expanded NWSA

 

 

  1. Double-click the Notification Workflow.msi executable. On the Welcome screen, set the 'Install Notification Workflow' button to Everyone, and then click Next.

 

 

  1. On the Confirm Installation screen, click Next.

 

  1. On the Enter Installation Details screen you'll need to provide a number of parameters.

 

 

·         A valid logon ID, which consists of the domain and user name. This should be written in the format Domain\User Name. This account will be used to run the Notification Workflow service (N$NotificationWorkflow). I used my MOM action account in this case, simply because I know it has administrative privileges in my environment.

·         The user password corresponding to the logon ID.

·         The text that will be used in the From field in any notification e-mails.

·         The polling interval (in minutes). This is the time period that will be used to poll for new alerts from the MOM 2005 database. The value that you choose for this property directly affects how fast you can receive notifications once an alert is generated. Make sure that you consider your service level agreement (SLA), if you have one in place, to determine the optimized value for this property.

·         The name of the MOM Management Server. This is the name of server where the Management Server of MOM is installed.

 

  1. After completing these details, click Install. When installation is complete, click Close.

 

Verifying installation is successful

 

Assuming installation is successful, type the following address in Internet Explorer to access the Notification Workflow console:

 

http://<servername>/NotificationWorkflow.Web/HomePage.aspx,  where <servername> is the name of the server where you installed the NWSA.

 

If the page fails to render, you'll likely see the following error:

 

HTTP Error 401.1 - Unauthorized: Access is denied due to invalid credentials.
Internet Information Services (IIS)

This is because the Notification Workflow virtual directory in IIS 6.0 is set to Anonymous access only be default.

To resolve this issue, perform the following steps.

  1. Launch the IIS Manager MMC snap-in in Start, Administrative Tools menu.
  2. Expand the default website, and right click the Notification Workflow virtual directory (NotificationWorkflow.web) and select Properties.

  1. Select the Directory Security tab. Under Authentication and access control, click edit.

 

  1. On the Authentication Methods screen, disable anonymous access and enable Integrated Windows authentication. Click OK to accept the change.

 

 

 

Configure ASP.NET Impersonation

 

Also, ASP.NET impersonation is not configured by default. Impersonation is required to ensure only users granted explicit permissions can access the site.

 

Perform the actions in the following steps:

1.       Locate the Web.config file in \<Notification Workflow installation folder>\Presentation\MSMNW.Web\.

2.       Locate the following text: <authentication mode="Windows" />.

3.       Add the following text: <identity impersonate=”true”/> immediately below the preceding section.

4.       Save the file.

5.       Run IIS Manager.

6.       Expand the Web Sites node.

7.       Expand the Default Web Site node.

8.       Right click the NotificationWorkflow.Web node.

9.       Click the Directory Security tab.

10.    Click Edit in the Authentication and access control section.

11.    Clear the Enable anonymous access check box.

12.    Verify that the Integrated Windows authentication check box is selected.

13.    Restart the World Wide Web Publishing Service.

 

Configure Default Page

 

  1. In IIS Manager, right click the default website and select Properties.
  2. On the Documents tab, add homepage.aspx to the default documents list.
  3. Attempt access to the site again -  http://<servername>/NotificationWorkflow.Web/HomePage.aspx  .... Shazaam, the site appears!

 

 

Post Installation Tasks

 

We need to configure values for the SMTP server that will be used to relay messages. While we could use the local server, I prefer to use my existing SMTP server to handle notification delivery. The remote SMTP server can be an Exchange Server, a Windows server running SMTP, or even a non-Windows SMTP server.

Browse to the following directory in the Notification Workflow installation path: C:\program files\microsoft\notification workflow\Notification Workflow\AppDefinition. You should see 2 XML files here; AppADF.xml and AppConfig.xml. To configure the AppADF.xml and AppConfig.xml files, follow these steps:

  1. First, Stop the Notification Workflow service (NS$NotificationWorkflow) in Services Manager.

To Verify the FROM: Address

  1. Although it should be okay by default, you can check to be sure the correct FROM: address is listed in the AppADF.xml file.
  2. Open the AppADF.xml file by using a text editor. Locate the <FieldName>From</FieldName> entry.
  3. The entry should look similar to the following.

5.       <FieldName>From</FieldName>

  1. <SqlExpression>'NSAccount@testdom.com'</SqlExpression>
  2. If you need to change the address, do so and then save the file.
  3. When complete, restart the Notification Workflow (NS$Notification) service.

To Configure the Remote SMTP server:

 

While the Notification Workflow database components live on the MOM database server, it makes more sense to forward alerts to an appropriate SMTP server for final delivery. By default, no SMTP server is specified in the AppConfig.xml file, nor are instructions on configuring this given in the NWSA Installation Guide. In this section, we’ll update the xml configuration file and then save changes to the NWSA application using NSCONTROL, a command line utility in SQL Notification Services.

 

  1. Stop the NS$NotificationWorkflow service.
  2. Open the AppConfig.xml file by using a text editor.
  3. Locate the "<ProtocolName>SMTP</ProtocolName>" entry.
  4. Add the following "Arguments" section after the entry.

<Arguments>

         <Argument>

            <Name>SmtpServer</Name>

            <Value>EXCHSERVER</Value>   (If you want to use the local server as SMTP server as well, put LOCALHOST here!)

         </Argument>

         <Argument>

            <Name>BodyEncoding</Name>

            <Value>utf-8</Value>

         </Argument>

 </Arguments>

Registering AppConfig.xml Changes

 

Changes to the AppConfig.xml file must be registered with the Notification Workflow application itself using a SQL Notification Services command line tool called NSCONTROL. For more info on NSCONTROL, see SQL Notification Services Books Online

 

  1. The application must be disabled prior to being updated. Disable Notification Workflow by entering the following at the command line:

 

NSCONTROL DISABLE -name "NotificationWorkflow"

 

 

  1. Now, we can register the changes made to the AppConfig.xml file. Copy the following to a command prompt (single line) and press enter. Be sure to replace <server> with the name of the appropriate server – in this case, the name of the MOM database server.

 

NSCONTROL UPDATE -in "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Notification Workflow\Notification Workflow\AppDefinition\appconfig.xml" SQLServer=<server>  BaseDirectoryPath="C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Notification Workflow\Notification Workflow" NSSystem=<server>

 

  1. When complete, re-enable the application with the following command.

NSCONTROL ENABLE -name "NotificationWorkflow"

 

Subscribing to Alerts

Subscribing to MOM alerts requires configuration of 4 components on the Notification Workflow Website.

 

·     Creating and Activating  a Subscriber

·     Setting that Subscribers Schedule

·     Defining Subscriber Devices

·     Subscribers

 

These items are very well documented in the Notification Workflow User Guide, so I won’t regurgitate them again here.

 

Additional Resources

 

Prerequisites and configuration settings that are required to make the Notification Workflow Solution Accelerator fully functional with Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;894486

 

Also see the following guides in the directory where you extracted the NWSA files.

·     Notification Workflow Installation Guide

·     Notification Workflow User Guide

 

More info on the NSCONTROL utility and SQL Notification Services is available in SQL Notification Services Books Online.

 

 

Revisions

 

12/7/05 – Updated <bodyencoding> datatype in the AppConfig.xml section.

12/9/05 – Clarified SMTPServer options in AppConfig.xml section.