I wrote an example of this a long time ago. I was never happy with it, as it was VBScript based, hard to troubleshoot, and required lots of editing each time you wanted to reuse it. It was also error prone, and didn’t work if the SQL query results contained computers that didn’t exist in SCOM, as SCOM will reject the entire discovery data payload in that case.
If you too were looking for a reliable and easy way to do this, well, look no further! I have created an MP Fragment in my fragment library for this:
https://github.com/thekevinholman/FragmentLibrary
This MP Fragment will make creating SCOM groups of Windows Computers from a SQL query super easy! This is a nice way to “delegate” the ability for end users to control what servers will appear in their scopes, as they often have the ability to easily add and remove computers from a database or CMDB, but they do not have access to SCOM Group memberships.
I am going to demonstrate using Silect MP Author Pro to reuse this Fragment, and you can also easily use Visual Studio with VSAE. If you’d like to read more on either of those, see:
In Silect MP Author Pro – create a new, empty management pack, and select “Import Fragment”
Browse the fragment and choose: Class.Group.SQLQueryBasedGroupWindowsComputers.mpx
We need to simply input the values here, such as:
Click “Import”
Silect MP Author Pro will automagically handle the references for you, so just say “Yes” on the popup:
That’s IT! 
Save it, and deploy it!
If you look in SCOM after a few minutes – you should see your group:
The rule to populate it runs once a day by default, but it will run immediately upon import. Look for event ID 7500 in the OpsMgr event log on the Management Server that hosts your All Management Servers Resource Pool object
Once you see these events and no errors in them – you can view group membership in SCOM:
So easy. And you don’t have to know anything about XML, or even Management Packs to do it!
Using Visual Studio with VSAE works exactly the same way – you simply have to do a manual Find/Replace for each item. See the VSAE method in the link above.
Want to dig deeper into how this is put together? Read on:
The MP we generate is very basic. There is a Class (the Group definition) a Relationship (the Group contains Windows Computers) and a discovery (queries SQL and discovers the relationship to the existing Windows Computers in SCOM)
The script is below:
We basically connect to SQL, return a list of FQDN’s from the query, look the results up and see if they exist in SCOM, if they do, add them to the group.
We will log events along the way to help in troubleshooting if anything doesn’t work, and record the completion and total script runtime, like all my SCOM scripts.
#================================================================================= # Group Population script based on SQL Query # Your query should return a list of FQDN names only # # Kevin Holman # v1.1 #================================================================================= param($SourceID, $ManagedEntityID) # Manual Testing section - put stuff here for manually testing script - typically parameters: #================================================================================= # $SourceId = '{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}' # $ManagedEntityId = '{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}' # $SQLServer = "FOO" # $SQLDBName = "CMDB" # $SQLQuery = "SELECT SERVERNAME from serverlist" #================================================================================= # Constants section - modify stuff here: #================================================================================= # Assign script name variable for use in event logging $ScriptName = "FAB.MyApp.SCOMComputerGroupFromSQL.SQLBased.Group.Discovery.ps1" $EventID = "7501" $SQLServer = "SQL2A" $SQLDBName = "CMDB" $SQLQuery = "select SERVERNAME from serverlist" #================================================================================= # Starting Script section #================================================================================= # Gather the start time of the script $StartTime = Get-Date # Load MOMScript API $momapi = New-Object -comObject MOM.ScriptAPI # Load SCOM Discovery module $DiscoveryData = $momapi.CreateDiscoveryData(0, $SourceId, $ManagedEntityId) #Set variables to be used in logging events $whoami = whoami #Log script event that we are starting task $momapi.LogScriptEvent($ScriptName,$EventID,0,"`n Script is starting. `n Running as ($whoami).") #================================================================================= # Connect to local SCOM Management Group Section #================================================================================= # Clear any previous errors $Error.Clear() # Import the OperationsManager module and connect to the management group $SCOMPowerShellKey = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\System Center Operations Manager\12\Setup\Powershell\V2" $SCOMModulePath = Join-Path (Get-ItemProperty $SCOMPowerShellKey).InstallDirectory "OperationsManager" Import-module $SCOMModulePath New-DefaultManagementGroupConnection "localhost" IF ($Error) { $momapi.LogScriptEvent($ScriptName,$EventID,1,"`n FATAL ERROR: Failure loading OperationsManager module or unable to connect to the management server. `n Terminating script. `n Error is: ($Error).") EXIT } #================================================================================= # Begin MAIN script section #================================================================================= #Log event for captured parameters $momapi.LogScriptEvent($ScriptName,$EventID,0,"`n SQLServer: ($SQLServer) `n SQLDatabase: ($SQLDBName). `n SQL Query: ($SQLQuery).") # Health Service class section # We need this list of SCOM agents, so we can only submit discovery data for a Healthservice in SCOM otherwise SCOM will reject the discovery data, and this will clean up deleted stale Windows Computer objects that will remain until the next discovery # Clear any previous errors $Error.Clear() # Get all instances of a existing Health Service class $HS = Get-SCOMClass -Name "Microsoft.SystemCenter.Healthservice" | Get-SCOMClassInstance $HSNames = $HS.DisplayName $HSCount = $HSNames.count IF($Error) { $momapi.LogScriptEvent($ScriptName,$EventID,1, "`n FATAL ERROR: Unable to gather Healthservice instances from SCOM. `n Error is: $Error") EXIT } ELSE { $momapi.LogScriptEvent($ScriptName,$EventID,0, "`n Get all Health Service Objects has completed. `n Returned ($HSCount) Health Service Objects from SCOM.") } # END Health Service class section # Connect to and then Query the database $SqlConnection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection $SqlConnection.ConnectionString = "Server=$SQLServer;Database=$SQLDBName;Integrated Security=True" $SqlCmd = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand $SqlCmd.CommandText = $SqlQuery $SqlCmd.Connection = $SqlConnection $SqlAdapter = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter $SqlAdapter.SelectCommand = $SqlCmd $ds = New-Object System.Data.DataSet $SqlAdapter.Fill($ds) | Out-Null $SqlConnection.Close() # Check for errors connecting to SQL IF ($Error) { $momapi.LogScriptEvent($ScriptName,$EventID,1,"`n FATAL ERROR: There was an attempting to connect to and query SQL. `n Terminating script. `n Error is: ($Error).") EXIT } # Set the output to a variable [array]$SQLNames = $ds.Tables[0] $SQLNamesCount = $SQLNames.Count IF ($SQLNamesCount -ge 1) { $momapi.LogScriptEvent($ScriptName,$EventID,0,"`n Successfully collected ($SQLNamesCount) records from the SQL query.") } ELSE { $momapi.LogScriptEvent($ScriptName,$EventID,1,"`n FATAL ERROR: There was an error getting records from SQL or no records were returned. `n Number of objects returned: ($SQLNamesCount). `n Terminating script.") EXIT } # Set namelist array to empty [array]$NameList = @() # Loop through each Name from SQL and build an array of FQDN hostnames FOREACH ($SQLName in $SQLNames) { #Get the Hostname property from SQL [string]$DNSComputerName = $SQLName[0] $NameList += $DNSComputerName } $NameListCount = $NameList.Count #Discovery Section #Set the group instance we will discover members of $GroupInstance = $DiscoveryData.CreateClassInstance("$MPElement[Name='FAB.MyApp.SCOMComputerGroupFromSQL.SQLBased.Group']$") # Loop through each SCOM computer and add a group membership containment relationship to the discovery data $i=0; FOREACH ($Name in $NameList) { #Check to make sure the name we got from AD exists as a Healthservice in this Management Group IF ($Name -in $HSNames) { $i = $i+1 $ServerInstance = $DiscoveryData.CreateClassInstance("$MPElement[Name='Windows!Microsoft.Windows.Computer']$") $ServerInstance.AddProperty("$MPElement[Name='Windows!Microsoft.Windows.Computer']/PrincipalName$", $Name) $RelationshipInstance = $DiscoveryData.CreateRelationshipInstance("$MPElement[Name='FAB.MyApp.SCOMComputerGroupFromSQL.SQLBased.Group.Contains.Windows.Computers']$") $RelationshipInstance.Source = $GroupInstance $RelationshipInstance.Target = $ServerInstance $DiscoveryData.AddInstance($RelationshipInstance) } } IF ($i -ge 1) { $momapi.LogScriptEvent($ScriptName,$EventID,0,"`n Successfully found ($i) Computers in SCOM from the original ($NameListCount) DNS names from the query.") } ELSE { $momapi.LogScriptEvent($ScriptName,$EventID,1,"`n FATAL ERROR: No computers in SCOM were found matching the ($NameListCount) DNS names from the query. `n Terminating script.") EXIT } # Return Discovery Items Normally $DiscoveryData # Return Discovery Bag to the command line for testing (does not work from ISE) # $momapi.Return($DiscoveryData) #================================================================================= # End MAIN script section # End of script section #================================================================================= #Log an event for script ending and total execution time. $EndTime = Get-Date $ScriptTime = ($EndTime - $StartTime).TotalSeconds $momapi.LogScriptEvent($ScriptName,$EventID,0,"`n Script Ending. `n Script Runtime: ($ScriptTime) seconds.") #================================================================================= #End Script
Key recommendations:
1. Don’t run your frequency <intervalseconds> too often. If updating the group once a day is ok, leave it at the default. If you need it more frequent, that’s fine, just remember it’s a script, and all scripts running on the management servers have an impact on the overall load, plus we are submitting discovery data about relationships each time, and searching through SQL and SCOM via the SDK.
2. The default timeout is set to 5 minutes. If you cannot complete this in less, something is WRONG. If that is true for you, you need to find out where it is taking too long.
3. If you have a lot of SQL based SCOM groups, consider adding a staggered sync time to each discovery, so they don’t all run at the same time, or on the same interval.
Hi Kevin,
I have used this fragment to create some groups in SCOM. But I am trying to use this to create a group that contains the Health Watcher object for some agents. I have not been able to get that to work. I changed the relationship type target to be Microsoft.SystemCenter.AgentWatcher and in the class in the script to be the same. Any ideas or bumps into the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks
Hey Kevin,
Since there is little about this online I was hoping to get some help here.
I had an ambitious idea of dynamically populating a variety of groups based on the results of a sql query.
However, the groups I want to populate are instances of a non-singleton class.
Would it be possible to still use the same method, while adding instance properties (using .AddProperty on the $groupInstance) for each of the required properties of this non-singleton class? If it is possible, but doesn`t work this way, could you enlighten me on the way forward (basically, how do I populate the discovery data such that scom knows which instance of my group class will contain the servers)?
The data returned from SQL can tell me which group I would want my server to be related to, as well as its properties.
Thanks!
Just replying to myself here – I managed to make it work for a class that inherited from ComponentGroup (MSSL!Microsoft.SystemCenter.ServiceDesigner.ServiceComponentGroup – not a regular group) and this component group was not a singleton.
The only important part is to include all the required properties of the non singleton group in the discovery as well.