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Upgrade from SCOM 2022 to SCOM 2025 Checklist

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This is a planning checklist that will help you determine if an in-place upgrade is possible, and how to prepare the environment in advance for it. 

1. Verify we are moving from a supported version of SCOM 2022 to SCOM 2025.

2. Verify the SQL server versions and service pack levels are supported for both SCOM 2022 and SCOM 2025

  • DOCUMENT:  SQL is xx.x.xxxx (SQL 202x SPx) X Edition
  • Is this is supported for BOTH SCOM versions?
  • SCOM 2022 supports SQL 2017, SQL 2019 CU8 or later, and SQL 2022 CU11 or later.
  • SCOM 2025 supports SQL 2017, SQL 2019 CU8 or later, SQL 2022 CU11 or later, and SQL 2025 (SCOM only supports SQL 2025 if SCOM 2025 has UR1 applied)
  • Therefore – your SQL servers MUST be either SQL 2017, SQL 2019 CU8 or later, or SQL 2022 CU11 or later for a supported in place upgrade.
  • Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/system-center/scom/plan-sqlserver-design?view=sc-om-2025#sql-server-requirements

3. Verify all OS versions for SCOM server roles will be supported for both SCOM 2022 and SCOM 2025

4. Verify all SERVER ROLES meet minimum hardware sizing for SCOM 2025

5. Verify all AGENT managed Operating Systems are supported for SCOM 2025.

6. Verify all MANAGEMENT PACKS in use are supported for SCOM 2025.

  • There is a known issue that will cause the upgrade to fail if you have updated Linux MP’s in SCOM 2022.  Please see:  Upgrade from SCOM 2022 to SCOM 2025 fails due to Microsoft.Unix.Library
  • Check with 3rd party MP vendors and ensure their MP does not have any known support issues with SCOM 2025. Update these MP’s in advance if required.
  • All previous Microsoft MPs with the exception of UNIX/Linux MPs should work with SCOM 2025, although they might not be explicitly documented as supported in SCOM 2025 due to their age.

7. SCOM Database: Verify the OperationsManager database has more than 50 percent free space

8. Optimize Registry settings for management servers

9. Export and review the SCOM management server event logs on all management server roles

  • Look for critical and warning events that indicate major issues that should be resolved before upgrading.
  • Save these for comparison after the upgrade to verify any new issues are actually new

10. Verify SCOM is healthy

  • Review the “Operations Manager > Management Group Health” dashboard in addition to the event logs and ensure SCOM is healthy

11. T-SQL: Clean up the database ETL table in the OperationsManager database

12. Check ALL Management Packs for duplicate Aliases.

  • In previous versions of SCOM, duplicate aliases (with different case) was allowed.  This is no longer allowed.  However, we do not check for this condition as part of the upgrade.
  • Please run the PowerShell or SQL scripts at the bottom of this page in the KNOWN ISSUES section of this article to check for this condition and resolve this BEFORE continuing.

13. SCOM Console: Remove agents from Pending Management

14. Backup unsealed management packs

  • Get a fresh backup of all your unsealed MP’s which contain all your customizations, for disaster recovery
  • Example:    Get-SCOMManagementPack | where {$_.Sealed -eq $false}|Export-SCOMManagementPack -Path c:\mpbackup

15. REMOVE the OMS/Advisor management packs

16. SCOM Console: Disable Notification subscriptions

17. Disable product connectors or any external connections to the SDK.

18. Optional but recommended:  Restart the SQL server service on the OpsDB server and DW server

  • This will kill any stuck or old blocking processes, and free up any buffer cache
  • Wait at least 5 minutes after restarting to ensure the DB’s are online and functioning.
  • Ensure there is no active blocking in the OpsDB before continuing.
  • Consider a reboot of the entire server.

19. Optional but recommended:  Uninstall the SCOM Console and Web Console on the FIRST management server you plan to upgrade and REBOOT.

  • Removing these roles reduce the risk of an upgrade failure.
  • These roles are easy to reinstall once the management group upgrade is completed.

20. Stop the Operations Manager services on ALL Management servers

  • Stop the following services on all management servers in the management group, to ensure NO changes are being made to SQL during the backup, so we can get a good backup right before the upgrade:
  • Microsoft Monitoring Agent
  • System Center Data Access
  • System Center Configuration

21. Backup the SCOM databases

22. Backup the Management Servers

  • Take a VM snapshot or a full bare-metal backup that is restorable, with the SCOM services stopped, so there should be no transient data. This will be for use in the case of disaster recovery only.

23. Remove any old SDK reference software from the management server

  • Some programs install DLL’s that might block upgrade, consider removing them if installed on your management servers:
  • SCOM 2007 R2 Authoring Console
  • Silect MP Author/MP Studio

24. Optional but recommended: REBOOT ALL Management servers.

  • Rebooting these servers ensures that any OS related issues are observed or cleared before attempting an upgrade.
  • Rebooting these servers helps remove any question that something was wrong with them prior to the upgrade.
  • If a Management server cannot successfully reboot and start up without errors before an upgrade, it certainly cannot after an upgrade.

25. Upgrade the first management server

26. Upgrade additional management servers

  • It is CRITICAL not to upgrade multiple management servers at the same time. You should wait for one to complete FULLY and inspect the logs to ensure it is working, before continuing with the next.

27. Upgrade ACS (if applicable)

28. Upgrade all gateways (if applicable)

29. Upgrade Stand Alone Web Console servers (if applicable)

30. Upgrade Reporting Server

31. Upgrade Stand-Alone Consoles

32. Post Upgrade tasks

33. Reject Pending Management updates for any agents

  • We will update agents later, after applying the latest Update Rollup for SCOM 2025.  Reject any pending agents for an upgrade.

34. Verify your SCOM license is reporting correctly as licensed

35. Apply the latest Cumulative Update Rollup for SCOM 2025

36. Upgrade Agents

  • Using whatever method you choose, consider upgrading your agents to SCOM 2025 with the latest UR at this point.

 

What to do when things go wrong?

When SCOM upgrades fail, there will be a log telling us why.  Often times you will get an “Error 1603” which is simply a generic error and does not tell you anything.  These log files are typically located in the user profile directory of the account attempting the installation.  C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\SCOM\LOGS.  Review ALL the logs, and if needed provide all these logs to a Microsoft engineer when opening a support case.  Log files are not always easy to interpret – but the root cause is almost always in them.

Common issues causing failures:

  • Lack of permissions for the user account performing the upgrade (requires Local admin, SCOM admin, and SQL SysAdmin)
  • TLS 1.2 enforced on management servers or SQL but missing prerequisites
  • A SCOM Agent is installed on a SCOM Management server
  • SQL Database is experiencing blocking from another process.
  • SQL Database does not have enough free space or transaction log space.
  • Advisor MP caused the upgrade to fail because it was not deleted before attempting upgrade
  • Unix Core Library MP in SCOM 2022 UR3 can block upgrade

 

Resources:

SCOM 2025 Quickstart Guide

SCOM 2025 Security Accounts Matrix

How to upgrade and update SCOM agents using Tasks

SCOM Gateway Upgrades and Update Rollups made easy

 

Known Issues:

1.  Duplicate Aliases in Management Packs Issue:

  • You MUST check for duplicate aliases. If you have any MP’s with duplicate aliases the SDK will throw errors after the upgrade
  • In previous versions of SCOM, duplicate aliases (with different case) were allowed.  This is no longer allowed.  However, we do not check for this condition as part of the upgrade.
  • If impacted, your SCOM console might be stuck while “connecting”.
  • SDK PowerShell commands might return an error with “An object of class ManagementPackClass with ID <GUID> was not found”
  • Event 27000 In the OpsManager event log : “An Item with the same key has already been added”
  • Failed setup/upgrade installation with messages in the log: ”An Item with the same key has already been added”

Example of a bad MP:

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To detect MPs with this issue, you can use the following PowerShell or SQL query.  After detection, you will need to export these MP’s and re-label one of the duplicate Aliases, and re-label it anywhere it was used in the body of the XML.

PowerShell:

############################################
#Identify MPs imported with duplicate Aliases
$mps = Get-SCOMManagementPack
foreach ($mp in $mps)
{
  $hashTable = @{}
  foreach ($ref in $mp.References)
  {
    try {$hashTable.Add($ref.Key, $ref.Value)}
    catch
    {
      $MPName = $mp.Name
      $MPDisplayName = $mp.DisplayName
      $MPVersion = $mp.Version
      "MP contains duplicate aliases: Name=($MPName) DiplayName=($MPDisplayName) Version=($MPVersion)"
    }
  }
}
############################################

SQL:

-- LIST ALL MPs that have a duplicate Alias reference
declare
       @mpFriendlyName nvarchar(255),
       @mpName nvarchar(255),
       @mpId uniqueidentifier,
       @mpXml as xml

create table #badMPTable (
       mpId uniqueidentifier,
       mpName nvarchar(255),
       mpFriendlyName nvarchar(255)
)

declare mp_cursor cursor local forward_only read_only for
       select 
              MPFriendlyName,
              MPName,
              ManagementPackId,
              convert(xml, MPXML)
       from ManagementPack

open mp_cursor
fetch next from mp_cursor
into @mpFriendlyName, @mpName, @mpId, @mpXml

while @@FETCH_STATUS = 0 begin
       select
       n.value('@Alias','nvarchar(255)') as mpRef
       into #tempRefs
       from @mpXml.nodes('/ManagementPack/Manifest/References/Reference') as a(n)

       if exists(
              select count(*)
              from #tempRefs
              group by mpRef
              having count(*) > 1
       ) begin
              insert into #badMPTable (
                     mpId,
                     mpName,
                     mpFriendlyName
              ) values (
                     @mpId,
                     @mpName,
                     @mpFriendlyName
              )
       end

       drop table #tempRefs

       fetch next from mp_cursor
       into @mpFriendlyName, @mpName, @mpId, @mpXml
end

close mp_cursor  
deallocate mp_cursor

select *
from #badMPTable

drop table #badMPTable
--End

2. AD integration is broken out of the box in SCOM 2025.

You will see events such as:

Log Name:      Operations Manager
Source:        Health Service Modules
Event ID:      11460
Description:  There was an error while updating Management Group container.
Exception: System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.ActiveDirectoryObjectNotFoundException
Message: The specified domain does not exist or cannot be contacted.

This is caused by the fact that NT Authority\System is now exposed in the Operations Manager Administrators user role.  It was always present in previous versions of SCOM, but hidden.  Now that it is exposed, it will break AD integration.

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Remove this, and AD integration works fine.

3.  SCOM 2025 Web console Performance and Diagram views might throw a 500 error

  • Need to change security:
  • On the web console server – find the folder: \Program Files\Microsoft System Center\Operations Manager\WebConsole\MonitoringView\TempImages
  • Change the security on this folder for Authenticated Users – and add “Write” capability.

4.  SCOM 2025 upgrade will fail if you have updated Linux/Unix MP’s in SCOM 2022.

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