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December 2006 Newsletter

December 12, 2006 Volume 2, Number 4

In This Issue

·     New stuff at TNT Software

·     Migrating an Existing ELM Installation to a New Machine

·    Seeing a 'Maximum job queue entries' Message?

·    Restart a Failed Service from the Service Monitor

·    NOT Strictly Business

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New Stuff at TNT Software

1. Read Randy Franklin Smith's (Ultimate Windows Security) article about TNT Software's ELM products.
2. Read a review of ELM Enterprise Manager 4.0 in the December issue of Redmond magazine
3. Find TNT Software's ELM Enterprise Manager 4.0 in the December Windows IT Pro Buyer's Guide for Network Monitoring, pg. 31.

Migrating an Existing ELM Installation to a New Machine

When you prepare to install ELM on the new server, first make a copy of the EEMSVR.DAT file on the current server. Also make a copy of Report definition xml files found in the Data sub-folder of the Website\Reports folder. Run the installation on the new server and, when finished, stop the ELM Server Service. Drop the copied EEMSVR.DAT file into the ELM installation folder on the new box (overwrite the existing file), the Reports definition files into the Data sub-folder, then restart the ELM Server Service. You must update the agent configurations to have them report to the new ELM Server.

If you wish to just create a new clean database, then it's as simple as running the Database Connection Wizard and pointing the ELM Primary database to the new database; if the database doesn't exist ELM will prompt you to create it. Once you finish the Wizard, ELM will be writing to the new database. To launch the ELM Database Wizard, right-click the ELM Server name and select All Tasks | Database Settings.

If you wish to retain your current ELM database and move it to a new SQL Server:

1. Stop the ELM Server service.
2. Detach the ELM Primary database from your SQL server installation.
3. Move the .mdf and .ldf ELM database files to your new SQL Server
4. Re-attach the database in SQL.
5. Launch the ELM Database Settings Wizard from the Windows Control Panel ELM applet by selecting the database tab.
6. Point ELM to the correct SQL Server name, (database name should remain the same).
7. Restart the ELM Server service when the wizard has completed.

Seeing a 'Maximum job queue entries' Message?

This occurs when the Job Queue is too full to accept another item. It can happen when sending many events through a Notification Method, and is magnified for a method that takes longer to complete. Pager notification is frequently a slower method, as well as net send or web post notifications if network conditions delay completion. It will also happen if a notification is configured to run a command script that is not completing promptly, or by playing a large sound file or using text-to-speech.

Decreasing the number of events that trigger this notification or reducing the time to completion for actions would be good approaches to resolving this if it is a recurrent issue.

To determine precisely which Notification Method is generating this message, match the GUID for the Notification Method against the GUID in the error message: {55997031-5519-404F-A0EA-A21F7062D8EF} for example. To see this information in the Notification Methods container in the ELM Console, select the 'Add/Remove columns...' option from the View menu. Scroll through the list of 'Available Columns' in the Add/Remove Columns dialog box, and select 'Index'. Click the 'Add->' button, and then select 'OK'. You can now view the GUID for each Notification method in the ELM Console. When completed, you can reverse the process to 'Remove' the 'Index' column from the list of 'Displayed Columns'.

Although this error is usually transient and does not indicate a long term problem or concern, if desired you can increase the Maximum Queue entries for a Notification by editing the registry on the ELM Server to add/change the:

MaxNotificationQueueEntriesPerItem

DWord Value, located in the:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ TNT Software \ < ELM Product > \ 4.0 \ Settings

registry key on the ELM Server. After editing, restart the ELM Server service to put the change into effect. Usage of this registry setting and many other available settings are discussed in the "ELM Server Registry Entries" topic of the ELM help file.

To Restart a Failed Service from the Service Monitor:

1. Create a new Service Monitor, or double-click an existing Service Monitor to view its properties.
2. Select the Actions tab, then select the Stopped sub-tab.
3. Put a check in the Run Command checkbox, and then click the Edit button.
4. In the Script Name field, enter RestartService.cmd.
5. In the Type field, use the dropdown to select cmd.exe.
6. 6. Copy and paste the following script into the Script field:

   rem =========  Begin Script ==================
   	rem Restart Failed Service
   	rem on Service Agent or Remote Agent
   
   	rem If the computer being monitored is the local computer
   	rem use NET START, otherwise use SM.EXE to restart
   	rem the service on the remote computer
   	if "%COMPUTER%"=="" goto failed
   	if "%SERVICE%"=="" goto failed
   
   	rem Check to see if the failed service is on the
   	rem local computer or a remote computer
   	if /I "%COMPUTER%"=="%COMPUTERNAME%" goto do_local
   	if /I NOT "%COMPUTER%"=="%COMPUTERNAME%" goto do_remote
   
   	:do_remote
   	rem If the Service name has a space in it, use "%SERVICE%"
   	SM.EXE \\%COMPUTER% %SERVICE% /START
   	goto finished
   
   	:do_local
   	rem If the Service name has a space in it, use "%SERVICE%"
   	NET START %SERVICE%
   	goto finished
   
   	:failed
   	echo A required environment variable is not defined.
   	echo The service cannot be re-started.
   	goto finished
   
   	:finished
   	rem End 
   
   Rem ============= End Script ============================

7. Click OK to save the Script.
8. Click OK to save the changes to the Service Monitor.

For more information about the Service monitor or other monitor items see the ELM online help file accessed by clicking on the yellow question mark icon in the ELM Console toolbar. In the help file, access the Contents tab, expand the User Guide | Monitoring | Monitor Items containers, select any monitor item help topic.

NOT Strictly Business

• More diamonds are purchased at Christmas-time (31 percent) than during any other holiday or occasion during the year.
• Left-handed people are 20 percent more likely to sample a forkful of food from the plates of fellow diners than are right-handed people. .
• The planet Venus does not tilt as it goes around the Sun, so consequently, it has no seasons. On Mars, however, the seasons are more exaggerated and last much longer than on Earth.
• The most ancient report of a solar eclipse is in Chinese records. The eclipse came without warning, according to legend, because the royal astronomers, Hsi and Ho, were too drunk to make the necessary computations. They were executed – the only astronomers known to have been killed for dereliction of duty.
• Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire, invented the first alarm clock in 1787. It only rang at 4 a.m. because that's what time he got up.
• In North Dakota, it is legal to shoot an Indian on horseback, provided you are in a covered wagon.
• The epitaph on the headstone of Mel Blanc, “The Man of 1,000 Voices,” including Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig, reads: “That’s all, folks!”
• Root Beer was invented in Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1898 by Edward Adolf Barq, Sr.

December 12th in History

1719 - The Aurora Borealis was first recorded.
1792 - Ludwig van Beethoven, at age 22, paid 19 cents for his first music lesson from composer Franz Joseph Haydn in Vienna.
1870 - Joseph Hayne Rainey was sworn in as the first black to serve in the United States House of Representatives.
1896 - Guglielmo Marconi gave the first public demonstration of wireless communication in London. On the same day in 1901 he made the first transatlantic radio transmission from Cornwall to Newfoundland.
1913 - The painting "Mona Lisa" was recovered in Florence after having been stolen from the Louvre two years earlier.
1955 - The Ford Foundation announced the largest philanthropic act in the world, giving $500,000,000 to private hospitals, medical schools, and colleges.
1979 - The port of Tumaco, Colombia, was hit by an earthquake measuring 8.0; 600 died and 80,000 were made homeless.
1980 - At an auction in London, England, oil tycoon Armand Hammer bought a notebook of Leonardo da Vinci's writings for $5.28 million, the highest price ever paid for a manuscript. The notebook was 36 pages long and dated back to 1508.

Born on December 12th:

1745 John Jay U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice d: 1829
1806 Stand Watie Cherokee Indian Chief d: 1871
1915 Francis Albert Sinatra d: 1998
1951 Rush Limbaugh radio talk show host
1964 Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon.com