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How to use the SCOM Task tile

Documentation Team
  • Updated

How to use the SCOM Task tile

The SCOM task tile allows you to run SCOM tasks and display up to date in-depth data in Dashboard Server without adding the data to your Data Warehouse.

Running tasks in the tile allows you to show the results of a SCOM task in a tile on a dashboard or perspective. Tasks in the SCOM Task run every time the dashboard refreshes (by default every minute).

What are SCOM tasks?

SCOM tasks are tasks that can be executed for single objects, for example displaying the object's account settings. The tasks in Dashboard Server are similar to the tasks you find on the tasks pane in the SCOM console.

The results of SCOM tasks can help you to provide additional context or delegate information that usually requires specialist knowledge or privileges, which may help in resolving or understanding an issue. For example, you can use the SCOM Task tile for a CPU alert to list the processes running, or for a security alert to display which users are currently logged on.

Will SCOM tasks run on Open Access dashboards?

SCOM tasks can't be run on Open Access dashboards, because Open Access is unauthenticated. Users will see the error MISSING_SCOM_PERMISSION.

How to configure a SCOM Task tile

  1. Add a new tile to a dashboard and choose the SCOM Task tile.

  2. Choose the visualization for your SCOM Task tile:

    Use the Raw option when the results are returned as text.

    Use the Grid option when the returned data is in the form of a table, such as CSV, JSON, PowerShell list or PowerShell Table. The resulting data will then be formatted into columns, which you can edit, hide, reorder etc. See How to use the Grid Designer.

  3. Scope:

    Here you define the scope for the task. You have to pick one single object since a SCOM task has to be run for one specific object.

    On a dashboard, you can just search for the object by starting to enter the name of the object into the search box.

    On a perspective, you have different scope options.

    Note: If you never used a perspective, you should read Working with perspectives before scoping tiles on perspectives.

    The power of perspectives is that tiles on a perspective can use a dynamic scope. A dynamic scope considers the currently viewed object. A dynamic scope consists of two different states:

    • the configuration of the scope in the tile (for example, "consider child objects of type logical disk for the currently viewed object")

    • the actual resolved scope that depends on which object you are currently viewing ("this object has 5 child objects of type logical disk")

    After configuring the dynamic scope once in the tile, you'll get different results depending how the scope is resolved on the different objects you are viewing.

    This object

    The dynamic scope will be the resolved to the object that is currently viewed.

    Relative objects

    The dynamic scope will be resolved to relative objects (parents or children) of the object that is currently viewed.

    1. At the top, you'll see the name of the object you are currently looking at. Now you can choose if you want to pick parents or children of that object, and if this parent or child relation should be considered only one level up or down the SCOM model or through all levels.

    2. Class:

      Here you pick the class of the objects you want to select. If you leave this field empty, the scope falls back to the "this object" scope.

      Note: You will only see groups and classes that the object you are currently looking at is a member of.

      Tip: If you want to pick objects of any class, enter the SCOM base class logical entity in the class field.

      Tip: If you want to find out what classes the object you are interested in belongs to, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of that object. You'll see all the classes the object belongs to listed there.

    3. Criteria:

      You can narrow the selection of objects of a particular class down further by entering criteria for those objects. For more help see How to use criteria when scoping objects.

      Tip: If you want to find out what properties you can base your criteria on, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of the object you are interested in. You'll see all the properties for criteria listed there.

    .

    Note for SCOM task tiles:

    You have to pick one single object for SCOM task tiles since the task has to be run for one specific object. If you pick the scope option relative objects, you need to narrow the scope down to one object with the help of a class and criteria.

    Other specific objects

    Gives you the normal, non-dynamic scope options you are used to when scoping tiles on dashboards. This means the tile will not dynamically adapt it's content to the currently viewed object, it will always show data for the static object picked here.

    Since the power of perspectives is that their tiles can show data for different objects depending on what object is currently being viewed, you should only select this option when you are sure that there is no relationship between the desired scope and the currently viewed object.

  4. Task config:

    Here you choose the task you want to run.

    Which tasks are available depends on the object and the management packs that are installed. Only users with the correct SCOM access will be able to run the task (see How do SCOM roles affect what users can do in Dashboard Server?).

    Some tasks let you override parameters, for example the time until the task runs into a timeout. Which parameters are available depends on the task.

  5. Only for Grids: Configure the settings.

    Task return format

    Task output: A preview of the return data of the task.

    Format: You can choose between csv, json, and powershell list or table for displaying your return data. It depends on the data of the task which option you should choose to improve the formatting. For example, if you are running a PowerShell script, you should select powershell table to get the best result.

    Skip lines: If you want to skip displaying some lines from the return data you can define this here.

    Grid columns

    Grid columns opens the grid designer, where you can show or hide columns, change the order of columns, edit column names or add custom columns.

    How to use the Grid Designer

    Grid options

    Row link

    Allows you to turn the graph item(s) into links. You can either enter plain text to create a fixed link (URL always stays the same) or use dynamic properties to create a dynamic link.

    Dynamic links make use of dynamic properties which are inserted as part of the URL. This creates a template URL that will be resolved to an actual URL based on the items properties.

    For example, if you want to link to tickets in your ticket system and the format of the URL for tickets in your system is https://www.my-system/ticket-123, where 123 is the ticket ID, you can use the dynamic property that contains the ticket ID and enter the dynamic URL https://www.my-system/ticket-{{ticketID}}.

    • For scalars, you can only use the dynamic property value in dynamic links, which means the link changes when the value of the scalar changes. Since a scalar is just one item, it would also make sense to use a fixed link, for example the link to the website of which you are displaying the response time.

    • For status icon or bars and the rows of a grid, you usually want to use a dynamic link since you get multiple items or rows that represent different things. You can use any of the dynamic properties the mustache picker offers you.

    Dynamic mustache properties and values you need to change according to your instance are highlighted in bold.

    ServiceNow incidents:
    https://<your-instance>.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=%2Fincident.do%3Fsys_id%3D{{sys_id}}

    PagerDuty incidents:
    {{incident.html_url}}

    Azure DevOps projects:
    https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/{{name}}

    Azure DevOps builds:
    https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/_build/results?buildId={{id}}

    Zendesk tickets:
    https://<your-instance>.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/{{id}}

    Azure Application Insights
    https://portal.azure.com/#@squaredup.net/resource/{{ResourceId}}

    Show column headers

    You can choose between showing or hiding the header for all columns.

    Expand rows automatically

    Activate this checkbox if you want the row height to expand automatically based on the row content, for example if your grid uses increased text size, images, emojis etc.

  6. Click done to save the tile.

    The tile now shows data according to your settings.

Walkthroughs

The SCOM Task tile can be used on a dashboard or a perspective. This walkthrough shows you how to add a SCOM Task tile to an existing perspective.

  1. In Dashboard Server browse or search for a server.
  2. Open the Network perspective.
  3. Click on the edit button at the top right of the screen to go into edit mode.

  4. Click on an orange plus button to add a new tile, and select the SCOM Task tile.

  5. Edit the title by overwriting the placeholder value New tile with your own title.

  6. Click on On-Demand Task (Raw).

  7. Leave the scope section as it is.

  8. In the task config section click on the task to execute drop down list and select IPConfig.

  9. Click apply changes (execute). The task is run and you should see the data returned.

  10. Click done.

  1. Click on an orange plus button to add another new tile, and select the SCOM Task tile.

  2. Edit the title by overwriting the placeholder value New tile with your own title.

  3. Click on On-Demand Task (Grid).

  4. Leave the scope section as it is.

  5. In the task config section click on the task to execute drop down list and select Get Netstat CSV (Data on Demand).


  6. Click apply changes (execute). The task is run and you should see the data returned.

  7. In the task return format leave csv selected.
  8. In the grid columns section you can re-order, rename or even hide columns that you don't wish to see. For more information see How to use the Grid Designer.

  9. Click done.

Management Packs for SCOM tasks

Data on Demand management pack

The community Data on Demand management pack contains many useful tasks for getting data from your systems. For example, VADA uses the NetStat task from the Data on Demand management pack to get the information about which machines are connected to the server you're interested in.

The Data on Demand management pack is released by SquaredUp (free and open source), and it comes installed with Dashboard Server as a recommended Discovery Source. You can check its status and if it needs to be updated directly in Dashboard Server.

  1. Go to the right-hand menu ☰ > System > EAM.

  2. You find the necessary MPs under Core Libraries and the recommended MPs under Discovery Sources. If you're looking for additional Discovery Sources, click the all button in the Discovery Sources section.

    Note: You'll only find necessary MPs (Core Libraries) and recommended and additional Discovery Sources here. Other MPs (optional MPs) that you have added to the SCOM console won't be displayed on this page.

    Meaning of the icons:

    A green icon indicates that the MP is installed and up to date.

    A yellow icon indicates that action is required because an MP is missing or needs an update. Hover over the icon to find out more.

    (only for Discovery Sources) A gray icon indicates that VADA would be capable of discovering these objects, but the MP(s) needed for it are not installed.

    A blue icon indicates that a 3rd-party MP is out of date, it is not possible for Dashboard Server to update it automatically with the Import button, but the updated version is available from the 3rd party's website.

  3. If any MPs are missing or need an update, you see an Import button in the section. Clicking the Import button will automatically re-install the missing MPs and update outdated MPs.

    Note: The Import button is only available for necessary and recommended MPs. Additional Discovery Sources and optional MPs need to be added to the SCOM console manually.

PowerShell monitoring management pack

When the Data on Demand management pack doesn't have a task for your need, you can use the PowerShell Monitoring management pack to author your own task from any existing PowerShell script.

You can download the PowerShell Monitoring management pack here:

PowerShell Monitoring management pack download

PowerShell Monitoring MP documentation

After the download, you need to import it to your SCOM console.

  1. Download the Management Pack (MP) you want to add to your SCOM console.

    Tip if you are looking for MPs:

    There are many useful optional MPs for SquaredUp, you can find them here: MP Community catalog

  2. Open the SCOM console and go to the Administration workspace.

  3. Right-click on Management Packs and click Import Management Packs.

  4. Click Add > Add from disk, then Yes.

  5. Find the MP you downloaded and click Open and then Install.

Webinars

The webinar below (30 mins) covers using the SCOM Task tile, including a demo of using the PowerShell Monitoring management pack to display folder disk usage:

For a more in-depth look at the PowerShell Monitoring management pack take a look at the PowerShell Monitoring MP webinar (60 mins):

Alternative options for running SCOM tasks

You can run tasks directly from a dashboard or perspective just by clicking a button. Tasks that are executed via a button only run when the button is clicked.

  • On perspectives, you can run any task that is available for that object with the task button at the top of the perspective.

    1. Go to the object you want to run the task for and choose any of the available perspectives.

    2. Click on the task button at the top of the perspective.

      Now a dropdown menu with all available tasks opens.

    3. Choose the task you want to run from the dropdown menu.

      Which tasks are available depends on the object and the management packs that are installed. Only users with the correct SCOM access will be able to run the task (see How do SCOM roles affect what users can do in Dashboard Server?).

    4. Some tasks let you override parameters, for example the time until the task runs into a timeout. Which parameters are available depends on the task.

      If you want to override parameters for the task, click add under override parameters and enter your settings.

    5. Click execute to run the task.

      A new sections opens and displays the result of the task. The results are visible until you close the section or leave the page.

  • On dashboards and perspectives, you can create an action button for a specific task.

    Action buttons are customized buttons that you can add at the top of a dashboard or perspective.

    1. For dashboards: Go to the dashboard where you want to add the action button.

      For perspectives: If you want to add the action button to a specific perspective, go to an object that contains the perspective and choose this perspective. If you want to add the action button to all perspectives of a specific class of objects, go to an object that is a member of this class.

    2. Click on the edit button to go into edit mode.

    3. Click on the Edit actions button.

    4. Under Actions, click on the add button.

    5. Enter a name for your new action button.

    6. Select the type of action you want to create:

      • Open an internal link

        An internal link within your Dashboard Server instance. For example, when you want to link from an object's perspective to a dashboard that is relevant for that object.Internal links use only the part of the URL that comes after .../SquaredUpv[version number]/. For example, if the full URL to a dashboard is https://mysquaredup.com/SquaredUpv5/page/dashboard-enterprise-applications, you need to use /page/dashboard-enterprise-applications.

      • Open a web link

        A link to any URL. For example, when you have a dashboard for monitoring a website or application, you can add a link to that website or application. Web links have to include the http:// or https:// prefix. These links will open in a new tab by default.

      • Execute a SCOM task

        You can run a SCOM task on an object.

        Which tasks are available depends on the object and the management packs that are installed. Only users with the correct SCOM access will be able to run the task (see How do SCOM roles affect what users can do in Dashboard Server?).

    7. If you selected the action type "task":

      For dashboards: Enter the object you want to run the task on. While you are typing, you'll get suggestions for matching objects. Then select the task you want to run from the dropdown.

      Which tasks are available depends on the object and the management packs that are installed. Only users with the correct SCOM access will be able to run the task (see How do SCOM roles affect what users can do in Dashboard Server?).

      Some tasks let you override parameters, for example the time until the task runs into a timeout. Which parameters are available depends on the task.

      For perspectives: Select the task you want to run for the object you are currently viewing.

      Take care to add task buttons to a relevant perspective so the button doesn't appear for objects where it will not run. For example, if you add the Display Server Statistics task to a button on the Monitored Entity perspective then it will show for all objects, but when if you try to run it when you are viewing an application you will get a task failed error message because server statistics cannot be shown for an application.

      Which tasks are available depends on the object and the management packs that are installed. Only users with the correct SCOM access will be able to run the task (see How do SCOM roles affect what users can do in Dashboard Server?).

      Some tasks let you override parameters, for example the time until the task runs into a timeout. Which parameters are available depends on the task.

    8. Only for perspectives: Decide when the action button will be shown.

      "only show when this perspective is selected":
      If you leave the checkbox activated, the action button will be visible only on this one perspective.

      If you deactivate the checkbox, the action button will be visible on all perspectives for all objects of the same class as the object you are currently viewing.

    9. Click done to save the action button.

    10. You can add more buttons or click done to finish adding buttons.

    11. Click publish to make the changes live.

      You can now see your newly added action button.

      For task action buttons: All users with the correct SCOM access will be able to run the task with the action button. Clicking the button will display the results of the task at the top of the page. The results stay there until you close them or go to another page.

    5 minute Video

    This 5 minute video 'Dashboard actions' describes how to create and edit actions on a dashboard or perspective: