Recently, I was contacted by Squared Up and asked if I would do a review of their product. Since I’ve reviewed other third-part products in the past, of course I would be willing to review this one.

For reference, although not SCOM-based, here are some other products that I have reviewed:

So let’s get started. This series will cover the Squared Up HTML 5 Dashboard and Web Console.

 

Configure The SCOM Data Warehouse Connection/Permissions

In order to have the System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) performance metrics be able to appear in the Squared Up dashboards, graphs, charts, etc. the product needs to connect to the SCOM Data Warehouse.

The product uses its IIS App Pool identity to establish the connection to the Data Warehouse. By default, this will be the “Network Service” account. Therefore, we need to grant this account the permissions required, as follows.

 

Either on the SCOM Data Warehouse server, or from an Administrative workstation, launch SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the SCOM DW SQL server.

Note: Ensure that you are connecting to the SQL Server with an account that has SysAdmin privileges, in order to have sufficient rights to create/grant access to other accounts.

Squared Up - Connect to SCOM DW
Squared Up – Connect to SCOM DW

Expand Security > Logins directory, and right-click on the Logins directory and choose New Login.

Squared Up - New SQL Login
Squared Up – New SQL Login

In the Login Name text box enter one of the following:

  • If you’ve installed Squared Up on the same server as the Data Warehouse: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
  • If you’ve installed Squared Up on a different server: DOMAIN\SERVERNAME$

In my example, I installed it on a separate dedicated server, so I used the ServerName$ option.

Then click OK.

Squared Up - New SQL Login - ServerName
Squared Up – New SQL Login – ServerName

Note if you encounter the following error message, ensure that you include Domain\ as part of the Login Name entry.

Squared Up - New SQL Login - Error
Squared Up – New SQL Login – Error

After the account as been added under Security > Logins, navigate to Databases > OperationsManagerDW > Security > Users, and right-click on the Users directory and choose New User.

Squared Up - SCOMDW - New User
Squared Up – SCOMDW – New User

On the Database User – New dialog, enter the same name used for the Login Name field previously for bot the User Name and Login Name fields.. For example, in my case I used “Domain\ServerName$”.

Squared Up - SCOMDW - New User - General
Squared Up – SCOMDW – New User – General

Next, in the same dialog, navigate to the Membership section. Ensure that the ‘OpsMgrReader‘ checkbox is selected, then click OK.

Squared Up - SCOMDW - New User - Membership
Squared Up – SCOMDW – New User – Membership

You can now close the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.

To confirm the configuration is working, check that the Performance views are able to display data.

Squared Up - Performance Views
Squared Up – Performance Views

 

Next let’s cover our last part, Part 6: Customize Dashboards.