Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 : Analysis and Troubleshooting Tools - Working with Status Messages (part 1) - Viewing Site Status Messages

Virtually every SMS 2003 component and service generates status messages as it goes about its business. These messages aren’t the sometimes vague or unhelpful variety you might have come to dread in the Windows Event Viewer. On the contrary, SMS 2003 status messages are rich with details. In the event of error messages, the details often offer potential reasons for the error and suggest possible remedies.

Status messages represent the flow of process activity for each site system and client. They’re automatically consolidated and filtered for display using status summarizers and status filters . As you’ll see throughout this book, these status messages will provide your first, and often best, insight into how a process or task works and what to do in the case of a problem.

There are three levels of severity for status messages in SMS 2003: informational, warning, and error. Informational messages are just that—informational. They simply record the fact of an event occurring, such as a service or component starting, the successful completion of a task, and so on. Warning messages are of concern, but they aren’t necessarily fatal to the site server’s operation. They generally indicate potential problems, such as low disk space, a component that failed or that is retrying a task, or a file that was corrupted. Error messages are usually of great concern, as they indicate problems that could harm the SMS site. These require the attention of the SMS administrator for resolution. Error messages include authentication problems, the complete failure of a service or component to complete a task, database access problems, and so on.

Every status message that’s generated will fall into one of three message type categories: milestone, detail, and audit. Milestone message types usually relate to the start or completion of a task. For example, a successful completion would generate a milestone informational message, whereas an unsuccessful task would generate a milestone warning or error message. Detail message types generally refer to the steps in a process and make sense only in the context of the status message process flow. Again, these might be informational, warning, or error messages, depending on the severity of the process steps being reported. Audit message types refer to objects being added, deleted, or modified in some way, usually by the SMS administrator—for example, assigning a site system role or modifying a collection membership.

You can view status messages through the System Status node in the SMS Administrator Console, as shown in Figure 1. From this node, you can view the advertisement status, the package status, and the component and site system status for the SMS site, and you can execute status message queries.

Figure 1. The expanded System Status node in the SMS Administrator Console.

1. Viewing Site Status Messages

Site status messages fall into two categories: component status and site system status. If all is well with your site, you should see a green check mark (an OK indicator) in front of each node, as you do for the Site System Status node in Figure 1. If any problems have been detected, this check mark might change to an x in a red circle (an Error indicator), as you see for the Site Status node in Figure 1, based on the thresholds you set. The icons for OK, Warning, or Error will help you to determine which components need attention.

You will always begin troubleshooting by viewing the summary information. First select Component Status in the SMS Administrator Console to display a list of all SMS components and services and a summary of their current status, as shown in Figure 2. In the Component Status window, you can see at a glance the component status; the site system on which the component is running; the component name; its current state; the number of error, warning, and informational messages that have been generated; how the component wakes up (type); when a scheduled component next runs; the last time the component woke up; and the last time a message was written. In this case, we can see that while most components are running properly, the component—SMS_Site_Component_Manager—has been elevated to Critical status.

Figure 2. The Component Status window in the SMS Administrator Console.

Click the Site System Status node to display a list of all the site systems identified for the site and their summary status by site system role, as shown in Figure 3. In the Site System Status window, you can view the site system status, the site system name, the role that has been assigned to the site, the location of the storage object (partition and folder or database), total and free storage space, free space represented as a percentage of the total, and whether the system has been down. In this case, all site systems are running properly.

Figure 3. The Site System Status window.

The detailed information behind each summary entry in the Component Status window pertains specifically to that component. However, the detailed messages behind each summary entry in the Site System Status window reference messages from any number of SMS components and services that are running on, or affect, that particular site system.

To view the detailed messages for a specific component in the Component Status window, for example, for the SMS_Site_Component_Manager component in Figure 2 that indicates a critical status, follow these steps:

1.	Right-click the component’s summary entry and choose Show Messages from the context menu to display a list of message types, as shown in Figure 4. Figure 4. Displaying a list of message type options.
2.	The All option displays all messages collected for this entry, Errors displays only error messages, Warnings displays only warning messages, and Info displays only info messages. For this example, choose Info. The Status Message Viewer appears, as shown in Figure 5. Figure 5. The Status Message Viewer.
3.	To view a detailed description of the message, position the mouse pointer over the Description field to display a pop-up window, as shown in Figure 6. Figure 6. A pop-up window containing a detailed description of a status message. Alternatively, you can double-click the message to display the Status Message Details dialog box, as shown in Figure 7. This dialog box provides you with more specific details about the message. It also provides buttons to enable you to view the previous and the following messages. For this example, click OK to close the dialog box. Figure 7. The Status Message Details dialog box.
4.	Close the Status Message Viewer when you’ve finished reviewing the message details.

To view the detailed messages for a site system in the Site System Status window, follow these steps:

1.	Right-click a site system’s summary entry and choose Show Messages from the context menu to display a list of message types.
2.	Choose All to display all messages collected for this entry, choose Errors to display only error messages, choose Warnings to display only warning messages, or choose Info to display only informational messages.
3.	After you choose an option, the Set Viewing Period dialog box is displayed, as shown in Figure 8. Select the Specify Date And Time option to display only messages generated after the date and time you enter. Select the Select Date And Time option to display messages generated within a more generic time period from 1 hour ago to 1 year ago. Figure 8. The Set Viewing Period dialog box.
4.	Click OK to display the Status Message Viewer, as shown in Figure 9. You can also click Skip if you prefer not to limit the scope of the messages displayed. Figure 9. The Status Message Viewer for a site system status window summary entry.
5.	View the detailed description for each message either by positioning your mouse pointer on the message’s Description field to display a pop-up window or by double-clicking the message to display the Status Message Details dialog box.
6.	Close the Status Message Viewer when you’ve finished reviewing the message details.

In this section we’ve discussed how to view status messages in the Status Message Viewer. We’ll continue to explore how to utilize this viewer in the next section.