Service Level Dashboard for R2

So I finally got around to attempting to install Service Level Dashboard for R2 which took a little time since I needed to request an Sharepoint instance.

This install has two parts - the management pack which is a no brainer, just import it like anything and then there is an MSI. This you need to run on the sharepoint server that you will be installing on. So if you are not familiar with sharepoint or have to request it from another group send them this list of requirements

• Application pool identity domain user (pretty much as sharepoint admin account)
• Sharepoint server name
• SharePoint Database Server Name
• SharePoint Session Database Name

The first issue is that if you aren't the sharepoint admin and you're requesting an instance more than likely they will give you a sharepoint web site like http://server/scom. Which will not work since this application is going to create an app pool thus the requirement of http://server/51918 . So that is the first hurdle.

The second issue is that "application pool identity" account which was a high puller since it requires so many rights and the install fails without giving you any indication why. This account needs to have high sharepoint access thus I'm stating it is a sharepoint admin account plus the following

• local admin rights on the server
• SA rights on the Opsmgr dataware house - it needs to create a SLDReader role and add itself to this role*
• OpsMgr Admin rights*

*These two you should be able to remove after the install is complete.

Plus make sure you login to the server using the "application pool identity" account or else you'll end up with some other random error.

With all those rights, you should be able to install the GUI and have it configure the sharepoint instance so it can finish properly and you will get something like this

But not exactly like this since you'll end up with a blank page and you'll have to configure the views. If you've already installed the Exchange R2 MP then you have some nice pre-configured SLA objects to play with. If not you'll have to first configure "Service Level Tracking" under authoring/management pack objects.

I've had some issues with Service Level Tracking using the performance SLA which others on systemcentercentral.com has confirmed as well. But that will be another post.