Client monitoring using error reporting in Operations Manager

The Client Monitoring feature of System Center Operations Manager enables you to monitor operating systems and applications for errors and participate in the Error Reporting program. The Error Reporting program collects diagnostics and usage data about Operations Manager, which is used by Microsoft to improve the installation experience, quality, and security of future releases.

Agentless Exception Monitoring (AEM) is a component of the Client Monitoring feature in Operations Manager. AEM enables you to monitor operating systems and applications for errors within your organization. By default, when a Microsoft application encounters a severe error, it creates a report that can be sent to Microsoft to consolidate data that can lead to a reduction in errors. Using AEM, you can direct these reports to an Operations Manager management server. Operations Manager can then provide detailed views and reports on this consolidated error data. Using this data, you can determine how often an operating system or application experiences an error and the number of affected computers and users.

AEM views

By default, the following views display AEM data in the Monitoring area of the Operations console:

Application view
A state view that lists applications that have failures.

Crash listener view
A state view that lists the computers that are listening for failures that occur on other computers or applications.

Error events
An event view that lists the application error reports generated by severe application or operating system failures.

Error group view
A state view that lists application errors by error group.

System error group view
A state view that lists the computers that have an operating system failure.

Forward client error reports (Client Monitoring)

The Microsoft Error Reporting (MER) service collects information about how you use Microsoft programs and about some of the issues you might encounter. Microsoft uses this information to improve the products and features you use most often and to help solve issues. Participation in the program is strictly voluntary.

When you choose to participate in the reporting service, you configure clients with Group Policy to redirect error reports to an Operations Manager management server, instead of reporting directly to Microsoft. The management servers are configured to forward these reports to Microsoft.

The error reports forwarded from your organization to Microsoft are combined with reports from other organizations and individual customers to help Microsoft solve issues and improve the Microsoft products and features that customers use most often. For more information about the Microsoft Error Reporting service, see the privacy statement for Microsoft Error Reporting Service page.

Use the following procedure to configure error reporting settings. The management server must have access to the Internet to participate in the program.

1. Sign in to a management server with an account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrators role for the Operations Manager management group.

2. In the Operations console, select Administration.

3. In the Administration workspace, expand Administration, and select Settings.

4. In Settings, expand Type: General, right-click Privacy, and select Properties.

5. In the Global Management Server Group Settings - Privacy dialog, on the Diagnostic and Usage Data Settings tab, select Yes, I am willing to send data to Microsoft to send collected data to Microsoft or select No, I do not prefer to send data to Microsoft to decline participation. Then select OK.

   Note

   You can select Operations Manager Privacy Statement to view information about the program, including the privacy statement.

Configure a management server for client monitoring

Use the following procedures to configure a management server for the server component of the Client Monitoring feature of System Center Operations Manager.

The Operations Manager Client Monitoring Configuration Wizard is used to configure the server component of the feature on an Operations Manager management server. To configure the server component of Client Monitoring on multiple management servers, run the wizard once for each management server. An example of when you might configure multiple management servers for Client Monitoring is if the connection between specific clients and management servers is less expensive.

1. Sign in to the computer with an account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrators role.

2. In the Operations console, select Administration.

3. In the Administration workspace, select Management Servers.

4. In the Management Servers pane, right-click the management server on which you want to enable Client Monitoring, and select Configure Client Monitoring. This will start the Client Monitoring Configuration Wizard. Use the same procedure to Disable Client Monitoring on the management server. You must also disable Client Monitoring on the clients.

   Note

   The Configure Client Monitoring option will be unavailable if the selected computer is a gateway server.

5. On the Introduction page of the Client Monitoring Configuration Wizard, select Next. The Introduction page is skipped if the wizard has run previously and the Do not show this page again checkbox was selected.

6. On the Diagnostic and Usage Data page, do one of the following:

   • Leave the default option of No if you don't want your organization to participate in the program, and select Next.

   Or

   1. Select Yes, if you want your organization to participate in the program.

   2. Leave Use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol selected if you've installed a certificate on your management server; leave Use Windows Authentication selected if you want the client computers to authenticate with the management server; otherwise, clear the options.

   3. Enter the appropriate Port, or leave the default of 51907, and select Next.

7. On the Error Collection page, do the following:

   1. Enter the local or attached File Share Path, such as C:\ErrorData, for the management server that will be used to collect error reports. The file share will be created at the local path on the management server and shared with the necessary permissions.

      Important

      The file share path must be on an NTFS partition and have at least 2 GB of free disk space. It's recommended that the path is no longer than 120 characters. The file share path can be a local drive path on the selected management server, such as C:\ErrorData, or a UNC path to an existing network share, such as \Server\FileShare\ErrorData.

   2. Select Collect application errors from Windows Vista-based or later clients if you're managing Windows Vista or later operating systems with Operations Manager. Enter a Port number, or leave the default 51906. Leave Use Secure Socket Layer protocol selected if you've installed a certificate on your management server, leave Use Windows Authentication selected if you want the client computers to authenticate with the management server; otherwise, clear the options.

   3. Enter the Organization Name to Use, using no more than 22 characters, and select Next.

8. On the Configure Error Forwarding to Microsoft page, do one of the following:

   • Leave the Forward all collected errors to Microsoft (Recommended) checkbox cleared, and select Next.

   Or

   1. Select Forward all collected errors to Microsoft (Recommended) if the management server is connected to the Internet and you want to forward error reports to Microsoft and receive links to the available solutions for those errors.

   2. Select Detailed (the error signature and requested additional data) to help ensure Microsoft can provide a solution to the issue, or leave the default setting of Basic (only the error signature).

   3. Select Next.

9. On the Create File Share page, do one of the following:

   • Select an Existing user account from the list, and select Next.

   • Select Other user account (will not be saved), enter the User name and Password, select the Domain from the list, and select Next.

     Important

     The account must have the permissions necessary to create a file share on the path provided in step 7a.

10. On the Create file Share: Task Status page, after the file share is successfully created, select Next.

    Note

    To modify the Client Monitoring settings on the management server, such as the file share, you must disable and then re-enable Client Monitoring on the management server. You must also then modify the Client Monitoring Group Policy settings on the clients.

11. On the Client Configuration Settings page, type or Browse to the location you want to save the settings from the Client Monitoring Configuration Wizard. These settings are saved in a Group Policy template file named ServerNameFQDN.ADM. Select Finish.

    Important

    You must use the ServerNameFQDN.ADM file to configure clients to redirect their Client Monitoring data to the management server. For more information, see the procedure below.

Configure clients for client monitoring

1. Run the Group Policy Object Editor (gpedit.msc) for the domain or local computer.

   Note

   For information about Group Policy, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=156845.

2. If needed, disable the Turn off Windows Error Reporting policy. This policy can be found in Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Internet Communication Management/Internet Communication settings.

3. Add the Agentless Exception Monitoring (AEM) Group Policy administrative template (ServerNameFQDN.ADM) to the domain or local computer policy. The ADM file is created when the Client Monitoring Configuration Wizard is run.

   Note

   Use the same procedure to Disable the Group Policy settings, thereby disabling Client Monitoring on the clients.

Customize client monitoring data collection and solution response URLs for error groups

You can help decrease the time it takes to diagnose and resolve operating system and application errors in your organization by customizing the data that's collected in error reports by computers experiencing errors and the solution response URL for an error group. The solution response URL can point to an appropriate location in a knowledge base.

1. Sign in to the computer with an account that's a member of the Operations Manager Administrator role.

2. In the Operations console, select Monitoring.

3. In the Monitoring workspace, expand Agentless Exception Monitoring, and select Error Group View.

4. In the Error Group View, select an entry.

5. In the Tasks pane, select Show or Edit Error Group Properties.

6. In the Error Group Responses dialog, select Custom Collection, and select Edit.

7. In the Diagnostic Data Collection Configuration dialog, specify the Files, WMI Queries, and Registry Keys you want to collect from the computers experiencing the error, and select OK. A computer will send the specified data in an error report to the management server on the next occurrence of an error in the error group.

   Note

   You can use variables, such as %ProgramFiles%, for file paths. For information about WMI, see WMI Documentation.

8. In the Error Group Responses dialog, select Custom error information, enter the URL for the custom error information, such as http://server/errors/100.htm, select Test Link, and select OK.

Configure error transmission settings for client monitoring

When you enable Client Monitoring for a management group, you can configure it to forward error reports for Microsoft products to Microsoft. Error Transmission settings allow you to specify which error reports are sent to Microsoft and the additional diagnostic data that is included with the error reports.

1. Sign in to the computer with an account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrators role.

2. In the Operations console, select Administration.

3. In the Administration workspace, select Settings.

4. In the Settings pane, expand Type: General, right-click Privacy, and select Properties.

5. In the Global Management Server Group Settings - Privacy dialog, select the Error Transmission tab.

   Note

   Select Read the privacy statement to view the privacy statement.

Filter errors that are sent to Microsoft

1. On the Error Transmission tab of the Global Management Server Group Settings - Privacy dialog, select Filter.

2. In the Error Forwarding Filters dialog, select one or more of the options for sources of errors that you don't want forwarded to Microsoft, such as that come from specific computers.

3. In the Criteria description text box, select specific, and provide the values for the criteria of errors that you don't want forwarded to Microsoft, such as contoso.com.

4. Select OK twice.

Configure diagnostic data sent to Microsoft with error reports

1. On the Error Transmission tab of the Global Management Server Settings - Privacy dialog, do one or more of the following:

   1. Select Upload diagnostic data collection request, select the additional diagnostic data that you want to send with error reports from computers reporting errors to the management servers and then forward from the management server to Microsoft with the error reports.

   2. Set Maximum number of CAB files to send to Microsoft per error group to help Microsoft diagnose the error. Ten is the recommended number.

   3. Select Display links to solutions from Microsoft on error reporting computers. A link to available solutions will display to end-users after the error is first encountered and the link to the solution is downloaded to the management server.

   4. Select Display links to surveys from Microsoft on error reporting computers.

   5. Specify the Default solution link when no Microsoft solution is available. This could be an internal Web page for technical support, for example.

2. Select OK.