The F5 Monitoring Service Data Source Singleton Error

Hi Michael,

 

 

To first answer your question about the IPC (inter-process communication) error, the F5 Monitoring Service communicates with the SCOM Health Service through a named-pipe (IPC) connection. Named pipes can be regarded as file handles. In our case, the IPC channel between the F5 Monitoring Service and the SCOM Health Service is strictly local (i.e. the processes are running on the same host), so you may think of it like this: the F5 Management Pack datasource (running the workflows) is loaded in the SCOM Health Service and opens up a "listener" (server) IPC channel, which the F5 Monitoring Service subscribes to. The IPC channel has its own security context, based on the authentication token of the F5 Monitoring Service. If the F5 Monitoring Service cannot connect to the SCOM Health Service through this IPC named-pipe, it basically means that the F5 Monitoring Service cannot write to a file "owned" by the SCOM Health Service. And the most obvious cause would be the security context of the I/O operation being denied. The other possible cause, if we rule out the security context, is that probably the F5 datasource is not loaded in the SCOM Health Service and non one is listening to the F5 Monitoring Service. Do you actually see the F5 workflows running? (You said you ran the "Show Running Rules and Monitors for this Health Service" task).

 

 

Regarding your second question, about the F5 MP requiring a dedicated Management Server, the answer is: you need to have the F5 MP installed on the RMS, at least. You said you have a distributed management server SCOM environment. So you have to install the F5 MP on the RMS, which is mandatory. If you decide to monitor the F5 devices from the RMS that's fine, but you'll not be following Microsoft's best practices. To avoid the load on the RMS, you would install the F5 MP on a secondary management server (not really dedicated) and you can run the F5 device discovery and monitoring from there. This management server can run other agents and workflows as well. It doesn't need to be 'dedicated' from the F5 MP's perspective.

 

 

Let me know if your F5 MP workflows are running.

 

 

Thanks!

 

Julian