Navigating the Challenges & Choices of Upgrading SCOM

With SCOM 1802/1807 reaching end of life earlier this year and with SCOM 2012 R2 Mainstream support over (at the end of 2017), many of you are looking at your SCOM upgrade options. So what options are there?

SCOM versions still in support:

There are many versions of SCOM still in support, so the first thing to consider is which version is right for you:

Version Mainstream
Support Ends Extended
Support Ends Notes 2019 9th Apr 2024 9th Apr 2029 SCOM 2019 is the obvious choice – it's the latest and greatest version of SCOM and upgrading to it gets you all the new features and most importantly – support until 2029… meaning you won't have to think about upgrading again, if you don't want to (though we would recommend you keep up to date to prevent future pain and get the latest security updates). 2016 11th Jan 2022 11th Jan 2027 Even though 2016 is older than 1801/1807, it has a longer support period counter-intuitively. The extended support is because the 180x series was on Microsoft's semi-annual channel releases, designed to ship new features without support more frequently.
It is a required stop on a journey for upgrading from 2012R2 to 2019 (as 2012R2 > 2019 isn't supported). 2012R2 NA-Already Lapsed 12th Jul 2022 While we wouldn't recommend staying on 2012 R2 (as its last release was Jan-2014… over 6 years ago!) it is worth saying extended support is still available until mid-2022 so if you’re ok with only critical security updates, it is an option.

What version do you implement?

2019. That is the whole sentence.

Why? Simple - its features + long support life. Many blogs detail the features of 2019, so we see no need to repeat them, but as a starting point check out the official feature list, just click here.

In Place Upgrade or Side-by-Side (aka Migration)?

Assuming in this section, you have picked 2019 as your target version and you probably know by now, Microsoft doesn't recommend in-place upgrades to SCOM 2019 (though they are supported), this decision introduces added frustration to the upgrade process (as there are many more things to consider, from what to migrate to agent upgrades) but will leave you with a cleaner resultant environment.

Key questions when considering in-place upgrades:

If the answer to these questions is not "yes" in place upgrading your SCOM Management Group might not be possible (or made more difficult), again assuming 2019 is your target version.

1. Are your SCOM Management Servers running Windows Server 2016 or later?
   A) SCOM 2019 supports Windows Server 2016 +
   B) SCOM 2016 supports Windows Server 2012 R2 +

2. Is SCOM using SQL 2016 or later?
   A) SCOM 2019 supports SQL 2016 +
   B) SCOM 2016 supports SQL 2014+

3. Is your SQL server running on Windows Server 2016 +?
   A) SQL servers running on anything older than 2016 isn't supported (though might work)

4. Windows SCOM agents on Windows OS W7 SP1+ or Server 2008 R2+ and a 64-bit OS?
   A) SCOM 2019 supports no 32-bit agents, Server 2008 or older

5. Linux SCOM agents on RedHat 7+?
   A) SCOM 2019 no longer supports RedHat 6 or older

6. Are you happy with your current alert tuning and notifications?
   A) A new Management Group is a great opportunity to lose those overrides and notifications that you are not happy with in your old Management Group.
   B) If you are happy with a subset of your existing tuning, use Easy Tune PRO's abilities to capture your current effective group or object-level tuning wherever it is stored. Yes, the theory goes your overrides are all nicely stored in well-named MPs that make it obvious what the tuning is for so you can simply export the override MPs… but then there is the reality (ex Default Management Pack) of where overrides are stored, in a variety of places, some sensible, some not so much (and ultimately in this scenario you don't care what is stored where as you are ditching your old group – you just want to get the effective overrides out)

If you answered “yes” to all of these questions, an in-place upgrade may work for you, have a look at Leon Laude's blog on thesystemcenterblog.com.  This post walks through the mechanics of the upgrade and details the steps you need to go through to get to your target version.

If you answered “no” to one or more of the above questions, a side-by-side upgrade (migration) is likely be more suitable.

Side-by-Side (Migration) Style Upgrades

There are several things to be migrated across to your new Management Group when doing a side-by-side migration:

1. MPs

2. Run as Accounts

3. Alert Tuning

4. Notifications (subscriptions/channels/connectors)

In general, things are straight forward enough, as long as you have all the sealed MPs you rely on in your old Management Group stored somewhere and plan to use Easy Tune to help with alert tuning migration. However, some compatibility concerns may arise going down this route; find out what is needed to overcome these issues and ensure a smooth transition, in our blog on Migrating Management Packs When Upgrading SCOM.