SCOM has an option which is called Maintenance Mode. Know it. Use it. Whenever a monitored server will have maintenance, you won’t see any alerts for the server, nor will you availability reports be impacted by “unexpected” downtime. Turning on Maintenance mode for a server in SCOM is pretty straightforward. I’ve outlined the process here. It may look a little wordy, but some folks need that.
- Open SCOM console or access SCOM web page with an account that has required permissions (operator).
- Select the Monitoring tab.
- Select the Computers node in the monitoring tree.
- In the right pane, find the computer(s) that you want to place into maintenance mode.
- Single computer, click to highlight.
- Multi-computer, use the control and/or shift keys to select multiple computers
- Use the Look For: search box at the top of the list to find the computer(s) that you want to place into maintenance mode. Then use the steps from a or b to select the target computers.
- Once you are satisfied with your selections, click the Start Maintenance Mode link in the Actions pane on the right.
- In the Maintenance Mode Settings wizard, enter the duration for the maintenance window, or select a specific date and time for the maintenance to end.
- Select a category for the maintenance, select whether it is planned or unplanned maintenance (checkbox), and enter a comment for the maintenance window (recommended).
- Click Ok when you are satisfied with your entries.
- The computer will now be placed into maintenance mode. This process will take up five minutes, but usually finishes in 1-2 minutes. Maintenance mode can be verified by checking for the wrench next to the computer name.
There you go. Now you won’t be keeping your teammates up all night while you are patching your servers, and you uptime numbers will look much better.