Automatic Maintenance Mode SCOM 2012

Question

What I'm trying to do is get an alert based on a shutdown event to trigger a script that then puts the server into maintenance mode.  I've seen a few solutions to this for 2007, but this is the only one I've seen for 2012. 
https://overcast.azurewebsites.net/2013/11/auto-maintenance-mode-with-scom-2012/
Basically, an alert is set up to watch for the shutdown event, which then uses a command channel to execute the script.  The main significant part of that is the use of the ManagedEntityDisplayName parameter in the command channel to pass the server
name to the script.  If I run the script from a command prompt and pass the FQDN of the server to it as a parameter, it works like a charm.  But when I use SCOM to run it through the command channel, the server never gets put into
mm.  For troubleshooting, I had it write a couple things to a log file. 
When I run it from the command prompt, the log file contains the hostname I'm passing it for the ManagedEntity parameter in line 4, and the Instance that is returned from line 6 and it all works.
When I run it with the command channel in SCOM, it again writes out the ManagedEntity parameter as the hostname, so that part seems to work the same.  But the Instance is returned to the log file as an empty line and then of course the server doesn't
go into MM.  So it seems like something is different between me passing the FQDN as a parameter from the command line, and the command channel passing the ManagedEntity parameter from SCOM.  Even though they both get written to the log file as the
hostname of the server.  Any idea what I'm missing?
Param($ManagedEntityDisplayName)
$startTime = [DateTime]::Now
$endTime = $startTime.AddMinutes(15)
"Managed Entity is $managedentitydisplayname" |out-file log.txt
import-module OperationsManager
$Instance = Get-SCOMClassInstance -Name $ManagedEntityDisplayName
"Instance is $Instance" | Out-File log.txt -Append
Start-SCOMMaintenanceMode -Instance $Instance -EndTime $endTime

Answer 1

Hi 
What version of Power shell are you using on your management server? The I suspect the issue might be that when you run it doesn't actually load "import-module
OperationsManager" when scom runs it. So when you execute any scom command and save it into a variable it will always be empty.
To test if this is the issue run this
Param($ManagedEntityDisplayName)
$startTime = [DateTime]::Now
$endTime = $startTime.AddMinutes(15)
"Managed Entity is $managedentitydisplayname" |out-file log.txt
import-module OperationsManager
$SCOMConnection = Get-SCOMManagementGroupConnection
"Connection is $SCOMConnection" | Out-File log.txt -Append
$SCOMAgent = Get-SCOMAgent -name $ManagedEntityDisplayName
"SCOMAgent is $SCOMAgent" | Out-File log.txt -Append
If you don't get anything for these variables looks like the Import module is the issue.
I suggest the following:
Adding the full file path location to the module (might just not be registered correctly)
see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd878350(v=vs.85).aspx
If the above doesn't fix the issue re installing the console might be needed
see: http://thoughtsonopsmgr.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/om12-sp1-operations-manager-shell-fails.html
What version of Power shell are you also running on your Management server/s? If you are running v4 you might also need to include credentials when making a connection to the management server:
see: http://blogs.technet.com/b/robcost/archive/2008/05/01/powershell-tip-storing-and-using-password-credentials.aspx
So your after you import the Operations manager module you need
New-SCOMManagementGroupConnection -ComputerName "localhost" -Credential (Get-Credential WOODGROVE\Administrator)
see: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh920188(v=sc.20).aspx
Also how many management servers do you have? If you have more that 1 don't forget to place a copy of the script in the same location on each MS.
Thanks Martin
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