First, if you hadn't noticed already, the Release Candidate for System Center 2012 -- Operations Manager is now available. It was posted last Thursday and is publically available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=27974.
But today a new little (?) feature got added that's especially important for Linux/UNIX users. The Microsoft.Unix.ShellCommandLibrary.exe file is now posted. When you run this .exe, it unpacks a Management Pack that implements the new shell
command line template. Once you import the Management Pack, you have a new template that gives you the ability to create a monitor, rule, or task based on a shell command line that will be executed on a Linux or UNIX computer. Using this
template, you can implement a variety of custom monitors, rules, or tasks that you previously would have had to do via MP authoring. This template gives you very similar capabilities to the template that allows you to do custom VBscript on a Windows
computer.
So give it a try. Download and install the OpsMgr Release Candidate, and then install this new template and see what you can do!
(By the way, in the final version of the product, the shell command library MP will be included in the base product, and not something you have to download separately. It's just separate for the Release Candidate because we finished it at the last
minute.)
Michael Kelley, Lead Program Manager, System Center Cross Platform