Blog Post

System Center Blog
3 MIN READ

Agent recommendations for SCOM users

AakashMSFT's avatar
AakashMSFT
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Sep 29, 2023

A SCOM user can currently use SCOM agent or Log Analytics agent (aka MMA) to monitor Virtual machines & send data to SCOM servers and optionally, send the data to Azure Log Analytics workspace. However, Microsoft has notified all Log Analytics Agent users about its deprecation roadmap and has recommended to migrate to Azure Monitor Agent as documented at Migrate from legacy agents to Azure Monitor Agent. As the deprecation data of August 31, 2024, is nearing, please refer to the table below for high level recommendations.

 

Timeline -->

Currently

Until Aug2024

(recommendation)

After Aug2024

(Recommended agent)

Requirements

 

 

 

Send data to SCOM Servers

SCOM Agent

SCOM Agent

SCOM Agent

MMA

Migrate to SCOM Agent

Send data to LA workspace

SCOM Agent

Migrate to AMA

AMA

MMA

 

Lastly, the following FAQs should help you with concerns on the validity & supportability of SCOM agents. Feel free to post your queries in the comments section, if any.

 

FAQs

  1. What are the current supported versions of SCOM? How can I distinguish if I am using SCOM agent or Log Analytics agent? 

All the supported versions of SCOM Agents are listed in the below articles. Any version that is not listed here is not supported for communication with SCOM servers. For quick reference, agent versions 10.20.x are Log Analytics build. SCOM 2016, 2019 and 2022 agent builds are 8.0.x, 10.19.x and 10.22.x respectively. Refer to the table for the full list of version numbers.

 

SCOM 2022 Agent version

SCOM 2019 Agent version

SCOM 2016 Agent version

 

  1. How do I check the version of a SCOM agent?

Refer to below steps to identify the version of an agent. Cross check the version to the list displayed in Agent version articles.

1. On SCOM Operations Console > Administration > Agent Managed > Check the “Version” Colum.

2. On a SCOM Management Server, run the below in PowerShell

Get-SCOMAgent –name server.domain.com | select displayname,version

3. On the specified agent machine > Control Panel > Microsoft Monitoring Agent > Properties > “Product Version” property.

4. Run the below in PowerShell on the agent-managed machine:

$Agent = get-itemproperty -path “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Operations Manager\3.0\Setup";$Agent.CurrentVersion

 

  1. When will Log Analytics Agent go out of support?

Aug 31, 2024. More information at We're retiring the Log Analytics agent in Azure Monitor on 31 August 2024 | Azure updates | Microsoft Azure

 

  1. Will SCOM agent be supported when Log Analytics agent go out of support?

Yes, the lifecycle of SCOM agent is dependent on the lifecycle of SCOM software. The agent is supported as defined in Microsoft lifecycle policy. Refer to System Center 2022 Operations Manager and System Center 2019 Operations Manager to view the Support end dates.

 

  1. Can I use SCOM agent to send data to Azure Log Analytics workspace?

You can use SCOM agent to send data to LA workspace until Aug 31, 2024. After that date, the scenario will be unsupported, and you should use Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) to send data to Log Analytics workspace. You can continue to use the SCOM agent to send data to SCOM servers.

 

  1. Can I use SCOM agent to send data to SCOM server?

Yes - There is no change to the core functionality of SCOM Agent.

 

  1. What should I do to send data to Azure Log Analytics workspace?

You can install Azure Monitoring Agent side-by-side SCOM agent on the desired machine. SCOM agents will send data to SCOM servers while AMA will send data to Azure.

 

  1. Should I migrate from Log Analytics agent to SCOM agent? If yes, how?

To send monitoring data to SCOM server, you should use supported agent i.e., SCOM agents (refer to Q#1). To migrate from Log Analytics Agent to SCOM Agent, follow below steps.

  1. If you are using SCOM 2022 application, use SCOM2022 installer EXE to install SCOM agent on the same machine and then upgrade to latest Update Rollup. This is in-place upgrade.
  2. If you are using SCOM 2019 application, you uninstall Log Analytics agent, use SCOM2019 installer EXE to install SCOM agent on the same machine and then upgrade to latest Update Rollup.

General guidance on how to install SCOM agent is described at Install Windows Agent Manually Using MOMAgent.msi.

 

Updated Sep 29, 2023
Version 2.0
  • hey Aakash, 

     

    Can I install AMA on a SCOM Management server in order to report to LA, can they live together?

     

  • jingram2990's avatar
    jingram2990
    Copper Contributor

    HI Akash,

     

    Can you please send me any study links that could help me, understand how to Create custom monitoring for Various groups using custom MP,s?

    JohnI

  • Where/how can I obtain the latest Azure MMA Agent for testing as well as documentation on configuring the agent for deployment on multiple servers?

    These servers are currently On Prem but make use of Azure Log Analytics and are also configured to report to On Prem SCOM.

    If I understand all of this correctly, I need to:

    Configure/install the latest Azure MMA Agent (if not already there)

    Configure it to report ONLY to Azure Log Analytics

    Install and configure the correct SCOM Agent (based on SCOM version) to have the servers continue to report to our On Prem SCOM environments

    The agent currently used and configured to use Log Analytics and report to On Prem SCOM is Ver: 10.20.18064.0

    Is there a newer version of the Azure MMA Agent? If so, how do I obtain it?

    Thanks,

    Anthony Strother

  • anthonypstrother 

    There can only be one version of the Microsoft Monitoring Agent installed at a time. Version 10.20.x.x is the "Log Analytics" version of the agent that comes from Azure and is being deprecated in favor of the "Azure Monitoring Agent", the AMA. For your Log Analytics connection, you'll want to migrate from the MMA to the Azure Monitor Agent. 

    For SCOM communications, once the Log Analytics connection is migrated to the Azure Monitoring Agent, you'll actually want to uninstall the 10.20.x.x version of the MMA and reinstall the SCOM version of the agent that matches your current SCOM environment (2016 - 8.0.x.x, 2019 - 10.19.x.x and 2022- 10.22.x.x). Not changing versions should not affect overall SCOM monitoring, however it will allow you to keep in line with SCOM releases and manage the agent from the SCOM console (once we get them remotely manageable), including updating the agent later, which cannot be done with the 10.20.x.x agent version as it is a different code base.

    What this means is that you'll end up running two monitoring agents side-by-side:

    • Microsoft Monitoring Agent (MMA) for SCOM
    • Azure Monitoring Agent (AMA) for Log Analytics

     

    Keep in mind that the AMA for on-prem machines will also require the Azure Arc agent to be installed, so you may end up with three distinct agents running in parallel depending on where your servers live.

     

    As far as where/how to get the AMA, there are several methods outlined in the docs here: Install and manage Azure Monitor Agent - Azure Monitor | Microsoft Learn. For manual testing, you may wish to look at this one in particular: Set up the Azure Monitor agent on Windows client devices - Azure Monitor | Microsoft Learn

     

    The SCOM version of the MMA can be obtained directly on your management servers under "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center\Operations Manager\Server\AgentManagement\amd64", and installed manually/through automation, you will not be able to replace the 10.20.x.x version of the agent through the SCOM Console using normal methods.

  • Thank you, lsepaugh,

     

    I greatly appreciate it.

    In the back of my mind I was thinking about this being an issue!

    Thanks,

    Tony