System Center 2012 – Operations Manager
uses heartbeats to monitor communication channels between an agent and
the agent’s primary management server. A heartbeat is a packet of data sent
from the agent to the management server on a regular basis, by default every 60
seconds, using port 5723 (UDP).
When an agent fails to send a heartbeat 4 times, a Health
Service Heartbeat Failure alert is generated and the management server
attempts to contact the computer by using ping. If the computer does not
respond to the ping, a Failed to Connect to Computer alert is generated.
The following illustration shows this process.
When you see both alerts, you know the computer cannot be
contacted by the management server. When you see only the heartbeat failure
alert, you know the computer can be contacted but there is a problem with the
agent. Both alerts are closed automatically when heartbeats resume.
 Note
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By
default, alerts for missed heartbeats and response to ping are disabled for
client operating systems. To receive alerts for client operating systems,
override the Health Service Heartbeat Failure and Computer Not
Reachable monitors for the class Windows Client Operating System to
set the Generates Alert parameter to True.
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The health state for the agent-managed computer will
change to critical (red) when the Health Service Heartbeat Failure alert
is generated. To view details for the health state, right-click the computer in
Active Alerts, point to Open, and click Health Explorer.
The Availability node will be expanded to display the critical item. Click Health
Service Heartbeat Failure, and then click the State Change Events
tab. You will see a list of state changes with the date and time of occurrence.
Select any occurrence to display information in the Details pane. The
health state will change to healthy (green) when heartbeats resume.
You can change the heartbeat interval for all agents and
number of missed heartbeats for all management servers in Settings in
the Administration workspace, as shown in the following illustration.
You can also override the global heartbeat interval for
individual agents and the number of missed heartbeats for individual management
servers by opening the properties for the computer in Agent Managed or Management
Servers in the Administration workspace. For example, you might
increase the heartbeat interval for a computer that has a slow connection to
the network.
