Management packs in Operations Manager 2007 commonly use elements from other management packs. You can get a complete discussion on management pack references in the Management Pack Authoring Guide.

You cannot delete a management pack if other management packs have references to it because it may break any other management packs relying on it. In order to delete the management pack, all references to it must be removed.

You may have a situation where a management pack has a reference that is no longer used, stopping you from deleting the management pack being referenced. Because there is no way to delete a reference once it has been created using the Operations Console, you are unable to delete the referenced management pack unless the referencing one is also removed.

A common example of how you get this situation is creating an override for a particular monitor or rule that exists in a management pack you installed from the Management Pack Catalog. You decide you no longer require the management pack and attempt to delete it. You aren't able to delete it though because a reference was created in the management pack where you created the override. Even though you delete the override, the reference still exists.

You can use the Authoring Console though to delete a management pack reference. You do this by importing the management pack with the reference into the console, deleting the reference, and then reinstalling the management pack. The steps to this procedure are provided below:

1. If you don't already have the Authoring Console installed, install it on a workstation with the System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Authoring Resource Kit.
2. Log on to the workstation with a user account that has Administrator privileges in the management group.
3. Start the Authoring Console.
4. Select Tools and then Import MP from Management Group.
5. Select the Root Management Server for the management group and click Connect.
6. Select the management with the reference you're trying to delete and click Import.
7. Select File and then Management Pack Properties.
8. Select the References tab.
9. Select the management pack that is being referenced and click Remove.
10. Click OK to close the dialog box.
11. Select Tools and then Export MP to Management Group.
12. Select the Root Management Server for the management group and click Connect.