Michael Cross

Evaluating Your Environment

To ensure successful implementation of Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) in your environment, you will need to do a thorough assessment of your environment to ensure that you plan your design and implementation correctly. The chapter discusses the key areas that you need to be collecting data about. The chapter explains the ways in which you can collect this information. Various questions that you can ask to help you get this information from various parts of the organization are also discussed in the chapter. Evaluating your environment can be one of the more time-consuming exercises in the implementation of MOM in your organization; however, it is also one of the most critical ones. Getting the right information by asking the right questions and collecting accurate data can really be the key to the success of your project.

Planning a MOM 2005 Deployment

There are many facets to the planning of Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 architecture, and the complexity of design that is based on the needs of the organization and their monitoring goals. The chapter discusses different components that can make up MOM 2005 architecture, and focuses on a number of different areas involved in the planning of MOM topology, including capacity, redundancy, and configuration planning. It also focuses on the MOM 2005 Solution Accelerators, and provides a brief overview of what each of these can offer you and where to find them when faced with more advanced configurations. Planning MOM 2005 infrastructure is not difficult but does require that you perform due diligence and collect the information required to make decisions. As you start your collection, analysis, and planning, keep the four main planning areas—features, capacity, redundancy, and configuration—in mind. Take advantage of the tools and documentation available to you in the form of the capacity planning worksheets, performance and sizing whitepaper, and the new System Center Capacity Planner utility. Remember that planning is time well spent.

Understanding and Deploying Management Packs

The purpose of the chapter is to discuss the underlying components that make up a management pack and how to work with each of these. One should have a clear understanding of how rule groups correlate to computer groups and what determines membership in a computer group. This knowledge assists you when creating your own custom management packs. The chapter focuses on other ancillary management pack components—such as views, tasks, and providers—and explains how each of these can be used. The chapter provides a baseline of knowledge about management packs to help one build on this when exploring specific management packs, such as Exchange, Active Directory, Structured Query Language (SQL), and OEM-specific MP.

Installing Microsoft MOM 2005

The first steps in preparing to install Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) is to verify the computer chosen to host the installation meets the minimum hardware and software requirements. The MOM Prerequisite Checker in the MOM Setup should be used to verify the hardware and software prerequisites and to create a report, listing those requirements that the installation destination meets or fails to meet. The hardware requirements for installation of MOM components on a single computer include a Pentium-compatible 550MHz dual-processor; a minimum of I GB of RAM (4 GB or higher recommended); 1 GB of available hard drive space (more space might be needed for Reporting); a CD-ROM and a network card. The hardware requirements for installation of MOM components on a multiple server are similar to the requirements of a single machine except for 512 MB of RAM and 5 GB of available hard drive space. There is a specific order by which MOM 2005 should be installed in a multiple server. This order contains seven phases: installation of the MOM 2005 database; installation of the first Management Server; installation of any additional Management Servers; discovering computers and deploying agents for first Management Server; discovering computers and deploying agents for additional Management Servers; installation of System Center Reporting; and finally importing Management Packs. The last part of this chapter looks at installing and deploying MOM 2005 in advanced environments. These environments would include clustered servers, multiple domains, beyond firewalls, and installations using the command line.

Connecting to Other Management Platforms

The chapter focuses on the fundamentals of the connector technology, based on the Web-service enabled Microsoft Connector Framework (MCF), Microsofts solutions to connect Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 to Hewlett-Packard (HP) OpenView and IBM Tivoli TEC, and solutions available from eXc Software, the vendor with the largest library of add-ons for Virtual Agents and EMS Connectors. Large and small organizations have found real value in having single point of reference for the status of their critical infrastructure components. The inefficiencies of having multiple consoles and tools to view those resources are eliminated by integrating strategies and solutions. Microsoft and their partners have realized the demand for such efficiency gains, and have developed powerful products that help organizations extend the benefits of MOM 2005 with integration with EMS platforms, such as HP OpenView, CA Unicenter, and Tivoli Enterprise Console (TEC).

Managing Intel-Based Hardware

The chapter explores hardware monitoring. It is essential in providing the best availability possible. There are a couple of vendors who publish management packs at the Microsoft site, including The HP management pack that supports the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Integrity and HP ProLiant series servers, and the Dell Management Pack that supports the PowerEdge series server. The implementation of these management packs depends on the installation of the vendor-supplied management software. The chapter explains monitoring of Intel-based hardware. Using hardware monitoring, one can discover hardware failures that otherwise would not show up in the Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) Operator console. An example of this would be the failing of a single disk in a hardware RAID.

Managing Microsoft Active Directory

The chapter discusses the Active Directory (AD) Management Pack that requires almost no configuration. In almost every Microsoft Windows shop, Active Directory 2000 or 2003 is being used. Because of this central position in the network, not only its availability but also its performance and policy processing should be monitored. Active Directory; however, is only a small part of the infrastructure of your network. Importing this management pack gives you information like replication, AD health, and so on. However, AD is not the only network service in operation. Many network services are waiting to be monitored, such as domain name system (DNS), dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP), and distributed file system (DFS). The use of the Group Policy Management Pack, which is a management pack intended to monitor group policies (GPO) processing on the servers, is also discussed in the chapter.

Planning for Microsoft System Center

The chapter discusses some of the tools currently available and some that are coming soon from Microsoft that are intended to work hand-in-hand with Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. Many of these tools can greatly improve the ability to manage and defend an enterprise from a variety of issues, starting at the design phase all the way through implementation. There are few things that need to be remembered with the System Center tools. Not all tools are currently available, and features in the beta versions may not carry over to the full release. Systems Management Servers (SMS) 2003 is the most senior of the System Center tools, and therefore is the most robust with the possible exception of MOM 2005. Each tool should be used as only one piece of a much larger system and network architecture design. It assists you reduce your administrative burden while increasing your ability to understand the running of the machine. System Center is being deployed by Microsoft in a wave approach, meaning that different applications will be released over a number of years. However, beta versions are currently available, and can be downloaded and reviewed to determine if they may be a good fit for your organization.

Chapter 7 – Managing SQL Server 2000

Managing Structured Query Language (SQL) Server 2000 using Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 is a relatively simple task. All tools are available in the Operators Console. The chapter focuses on the installation and importing of the SQL Server 2000 Management Pack, and discusses the various management tasks and views that are available. The chapter also explains specific dependencies that exist with various management packs and how installing just one is not going to be enough in all cases. Monitoring day-to-day operations of the SQL Server database is made quick and easy using the rules and views that are available. The development of a daily, weekly, and monthly regiment and routine that is built around your environments needs is also discussed in the chapter.

Managing Linux, UNIX, and Solaris

Linux and UNIX systems can take advantage of the advanced manageability and reporting capabilities that Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 already provides to Windows Server System technologies. It discusses some important points such as designing of an agentless solution to monitor and manage Linux and UNIX systems, installing the eXc Software Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) non-Windows Event Provider and base framework, installing and configuring eXc Software Virtual Agents, customizing SNMP and CLI-based Virtual Agents, designing an agent-based solution to monitor and manage Linux and UNIX systems, installing the Jalasoft Xian 2005 Network Manager, installing the Xian UNIX Agent for Linux and Solarism, and configuring rules and policy templates to manage Linux and Solaris servers. The chapter also focuses on MOM 2005 that can be used to manage more than just Windows Server systems. Agentless solutions are growing in popularity and have changed the management paradigm that organizations use to monitor and control their critical infrastructure resources.