System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed

This book is your most complete source for in-depth information about Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007!

System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed is a comprehensive guide to System Center Operations Manager (OpsMgr) 2007. Like its MOM 2005 predecessor, OpsMgr 2007 helps you implement operations management, but with a far different and more holistic approach from MOM 2005's focus on individual servers.

This book guides you through designing, deploying, and configuring OpsMgr 2007. You will find detailed information and hands-on experience on topics such as estimating database sizes and designing redundant OpsMgr configurations. You learn how to tackle challenges such as setting up ACS, establishing client monitoring, using and creating synthetic transactions and distributed applications, and developing management packs and reports.

Size your OpsMgr databases
Architect for redundancy and performance
Install or migrate to OpsMgr 2007
Secure OpsMgr
Back up OpsMgr components
Understand how monitors and rules work
Manage different aspects, including ACS, client monitoring, synthetic transactions, and distributed applications
Extend OpsMgr
Develop management packs and reports

CD-ROM includes:

Database sizing spreadsheet
Utilities, management packs, and reports
Microsoft's best practices for rule and monitor targeting and PowerShell Cheat Sheet
Live Links--more than 200 hypertext links and references to materials, connectors, sites, and newsgroups related to OpsMgr
Contents

Introduction 1

Part I Operations Management Overview and Concepts

1 Operations Management Basics 11

2 What's New 63

3 Looking Inside OpsMgr 97

Part II Planning and Installation

4 Planning Your Operations Manager Deployment 137

5 Planning Complex Configurations 203

6 Installing Operations Manager 2007 233

7 Migrating to Operations Manager 2007 277

Part III Moving Toward Application-Centered Management

8 Configuring and Using Operations Manager 2007 303

9 Installing and Configuring Agents 369

10 Complex Configurations 425

11 Securing Operations Manager 2007 471

Part IV Administering Operations Manager 2007

12 Backup and Recovery 539

13 Administering Management Packs 593

14 Monitoring with Operations Manager 647

Part V Service-Oriented Monitoring

15 Monitoring Audit Collection Services 739

16 Client Monitoring 797

17 Monitoring Network Devices 845

18 Using Synthetic Transactions 903

19 Managing a Distributed Environment 949

Part VI Beyond Operations Manager

20 Automatically Adapting Your Environment 1005

21 Reading for the Service Provider: Remote Operations Manager 1047

22 Interoperability 1095

23 Developing Management Packs and Reports 1141

Part VII Appendixes

A OpsMgr by Example: Configuring and Tuning Management Packs 1229

B Performance Counters 1261

C Registry Settings 1271

D Active Directory and Exchange 2003 Management Pack Parameters 1295

E Reference URLs 1305

F On the CD 1323

Index 1329

Kerrie Meyler, MA, BA, MCT, MCSE, CNA, MOM MVP, is an independent consultant and trainer with more than 15 years of Information Technology experience. A previous Senior Technology Specialist at Microsoft, she focused on infrastructure and management solutions, presenting at numerous product launches. Kerrie was also a Management Insider, presented at internal Microsoft conferences, and received company recognition and awards, including a SPAR MGS award. Kerrie presented on Operations Manager 2007 and gave several podcasts at TechEd 2007. As an MCT, she worked with Microsoft Learning on Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC) for several courses, and did the “beta teach” for course 2250, “Implementing Microsoft Operations Manager 2000.” More recently, Kerrie participated in the alpha walkthrough for Certification Exam 70-400, “Configuring Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.” She also participated in defining the domain objectives for Certification Exam 70-402, “IT Operations and Service Management.” Kerrie is the lead author of Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Unleashed, and was awarded the MOM MVP award just as this book was being completed.

 

Cameron Fuller, BS, MCSE, MOM MVP, is a Managing Consultant for Catapult Systems, an IT consulting company and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with numerous competencies, including Advanced Infrastructure and Network Infrastructure Solutions. He focuses on management solutions, and serves as the Microsoft Operations Management Champion for Catapult. Cameron’s 15 years of infrastructure experience include work in the retail, education, healthcare, distribution, transportation, and energy industries. Cameron continually focuses on improving his existing business and technical skill sets through hands-on experience and leveraging certifications, including MCSE (since NT 3.51), MCSA, A+, Linux+, Server+, and CCSA. Cameron is also a public speaker, presenting on Operations Manager 2007 at TechEd 2007, co-presenting with Microsoft on MOM 2005 at TechEd 2005, and the MOM 2005 product launches in Dallas and Tulsa. He is the co-author of Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Unleashed.

 

John Joyner, LCDR USN-R, BS, MCSE, MOM MVP, is a presenter and inventor in the systems management space. A senior architect at ClearPointe--a leader and pioneer in the Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry--he has been using Microsoft systems management technologies to deliver SLA-based guarantees of application performance in multi-tenant environments since 2001. John received his B.S. in Business Administration on a U.S. Navy scholarship. As a Navy computer scientist, he deployed Microsoft Mail to the battlefield for NATO in the former Yugoslavia in 1995, and then took Exchange 4.0 afloat in 1996 for the first Internet-connected aircraft carrier battle group deployment in history. John retired a Lieutenant Commander from the Navy in 1998 and has worked for ClearPointe since then. He has provided consulting services on behalf of Microsoft to design some of the world’s largest Operations Manager deployments. John speaks Italian and Dutch, and visits his daughter in Amsterdam as often as possible. John is a contributing author of Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Unleashed, and was recently selected as a MOM MVP.

 

Contributor

Andy Dominey, MCSE, MOM MVP, has been in the IT industry for 8 years. He started out as a field service and support engineer and worked his way up to systems administrator, responsible for MOM, Active Directory, Exchange, web hosting, SAN technology, and clustering for an Exchange hosting provider based in the United Kingdom. He is currently working as a Senior Consultant for 1E, a Windows-management firm based in the United Kingdom. Andy has a number of large-scale MOM and OpsMgr deployments to his credit and is an avid evangelist for the product. He was also awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for MOM for the past 3 years. Andy authored Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Field Guide (Expert’s Voice).