System Center 2012 Operations Manager Unleashed Book

Introduction 1

Fast Track: A Quick Look at What’s New 2

Part I: Operations Management Overview and Concepts 2

Part II: Planning and Installation 3

Part III: Moving Toward Application-Centered Management 3

Part IV: Administering System Center 2012 Operations Manager 4

Part V: Service-Oriented Monitoring 4

Part VI: Beyond Operations Manager 5

Part VII: Appendixes 6

Disclaimers and Fine Print 6

Part I Operations Management Overview and Concepts 7

1 Operations Management Basics 9

Ten Reasons to Use Operations Manager 10

The Problem with Today’s Systems 11

Why Do Systems Go Down? 12

No System Is an Island 13

Lack of Notification 14

Lack of Historical Information 15

Lack of Expertise 15

Lack of Methodology 16

Missing Information 16

False Alarms 17

Proliferation of Virtualization and Cloud Computing 17

The Bottom Line 17

Operations Management Defined 18

Microsoft’s Strategy for Operations Management 20

Microsoft’s Dynamic Systems Initiative 21

IT Infrastructure Library and Microsoft Operations Framework 24

ISO 20000 30

Optimizing Your Infrastructure 30

Managing System Health 34

Bridging the Operations Management Gap 35

Connecting Systems. 37

Notification: Errors and Availability 38

Historical Information 43

Built-in Expertise 45

Using a Methodology 47

Catching Missed Information 48

Reducing False Alarms 48

Managing Virtualization and the Cloud 49

Overview of Microsoft System Center 51

Reporting in System Center 52

Service Management 53

Protecting Data 53

Virtual Machine Management 54

Deploy and Manage in the Cloud 55

Orchestration and Automation 55

Cloud-Based Configuration Monitoring 55

Configuration Management. 55

Endpoint Protection 56

The Value Proposition of Operations Manager 56

Summary 57

2 What’s New in System Center 2012 Operations Manager 59

The History of Operations Manager 59

The Early Years: MOM 2000 and MOM 2005 59

Operations Manager 2007 60

Operations Manager 2007 R2 and Beyond 61

Introducing System Center 2012 Operations Manager 62

Supported Configurations 64

Root Management Server and Root Management

Server Emulator 65

High Availability with Resource Pools 67

Network Monitoring Enhancements 70

Monitoring .NET Applications 71

Using PowerShell 72

Saving Overrides 72

Using the Console 73

Web Console Updates 73

Maintenance Mode on Management Servers 75

Dashboards 75

What’s New in Security 75

Connector Functionality Replaced by System Center 2012

Orchestrator 76

Changes in Capacity 76

Terminology and Concepts 77

AEM: Capturing Application Crash Information 77

Operations Manager Agent 77

Audit Collection 77

Classes: Templates for Objects 77

Features Versus Components 77

Gateways 78

Heartbeats: Checking the Health of the Agent 78

Management Group 78

Management Pack 78

Management Server 79

Models 79

Resource Pool 79

RMS Emulator 79

Run As Account 79

Run As Profile 79

User Role 80

Summary 80

3 Looking Inside OpsMgr 81

Architectural Overview 82

System Center 2012 Integration 82

Management Group Defined 85

Server Features 87

Windows Services 95

System Center Management Service 96

System Center Data Access Service 97

System Center Management Configuration Service 97

OpsMgrVSSWriter Service 97

System Center Audit Forwarding Service 97

Audit Collection Service Collector Service 98

Application Performance Monitoring Service. 98

OpsMgr Communications Channels 98

How Does OpsMgr Do It? 101

Management Group Mechanics 101

Service Modeling 103

How Health Models Work 107

About State-Based Monitoring 109

Management Pack Schema 109

Populating the Health Model with Monitors 112

How Rules Differ from Monitors 119

OpsMgr as a Workflow Engine 120

Presentation Layer Scenarios 126

Using the Operations Console 127

Improvements to the Web Console 129

Portals into APM 129

OpsMgr Reporting 131

PowerShell as a Presentation Layer 131

Notification Channels 132

Fast Track 133

Summary 134

Part II Planning and Installation 135

4 Planning an Operations Manager Deployment 137

Envisioning Operations Manager 139

Understanding History, Requirements, and Goals 139

Vision 141

Scope 141

Risks 141

Planning Operations Manager 142

Designing 142

Planning for Licensing 171

Creating the Plan 175

Sample Designs 179

All-In-One Operations Manager 179

Small Organization 179

Midsized Organization 182

Geographically Dispersed Organization 183

Fast Track 185

Summary 186

5 Installing System Center 2012 Operations Manager 187

Planning Your Implementation 188

Installation Prerequisites. 189

Windows Domain Prerequisites 190

Windows Security Accounts 190

Software Requirements 191

Recommended Order of Installation 196

Single Server Deployment 197

Single Server Deployment: High-level Order of Installation 197

Two Server Deployment 198

Multiple Server Deployment 199

SQL Server 200

First Management Server 200

Additional Management Servers and Consoles 212

Reporting Server 217

Web Console 223

Gateway Server 230

Installing Audit Collection Services 235

Installing ACS on a Secondary Management Server 236

Deploying ACS Reporting to an SSRS Instance 239

Installing Agents on Servers 241

Discovering Windows Computers in a Trusted Domain 241

Manually Installing Agent in an Untrusted Domain or Workgroup 243

Configuring ACS Forwarder for Certificate Operation 246

Enabling ACS Forwarders. 246

Check Online for Update Rollups 247

Importing Windows Server Management Packs 247

Removing OpsMgr 248

Troubleshooting Your Installation 248

Summary 249

6 Upgrading to System Center 2012 Operations Manager 251

Planning Your Upgrade 251

Update OpsMgr 2007 R2 to Cumulative Update 4 or Later 251

Strategic Upgrade Decisions 252

In-Place Upgrade Versus Multi-Homed Migration 254

RMS and Gateway Upgrade Challenges 255

RMS Strategies 256

Gateway Strategies 257

Using the Upgrade Helper Management Pack 258

Performing an In-Place Upgrade 261

Upgrading the Single Server Management Group 262

Upgrading the Distributed Management Group 271

Upgrading from a Secondary Management Server 289

Performing a Multi-Homed Upgrade 297

Deploy OpsMgr 2012 Management Group 298

Multi-Home All Agents 299

Retire the OpsMgr 2007 R2 Management Group 302

Case Studies 304

Small Network: In-place OS, SQL Upgrades 304

Medium Enterprise: Preserve Database 306

Large Enterprise: Multi-Home Strategy 310

Summary 312

Part III Moving Toward Application-Centered Management 313

7 Configuring and Using System Center 2012 Operations Manager 315

Introducing the Operations Console 315

Connecting to the Operations Console 316

Confirming Management Group Health 319

A Quick Tour of the Operations Console 320

Configuring the Operations Console 323

Using the Monitoring Pane 324

Using the Authoring Pane 342

About the Reporting Pane 352

Administration Pane 355

My Workspace 368

Using Operations Manager: Beyond the Consoles 370

Using the Operations Console 371

Adding Management Packs 371

Deploying Agents 372

Fast Track 372

Summary 373

8 Installing and Configuring Agents 375

Understanding Core Concepts 375

How Discovery Works 376

Scheduling Discovery 378

Approval Process 378

Agent-Managed Systems 379

Agentless Managed Systems 382

Systems in an Unknown State 384

Network Devices 384

UNIX/Linux Systems 384

Discovering and Deploying Agents 384

Agent Supported Platforms 385

Agent Requirements 387

Management Pack Requirements for Operating System

Monitoring 388

Using the Discovery Wizard 389

Manual Agent Installation 398

Active Directory Integration 401

Group Policy Deployment 406

Configuration Manager Agent Deployment 408

Image-Based Deployment 410

OpsMgr Agent Port Requirements 411

Converting Agentless-Managed to Agent-Managed 411

Coexisting OpsMgr Agents with MOM 2005 412

Multi-Homed Agents 412

Managing Agents 413

Validating Agent Functionality 413

Converting Manually Installed Agents and Applying

Update Rollups 414

Event Log Sizes and Configurations 415

Pending Actions 416

Agent Settings 416

Agent Failover 416

Agent Internals 417

Removing or Renaming Agents 418

New User Interface on Windows Agents 419

AEM Versus Agent-Monitored and Agentless Monitoring. 420

Troubleshooting Tips 420

Troubleshooting Windows Agents 420

Troubleshooting UNIX/Linux Agents. 420

Fast Track 421

Summary 421

9 Complex Configurations 423

Implementing High Availability 424

Microsoft Failover Clustering for SQL Server 426

Using Log Shipping 429

Network Load Balancing the Data Access Service 432

Network Load Balancing the Web Console. 433

ACS High Availability 433

High Availability with Resource Pools 436

Modifying the Default Resource Pools Membership Behavior 436

About Gateway Server Resource Pools and Redundancy 439

Creating Resource Pools 441

Managing the RMS Emulator Role 442

Confirming the RMS Emulator Role 442

Moving the RMS Emulator Role 443

Removing the RMS Emulator Role 444

WAN Links and Gateways 445

Multi-Homing Agents 447

Connected Management Groups 450

Designing for Distributed Environments 451

High-Level Steps 451

Potential Pitfalls 453

Fast Track 454

Summary 454

10 Security and Compliance 455

Securing Operations Manager 455

About Role-Based Security 456

Operations on the Data Access Service 457

User Roles and Profiles 459

Run As Profiles and Run As Accounts 469

Required Accounts 473

Database Security. 483

Mutual Authentication 484

Agent Proxying 488

Using SSL to Connect to a Reporting Server 489

Using the Health Service Lockdown Tool 489

About Cross Platform Security 490

Firewall Considerations and Communications Security 491

Using Audit Collection Services 497

Planning for ACS 499

Deploying ACS 508

Administering ACS 512

Fast Track 525

Summary 525

11 Dashboards, Trending, and Forecasting 527

Built-in Dashboard Functionality 527

Using Templates 529

Using the Summary Dashboard 530

Using the Service Level Dashboard 531

Using Widgets 532

Using Widgets in SharePoint 538

What Built-in Dashboard Functionality Does Not Do 539

Prebuilt Dashboards 539

Network Monitoring Dashboards 539

Operations Manager Dashboards 541

APM Dashboards 544

Additional Dashboard Options 545

Visio Integration 546

Savision Live Maps 547

Silect Software 549

Bay Dynamics 549

InFront Consulting System Center Dashboard 549

Dundas Dashboards 549

SharePoint 2007 Dashboards 550

SQL Queries 551

Prebuilt Gadgets 551

Custom Gadgets 551

PerformancePoint 552

Power View 553

Reports, Trending, Forecasting, and Capacity Planning 553

Reporting in OpsMgr 554

Existing Reports and Trending 557

Forecasting and Capacity Planning with OpsMgr 560

Fast Track 562

Additional Reference Links 562

Summary 563

Part IV Administering System Center 2012 Operations Manager 565

12 Backup and Recovery 567

Roles of Key OpsMgr Files and Databases 568

Establishing a Backup Schedule 570

Database Grooming and Maintenance 572

Grooming the Operational Database 572

Grooming the Data Warehouse Database 573

Grooming the Audit Database 582

Grooming APM Data 582

Database Maintenance 585

Backing Up and Restoring the SQL Server Databases 589

Operations Manager Database Backups 590

Performing Operations Manager Database Restores 595

Moving the OpsMgr Databases to a Different Database Server 597

Backing Up Key Files 602

Backing Up Management Packs 603

Backing Up Reports 607

Backing Up SSRS Encryption Keys 609

Backing Up the IIS Metabase 610

Using Data Protection Manager 611

Installing DPM Agents on Untrusted Computers 611

Installing DPM Agents on Trusted Computers 612

Creating a DPM Protection Group for OpsMgr 613

Monitoring the DPM Status of the OpsMgr Protection Group 614

OpsMgr Recovery Scenarios Using DPM 615

Disaster Recovery Planning 617

Recovering from a Total Loss 617

Using Log Shipping 618

Other Approaches for Database Disaster Recovery 619

Recovering from a Downed Management Server 620

Fast Track 621

Summary 621

13 Administering Management Packs 623

Management Packs Defined 623

Model-Based Management 624

Management Pack Structure and Functionality 624

About Objects 628

Performing Diagnostics and Recovery 629

About Workflows 630

Understanding Data Types 633

Management Pack Elements. 633

ClassType 634

RelationshipType 635

DataType 635

SchemaType 635

Module Types 635

UnitMonitorType 636

Understanding Overrides 636

Management Pack Templates 640

Presentation Types 641

ConsoleTask 641

View 641

Folder 641

Report 642

ReportParameterControl 642

Run As Profiles 642

Sealing Management Packs 642

Finding Management Pack Information 644

Management Pack Updates 644

Determining Management Pack Versions 645

Checking the Version of an Installed Management Pack 646

Importing Management Packs through the Operations

Console 647

Management Pack Bundles 649

Planning for Deployment 650

Determine an Order to Implement Management Packs 650

Initial Tuning: Tuning by Function 651

Troubleshooting Recap 658

Exporting Management Packs 659

Importing Management Packs. 661

Managing Management Packs 666

System Center Internal Library 666

System Center Core Monitoring Agent Management 666

Viewing Management Pack Content and Overrides 667

Listing All Management Packs Associated with a Server 667

Fast Track 667

Summary 668

14 Monitoring with System Center 2012 Operations Manager 669

The Importance of Monitoring 670

About Rules 671

Alert-Generating Rules 672

Collection Rules 678

Using Monitors 686

Unit Monitors 687

Dependency Rollup and Aggregate Rollup Monitors 706

About Alerts 706

Generating Alerts 708

The Life Cycle of an Alert 709

Adding Knowledge 724

Using Company Knowledge 725

Integration with System Center Service Manager 727

ReSearch This: Internal and SharePoint 728

Locating Rules and Monitors in the Operations Console 730

Using Overrides 732

Defining Overrides 732

Creating an Override 734

Using the Authoring Pane to Locate Overrides 737

Using the Reporting Pane to Locate Overrides 738

Using the Command Shell to Locate Overrides 739

Creating Custom Resolution States 740

Maintenance Tuning 742

Whether to Tune or Fix 742

Operations Manager Versus Other Tools: A Difference in Approach 742

Tuning by Color 743

State Monitors Versus Alerts 743

Managing Alerts 744

Maintenance Mode in OpsMgr 745

Resource Kit Utilities 748

Fast Track 750

Summary 750

Part V Service-Oriented Monitoring 751

15 Monitoring .NET Applications 753

What Is APM? 754

APM Architecture. 755

Installing APM and Configuring .NET Application Monitoring 756

Advanced Settings 761

Additional Configuration 769

IIS Restart and Recycle 777

Configuration Conflicts 779

Identifying Thresholds and Namespaces 779

What APM Collects 781

APM in the Operations Manager Console 784

Using Dashboards 784

APM Views 785

Alerts and Drill-Down 785

Troubleshooting Applications Using the Application

Diagnostics Console 786

Using Views and Dashboards in the Diagnostics Console 786

Managing Events 789

Using the Application Advisor Console 799

Problems Distribution Analysis Report 799

Application Status Report 801

Best Practices for Scheduling Reports 802

Understanding APM Rules 804

Working with Rules 804

Best Practices for Using Rules 807

APM Global Configuration Options 808

Application Diagnostics Configuration 808

Configuring Application Advisor 810

Sensitive Data Considerations 811

Role-Based Access Approach 811

Configuring Data Collection and Using Sensitive Rules 812

Advanced APM Architecture 814

Light Events 815

Event Throttling 816

Aliasing Rules 817

Useful Overrides 819

Low-Level Agent Configuration 821

For AVIcode 5.7 Customers 822

New with Service Pack 1 822

Summary 824

16 Network Monitoring 825

Features and Capabilities 825

Supported Device Types 826

Out of the Box Monitoring 827

Network Monitoring Considerations 828

Firewall Requirements 829

Required Management Packs 829

Capacity Limitations 829

Resource Pool Considerations 830

About SNMP 830

SNMP Versions 830

Communications Basics 832

MIBs and OIDs 833

Using Run As Accounts 834

About SNMP v1 and v2c 835

Using SNMP v3 835

Discovering Network Devices 836

Types of Discovery Methods 837

Stages of Discovery 837

About Port Stitching 839

Creating a Discovery Rule 840

Deleting a Network Device 849

Restoring a Network Device 851

Monitoring Network Devices 851

Network Monitoring Groups and Usage 852

Retrieving Built-In Monitoring Workflows 853

Viewing Operational Data 856

Viewing Historical Data 860

Real World Scenarios 863

Troubleshooting Network Discovery and Monitoring 863

OpsMgr 2007 R2 Migration Considerations 866

Fast Track 868

Summary 869

17 Using Synthetic Transactions 871

Introducing Synthetic Transactions 871

Management Pack Templates 873

Predicting Behavior by Simulation 874

Watcher Nodes 875

Monitoring Web Applications 877

Creating a Web Application Synthetic Transaction 879

Creating a Web Application Availability Synthetic Transaction 889

Using OLE DB to Monitor Databases 896

Creating an OLE DB Synthetic Transaction 896

Viewing the OLE DB Transaction Performance Data 900

Monitoring Network Devices Through Port Activity 902

Creating a TCP Port Monitor 903

Viewing the TCP Port Performance Data 905

Using Synthetic Transactions in Application Monitoring 905

Creating the OLE DB Synthetic Transactions for OpsMgr 906

Creating the Web Availability Synthetic Transactions

for OpsMgr 906

Creating TCP Port Synthetic Transactions for OpsMgr. 907

Using Synthetic Transactions in a Distributed Application 908

Fast Track 909

Summary 910

18 Distributed Applications 911

Distributed Applications Overview 911

The Background of Distributed Applications 912

The Role of the OpsMgr Distributed Application 914

Predefined Distributed Applications 915

Operations Manager Management Group 916

Active Directory Topology Root 921

Enterprise Health Monitoring 925

Internet Explorer Service Template 926

Windows Explorer Data Source Service Template 932

Creating a Distributed Application Health Model 938

Line of Business Web Application Template 942

Messaging Template 948

Terminal Services Farm Template 950

.NET 3 Tier Application 951

Blank Template 952

Fast Track 959

Summary 959

19 Client Monitoring 961

Client Monitoring Features 961

Early Steps to AEM: Dr. Watson 962

Corporate Error Reporting: To AEM and MDOP DEM 962

Monitoring Client Machines 964

Client Monitoring Challenges 965

End User Problems Are Costly 966

Features in OpsMgr for Monitoring Clients 967

Monitoring Agentless Systems 968

AEM Architecture 968

Crash and Hang Monitoring 970

Client Monitoring Reports 982

CEIP and the Microsoft Privacy Statement 986

Monitoring Agent-Managed Systems. 992

Client Monitoring Management Pack 994

Preparing for Synthetic Transaction Monitoring 1000

Fast Track 1001

Summary 1002

Part VI Beyond Operations Manager 1003

20 Interoperability and Cross Platform 1005

Supported Platforms and Requirements. 1005

OS Monitoring 1007

New in 2012 1007

Cross Platform Agent Architecture 1007

Cross Platform Agent Communication 1008

Performance and Scalability Implications 1009

High Availability 1010

UNIX/Linux Agent Architecture Details 1011

OpsMgr Access to UNIX/Linux Computers 1012

Cross Platform Agent Deployment 1014

Preparing to Discover UNIX/Linux Computers 1015

Importing UNIX/Linux Management Packs 1019

Discovering Systems and Deploying the Agent

(Without Root) 1019

Manually Deploying the Cross Platform Agent 1025

Common Agent Deployment Errors 1026

Finding Monitoring Data in the Console 1027

Using Management Pack Templates 1029

UNIX/Linux Log File Template 1030

UNIX/Linux Process Template 1031

Shell Command Monitoring Templates 1035

Introducing Application Performance Monitoring 1051

JEE Configuration, Discovering, and Monitoring 1053

Configuring JEE Run As Security 1055

Importing JEE Management Packs 1060

Deploying BeanSpy 1062

Locating (Deploying) the BeanSpy Files 1062

Installing BeanSpy 1064

Verifying BeanSpy Is Accessible and Functional 1064

Enabling Deep Monitoring of JEE Applications 1065

Defining Deep Monitoring 1065

Enabling Deep Monitoring on Automatically Discovered JEE Application Servers 1065

Manual Discovery and Deep Monitoring Configuration 1066

Finding Monitoring Information 1067

JEE Application Monitoring Templates. 1069

JEE Application Availability Monitoring 1070

JEE Application Performance Monitoring 1076

Notes on UNIX Commands 1080

Fast Track 1082

Summary 1083

21 System Center 2012 Integration 1085

Service Manager Integration. 1086

System Center Operations Manager Configuration Item Connector 1086

Creating an Alert Connector 1089

Virtual Machine Manager Integration 1095

Configuring OpsMgr/VMM Integration 1096

Integrated Maintenance Mode (Hyper-V Host and Host Cluster Patching) 1101

Dynamically Generated Diagram Views (via Internal Connector) 1101

SQL Server Analysis Services Integration (Forecast Reporting). 1101

Data Protection Manager Integration 1103

Example: Recovering from DPM Backup Failure in the Operations Console 1103

Centralized Management Features 1104

Configuration Manager Integration 1104

Orchestrator Integration 1106

System Center Operations Manager Integration Pack 1106

Forwarding OpsMgr Alerts to/from Third-Party Systems 1110

Maximizing Business Value 1112

Bringing It All Together in the Microsoft Private Cloud 1112

What the Private Cloud Is 1113

Core Characteristics of the Cloud 1113

Benefits of the Cloud 1113

Visualization of Private Cloud Components 1114

Dynamically Generated Distributed Application Models 1114

Dashboard Views 1114

Monitoring Health, Performance, and Capacity 1115

Private Cloud Reporting 1116

Health, Availability, and Performance Reporting 1117

Forecasting (What-If) Reporting 1117

Private Cloud Usage Reporting 1117

Using Chargeback Reporting 1119

Fast Track 1121

Summary 1121

22 Authoring Management Packs and Reports 1123

Authoring Concepts 1123

Using Classes 1124

About Relationships 1126

Health Model 1127

Health Rollup 1128

Getting Started with Authoring 1128

Identifying Monitoring Requirements for the Application 1129

Identifying Monitoring Requirements for Each Component 1130

Writing the Management Pack 1132

Creating Classes 1133

Creating Discoveries 1146

Creating Monitors 1159

Creating Rules 1167

Using Views 1171

Testing Your Management Packs 1172

Creating Reports 1173

Fast Track 1180

Summary 1180

23 PowerShell and Operations Manager 1181

Windows PowerShell Cmdlet Primer 1182

Frequently Used and Useful Cmdlets 1182

PowerShell Execution Policy 1185

Signing PowerShell Scripts 1185

Adding the PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment 1186

Filtering, Formatting, and Grouping with PowerShell. 1188

What’s New in Operations Manager 2012 PowerShell 1192

Operations Manager 2007 Cmdlets. 1193

Operations Manager 2012 PowerShell Connection 1194

Using PowerShell v2 Feature to Start a Remote Console Connection 1195

Working with OpsMgr Management Group Connections 1195

Working with Agents 1196

Using Get-SCOMAgent 1197

Installing Agents with Install-SCOMAgent 1199

Uninstalling Agents with Uninstall-SCOMAgent 1200

Using Repair-SCOMAgent 1200

About Enable-SCOMAgentProxy 1201

Using Disable-SCOMAgentProxy 1201

Retrieving the AgentApproval Setting 1202

Setting the AgentApproval Setting 1202

Managing Maintenance Mode 1202

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