Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Field Experience

Focused technical guidance from System Center experts

Part of a series of specialized guides on System Center--this book walks through the implementation of Operations Manager in the enterprise using Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2, or later. Written by experts on the Microsoft System Center team and with Microsoft MVP Mitch Tulloch as series editor, this title focuses on best practices for working with management packs, maximizing the effectiveness or reporting, troubleshooting your environment, and using Operations Manager in cloud environments.

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Table of Contents

Introduction     vii
Chapter 1     The role of Operations Manager     1
Examining a typical Operations Manager installation     1
Understanding Operations Manager architecture and workflow     2
Extending Operations Manager with cloud services     3
Best practices for operating system configuration     4
Power management     4
Disk performance     5
Disk optimization for IaaS virtual machines     5
Management server placement     6
Antivirus software exclusions     7
Best practices for SQL Server configuration     7
Auto grow and auto shrink     7
Instant file initialization     8
Maximum degree of parallelism     8
Maximum memory     9
Splitting up TempDB files     9
Recovery model     10
Service Principal Names     10
Re-indexing     11
Block size     12
Collation     12
Operations Manager registry optimizations     13
Data Access Layer     14
Persistence Manager     14
Health Manager     15
Pool Manager     15
Group Calculation module     16
SNMP module     16
Management Configuration Service     17
Data Warehouse module     17
Operations Manager environment sizing     18
General recommendations     18
Resource pool considerations     19
ITIL and MOF     20
ITIL     20
MOF     20
The role of Operations Manager     21
Step 1: Changing     21
Step 2: Operating     22
Step 3: Supporting     23
Step 4: Optimizing     24
Chapter 2     Best practices for working with management packs     25
Understanding management packs     25
Singleton vs. non-singleton classes     26
Workflow targets     26
Authoring classes     27
State change events     28
Module cookdown     29
Type space     29
Authoring groups     30
Group calculation interval     30
Sealed management packs     31
Summary of best practices     31
Tools for analyzing management packs     32
Management Pack Viewer     32
Override Explorer     39
Workflow Analyzer explained     40
Workflow Analyzer internals     41
Using Workflow Analyzer     41
Running workflow tracing manually     41
Best practices for creating and using groups     43
Chapter 3     Getting the most out of Operations Manager
visualizations     45
Tuning using the out-of-the-box reports     45
Alert reports     47
Event reports     49
Data Volume reports     51
Publishing visualizations     55
Publishing and scheduling reports     56
Publishing to SharePoint     57
Using Visio with Operations Manager     60
Chapter 4     Troubleshooting your Operations Manager
environment     63
Understanding the HealthService process     63
MOMConnector     64
HealthServiceExecutive     64
PersistenceManager     65
ConnectorManager     65
ConfigurationManager     65
ExecutionManager     66
HealthManager     67
SecureStorageManager     67
DiscoveryManager     67
DataPublisherManager     67
JobManager     67
PoolManager     67
Understanding the Operational Database     70
ManagedType table     71
ManagedTypeProperty table     72
RelationshipType table     73
Workflow and basic data tables     73
Instance space and discovery tables     74
Overview of the Data Warehouse Database     76
Instance space     76
Datasets and their tables     76
General troubleshooting steps     80
Operations Manager event log     81
ETW tracing for Operations Manager     82
SQL Server Profiler Tracing     85
Performance troubleshooting     85
Data grooming settings     86
Event and performance data collection     86
State change event frequency (noisy monitors)     87
Top issues and best practices     89
Recommended operating system fixes for Operations Manager     89
Gray management servers or agents     89
Data missing from reports     89
Resource pool unavailable     89
Chapter 5     Using Operations Manager in cloud environments     91
Using Global Service Monitor     91
Understanding DevOps     91
Understanding global service monitoring     92
Installing Global Service Monitor     92
Getting started with Global Service Monitor     93
Troubleshooting Global Service Monitor     94
Using Azure Operational Insights (System Center Advisor)     95
Understanding Azure Operational Insights     95
Connecting to Azure Operational Insights     97
Planned additional capabilities of Azure Operational Insights     100
Comparing Azure Operational Insights with
Operations Manager     100
Installing Operations Manager in Azure IaaS     102
Supported scenarios     102
Configuring the network     103
Configuring storage     104
The first virtual machine     107
Configuring the first virtual machine as a domain controller     111
Configuring the next virtual machine as the SQL Server server     112
Configuring the final virtual machine as the Operations Manager management server     113
Monitoring Azure IaaS     114
Connecting your on-premises Operations Manager environment
to your Azure subscription     114
Using Operations Manager to monitor Azure virtual machines     116
 

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