Operations Manager Tuning War No Management Pack Left Behind

Dieter Wijckmans

Community Expert

Livemeeting 20/09/2012

Dieter Wijckmans

It’s doing common thingsUncommonly well that brings success.

AGENDA

Welcome Management Pack basics Authoring Tools Best practice approach Tuning tips Community Management Packs Wrap-up and Q&A

Management Pack basics

WHAT’S IN A MANAGEMENT PACK

Health Model

Service Model

Presentation

• Monitors• Rules• Tasks• Overrides• Product Knowledge• Run As Accounts

• Classes• Relationships• Discoveries

• Views• Reports

CLASSES

Describes the to be monitored element

Hierarchial model Starts with “entity” (compare to

DNS “.”) System libraries describe core

classes

INSTANCES

Instantiation of a class Also called “object” or “entity” Discovery process (or connector) creates them

Class

Instance

Displayname: SQL01ID: 01

Instance

Displayname: SQL02ID: 02

Discovery

DISCOVERY PROCESS

Management Pack

RegistryDiscover

y

Class = App ServerTarget = Windows Operating System

ScriptDiscover

y

Class = ApplicationTarget = App Server

MP

MP

2. Management pack deliveredto all agents with at leastone instance of at leastone target class

1. Management packinstalled

3. Agents receivemanagement pack andload into cache

4. Registry discovery executesfor all agents holding instanceof Windows Operating System

MPMP

5. Instance of App Serverdiscovered on agentswith application installed

6. Script discovery executeson all agents holding instanceof App Server class

MONITORS

Entity

AvailabilityHealth

PerformanceHealth

SecurityHealth

ConfigurationHealth

OverallHealth

MicrosoftSQL Server

Windows Service State

OVERRIDES

Refine the settings of a monitoring objects Change thresholds Accurate targeting

Thresholds MP delivered with default thresholds from vendor Must be adapted to the current organization

SEALING

Sealing a MP prevents modifications in original MP Use override MP to deviate from original values /

logic Unsealed MP can reference sealed MP

Certificate

Management

Pack (.XML)

Management Pack (.MP)

MPSeal.exe

Authoring Tools

CURRENT GENERATION

Common scenarios Completely wizard drivenOperations

Console

AuthoringConsole

XML

Launch for editing custom modules Copying between management packs

Advanced and custom scenarios Mostly hidden from XML Primary tool for developers and advanced

IT Pros

CHALLENGES

Operations console Authoring console learning curve Minimal graphical tools and monitoring patterns No ability to copy or share management pack elements Difficult to collaborate on single management pack Lack of professional development tools

One tool to rule them all….

IT Pro

Dev

Monitor Type

VISIO MANAGEMENT PACK DESIGNER

Single shape generates elements following best practices

Server Role

Windows Performance Counter Monitor

LocalApplication

ApplicationComponent

Discovery

Hosting

Discovery

Monitor

Rule

VISIO MANAGEMENT PACK DESIGNER

DEMO

VISUAL STUDIO AUTHORING EXTENSIONS Developers and IT Pros with custom requirements All of the advantages of Visual Studio

Professional editor Intellisense Build process

Create new management packs or import existing ones

VMPD VSAEXML

VSAE DESIGN BASICS

Management pack fragments Combination of related elements defined by you Support for multiple developers and custom

organization Assembled into management pack at build time

Templates Simplified configuration for known element Code behind with detailed XML

Snippets Enter variables into a configuration Build custom templates for your users

SNIPPETS

Template for management pack scenarios Form or CSV import for end user

IT ProDev

SCENARIO’S

Online

Most customers live here

Easy but limited No classes,

mainly creation and editing of overrides and monitors

Naming in the XML won’t be pretty

Can build most scenarios

Save you from XML complexity

Still get some nice wizards

Have to understand advanced concepts

Support for any (advanced) scenario

Full complexity

OperationsConsole

AuthoringConsole

Visual Studio

Offline Offline

Some customers will live here

Easy interface No concept

knowledge needed: functional actions are performed

Visio Add-In

Offline

Best practice approach

Choose the right approach

IT-Rambo approach

IT PRO approach

VS

What kind of duck do you want to be?

Implementation: Bad approach

Doing it the IT Rambo way: Loading all the management packs in SCOM production

environment Waiting for discoveries + alerts Digging through the alerts 1 by 1 whether they are

desired Not reviewing the documentation

Conclusion: You are a sitting duck for management

Implementation: Good Approach

Take 1 management pack at a time Review documentation + create list of changes Load management pack in environment Make necessary changes to the management pack Review discovery + alerts generated

Conclusion: You are armed and ready for management

Implementation: Ultimate approach Create SCOM test management group Multihome agents to both Test and Prod management

group Load Management pack in Test Configure and create overrides Wait week and review Export overrides management pack in Test Load management pack in Prod Import overrides management pack in prod Review discoveries and noise cancelling

Conclusion: You will be completely covered

Phased approach: Divide and conquer

Base

BASE Management packs

Monitoring packs to assure the Basic Availability of your Server Environment

These monitoring packs include: Windows Core OS Hardware manufacturer MP Networking MP

Phased approach: Divide and conquer

Services

Base

Services Management packs Make sure your services are monitored Written and developed by the software

manufacturer and are sealed These management packs include:

DNS DHCP AD Hyper-V ...

Phased approach: Divide and conquer

Custom

Services

Base

Custom Management packs

Custom made management packs at your organization

Unsealed and are tailored for your organization Common examples:

Override management packs In house developed applications monitoring Adapted community management packs

Get your Mission statement

Define the stakeholders per service / management pack

Read the management pack guide Pay special attention to the enabled and disabled by

default section Any additional install steps necessary?

Check best practices online Kb’s Blogs Technet

Tuning tips

Rules of engagement

Read documentation Make implementation plan Prepare and check list for stakeholders Implement installation procedure and config Deploy management pack Check alerts + discoveries Set up notifications

Default management pack landmine

By default selected in SCOM2007 to save overrides Has been dealt with in SCOM 2012 but still be

cautionous Prevents deletion of management packs which are

referenced Need to keep it clean.

Different approach per management pack type Common Management packs:

No special installation procedure required Standard set of monitors, rules, classes,... Implement changes by using overrides

Special Management packs: Special installation procedure or configuration required Contains different sets of custom made monitors, rules

besides the standard set or monitors, rules, classes,... Additional configuration is needed apart from the

changes implemented by using overrides.

Examples of special management packs

Exchange management pack: Different installation with Correlation Engine Discovery different Configuration of services monitored to avoid noise

Sharepoint Management pack: Different access rights needed Installation with a discovery script Configuration of services monitored to avoid noise

Exchange MP: Notes from the field

Diskspace is monitored in this MP in addition to Core OS MP

Disable monitoring for services which are not used Make sure you run the powershell script to create

testmailbox for synthetic transactions Lower the discovery times for the components to

speed up the rollout

EXCHANGE MP -- CORRELATION ENGINE

Raises alerts based on monitor state change events Uses Operations Manager Health Model Only raises alerts for the lowest level failure within a 90 second

window Significantly reduces noise

Client Access Server

OWA

Service Health AD Driver

X X

POP IMAP EAS EWS

Sharepoint Management pack

Steps to install this management pack: Define list of all SharePoint servers + install agents on all

of them Import and configure dependent management

packs: CoreOS, SQL Server, IIS.

Download the management packs from the catalog Import the management pack Create run as account: default name: “Sharepoint

discovery/monitoring Account” Make sure sharepointmp.config is in the correct

place. Run admin task to discover environment

SharePointMP.Config

Config file needed by discovery admin task Needs input

Run as account Server names

Automate the configuration of your SharePointMP.Config Script to automate the configuration of this

SharePointMP.Config: http://scug.be/blogs/christopher/archive/2012/02/23/shar

epoint-2010-mp-how-to-automate-the-sharepointmp-config-configuration.aspx

SharePoint: Notes from the field

Launch script and wait 24h for discovery to finish Take out redundant monitoring for different

components: SQL monitoring is done by SharePoint AND SQL mp Service monitoring is done by both SCOM and SharePoint

Make sure the run as account has the approriate rights to the environment

Disable services monitored in the management pack but not used in your organisation

Community Management Packs

Community packs

Written by members of community to enhance monitoring Add ons. New management packs where no management packs is

available or falls short. Not supported by Microsoft. Testing is required to make sure it fits your needs. Unsealed so easily adaptable to your environment

needs.

Community management packs highlighted Exhaustive list on SystemCentercentral.com

http://www.systemcentercentral.com/BlogDetails/tabid/143/IndexID/60342/Default.aspx

Some of the packs I use: Group population from CMDB (Kevin Holman) Remote Maintenance mode MP (Derek Harkin) Scheduled Tasks MP (Raphel Burri)

Check out #authoringfriday on twitter for additional management packs + tips and tricks of leading community experts in the field.

WRAP-UP AND Q&A

Dieter Wijckmans

Dieter.Wijckmans@inovativ.beTwitter: @DieterWijckmans

© 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.