Training and Exams

The first exam for SCOM 2007 is available according to Pete and Walter and information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-400.mspx. The bottom of the page breaks down the major areas and the parts within those categories that will be examined. This looked very familiar as I was in Seattle last June as one of the guys who helped create those categories and points to be examined.

This was difficult for two reasons, The first being that it is a test designed for an administrator and assumes that SCOM has already been installed by someone else. Most of my work is going to organisations to design, deploy and tune so I don’t get too deep into the day to day work after that. The second was Microsoft’s requirements that as well as the install having been done anything that was a one off that the admin would read about and then do should not be included. That made it hard to come up with a list. The Microsoft person looking at it from an exam perspective was unclear why importing management packs would be in it as she said from the description we gave she could do it! And was probably right. But it fitted the remit that it should be about what 80% of the administrators do 80% of the time and I could not image an admin not importing a management pack.

I did think at the end with all that we had to leave out it made the exam easy (although at that stage I only saw the structure and not the questions – those would be created later in a different workshop). So anyone with good SCOM skills should have no problem with it. And Jeff shows the way by passing with 960.

There is not much official training out there yet but there are some on-line training modules that can be purchased, 5 modules for £26.29 (about $53) or all 5 for £105.16 ($210). Subscription is for 18 months. So if you like self learning then this may be a way for you to do it. Notice that they still refer to it as MOM. For each course there is a tab for content that details what each course covers.

Collection 3386: Implementing Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007

In this online learning collection composed of five courses, you will learn how to deploy, secure, and use Operations Manager 2007 to identify, and resolve IT health issues that will result in improved efficiency in your environment. In the collection, you will configure and manage a MOM deployment that provides a distributed operations management solution. You will perform an installation according to specified configurations and prerequisites. You will also install and configure agents. Finally, you will plan and configure MOM for standard deployment scenarios.
To get the most out of this learning product, you should have:

• 3+ years of experience managing and monitoring a Microsoft Windows-based network using any earlier version of MOM.
• A Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Windows Server 2003 credential or equivalent knowledge
• Familiarity with Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) or Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

Course 3387: Deploying Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007

Course 3388: Monitoring Enterprise Systems with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007

Course 3389: Monitoring Exchange Server with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007

Course 3390: Monitoring SQL Server and Distributed Applications with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007

Course 3391: Monitoring Clients with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007

Design Questions

I was chatting with my friend who specialises in SharePoint and we were discussing what you need to ask you get designs going on our respective technologies. Apparently SharePoint is quite complex. I was saying that SCOM is quite easy and that got me thinking.. What are the questions that I ask that help me narrow down the design options and help me work out how long the project will take. Here is what I would ask a customer as to help establish a design. Based on discussions around these questions I can quickly establish what the SCOM design should be for that organisation.

Question: Should the OM solution be fault tolerant?

Reason: If fault tolerance is needed then that affects the hardware requirements as cluster SQL and multiple management servers will be needed. This question is the biggest one that affects the cost of the hardware required.

Question: Are you only interested in doing SCOM or do you want to do Audit Collection Services (ACS) and Agent Exception Monitoring (AEM)?

Reason: ACS is for collection security events and depending on the numbers (servers and clients) this may require extra hardware on top on the OM hardware requirements.

Question: How many servers are to be monitored?

Reason: The number of servers to be monitored will affect the sizing of the system. This will determine if all the components can go on a single server or whether multiple servers are needed or even whether multiple management groups are needed.

Question: How many clients are to be monitored (for OM, ACS, AEM)?

Reason: If clients are included in the monitoring then this will affect the design as there is usually significantly more clients than servers in an organization. However if the monitoring is AEM only then that would have a lesser impact (no agent) than using OM and/or ACS.

Question: OS versions on servers and clients?

Reason: NT4 is not supported. Also if any non Windows OS are to be included then the design must take into account the choice and purchase of 3^rd party products to monitor these OSes.

Question: What applications (Exchange, SQL, SharePoint etc) and components (AD, IIS, DNS, GP etc) are to be monitored.

Reason: This will determine the management packs to use. It will also highlight gaps where there may be a need to purchase a 3^rd party MP or to create a custom MP. Also the type of monitoring being done on each server will determine whether an Enterprise or Standard OML is needed and will affect the cost. The more MPs that are used then the more tuning will be needed which will affect the length of the project.

Creating custom MPs for distributed application monitoring will also increase the project length.

Question: Extend OM out to network devices?

Reason: This may require the purchase of third party software.

Question: Do you need long term reporting?

Reason: This will determine whether or not Reporting needs to be installed. And depending on the number of devices the sizing of the database and also whether it requires additional hardware.

Question: Do you have DMZ servers and/or workgroup servers or multiple AD forests that do not have a full 2 way trust.

Reason: OM requires a secure connection between the agent and the management server. In an AD forest this is done using Kerberos trusts. However if separate forests or servers in DMZ exists then this method cannot be used and depending on the numbers one or more Gateway server may be needed.

Question: If the answer to the above is yes do you already have a certificate server in place?

Reason: The method for securing servers in DMZ’s etc is to use certificates. If this does not exist in the environment then the design will need to take into account the provisioning of a certificate server.

Question: Is the plan to link OM into a service desk, helpdesk or manager of managers?

Reason: If this is a requirement then the design needs to take into account linking the systems and that there may be a need to purchase 3^rd party software.

Question: WAN topology, links and speed?

Reason; Are there any slow WAN links which may affect the deployment of agents or the collecting of alerts?

Question: What is the IT organizations support model?

Reason: OM leans towards a centralized model but if delegated access is needed then account must be taken of the number of consoles needed as that may impact on the sizing of the RMS and also the requirement to set up roles.

Question: Does the organisation build servers from images?

Reason: That would suggest that they would want the OM agent as part of the build and AD Integration will be needed.

Question: Is you organisation (and number of servers) growing? Does your organisation regularly do mergers and acquisitions?

Reason: If they are at a border or a design then using the bigger design would be more beneficial if they are planning growth or their organisation has a history or acquiring other companies.

Full Circle

As Windows 2008 is due out soon I have been looking at some webcasts. I like the new management features like the single Server Manager which owes its existence to Small Business Server. I remember seeing the SBS interface ages ago and thought how good that would be for bigger organisations and Server Manager looks like it. Also being able to do remote management over HTTPS using WS-Management.

For years I remember admins asking for a smaller footprint server for specific tasks like they could do with Linux. The less bits that are installed the less code that may have bugs and needs patching. Server Core provides that and is quite neat. Although I can not help thinking that I have seen it before with NetWare 3! I am just waiting for someone to create a little program that run the “red snake” on Server Core and then it really will be full circle. Plus it would be very amusing for older admins who used to have NetWare 3 servers.

I have found a NetWare screen saver written for older versions of Windows. I must try them out and see how they run on 2008.
http://anderbergfamily.net/ant/perfsnake/

How to change screen saver in Server Core. http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/sanderberkouwer/archive/2007/08/14/changing-server-core-s-look-and-feel-part-2.aspx

The other thing that looks like full circle is the XML config files. They are used for IIS7. In the early days the configuration of Windows components was done with ini files before the registry came along. And like XML files ini files are just text files. Full circle again.

Or as the French would say “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” (roughly: “The more things change, the more it’s all the same.”). How true.

Xerox MP Repeat

Interesting that there have been 2 blog posts recently about this MP – one from Walter and one from Duncan saying that he saw it on Rod’s blog. I had already blogged about this MP in June last year. It would be nice if it was in the MP catalog. Failing that perhaps the SystemCenterForum.org boys can create a link for it as they have a category for MPs not in the catalogue.

This raises the question for me about the purpose of the blog. I tend not to post about subjects that other blogs have mentioned, unless I can add something useful, as I assume that the people reading this blog will also be reading a few other OpsMgr blogs. Maybe I am wrong. I also don’t like repeating myself as I feel that it is searchable once it is on the blog. Again maybe this is not so good for people new to the subject who are just finding out about this area and have just subscribed. But I think a combination of being busy and being lazy will keep the blog as is.

Windows 2008 Support Plans

On the 7th I posted that I would like to see what is going to be supported for MOM 2005 and SCOM 2007 with Windows 2008 and SQL 2008. Well Satya (aka Deployment Man from the MOM Product Team) has done a post about Windows 2008.

http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/archive/2008/01/09/support-plans-for-opsmgr-2007-sce-and-mom-2005-running-on-windows-server-2008.aspx

Basically don’t bother with MOM 2005 on 2008 except for agents but all roles on 2007 will be supported 90 days after RTM. And SCE will also be done but not for Core except for agents again.

Thanks for posting Satya. I wish all my requests were answered so quickly!

Now who is looking at support for SQL 2008 for these products?

2008

 

I am looking forward to SCOM 2007 SP1 in 2008. I hope it fixes the problems and it would also be good to have more MPs and documentation please.

System Center Service Manager should also be available about May in time for the MMS but it has gone quiet on this front and I am not hopeful about an early release.

Also it would be nice to have a version of System Center Configuration Manager that has the data for SCOM 2007 as the product group have consistently been saying that this is the “official” tool to size up a SCOM deployment but it is over 8 months since SCOM was released we still don’t have it!

It will be an interesting year as there will be new versions of SQL Server and Windows Server as well as Visual Studio all due for release in Q1.

There will be a big scrabble for information so I hope the product group is preparing an FAQ as it is obvious what questions are going to be asked on the newsgroups.

Will MOM 2005/SCOM 2007 components run on Windows 2008/SQL 2008?

What will be the pros and cons of using SQL 2008 instead of SQL 2005?

Will there need to be any updates to the management servers or agents to run on Windows 2008? Will there be changes to the pre-requisites?

Will the same agent (2005 or 2007) run on Windows 2008 servers (32 and 64 bit). If not what needs to be done if the organistaion is running in a mixed environment with 2000, 2003 and 2008 servers? If there is an updated agent how will that affect my existing deployment?

And most importantly will there be management packs for Windows 2008 and SQL 2008 at RTM for MOM 2005 and SCOM 2007?

Please tell me that someone is working on this now!

And my predictions for 2008

Virtualisation in its many forms will become an increasingly important part of all organisations infrastructure.

More companies will deploy 64 bit systems in preparation for when there is no more 32 bit (Exchange 2007 is 64 bit only, SQL Server benefits from 64 bit and Windows 2008 will be the last Windows Server OS that can be purchased as 32 bit). I am not sure if you can buy 32 bit hardware these days.

OK the last 2 were pretty obvious but here is one that is a bit contentious.

Green issues will make a lot of noise but not materially affect things. Green is a business consumer issue and not an IT issue until the business says it is. And if you are not sure about that look at Hugh”s carton

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/003875.html 

Have a great 2008.

2007 Review

“So this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun”
John Lennon

Well I have had a busy year. It has been a mixed year with almost as many 2005 projects as 2007. 2005 is alive and well – especially as Forefront uses 2005.

The big news of the year for me was the release of System Center Operations Manager 2007 in April at the MMS to replace Microsoft Operations Manager 2005. And in becoming part of the new System Center family they sparked the biggest debate yet. Should you call it SCOM, OpsMan or just keep on using MOM! The product group think it should be called OpsMgr but all the other groups are happy with their initials – SCCM, SCVMM, SCDMP, SCE etc. So I still call it SCOM and sometimes MOM. It’s only a Microsoft marketing dept. They don’t rule the world you know!

SCOM 2007 should have been released in Nov 2006 and so was already 4 months late. After installing it at various sites I thought it could have done with a few more months. There was the slowness (green bar watching), the hefty server requirements, lack of management packs and worst of all lack of documentation. I am glad I went to the MMS to find out about the product (and to go to 1E’s 10th birthday party). I am also glad I have had some 2005 projects to do to keep going until SP1 is released in early 2008.

On paper 2007 is a winner with a lot more functionality for less money. And when you demonstrate features like the Distributed Application designer it really looks good. But it really is a case of a really good idea but poor execution and delivery. Even the management packs seemed problematic with multiple releases of MPs to fix a number of problems. And I still can not believe that it took 6 months to get the DNS MP out.

2007 is really like a new product that tips its hat to the concepts of 2005. For people versed in 2005 it was quite a difficult transition and 2007 should be treated like a new product. The way it is based around the System Definition Model (SDM – part of DSI – Dynamic Systems Initiative) so it uses objects instead of servers means that monitoring becomes a great deal more flexible. There were a lot of changes underneath the hood but that meant a lot of scrabbling for information on how it worked which is only starting to come out now. This is especially true as expressions were quite fussy on punctuation and getting info on scripting was like gold dust in the early days.

The other big news is that SMS 2003 is replaced by System Center Configuration Manager 2007 with its launch in November. Also released in November was System Center Virtual Machine Manager. In December we had System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 and System Center Capacity Planner 2007. With System Center Essentials 2007 having been released in October the end of 2007 filled out the System Center portfolio.

My big disappointment (apart from the SCOM issues) was that Kirill Tatarinov left the EMD group to go to another technology. Brad Anderson took over so it will be interesting to see if the strategy changes.

As for this blog the most popular post was SCOM 2007 Architecture which I wrote while SCOM was still in beta in 2006! I did look at it to update it at RTM but decided it was good as it was. I have supplemented this with Trichotomy and Blueprint for a Big SCOM Design as well as a spreadsheet for estimating database sizes.

My favourite posts were the Exchange MP Request to the Product Group as I received feedback that they had put that on the list for the next version of the MP and my last post of the year where I found a new bug in 2005 that I could find no reference to elsewhere.

There are a number of blogs that I read during 2007 but I must tip my hat to SystemCenterForum for providing great articles and summaries of everything else that is going. It has meant that I have not blogged as much as they have done it! And I am really glad of the MS bloggers like Clive and Boris et all and their tools! Thanks to all who blogged and helped me understand MOM and SCOM better.