Cloud & Datacenter Monitoring with System Center Operations Manager (10964-C) Training Course

Module 1: Overview and Architecture

Before implementing Operations Manager, it is essential to understand its key features and functionalities. This understanding will help you recognize how Operations Manager can address common challenges in cloud or datacenter environments, such as maintaining service levels and ensuring the availability and optimal performance of critical business applications.

Operations Manager is a comprehensive monitoring solution that requires thorough planning before deployment in any IT environment. It is crucial to understand the hardware and software requirements, as well as any security implications, such as monitoring computers within trust boundaries, perimeter networks, or public clouds. When configuring storage for the Operations Manager databases, you should have a clear understanding of the number of monitored computers and devices to appropriately size the databases.

This module introduces students to the components of an Operations Manager Management Group and describes the dependencies and relationships between these components. Students will learn how to plan for and design an Operations Manager Management Group for government use.

Lessons

• Overview of Operations Manager
• Key Features in Operations Manager
• Core Components and Topology
• Addressing Cloud and Datacenter Issues with Operations Manager
• Planning and Sizing System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager for government use

Module 2: Deploying a New System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager Management Group

When planning a new deployment of Operations Manager, it is important to consider hardware and sizing requirements, as well as other factors. These include the security accounts required by Operations Manager and the design of the Management Group. For example, you may need to install two separate Management Groups to scale Operations Manager to meet your monitoring needs for government operations.

After installing Operations Manager, it is crucial to configure common settings such as data retention (database grooming) and manual agent installation approval. You should also be familiar with the available agent deployment methods, including the console (or push) method and the manual installation method.

Lessons

• Security Considerations for government use
• Designing the Management Group for government operations
• Installing System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager for government environments
• Configuring Default Settings in Operations Manager for government use
• Deploying the Operations Manager Agent for government systems
• Configuring Agentless Exception Monitoring (AEM) for government operations
• Configuring Audit Collection Services for government compliance

Module 3: Upgrading Operations Manager

If you have existing investments in Operations Manager 2007 R2, it is important to understand the upgrade path to System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager. The upgrade process can only be performed on an Operations Manager 2007 R2 or later environment. Earlier versions must first be upgraded to Operations Manager 2007 R2, and the installation must be running at least Cumulative Update 4.

Before upgrading to System Center 2012 Operations Manager, several critical tasks must be completed. This module covers the upgrade order that should be followed when transitioning to System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager for government environments.

Lessons

• Migrating and Upgrade Planning for government use
• Upgrading to System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager for government systems
• Migrating to System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager for government operations

Module 4: Configuring Fabric and Application Monitoring

With Operations Manager deployed and agents installed on the computers hosting the applications and services you need to monitor, you must install Management Packs to begin monitoring. Before installing Management Packs, it is essential to understand Management Pack concepts, including all elements of a Management Pack.

You should also know how to configure fabric and application monitoring in Operations Manager for both private and public cloud environments, including the integration with Virtual Machine Manager and Windows Azure. Additionally, you should understand how to configure Management Packs to monitor applications running on your fabric, such as Microsoft SQL Server, IIS Server, and SharePoint Server. Finally, you should know how to integrate Operations Manager with System Center Advisor to view alerts related to your fabric components and applications.

Lessons

• Introduction to Management Packs for government use
• Configuring Network Device Monitoring for government operations
• Configuring Fabric Monitoring for government environments
• Configuring Application Monitoring for government systems

Module 5: Application Performance Monitoring

Most organizations use the Microsoft .NET Framework to build custom applications, such as intranet web sites. Since there may not be available Management Packs for these custom applications, it is important to understand how Application Performance Monitoring (APM) is configured in Operations Manager. APM provides extensive monitoring for .NET and Java-based applications, including both server and client-side monitoring.

In addition to direct .NET application monitoring through Operations Manager, you should understand how APM can be used with Visual Studio IntelliTrace Collector for full application profiling traces. With System Center 2012, you can also integrate Operations Manager with Team Foundation Server. It is important to know how this integration is configured so that Operations Manager can synchronize alerts with work items in Team Foundation Server.

Lessons

• Application Performance Monitoring for government use
• Using IntelliTrace for government applications
• Team Foundation Server Integration for government projects

Module 6: End-to-End Service Monitoring

When monitoring key line-of-business applications, it is essential to perform monitoring from both a data center and an end-user perspective. This module will teach you how to create synthetic transactions to measure end-user performance.

You will also learn how to combine component monitoring with synthetic transactions in distributed application models that describe the relationships between various application components. This provides a single view for identifying root causes and impacts of potential service outages.

Finally, you will learn how to build rich Visio dashboards to display real-time health information to external users.

Lessons

• Management Pack Templates for government use
• Distributed Application Models for government applications
• Global Service Monitor for government services
• Real-time Visio Dashboards for government operations

Module 7: Scorecards, Dashboards, and Reporting

Visualizing service and application health in Operations Manager is a key feature that enables quick and easy creation of at-a-glance views. These views (or dashboards) can instantly display performance and availability for one or more applications in a single pane.

It is important to understand how to create scorecards and dashboards to provide different types of users within the organization with insights into the monitored environment's performance. For example, a Service Owner may require a high-level view showing whether end-users can access a service, while an executive may need a view indicating whether a service is meeting SLAs.

Reporting is also crucial for understanding how the monitored environment is performing. Personnel who do not have access to the Operations Console or receive alerts by email may still require important information about the health and performance of key applications and services. In such cases, reports can provide an interface into collected Operations Manager data.

Service and application owners must also know that services supplied to the organization are meeting service level agreements for performance and availability. Therefore, you must understand how Service Level Tracking is configured and displayed in Operations Manager for government use.

Lessons

• Configuring and Managing Reporting in Operations Manager for government operations
• Configuring Service Level Tracking for government services
• Configuring the Operations Manager SharePoint WebPart for government use
• Configuring Dashboards and Widgets for government environments
• Creating Custom Dashboards for government applications

Module 8: Configuring and Customizing the Console

Application support teams that use Operations Manager can access it via a locally installed console or through the Web Console. Within an application support team, there are typically various roles requiring different levels of permissions when using the Operations Console. These range from read-only users to advanced operators. All these roles must be limited to only display data about the computers and applications for which they are responsible. This module will teach you how to use the built-in role-based security in Operations Manager to provide granular access to data, views, and tasks.

Application support teams often require customized views within the console for their key applications. You will learn how to design and provision these views for relevant support teams.

While some team members may keep the console open at all times, other teams may need notifications when issues are detected. Operations Manager uses Notifications and Notification Channels to achieve this functionality. This module describes how to configure these features and send email alerts to key teams.

Finally, to reduce the workload on application support teams, you will learn how to configure Diagnostic and Recovery tasks in Operations Manager. This provides a method for diagnosing and automating the remediation of detected issues.

Lessons

• Security, Scoping, and User Roles for government operations
• Creating Custom Views and Alert Resolution States for government use
• Configuring Notification Subscriptions for government teams
• Creating Diagnostic and Recovery Tasks for government applications

Module 9: Management Pack Authoring

For common applications such as Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Server, fully developed Management Packs are already available. You can extend the default monitoring in Operations Manager by creating rules, monitors, and groups within the Operations Console.

However, it may be necessary to author a completely new management pack to monitor custom applications. To achieve this, you would author the management pack in Visual Studio, seal it, and deploy it. The management pack should then automatically discover and monitor the components of the application for government use.

Management Pack authoring is a detailed topic that requires a foundational understanding of core concepts before proceeding. This module will cover these topics, including how to create a Management Pack in both the console and Visual Studio for government applications.

Lessons

• Management Pack Authoring Concepts for government use
• Authoring Management Packs using the Operations Console for government systems
• Authoring Management Packs using the Visual Studio Authoring Extensions for government environments

Module 10: Integrating Operations Manager with Other System Center Components

System Center 2012 R2 consists of several components that provide comprehensive management of the IT environment, including server and desktop infrastructure, networking infrastructure, and client devices. Integrating these System Center 2012 R2 components can provide seamless management from both cloud and datacenter perspectives, enabling automation of many manual processes.

In this module, you will learn about key features of other System Center 2012 R2 components and the benefits achieved when integrating Operations Manager with them for government operations.

Lessons

• Service Manager Integration for government use
• Data Protection Manager Integration for government data
• Orchestrator Integration for government workflows

Module 11: Troubleshooting, Tuning, and Disaster Recovery

Your monitoring solution must be highly available to ensure that key line-of-business applications are available and performing optimally at all times. Ensuring the system is fully optimized helps prevent outages and performance degradation of the monitoring solution. In this module, you will learn how to optimize the data warehouse to maintain the appropriate volume of data.

As with all critical systems, it is important to know where to look when troubleshooting problems. This includes using reports to understand performance and identifying which logs to investigate on both management servers and agents for government operations.

To increase overall service availability, you may consider configuring SQL AlwaysOn for Operations Manager. This will enhance the availability of the database layer for government systems.

If a component within the Operations Manager environment fails, it is equally important to understand how to recover the failed component. In this final module, you will learn how to optimize, troubleshoot, and perform disaster recovery in Operations Manager for government operations.

Lessons

• Troubleshooting Operations Manager Core Components for government use
• Tuning Management Packs for government applications
• Configuring SQL AlwaysOn for Operations Manager for government systems
• Configuring Data Retention in Operations Manager for government operations
• Disaster Recovery in Operations Manager for government environments