Archives for: July 2008

I'm glad to post that Microsoft announced Operations Manager 2007 support for Windows Server 2008. Please read the overall Microsoft KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953141

Also several Windows Server 2008 hotifxes are required, and then the Operations Manager 2007 hotfixes:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954049

The new supported configurations has been updated:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb309428.aspx

Also the first Management Packs regarding Windows Server 2008 have been released:

Windows Server 2008 Application Server (6.0.6278.22)
Windows Server 2008 Base OS (6.0.6278.22)
Terminal Services (6.0.6278.22)
Key Management Service (6.0.6278.9)

The Service Level Dashboard for Operations Manager 2007 is designed to work with an existing Operations Manager infrastructure.

Service Level Dashboard for Operations Manager 2007 uses the following components to gather and process additional data:

- SLA definitions. The IT Manager identifies and defines the SLA agreement for a given business-critical application or service.
- Web application monitors and synthetic transactions. The IT administrator configures and deploys watcher nodes to perform the actions of a synthetic transaction, such as connecting to the Web site or querying the database. A Web application monitor runs on the watcher node and uses these synthetic transactions to perform actions to check availability and to measure performance of a Web page, Web site, or Web application. It does this by monitoring the web application and then changing the health state of an object associated with the web application based on the results of the synthetic transaction. It is this change in health state that the Service Level Dashboard records and reports on. The IT administrator configures the thresholds for identifying an error or warning state during a synthetic transaction. For the Service Level Dashboard for Operations Manager 2007, an error is equivalent to an availability exception, and a warning is equivalent to a performance exception. Because an unavailable application is by definition not performing as expected, availability exceptions are also factored into performance exceptions.

- Distributed Application model. The IT administrator uses an Operations Manager Distributed Application (DA) model to define the application or service. Using the DA model, the IT administrator groups Web application monitors and other monitors into applications and regions for the dashboard.
Operations Manager derives availability and performance percentages independently for each component object in the application model tree, based on Operations Manager's time in state for that object. Any rollup calculations are controlled by the standard DA model health rollups.

- Dashboard interface. As soon as the Service Level Dashboard for Operations Manager 2007 components are configured and operating, you use the dashboard interface to analyze the SLA compliance data. The Service Level Dashboard for Operations Manager 2007 evaluates each application over the defined reporting period, determines whether the application was in or out of compliance during that period (and for how long). The dashboard then lists the application as compliant or non-compliant, based on defined service level targets.
The Service Level Dashboard for Operations Manager 2007 evaluates each application over the defined reporting period, determines whether the application was in or out of compliance during that period (and for how long). The dashboard then lists the application as compliant or non-compliant, based on defined service level targets.

You can download it from the following page:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc463350(TechNet.10).aspx
An online demonstration of this solution accelerator is available at:
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=eaa26b14-35e5-4355-a69f-84cb0d207161

Microsoft released an updated version of the Active Directory Management Pack for MOM 2005. More information and to download the new Management Pack click here.

Microsoft announced that the following has been released and available for download:

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 Release Candidate (build 6335)

This is the official RC build for the R2 release, note that Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 RTM required. You can download the build with your connect account on http://connect.microsoft.com/