Introduction to Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM)

Introduction to Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM)

Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) provides event management, proactive monitoring and alerting, reporting and trend analysis. MOM is extended through the use of Management Packs (MP), which contain rules for monitoring and reporting and that provide the operational knowledge necessary to keep applications and systems running smoothly.

MOM Components and Terms

Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 consists of a variety of components designed to allow distributed workloads and efficient operation. The main architectural components of MOM are: Microsoft SQL Server Database - Where all the event information and rules logic is stored. (This is where the Application management packs reside.) This database also contains the prescriptive advice and Knowledge Base links, and is used by the reporting engine. Data Access Server (DAS) - Used by the different MOM services to access the database for reading or writing information. The DAS acts as a broker that transposes simple requests into database-specific tasks. Consolidator - Delivers rules and configuration data to the agents on the managed nodes. The consolidator basically acts as an agent manager, handling all communications with the managed computers on the network. It sends information received from managed nodes to the DAS, and then places the information in the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database. Further, the Consolidator handles the automatic deployment and updating of the remote agents on each managed Windows-based server and ensures the propagation of new rules to the local agents. Agents - Intelligent monitoring components installed on each monitored system. Agents are at the forefront in collecting and analyzing information, and in executing commands sent by Microsoft Operations Manager. Agents store rules locally, and are able to act without having to refer back to the managing servers. Agent Manager - A central service that maintains configuration and installation of agents based on policies and rules stored in the database. In order for Agent Manager to function properly, you must install the Consolidator service on the same server. MOM Management Server - The server that runs the DAS, Consolidator, and Agent Manager. Two Management Consoles - MOM 2005 includes an Operations and an Administrator Console. This gives each type of MOM user, operator and administrator, access to the information and tools each needs. This is an improvement over having only the Operations Console in MOM 2000. Diagram Views - A variety of topological views where the existence of nodes and relationships are automatically discovered by MOM management packs. The status of the nodes, navigation to other views and launching of context-sensitive actions can be accessed directly from a topological view, helping the operator navigate quickly to the root cause of the problem and resolution information and tasks for resolving the issue.

For MOM 2005, there have been some terminology changes that you need to know when using this guide.

The following table lists the MOM 2000 SP1 terms that have changed, the MOM 2005 equivalent, and a definition of each term applicable to this configuration. For more information, see the online Help.

Table: MOM Terminology Changes

MOM 2000 SP1 term	MOM 2005 term	Definition
Data Access Server, Consolidator, and Agent Manager (DCAM)	MOM Management Server	Discovers managed computers and installs, uninstalls, and upgrades agents. Passes configuration information to managed computers based on the management pack rules. Controls the flow of data between the MOM agents and the MOM database.
Configuration group	Management group	Consists of a MOM database, one or more MOM Management Servers, the MOM Administrator console and MOM Operator console, managed computers, and optionally the MOM Reporting console and MOM Web console.

The distributed nature of MOM architecture makes it easy for administrators to avoid bottlenecks and to scale to support thousands of managed computers. Although it is possible to install all these services on a single computer, most organizations will choose to have them spread across multiple systems for better performance.

Business Benefits

Monitoring tools provide valuable information to hosting providers about the health of their system. Hosted Messaging and Collaboration recommends the use of Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) to monitor the platform and essential services. Adding MOM as the monitoring and reporting system to your environment helps you reduce operational costs by allowing you to:

• Easily track availability and performance of core services and their performance.
• Continuously improve your operations processes by providing information relevant to your system.

MOM provides an infrastructure for proactively managing complex environments. The implementation of MOM is an overall effort toward continuous improvement in operations processes. There are many ways to justify the investment in a tool. Unexpected downtime is one of the higher-profile generators of demand for MOM. In general, the causes of unexpected downtime for any particular IT service fall into three categories, as shown in the following figure (values are approximate).

Figure: Causes of unexpected downtime

Microsoft Operations Manager is a rules-based performance and availability monitoring tool. It captures events and records them in a repository. Events are filtered by rules, alerts are based on rules, and servers are logically grouped for reporting and rule processing.

MOM offers the following range of unique features:

• Event-driven operations monitoring
• Easy to deploy
• Scalable solution
• Advanced security policy enforcement and auditing capabilities
• High availability and performance tracking
• Open, extensible, standards-based architecture
• Collected data reports in various formats

For more information about MOM, go to the Microsoft Operations Manager Home Page.

Design Considerations

The overriding design consideration is to provide a monitoring infrastructure that lowers the cost of operations and thereby minimizes the total cost of ownership. To support this, minimum hardware and software configuration recommendations are given. The architecture is not highly fault-tolerant. It is designed to provide a solid foundation for base-level availability and performance monitoring, while placing a minimum requirement on infrastructure and personnel resources.