How to get started with System Center Operations Manager…

I recently installed SCOM 2007 R2 and SCOM 2012 beta on my home network as a lab for learning, testing and doing demos. Being a SCOM n00b, I have been a little perplexed as to what I should be doing with SCOM. After I installed it and loaded up the console, I asked myself “Now what?”.

SCOM is not really a product that you just load up and start poking around in. It requires some direction. So I took to the web this morning looking for content and thankfully, I didn’t have to look very far. I fired up Bing and queried on “SCOM 2012” as my initial search. I was intrigued by the second link - Q&A Session for Top 5 Reasons to Migrate to SCOM 2012 – so I clicked it. This took me out to Cameron Fuller’s site. Cameron is a SCOM MVP and very active and passionate about SCOM. I read through the Q&A and came across a *fantastic* link to another article he wrote - So, I installed OpsMgr. What’s next? . I think this is great starting point for taking your first steps with SCOM. Not all of the links are still valid (the post is about a year old) but most of it is great stuff. plus, you end up on the System Center Central site which is a great community to be involved with. Any question you have can be dropped in the forums.

Cheers!