Infrastructure and Network Monitoring with System Center Operations Manager 2012 Release Candidate

I am so glad that the System Center Operations Manager 2012 Release Candidate was recently released. This is an exciting release, and includes all of the new capabilities introduced in the Beta plus a few more.

One of the important changes we made with Operations Manager 2012 is that we have simplified the architecture by removing the RMS (Root Management Server) role. To do this, we have created resource pools that will distribute the workload that the RMS performed in the past. This will help decrease bottlenecks, help increase performance, and help provide higher availability of your Operations Manager environment.

I am really excited about our Network Monitoring in Operations Manager 2012 RC. Whether the devices are ones where we have extended monitoring capabilities (check out the link here), or other switches where we can just determine connectivity, you can determine if the problem is with the networking infrastructure, or the servers connected.

Now, if you want to, you can create your own custom dashboards displaying views of performance and alerts that are important to you. Once you have created these dashboards, you can present them in a read-only view to SharePoint via the Operations Manager Web Part support.

With Operations Manager 2012, we have connectors for other System Center products that allow for better management of your infrastructure and more connected communication within System Center.

With System Center Orchestrator 2012, the integration pack will have the capabilities to interact with Operations Manager 2012 through activities like:

  • Create Alert
  • Get Alert
  • Update Alert
  • Monitor Alert
  • Get Monitor
  • Monitor State
  • Start Maintenance Mode
  • Stop Maintenance Mode

With System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012, the connector will allow you to push from Virtual Machine Manager

  • Virtual machine information (properties, performance data)
  • Service information (services rendered as distributed applications in OM)
  • Private cloud information (capacity, usage metrics)
  • Host and Host Cluster information
  • Storage Pool information
  • IP Address and MAC pool information
  • VMM infrastructure information (VMM server health, library server health)

With System Center Service Manager 2012, you have the connector which allows you to sync your Operations Manager discovered objects from any Operations Manager management packs and create configuration items and business services within Service Manager. Also, the connector will create incidents from Operations Manager alerts automatically for you.

We’ve built Operations Manger 2012 with upgrading in mind, and you can perform a rolling upgrade from your Operations Manager 2007 environment. Here is a nice diagram on the upgrade process flow.

I would be remiss to mention that all the really cool things you used in Operations Manager before are still there. For example, your management packs will still work, your alerting, health, and performance monitoring is all still there. Existing MPs and Templates should just work, allowing you to preserve that existing investment you may have already made.

I am really excited about this Release Candidate. Please, download and give it a try.

 

Thanks for reading!

Kenon Owens

Technical Product Manager