Introduction

Welcome to this book on System Center 2012 Operations Manager. During the past 10 years and after multiple iterations of the product, Operations Manager has grown to be one of the main monitoring products for medium to large enterprises. The Operations Manager 2007 version, for instance, brought us from server-based monitoring to application-based monitoring, whereas the 2007 R2 version brought us cross-platform monitoring toward the Unix/Linux machines in our datacenter. Operations Manager 2012 is now bringing us expanded network monitoring, a much better dashboarding experience, application performance monitoring (which used to be known as a separate product called AVIcode), and an important infrastructural change by removing the root management server and using resource pools, just to name a few improvements. We are excited about this version of the product and keen to tell you more about it. This book will give you an overview of Operations Manager with deep dives into important pieces. The chapters contain real-world examples from the field, which also might give you ideas on how to use Operations Manager in different ways.

Who Should Read This Book?

The answer to this question: everyone. Well, maybe anyone who wants to monitor their network using Operations Manager 2012. Included between the covers of this book is a comprehensive look at deploying, managing, troubleshooting, and working with Operations Manager and the new command set for PowerShell.

As complex as products are becoming, no one can be an expert on all of them. If you are like most administrators, you have time to learn only enough about a product so that you can manage it effectively. However, there is probably a lot more that you could be doing with any one product. This book is meant to get you up to speed quickly and then help you through some of the more arcane topics.

Not every administrator will have the same type of infrastructure to work with. What works well in a large corporation does not always work for small companies. What works well for small companies may not scale well for large organizations. Microsoft has attempted to address the differences among companies and deliver a product that can be implemented quickly for a small company, yet will still scale well for large organizations. No matter which scenario fits you, you will want to learn how this product will work for you.

But most of all, any administrator who wants to try to get to the “proactive” side of managing their infrastructure should consider looking through these pages to see how they can start monitoring their systems effectively. Being on the other side—the “reactive” management side—means that you are constantly having to respond to emergencies and continually “putting out fires.” If you are a reactive administrator, you probably already understand how hard it is to try to make your infrastructure more efficient when you don’t have enough time to work on anything else but emergencies.

The Contents at a Glance

There are two parts to this book. Part 1 covers implementation and administration. Part 2 covers maintenance and troubleshooting. As you read through each section, you will find that the material flows from one subject to another, building as you go. By the time you finish Part 1, you should have a good understanding of what goes into deploying and managing your management group. Throughout Part 2, you will learn some of the tips and tricks to keep your management group running smoothly.

Part 1: Implementation and Administration

Part 2: Maintenance and Troubleshooting

The Mastering Series

The Mastering series from Sybex provides outstanding instruction for readers with intermediate and advanced skills, in the form of top-notch training and development for those already working in their field and clear, serious education for those aspiring to become pros. Every Mastering book includes:

• Real-World Scenarios, ranging from case studies to interviews, that show how the tool, technique, or knowledge presented is applied in actual practice
• Skill-based instruction, with chapters organized around real tasks rather than abstract concepts or subjects
• Self-review test questions, so you can be certain you’re equipped to do the job right

Final Comments

Make sure you take the time to become familiar with Operations Manager 2012. The more comfortable you are with it, the more you will be able to do with it. At the very end of some chapters, you’ll find Master It self-tests: small labs that help reinforce the topics in the chapters. Instructions have been included that allow you to create a virtual environment. Building a virtual test environment can come in handy when you are trying to work through a new topic or troubleshoot a problem.

Most of all, have fun as you are going through the topics contained in this book. Once you find out how much power Operations Manager has in store for you, you will be amazed at some of the things you can do. Just looking at the surface, being able to monitor servers and services, may be impressive enough, but the additional features can be equally impressive, such as monitoring the health of an application from the time a user submits a request until the response is returned from your servers, reporting on the availability of servers and services, and creating scripts that will automatically alter the way the service functions when a problem arises.

How to Contact the Authors

We welcome feedback from you about this book or about books you’d like to see from us in the future. You can reach us by writing to [email protected]. For more information about the authors and additional information concerning the book’s content, please visit our website at www.masteringscom.com.

Sybex strives to keep you supplied with the latest tools and information you need for your work. Please check their website at www.sybex.com/go/mastsc2012opsmgr, where we’ll post additional content and updates that supplement this book if the need arises.