Targeting Series, Part 1: Differences between 2005 and 2007

Although Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 and Operations Manager 2007 both have the concept of targeting, the way targeting works in Operations Manager 2007 has completely changed from the previous version. To effectively deploy new rules and monitors, it is critical to understand the difference. Consider the following scenario:

In Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, to monitor the three SQL Server databases shown in the preceding figure, you would create a computer group that includes Server 1 and Server 2. You then would create a specific rule, put it into a Processing Rule Group (PRG), and then target the rule to the computer group. However, this method has some shortcomings:

• Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 does not make a distinction between SQL Server A and SQL Server B, so there is no way to deploy a rule that monitors SQL Server A while still monitoring SQL Server B unless you uninstall SQL Server B.
• It is difficult when looking at a rule to know its target. For example, knowing that a rule goes to Server 2 does not tell you whether the rule is gathering monitoring data for the SQL Server object on that computer or for the Internet Information Services Web server object on the computer.

In Operations Manager 2007, you no longer target computer groups. Instead, you target specific classes. To monitor the SQL Server objects shown in the following figure, you create a monitor and then target it to the SQL Database class.

This has the following advantages:

• Using overrides, you can stop Operations Manager from monitoring SQL Server B, while continuing to monitor SQL Server A.
• If SQL Server A is removed, Operations Manager automatically stops monitoring it.