March, 2009

Operations Manager 2007 R2 introduces key new and enhanced functionality, including:

Enhanced application performance and availability across heterogeneous platforms

• Delivers monitoring across Windows, Linux and Unix servers-all through a single console
  Extends end to end monitoring of distributed applications to any workload running on Windows, Unix and Linux platforms
  Maximize availability of virtual workloads with integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008

Improved management of applications in the data center

• Delivers on the scale requirements of URL monitoring of your business
  Meet agreed service levels with enhanced reporting showing application performance and availability
  More efficient problem identification and action to resolve issues

Increased speed of access to information and functionality to drive management

• Faster load times for views and results
  Improved and simplified management pack authoring experience
  
  

For those who are evaluating the Beta release, this Release Candidate offers a number of enhancements over the Operations Manager R2 Beta, including:

-New Power Management MP template (Monitored system must be Windows Server 2008 R2 or Win7)
-Updated branding across all User Interfaces
-Improved trace configuration tools on the CD to help support issues escalated to Customer Support (where applicable)
-Improved Run As Account Distribution Configuration
-Ability to run inline tasks for non-Microsoft servers
-Support for upgrade from Beta deployments to the Release Candidate
-New and updated documentation, including the Usage Guide, Design Guide, Deployment Guide, Upgrade Guide, Security Guide and Operations Guide

Apply - to participate in the "Operations Manager Public Beta" - https://connect.microsoft.com/SelfNomination.aspx?ProgramID=2249&pageType=1&SiteID=446

Get it - System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 (RC) - http://connect.microsoft.com/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?SiteID=446&DownloadID=17271

Tell us what you think! - Give us your feedback - https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/default.aspx?SiteID=446

When deploying the Operations Manager gateway role you can tag the gateway with a Site name.   Any alerts coming from an agent reporting to this gateway will now have it's "Site" property populated with the site name you configured when deploying the gateway.  This can be really handy for building specific alert views and sending notifications. 

High level steps for deploying a gateway with a site name (Note: Deployment Guide Detailed steps are located here - Link):

1. Request certificates for any computer in the agent, gateway server, management server chain
    
2. Import those certificates into the target computers by using the MOMCertImport.exe tool
    
3. On the Management server you plan to have the gateway report to, run the gateway approval tool.
   Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.gatewayApprovalTool.exe /ManagementServerName=MyManagementServer.contoso.com
   /GatewayName=MyGatewayServer.contoso.dmz /SiteName=MyDMZSite /Action=Create  
   
4. Install gateway software on gateway server.

Now you can create a new alert view in the monitoring space and configure "from a specific site" to the name of the site you configured when running the tool.  As an added bonus, in Operations Manger R2 you can easily configure notifications to use the "from a specific site" alert criteria from the Subscription wizard.   You can customize the format of the subject to display the name of the site by using "Site: $data/Context/DataItem/SiteName$" parameter.

Hope you find this useful.

Rob Kuehfus | System Center Operations Manager | Setup and Deployment Program Manager

On February 27th 2009 I presented a TechNet Webcast to show how to author your own custom performance reports using Operations Manager 2007.

 The webcast can be viewed from

Attached to this blog are the step by step instructions and sample files that accompany the webcast. Extract files to view.

Using both the webcast and instructions you should be able to walk through and create your own report.

Daniel