Managing LOB Applications by Using System Center Operations Manager Published: March 2007

LOB applications depend on interactions between components and services that are not directly related to infrastructure services. Tracking availability and performance for these distributed business solutions is difficult. LOB applications depend on interactions between components and services that are not directly related to infrastructure services. Tracking availability and performance for these distributed business solutions is difficult. Solution Overview Business Challenge Solution Results/Benefits By using System Center Operations Manager 2007, Microsoft IT can implement new end- to-end monitoring solutions in a centralized monitoring infrastructure, along with proactive management of LOB applications. By using System Center Operations Manager 2007, Microsoft IT can implement new end- to-end monitoring solutions in a centralized monitoring infrastructure, along with proactive management of LOB applications. Lower operating costs Lower operating costs Increased service levels Increased service levels Alignment of business and IT services Alignment of business and IT services Increased productivity of employees Increased productivity of employees

Products and Technology ● Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 ● System Center Operations Manager 2007 ● SQL Server 2005 ● ADO.NET ● Message Queuing

Two Views of the Corporate Production Environment

Improving Service Levels for LOB Applications ● Goal was proactive service management approach ● Microsoft IT strategy: ● Consolidate separate monitoring environments in a centralized infrastructure ● Develop cost-efficient management packs and end-to-end service management solutions ● Delegate monitoring responsibilities to individual teams and groups

Centralizing the Monitoring Infrastructure ● System Center Operations Manager features that enabled a centralized monitoring infrastructure: ● Performance and scalability enhancements ● Security enhancements ● SNMP ● Operations Manager Connector Framework ● Consolidation efforts enabled establishment of the Enterprise Monitoring team

Developing Cost-Efficient End-to-End Management Solutions ● Microsoft IT uses standard, third-party, and custom management packs ● System Center Operations Manager includes templates to create custom management solutions ● End-to-end service management solutions include application health model and synthetic transactions

Delegating Monitoring Responsibilities

Line-of-Business Applications at Microsoft ● Several solutions establish a core infrastructure for other LOB applications: ● Notifications Web service ● Error Logging Web service ● RBP system ● Digital Asset Store ● FeedStore ● Microsoft IT tracks LOB applications in a database

Application Interdependencies ● Reusing core services across LOB applications has advantages but increases complexity in a distributed SOA ● LOB applications can use asynchronous communication methods based on transactional or message queuing systems ● Asynchronous communication introduces a dependency on the queuing system

Benefits Enrollment Application

Distributed Enterprise Monitoring Strategy ● New distributed operational processes take advantage of role-based authorization ● Customizations for one group do not affect the monitoring solutions of other groups ● Advantages of distributed monitoring: ● Reuse of investments in Windows technologies ● Proactive management of IT services ● Rich, new reports ● Increased service levels

Distributed Enterprise Monitoring Strategy

Benefits Enrollment Monitoring Solution ● Steps for creating the monitoring solution for the Benefits Enrollment application: ● Clarifying business requirements and project scope ● Planning the solution ● Creating the solution ● Stabilizing and deploying the solution

Clarifying Business Requirements and Project Scope

Planning the Monitoring Solution CategoryComponents Monitoring criteria Web site WEB01, WEB02, WEB03, WEB04, and WEB05 The health state is critical if 50 percent of the servers in the NLB cluster are unavailable. Because the NLB cluster provides automatic failover capabilities, unavailability of single Web server does not represent a critical state. HR databases MiscData, DataReplication, General, IssueTracking, Metadata, and Payments The health state is critical if any of the databases is unavailable. Core LOB services Notifications, Issue Tracking, RBP, and data exchange services (FeedStore) The health state is critical if any of the core LOB services is unavailable. Web application Response Times The health state reaches the warning level if the response times exceed 10 seconds and the critical level if response times exceed 20 seconds.

Creating the Monitoring Solution: Overview ● Enterprise Monitoring team used the Operations Console to create: ● Custom management pack ● Distributed application model ● Health rollup configuration ● Web application monitor

Creating the Monitoring Solution: Creating the Distributed Application

Creating the Monitoring Solution: Defining Health Rollup Settings Component group ParameterSetting Effective value Benefits Enrollment Web application Web sites Rollup algorithm Worst state of a percentage of members in good health state Show the worst state of any member Percentage50 Benefits Enrollment Web application databases Rollup algorithm Worst health state of any member Show the worst state of any member Benefits Enrollment Web application services Rollup algorithm Worst health state of any member Show the worst state of any member

Creating the Monitoring Solution: Creating a Web Application Monitor ● Enterprise Monitoring added a Web application monitor object to a custom management pack: ● Added a system account as a Run As account ● Created the Web application monitor ● Recorded a browser session to perform synthetic transactions ● Defined content matching and response time criteria, along with critical error levels ● Set up authentication and an access account

Deploying the Monitoring Solution ● Enterprise Monitoring used a wizard in the Operations console to create user roles ● Author ● Operator ● Read-Only Operator ● Enterprise Monitoring assigned user roles to security groups instead of individual user accounts

Pilot Project Review ● HR IT group created daily performance and availability reports during pilot project ● Pilot project provided: ● Increased flexibility to meet service levels ● Clear separation of responsibilities ● Low development costs ● Rapid deployment

Best Practices ● Centralize the monitoring infrastructure ● Decentralize application monitoring ● Focus on immediate value ● Analyze application behavior and dependencies ● Monitor availability and performance from all relevant locations ● Use Windows security groups for role-based authorization ● Document the solution

Conclusion ● System Center Operations Manager reduces costs and increases service levels for LOB applications ● Product provides end-to-end service management that is easy to customize and extend ● Solutions can be further customized ● Service-oriented views and availability reporting help resolve issues that affect IT service delivery

For More Information ● Detailed product information about System Center Operations Manager is available at ● Detailed information about the MSF is available on Microsoft TechNet at tors/msf/default.mspx tors/msf/default.mspx tors/msf/default.mspx

For More Information ● Additional content on Microsoft IT deployments and best practices can be found on ● Microsoft IT Showcase Webcasts ebcasts ebcasts ebcasts ● Microsoft TechNet

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