Study of Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM)
Responses Received: 538
Questions for MS
Answers from Michael Emanuel
An explanation about MOM, please ?
Added functionality?
Will there be any webcasts on this product?
Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) helps provide customers with the knowledge to
avoid the avoidable – reducing the complexity associated with managing today's IT
infrastructure environment and lowering the cost of operations. A good starting point
for a detailed overview of MOM is the MOM Reviewer Guide, located at
www.microsoft.com/mom. Webcasts and additional product documentation,
including planning and deployment guides are also available at this location.
How long has it been out? What can it do that our existing system can't?
How long did it take to develop MOM?
The MOM project kicked off at Microsoft in September 2000. However, MOM is based
on software originally developed by Mission Critical Systems back in the mid-1990s,
which was subsequently acquired by NetIQ. This allowed Microsoft to start its MOM
development program on a platform that had been thoroughly field-tested over
many years. Initial efforts focused on creating a first class library of management
knowledge, in the form of Management Packs. Work on MOM 2005 started in 2002.
MOM 2005 represents a major advance in the underlying infrastructure, but
implemented in a way that allows a very straightforward rolling upgrade for existing
MOM 2000 SP1 customers. MOM 2005 has just been released. Before release, in
addition to over 7,700 beta customers, 34 customers agreed to deploy the full
product to over 4,800 servers. Additionally Microsoft’s own internal IT department
was using MOM to manage over 6,000 business critical servers worldwide.
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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How does MOM compare to IBM Tivoli or CA Unicenter?
How does MOM compare to similar 3rd party apps?
How does it measure up against Tivoli?
Tivoli and CA Unicenter are not single products. Rather, they are a suite of
management products providing a very broad range of management for
heterogeneous environments. Customers that have Tivoli or CA can use MOM as a
complementary technology providing very extensive and detailed expertise for the
management of applications and services hosted in Windows environments (similar
to how customers use CiscoWorks connected to Tivoli to manage Cisco devices).
MOM competes with Tivoli and CA, insofar as they also offer Windows health and
performance management. By way of example customers, you may like to read how
Scottish and Southern Energy improved manageability and reduced its support costs
by adding MOM 2000 to its existing Tivoli managed environment. See:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies/CaseStudy.asp?CaseStudyID=14116
Can MOM integrate or use the information from current systems (Altiris)?
There is no specific integration module for Altiris. However Microsoft Operations
Manager includes a Web Services-based “connector framework”, that allows full
bidirectional integration with a management system that can map its proprietary
interfaces into a Web service. Over 15 different integrations exist today including
integration of MOM with Tivoli, HP OV, SMARTS, Micromuse and others. The
connector from Web Services to a specific set of APIs is a small development task.
Microsoft provides a full SDK for developing such connectors at no charge.
Is there any way to combine MOM with other management platforms, such
as HP Insight Manager?
Yes. Microsoft integrates with many other management platforms, including HP
Insight Manager. The Management Pack for HP Insight Manager is available directly
from HP. See http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/mom/ for
more details.
How will support for managing non-MS devices such as Cisco routers,
switches, firewalls be handled?
Are they planning to implement further support for the monitoring of
network devices?
Jalasoft has a range of Management Packs to manage Cisco devices directly from
MOM 2005. These include management of Cisco switches, routers, VPN concentrators
and PIX firewalls, and others. For more details please see:
http://www.jalasoft.com/jalasoftweb/jsp/products/categories/categoryProducts.jsp?c
atId=5
Additionally SMARTS network management system integrates with directly into MOM
and MOM can be integrated with HP OV Node Manager
Can MOM work through CISCO VPN systems?
Yes
Can you manage an enterprise or only Microsoft?
Customers with very diverse environments may wish to use MOM as the manager of
the Windows environment and then integrate it with a more heterogeneous
management console for “enterprise management”. That said MOM supports Unix
silo and SNMP events out of the box. Additionally MOM has been extended by a
number of partner organizations to manage a range of non-Windows environments,
including even IBM MVS hosts, so in Windows-centric environments MOM may be
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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used as the “enterprise manager.” As MOM adds value either way, the choice is very
much up to the customer.
How can I best migrate from NetIQ to MOM - is there a white paper on the
topic?
NetiQ has two products, Operations Manager (OM) and Application Manager (AM).
Operations Manager is a forerunner to MOM 2000. To learn about migrating from an
OM system to MOM, see whitepaper on:
http://www.netiq.com/products/xmp/whitepapers.asp
There is no direct upgrade from NetIQ AM to MOM however the two systems may be
run side by side. NetIQ includes an AM-MOM connector for information to be shared
between the two systems. This allows migration over time, allowing the
decommissioning only when the customer is fully satisfied that MOM is configured to
meet all requirements and AM is no longer required.
Is it possible to extend MOM to other platforms
Is there any interaction with non-MS OSes?
Just for Microsoft -- what about my UNIX systems?
Out of the box MOM is able to receive SNMP traps from any source and can parse the
syslogs of any Unix or Linux device. Additionally, we have a number of partners
working on more complete solutions for networking devices, Unix and even host
environments. Check out the partner catalog for more details, located at
www.microsoft.com/management/mma
How extensive will the offerings be for connectors for non-Microsoft
technologies?
There is a wide range of connectors already and more are on the way. Creating a
product connector is not a complex job. One third-party, Skywire, currently supports
over 25 product connectors for MOM, for example. A complete toolkit for creating
your own product connectors is available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/Mom/downloads/2005/default.mspx
Is there integration being setup with hardware Manufacturers for early
detection of problems?
Yes. Integration already exists for Dell and HP Servers
Will it interfere with the operations of other non-Microsoft applications, e.g.,
Oracle Application Server?
A MOM Agent will not interfere with any other Microsoft or non-Microsoft applications
hosted on the server.
Will MOM ever support Novell Servers?
That is a very interesting idea. MOM can receive SNMP traps and parse Unix Syslogs
out of the box. However, we currently know of no partners that are specifically
creating Management Packs for Novell severs. We will suggest this to a few partners
and see what happens. Thank you for the suggestion.
Will there be a requirement for a MOM Management Pack for all third party
software before it gains Microsoft approval?
We have no plans of this nature at present, though internally we are making it a
common engineering requirement that all Microsoft server applications ship with
MOM Management Packs. Our view in this regard is to lead by our own example!
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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Are there any plans to integrate IIS into MOM?
MOM manages IIS and MOM uses IIS to host its Web Services-based connector
framework.
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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If we have 2 or 3 servers in the company, do we need to use MOM 2005? or
did MOM 2005 useful in a small network environment?
How to simplify the deployment of such management tool?
MOM 2005 is also available in a “Workgroup Edition.” MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition,
with a suggested retail price of $499, manages up to 10 devices using the same
range of management packs as the full edition. It is designed to be simple to install,
configure and maintain, with initial implementation taking no more than 1 – 2 hours.
More details are available on http://www.microsoft.com/mom/workgroup/default.mspx
MOM 2005 is also available in a “Workgroup Edition.” MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition,
with a suggested retail price of $499, manages up to 10 devices using the same
range of management packs as the full edition. Customers for Microsoft Small
Business Server should consider MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition.
Can it be used in a stand-alone server environment? (i.e.,: Is a domain
and/or domain controller required)?
Yes, Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 does not require AD. (Please note: To
simplify set up of security credentials, Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
Workgroup Edition does require AD to authenticate the operator but does not require
the managed servers to be part of a domain.)
Can MOM be used on Microsoft Small Business Server platforms?
Yes. Customers for Microsoft Small Business Server should consider MOM 2005
Workgroup Edition.
Can MOM operate from one central site server and manage branch office
servers over a WAN?
How would MOM or DSI benefit the unique IT environment of a school
district?
Can you use these products from a remote location?
A MOM Server can operate across a firewall to provide secure management of
servers in branch offices and even servers on the internet side of a firewall.
Alternatively, hierarchies of MOM servers can be built in which a regional control is
provided through use of MOM Servers at each branch or campus. These then forward
only actionable alerts to a central site, using the Web Services based connector
framework where, perhaps, 7x24 control is offered for the entire enterprise or forest
of enterprises.
Can these capabilities significantly help a small company of less than 30
people?
Potentially yes. MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition is specifically designed for customers
for between 1 – 10 servers. Whether to use MOM or not in an organization of 30
people really depends on what issues that organization has. MOM will help a
company that needs to know the state of health of its key server services or apps,
e.g. AD or Exchange. Companies in which the servers are not business critical items
may not see value in adding the proactive management MOM offers.
Is the operational overhead of MOM itself justified in a smaller environment
(<50 servers)?
Definitely. MOM starts to show value at even less than 10 servers, which is why we
created MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition.
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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Why is it that smaller companies that are too big for the SBS segment but
too small for Enterprise class get overlooked in management and oversight
tools?
We definitely agree this is a challenge. The issue is that smaller companies actually
need a more sophisticated management system because they typically have less
expertise in-house. Our customers also need it delivered as a shrink-wrap product
that is easy to deploy and is priced affordable. That is a tough set of requirements!
We think we are beginning the get there though with MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition.
Please take a look and see what you think.
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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Microsoft does NOT listen!
We not only work hard to listen but also aim to be as responsive as possible. Maybe
you do not always see how your comments change what we do but that doesn’t
mean we are not listening. A very visible example is the MOM 2005 Operator
Console. The final design is very substantially different from the original specification
for the product and this is entirely due to excellent customer feedback we received
during focus groups and during the early beta testing phase. But this is just one very
tangible result. MOM 2005 is end to end a customer-driven release. The features you
see and the ease with which it can be deployed are all in response to listening to our
customers.
If you have additional comments please do send them to us. Just browse to
www.windowsserverfeedback.com and send us your thoughts. Thank you.
Why is Microsoft cloning IBM two decades ago behavior (we are the world).
The fall is guaranteed?
I am sorry you think this. We believe that customers should have choice. We are
creating a range of solutions that work well individually and together, using the
publicly available interfaces, provide a sum that is greater than the parts. As a
customer you may choose to use some or all, based solely on fitness for purpose and
potential for ROI. In addition to the solutions we provide to manage Windows
environments there are many other tools available from a wide range of vendors. We
encourage you to use the solutions that are best for your organization.
Why has MOM taken so long to arrive?
Testing alone is a very substantial undertaking and we were not prepared to release
MOM 2005 until we had data and feedback from a large number of beta customers.
Why hasn't MOM been significantly improved since its purchase from
NETIQ?
With MOM 2000 we focused on performance improvements and new management
packs but did not touch the overall look and feel, so you may not have noticed just
how much actually changed. A tremendous amount has changed with MOM 2005.
Take a look!
Why don’t you include MOM with the OS?
Why is this functionality not already built into to server level operating
systems?
Why isn't it a default component of a server install?
Why isn't MOM part of Windows Server for a small number of servers?
Ultimately we are aiming to create an OS that is sufficiently self-managing and
doesn’t need an external management infrastructure to do what MOM does.
However, that is still a little ways off. In the meantime MOM infrastructure is
necessary (though we will continue to make it very straightforward to deploy and
use). Also, you actually only need one MOM Server, not one per Windows Server.
So instead, we have created MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition as a very inexpensive
way to manage up to 10 servers.
Why so many releases of MOM?
We try to keep releases on a roughly 3-year cycle with intermediate service packs
about every 18 months. MOM 2000 was first available in June 2001 with SP1 in
January 2003. MOM 2005 was released to manufacturing in September 2004 and will
be available in the next month or so.
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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Why the cheesy acronym?
We tried to avoid it – for a while! In this case the product should, by convention,
probably be “OM” for Operations Manager. After all, Microsoft Systems Management
Server is abbreviated to SMS not MSMS. In this case the abbreviation came into
being on its own and it was too hard to fight – some things just get a life of their
own. We trust that that acronym won’t stop you from considering the value of the
solution.
Your products all too often are released in untested formats: when do you
expect to correct this?
Microsoft takes the testing of its products extremely seriously. Just as we had SMS
2003 managing approximately 250,000 production desktops at customer sites
around the world before launch, we had over 30 customers working closely with us
all the way through the testing phase of MOM 2005. Before release these customers
were in full production, managing over 11,000 servers worldwide. A criterion for
release was that all these early adopters formally signed off that the product met
their expectations and was ready to ship. We continue to seek ways to make sure
our products are well tested in live production environment before release and to
involve our customers to ensure we are meeting as many of their requirements
possible.
Mostly I would want to know their thinking behind turning on all monitoring
up initiation, it overloads everything?
Since you ask, the original thinking was concern over missing the proverbial “needle
in the haystack”. If you don’t monitor everything how do you know what you are
missing? However, we quickly learned that this leads to a less than acceptable
customer experience, so we have gone back to the drawing board on this one. You
should see a significant improvement in this with the new Management Packs
specifically designed for MOM 2005. These have been tuned to provide a good initial
out of the box experience
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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How much time will it take to effectively set up MOM?
How simple is it to set up?
How easy is it to deploy and administer?
How fast can it be implemented?
How difficult is it to implement on a scale of 1-10?
The goal for MOM 2005 was to create a system that could be deployed and
operational in production environments in a matter of hours. Planning is strongly
recommended (for which good documentation is provided) but implementation is
straightforward. For example, a customer rolling out MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition
should be up and running within 1 - 2 hours.
How to best implement in my environment?
How can Microsoft streamline Operations for an Enterprise spread across
multiple domains and keep centralized management?
How best to deploy to get best effect?
Agent deployment?
Determine how it would fit in with my current network?
How could I get the product up and running with a short/fast
implementation?
MOM supports both simple and multi-site, fully redundant management
configurations controlled both regionally and centrally, using Web Services to
interconnect the MOM server hierarchy. Recommended reading:
1. Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Deployment Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/mom/techinfo/productdoc/default.mspx. The Microsoft
Operations Manager 2005 Deployment Guide provides detailed instructions and best
practices for installing Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 components and
for upgrading MOM 2000 SP1 to MOM 2005. This guide explains how to install all
MOM components on a single computer and MOM components across multiple
computers. It also covers installing MOM 2005 in advanced configurations, such as
those involving multi-tiering, firewalls, multi-homing, and hosting MOM on clustered
servers.
2. Multiple Management Group Rollup Solution Accelerator
http://www.microsoft.com/mom/evaluation/solutions/default.mspx. The “Multiple
Management Group Rollup Solution Accelerator” provides full details on how to
implement and operate such a configuration using ITIL-based practices.
Requirements: Monitor at node and service level; performance
(network/application) stats over time; Patch/virus control. etc.
Functionality.
With its new service discovery model and health model support, MOM 2005 does
begin to grow from being an element manager to a manager of a fully distributed
system. The new reporting services also help monitor performance trends over time.
Additionally MOM 2005 now supports a security scanner Management Pack. While not
providing a full remediation facility (this is the function of SMS or SUS), this will
immediately alert operators to security settings issues, including missing patches.
What is the system overhead for network traffic?
Customers are reporting typical network throughputs of under 0.3kbps using the
“out-of-box” default configurations.
What kind of connection it needs from monitored server to monitoring
client?
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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MOM 2005 uses a secure XML based transport between managed devices and the
MOM Server, except in “agent-less” mode, where COM+ is used.
Are the servers monitored also manageable from the console?
Yes. The level of management function that can be performed by an operator
depends on each operator’s security permissions. However, the goal is that each
operator should be able to host all management functions for which they have
responsibility on a single machine. Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 includes both
an integrated Knowledge Base, providing prescriptive guidance, and context sensitive
tasks and admin functions launched directly from the MOM Operator Console
How well does MOM work with security restrictions (port or protocol
limitations) in place?
Customers have been asking for improved security and greater flexibility to configure
MOM for use in a range of secure environments. We have done much in MOM 2005
to help, including mutual authentication between agents and servers, encrypted
agent-server communication and the ability to use MOM safely across firewalls
without use of VPN. For more details on these security issues please see the new
MOM security guide available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/mom/techinfo/productdoc/default.mspx
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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Benefits and the initial costs and benefits over other products?
How can I sell the benefits over the cost to my organization?
While Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) does incur a cost both to purchase and to
implement, customers should look at the overall return on investment. In the end
the sum is simple, it is <savings through automation> - <cost to implement>. By
managing Exchange or Active Directory, for example, MOM will typically identify
issues before they become end user problems, allowing fewer staff to manage larger
groups of servers and providing a better service to the end user. This clearly has to
be offset against the cost of implementation. This therefore has been a major focus
for Microsoft. Unlike many management solutions, MOM includes a very extensive
library of management expertise in its management packs, which now require little
to no tuning to be useful. This means customers are often able to implement a full
MOM system in hours rather than days. We have one example of an end user that
deployed MOM 2005 over night to over a thousand production servers and was
managing them by 9am the next day! (Note: we do not suggest this is necessarily a
best practice). Often, therefore, the cost of deployment is recovered within one or
two averted incidents per server.
Can this product really help me to streamline the time spent on
troubleshooting and management? Also how would this be accomplished
effectively?
Yes. The value of MOM is in the knowledge it brings in the form of management
packs. A major goal for customer IT support is to free up experienced staff from
having to handle first line support tasks. Management Packs are the encoded
knowledge of subject matter experts for each service and application MOM manages.
This allows even comparatively inexperienced operators to identify and address
issues before they become problems. Again and again customers that use MOM tell
us how it has helped them move from reactive to proactive management and how
they are offering a better level of service with fewer IT support staff “on call” at any
time.
Concrete ROI Numbers?
How effective is it and cost saving?
How can it save my company money over current tools?
How can I sell the benefits over the cost to my organization?
How MOM could help my Organization to Lower TCO?
How could MOM lower to total cost of supporting my network?
How will this benefit the company (ROI)?
How would I justify the ROI for our agency with only 5 staff?
Could Microsoft tell me what the total cost saving will be in dollars on?
Administration/support vs buying 180 server licenses. For that price we can
have two full time administrators?
Every customer will have different needs and different potential savings. It would
certainly be worthwhile reading the “Total Economic Impact of Deploying MOM 2000”
posted on http://www.microsoft.com/mom/techinfo/deployment/default.mspx. This model
provides sufficient data for each customer to adjust the findings to their own
requirements. Although no equivalent study is yet available for MOM 2005, several
MOM 2005 early adopter customers have found they have been able to reduce
operations staffing by an additional 40% while increasing the effectiveness of the
operation by providing better availability and performance. Here are some examples
of what MOM 2005 early adopter customers have been saying:
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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“MOM continues to prove itself as a valuable asset in quickly helping us discover
critical issues such as network outages and equipment failure. MOM has also
screamed at us when we misconfigured something (such as the 3GB switch on
Exchange servers and some others).”
“MOM 2005 RC2 is a superb product. I tried it in many customers. [After] two days
of a pilot project, the customers are screaming: “’RTM…when will it be available?
What MOM did here in 3 hours their old monitoring system didn’t do in two years.’”
I would ask them for more detail/explanation on their pricing model. I don't
agree with it and would like a better rational for it before I would consider
purchasing it. I would also ask about support for non-Microsoft apps in
MOM.
Describe the new licensing model for MOM 2005.
The licensing model for MOM 2005 is very straightforward. There are just two items,
a MOM Server license and an Operations Management License (OML). Just like
Systems Management Server 2003 you must purchase one (or more) MOM Servers
to act as central aggregation points. Each device managed by MOM then requires an
Operations Management License (OML). There is no additional charge for Operator
consoles or Management Packs. MOM 2005 Server requires Windows 2000 Server or
above and SQL Server 2000 (Volume Licensing customers who have no other use for
SQL Server other than as a repository for MOM have the option to purchase MOM
2005 Server with SQL Server technology included).
A range of third party management packs and product connectors are available for
MOM. These extend the management capabilities of MOM to non-Microsoft
applications and environments (e.g. management of networking components, other
host environments, hardware) or provide integration between MOM and other
management products to ensure good two-way interchange of management data.
Details of these and links to partner web sites are at:
http://www.microsoft.com/management/mma/catalog.aspx
Could you provide some type of virtual demo of the product so I could see
its functionality?
Information, demos, and evaluation software and walkthroughs are all available at
www.microsoft.com/mom
How much do they cost?
How much does it cost ?
How expensive are you going to make it?
Please see: http://www.microsoft.com/mom/howtobuy/default.mspx
How much will it cost us compared to our existing solution?
MOM offers considerably better “out of the box” management that most other
solutions and is typically less expensive too. There are several of case studies that
show how other customers have benefited, for example:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies/CaseStudy.asp?CaseStudyID=14116
Given its requirements, What value does this provide to small companies?
MOM 2000 had limited value to smaller companies. Please look at MOM 2005
Workgroup Edition, which designed specifically for companies with 10 or fewer
servers.
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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How do I make the IBM contingencies within our company comfortable
about MOM? (They were actually very supportive of our "deserting" the
Tivoli product)?
An interesting question. If your company has invested significantly in Tivoli, one
approach is to start implementing MOM in the most critical Windows areas, such as
AD and Exchange management, and then use the MOM-to-Tivoli product connector
to provide bi-directional alert integration. In this way you can prove the ROI before
taking further steps. When was the last time Tivoli allowed you to detect and fix an
issue with AD before it became a problem for end users? MOM will prove itself the
first time it allows your support staff to be proactive on a problem Tivoli never
previously detected. (We have many accounts of this from customers). Within
Microsoft our own support staff have shifted from being 100% reactive to AD issues
before MOM (the help desk used to call them to tell them users were unable to log
in!), to over 97% proactive since MOM has been implemented. You will see similar
results.
How do justify when I have a heterogeneous server environment?
MOM is for Windows as Ciscoworks is for Cisco routers. By all means use a generic
enterprise manager for your heterogeneous environment, but let MOM do what it is
really good at - enabling your support staff to proactively manage Windows-based
systems. MOM has a range of product connectors to integrate MOM with most
popular heterogeneous management systems. These are all available at no charge.
A very good (and detailed) paper for assessing needs and establishing requirements
is “Service Management Functions for Service Monitoring and Control.” Based on
ITIL-practices, this document provides an outline of requirements against which to
assess current technologies. The paper provides a product agnostic view of required
patterns and practices. It can therefore be used as a benchmark against which to
assess the value of MOM in conjunction with existing solutions.
How stable and resource demanding will MOM 2005 be?
Microsoft has been working very closely with a large number of customers of all sizes
to make sure MOM 2005 can be used in all Windows environments. Key
improvements in MOM 2005 include: smaller agent footprint, more efficient agents
and an agent-less remote monitoring option. For additional information please see:
http://www.microsoft.com/mom/evaluation/topfive/default.mspx, which includes
specific side by side comparisons of performance and resource requirements between
MOM 2005 and MOM 2000.
How will these technologies make my job easier?
How will it make my job easier?
How will MOM/DSI make my job easier?
Is it really worth the time and effort to learn when we have already spent
them learning the individual components we use?
Sadly, most management today could be classified as “just too late management.”
Basically, something breaks, if you’re lucky a console somewhere flashes red, and
then you fix it. Such reactive management impacts the quality of service provided to
the end user and means there is always considerable and continuous pressure on the
IT staff. Microsoft’s goal for the Dynamic Systems Initiative is to create systems that
are designed for operations. In the short term this means getting ahead of the next
problem with existing applications. This is the purpose of the MOM Management
Packs. Management Packs are the encoded expertise of the people who support an
application on a daily basis – the product support specialists, the developers and the
subject matter experts. In the best examples of these, including the management
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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packs for AD, the Windows OS, Exchange, SQL Server and others, customers are
telling us that this really is making a difference.
Proactive management is about detecting and resolving issues before they become a
problem. Again and again we are getting feedback from customers that tell us how
they have moved from being wholly reactive to often 80-90% proactive in addressing
issues. One major bank recently wrote to us about how MOM had detected the start
of a memory pooling issue on some trader desks and even provided a knowledge
article on the actions to take to resolve it. Apparently the operators had diagnosed
this problem before, but only after the trading application had crashed. This time
MOM flagged the issue when it was first stated and long before it impacted the
application. They told us that MOM justified its existence and their investment in it in
that single incident! With MOM Workgroup Edition we now offer that level of
proactive management to small and mid-size companies too.
I would be interested in knowing the performance impact on the servers
being monitored?
Microsoft understands customers’ concerns about the impact and overhead of using a
management system. In designing MOM 2005 great care was given to ensuring
impact is as small as possible, including the option to provide an “agent-less” remote
monitoring capability. It is important to note, however, that when using a MOM
agent, the agent runs as a low priority process. This means that it will take
processing power and resources when they are available and return them whenever
any server application or service needs them. That said, there is clearly some impact
in having an agent, but it is small. For example, when idle an agent footprint is
around 3.5 MB and just 18MB when managing something like Exchange. (This is
substantially smaller than the MOM 2000 agent footprint. It is also worth noting that
Adobe Acrobat Reader, when idle, has a footprint of approximately 8MB, with
memory that can exceed 30MB when loading or manipulating a document.)
If you lower administration by the use of these products who fixes MOM or
DSI when it crashes?
So the question is, who manages a MOM Server that as failed?
Always a good question. While we hope such things are rare, the need to manage
the manager is a critical, often overlooked issue. Not so with MOM. MOM actually
manages itself with a very extensive Management Pack of its own. It also manages
the health of other management solutions such as SMS and Application Center.
Obviously, if you only create a single instance of a MOM Server and it fails then there
is nothing to report until the MOM console service is restored. However, MOM agents
actually continue to operate even if the central server is not present, so once full
service is restored the agents will report what was happening in the interim. MOM is
also designed to support a fully redundant architecture, which will withstand one or
more points of failure. For more advice on designing a resilient management
infrastructure you may wish to take a look at the MOM deployment guide located at:
http://www.microsoft.com/mom/techinfo/productdoc/default.mspx
Is it affordable; how does it compare with other network monitoring
packages?
MOM is not a network monitor. It is primarily designed for management of server
and applications.We do have a number of partners that have extended MOM’s
capabilities to include management of routers and switches. In considering
affordability, it is important to consider what value you place on being able to
manage the health of your Windows Server-based applications proactively. MOM
2005 Workgroup Edition provides very extensive management of up to ten Windows
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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Server-based environments for under $500. Large organizations will require the full
edition. When compared to any of the enterprise solutions, MOM still offers better
Windows management for substantially less than other solutions
Is it free yet?
Windows Server actually includes a wide range of utilities to aid both local and
remote management. MOM itself is not free. That said, for management of up to 10
devices, MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition will to an excellent job for under $500.
In what ways will MOM make our environment less complex?
MOM won’t make your environment less complex, but it will make the management
of your environment less complex and help you manage your environment
proactively.
Is the new version easier to administer and require less admin time?
Yes. We received a lot of feedback from MOM 2000 customers and worked closely
with our early adopter customers to create a new administration experience for
MOM. A number of MOM 2000 customer that have upgraded to MOM 2005 have
provided feedback about how they are having even more success with MOM 2005
while also cutting back the number of admin staff required ‘on duty’ by as much as
40%. For example, one banking customer with a very distributed network of 400
servers has reduced its “on duty” staff to just 3.
The licensing for MOM seemed to be a little convoluted and expensive. What
if anything has changed for 2005?
Licensing for MOM 2005 has changed, and is quite straightforward. Please see
http://www.microsoft.com/mom/howtobuy/default.mspx
What are the benefits for businesses not using SQL server or Exchange?
If you do not have any business critical applications running on Windows then the
use of MOM is moot. However, MOM manages all the services of Windows. For
example, does your organization use Active Directory, DNS, Terminal Services, basic
File and Print? Do you plan to use any other Windows Server System applications? If
so, MOM will help your support staff detect issues before they become problems that
impact your business operations.
What is the total overhead in servers and staff to setup and maintain MOM
for (say) 200 servers?
As always there are many variables that determine overall requirements. However,
we see installations of this size being managed by MOM 2005 with 2 -3 “on duty”
operators.
Is MOM set up to have multiple consoles monitoring the same systems at no
additional cost?
There is no separate license for an operator/admin console. It is included in the MOM
Server license. Each MOM Server may have any number of operator/admin consoles
at no extra change.
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Would these products negate the need to use SMS?
How does it relate to, or supersede SMS?
Is MOM an enhanced working version of SMS?
Is MOM supposed to be a replacement for SMS?
MOM and Microsoft System Management Server (SMS) are complementary solutions.
SMS provides a mechanism for inventorying, distributing, and metering software
usage. MOM provides real time health and performance management of critical
servers and devices. Moving forward our plan is to integrate the information collected
from both solutions into a unified reporting system to act as the basis of a decision
support system. This third product, which will be available next year, is called
System Center Reporting Server. Together the suite of MOM, SMS and System
Center Reporting Server will be known as the System Center, though each product
will also continue to be available separately
Is there any movement within MS to integrate MOM with other Change
Management consoles? Quite commonly MOM triggered events result in
production changes and it would be nice to connect from one system to the
other for tracking purposes?
Yes. This is exactly why we are joining the data between SMS and MOM with the
release of a new analysis engine next year, called System Center Reporting Server.
If you have an existing change management system in place it is possible that one of
our MOM Partners has already developed a connector between MOM and that
system. For example, you may wish to check out the iWave integrator product from
Skywire Software:
http://www.skywiresoftware.com/Pages/Products.aspx?s=integrator_iwaveintegrator
_mom
What are your plans to integrate SMS and MOM?
To be able to sell for a specific platform this needs to be very economical
and possibly packaged with say SMS at no additional cost. Is this something
you are considering?
We will continue to provide MOM and SMS separately but in March of this year we
also announced that we are working on a management suite called System Center
that will include MOM and SMS, with an integrated backend reporting server. The
first version of this will be available next year.
What does MOM do that SMS doesn't and vice versa?
We are still running over 300 instances of Windows 9x. Why doesn't MOM
2005 support this?
MOM 2005 is primarily used to manage the health and performance business critical
servers in real time. SMS is aimed at keeping track of inventory, providing
centralized software distribution and similar functions. SMS does support Windows 9x
devices.
Will SMS functionality be moved into MOM?
No, but moving forward our plan is to integrate the information collected from both
solutions into a unified reporting system to act as the basis of a decision support
system. This third product, which will be available next year, is called System Center
Reporting Server. Together the suite of MOM, SMS and System Center Reporting
Server will be known as the System Center, though each product will also continue
to be available separately.
Would a low cost upgrade from MOM to SMS be available?
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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These are distinctly different products so no upgrade path is available. If by this
question you meant to ask if there will an upgrade path from MOM to System Center
(SC), the answer is yes. Purchasing MOM with Software Assurance prior to release of
SC will allow customers to upgrade their MOM Servers at no additional charge.
Will MOM be included in 2003 OS Server?
Would Microsoft consider bundling MOM with SMS, and Exchange Server?
As part of our Dynamic Systems Initiative, which calls for applications to be
“designed for operations”, each Windows Server System application, including
Exchange Server and Windows Server itself, will ship with its own Management Pack.
However the use of this management pack will still require MOM. While we will
continue to seek ways to make MOM an attractive solution for customers of all sizes,
it is unlikely that we will ever be providing a fully featured version of MOM (or SMS)
as a component of another Microsoft product.
Is this product a viable alternative to SMS for a medium sized network (~10
servers)?
It seems like there's a lot of crossover between the features of MOM with
the features of SMS...is that true or am I missing something?
MOM and SMS really aren’t replacements for each other; they are complementary.
SMS tracks inventory and schedules the distribution of new software, applications
and updates while MOM provides proactive, real-time performance and availability
management of servers. Moving forward, we will be providing closer integration of
MOM and SMS, but we have no plans to replace one with the other
What are the future plans for MOM, SMS and System Center?
System Center is a suite product comprising a range of integrated management
solutions, including SMS and MOM. In addition to being part of the suite, MOM and
SMS will continue to be available separately. For more details, please see
http://www.microsoft.com/management/systemcenter.mspx
Why separate SMS and MOM product lines?
Will MOM and SMS converge into one product and when?
The reason MOM and SMS are separate products is a function of their respective
histories. As we move forward with System Center, you will see increasing
integration of the two. Longer term, the goal of the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI)
is that the infrastructure needed to deploy and manage software should be an
integral component of the base platforms. By then much of the MOM and SMS
server-agent infrastructure will no longer be necessary, at least for newer platforms
and applications. While it is not ideal to support two infrastructures, the SMS and
MOM infrastructures are now richly stable and mature. So, rather than rearchitecting the infrastructure for the interim period until it becomes a more intrinsic
part of the fabric of the platform, we are focusing on building knowledge and
expertise into MOM and SMS, while making the dual infrastructures simple to deploy
and manage.
When will SMS and MOM officially be System Center?
System Center will be a suite that includes SMS and MOM. We have no plans to
change the names of SMS and MOM, or to stop offering them as separate products.
The first release of the suite is planned for the first half of 2005.
Please make it available in our country too.
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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MOM 2005 Server is available in English, German, French and Japanese. It is capable
of managing servers in all languages, however
Is there any plan to make managing >1000 sites in the same server more
easier and with availability in mind?
MOM 2005 does scale better than MOM 2000. However there is a point where
multiple MOM servers are required, either for reasons of geography, resilience or
performance. MOM 2005 is already in production environments managing >6,000
servers and we are providing extensive help on how to design larger systems.
Please see
1. Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Deployment Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/mom/techinfo/productdoc/default.mspx
2. Multiple Management Group Rollup Solution Accelerator:
http://www.microsoft.com/mom/evaluation/solutions/default.mspx
Does Microsoft intend to create more report options for this application?
Yes. Lots more. This was a key piece of feedback from MOM 2000 customers. MOM
2005 has a whole new extensible reporting engine, based on SQL Reporting Services.
To what extent does this integrate with AD/DNS?
While MOM is not dependent on AD, if AD and DNS are present MOM uses both and
manages both
What is the one big thing expected in the next version of MOM?
A high level view of what’s new in MOM 2005 is available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/mom/evaluation/default.mspx
Why is creating custom reports so difficult? Have to be an ACCESS god to
get a usable custom report?
The MOM 2000 reporting system is an unfortunate legacy of the product’s heritage.
However, there is good news – MOM 2005 has a whole new reporting subsystem
based directly on SQL Server and using SQL Reporting Services. We can’t promise
that everyone will be up to creating custom reports with SQL Reporting Services, but
we are shipping a very large number of pre-defined reports with the new
Management Packs, which can always be used as templates for “semi-custom”
reports.
Will the management packs and product connectors for MOM 2000 work on
MOM 2005 or are new versions being re-written?
Yes. MOM 2000 Management Packs and Product Connectors will still work provided
they were written to the guidelines laid down in the MOM 2000 Software Developer
Kit and only used the publicly documented APIs. (Please note not all third party
vendors followed these guidelines - a MOM 2000 extending product that relies on
undocumented interfaces is likely to fail).
I've got SA on MOM 2000 - do I get MOM 2005 "free" along with the SA on
management packs?
Yes you do.
Will these technologies be required to exploit the future capabilities of
servers/workstation systems that are in Microsoft's pipeline?
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MOM 2005 is not a requirement to make use of future server or workstation
innovations. MOM 2005 only manages Windows-based systems through publicly
documented interfaces
Does it include easy application roll-out based on group membership?
Yes. MOM includes the concept of Computer Groups (CGs). Each CG defines a set of
rules for membership. When MOM detects a new device to manage it compares it
against these CGs to assess membership, applying the management packs
associated with each CG with which the new server is a match. MOM can either join
devices to CGs and deploy management packs automatically or can defer to the
administrator to authorize deployment.
Does Microsoft offers free training to IT people that they willing to buy
MOM?
There is a whole host of online training on MOM available at no charge. Additionally
MOM training is offered through certified training partner at various costs.
Why can't I sync the mom knowledge base with the Web?
This is something we would dearly love to do, but we are not there yet, even with
MOM 2005. It is on our wish list of things to do.
IS there a DSI blog to keep on top of these technologies?
Not one that we know of. However it is certainly worth checking out some of the
Microsoft Management Communities. These are places to share ideas, get answers to
your questions, read expert advice, and find out about the latest management
focused webcasts. See
http://www.microsoft.com/management/community/default.mspx for more details.
Can MOM do analysis across Forests? Does a Trust relationship have to exist
between domain in other Forests?
Yes, MOM manages agents across multiple Domains and Forests. Without a trust
relationship you may need to perform a manual installation of the agent itself. Once
this is completed all further administration can be carried out centrally from the MOM
console.
Where can I find GOOD documentation on the product with real-world
examples?
Please check out www.microsoft.com/mom. This provides links planning guides,
operator guides and ITIL-based best practice “Solution Accelerators.” It provides
links to customer case studies describing some of the benefits customers are getting
using MOM.
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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Please describe DSI so I can understand it.
What is DSI?
Technical overview of DSI?
What is DSI and how come I haven't heard more about it?
What is DSI and how does it benefit a medium size company?
What is DSI and MOM and what environments are best used for?
What is DSI and what are the benefits to end users?
What is DSI and why do I need either?
What is DSI? I am unfamiliar with that product.
DSI stands for “Dynamic Systems Initiative”. Its purpose is to deliver a coordinated
set of solutions that dramatically simplify and automate the way customers develop,
deploy, and operate distributed systems. DSI is a vision and a roadmap for
accomplishing its goals through a series of near term deliverables and longer term
technical innovation. DSI is more than just Microsoft; it is an industry effort led by
Microsoft with broad participation from our partners.
At the heart of the initiative is a concept we call “Design for Operations,” which has
the goal of embedding operational knowledge of a system in a model at design time
and enabling that model to flow with the application throughout the entire life cycle
of a system. We realize this is a substantial task but it can be achieved in a series of
steps that start with today’s technologies and moves to a point where the knowledge
actually exists as a live operational blueprint within the system itself. Longer term,
the core technology that will allow us to capture this knowledge in models is
something we call the System Definition Model (SDM). Leveraging the SDM, this
knowledge relevant to a particular system can be created and manipulated through
development and deployment into production.
Will DSI work with at least three generations of installed software or it will
require, upgrading all?
Yes indeed. Our goal is to provide a seamless path from where we are today to a
future where applications are developed to be operationally aware from the outset.
Today that means adding management around applications, using technologies like
SMS and MOM. In the future new applications will be able to “self-*” but even then,
existing applications still need to managed, and that may be 10+ years from now.
We understand that and our product roadmap takes this into account.
How is designing a system of many components (that make up the DSI)
going to be easier and cheaper for me? Won't I need to master a new set of
technologies in order to get the most out of DSI components?
There are certainly many parts. However the more we can build operational
awareness into the applications the simpler day to day management should become.
To some extent your question brings up a bigger one which is why people think that
building real time infrastructures - where application elements re-provision
themselves to maximize use of hardware - will somehow reduce operating costs.
Today it is hard enough to manage semi-static systems! However in developing the
technologies for DSI we need to design for the most complex scenario – a fully
dynamic system. If we do this well we will solve the management issues that make
the static systems expensive to manage, too. Compare this with initiatives from
other vendors that are attempting to scale out existing management solutions, some
as old as 15 years, to cater to fully dynamic systems.
What is DSI and what benefits would I receive from it?
Ultimately DSI is about capturing knowledge of a system as a living model and
transferring that knowledge and experience across the lifecycle of an application to
MOM Study – September 8, 2004
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improve IT responsiveness and reduce costs. Around this will be an increasing range
of tools and solutions to leverage that knowledge to automate as many operational
tasks as possible, providing customers with a flexible, highly utilized set of hardware
resources and software services on which they can run their applications. We are
already starting to deliver on this today by hosting knowledge on MOM 2005,
automating deployments using Automated Deployment Services (ADS) and SMS
2003, and delivering tools like Virtual Server 2005 to further enhance the existing
core operations infrastructure already built into Windows Server 2003, helping
increase the flexibility and utilization of hardware. These technologies, used in
conjunction with the guidance and orchestrated workflows we offer through a
combination of the “Microsoft Solutions Framework” (MSF) and our ITIL-based
“Microsoft Solutions for Management,” all help put the concepts of DSI to work for
customers today.
Our customers will have their first opportunity to experience SDM with Visual Studio
2005. Following this we will also start to use SDM in Windows itself and our next
generation of System Center management products. But as you can see, we don’t
have to wait for SDM. DSI today is about making use of the features of Windows
Server 2003, making sure all applications are well instrumented and ship with
Management Packs. It is about ensuring software installations are based on Windows
Installer so they can be readily provisioned and removed by SMS and other
solutions. Together, these DSI deliverables are already helping IT specialists spend
more time focusing on the business objectives of IT.
For further information on DSI please visit www.microsoft.com/dsi
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