MOM User Interfaces

MOM 2005 introduces re-designed and new interfaces that give you the flexibility required to meet the needs of your operations center staff.

The complete set of design criteria is too large to cover in detail, but two usability themes are worth noting - discoverability and automation.

First, make it easy for any user to find information, where to start a task, or where to change a configuration. Second, make it easy to complete a task by automating and guiding the process by using wizards and dialogs wherever possible. A good example that combines both usability themes is installing or uninstalling agents. There are numerous locations where a MOM administrator can start the Install/Uninstall Agents wizard, which they can use to install or remove agents on computers.

These interfaces, derived from Microsofts usability engineering work with personas, are role- and task-based, and map to the following primary user types that are pre-defined for the MOM environment:

• Administrators

• Authors

• Users

Note

    The idea of role delineation is further enforced by the MOM Local Groups that are created when you first run the MOM setup program. Group membership determines what you can view and the actions that you can take in a console.

In addition to being flexible, the MOM user interfaces are easily implemented in distributed environments, and you can tailor them to provide the scope and level of granularity that may be needed for your operations center staff.

The following table lists the MOM user interfaces and identifies the accounts, the primary users, and the typical tasks that a user would perform with one of these interfaces.

Table 1 MOM interface and user summary

The Administrator Console

The Administrator console is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in, but as you can see by looking at Figure 2, the details pane is enriched by using hyperlinks to information and tasks.

Figure 2 The details pane for the Microsoft Operations Manager Home page

These changes extend the functionality of the MMC structure shown in Figure 3 by using it selectively to provide detailed information for certain elements in the navigation pane.

Figure 3 The details pane for Global Settings

Figure 4 illustrates the full extent of the design implemented in of some of the details panes in the MMC and shows the new functionality that is provided by using hyperlinks in this pane.

The hyperlinks shown in Figure 4, and used on other revised details panes, are used to:

• Provide quick links to points in the navigation pane. In the example shown, clicking on the Computer Attributes link opens the Management Packs node in the navigation pane and positions the cursor on the Computer Attributes folder.

• Launch the wizards or dialogs that you can use in the Administrator console. For example, clicking on the Import/Export Management Packs link starts the Management Pack Import/Export Wizard.

If you refer to Figure 4 again, youll see that the details pane also provides summary information related to this specific point in the navigation pane. In the illustration this information is the number of Rule Groups, Management Pack Rules, Custom Rules, Computer Groups, and Scripts. This summary information changes dynamically as MOM configuration changes are implemented, such as adding rules or scripts.

Figure 4 The details pane for Management Packs

The active location in the navigation pane determines which type of details pane is displayed, the conventional one (Figure 3) or the new one shown in Figure 5. The following navigation pane nodes and sub-nodes use the extended details pane:

• Microsoft Operations Manager

• Information Center

• Operations

• Management Packs, Rule Groups, Notification

• Administration, Computers

The Administrator console serves two purposes. First, it provides all the tools that a MOM Administrator needs to manage and maintain a MOM environment. This includes tasks such installing/removing agents, and changing configuration settings.

The Second purpose is to provide the tools that members of the MOM Authors group can use to change the monitoring environment defined by the Management Packs that are installed. For example, they can add rules, delete or disable rules, and change rules.

The Operator Console

The Operator console (Figure 5), is written in managed code and provides the look and feel that youd expect from both the MMC and the browser interface. Like the MMC, the toolbar is customizable and you can view all the panes or a single pane. In addition, right-click functionality is implemented where appropriate.

Figure 5 The default Operator console panes

The Operator console gives your operations staff the interface they need to:

• See the health, in real time, of the computers they are monitoring.

• Obtain different views of the information coming from managed computers.

• Obtain high level and detailed information about a specific event or alert.

• Work with alerts, for example, acknowledge an alert or assign the problem to another staff member.

• Run pre-defined tasks that are provided in the console.

The Web Console

The Web console (Figure 6) is browser-based and designed to provide a light weight interface that can be used to provide basic functionality for distributed monitoring situations that only require limited views and alerts management capability.

• The views include Alerts, Events, and Computers. Depending on the view that you select, you can examine view information (for example, computer Attributes, event Properties, and alert Product Knowledge) or change alert state (for example, flag the alert as Acknowledged).

Figure 6 The Alerts view in the Web console

The Reporting Console

Accessed from the Start menu or from within the MOM Administrator console, the Reporting Console (Figure 7) is browser-based and is implemented by Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. This interface provides a front-end to the MOM Reporting Server, which applies report templates to the appropriate data that is stored in the MOM Reporting Database.

The Reporting Database contains a copy of the operational data that is collected in the MOM Database.

Figure 7 The Reporting console

In addition to using the Reporting console to obtain and filter the historical data that is available, you can perform other tasks, such as:

• Configure SQL Server Reporting Services.

• Apply security settings.

• Create custom folders for organizing reports.

• Specify alternate data sources.

• Export reports.