Deploying MOM 2005 Across Multiple Computers

  • Article

This chapter provides instructions for deploying Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 components across multiple computers to create a single management group. A management group consists of a MOM database, at least one MOM Management Server, the MOM Administrator console, the MOM Operator console, and managed computers. Optionally, a management group can include a MOM Reporting Server and a MOM Web console.

For better performance in large environments, or if you want to provide for agent failover, it is recommended that you install the MOM database, Management Servers, and MOM Reporting on separate computers. With agent failover, agents on managed computers can report to another Management Server in the same management group if the primary Management Server becomes unavailable.

You can install multiple databases on a single computer, as long as you have one instance of Microsoft SQL Server for each database. Using more than one database enables you to take advantage of storage capability that exceeds the MOM database maximum of 30 GB.

Note

    For information about deploying MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition, see the note in chapter 1 "Introducing the MOM 2005 Deployment Guide" in this guide.

You can install all MOM components on a single computer if you need to manage less than 200 computers. For instructions for deploying MOM to a single computer, see Chapter 2, "Installing MOM 2005 on a Single Computer."

For more information about which MOM configuration best suites your needs, see the Performance and Sizing Guide at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=46754.

In This Chapter

Importing MOM 2005 Management Packs when Deploying MOM 2005 across Multiple Computers

Before You Begin

Before you begin deploying MOM, review the key concepts of MOM and your deployment design and planning documents. Areas to review include:

  • The MOM 2005 release notes to identify any changes that could affect planning for a new deployment (for example, performance and sizing calculations).

  • The Performance and Sizing Guide at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=46754.

  • The Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Security Guide.

  • The Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Supported Configurations data sheeton the MOM 2005 CD*.*

Verifying Software and Hardware Requirements

You can run the MOM Prerequisite Checker in MOM Setup to check the hardware and software prerequisites and to create a report that lists what your computer requires to run MOM 2005.

For complete information about hardware and software requirements, see Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Supported Configurations data sheet located on the MOM 2005 CD.

Note

    Installing MOM without the MOM 2005 Management Pack is not supported. MOM setup will automatically import the Management Pack.

Software requirements

Check the computer that will host the MOM components or a MOM agent to ensure that all the software requirements are met. If a computer does not have the required software, either remove it from your deployment plan or install the required software.

Important

    Verify that all appropriate security updates, hotfixes, and service packs have been applied to the operating system and to applications that are required for deploying MOM components. You can do by visiting the Windows Update Web site at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=1623.

Hardware requirements

Check any computer that will host a MOM component or agent to ensure that the minimum hardware requirements have been met. If a computer does not meet the minimum hardware specification, either remove it from your rollout plan or upgrade it to the required hardware. Also verify that the available disk space on the computer falls within the supported guidelines for free disk space. A best practice is to use a dedicated computer for the production MOM database.

Verifying the MOM Service Accounts

There are three primary service accounts that MOM 2005 uses.

The Data Access Server (DAS) account provides centralized access to the MOM Database.

The Management Server Action Account is used to run computer discovery and can be used to automatically install agents. The Management Server Action Account also enables a Management Server to communicate with, collect data from, and to run actions on, agentless-managed computers. It is also used to collect data from the registry, performance counters, and event logs of the local computer that the Management Server is installed on.

Note

    It is recommended that you use different accounts for the MOM Management Server Action Account and the Data Access Server (DAS) account.

The agent Action Account is used by MOM to collect data from, and to run actions on, agent-managed computers.

For more information about these service accounts, see the Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Security Guide.

MOM security groups required for the MOM Administrator and Operator consoles

MOM 2005 uses Windows security groups to assign and control access privileges to various MOM functionalities. You can grant a user access to use functions of the MOM consoles by making a users domain account a member of the appropriate MOM user group on a Management Server. For more information, see the Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Security Guide.

Calculating the size of the MOM Database

Database sizing depends on a number of factors:

  • The number of computers that you plan to manage.

  • The number of events, alerts, and performance data that you plan to collect.

  • The Management Packs that you plan to deploy.

  • The frequency for grooming the MOM database.

The maximum supported size for the MOM database is 30 GB. It is recommended that you use a smaller size if possible. For optimum performance, it is a best practice to keep your database size below 15 GB. A smaller database can respond more quickly to events and alerts.

Setup automatically sets the size of the log file to 20 percent of the size of the database file. For example, if you configure the database file size to be 2 GB, MOM sets the log file to 400 MB.

Important

    When you set the size of the MOM database, remember that the database size cannot be reduced after you install MOM. For more information, see Q298383.

To best estimate the MOM 2005 database size that you need for a given number of managed computers, use the Performance and Sizing Guide at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=46754 to assist you in determining what size your database should be.

Preparing the hard disk drives

Identify any hard disk drives that will be used for the MOM database and transaction logs and verify that there is sufficient space allocated to accommodate the size requirements of the database and log files.

It is recommended that you install the Microsoft SQL Server database and log files for MOM on a different hard disk drive from the paging file, which is usually on the same hard disk drive as the operating system.

Because the MOM database is very active, with events and alerts continuously being added to and removed from it, MOM requires adequate CPU power and memory to keep the host computer performing optimally.

Important

    Depending on the number of managed computers, the way that you configure the MOM Database can directly affect the performance of your entire MOM system. This is especially critical in large network environment.

RAID arrays

Proper disk selection is especially important for operating an optimum MOM system. For best performance, install the MOM database on a RAID 10 array. RAID 10 provides high I/O rates by striping RAID 1 segments. If cost is not a concern and optimum performance is the key consideration, use RAID 1 or RAID 1+0 (RAID 10) for both the transaction log hard disk drive and the database hard disk drive.

RAID 10 delivers better performance because it requires only one additional write I/O operation for each write request (one write to each hard disk drive in the mirror). For example, a transaction at RAID 0 generates 10 reads and one write. The same transaction at RAID 1 or RAID 10 generates 10 reads and two writes. In contrast, using RAID 5, the same transaction generates 12 reads and two write operations.

For more information about the performance implications of database and log file location and RAID configurations, see the Performance and Sizing Guide at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=46754.

Note

    The MOM Reporting Data Transformation Services (DTS) operations also require sufficient room in the tempdb on the MOM Database Server to store the changed or new data before sending it over to the Reporting Database. The room needed will depend upon the same criteria as the sizing of the MOM database, plus the grooming and DTS settings. By default the tempdb is set to automatically grow so you need to ensure you have sufficient disk free space to support its final size.