Best practices for monitoring FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint with SCOM

Applies to: FAST Search Server 2010

This topic contains tips and recommendations for efficient use of System Center Operations Manager 2007 with the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint management pack.

Use Maintenance Mode

Always use Maintenance Mode when you install, reconfigure, reboot, uninstall or perform other kinds of maintenance. The consequences of not using maintenance mode can be temporary incorrect discovery, many alerts being triggered and monitors reporting critical and warning states.

Back up/export the default management pack

Even though new objects should be put in custom user-created management packs, it is easy to accidentally add new objects or references to the default management pack.

Management packs cannot be deleted until all references to them are deleted. Deleting references manually can be cumbersome. If you have a backup, the default management pack can be deleted and re-imported in order to quickly remove all references to other management packs.

Management packs are listed in Administration > Management Packs. Use Look for: default and then right-click and select Export Management Pack.

Customize rule behavior

Use overrides to customize monitor/rule behavior and disable individual monitors/rules. A typical use for overrides is, for example, to disable a monitor that repeatedly triggers bogus alerts or other errors.

Set up a periodic search query with the Web Application wizard

Use the Web Application wizard in Authoring > Management Pack Templates to set up a periodic search query towards your user- or customer-facing search front-end. This simple monitor will provide wide test coverage making sure that the search solution is working end-to-end.

Set up a distributed application to view the overall health status of a solution

Use the Distributed Application wizard in Authoring > Management Pack Templates to set up a distributed application that contains all SearchNode objects together with associated IIS, SQL Server, SharePoint and Windows Server objects from their respective management packs. The distributed application object will accumulate and reflect the true health status of the whole solution.

Customize the view by changing the axis layout

The QRServer and Indexer performance views in the Overview dashboard are small and sometimes trigger an unwanted layout of the X Axis timestamps, especially for shorter time ranges. Consider hiding the X Axis, by deselecting Personalize View > Chart Area > Show X Axis.

Group SearchNode objects

In multi-node search systems, group SearchNode objects together by using the InstanceID attribute.

Reset multiple event log monitors at the same time

The FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint management pack has many event log monitors. These event log monitors are triggered by warning and error log events from their respective components. There are usually no corresponding log events available that can be used to indicate a healthy state and automatically reset the event log monitor.

In some situations multiple event log monitors can be triggered by the same operational incident. This might occur, for example, when an administrator restarts nodes without first enabling Maintenance mode.

With many event log monitors in a warning or critical state, it can be cumbersome to reset each of them manually. Use the task Reset Log Monitors on a SearchNode object to reset all log monitors on a search node automatically. Use multi-select to perform the operation on many nodes at the same time.