Deploying ACS on Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008

  • Article

Applies To: Operations Manager 2007 R2, Operations Manager 2007 SP1

In this procedure, the Audit Collection Services Collector and the Audit Collection Services (ACS) databases are installed on different servers, with the ACS Collector on a stand-alone management server and the ACS database on the SQL Server cluster. The Operations Manager ACS Collector service must be installed on an existing management server. You can also choose to create a database for ACS to use or you can let the setup program create one for you. In this procedure, an already existing stand-alone secondary management server is used for the ACS Collector component and a new ACS Database is created by the ACS setup on the SQL Server cluster.

When you are done with this procedure, you must enable the ACS forwarder function on all Operations Manager Agents that you want to collect Windows Security Event Log events from. For more information about enabling ACS forwarders, see the topic "How to Enable ACS Forwarders" in the Operations Manager 2007 Help.

Before you start

  • The Operations Manager 2007 Prerequisite Viewer does not have an option to check for ACS Collector and Database because an existing management server must host the ACS Collector role and a SQL Server database server already exists to support the Operations Manager database for the management group. Also, all the proper accounts have already been added to the Local Administrators group on the management server and the SQL Server database server.

Installing ACS on a Secondary Management Server

To install ACS

  1. Log on to the secondary management server that is to host the ACS Collector with the domain-based Operations Manager Administrator account. This account should already have local administrative rights.

  2. On your installation media, start SetupOM.exe. This starts the System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 Setup Wizard on the Start page.

  3. Under the Install heading, click the Install Audit Collection Server link.

  4. On the Welcome page, click Next.

  5. On the End-User License Agreement page, select the I accept the terms in the license agreement option and click Next.

  6. On the Database Installation Options page, select the Create a new database option. This creates the ACS database on the designated instance of SQL Server with the necessary tables and stored procedures and the SQL login and database user for the collector. Click Next.

  7. On the Data Source page, in the Data Source name field, accept the default value of OpsMgrAC, and then click Next.

    Note

    The ACS Collector uses an ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) Data Source Name (DSN) to communicate with the ACS database.

  8. On the Database page, under Choose an ACS database, select the Remote database server option. In the Remote database server machine name field, enter the value in the name field of the SQL Server network name cluster resource. Leave the Database server instance name field blank, unless you have installed the SQL Server cluster in a named instance of SQL Server, and then enter that value. In the Database name field, accept the default of OperationsManagerAC, but if you plan to host multiple ACS databases in the same instance of SQL Server, enter a unique name. Click Next.

  9. On the Database Authentication page, select Windows authentication, and then click Next. By selecting Windows authentication, the ACS Collector services will use the local machine account to write to the ACS database during normal operations.

  10. On the Database Creation Options page, select the Use SQL Server default data and log file directories option, and then click Next. This ensures that the ACS database and log files are placed on the SQL Server physical disk cluster resource.

  11. On the Event Retention Schedule page, set the Local hour of day to perform daily maintenance and Number of days an event is retained in database options to the appropriate values, and then click Next.

  12. On the ACS stored Timestamp Format page, select either the Local or Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) option, and then click Next.

  13. On the Summary page, review the installation options, and then click Next.

  14. During the installation, you might be prompted for a SQL Server Login. If you are logged on with an account that has SQL Server Administrator rights, then accept the default or otherwise provide credentials that have the SQL Server Administrator rights.

    Note

    This account is used by the setup process to create the ACS database.

  15. Click Finish to complete the installation.

  16. On the SQL Server cluster, open the SQL Server Management Studio tool, open the Databases folder, and confirm the presence of the OperationsManagerAC database.

  17. On the ACS management server, open Server Manager tool, expand the Configuration container and select Services, and confirm that the Operations Manager Audit Collection Service is present, that it is started, and that the Startup Type is set to Automatic.

  18. You can now enable the ACS forwarders. For more information, see How to Enable ACS Forwarders in Operations Manager 2007.