Collecting Replication Performance Data

  • Article

Applies To: Operations Manager 2007, Windows Server 2012

If you want to monitor and report Active Directory replication performance, there is some additional configuration to do. Replication monitoring performance collection is not enabled by default because the performance reduction can be significant if replication data is collected automatically for every domain controller. To enable replication performance collection, complete the following manual tasks:

  1. Configure replication performance collection groups

  2. Configure overrides for each applicable monitor

After you enable Replication Performance Collection on a set of domain controllers, replication for each domain controller that is a member of sources group is monitored to each domain controller that is a member of the targets group. For example, consider the case of four domain controllers named DC1, DC2, DC3, and DC4. If DC1 and DC2 are made members of the sources group and DC3 and DC4 are made members of the targets group, replication performance is monitored as shown in the following list:

  • DC1 to DC3

  • DC2 to DC3

  • DC1 to DC4

  • DC2 to DC4

Warning

Configuring the AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Source) and AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Targets) performance rules to gather data for all objects might affect your system performance, depending on the number of domain controllers in your enterprise. To reduce the likelihood of affecting system performance, choose only the Source and Target domain controllers for which you want to carefully monitor replication.

Creating Replication Performance Collection Groups

Configuring the AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Source) and AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Targets) performance rules to gather data for all objects might affect your system performance, depending on the number of domain controllers in your enterprise. To reduce the likelihood of affecting system performance, choose only the source and target domain controllers for which you want to carefully monitor replication.

To perform the procedures in this section, you must be a member of the Operations Manager Administrators group in the Operations console. For more information, see Account Information for Operations Manager 2007 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=165736)

Create and configure the AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Sources) group

  1. In the Operations console, click Authoring.

  2. In the navigation pane, click Groups.

  3. In the Actions pane, click Create a New Group, which starts the Create Group Wizard.

  4. On the Enter the Name and Description for the new Group page, in Name, type AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Sources) Group. As an option, you may enter a description in Description.

    Note

    The actual name of the group is up to the person who creates it. Later steps ask that you filter the available groups using “(Sources)” as part of the name filter. Therefore, we recommend that you at least include “(Sources)” as part of the group name.

  5. In Select destination management pack, select the management pack that you created for ADMP Customizations, as described in Create a New Management Pack for Customizations. If you have not yet created a management pack for your overrides, you can click New to create one now. Click Next.

  6. On the Choose Members from a List page, in Explicit Group Members (optional), click Add/Remove Objects. The Create Group Wizard – Object Selection dialog box opens.

  7. Set Search for to Windows Domain Controller. As an option, you can use Filter by part of name (optional) to enter a part of the name of the domain controller that you want to add. Click Search.

  8. In Available items, select the domain controllers that you want to configure for the sources group, click Add, and then click OK.

    Note

    There are additional methods for configuring group members, such as Dynamic Members, Subgroups, and Excluded Members. Although the procedures for using these methods are not provided in this section, you may decide to use them. To learn more about these methods, click Help in the Create Group Wizard dialog box.

  9. Click Next three times, and then click Create.

Create and configure the AD Replication Performance Monitoring Collection (Targets) group

  1. In the Operations console, ensure that Authoring is selected.

  2. In the navigation pane, ensure that Groups is selected.

  3. In the Actions pane, click Create a New Group, which starts the Create Group Wizard.

  4. On the Enter the Name and Description for the new Group page, in Name, type AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Targets) Group. As an option, you may enter a description in Description.

    Note

    The actual name of the group is up to the person who creates it. Later steps ask that you filter the available groups using “(Targets)” as part of the name filter. Therefore, we recommend that you at least include “(Targets)” as part of the group name.

  5. In Select destination management pack, select the management pack that you created for ADMP customizations, as described in Create a New Management Pack for Customizations. If you have not yet created a management pack for your overrides, you can click New to create one now. Click Next.

  6. On the Choose Members from a List page, in Explicit Group Members (optional), click Add/Remove Objects. The Create Group Wizard – Object Selection dialog box opens.

  7. Set Search for to Windows Domain Controller. As an option, you can use Filter by part of name (optional) to enter a part of the name of the domain controller that you want to add. Click Search.

  8. In Available items, select the domain controllers that you want to configure for the targets group, click Add, and then click OK.

  9. Click Next three times, and then click Create.

Configuring Overrides to Enable Replication Monitoring Performance Collection

To make it possible for the performance collection scripts in the ADMP to use the source and target groups that you created in the previous section, you must enable an override to the applicable monitors for the domain controllers in your environment.

Configure an override to collect performance data from the replication sources

  1. In the Operations console, ensure that Authoring is selected.

  2. In the navigation pane, click Rules.

    Note

    If you do not see the rules, check that the scope is set to include Active Directory Domain Controller Server 2000 Computer Role, Active Directory Domain Controller Server 2003 Computer Role, and Active Directory Domain Controller Server 2008 Computer Role by clicking Scope in the Operations console toolbar.

  3. In the Rules pane, in Look for, type (Sources), and then click Find Now. There should be only a few rules displayed.

    Note

    If you do not see Look for, ensure that Find is selected in the Operations console toolbar.

  4. Right-click the AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Sources) rule that is subordinate to the Active Directory Domain Controller Server 2000 Computer Role monitor, click Overrides, click Override the Rule, and then click For a group.

  5. In the Select Object dialog box, in Text string, type (Sources). The list of matching objects should be reduced considerably. Click the group that you created previously to contain the source domain controllers to be used for replication performance data collection. The suggested name was AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Sources) Group.

    Note

    Using the text filter (Sources) in this step assumes that you followed the naming suggestion earlier, which was to use (Sources) as part of the group name. If you did not use (Sources) as part of the group name, you should not use the text filter (Sources). Instead, locate the group by scrolling through the list of groups or using an appropriate string for the group name that you created for the domain controller sources.

  6. In the Override Properties dialog box, select the Override box that corresponds to Enabled in the Parameter Name column.

  7. In the Override Value column, set the value to True.

  8. Select the check box in the Enforced column for the row of values that you just configured.

  9. The Select destination management pack option should already be configured for the management pack that you set in the previous section. Click OK.

  10. Repeat steps 4 through 9 for the AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Sources) rules that are subordinate to the following monitors:

    • Active Directory Domain Controller Server 2003 Computer Role

    • Active Directory Domain Controller Server 2008 Computer Role

Configure an override to collect performance data from the replication targets

  1. In the Operations console, ensure that Authoring is selected.

  2. In the navigation pane, click Rules.

  3. In the Rules pane, in Look for, type (Targets), and then click Find Now. There should be only a few rules displayed now, one for each operating system type that you selected previously.

  4. Right-click the AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Targets) rule that is subordinate to the Active Directory Domain Controller Server 2000 Computer Role monitor, click Overrides, click Override the Rule, and then click For a group.

  5. In the Select Object dialog box, in Text string, type (Targets) and the list of matching objects should be considerably reduced. Click the group that you created previously for the target domain controllers to be used for replication performance data collection. The suggested name was AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Targets) Group.

    Note

    Using the text filter (Targets) in the previous step assumes that you followed the naming suggestion earlier to use (Targets) as part of the group name. If you did not use (Targets) as part of the group name, you should not use the text filter (Targets). Instead, locate the group by scrolling through the list or using an appropriate string for the group name that you created for the domain controller targets.

  6. In the Override Properties dialog box, select the Override box that corresponds to Enabled in the Parameter Name column.

  7. In the Override Value column, set the value to True.

  8. Select the check box in the Enforced column for the row of values that you just configured.

  9. Select destination management pack should already be configured for the management pack that you set in the previous section. Click OK.

  10. Repeat steps 4 through 9 for the AD Replication Monitoring Performance Collection (Targets) rules that are subordinate to the following monitors:

    • Active Directory Domain Controller Server 2003 Computer Role

    • Active Directory Domain Controller Server 2008 Computer Role

Active Directory replication monitoring performance data collection is now enabled. In approximately 24 hours, you should see data appearing in the Operations console under Monitoring, Microsoft Windows Active Directory, and Replication Monitoring in the Replication Latency object.