Install Operations Manager 2012 Beta Agent

Applies To: Operations Manager 2012

After you install System Center 2012 – Operations Manager, your next step is to install agents on computers that you want to monitor. The Operations Manager agent collects data, compares sampled data to predefined values, creates alerts, and runs responses.

This procedure uses the Computer and Device Management Wizard to discover a computer running Windows in the same domain as the management server and then to install the agent on the computer. In a production environment, you may be interested in installing agents on computers outside of trusted boundaries, installing agents on computers running UNIX or Linux, monitoring computers without installing an agent, and installing agents manually. For information on these and other variations, see Managing Discovery and Agents in the Operations Manager Operations Guide.

Before you run the Computer and Device Management Wizard, gather the following information:

• The names of any computers that you want to discover specifically.

• The user account credentials for computers that you want to scan. This can be the current management server action account.

To install an agent on a computer running Windows

1. Log on to the Operations console with an account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrators role for the management group.

2. Click Administration.

3. At the bottom of the navigation pane, click Discovery Wizard.

4. On the Discovery Type page, click Windows computers.

5. On the Auto or Advanced? page, do the following:

   1. Select either Automatic computer discovery or Advanced discovery. Automatic computer discovery scans for Windows-based computers in the domain. Advanced discovery allows you to specify criteria for the computers that the wizard will return, such as computer names starting with NY. If you select Automatic computer discovery, click Next, and then go to step 7. If you select Advanced discovery, continue with the following steps.

   2. In the Computer and Device Classes list, select Servers and Clients, Servers Only, or Clients Only.

   3. In the Management Server list, click the management server or gateway server to discover the computers.

   4. If you selected Servers and Clients, you can select the Verify discovered computers can be contacted check box. This is likely to increase the success rate of agent deployment, but discovery can take longer.

      Note

      If the Active Directory catalog does not contain the NetBIOS names for computers in a domain, select Verify discovered computers can be contacted. Otherwise, the Browse, or Type In option fails to find computers. This affects computers in the same domain as the management server, in another domain with a full trust relationship, and in untrusted domains by using a gateway server.

   5. Click Next.

   Note

   The wizard can return approximately 4000 computers if Verify discovered computers can be contacted is selected, and it can return 10,000 computers if this option is not selected. Automatic computer discovery verifies that discovered computers can be contacted. A computer that is already managed by the management group is not returned.

6. On the Discovery Method page, you can locate the computers that you want to manage by either scanning or browsing Active Directory Domain Services or typing the computer names.

   If you want to scan, do the following:

   1. If it is not already selected, select Scan Active Directory and then click Configure.

   2. In the Find Computers dialog box, type the criteria that you want to use for discovering computers, and then click OK.

   3. In the Domain list, click the domain of the computers that you want to discover.

   If you want to browse Active Directory Domain Services or type the computer names, do the following:

   • Select Browse for, or type-in computer names, click Browse, specify the names of the computers that you want to manage, and then click OK.

   • In the Browse for, or type-in computer names box, type the computer names, separated by a semi-colon, comma, or a new line. You can use NetBIOS computer names or fully qualified domain names (FQDN).

7. Click Next, and on the Administrator Account page, do one of the following:

   • Select Use selected Management Server Action Account if it is not already selected.

   • Select Other user account, type the User name and Password, and then select the Domain from the list. If the user name is not a domain account, select This is a local computer account, not a domain account.

     Important

     The account must have administrative privileges on the targeted computers. If This is a local computer account, not a domain account is selected, the management server action account will be used to perform discovery.

8. Click Discover to display the Discovery Progress page. The time it takes discovery to finish depends on many factors, such as the criteria specified and the configuration of the environment.

   Note

   Computers that are already managed by the management group will not be returned by the wizard.

9. On the Select Objects to Manage page, do the following:

   1. Select the computers that you want to be agent-managed computers.

   2. In the Management Mode list, click Agent and then click Next.

   Note

   The discovery results show virtual nodes of clusters. Do not select any virtual nodes to be managed.

10. On the Summary page, do the following:

    1. Leave the Agent installation directory set to the default of %ProgramFiles%\System Center Operations Manager or type an installation path.

       Important

       If a different Agent installation directory is specified, the root of the path must exist on the targeted computer or the agent installation fails. Subdirectories, such as \Agent, are created if they do not exist.

    2. Leave Agent Action Account set to the default, Local System, or select Other and type the User name, Password, and Domain. The Agent Action Account is the default account that the agent will use to perform actions.

    3. Click Finish.

11. In the Agent Management Task Status dialog box, the Status for each selected computer changes from Queued to Success; the computers are ready to be managed.

    Note

    If the task fails for a computer, click the targeted computer. The reason for the failure is displayed in the Task Output text box.

12. Click Close.

After you install the Operations Manager agent, the computer appears in the Administration workspace in Agent Managed. In the Monitoring workspace, data for the agent-managed computer is included in appropriate views.

See Also

Concepts

Quick Start Guide for Operations Manager 2012 Beta

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For additional resources, see Information and Support for System Center 2012.

Tip: Use this query to find online documentation in the TechNet Library for System Center 2012. For instructions and examples, see Search the System Center 2012 Documentation Library.
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