Getting Started with Global Service Monitor: Signing In and Setup

  • Article

 

Applies To: System Center Global Service Monitor

Getting started with System Center Global Service Monitor involves several steps. These include signing up for Global Service Monitor, setting up System Center 2012 – Operations Manager, and importing the Global Service Monitor management packs.

Before You Begin

  1. Install Operations Manager. You can install Operations Manager on a single server. If you want to run tests from internal locations, you will also need to install agents (watchers).

    • Make sure that the servers in the management server pool you choose for Global Service Monitor communication have access to the Internet. To use Global Service Monitor, your management pool needs http: access to the Internet so that the pool can communicate with the monitoring agents running in the cloud. These agents are automatically discovered when you sign up for Global Service Monitor—you do not have to deploy them in a separate step.

      Important

      Communication with the cloud is always initiated by your on-premise management group.

      Note

      Global Service Monitor agent discovery turns management servers that are not part of the Global Service Monitor management server pool to an error state. To mitigate this, turn off alerting or disable the System Center Management Health Service Credentials Not Found monitor. If you turn off alerting, the monitor state will remain red. If you disable the monitor, the state of the Management Server will turn green. Note that disabling the monitor will disable all alerting and monitoring on the distribution of all of the Run As accounts.

    • Make sure Windows Identity Foundation is installed on your management server that is communicating with the cloud and everywhere the Operations Manager console is installed. Windows Identity Foundation is required. If you do not have it installed, go to the Microsoft Download Center, download Windows Identity Foundation, and then install it.

      Important

      After you install Windows Identity Foundation, you must restart the health service.

      Important

      If you import the management packs before you install Windows Identity Foundation, when you install Windows Identity Foundation, the Global Service Monitor landing page indicates that you can configure tests. However, the next step is to sign up. You cannot configure tests until you sign up for Global Service Monitor.

Sign Up

To sign up for Global Service Monitor

  1. Download and then import all of the Global Service Monitor management packs from this site GSM Management Packs.

    Note

    If you want to download Global Service Monitor web test results and have them attached to alerts so that you can more easily give the test results to your engineering team, you also have to install the Alert Attachment management pack. Additionally, to better integrate this with your Development and Operations (DevOps) processes, you can synchronize these alerts and their attached web test results with Team Foundation Server (TFS) work items by downloading the TFS Work Item Synchronization management pack. If you are using System Center 2012 R2, see How to Configure File Attachments for Operations Manager Alerts in System Center 2012 R2 and How to Configure Integration with TFS in System Center 2012 R2. If you are using System Center 2012 SP1, see How to Configure File Attachments for Operations Manager Alerts in System Center 2012 SP1 and How to Configure Integration with TFS in System Center 2012 SP1.

  2. In the Operations Manager console, in the navigation pane, click Administration, and then click Global Service Monitor. This is the Global Service Monitor landing page that you can use as the hub for your work with Global Service Monitor.

  3. On the Global Service Monitor landing page, click Start Subscription.

  4. On the Subscription Credentials page, login with a valid Microsoft Account.

  5. On the Component Configuration page, designate a resource pool. Using a pool of management servers to monitor your tests gives you highly available communication with the Global Service Monitor service. If one member of the pool becomes unavailable, another one takes over, whereas when a single server becomes unavailable, your system cannot communicate with the service. Note: If you use a management pool, it is a best practice to define your own Global Service Monitor management pool instead of using the default All management server pool. Agent pools are not available.

    Important

    Each member of the pool must have Windows Identity Foundation installed and must have Internet access.

    You can also use a proxy server to connect to Global Service Monitor. Select User Proxy server to connect and then specify the address of the proxy server by using this syntax: http://<proxyserveraddress>:<port>.

    Note

    Specify a proxy server for the resource pool only if one is required in your environment. If the proxy server requires authentication, create or add the required Run As account to the Global Service Monitor Run As profile.

  6. To view the Summary page, click Next. When you have confirmed your settings, click Start Subscription.

  7. On the Completion page, click Finish to close the setup wizard.

  8. You are now ready to use Global Service Monitor to configure tests.

Note

If, during setup, you see a message titled Could not upload a certificate to Global Service Monitor Online Service, or if you receive an authentication failed error, check to make sure the proxy settings are not blocking access to the Global Service Monitor service.

Note

You can end your subscription at any time. Go to the Global Service Monitor landing page and then click Stop Subscription. If you have lots of templates defined, deleting the external tests while you are deactivating your subscription could take 15 minutes or more.