MOM 2005 Frequently Asked Questions

Article
07/19/2010

On This Page

	Overview
	Pricing and Licensing
	MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition Pricing & Licensing
	Upgrade and Deployment
	MOM 2005 Capabilities
	MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition
	MOM Management Packs

Overview

Q. What is Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005?

A. MOM 2005 is an event and performance management tool for Windows Server System. MOM 2005 improves the manageability of your infrastructure by providing:

Comprehensive event management.
Proactive monitoring and alerting.
Reporting and trend analysis.
System and application-specific knowledge from the experts.

For more information, see the MOM 2005 Product Overview page.

Q. How does MOM 2005 relate to the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), Microsoft's long-term management strategy?

A. MOM 2005 is a key component of DSI, an industry-wide initiative led by Microsoft aimed at delivering software that maximizes resources and decreases labor costs across the entire IT life cycle by including manageability into all components. By driving operational requirements back into IT systems at design time, a strong connection can be created between system design and IT operations and ultimately to users utilizing the applications.

The development of MOM management packs by application developers is an example of "designing for operations," a pillar of DSI.

For more information, see the DSI Web site.

Q. If I have another operations management solution, do I still need MOM?

A. Microsoft recommends that you integrate Microsoft management tools with non-Microsoft management systems to best manage the entire IT environment. To simplify your integration with other management tools in your business, MOM 2005 includes the Web services-based MOM Connector Framework (MCF). The MCF Web service provides an abstraction of the MOM 2005 alerting infrastructure, which lets you:

Identify MOM 2005 alerts to be forwarded to another management system.
Insert alerts from other management systems and display them in the MOM 2005 Operator Console along with alerts generated by MOM 2005.
Track which alerts have been forwarded to another management system and when they need updates.
Synchronize alerts between management systems, reducing duplicate efforts for alert tracking and updating.

For more information, see the MOM Connector Framework page.

Q. How have other companies used MOM 2005?

A. We provide a number of customer case studies. See the Case Studies page.

Q. What is MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition?

A. Previously known as MOM "Express", MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition is a limited version of MOM 2005 aimed at managing 10 or fewer servers. MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition provides a subset of the full MOM 2005 functionality. For more information, see the section below about MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition, or the MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition Product Overview page.

Q. Where do I find deep technical and support information about MOM 2005?

A. For technical articles and guides about MOM 2005, see Microsoft Operations Manager on TechNet.

Q. Where can I get the latest management news and information?

A. You can sign up for the periodic Management Newsletter.

Q. Where can I download MOM 2005 Service Pack 1?

A. To download the software, see the MOM 2005 Service Pack 1 page.

Pricing and Licensing

Q. Can I try MOM 2005 before I buy it?

A. Yes. You can obtain a 120–day evaluation copy either by downloading it or ordering a CD from the MOM 2005 Evaluation Software page. There is no charge for the evaluation software but standard shipping and handling fees apply.

Q. Has the licensing model for MOM 2005 changed?

A. Yes. MOM 2005 licensing model has changed from a per–processor to a server plus managed device basis. This is similar to the SMS server/CAL licensing model, where we leverage a charge for the server, and an additional charge for each managed device—in the case of MOM, it would be a MOM server/OML licensing model.

Q. What does OML mean?

A. OML stands for Operations Management License.

Q. Does that mean you need a MOM server license as well as a separate license for each managed service?

A. Yes. In addition to the license required for your MOM 2005 server, devices managed by MOM 2005 require an Operations Management License (OML).

Q. Do virtual machines require an OML?

A. No. MOM 2005 is licensed on a physical machine basis so there is no need for more than one OML per managed device.

Q. Do I need more than one OML if using more than one management pack per server?

A. No. You only need one OML per physical machine managed by MOM irrespective of the number of management packs you use.

Q. What are the costs associated with a MOM server?

A. The estimated retail price of a MOM 2005 server license is $729 per server. A MOM server license need to be obtained for each MOM server implemented in the MOM environment. (MOM server is not available individually in retail, and is sold with a minimum of 10 OML pack. MOM server plus 10 OML estimated retail price is $6,099)

Q. Are there any pre-requisites for MOM 2005?

A. Yes. MOM 2005 requires a SQL Server 2000 License. A valid SQL license can be obtained either standalone by purchasing a SQL license either per processor or on a server/CAL basis. Detailed SQL pricing and licensing information can be obtained from https://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/default.mspx.

Q. Is there a combination SKU available for purchasing SQL server with MOM 2005?

A. Yes. As with MOM 2000, we offer a special SKU to enable customers to purchase SQL Server 2000 Technology with MOM 2005. SQL Server Technology acquired via this combined offering can only be used to support MOM 2005 and SMS 2003 activities, and no other application.

Q. What are the costs associated with the Operations Manager License needed for each device managed by MOM 2005?

A. The estimated retail price of a MOM OML is $539 per server managed by MOM 2005, regardless of how many processors per server. (OMLs are not available individually in retail and are offered in 5 OML pack. 5 OML pack estimated retail price is $2,689)

Q. Do you need an OML for all the MOM servers in a MOM infrastructure?

A. No. A MOM 2005 server license is required for each MOM 2005 server in your infrastructure, and an Operations Management License (OML) is required for each device managed by MOM. This includes your SQL server supporting MOM 2005 operational activities.

Q. Do you need a MOM server license for SQL Server 2000 also?

A. No. SQL Server 2000 can either be run on the same device as the MOM server, in which case the MOM server license is sufficient. Should the customer run the SQL server database on a separate physical machine, it will require only an OML for managing the server SQL Server 2000 is installed on. In addition to the MOM licenses mentioned above, SQL Server 2000 needs to be licensed. This can be done either standalone or through the MOM 2005 with SQL Server 2000 Technology license.

Q. How would MOM 2000 customers with per–processor licenses upgrade to this new per–server licensing model?

A. MOM 2000 customers with MOM 2000 Base and MOM 2000 Application Management Pack (AMP) licenses enrolled in upgrade protection coverage, Upgrade Advantage/Software Assurance/Enterprise Agreement (UA/SA/EA) as of October 1, 2004, may migrate through such upgrade protection to MOM 2005. Each MOM 2000 Base license is upgradeable to either one MOM 2005 server license, or to one MOM 2005 Operations Management License (OML). Each MOM 2000 Application Management Pack (AMP) license is upgradeable to either one MOM 2005 server license or one MOM 2005 Operations Management License (OML).

Q. Does this mean the Application Management Pack (AMP) licenses are now also replaced by OMLs?

A. No. For MOM 2000, separate Application Management Pack (AMP) licenses were required to use the knowledge contained in management packs. Going forward, management packs are licensed as a component of MOM, but do not require a separate license. MOM 2005 will not require Application Management Pack licenses—the MOM 2005 Server license provides the right to manage the device including use rights to management pack components.

Q. Is there a cut–off date to migrate to MOM 2005?

A. No. As long as you are enrolled in an upgrade protection program as of October 1, 2004, you are entitled to upgrade your existing MOM 2000 licenses according to the described migration path and until the release of the next version of MOM.

Q. If I purchase MOM 2005 with SQL Server 2000 Technology, must I install both the MOM server and the MOM database in the same physical machine?

A. No. If you purchased the MOM 2005 with SQL Server 2000 offering, you may install the MOM server software and the MOM database software in different physical machines. You just need to acquire an OML for your MOM database if SQL Server 2000 Technology is installed on a separate physical machine.

Q. Do hard partitions need to be licensed?

A. No. Hard partitions, as well as virtual machines, are not considered "physical machines", so they do not require an Operations Management License (OML).

Q. In MOM 2005 SP1, what is license usage alerting?

A. License usage alerting is a new feature of MOM 2005 SP1 that allows you to receive alerts when product usage exceeds a configured threshold of available Operations Management Licenses (OMLs).

Q. Does license usage alerting send any information back to Microsoft?

A. No. This feature is self contained and is solely for the purpose of assisting your company in reconciling the number of OMLs you are licensed for against the number of systems you are managing.

Q. How does license usage alerting work?

A. You enter the number of OMLs your company has purchased and the MOM server periodically checks the number of managed systems against the entered number of licenses. If the number of managed systems is greater than the number of licenses, then a warning alert is generated.

Q. What should I do if I get a license usage alert?

A. Verify that the number of OMLs your organization is licensed for is sufficient to cover your usage of the MOM product as defined by the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA). For information on how to purchase more OMLs, see the How to Buy page.

MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition Pricing & Licensing

Q. Is the 10 device restriction a technical or a licensing limitation?

A. MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition manages only up to 10 devices due to a built-in technical limitation. Importantly, this restriction includes virtual as well as physical machines.

Q. Is there a licensing upgrade path from MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition to MOM 2005?

A. No. Customers have to re-purchase their MOM 2005 licenses for all monitored devices at the time they decide to add the 11th managed device.

Q. Can customers use more than one MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition copy?

A. Yes. There is no restriction to the number of MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition copies customers can deploy in their environments.

Q. Do customers need operating system licenses with MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition?

A. Yes. Customers need to license both the operating system and the corresponding application software running in the devices managed by MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition.

Q. Is there an equivalent of the MOM 2005 w/SQL Server 2000 Technology offering for MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition?

A. No. Customers can use either Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE) or Microsoft SQL Server 2000 to support MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition operational activities. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE) can be downloaded at no charge from the Microsoft Download Center. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 has to be licensed separately. Detailed SQL pricing and licensing information can be obtained from https://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/default.mspx.

Upgrade and Deployment

Q. Will I be able to upgrade from existing MOM 2000 systems to MOM 2005?

A. Yes. Our goal is to allow smooth, in-place migration from MOM 2000 SP1 to MOM 2005. Customers with MOM 2000 licenses that include software assurance will be able to upgrade existing licenses to MOM 2005 at no charge.

Q. If I am using MOM 2000, will all my information remain intact when I upgrade to MOM 2005?

A. Yes. All information stored in your MOM 2000 database is preserved after upgrading to MOM 2005. However, we recommend that you back up your MOM 2000 database as a best practice before upgrading.

Q. Can I migrate from the evaluation version of MOM 2005 to MOM 2005?

A. Yes. Before it expires, you can migrate from the evaluation version of MOM 2005 to MOM 2005. The migration preserves all the information stored during the evaluation version's operation.

Q. What database should I use with the evaluation version of MOM 2005 if I do not have Microsoft SQL Server?

A. You should obtain the evaluation version of SQL Server. MOM 2005 does not support Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine.

Q. Where can I find guidance about my MOM 2005 deployment?

A. Information about deploying MOM 2005 will be available soon. See the Product Documentation page.

Q. Will MOM 2000 management packs work with MOM 2005?

A. Yes. Management packs running on MOM 2000 SP1 are migrated to MOM 2005 during the upgrade process. The new management packs provided with MOM 2005, however, are enhanced to include additional information, such as topology and state views, as well as reporting. Custom changes and modifications made to MOM 2000 management packs are carried forward when a management pack is used in an upgraded MOM 2005 environment.

Q. Will MOM 2005 management packs work with MOM 2000?

A. No. MOM 2005 management packs use a new health model with enhanced capabilities, so MOM 2000 will not support them.

Q. Are customer-developed management packs and rules preserved between MOM 2000 SP1 and MOM 2005?

A. Yes. After these management packs have been migrated to MOM 2005, customers can add new functionality, such as topology and state views, as well as custom reporting.

MOM 2005 Capabilities

Q. What's new in MOM 2005?

A. Among the new and improved features in MOM 2005 are:

Streamlined deployment.
User interface refinements and usability improvements, including a new Operations Console.
State monitoring.
Topological views.
Addition of maintenance mode capability.
Rule override functionality.
Management pack and reporting enhancements.
64-bit support for managed servers.
Ability to upgrade and preserve management pack information.
Localization in French, German, and Japanese.

For more information, see the What's New page.

Q. What new features are planned for MOM 2005 that ease deployment?

A. MOM 2005 includes the option of providing a combination of agentless and agent-based monitoring, a feature that significantly reduces initial deployment and configuration time and provides an immediate return on investment. MOM 2005 setup has also been simplified, and Active Directory integration enables even faster deployment than is available today.

Q. Has the user interface changed?

A. Yes. We have built a completely new Operations Console that gives administrators and operators a centralized location for managing and monitoring their environment. The Operations Console includes the following:

Topological views
State monitoring
Tasks

The following screenshot gives you a view of the MOM 2005 Operations Console.

See full-sized image

Q. What is a diagram view?

A. A diagram view is a new feature in MOM 2005 that provides a graphical representation of your servers and their health. This view appears in the MOM 2005 Operations Console. A diagram view is also referred to as a topological view.

Q. What is state monitoring?

A. State monitoring provides an administrator with the ability to understand, at a glance, the instantaneous health of the services and functions of managed servers. State monitoring adds to the advanced event management that MOM already provides and gives a more comprehensive view of the operational health of the managed systems.

State monitoring works through a series of health checks that can be run against a server to determine whether all the components and services on that server are present and operating. A green or red status is displayed onscreen to indicate the overall health for a server.

Q. What is a state view?

A. A state view is a new view in MOM 2005 that shows the health and state of your environment. A green light indicates a healthy state. A yellow light indicates degraded, and red indicates critical.

Q. What are tasks?

A. Tasks are new in MOM 2005. Today, MOM provides the capability for observing, detecting, and alerting, and tasks add the capability to perform deep investigation and issue resolution. A task packages a set of specific diagnostic or management actions, enabling an operator to trigger the execution of these steps through a single action. Tasks are initiated on demand by an administrator and can include tasks that run on the console, against the management server, or against a managed node.

Q. What is the maintenance mode supported by MOM 2005?

A. Many customers require the ability to place a machine in a "maintenance mode" status so that alerts from a machine known to be under maintenance do not clutter up the alert views for first–line operators. With Maintenance Mode in MOM 2005, operators can flag a machine when it goes into maintenance, stopping alerts from that system from being displayed on the MOM console while maintenance is being performed.

Q. Are alerts generated during Maintenance Mode lost?

A. The alerts for a machine flagged as being in Maintenance Mode will not appear on the console during this period, but the alerts generated by servers under maintenance are still logged in the database to facilitate after-the-fact forensics activity if needed.

Q. After maintenance has been completed for a machine, how is monitoring re-enabled?

A. To ensure that a server is restored to active monitoring after maintenance has been completed, you can schedule the return of the machine into normal mode for active monitoring. This feature helps prevent machines from quietly dropping out of the scope of management.

Q. What is the rule override capability that MOM 2005 provides?

A. Many customers need to create specialized MOM rules for groups of machines or individual machines with specific requirements or specialized functionality—in a manageable fashion. For example, a predictable conflict resolution mechanism is needed for resolving issues caused by conflicting rules. MOM 2005 provides the ability to create these specialized rules both programmatically as well as through the user interface, which includes the ability to configure thresholds and script parameters in order to determine override priority and disabling of rules.

Q. How is the Management Knowledge improved with MOM 2005?

A. All management packs available today are being updated with even deeper knowledge and more extensive rules. Management packs are also enhanced to take advantage of and include new MOM 2005 features, such as state management and the new topology views. The new management packs will be language-neutral, providing instance-aware monitoring, cluster support, state-based monitoring, and a range of prebuilt reports, tasks, views, support advice, and diagnostics.

Q. Can company-specific knowledge be added to MOM 2005?

A. For every type of alert in MOM 2005, you can add company-specific information to the alert. This simplifies sharing best practices across the organization.

Q. What is instance aware monitoring?

A. MOM 2005 management packs will automatically detect, and then start monitoring and managing, only those applications that are present on the box. "Instance aware" refers to MOM's ability to identify various instances of an application installed on a server, and then start managing that application instance. For example, in addition to monitoring SQL server, MOM 2005 can detect and monitor application instances within SQL server, such as a SQL instance supporting the accounting application and a different instance supporting an ordering application.

Q. What is agentless monitoring?

A. Though managing systems and services is most efficient and scaleable with agents, there are always situations where agent bits can not be installed on a certain population of managed devices. MOM 2005 provides the ability to manage devices agentlessly, which from the operator's point of view appears like agent managed devices in most respects. The devices appear in all MOM views and management packs can be targeted to them. Heartbeat for the devices is simulated by the MOM server.

There are some limitations to be aware of:

Security: Since the MOM server collects instrumented data remotely from these devices, they cannot be across a firewall and the MOM Server action account needs to run with administrator privileges on the managed devices.
Scale: Since the MOM Server runs a surrogate agent for each agentless device, the maximum supported number of agentless devices per MOM server is 10. You could install more servers to reach up to 60 agentless devices.
Functionality: Some data sources are not available remotely—Application logs and script generated data (where the scripts are not remotable). File transfers as a response is also not supported on agentless devices.

Q. What are the new reporting capabilities in MOM 2005?

A. MOM 2005 reporting provides comprehensive and extensible reports on data collected by MOM 2005 and its management packs. Using SQL Server Reporting Services, MOM 2005 reporting is based on an offline reporting database providing flexible and customizable data mining and reporting. Over 100 predefined reports cover general system monitoring and operations reports, capacity planning and performance analysis charts, and application specific monitoring of resources, traffic, and availability.

A. You can share MOM 2005 reports either by providing users with access to the MOM 2005 Reporting Console or by exporting the files in formats supported by SQL Server Reporting Services, including HTML, Excel, PDF, TIFF, CSV, and XML. Users can subscribe to reports and be notified when updated reports are generated.

Q. Will non-Microsoft management packs work with MOM 2005?

A. Yes. Microsoft is committed to building an extensive ecosystem around MOM and the Microsoft management products. To this end, we provide the MOM 2005 Software Development Kit (SDK) and training to partners so that they can update their management packs to make use of the new functionality provided in MOM 2005.

Interested companies may join the Microsoft Management Alliance to receive up-to-date information that will help them extend MOM and build their own management packs. For a list of these management packs, please see the Management Pack Catalog.

Q. Will the SDK and resource kits also be available for MOM 2005?

A. Yes, both the SDK and resource kits have been updated to include the new features of MOM 2005.

Q. What globalization has been added for MOM 2005?

A. Significant improvements have been made to enable installation and use of MOM components on non-English operating systems. Management of servers using non-English operating systems has also been added.

Q. Will MOM 2005 be fully globalized and localized?

A. MOM 2005 will be fully globalized. This means that MOM will operate in multi-language and localized environments, and the MOM user interface itself will be localized for English, French, German, and Japanese. Management packs will be fully language neutral. MOM 2005 will be available for shipping in English, French, German, and Japanese versions.

MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition

Q. What does the MOM 2005 "Workgroup Edition" name imply?

A. Recently Microsoft adopted a consistent, cross-group product naming strategy so that customers could more easily distinguish among offerings:

An "Express" version of a product designates restricted functionality or a restricted version of the product provided at no charge.
"Workgroup Edition" is used for product versions with functionality designed for smaller environments, and a charge is associated with the offering.
The terms "Standard" and "Enterprise" continue to be used as before.

For more information, see the MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition Overview.

Q. Are there any limitations associated with MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition?

A. MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition is based on the same code as MOM 2005 but includes the following limitations:

Monitors a maximum of 10 servers (physical or virtual)
No reporting features because there is no MOM 2005 Reporting Server component
No MOM Connector Framework capability for connecting to other MOM servers or other enterprise tools
MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition Management server runs only on Windows Server 2003

Q. If charges are associated with MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition, how is it priced and licensed?

A. MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition manages up to 10 devices. A MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition license is required for each MOM server. No Operations Management Licenses (OMLs) are required. For more information about pricing and licensing see the How to Buy page.

Q. What database does MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition require?

A. MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition supports both Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) and SQL Server. For more information, see the System Requirements page. You can download Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine free of charge in the Download Center. For information about SQL Server licensing, please see the How To Buy page on the SQL Server Web site.

Q. Does MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition require Active Directory to be installed?

A. Yes. MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition requires Active Directory to be installed on the management server at a minimum. By also including all the managed servers in Active Directory, you gain mutual authentication, a more secure way of operating MOM 2005. In this mode, the agent and the server are authenticated to each other by the Kerberos service in Active Directory, so that an agent cannot be controlled by anything other than the management server or a valid agent passing data to the management server. This mode of operation is strongly recommended. If mutual authentication is disabled, servers outside of the Active Directory domain can be managed but at the expense of the security benefits provided through mutual authentication.

Q. Can MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition be upgraded to MOM 2005?

A. Yes. For MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition with MSDE, you must first upgrade MSDE to SQL Server 2000 before upgrading to MOM 2005. Note that because MSDE supports a smaller number of simultaneous responses, after upgrading to SQL Server, you can increase the number of simultaneous responses in the MOM 2005 Administration Console to improve performance.

For customers running MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition with SQL Server, you only need to upgrade to MOM 2005.

Q. How are licenses migrated when upgrading from MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition to MOM 2005?

A. Please follow the licensing guidelines for MOM 2005 when deploying MOM 2005 as outlined in the Pricing and Licensing section of this FAQ.

MOM Management Packs

Q. What are MOM management packs?

A. MOM management packs provide built-in, product-specific operations knowledge for a wide variety of your server applications. Management packs contain rules for monitoring a comprehensive array of server health indicators and creating alerts, often preemptively, when problems are detected or reasonable thresholds are exceeded that require administrator intervention. This powerful monitoring capability is augmented by in-depth knowledge base content, prescriptive guidance, and actionable tasks that can be associated directly with the relevant alerts included in the management packs. Administrators can then act to prevent or correct situations, such as degraded performance or service interruption, maintaining service availability with greater ease and reliability. Please see the Management Packs page for more information.

Q. Who develops management packs?

A. To provide the best possible management for applications, Microsoft encourages application providers, who have the sophisticated knowledge associated with their own applications, to supply management packs for their applications. That way, they can embed the necessary operational intelligence to aid the administrator or operator.

Management packs for Microsoft applications are developed directly by the individual product teams in conjunction with Microsoft Consulting Services and Microsoft Product Support Services, combining the best of development, deployment, and troubleshooting knowledge. In addition, there are a wide range of non-Microsoft application and hardware management packs that enable MOM to manage far more than the Microsoft components of your IT infrastructure. To provide the best possible management for applications, Microsoft encourages application providers, who have the sophisticated knowledge associated with their own applications, to supply management packs for their applications, embedding the necessary operational intelligence to aid the administrator or operator.

Q. What management packs are included on the MOM 2005?

A. The following management packs are included in MOM 2005:

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
Microsoft SMS 2003
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Microsoft Windows Active Directory
Microsoft Windows Base Operating System
Microsoft Windows DNS
Microsoft Windows IIS
Microsoft Windows Server Clusters

You can also obtain these management packs from the Management Pack Catalog. In addition, please note that and all MOM 2000 management packs will continue to work with MOM 2005.

Q. Do all Microsoft Server products ship with management packs?

A. The Common Engineering Roadmap requires that all server applications developed by Microsoft include a management pack. Most products already do include management packs, and moving forward, all new server applications will deliver management packs at or shortly after release to manufacturing.

Q. Where do I find the latest management packs?

A. The Management Pack catalog provides a comprehensive list of all the management packs for MOM 2005.

Q. How do I build a management pack for my own application?

A. You can easily develop your own custom management pack. See the guidance provided on the Creating Management Packs page and the MOM Management Pack Development Guide.

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