Change initial management pack settings

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

You can use overrides to change the behavior that is set by automatically imported management packs. All monitoring settings, including overrides must be saved to a management pack. Before you customize any settings of a management pack, you should first plan how and to which management pack you will save these customizations.

Management Pack Formats

Management pack files in Operations Manager 2007 have two formats that are accepted as valid. These formats are sealed and unsealed. A sealed management pack is a binary file whose settings cannot be changed. An unsealed management pack is an XML file that can be edited. Of the 40 management packs that are imported as part of an Operations Manager 2007 installation only one is unsealed. The unsealed management pack is the Default management pack.

After a management pack is imported, you can use overrides to supersede a sealed management pack's default settings. An override, like all monitoring settings, must be saved to a management pack, but because you cannot change the settings of a sealed management pack file, overrides and other customizations must be saved to a different and unsealed management pack.

The Default Management Pack

The Default management pack is provided as a repository for customizations that effect sealed management packs. It is the only unsealed management pack imported as part of the Operations Manager 2007 installation. By default, when you create an override, or any other monitoring setting, it is saved to the Default management pack. You can choose to save the override to another unsealed management pack when you create the override. You can use an existing management pack or create a new one from the Override Properties page.

Management Packs for Customizations

If you plan to use overrides to tune many of your management packs, instead of saving all of the customizations to the Default management pack you can create a set of management packs whose purpose is to store customizations.

When you create these management packs you can devise a naming convention that is the same as the management pack that holds the original settings. For example, if you want to customize settings defined in the Windows Core Library, you can create a management pack in the Operations console and name it Windows Core Customizations. This unsealed management pack can then be used to save overrides and other customizations, such as additional monitors, that supersede the default settings of the Windows Core Library.