Getting Started with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager by Kevin Greene

Key FeaturesDiscover how to monitor complex IT environments with System Center Operations Manager using tips, tricks and best practice recommendations from industry experts.Learn how to create eye-catching dashboards and reports to help deliver a tangible return on investment back to your organization.Optimize, troubleshoot and perform disaster recovery in Operations Manager using step by step examples based on real-world scenarios.Book DescriptionMost modern IT environments comprise a heterogeneous mixture of servers, network devices, virtual hypervisors, storage solutions, cross-platform operating systems and applications. All this complexity brings a requirement to deliver a centralized monitoring and reporting solution that can help IT administrators quickly identify where the problems are and how best to resolve them.Using System Center Operations Manager (OpsMgr), administrators get a full monitoring overview of the IT services they have responsibility for across the organization - along with some useful management capabilities to help them remediate any issues theyve been alerted to.This book begins with an introduction to OpsMgr and its core concepts and then walks you through designing and deploying the various roles. After a chapter on exploring the consoles, you will learn how to deploy agents, work with management packs, configure network monitoring and model your IT services using distributed applications. Theres a chapter dedicated to alert tuning and another that demonstrates how to visualize your IT using dashboards. The final chapters in the book discuss how to create alert subscriptions, manage reports, backup and recover OpsMgr, perform maintenance and troubleshoot common problems.What you will learnInstall a new System Center 2016 Operations Manager Management GroupDesign and provision custom views to relevant support teams.Understand how to deploy agentsWork with management packsMonitor network devicesModel your IT services with distributed applicationsCreate dashboards and custom visualizationsTune, optimize, maintain and troubleshoot System Center Operations ManagerAbout the AuthorKevin Greene is a Microsoft MVP in the Cloud and Datacenter Management space and has been working in the IT industry since 1999. He is employed as a Cloud Technologies Consultant at Ergo in Dublin, Ireland; in this role, he works with clients to deliver enterprise grade solutions using System Center, Windows Server, and Azure.On the Microsoft certification track since the nostalgic days of Windows NT 4.0, he holds qualifications that include MCSE, MCSA, MCITP, MCP, and MCTS. Kevin is an active participant in the System Center and Cloud OS community through his blog at http://kevingreeneitblog.blogspot.com and he can also be found hanging around Twitter as @kgreeneit.A regular speaker at local and international events, he has also co-authored a number of books including Mastering System Center 2012—Operations Manager (Sybex, 2012) and Mastering Windows Server 2012 R2 (Sybex, 2013).Kevin lives in Sallins, Co. Kildare, Ireland with his wife, Laura, and his two sons, Matthew and Dylan. When hes not working on his laptop, he spends his free time with his family and supporting Manchester United. He also holds a second-degree black belt in freestyle kickboxing and although he is not as involved in the sport as he used to be, hes still an avid follower of the martial arts.Table of ContentsIntroduction to System Center Operations ManagerInstalling System Center Operations ManagerExploring the ConsolesDeploying AgentsWorking with Management PacksManaging Network DevicesConfiguring Service Models with Distributed ApplicationsAlert Tuning the Easy WayVisualizing Your IT with DashboardsCreating Alert Subscriptions and ReportsBacking Up, Maintenance and Troubleshooting