(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)

This article provides tips and techniques to allow administrators to integrate Operations Manager 2012 with Virtual Machine Manager 2012 to monitor the health and performance of virtual machine hosts and their virtual machines, as well as to use the Operations Manager reporting functionality.

In a hybrid hypervisor environment (for example, Hyper-V, VMware), using Operations Manager management packs ( MPs ) (for example, Veeam MP), you can monitor the Hyper-V hosts and the VMware hosts, which allow you to use only the System Center Console to manage and monitor the hybrid hypervisor environment.

You can also monitor the health and availability of the VMM infrastructure, management, database, and library servers. The following screenshot will show you the diagram views of the virtualized environment through the Operations Manager:

integration-system-center-operations-manager-2012-sp1-img-0

Installing System Center Operations Manager 2012 SP1

This recipe will guide you through the process of installing a System Center Operations Manager for the integration with VMM.

Operations Manager has an integrated product and company knowledge for proactive tuning. It also allows the user to compute the OS, applications, services, and out-of-the-box network monitoring, reporting, and many more features extensibility through management packs, thus providing a cross-platform visibility.

The deployment used on this recipe assumes a small environment with all components being installed on the same server. For datacenters and enterprise deployments, it is recommended to distribute the features and services across multiple servers to allow for scalability. For a complete design reference and complex implementation of SCOM 2012, follow up the Microsoft Operations Manager deployment guide available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=246682.

When planning, use Operations Guide for System Center 2012—Operations Manager (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=207751) to determine the hardware requirements.

Getting ready

Before starting, check out the system requirements and design planning for System Center Operations Manager 2012 SP1 at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj656654.aspx

My recommendation is to deploy on a Windows Server 2012 and the SQL Server 2012 SP1 version.

How to do it...

Carry out the following steps to install Operations Manager 2012 SP1:

Browse to the SCOM installation folder and click on Setup.
Click on Install.
On the Select the features to install page, select the components that apply to your environment, and then click on Next as shown in the following screenshot:

The recommendation is to have a dedicated server, but it all depends on the size of the deployment. You can select all of the components to be installed on the same server for a small deployment.
Type in the location where you'd install Operations Manager 2012 SP1, or accept the default location and click on Next.
The installation will check if your system has passed all of the requirements. A screen showing the issues will be displayed if any of the requirements are not met, and you will be asked to fix and verify it again before continuing with the installation, as shown in the following screenshot:
If all of the prerequisites are met, click on Next to proceed with the setup.
On the Specify an installation option page, if this is the first Operations Manager, select the Create the first Management Server in a new management group option and provide a value in the Management group name field. Otherwise, select the Add a management server to an existing management group option as shown in the following screenshot:
Click on Next to continue, accept the EULA, and click on Next.
On the Configure the operational database page, type the server and instance name of the server and the SQL Server port number.

It is recommended to keep the default values in the Database name, Database size (MB), Data file folder, and Log file folder boxes.
Click on Next.

The installation account needs DB owner rights on the database.
On the SQL Server instance for Reporting Services page, select the instance where you want to host the Reporting Services (SSRS).

Make sure the SQL Server has the SQL Server Full-Text Search and Analysis server component installed.
On the Configure Operations Manager accounts page, provide the domain account credentials (for example, labsvc-scom) for the Operations Manager services.

You can use a single domain account. For account requirements, see the Microsoft Operations Manager deployment guide at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=246682.
On the Help improve System Center 2012 – Operations Manager page, select the desired options and click on Next.
On the Installation Summary page, review the options and click on Install, and then on click on Close. The Operations Manager console will open.

How it works...

When deploying SCOM 2012, it is important to consider the placement of the components. Work on the SCOM design before implementing it. See the OpsMgr 2012 Design Guide available at http://blogs.technet.com/b/momteam/archive/2012/04/13/ opsmgr-2012-design-guide.aspx.

On the Configure Operational Database page, if you are installing the first management server, a new operational database will be created. If you are installing additional management servers, an existing database will be used.

On the SQL Server instance for Reporting Services page, make sure you have previously configured the Reporting Services at SQL setup using the Reporting Services Configuration Manager tool, and that the SQL Server Agent is running.

During the OpsMgr setup, you will be required to provide the Management Server Action Account credentials and the System Center Configuration service and System Center Data Access service account credentials too. The recommendation is to use a domain account so that you can use the same account for both the services.

The setup will automatically assign the local computer Administrators group to the Operations Manager administrator's role.

The single-server scenario combines all roles onto a single instance and supports the following services: monitoring and alerting, reporting, audit collection, agentless-exception management, and data.

If you are planning to monitor the network, it is recommended to move the SQL Server tempdb database to a separate disk that has multiple spindles.

There's more...

To confirm the health of the management server, carry out the following steps:

In the OpsMgr console, click on the Administration workspace.

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In Device Management, select Management Servers to confirm that the installed server has a green check mark in the Health State column.

Installing management packs

After installing Operations Manager, you need to install some management packs and agents on the Hyper-V servers and on the VMM server.

This recipe will guide you through the installation, but first make sure you have installed the Operations Manager Operations console on the VMM management server.

You need to import the following management packs for the VMM 2012 SP1 integration:

Windows Server operating system
Windows Server 2008 operating system (Discovery)
Internet Information Services 2003
Internet Information Services 7
Internet Information Services library
SQL Server Core Library

Getting ready

Before you begin, make sure the correct version of PowerShell is installed, that is, PowerShell v2 for SC 2012 and PowerShell v3 for SC2012 SP1.

How to do it...

Carry out the following steps to install the required MPs in order to integrate with VMM 2012 SP1:

In the OpsMgr console, click on the Administration workspace on the bottom-left pane.
On the left pane, right-click on Management Packs and click on Import Management Packs.
In the Import Management Packs wizard, click on Add, and then click on Add from catalog.
In the Select Management Packs from Catalog dialog box, for each of the following management packs, repeat the steps 5 to 7:
- Windows Server operating system
- Windows Server 2008 operating system (Discovery)
- Internet Information Services 2003
- Internet Information Services 7
- Internet Information Services library
- SQL Server Core Library
There are numerous management packs for Operations Manager. You can use this recipe to install other OpsMgr MPs from the catalog web service. You can also download the MPs from the Microsoft System Center Marketplace, which contains the MPs and documentation from Microsoft and some non-Microsoft companies. Save them to a shared folder and then import. See http://systemcenter.pinpoint. microsoft.com/en-US/home.
In the Find field, type in the management pack to search in the online catalog and click on Search.
The Management packs in the catalog list will show all of the packs that match the search criterion. To import, select the management pack, click on Select, and then click on Add as shown in the following screenshot:

In the View section, you can refine the search by selecting, for example, to show only those management packs released within the last three months. The default view lists all of the management packs in the catalog.
Click on OK after adding the required management packs.
On the Select Management Packs page, the MPs will be listed with either a green icon, a yellow icon, or a red icon. The green icon indicates that the MP can be imported. The yellow information icon means that it is dependent on other MPs that are available in the catalog, and you can fix the dependency by clicking on Resolve. The red error icon indicates that it is dependent on other MPs, but the dependent MPs are not available in the catalog.
Click on Import if all management packs have their icon statuses as green.
On the Import Management Packs page, the progress for each management pack will be displayed. Click on Close when the process is finished.

How it works...

You can import the management packs available for Operations Manager using the following:

The OpsMgr console: You can perform the following actions in the Management Packs menu of the Administration workspace:
- Import directly from Microsoft's online catalog
- Import from disk/share
- Download the management pack from the online catalog to import at a later time
The Internet browser: You can download the management pack from the online catalog to import at a later time, or to install on an OpsMgr that is not connected to the Internet

While using the OpsMgr console, verify whether all management packs show a green status. Any MP displaying the yellow information icon or the red error icon in the import list will not be imported.

If there is no Internet connection on the OpsMgr, use an Internet browser to locate and download the management pack to a folder/share. Then copy the management pack to the OpsMgr server and use the option to import from disk/share.