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System Center 2012–using a common SQL backend database (#SYSCTR, #SCOM, #SCSM)

Cameron Fuller — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:05:36 GMT

Now that System Center 2012 is one “product” we’re seeing a heavier focus towards using a common back-end for the products. Microsoft has done a good (not great) job on providing a consistent set of back-end database requirements so that a single version of SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU6 should be sufficient for all of the System Center components.

<Start disclaimer here>

Before really getting into this let me state up front – this is not the approach that every environment will want to take. Some environments will require more dedicated resources including breaking down separate System Center components onto different database servers. Other environment (such as a lab) may be small enough that all of the databases could be configured to run in a single instance (if reporting services conflicts between the components was not a constraint).

<End disclaimer here>

In terms of database sizing, the largest databases we are seeing in our labs (and those requiring at least the most disk resources) are Service Manager, Operations Manager and Configuration Manager. Based upon lab testing up to this point, the following is the breakdown of database size for a lab environment which includes 25 servers, no workstations and a small number of users.

System Center Service Manager (ServiceMgr): 25 GB
System Center Operations Manager (OpsMgr): 12 GB
System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr): 6 GB
System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM): 1 GB
System Center App Controller (App Controller): < .1 GB
System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM): .2 GB
System Center Orchestrator (Orchestrator): .1 GB

What about IOPS? (Input/output Operations Per Second)There is a lot of discussion on the number of IOPS required for various System Center components, do they really require the number of IOPS specified in the sizer? Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. The next picture shows the IOPS for a database server with about 2000 agents that has LUNS shared for the OperationsManager database and the OperationsManagerDW.

So… That 1000 IOPS estimation (mentioned later in this article) on the data warehouse for OpsMgr doesn’t seem so far fetched now! (total hovering around 1000, primarily write but with a significant amount of read)

The following is IOPS for the same environment (approximately 2000 agents) just for the OperationsManager database: (total hovering around 400, primarily write)

And the IOPS for the same environment for just the OperationsManagerDW: (total hovering around 200, primarily write)

What about SQL Collation? A blog post was recently added on this topic which is available at:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager/archive/2012/05/24/clarification-on-sql-server-collation-requirements-for-system-center-2012.aspx

Can System Center components share an instance? There is not documented requirements to have a separate instance for each component of System Center. As long as the requirements for each database are met they can share but you need to take scale and performance into consideration. SRS is the one exception to this rule that I am aware of, requiring separate instances of reporting services for each component of System Center that uses SRS.

Case Studies:

For this blog article we are showing two similar case studies.

Case Study #1:

As a first case study example we installed a single two-node cluster to provide System Center back-end database functionality for ConfigMgr, OpsMgr, ServiceMgr and DPM. The client has approximately 200 servers that they are monitoring, and they have approximately 3000 workstations that they are managing and there are 5000 users in the environment. They are interested in potentially deploying all of the System Center components off of this back-end database. The following are the key pieces of the proposed back-end database:

Installing two physical servers on Windows 2008 R2 which are running a quad core with 32 gb of memory.

The two servers are connected to a SAN infrastructure to store all of the database and log files.

Instances are created on a per-component basis:

ConfigMgr
OpsMgr
ServiceMgr (2x)
DPM

Each instance is configured with separate spindles on the SAN for that instance’s database and log files.

Creating a separate reporting instance for each component that requires it (OpsMgr, ConfigMgr, Service Manager)

This cluster will only be for System Center back-end functionality.

Disk Sizing for Case Study #1: (based upon the Microsoft sizers)

ServiceMgr: 225 GB
OpsMgr: 160 GB
ConfigMgr: 100 GB
Total: 341 GB

Case Study #2:

As a second case study example, speaking with a client recently, we came to the consensus of creating a single two-node cluster to provide all System Center back-end database functionality. The client has approximately 2500 servers that they are monitoring, and they have approximately 6500 workstations that they are managing and there are 3500 users in the environment. They are interested in potentially deploying all of the System Center components off of this back-end database. The following are the key pieces of the proposed back-end database:

Installing two physical servers on Windows 2008 R2 which are running two socket/six core with 96 gb of memory.
The two servers are connected to a SAN infrastructure to store all of the database and log files.

Instances are created on a per-component basis: (gathering smaller sized databases into a single instance)

ConfigMgr
OpsMgr
ServiceMgr (2x)
DPM, App Controller, VMM, Orchestrator

Each instance is configured with separate spindles on the SAN for that instance’s database and log files.

Creating a separate reporting instance for each component that requires it (OpsMgr, ConfigMgr, Service Manager)

This cluster will only be for System Center back-end functionality.

Disk Sizing for Case Study #2: (based upon the Microsoft sizers)

ServiceMgr: 225 GB
OpsMgr: 1900 GB [Based on lab tests performed up to this point in time, it is reasonable to believe that the estimate from the sizer may be over-estimating for OpsMgr. We have one client with 2000 servers and a fully populated data warehouse in OpsMgr 2007 R2 has not crossed 500 GB yet, and another with about 1100 servers that has not crossed 1000 GB yet]
ConfigMgr: 100 GB
Total: 2225 GB

Sizing per Microsoft estimation methods for case study #2: (details on ServiceMgr, OpsMgr and ConfigMgr are contained in the appendix of this blog article)

ServiceMgr: 225 GB (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27850 or http://t.co/8ht9rAOQ)

OpsMgr: 1900 GB (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29270)

ConfigMgr: 100 GB (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh846235.aspx#BKMK_ReqDiskSpace)

DPM: .9 GB (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh757757.aspx)

App Controller: 1 GB (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg696060.aspx)

VMM: 150 GB (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610574.aspx)

Orchestrator: 1 GB (http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2011/11/02/orchestrator-2012-deployment-amp-configuration-step-by-step-part-2-system-requirements.aspx)

In terms of database sizing from the Microsoft sizing estimates, the largest databases (and those requiring the most resources) are Operations Manager, Service Manager, Virtual Machine Manager and Configuration Manager which represent the statistically relevant database sizes.

Common System Center 2012 Database Recommendations:

Limit each SQL Instance memory where the SQL total memory setting allows a minimum of 1 GB and preferably 2 GB of free memory after all services are running.
SQL Server will need to be Standard or Enterprise edition (Datacenter in some situations)
Install dual gigabit network adapters teamed with full duplex
Disks should be formatted to a 64K allocation unit size
Disks should be configured to allow 20% free space after all calculations for monitoring and set growth upper limits to not exceed this space limit.
The SQL Cluster should be running Active-Passive unless resources are proved to be insufficient
Common objections to sharing databases is contention for resources resulting in bottlenecks – processors, memory, and especially disk spindles. Use Operations Manager to identify these potential bottlenecks.
OpsMgr will not support SQL dynamic ports which is the default SQL setting, change each SQL instance dynamic port to a TCP port.
If OpsMgr will be providing monitoring for network devices, increase the size of the SQL temp in that instance.
Set the SQL Database Engine Domain Account(s) to auto register the SQL SPN values which occurs every time the service starts up
If you are using heart beat and iSCSI connections – make sure to remove all connection options except IPv4 and remove any DNS and Gateway entries as well.

Summary: Do you want to use a common SQL server for multiple components of System Center 2012? You can, but be sure to consider the requirements of each component and see the guidance above for sizing, instance details and general recommendations.

Special thanks on this one to: Travis Wright from the Microsoft product team for his second perspective, Louis Oliver for his help with the IOPS statistics, Chris Ross for his assistance with this from a Service Manager perspective!

Appendix: Sizing for OpsMgr, Service Manager and ConfigMgr from the Microsoft sizing estimators.

OpsMgr 2012 sizing:

In terms of currently available tools, there is a sizer for OpsMgr available at: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29270.

For the OpsMgr database in an organization this size the results are:

(Bolded Red items below are showing the Case Study #2 example with approximately 2000 OpsMgr agents)

DB Estimated Random IO Per Second for Maximum Load Configuration [80% Write, 20% Read]
# of Agents	Estimated IOPS
1-500	250
501-1000	500
1001-3000	750
3001-6000	1125
6001-10000	1250
10001-15000	1500

OpsMgr DB: Number of Days for Data Retention	7
Number of Server Computers	2500
Number of Network Devices	50
Number of APM-enabled Computers	0
Total Size (MB)	42276.18
Total Size (GB)	41.29
Total Size (GB) with 50% Buffer	61.93

For the OpsMgr DW in an organization this size the results are:

DW Estimated Random IO Per Second for Maximum Load Configuration [80% Write, 20% Read]
# of Agents	Estimated IOPS
1-500	500
501-1000	875
1001-3000	1000
3001-6000	1500
6001-10000	2000
10001-15000	2500

OpsMgr DW: Number of Days for Data Retention	365
Number of Server Computers	2500
Number of Network Devices	50
Number of APM-enabled Computers	0
Total Size (MB)	1707732.56
Total Size (GB)	1667.71
Total Size (GB) with 10% Buffer	1834.48

ServiceMgr 2012 sizing:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27850

Service Manager database Size
Retention for Work Items (days)			90
Number of work items for computers/month	6150
Total Size (GB)			6.84
Suggested Space Allocation
with 50% buffer (GB)			10.26

Service Manager data warehouse Size Note: The details below for each database include the recommended 50% buffer.
			We also recommend placing each database on a separate physical drive if possible to optimize performance.
Number of Days			1095
DWStagingandConfig			20.53
Repository			61.58
DWDataMart			61.58
TempDB			51.32
DWASDataBase			18.47
		Note: The DWASDataBase size approximation is based on the default aggregation level set by Service Manager.

Total Size (GB)			213.49

Suggested Space Allocation			213.49
with 50% buffer (GB)

From download.microsoft.com/.../SC2012_ServiceMgr_Planning.docx

Service Manager database

Dual Quad-Core 2.66 gigahertz (GHz) CPU

8 gigabytes (GB) of RAM for 20,000 users, 32 GB of RAM for 50,000 users (See the Hardware Performance section in this guide.)

80 GB of available disk space

RAID Level 1 or Level 10 drive*

Data warehouse databases

Dual Quad-core 2.66 GHz CPU

8 GB of RAM for 20,000 users, 32 GB of RAM for 50,000 users (See the Hardware Performance section in this guide.)

400 GB of available disk space

ConfigMgr 2012 sizing:

from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh846235.aspx#BKMK_ReqDiskSpace

Data usage	Minimum disk space1	25,000 clients	50,000 clients	100,000 clients
Operating system	See guidance for the operating system.	See guidance for the operating system.	See guidance for the operating system.	See guidance for the operating system.
Configuration Manager Application and Log Files	10 GB	10 GB	10 GB	10 GB
Site database .mdf file	75 GB for every 25,000 clients	75 GB	150 GB	300 GB
Site database .ldf file	25 GB for every 25,000 clients	25 GB	50 GB	100 GB
Temp database files (.mdf and .ldf)	As needed	As needed	As needed	As needed
Content (distribution point shares)	As needed	As needed	As needed	As needed

Inside Central 21 - DPM 2012 and MMS warm-up with DPM MVP Mike Resseler

Pete Zerger — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:26:23 GMT

In the lead up to MMS 2012, Dan is joined by DPM MVP Mike Resseler to discuss some of the new features you can expect to see in DPM 2012.

Download Episode and Show Notes

Inside Central 21 - DPM 2012

Previous Episodes

You can review show notes and download previous episodes at the links below

ConfigMgr and DPM Q&A from recent meeting in San Antonio

Cameron Fuller — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 21:36:22 GMT

During a recent meeting on System Center 2012, there were several good questions which were asked that I didn’t know the answer to. So to share with the community, here’s the questions asked and their answers from our Catapult team!

Question: Does Endpoint Protection provide any client encryption management? Anything to manage Bitlocker?

Answer: Microsoft MDOP provides tools in this area (Bitlocker Administration and Monitoring): http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/products-and-technologies/mdop/mbam.aspx

Question: When migrating from SCCM07 to 2012, does history of what applications or packages have already been deployed or tried to be deployed move over as well?

Will advertisements rerun after they are migrated? No. Clients that you upgrade from Configuration Manager 2007 will not rerun advertisements that you migrate. System Center 2012 Configuration Manager retains the Configuration Manager 2007 Package ID for packages you migrate and clients that upgrade retain their advertisement history.

Answer: The applications and packages can be moved over but I do not believe that history would be moved over. The following a link from Wally on migration from ConfigMgr 2007 to ConfigMgr 2012: http://myitforum.com/myitforumwp/2012/01/09/what-wally-said-migrating-from-configmgr-2007-to-configmgr-2012/. The migration tools will retain the 2007 package IDs. This keeps the clients from rerunning the advertisement if they already have done so.

Question: Can you still have WSUS outside of SCCM and does allowing SCCM to manage it limit the reporting capabilities? How about 3rd party updates? Does ConfigMgr 2012 support 3rd party updates?

Answer: Yes, but there should not be a reason to keep an upstream WSUS server. Unless, it will be used to patch non ConfigMgr clients. Third party updates still requires SCUP which is a free download from MS.

Question: Do you still have to follow the Exchange guidelines for DPM (Data Recovery Group) for recovery using DPM? Exchange 2010 SP1.

Answer: There does not appear to be a change to how this functions in DPM 2012, you would still need to perform the restore the same way as it occurs in DPM 2010 or use AppAssure for User Mailbox Message item level restoration.

Thank you to David Jaffe and Paul Johnson for their help on these questions!

MMS 2012-Birds of a Feather sessions: New to Microsoft System Center 2012 (#SYSCTR, #MMS2012, #MMSBOF12, #MMSBOF13)

Cameron Fuller — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:05:33 GMT

I just finalized on planning to moderate two sessions on “New to Microsoft System Center 2012” at MMS 2012. With all of the new features coming to the System Center 2012 stack these should be great discussions!

Abstract: “The long-awaited System Center 2012 product release is here! In this Birds-of-a-Feather discussion we will have an open forum focusing on new features available in System Center 2012 components including Configuration Manager/Endpoint Protection, Operations Manager, Service Manager, Data Protection Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, App Controller and Orchestrator. Additional topics include how the System Center 2012 stack works better together and how we can automate common processes using workflows in System Center.”

If you are attending MMS and interested in System Center please stop by and join this discussion (BOF12, BOF13)!

Thanks you to both Microsoft and one extremely cool colleague of mine out there (you know who you are!) for inviting me to moderate these sessions!

Are you looking to participate in the System Center community via Twitter?

rorymccaw — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 03:27:43 GMT

If so, consider using the following hash tags to have your content followed by the greater System Center community at large.

Component	Hashtag
System Center all up or broad awareness (should be included in every tweet related to SC)	#sysctr
These are only included in tweets that are specific to a particular component:
Virtual Machine Manager	#scvmm
Service Manager	#scsm
Operations Manager	#scom
Data Protection Manager	#scdpm
Orchestrator	#scorc
Advisor	#scadvisor
App Controller	#scappctrl
Configuration Manager	#configmgr

Have fun, learn System Center. www.infrontconsulting.com/training.php

Podcast: Inside Central 18 - Skilling Up on System Center 2012

Pete Zerger — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 01:23:30 GMT

Episode Description: This podcast, which was recorded on the 24th of Feb. With Pete taking the week off, OpsMgr MVP Cameron Fuller is at the helm. We discuss some valuable approaches to creating your own home lab and essential techniques that will assist in “Skilling Up” for Operations Manager 2012.

Download Episode and Show Notes

Find the episode download and links to resources mentioned in the podcast at http://insidepodcastnetwork.tv/show/ic18/

Previous Episodes

You can review show notes and download previous episodes at the links below

MMS 2012 content will be digital on-demand for non-attendees

Tommy Gunn — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 08:48:30 GMT

Although they have not announced which sessions will be available for non-attendees, MS have promised at least some will be available. Details below.

Description

Were you unable to register for MMS before the record-breaking sell out this year? While we are sorry not everyone can join us in person, the MMS team has made it possible for everyone to join us virtually! Imagine you’re there with direct access to MMS content.

Watch the Keynotes LIVE

Brad Anderson, CVP Management and Security Division will be presenting:
Microsoft Private Cloud. Built for the Future. Ready Now.
April 17 | 8:30AM - 9:45AM
A World of Connected Devices
April 18 | 8:30AM - 9:45AM

Learn more about the keynotes and Brad Anderson HERE, and then tune into the www.mms-2012.com to watch live on April 17th and 18th!

Watch Sessions On Demand

MMS offers over 175 breakout sessions across 5 technical tracks. That is a lot of content to take in! If you are unable to attend the event, or even if you will be there in person, you'll be able to view any breakout sessions you may have missed within 48 hours of the live presentation.

As we get nearer to the event, more information about viewing the sessions on demand will be posted here. In the meantime, you may peruse the complete MMS Content Catalog to see what will be available. MMS attendees may also sign in to the site to access the Schedule Builder to view and add sessions to their schedules for the week.

More at http://www.mms-2012.com/digitalmms

Updated: Master List of System Center PowerShell

Tommy Gunn — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:09:43 GMT

FYI, I’ve begun updating the Master List of System Center PowerShell for System Center 2012. The master list can be found at http://www.systemcentercentral.com/BlogDetails/tabid/143/indexid/60930/Default.aspx

Inside Central Podcast: Skilling up on System Center 2012

Cameron Fuller — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:21:31 GMT

Inside Central posted the podcast I had done last week on skilling up on system center 2012 including topics like:

Building home lab environments for all of System Center 2012
Tricks to use when lab testing Operations Manager 2012

Check it out and I also owe a shout-out to Eric Morrison who started me on the specs to build out my lab environment!

Inside Central Podcast

Windows Server 8 Beta–managing it with ConfigMgr 2012 RC (#SCCM) and backing it up with DPM 2012 RC (#SCDPM)

Cameron Fuller — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:05:51 GMT

II recently blogged on installing Windows Server 8 Beta as a guest operating system in my SCVMM environment, and attempting to monitor Windows Server 8 Beta with Operations Manager 2012 RC. The next logical step was to investigate backing up Windows Server 8 Beta with Data Protection Manager 2012 RC and managing it with Configuration Manager 2012. Results are listed below with screenshots of the steps required:

[Images are not uploading correctly for this blog post - please see http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/cfuller/archive/2012/03/02/windows-server-8-beta–managing-it-with-configmgr-2012-rc-sccm-and-backing-it-up-with-dpm-2012-rc-scdpm.aspx for the full blog post with images included]

Data Protection Manager 2012 RC & Windows Server 8 Beta:

An attempt to deploy the agent directly from the DPM 2012 RC failed but I’ve seen that happen before on some other agent deployment.

I logged into the Windows Server 8 Beta system, and ran the X64 installer from a remote share.

After the installer completed, I had to attach the agent to DPM but it was not communicating correctly after the attempt to attach (results shown below).

On the Windows Server 8 Beta system I next had to use the setdpmserver program to point this server to the appropriate DPM server (setdpmserver –dpmservername ) as shown below:

Once it was approved it started working as expected/shown below with updated unprotected status and the results of adding it to a protection group.

DPM result: For Windows Server Beta 8 and DPM 2012 RC we were able to install the agent but the DPM server cannot communicate with it.

Configuration Manager 2012 RC & Windows Server 8 Beta:

To test Windows Server 8 Beta and Configuration Manager, I deployed the Configuration Manager client by pushing it from the Configuration Manager console. I did end up having to start a Configuration Manager service (SMS Host I believe?) but that may have just been due to my own impatience. Below are the screenshots showing the Configuration Manager properties.

And the applications installed on Windows Server 8 Beta displayed the Configuration Manager 2012 Software Center program:

Even EndPoint protection appears to have deployed correctly as shown below!

Configuration Manager result: The agent installation appears to work like a champ!

Thank you to David Allen for his assistance with the DPM configuration and for Lukasz Rutkowski for his thoughts on this topic!

Summary: Initial tests of using Data Protection Manager 2012 RC to backup Windows Server 8 Beta and Configuration Manager 2012 RC to manage Windows Server 8 Beta look pretty positive at least from an agent deployment perspective!

Hyper-V running on core-Positives & Negatives

Cameron Fuller — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:25:33 GMT

During a recent Hyper-V build out in my lab I decided to try my hands at installing Hyper-V on the core version of Windows versus the full version of Windows. The specific benefits I expected from core include: (benefits taken from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee391628(v=vs.85).aspx)

1) Reduced servicing

2) Reduced management

3) Reduced attack surface

4) Less disk space required

Additionally I was hoping to see a decrease in the memory footprint which would allow me to add more virtuals onto a system running core instead of the full version of Windows.

My test lab included two identical Windows 2008 R2 SP1 hardware configurations running an I7 processor with 24 gb of memory. HyperV03 was installed with a full version of Windows and HyperV04 was installed on a core version of windows.

My testing results for the 4 benefits listed above:

1) On both servers I have had a total of about 80 updates applied since I started this test (not including forefront endpoint definition updates).

2) Management on the core server itself is reduced – as you don’t often want to log into the server to manage it. This however realistically moves the management to other servers or to other tools such as CoreConfig to manage the server. Once Hyper-V was functional on this system, I was able to use SCVMM almost exclusively to manage the core Hyper-V system.

3) I see the logic that the attack surface is reduced – less code to attack means less surface to attack but I can’t provide any specific details here yet. More below.

4) On my core system I saw a significant decrease in disk space usage with 6.2 gb in the Windows directory versus 16.6 gb in the Windows directory for the full version of windows.

Memory test results:

The memory tests I were the primary item I was interested in because the only reason I had to expect extra available memory was the decrease in the attack surface which would hopefully result in a decrease of the number of processes and services running on the system. For this test I shut down all virtuals running on both of my Hyper-V servers and compared their available memory and the number of processes running on the server.

HyperV03: (Full Windows)

The full version of Windows was running a total of 59 processes, using 7% of physical memory and had a total of 21913 mb of free memory.

HyperV04: (Core)

The core version of Windows was running a total of 45 processes (14 less), using 7% of physical memory (identical) and had a total of 22120 mb of free memory (207 mb of additional free memory).

While running on core did decrease the number of processes from 59 down to 45 this did not have any significant impact on the amount of free space in a server especially one with 24 gb of available memory.

Management of core:

Management of the core version of Windows is another big item to factor into the decision whether to use it on Hyper-V or not. While you can still RDP into the core version, most of the commonly used utilities to configure the Operating System are not available. The shift that occurred with me on core was to use other Windows servers to manage my core system as management of it locally required a very different approach than I am used to as a Windows administrator of full Operating Systems. Additionally other items were more complex to manage such as configuration for DPM:

As an example for DPM I had to manually install the agent, attach it and set it’s configuration as shown below:

Patch management can be done through Configuration Manager, but for checking patches and performing common actions I highly recommend the Core Configuration 2.0 tool available on codeplex: http://coreconfig.codeplex.com/

However, once the server was configured and patched and running Hyper-V I was able to manage it from that point forward using System Center Virtual Machine Manager and at some points I actually forgot that one of the servers was running the core version of Windows.

Summary: Hyper-V running on core versus running on a full version of Windows? Here’s my assessment:

1) Reduced servicing – The number of updates which have been applied on both servers were similar over a period of several months.

2) Reduced management – Management work is done far less often on the actual core Operating System.

3) Reduced attack surface – Based upon the number of processes alone this is a logical conclusion.

4) Less disk space required – Confirmed with approximately 10 gb less space used in the Windows directory alone.

And my two items I wanted to check:

5) Memory footprint – No significant decrease on memory required unless it is a server with a very small amount of memory available to use.

6) Management complexity - It is more complex to manage a windows core server if you (like me) are not used to managing it.

So, my summary of the summary – If it’s important to decrease your attack surface or you have critical space issues definitely look into core but you need to go into it with your eyes wide open that management of core is a different beast especially up to the stage where SCVMM can take over management of the system.

Hotfix: SCDPM 2010 Interoperability Hotfix for Centralized Management with SCDPM 2012 Beta

Tommy Gunn — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:33:59 GMT

This interoperability patch enables your SCDPM 2010 servers to be centrally managed using the Central Console feature available with SCDPM 2012. Once you have installed this hotfix, you can monitor and manage both SCDPM 2010 and SCDPM 2012 servers using the same console.

Download at http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27218

First Look: System Center integration and centralized administration in DPM 2012 Beta

MMS 2012, Session Declined & The Avengers?

Cameron Fuller — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:52:37 GMT

The Microsoft Management Summit 2012 looks like it will be an incredible experience with all of the updates occurring in the System Center 2012 space (pun somewhat intended)! I highly recommend that if you can be there – be there. I think that this will be an incredible MMS – I’m looking forward to it almost as much as I am to seeing The Avengers (one is happening in April, one is happening in May so there should be no conflict). My favorite quote from this preview: “There was an idea… To bring together a group of remarkable people so when we needed them they could fight the battles that we never could.”

Ok, back to MMS. I have seen some of the sessions that were accepted and they look incredible! Microsoft has a limited set of slots for presenters and presentations and can only choose so many as a result. (I will post a link to the sessions once they become available). As an example, last year my session on “Operations Manager Evolution” was declined but ended up accepted up at the last minute so there is a potential that a session could still be accepted but the likelihood is small at this point in time.

UPDATE: The MMS 2012 session catalog is online and available at: http://www.mms-2012.com/Topic/List

The following are abstracts which I am aware of that were declined for MMS 2012 (the session submitter intentionally removed to keep this focused on the topic not the presenter):

Title: Monitoring SharePoint code with APM

Abstract: Hosting a private cloud today is the future but what do we really understand in making this a reality? Microsoft technologies offer Private cloud solution but how do we use them to create an effective Private Cloud? In this session we will examine our options how we can use all the System Center products with Hyper-V to ensure our private cloud is not only a success but a simpler and easy way forward within budget.

Title: Advanced SharePoint Monitoring with System Center

Abstract: SharePoint administration of large hosted and internal sites. With the main goal of getting users to interact with SharePoint 2010 we must be able to monitor in a proactive method ensuring our investment stays operational. As 24/7 no longer has a meaning but always on is the new SLA Operations Manager is an important component to ensure this reality. With Patching and Backup’s we also need to ensure that effective use of ConfigMgr & DPM perform the tracks with Service Manager

Title: Dashboard Palooza

Abstract: In the world of monitoring, it is not only about the information you gather but how to visualize it. In this session presented by experienced consultants from across the globe, we demonstrate different techniques to build the dashboards that you need using the new built-in Operations Manager 2012 functionality combined with solutions such as the Service Level Dashboard, Visio Integration and the Service Manager dashboard to create custom dashboards for a NOC, C-Level, LOB application and more!

Title: Top Ops Bloggers

Abstract: Meet the top SCOM bloggers in this session–Marnix Wolf & Kevin Holman! Marnix Wolf: SQL, the true foundation of SCOM/SCOM12. Learn how to provision a well performing SQL server for your SCOM environment without taking all available resources. Kevin Holman: Alert enrichment and forwarding: How can I connect OpsMgr to other Enterprise Management systems? Adding enrichment to alerts in SCOM & connecting SCOM12 to other systems using Orchestrator 2012

Title: Tips & tricks for monitoring your private cloud with OpsMgr 2012

Abstract: Monitoring a private cloud is unlike monitoring your physical environment. This session provides guidance & best practices on using OpsMgr 2012 to monitor your private cloud infrastructure. Topics include: - Key considerations in an effective private cloud infrastructure - Best practices for virtualizing your OpsMgr infrastructure - Effective monitoring of VM guest performance - Automating incident management and remediation - Extending VMM's dynamic optimization to hardware and applications

Title: Through the Looking Glass at all Hypervisors

Abstract: This session looks at how to use System Center Operations Manager to monitor Hyper-V, VMWare and Citrix Xen Server Hypervisors through a single console. We will dissect the Microsoft Hyper-V , Veeam VMWare and Comtrade XenServer Management Packs to look at what is useful and what can be extended. We will also look at how to build useful dashboards to look at information across the hypervisors

Title: Operations Manager Monitoring: The good, the bad and the ugly

Abstract: Ever want to quickly narrow down noise and keep your environment clean and healthy? Ever wonder why you databases are filling up and your console is getting sluggish? Industry experts, they will share their experiences from having tuned countless Operations Manager deployments since MOM 2005. They will show you how to quickly reduce noise, set overrides the easy way (fire and forget), maintain a healthy environment.

Title: Taking your IT business services to the next Level with System Center 2012

Abstract: Get ready to drive the management of your IT Business services beyond System Center 2012, taking full advantage of the System Center suite. This session will cover end-to-end IT business services by utilizing System Center Operations Manager 2012, System Center Service Manager 2012 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012. Industry experts will show you how to fully leverage your IT business service and how to extend the service.

Title: 101 Management Pack authoring for Service Manager 2012

Abstract: Would you like more than out-of-the-box functionality from Service Manager 2012 but don’t know where to start? Join industry experts for a great session on extending and customizing System Center Service Manager 2012. This demo-packed session will show you the how to’s for extending Service Manager 2012 and the direct results you can achieve in a few easy steps. Learn from real world Service Manager 2012 authoring examples and be a hero to your helpdesk.

Title: Operations Manager Management Packs: Don’t be afraid! You don’t need to be a developer

Abstract: Join industry experts on a journey building management packs the easy way. No need for heavy authoring experience. These guys have been in the authoring world since MOM 2005 and have a vast experience in extending the product. During this session they will show real world examples and solutions on how to easily create a simple but effective management pack while at the same time discussing the do’s and don’ts.

Title: Looking after your Microsoft Virtualization environment

Abstract: This session looks at the various areas to look out for when implementing a Hyper-V virtualization environment. We will also show you how to use System Center Operations Manager to alert you of critical alerts that happen in your Virtualization environment, as well as how to integrate and use System Center Virtual Machine Manager to configure and tune the infrastructure. On top of this, we will also showcase how orchestration through System Center Orchestrator can assist in automating crucial workflows to ensure that your environment suffers minimal downtime.

Were your MMS sessions declined? If so, post them here and we’ll put together a more comprehensive list of sessions that currently will not be at MMS 2012.

Are there sessions listed here or in the comments which you think would be great to have at MMS? If so, post a comment on them and maybe we can draw some attention to them as a possible last minute addition!

And now a thought or two from my favorite green Avenger…

or if you prefer

Private Cloud in the real world: 5 lessons from the private cloud fabric

Pete Zerger — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:42:38 GMT

When I first said I wanted to talk about private cloud in the real world, I was thinking to share some deep insights. In reality, some of the insights are not so deep, but rather just part of the long list of little things you must get right to deliver on the promises of a private cloud infrastructure. The private cloud with System Center 2012 sounds great on paper (and it can be), but when you get to into the real world, there are some key elements that, if not considered and addressed in the build, make it seem so much less great. Because in the end,businesses and pay the promise of the cloud…they pay for actual results. As one Microsoft guy said, “they don't buy the drill, they buy the hole”. In other words, “customers don’t buy the tools (System Center 2012, Hyper-V, etc.), they by the capabilities the tools will help them realize”.

Here are a few things you must get right before anything else matters.

Lesson 1: SAN copy is critical for a happy cloud (or more specifically, happy users of a private cloud)

Let's face it,copying many gigabytes of data (in the form of a virtual machine in this case) is not fast enough. Go into this with your eyes open,understanding the requirements to deliver rapid virtual machine provisioning. Counting the time required to deploy virtual machine in minutes is anti-climactic and the end result less impressive in inverse proportion to the time required to deploy VMs. To paraphrase the TechNet article:

Before you begin, make sure that the following prerequisites are met:

The storage array must support the new storage management features in VMM.
The storage array must support cloning or snapshots, and have the feature enabled.

Note: Realize that this may require additional licensing from your storage vendor. (yes, some vendors license the right to clone and shapshot luns!)

The storage pool that you want to use for rapid provisioning must be under VMM management. This involves adding the SMI-S provider for the array, discovering storage pools, classifying the storage, and setting the preferred allocation method for the storage array to either snapshot or cloning.

There’s more. See “Rapid Provisioning a Virtual Machine by Using SAN Copy Overview” at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610594.aspx

Lesson 2: Configure your VMM Library share PROPERLY

Yes Virginia, there is a wrong way to configure VMM library…and this wrong way results in media being copied into your VM directories. And if you do it wrong, not only do VM copies take forever, so do ISO mounts.

as so eloquently stated by Michael Michael of Microsoft (that guy has a great name) “First, you need to follow Jose Barreto's blog post on how to properly enable constrained delegation on the Hyper-V servers. You need to follow these steps for every Hyper-V host on which you want to create a Virtual Machine and attach a shared ISO. Additionally, these steps need to be followed for every library server that will host ISO files that are going to be linked from Virtual Machines.”

In the end, this allow you to use the “share image file instead of copying it “ option, avoiding slow and frustrating ISO mounts.

See “How to properly share ISO files in VMM with Hyper-V”

Lesson 3: With new technology comes new responsibility

Or as I like to say, “System Center won't teach itself to you”. If your VMware admin today, you will have to learn new tools and administrative tasks. In the end, I believe your total cost of ownership (TCO) will be lower, but there will be a transition period. By looking carefully at how you do things today, it is possible to minimize the impact of this change. The good news is, Microsoft offers loads of free training to get folks familiar with System Center 2012 and related private cloud technologies. VMware certainly can't make this claim today.

Sign-up for the Microsoft System Center 2012 Private Cloud Jumpstart at http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=298

Lesson 4: Configure which network adapter handles Live Migration

If you allow Hyper-V and Windows to do as they will, the network you intended for Live Migration may not be the network that is used for live migration and the result will be, well….disappointing. The perceptions of continuous availability and infinite capacity cannot be realized when live migration performs like quick migration…quick migration never seemed that quick to me.

You set this value in the Failover Cluster management interface. When you choose the Live migration network for one VM, It applies the setting globally to the cluster. For Proper configuration steps And related considerations, see Windows Server 2008 R2 & Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 - Hyper-V Live Migration Overview & Architecture

Lesson 5: Create VM templates in a few sizes, along with a few VHDs

This one isn't too complicated, but can save a lot of time building VMs after you get started. Once you begin deploying in the cloud, you want to deploy Web servers, app servers and database servers. These roles will come with their own virtual machine requirements. Build templates before you get started is to avoid interrupting the deployment process with template creation activities. This could be as simple as small, medium and large templates. No hard and fast right answer here, but something that is driven by needs in your environment. For example, if your DBAs require specific drive letters for databases and database log files, you could create a template with this configuration built-in.

Conclusion

To build a stable home, you cannot build on sand. Likewise, you have to build a solid foundation of network, compute and storage for successful private cloud deployment. All of the promises of agility and economy require careful planning and execution. Next time, we’ll talk about considerations in a heterogeneous environment, or whatever related lessons I have for you from the cloud fabric.

How to prepare for Orchestrator? Learn Opalis in a month of Friday afternoons! (free online resources)

Pete Zerger — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:43:18 GMT

“Should I learn learn System Center now, or what until System Center 2012 comes out?”

I hear this question fairly often from customers.

What if I told you that a month from now, you could add a relevant, important skill to your resume in a month of Friday afternoons? System Center Orchestrator 2012 - what's changing? and you’ll see that the core of Opalis survives in Orchestrator. In short, if you know Opalis, you know Orchestrator 2012.

Here are the free resources that will help you wrap your head around the core concepts and get your hands on advanced runbook authoring with less than 3 days of your time.

Learn the core concepts of Opalis / Orchestrator in less than 2 hours

Start with this series of articles designed to get you up to speed on Opalis concepts in a few minutes time:

Opalis Runbook Automation Fundamentals (Part 1)

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/opalis-runbook-automation-fundamentals-part-1

Opalis Runbook Automation Fundamentals (Part 2)

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/opalis-runbook-automation-fundamentals-part-2

Opalis Runbook Automation Fundamentals (Part 3)

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/opalis-runbook-automation-fundamentals-part-3

How the power of Orchestrator delivers the magic of the Cloud

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/how-power-opalis-delivers-magic-cloud

Take Opalis training online for free

Follow it up with some hands on experience. Can’t attend the Opalis Integration Server training course in person? Try the TechNet virtual labs which includes several hours of runbook authoring from the basics to advanced and System Center integrated runbooks straight from the Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC) course!

Have fun, learn System Center!

-Pete Zerger, MVP (Cloud and Datacenter)

Why I am no longer an Operations Manager MVP… but I am a System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP!

Cameron Fuller — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:02:28 GMT

There was an interesting discussion today (Taming IT with the Microsoft Private Cloud) which shows the deeper level of integration occurring in the System Center space. The following is my “Summary for Geeks” from the meeting above:

Packaging and Pricing change: simplified the pricing from 8 SKU’s down to 2 SKU’s [System Center Standard, System Center Data Center]. From the technical chat: “SMSE will transition to SC 2012 Standard and SMSD will transition to SC 2012 Datacenter Edition. Both will maintain existing rights plus additional benefits.” “SC 2012 Standard and Datacenter will both be offered through SPLA.” “All customers with SA on existing licenses will transition to the new integrated product SC 2012 with equal or better use rights than they have today.”
Notification that System Center 2012 RC is publicly available and represents eight products brought into a single suite (Virtual Machine Manager, Operations Manager, Configuration Manager, Service Manager, Orchestrator, EndPoint Protection, App Controller & Data Protection Manager).

Additional tidbits from the technical chat session: [The information below is only gathered from chat users identified as MSFT and was not specifically stated by the presenters in this presentation. Per the chat session “the users with MSFT after their name are part of our Microsoft team of experts here at the event”.]

Upgrade from System Center 2012 RC to System Center 2012 RTM is only supported if you are in the TAP. “while we expect RC to deliver a great evaluation - you will need to do a clean install at general availability.”
Configuration Manager and Unix/Linux: “We have announced that we will add unix/linux management agents to ConfigMgr 2012 - these agents will be delivered after GA. We are aware of the demand for Mac management, but we do not have anything to announce at this time. If you need Mac management today, we have partners like Quest who provide Mac management on the System Center infrastructure.”
Microsoft sees the cloud as great virtualization plus management.
System Center Essentials: “Our primary offering for SMB is System Center Essentials, which isn't impacted by today's announcement. As we move forward with the development of System Center 2012, we remain committed to providing a “right-sized” set of management functionality and tools for IT in the midmarket that makes it easy for these customers to setup and manage Hyper V. Details on our midmarket management strategy will be released in the months ahead.” “We're not yet announcing planned updates to SCE at this time. We'll have more here in the next few months.”
Unified Installer for System Center 2012. “there is a unified installer available in RC as part of this System Center RC. that will allow you to do a clean install of all the System Center 2012 components in one experience.” More information is available at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh751290.aspx

This also has had an impact on the various System Center related MVP groups. To reflect this several of the MVP groups have been consolidated (SCDPM, SCVMM, and SCOM MVPs) into a single new “System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management” MVP group. The links and screenshots showing this are shown below.

https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/MVP.aspx

https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx?product=1&competency=System+Center+Cloud+and+Datacenter+Management

Summary: While I’m no longer an SCOM or OpsMgr MVP – I look forward to being a System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management [SC-CDM] MVP! (And from the list above I’m in good company!)

Do not miss this Web Event: Tuesday Jan 17 2012!

Scott Moss — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:26:54 GMT

If you want to know more about the future direction of the System Center 2012 product line as well as what Microsoft is doing with the private cloud space don’t miss this web event Transforming IT with Microsoft Private Cloud.

Registration link below.

http://www.microsoft.com/business/events/en-us/PrivateCloudExec

Reminder - Virtual Event: Transforming IT with Microsoft Private Cloud

Tommy Gunn — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:16:40 GMT

Big news coming from Microsoft on System Center 2012 and Private Cloud on Jan 17th folks! Don’t miss it!

Registration

Register Now for the virtual event
Tuesday, January 17th
8:30 AM PST | 16:30 UTC
Hear from other senior IT professionals about how cloud computing can help you gain maximum competitive advantage with minimal risk.
Learn about Microsoft cloud offerings, including private, public, and hybrid cloud models.
Experience Microsoft private cloud solutions through the Microsoft Technology Center.

System Center Universe registration has passed the 1000 mark! (#SCOM, #SCCM, #SCVMM, #SCDPM, #SCSM)

Cameron Fuller — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:36:38 GMT

Cool news update, I just received word that System Center Universe (www.systemcenteruniverse.com) has passed the 1000+ registration mark! Let’s make this into the biggest System Center community event ever!

Virtual Event: Transforming IT with Microsoft Private Cloud

Pete Zerger — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:43:39 GMT

Big news coming on Jan 17th folks! Don’t miss it!

Registration

First Look: System Center integration and centralized administration in DPM 2012 Beta

Pete Zerger — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 07:27:32 GMT

I have not always been a fan of DPM. The first two releases I quickly ignored after a brief look. DPM 2010 I interacted with more via the PowerShell interface in implementing various site-to-site scenarios in conjunction with other enterprise backup solutions. But the admin experience was still aggravating at this point.

DPM 2012 is going to be different for me I think. Not in a ‘we can backup all heterogeneous workloads’ sense, but in the sense that the UI and functionality improvements are smart. They deliver efficiencies that begin to bring the DPM experience to a level of parity with some other enterprise backup products.

Data Protection 2012 brings a lot of new functionality and additional features making it a much better fit not only in enterprise environments, but private cloud scenarios. In private cloud, where where a high degree of automation is necessary to ensure adequate protection for self-provisioned resource, be they VM guests provisioned by application owners or Hyper-V hosts provisioned through bare-metal deployment to facilitate scale out. If there is not a datacenter administrator at the helm, we need to ensure resources are monitored and backed up appropriately.

In this post, we’ll have a quick look at UI improvements and System Center integration that delivers centralized administration for DPM 2010 / 2012 across the enterprise, including

My Favorite Improvement
Centralized Management
Other Improvements
Tour of the DPM 2012 UI

My Favorite Improvement

DPM 2012 delivers full integration with Operations Manager 2012, allowing you to use tasks in OpsMgr 2012 to launch targeted remediation actions with a single click. In short, centralized administration and role-based delegation are delivered via the OpsMgr 2012 Operations console. OpsMgr tasks in the DPM 2012 MP provide single click shortcuts that lead you directly to the portion of the DPM console required to perform the necessary administrative task.

I have tested a variety of scenarios and they all seem to work as advertised. A few things I tested included:

Allocation of additional space to a DPM volume that filled up
Automatic resolution of active alerts in OpsMgr when the condition has been corrected
Recovery of a SQL data source in the event of catastrophic failure (I deleted the .mdf and .ldf files)
Alert consolidation (I simulated failure of multiple database backup failures on a single server (due to an MSSQL service failure) and I didn’t get an alert storm from the DPM mgmt pack.

In a future post, I’ll demonstrate some these OpsMgr features in action.

My colleague Mike Resseler demonstrates some of these features in his webcast: DPM 2012: What’s Coming?

Centralized Management

Centralized Monitoring
Remote administration
Remote recovery
Role Based management
Remote corrective actions
Scoped Troubleshooting

Push to Resume Backups
SLA based Alerting : Alert only when SLA violated
Consolidated Alerts ensure one ticket per root cause issue
Alert categorization (e.g – DPM infrastructure alerts are separated from backup failure alerts
Allow admins to automate/extend the base functionality using PowerShell
Management of DPM 2010 and 2012 Servers (or so it seems in my lab)

Other Improvements

Centralized management was just one design pillar in the coming 2012 release. Other improvements on the way include:

Role-based management – You still need admin rights on the DPM box, but you can customize the experience in

Certificate Base Protection – Rather than pass-through authentication, a more palatable solution for security-conscious enterprises

Tape Media Co-location – Now we can co-locate multiple protection groups on a single media set

SharePoint item-level recovery – This received a big upgrade in DPM 2012, as you no longer need a full recovery farm – much faster to restore a single item now.

Virtual DPM Enhancements – We can now perform item-level recovery in Hyper-V even when DPM is running in a

Generic Data Source Protection – This enables DPM to protect about every MS workload (I assume the preference would be that the target app provide a VSS writer, not sure)

Tour of the DPM 2012 UI

DPM 2012 console the same look-and-feel as the other members of the new System Center 2012 family.

	The Monitoring workspace shows the current status of DPM agent/backup jobs, as well as showing any notifications or alerts/errors DPM may receive.
	The Protection workspace is where we configure protection groups and manage protection of data, as well as view the current status of protection group members.
	The Recovery workspace is used to restore data or services.
	The Reporting workspace contains reports for tracking the status of jobs, reviewing disk and tape usage, and monitoring usage trends. Reports can be scheduled and subscribed to via email
	The Management workspace is where DPM configuration takes place The Disks link lets you add or remove disk storage using the DPM 2012 Administrator Console The Libraries link lets you to manage your tape backup library in DPM 2012. Options allows configuration of a number of options, including notifications, alert publishing (for OpsMgr monitoring), end-user recovery (user self-service) and scheduling auto-discovery of new Windows computers on the network. NOTE: I suspect the buttons on the ‘Alert Publishing’ tab are legacy at this point, because the OpsMgr 2012 integration was fully functional before I even noticed they were there.

Have fun, learn System Center! Download System Center 2012 betas at http://microsoft.com/cloud