System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager has new capabilities and changes, which are

outlined here.

Fabric Monitoring
A close integration between System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager and System
Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager introduces System Center cloud monitoring of virtual
layers for private cloud environments. To get this new functionality, use the System Center
2012 Management Pack for System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager Dashboard,
which is imported automatically when you integrate Operations Manager and Virtual Machine
Manager

Fabric Health Dashboard Monitoring the Health of Private Clouds

The Fabric Health Dashboard shows a detailed overview of the health of your private clouds
and the fabric that services those clouds. The dashboard helps you answer questions like
What is the health of my clouds and the fabric serving those clouds?
To view the Fabric Health Dashboard, click Monitoring, and in Cloud Health Dashboard,
click Cloud Health. Select the cloud you want to investigate, and then, in the Tasks pane,
click Fabric Health Dashboard.

Microsoft Monitoring Agent

Microsoft Monitoring Agent is a new agent that replaces the Operations Manager Agent and
combines .NET Application Performance Monitoring (APM) in System Center with the full
functionality of Visual Studio IntelliTrace Collector for gathering full application profiling
traces. Microsoft Monitoring Agent can collect traces on demand or can be left running, which
monitors applications and collects traces continuously. The log contains detailed information
about application failures and performance issues.

Integrating Operations Manager with Development

Processes (DevOps)
Here are two important changes to the DevOps functionality in System Center 2012 R2
Operations Manager:

New Alert Fields of TFS Work Item ID and TFS Work Item Owner
In System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager, you can synchronize Operations Manager
alerts and Team Foundation Server (TFS) work items. When synchronization is enabled, IT
operations can then assign alerts to the engineering team. Assigning an alert to engineering
creates a new work item in TFS. The workflow will track and synchronize any changes that
are made to TFS work items and any associated Operations Manager alerts.
Integration between System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and TFS used the Ticket ID
and Owner fields of the Operations Manager alert to store and display which work item is
associated with an alert and who it is assigned to. Beginning in System Center 2012 R2
Operations Manager, two new alert fields, TFS Work Item ID and TFS Work Item Owner, hold
these values.
These fields are read-only in the Operations Manager console to prevent accidental changes
of the values that are controlled in TFS.

Conversion of Application Performance Monitoring (APM) Performance

Events to IntelliTrace format
This monitoring capability now allows the opening of APM performance events from Visual
Studio IDE as if the performance event was captured during the IntelliTrace historical
debugging session. Tightly integrated with TFS Work Item Synchronization Management
Pack, this capability instantaneously brings generated IntelliTrace logs to TFS work items
assigned to engineering. This can result in streamlining communications between IT
Operations and Development and enriching the development experience with analysis of

root causes of the application failure, reducing the mean time to recovery (MTTR) for the
problems detected by APM.

Support for IPv6

In System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager the Operations console can take IPv6
addresses as input for Network Discovery and display IPv6 addresses in the network-related
views.

Java Application Performance Monitoring

The System Center 2012 Management Pack for Java Application Performance Monitoring lets
you monitor Java application performance and exception events by using Operations
Manager Application Advisor. You can set method and resource timing for performance
events, stack traces for exception events, and set Java specific counters (such as Average
Request Time and Requests Per Second) for events. Additionally, you get Operations
Manager level alerting on Java application server counters.

System Center Advisor

System Center Advisor is an online service that analyzes installations of Microsoft server
software. With the latest preview version of Advisor, you can now view Advisor alerts in the
Operations Manager Operations console.
Advisor collects data from your installations, analyzes it, and generates alerts that identify
potential issues (such as missing security patches) or deviations from identified best
practices with regard to configuration and usage. Advisor also provides both current and
historical views of the configuration of servers in your environment. Ultimately, Advisor
recommendations help you proactively avoid configuration problems, reduce downtime,
improve performance, and resolve issues faster.

UNIX and Linux Monitoring

UNIX and Linux agents for Operations Manager are now based on the Open Management
Infrastructure (OMI) open-source CIM Object Manager.

New Monitoring Capabilities

Monitoring Windows Services Built on the .NET Framework
One of the most commonly requested features that was present in AVIcode, but not yet reimplemented in System Center 2012 Operations Manager was the ability to monitor
WindowsServices, not just IIS-hosted applications. This is now possible again, and integrated
into the APM template.

Automatic Discovery of ASP.NET MVC3 and MVC4 Applications

If the application contains System.Web.Mvc.dll in the /bin subfolder, it is now automatically

discovered as an ASP.NET Web Application without the need to use the overrides that were
documented in the APM.WEB.IIS7.mp Guide.

360 .NET Application Monitoring Dashboards

System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) - Operations Manager can show you different
perspectives of application health in one place360 .NET Application Monitoring
Dashboards. The 360 .NET Application Monitoring Dashboards display information from
Global Service Monitor, .NET Application Performance Monitoring, and Web Application
Availability Monitoring to provide a summary of health and key metrics for 3-tier applications
in a single view. The 360 .NET Application Monitoring Dashboards show where an application
is unhealthy and provide a launch point for detail dashboards that highlight component-level
issues.
Key application metric or action

Type of monitoring used

Availability

Web Application Availability Monitoring

Reliability
Performance
Diagnostics
Resolution

and Global Service Monitor

.NET Application Performance
Monitoring
.NET Application Performance
Monitoring and Global Service Monitor
.NET Application Performance
Monitoring
The Team Foundation Server (TFS)
Connector management pack takes an
alert, assigns it to development in TFS
with all appropriate detail

Improved Experience
Web Console
Operations Manager introduces a new web console that is optimized for faster load times and
provides you with access to the new IT pro dashboards.

Dashboard Views
Operations Manager includes new comprehensive dashboard views that combine multiple
panels of information into a single view. In Operations Manager, you can add the new
dashboard views to My Workspace and the Monitoring workspace.

Creating Dashboard Views

Dashboard views have been significantly upgraded in Operations Manager from their
capabilities in System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2, including custom layouts and
nested dashboard views.

Display Dashboard Views in SharePoint

The Operations Manager web part displays specified dashboard views and can be added to
Microsoft SharePoint 2010 sites. For more information, see Add a Dashboard to a SharePoint
Site.

SystemCenter2012-Orchestrator Replaces MicrosoftDevelopedConnector Functionality

Connectors developed by Microsoft have been discontinued for System Center 2012
Operations Manager and their functionality has been replaced by System Center 2012 Orchestrator.

Operations Manager Module for Windows PowerShell

Operations Manager provides a Windows PowerShell 2.0 module containing a full set of new
cmdlets. The cmdlets in this module are only compatible with Operations Manager. You can
recognize the Operations Manager cmdlets by the "SC" preceding the noun. For additional
information about the Operations Manager cmdlets, open the Operations Manager command
shell and type Get-Help about_OpsMgr_WhatsNew. For information about how the
Operations Manager 2007 cmdlets map to the Operations Manager cmdlets, type Get-Help
about_OpsMgr_Cmdlet_Names.

Management Server
Disk space: %SYSTEMDRIVE% requires at least 1024 MB free hard disk space.
Server Operating System: must be Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012,
Windows Server 2012 Core Installation, or Windows Server 2012 R2.
Processor Architecture: must be x64.
Windows PowerShell version: Windows PowerShell version 2.0, Windows PowerShell version
3.0, or Windows PowerShell version 4.0.
Windows Remote Management: Windows Remote Management must be enabled for the
management server.

NET Framework 4 or .NET Framework 4.5 is required.

Operations Console
Microsoft Report Viewer 2012 Redistributable Package
Disk space: %SYSTEMDRIVE% requires at least 512 MB free hard disk space.
File system: %SYSTEMDRIVE% must be formatted with the NTFS file system.
Server Operating System: must be Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1,
Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2012 R2.
Processor Architecture: must be x64 for servers and x64 or x86 for a client computer.
Windows Installer version: at least Windows Installer 3.1.
Windows PowerShell version: Windows PowerShell version 2.0. Windows PowerShell version
3.0 is required

Web Console
Operating System: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server
2012 R2.
Processor Architecture: must be x64.
Web browsers: Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 9, Internet Explorer 10, Internet Explorer
11, Silverlight 5.0
Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5 and later versions, with the IIS Management Console
and the following role services installed:
Static Content ,Default Document ,Directory Browsing ,HTTP Errors ,HTTP Logging ,Web
Server (IIS) Support ,IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility ,ASP.NET (both the 2.0 and 4.0 versions of
ASP.NET are required.)
Windows Authentication
Selected website for web console: requires a configured http or https binding.

Operational Database
Disk space: The operational database must have at least 1024 MB free disk space. This is
enforced at the time of database creation, and it will likely grow significantly. For information
about SQL Server Planning, see Installing SQL Server 2008 R2 or Install SQL Server 2012.
File system: %SYSTEMDRIVE% must be formatted with the NTFS file system. Operating
System: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 Core
Installation or Windows Server 2012 R2. Processor Architecture: x64. Windows Installer
version: at least Windows Installer 3.1.
Microsoft SQL Server: SQL Server SQL 2008 R2 SP1, SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2, SQL Server
2012, SQL Server 2012 SP1. SQL Server Full Text Search is required. .NET Framework 4 is
required.

Microsoft Monitoring Agent Windows-Based Computers

File system: %SYSTEMDRIVE% must be formatted with the NTFS file system.
Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows
Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server
2012 R2, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition SP2, Windows XP Professional SP3, Windows
Vista SP2, Windows 7, POSReady, Windows XP Embedded Standard, Windows XP Embedded
Enterprise, Windows XP Embedded POSReady, Windows 7 Professional for Embedded
Systems, Windows 7 Ultimate for Embedded Systems, Windows 8 Pro or Windows 8
Enterprise.
Processor Architectures: x64 or x86. Windows PowerShell version: Windows PowerShell
version 2.0, or Windows PowerShell version 3.0.

Operations Manager Reporting

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Disk space: The %SYSTEMDRIVE% requires at least 1024 MB free hard disk space.
Operating System: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server
2012 Core Installation or Windows Server 2012 R2. Processor Architecture: x64. Microsoft
SQL Server: SQL Server SQL 2008 R2 SP1, SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2, SQL Server 2012, SQL
Server 2012 SP1.
The Remote Registry service must be enabled and started.
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services: SQL Server SQL 2008 R2 SP1, SQL Server 2008
R2 SP2, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2012 SP1.
System Center 2012 Operations Manager supports SQL Server Reporting Services in
native mode only; do not use SharePoint integrated mode.

Operations Manager Data Warehouse

Disk space: The data warehouse database must have at least 1024 MB free hard disk
space. This is enforced at the time of database creation, and the required disk space will
likely grow
File system: %SYSTEMDRIVE% must be formatted with the NTFS file system. Operating
System: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 Core
Installation or Windows Server 2012 R2. Windows Installer version: at least Windows
Installer 3.1. Microsoft SQL Server: SQL Server SQL 2008 R2 SP1, SQL Server 2008 R2
SP2, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2012 SP1. SQL Server Full Text Search is required.
.NET Framework 4 is required for Setup to run

Application Performance Monitoring Requirements

To view Application Performance Monitoring event details, you must install the Operations
Manager web console. For more information, see How to Install the Operations Manager Web
Console.
Application Performance Monitoring requires the following software on the agent:
.NET Framework 3.5, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, .NET Framework 4, or .NET Framework
4.5.
Applicatoin monitoring build on .NET Framework 2.0 is supported, but the computer must
have .NET Framework 3.5 installed for some parts of the agent to work correctly.
Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 or Internet Information Services (IIS) 8.0.
Application monitoring on a Microsoft Failover IIS configuration is not supported. However,
application monitoring using load balancing is supported instead.
ISAPI and CGI Restrictions in IIS be enabled for ASP.NET 4.0. To enable this, select the
web server in IIS Manager, and then double-click ISAPI and CGI Restrictions. Select
ASP.NET v4.0.30319, and then click Allow.
Additionally, you must start the SQL Server Agent service and set the startup type to
automatic. This only refers to the SQL instance where SQL Reporting Services is installed to
run report subscriptions.

Pre-Upgrade Tasks When Upgrading to

System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager

Perform the following pre-upgrade tasks in the order presented before you begin the upgrade
process.
1. Review the Operations Manager Event Logs
2. Cleanup the Database (ETL Table)
3. Remove Agents from Pending Management
4. Disable the Notification Subscriptions

5. Stop the Services or Disable any Connectors

6. Verify that the Operational Database Has More Than 50 Percent Free Space
7. Back up the Operations Manager Databases
Unified Installer is a utility designed to perform new, clean installations of System Center
2012 for testing and evaluation purposes only. If you want to upgrade from an existing
System Center installation or choose any set up options such as high availability or multiserver component installs, we recommend you refer instead to the procedures detailed in the
deployment guides for each individual System Center 2012 component.

RMS Removal and the New RMS Emulator

In Operations Manager, the single largest change impacting design and planning is the
removal of the root management server (RMS). All management servers are peers now that
there is no RMS. Therefore, the RMS is no longer a single point of failure as all management
servers host the services previously hosted only by the RMS. Roles are distributed to all the
management servers. If one management server becomes unavailable, its responsibilities
are automatically redistributed. An RMS emulator role provides for backwards compatibility
for management packs targeting the RMS. If you do not have any management packs that
previously targeted the RMS, you will not need to make use of the RMS Emulator.

Account

Description

Permissions

Management server
action account

This account is used to

carry out actions on
monitored computers
across a network
connection.

System Center
Configuration service and
System Center Data
Access service account

This account is one set of

credentials that is used to
update and read
information in the
operational database.
Operations Manager
ensures

Data Warehouse Write

account

The Data Warehouse

Write account writes data
from the management
server to the Reporting
data warehouse and
reads data from the
operational database.

To save time, specify a

domain-based account.
We recommend that you
create an account for this
purpose that has local
administrative
credentials. You should
not use an account that
has domain
administrative
credentials.
This account can be
configured as either Local
System or as a domain
account. The account
must have local
administrative
credentials. For cases
where the
This account is assigned
write permissions on the
Data Warehouse
database and read
permissions on the
operational database.
Note
Ensure that the account
you plan to use for the
Data Warehouse Write
account has SQL Server
Logon rights and has
logon rights for the
computers hosting both

Data Reader account

The Data Reader account

is used to define which
account credentials SQL
Server Reporting Services
uses to run queries
against the Operations
Manager reporting data
warehouse.

the operational database

and the reporting data
warehouse. Otherwise,
Setup fails, and all
changes are rolled back.
This might leave SQL
Server Reporting Services
in an inoperable state.
The account should be
configured as a domain
account.

Role-Based Security Accounts and Groups

Operations Manager controls access to monitored groups, tasks, views, and administrative
functions through the assignment of user accounts to roles. A role in Operations Manager is
the combination of a profile type (operator, advanced operator, administrator) and a scope
(what data the role has access to). Typically, Active Directory security groups are assigned to
roles, and then individual accounts are assigned to those groups. Prior to deploying, plan out
Active Directory security groups that can be added to these and any custom-created roles so
that you can then add individual user accounts to the security groups.
A Run As Account is an object that is created in Operations Manager, just like a recipient is,
and maps to an Active Directory user account. A Run As Profile is then used that maps the
Run As Account to a specific computer. When a rule, task, or monitor that has been
associated with a Run As Profile at the development time of a management pack needs to
run on the targeted computer, it does so by using the specified Run As Account.
Ongoing Management
Ongoing management of an agent requires that the TCP 135 (RPC), RPC range, and TCP 445
(SMB) ports remain open and that the SMB service remains enabled.
Action Accounts
The Operations Manager management server, gateway server, and agent, all contain a
process called MonitoringHost.exe. MonitoringHost.exe is used to accomplish monitoring
activities, such as running a monitor or a task. For example, when an agent subscribes to the
event log to read events, it is the MonitoringHost.exe process that runs those activities. The
account that a MonitoringHost.exe process runs as is called the action account. The action
account for the MonitoringHost.exe process that is running on an agent is called the agent
action account. The action account used by the MonitoringHost.exe process on a
management server is called the management server action account. The action account
used by the MonitoringHost.exe process on a gateway server is called the gateway server
action account.
When you validate or change the default action account, you must ensure that the account
you are using for your default Action Account is configured to be a Role member of the
ConfigServiceMonitoringUsersdatabase role. 1. On the server that hosts the operational
database, open SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the local server.
2. Expand Databases, and then expand the operational database, which by default is
OperationsManager.

3. Expand Security, then Roles, and then Database Roles.

4. Verify that the ConfigServiceMonitoringUsersrole is listed.
5. If this role is not listed, you can right-click Database Roles to add it.

Service Accounts
The set of credentials of the System Center Configuration service and System Center Data
Access service account is used by the System Center Data Access service and System Center
Management Configuration service to update and read information in the operational
database. Operations Manager ensures that the credentials used for the Data Access
Services (DAS) service account are assigned to the Sdk_user role in the operational
database.
Data Reader Account
This account is used to deploy reports, define what user the SQL Server Reporting Services
uses to run queries against the Reporting data warehouse, and for the SQL Server Reporting
ServicesIIS Application Pool account to connect to the management server. This account is
added to the Report Administrator User profile.
Use the following procedure to make an Operations Manager agent a member of multiple
management groups, also referred to as multihoming.
Classes
In Operations Manager, a class is a definition of an item that can be discovered and
managed. A class can represent a computer, a database, a service, a disk, an application, or
any other kind of object that requires monitoring. Monitors, rules, discoveries, overrides, and
tasks can apply to a class. For example, Windows Server 2003 Logical Disk is a class that
defines logical disks on a computer that is running the Windows Server 2003 operating
system. A monitor that applies to the Windows Server 2003 Logical Disk class will be
applied only to objects that meet that class
Groups
In Operations Manager, a group is a logical set of objects that can be used to define the
scope of overrides, views, user roles, and notifications. Some groups are provided in the
Operations Manager installation, such as All Windows Computers group and Agent
Managed Computer Group. You can create your own groups and add members to groups
explicitly or dynamically

Monitors

A monitor measures the health of some aspect of a managed object. There are three kinds of
monitors as shown in the following table:

Health State
Monitors each have either two or three health states. A monitor will be in one and only one of
its potential states at any given time. When a monitor loaded by the agent, it is initialized to
a healthy state. The state will change only if the specified conditions for another state are
detected.
The overall health of a particular object is determined from the health of each of its monitors.
This will be a combination of monitors targeted directly at the object, monitors target at
objects rolling up to the object through a dependency monitor, dependency monitors
targeted at those objects, and so on. This hierarchy is illustrated in the Health Explorer of the
Operations console. The policy for how health is rolled up is part of the configuration of the
aggregate and dependency monitors.

When you create a monitor, you must specify a condition for each of its health states. When
one of those conditions is met, the monitor changes to that state. Each of the conditions
must be unique such that only one can be true at a particular time. When a monitor changes
to a Warning or Critical state, then it can optionally generate an alert. When it changes to a
Healthy state, then any previously generated alert can optionally be automatically resolved.

Types of MonitorsMonitor

Description

Unit Monitors

Measures some aspect of the

application. This might be checking a
performance counter to determine the
performance of the application, running
a script to perform a synthetic
transaction, or watch for an event that
indicates an error. Classes will typically
have multiple unit monitors targeted at
them to test different features of the
application and to monitor for different
problems.
Provides health rollup between different
classes. This allows the health of an
object to depend on the health of
another kind of object that it relies on
for successful operation.
Provides a combined health state for
similar monitors. Unit and dependency
monitors will typically be configured
under a particular aggregate monitor. In
addition to providing better general
organization of the many different
monitors targeted at a particular class

Dependency Monitors

Aggregate Monitors

aggregate monitors provide a

unique health
Monitor

Description

state for different categories of the class.

When the term monitor is alone, it typically refers to a unit monitor. Aggregate and
dependency monitors will typically be referred to with their full name.
The following diagram shows an example of the Health Explorer for the Windows Server
class. This shows the use of the different kinds of monitors contributing to an overall health
state.
Sample Health Explorer

Rules

Rules do not affect the health state of

the target object. They are used for one
of three functions as described in the
following table: Monitor
Alerting Rules

Description

Alerting rules create an alert when a

particular event is detected. This can
be any of the different kinds of events
shown in Data Sources. Alerting rules
do not affect health state.

Rules
Rules do not affect the health state of the target object. They are used for one of three
functions as described in the following table

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Note Monitor
Alerting Rules

Monitor
Collection Rules

Command Rules

Description

Alerting rules create an alert when a

particular event is detected. This can
be any of the different kinds of events
shown in Data Sources. Alerting rules
do not affect health state.
Description
Collection rules collect events or
performance data to the Operations
Manager database and data
warehouse. They do not create alerts or
set health state.
Collection rules can use each of the
data sources shown in Data Sources.
The data will be converted to either an
event or to performance data
depending on the particular kind of
collection rule you are creating. For
some wizards, you will need to provide
the specific information from the data
source that will be used for different
properties of the data being collected.
Command rules will run a script or
command on a schedule. They do not
create alerts or collect any data.

Should you create a monitor or a rule?

Unit monitors and rules in Operations Manager are similar. They are both workflows that run
on an agent, they both can generate an alert when a particular condition is met, and they
both use a similar set of data sources to detect these conditions. As a result, it can be
difficult to determine if you want to create a monitor or rule for a particular scenario.
Use the following criteria to determine which one to create for different conditions.

Create a monitor if

You want to affect the health of an object. In addition to generating an alert, a monitor
will affect the health state of its target object. This is displayed in state views and availability
reports.
You want to automatically resolve an alert when the error condition has been cleared. An
alert from a rule cannot be automatically cleared since a rule has no way of detecting that
the problem has been resolved. A monitor can detect that the problem has been resolved
when the condition for its healthy state is met, and the alert can automatically be resolved.
You are creating an alert based on a performance threshold. There are no rules available
to generate an alert from a performance threshold. A monitor should be used for this
scenario anyway since you can use the condition where the performance counter is under
the defined threshold.
You have a condition that requires more complex logic than is possible with rules. The
Operations console provides a variety of options for setting the health state of a monitor
butonly simple detection for a rule. If you need more complex logic for a rule but dont have
a method to detect the monitors healthy state, then you can create a monitor using Manual
or Timer reset.

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Create a Rule if

You want to collect performance counters or events for analysis and reporting. Monitors
only collect this information when it initiates a change in health state. If you want to collect
the information you need to create a collection rule.
If you want to both collect a performance counter and set a threshold for it to set a health
state, then create both a rule and a monitor using the same performance counter.
You want to generate an alert that is not related to health state of an object.

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