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Overview of System Center 2007 Operations Manager
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 is a legacy network management solution that monitors the availability, throughput, and security of your IT system by proactively identifying problems and trends taking place on critical computers throughout your entire environment.

System Center Operations Manager 2007 operates by automatically examining event logs from designated servers, then filtering, consolidating, and analyzing these network events based on a comprehensive built-in knowledge base. When SCOM 2007 detects trouble or a possibly damaging tendency, it can execute special repair scripts or generate alerts to warn designated IT people. For example, SCOM 2007 could automatically take off line an infected server to stop the spread of a detected virus. SCOM 2007 also generates trend data so you can monitor the health of your information system and make sure that alarms have been appropriately resolved.

SCOM 2007 incorporates important improvements over Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 including rich new reports and a simple to modify reporting environment, plus minimization of false alarms via new expert tracking parameters that learn and adjust alerting triggers to the normal production operation of programs and hardware. SCOM 2007 also introduces model-based management. By defining the network setup as models, SCOM 2007 can better learn the relationships between the various software and hardware that represent your information technology services. These models, profiled in the System Definition Model (SDM) that is the foundation for the industry standard Services Modeling Language (SML), allow for more fine-grained detection of network components and the ability to monitor not just the servers but the whole end-to-end service as a unique object.

Progent's Microsoft-certified support team provides network help and information technology expertise for System Center 2007 Operations Manager (SCOM 2007) and for the wealth of Management Packs that extend the power of SCOM 2007 to a broad range of mission-critical applications. Progent can help you get the most from Microsoft Operations Manager by offering requirements analysis, deployment, configuration, customization, local and remote technical consulting and troubleshooting, Help Desk services, security consulting, and outsourced services for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.

Note:
SCOM 2007 has reached end-of-life status. Progent continues to offer support for SCOM 2007 but recommends that you upgrade to a current version of Systems Center Operations Manager. Progent can help you plan and carry out an efficient migration from SCOM 2007 to an up-to-date version of System Center Operations Manager. For information about Progent's planning and support services for current versions of SCOM, see SCOM consulting services.

System Center Operations Manager Management Packs
Management Packs are the building blocks which bring SCOM management capabilities to operating systems, applications, and services. A Management Pack (MP) includes best practice expertise to discover, monitor, analyze, store, and resolve problems for a specific network component. SCOM Management Packs contain health models based on the Systems Definition Model (SDM) to analyze the performance, reliability, configuration and security data, as well as the health of related components, to decide the overall condition of monitored objects. Management Packs are available for Microsoft and third-party technology.

Microsoft has created System Center Operations Manager Management Packs for many dozens of Microsoft products and software components. Microsoft's MPs are written by the same teams who built the products so the experience and information included comes from the most knowledgeable authority. Microsoft SCOM 2007 MPs are offered at no extra cost to licensed users of SCOM 2007. MPs available from Microsoft and supported by Progent include:

• Windows 2008 Group Policy
• Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
• Microsoft Active Directory (AD)
• Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2003, Exchange 2000
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000
• SharePoint Server
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server
• MS Virtual Server
• Microsoft Network Load Balancing
• Windows Computer Cluster Server 2003
• Microsoft Internet Information Services 2003 and 2000
• Host Integration Server (HIS)
• MS Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 and ISA Server 2004
• Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005
• Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS)
• MS .NET Framework
• Microsoft Windows XP OS for PCs
• Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 and 2000
• Microsoft DHCP Service
• MS Message Queuing
• MS Windows Domain Name Server (DNS) Service
• File Replication Services (FRS) 2003 and 2000
• Windows Internet Name Services 2003
• Windows Routing and Remote Access
• SNA Server 4.0
• MS Distributed Transaction Coordinator
• Terminal Services 2003 and 2000
• MS Transaction Server (MTS)
• Microsoft Site Server
• MS Application Center 2000
• BlackBerry Enterprise Server

Third-party and Custom MS Operations Manager 2007 Management Packs
There are System Center Operations Manager 2007 MPs available for many non-Microsoft products including Linux, Oracle, and SAP, and for a variety of network hardware. There are over 100 Microsoft Partner Management Packs created for the majority of technologies utilized by IT organizations today.

Microsoft has published a number of tools for developing or modifying Management Packs for SCOM 2007. The Distributed Application Designer is a graphical wizard for helping network administrators to produce performance profiles and MPs for their IT Services. Microsoft's Management Pack Authoring Console is a graphical tool used to help network administrators and programmers to create MPs for their specialized business programs and other network components. The SCOM 2007 SDK provides software interfaces so programmers can more deeply control and regulate Microsoft Operations Manager 2007.

Benefits of Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007
Microsoft Operations Manager 2007 increases the availability of mission-critical servers by automatically detecting and helping to resolve problems before they can crash a network. For an example of how SCOM 2007 has benefited a business, read the MS Operations Manager Case Study.

SCOM 2007 can optimize network performance by monitoring specified performance criteria and usage patterns on critical servers, allowing network support personnel to be more proactive in adding performance-related products and to eliminate problem areas before they cause significant network bottlenecks.

SCOM 2007 reduces IT staffing costs by streamlining the procedures of network management. Because SCOM 2007 can efficiently monitor and consolidate enormous amounts of information gathered from many servers, fewer system managers are needed to take care of operations. In addition, the ability of SCOM 2007 to perform without human intervention in response to alerts makes it feasible to design expert scripts that can take sophisticated corrective actions which would otherwise call for the manual intervention of technical staff.

By automatically creating alarms and sending them to predetermined IT personnel, System Center Operations Manager 2007 makes it easier for support groups to meet SLAs. SCOM 2007's Knowledge Base helps resolve problems faster, and SCOM 2007's reports make sure that job tickets don't fall through the cracks. Automatic 24x7 monitoring and alarm generation also allows businesses to allocate their IT staff more efficiently so that more tasks can be accomplished without compromising system support.

In a nutshell, Microsoft System Center 2007 Operations Manager offers small and midsize businesses the benefits of 24x7 system monitoring plus expertise in problem resolution without having to pay for a large, in-house service group.

How Progent Can Show You How to Get the Most from System Center Operations Manager
Setting up System Center Operations Manager's sophisticated monitoring software can be challenging. With more two decades of background with Operations Manager technology, Progent's network support engineers can help you to select appropriate SCOM 2007 features, deploy and set up SCOM 2007, and write custom rules, procedures, reports, and alerts for your business. Progent can also document SCOM 2007's application monitoring rules and protocols. Progent can also help you plan and carry out a smooth System Center 2016 Operations Manager migration from SCOM 2007.

For technical problems detected by Operations Manager, you can outsource problem response to Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting experts. With years of network support background, these IT professionals have the know-how to respond effectively to the data produced by System Center Operations Manager to keep business-critical systems running smoothly. By analyzing trend reports and responding appropriately to alerts, Progent can eliminate incipient problems before they result in downtime and fix critical problems immediately after they appear. In the majority of instances, Progent can solve problems remotely, saving time and money. For serious problems requiring onsite service, Progent can promptly send a service consultant to the site of any small or medium-size company in the or in select locations nationally.

To learn additional information about System Center Operations Manager and how Progent can enable your small or midsize business achieve enterprise-class IT support by deploying this powerful platform, pick one of these topics:

• Progent's Network Monitoring Packages based on Microsoft Operations Manager
• System Center Operations Manager in Practice: A Case Study