Why to upgrade from MOM 2005 to SCOM 2007?

I was also wondering about this, why to upgrade if we are on MOM 2005. Lemme share my understanding with all of you. There are a lot of additional features that will reduce the effort and the time taken for configuration and administration of the IT infrastructure. Few features which i found interesting are:
1) Command Shell to automate the routine tasks. Windows Powershell is integrated along with the product that helps our life easier.
2) Client Monitoring is supported in SCOM 2007. It also supports Agentless Exception Monitoring which does not require an agent to sit on the client machine but instead will route the alerts to the SCOM server instead of sending it to MS.
3) One of the great features in that the Management Packs are in the XML format and in case we need to create our own MP we can and also we can customize the existing MP accordingly.
4) Audit Collection was one of the difficult task which is now done by ACS in SCOM 2007. Here it captures all the security event logs that helps us in analysing.
5) We can have our own threshold level set for various performance data. Both min and max threshold can be set in this case.
6) Reporting was also there in MOM 2005 but in SCOM2007 reporting is one of the main value add. It provides a variety of reports according to the customer needs and also customization can be done in this case. The data is collected from the Data Warehouse Server.
7) Two additional server roles Gateway Server and Root Management Server which helps in easier administration.
8) Connected Management Group. In MOM 2005 it was the data replication that happens between the two Management Server. Hence there are lot of duplication of tasks and the bandwidth and the resource used for data replication is high. In SCOM 2007 we are having a concept of connector framework where the 2 or more Management Servers will be connected using the connectors and the alerts, events, configurations etc can be viewed from a single console.
9) Another feature that is avail in SCOM 2007 is Role Based Security. Three roles: Administrator, Author and Operator, will have seperate access according to the options set. All the three roles can access a single console but the options are different.
10) SCOM 2007 provides a Consolidated console that helps in managing, monitoring and administering everything in IT from one place. It also provides various methods of alerting in case of outages.
11) AD integration has gone to such an extend in SCOM 2007 that the agent installation on the clients are much simpler than before.

There are many more advantages and will be listed out one by one on the later blogs... So now its time to upgrade to SCOM 2007 and make sure that our IT Infrastructure is safe...

Bangalore IT Pro 3rd Anniversary

Feb 23rd 08 was the day, we had the biggest event of BIT Pro UG... Around 150 odd users came for the event and it was a grand success. We had technical sessions on Unified Communications by Harpreet Rooprai, Windows Vista by Mr. Aresh Sarkari, Exchange 2007 by Mr. Mohammed Ismail and i took a session on SCOM 2007. I covered the advantages of upgrading to SCOM 2007 from MOM 2005 and the additional features. Also the focus of Microsoft IT on the development of the product. Explained the server roles that SCOM can have and its functions. A yummy lunch was also provided and we had sessions by different sponsors also. We had given away few goodies and also the Hall of Fame certificate to all the contributors. It was a grand event and expecting to do such successful event in the future.

What is System Center Essentials 2007....

System Center Essentials is mainly concentrating on mid sized business or Small Business organistaion. It provides a unified experience with proactive management and also increased efficiency. It can be said as a grouping of some features of SCOM2007 and SCCM2007. SCE 2007 supports upto 30 servers and 500 clients. It has support for MSI and non-MSI products. Update Management, Software Inventory and updation, Hardware invertory, Monitoring are some features provided by SCE 2007. It provides enumerous amount of reports with all the required data. Perform remote task from our console. SCE 2007 supports Network Devices also using SNMP.

Session on System Center Essential 2007 on 5th Jan 08

I had taken a session on system center essentials 2007 for a group of 20 users in my UG on 5th Jan 08 from Microsoft building Domlur... The session went well and was very interactive... A couple of queries were asked and received feedback on the product and the session...

Microsoft System Center is a software product which helps Companies IT infrastructure guys to maintain the infrastructure efficiently.SCE helps in monitoring,troubleshooting and Asset Tracking. Using the System Center family of solutions, you can connect your organization’s people, processes, and tools across your development and operating environments. As a result, you can optimize your IT infrastructure and more effectively and easily manage all of its components.

System Center Solutions

Microsoft System Center—A Family of Leading IT Management Solutions

Enterprise IT departments need solutions that support performance and availability monitoring, software updates and deployment, data storage and recovery, IT reporting, and problem, capacity, and operations management. The System Center family encompasses leading IT management solutions that accommodate all of these needs.

System Center Operations ManagerMicrosoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 (formerly known as Microsoft Operations Manager), affords you a comprehensive, overall view of the health of your IT environment. Track thousands of event and performance monitors across hundreds of operating systems and applications. In addition, get best-of-breed, end-to-end service management for the Windows platform and access to more than 50 management packs for various Microsoft software applications. Finally, automate routine, redundant tasks to increase efficiency and enable greater control of your IT environment.

System Center Configuration ManagerMicrosoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (formerly known as Microsoft System Management Server) drives IT productivity and efficiency by reducing manual tasks and enabling you to focus on high-value projects, maximize hardware and software investments, and empower end-user productivity with the right software at the right time. Configuration Manager contributes to a more effective IT department by enabling secure and scalable operating system and application deployment and desired configuration management, enhancing system security, and providing comprehensive asset management of servers, desktops, and mobile devices.

System Center Data Protection ManagerMicrosoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2006 optimizes and speeds disk-based backup and recovery, delivers consistent data protection, and increases your IT organization’s operational efficiencies. For example, recover information quickly by copying content from a production server and speed data recovery with always-accessible disks. Data Protection Manager also supports near-continuous data protection with centralized backup of branch offices and backup enhancements within the data center. Finally, help lower the total cost of your data-protection environment by consolidating backup efforts at the data center, empowering end users to perform their own recoveries, and implementing out-of-the-box reporting and monitoring functionality.

System Center EssentialsMicrosoft System Center Essentials 2007 is a proactive, unified management solution that enables IT professionals in your midsize organization to more efficiently secure, update, monitor, and troubleshoot your IT environments. Essentials 2007 provides a unified solution to help optimize a broad set of tasks across your entire IT environment and a single console from which you can view and manage all of your servers, clients, hardware, software, and IT services. In addition, Essentials 2007 helps you proactively monitor your IT environment, simplifies complex management tasks, and automates system updates and data collection for your IT environment. The end result is a more efficient, secure, and up-to-date IT environment.

System Center Virtual Machine ManagerMicrosoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 is a stand-alone management application for a virtual data center. Virtual Machine Manager increases use of your physical server, allows you to centrally and virtually manage your infrastructure, and lets both administrators and end users rapidly provision new virtual machines.

System Center Capacity PlannerMicrosoft System Center Capacity Planner 2006 is a predeployment, capacity-planning solution that provides best-practice guidance, hardware-specific knowledge, and "what if" scenario planning. For example, with Capacity Planner you can make solid architecture decisions as you plan to deploy Exchange Server 2003 or Operations Manager, plan ahead for IT purchases, and receive automated reports to proactively manage current and future performance issues.

Why System Centre?

I was thinking about for past few days what is there in system center that will help an IT Pro guy to make his work easy... Let me tell what system center gives you.

A start to System Center:
Microsoft System Center plays a central role in the Microsoft vision to help IT organizations benefit from self-managing, dynamic systems. System Center solutions capture and aggregate knowledge about your infrastructure, policies, processes, and best practices so your IT staff can build manageable systems and automate operations in order to reduce costs, improve application availability, and enhance service delivery.
System Center solutions are tuned to simplify management of the systems and applications your company already has implemented, including Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, the Microsoft Office system, and the Microsoft .NET Framework. In addition, System Center solutions interoperate with third-party management tools so you can make the most of your existing investments and build on the System Center foundation with confidence. Already used by the majority of Fortune 500 companies, System Center solutions provide the reliability, scalability, and security required to manage the most mission-critical IT systems, applications, and services.
With an aim to enable self-managing dynamic systems, System Center solutions close the gap between development, operations, and IT by evaluating dependencies and optimizing business process performance from deep inside the operating system, applications, and composite services and workflows. These solutions also provide comprehensive management of physical and virtual environments, resulting in improved efficiencies and better control.

My Intro

Hi folks... Myself Jijin shortly named as Jij... I am an Event Manager for BangaloreIT Pro User Group... I work for Wipro Infotech as an Lead for Monitoring Service. I handle a team of 9 members and one of the toughest team of the organisation who are always are on the fire... As part of the Bangalore IT Pro i manage the User group events which is conducted on a monthly basis... We are having our 3rd year of anniversary on 23rd Feb 2008... Our group is a nonprofit organisation mainly for the support of all the itpro users in bangalore... I am certified with CCNP - Switching, CCNA and MCP. Total of 3+ years experience and one year as faculty. I had worked on various platforms.... Was concentrating on VLSI in the start... Then moved on to Networking... Then to server also a bit of Security during the faculty tenure... After that i moved as an Helpdesk engineer supporting Windows platform... Now currently into management and a bit of technical on MOM and other monitoring platforms...