Book Review: Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Field Guide

This book operates on a different paradigm from any other book yet published on MS Operations Manager 2005 in that is doesn't waste a single breathe on the basics. The authors assume you have the functional aspects of MOM securely in hand before you turn the first page. If you don't know a management server from agent-managed server, put this book down and move on. No space is wasted on this obvious in this guide. The value here obvious….best practices from experts with vast experience in the field. So if you're already grounded in the essentials, this book is an excellent desk reference for an enterprise administrator, as they address the topics I so frequently see in the newsgroups (and my inbox). I think the author's train of thought was spot on in their choice of subject matter, and this is the first book on MOM where I found myself wanting to add a comment here, a SQL statement there just to add my two cents J Attention is given to often overlooked planning tasks, such as the process for estimating expected volume of collected data, as well as a walkthrough of the System Center Capacity Planner, the preferred tool for modeling enterprise MOM deployments…The guys dig into all manner of topologies, supported configurations, capacity limits, etc…but it's really coverage of the configuration details that makes this book worth the price. I'll point out a few observations here. SNMP - For heterogeneous environments, the guide offers excellent coverage of the SNMP configuration process, allowing MOM to receive and process SNMP traps from non-Windows hosts (Something that is currently only addressed in a short community KB article). Events and Alerts – Good overage of event rule creation, with details on event parameters. Good chapter on rule tuning as well. Management Packs – While the book doesn't go into details of management pack configuration (this is after all documented at length in the MP guides), the guys do point out some common gotchas with AD, Exchange and IIS MPs. Here again, the value-add is in best practices for MP deployment and tuning via a sandbox environment. DTS - A short chapter is dedicated to the DTS Package, with succinct and relevant coverage of how the data flows, how the package is constructed, and how to dig your way out after extended failures…well done, gentlemen. MCF – The chapter on multi-tiered management group scenarios is possibly the best in the book. This chapter is exceptionally well structured, and walks through the configuration process for a multi-tiered environment in great detail, as well as some great troubleshooting bits. Few engineers on the planet have more experience in this area than Andy Dominey…I am guessing he wrote this chapter. If you're deploying a tiered management group topology, this chapter is a must-read. Troubleshooting – There are separate chapters on troubleshooting and troubleshooting scripts. The script troubleshooting is especially good. If you're not familiar with the ResponseTest utility or unfamiliar with remote debugging with Visual Studio, you'll find this chapter particularly informative. Scripting - No coverage of scripting per se, just troubleshooting. For scripting guidance, see the 4-part "Scripting MOM "series by Brian Wren, available on the Microsoft website. There are plenty of sample scripts on the MS site and mine ( www.momresources.org) to get anyone started. Security – There is also a chapter dedicated to security. The authors offer security recommendations for accounts on all services. Excellent guidance I don't think you'll find in the online MS documentation. Concepts of mutual authentication and proxying – both common points of confusion, are also given due attention. Reporting - Reporting coverage over 2 chapters is good. There's a nice example on how to use an existing report as a template, so to speak. This requires some Visual Studio experience, but a decent starter guide. Hit the Microsoft MSDN site for the SQL 2005 step-by-step report creation tutorials as well for some additional grounding in the basic concepts. No book is all things to all people, but all in all, if you're an experienced MOM administrator with more to do than care for MOM, this is a great book to have on the shelf a troubleshooting reference. Although if you're not already grounded in MOM 2005 concepts, I'd suggest you start with Essential MOM by Chris Fox. Get your copy of the Microsoft Operations Manager Field Guide HERE.