Operations Manager Essay: Architecture, Monitoring Wizards, And Cloud Bursting For Efficient Performance.

The Architecture of the Operations Manager

1. System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) is a cross-platform data center management system for operating systems and hypervisors. It uses a single interface that shows state, health and performance information of computer systems. It also provides alerts generated according to some availability, performance, configuration or security situation being identified. It works with Microsoft Windows Server and Unix-based hosts. Answer the following questions based on your SCOM knowledge.

A. Explain the architecture of operation manager with core components of system center.

B. Explain the User profiles that can secure access to Operations Manager

2. An Operations Manager agent is a service that is installed on a computer. The agent collects data, compares sampled data to predefined values, creates alerts, and runs responses. A management server receives and distributes configurations to agents on monitored computers. Answer the questions below, based on your knowledge of operation manager agents. 
A. Why agents are required in operation manager.

B. Explain different methods for agent deployment in operations manager

C. Explain the use of Operations Console to Deploy Agents. 

3. User defined Monitor Type creation helps engineers build, out of the box monitor types apart from those that are already present by default. Evaluate the use of Management pack templates in custom monitoring and list down available templates in the management pack of Operations Manager.

4. You are the IT team lead and your task is to ensure performance and critical service which requires monitoring of the computers running these cloud application using SCOM. Elaborate the infrastructure of Operation Manager and how the objects are discovered and monitored. 

5. Clearly examine the Network Infrastructure monitoring methods and elaborate the ways to monitor the Distributed Applications within cloud.

i. Create new distributed application model using Operation Manager

ii. View the model to confirm that objects are visible and healthy 

6. Application performance monitoring (APM) strives to detect and diagnose application performance problems to maintain an expected level of service. Critically evaluate performance and availability checking capabilities of server and client side of the APM.

7. Critically explore and view the Application Performance in Operations Manager by configuring basic Monitoring in Application Performance Monitoring to perform the following tasks: Server-side monitoring Update the environment

8. Evaluate Service Manager Configurations and management, user roles and its configuring security, work items, Incident queues, Service offering by performing the following tasks of Configuring Security Roles:

i. Create a Group

ii. Create an Incident Queue 

9. Critically illustrate the Overview of Problem Management and System Center Orchestrator, the ways to create Custom Rules and integrate Orchestrator with Operations Manager. You are reuired to configure the incidents that affect the Stock Trader service by performing following tasks:

i. Create a custom Operations Manager resolution status

ii. Deploy the Operations Manager Integration Pack . 

10. A. Hybrid cloud so utions have gained massive popularity in the recent times. How can you explain your organization about the benefits from a secure hybrid Cloud Solution? 
B. There are certain risks and issues associated with the implementation of the hybrid cloud solution. How will you explain the implementation issues of hybrid cloud to your organization? 
C. Explain how 'security' feature is important in hybrid cloud?

11. Cloud bursting is an application deployment model in which an application runs in a private cloud or data centre and bursts when the demand for computing capacity spikes. Assess cloud brusting concepts, underlying issues and evaluate its impact on current cloud systems.

12. Explain five key advantages of reliably connecting cloud across the public internet.

1.a. The architecture of the operations manager is proposed to give a solid foundation to monitoring of execution and availability, and for the meantime setting a construct requirement with respect to the establishment and assets of work force. It contains several components which include the following:

• Management server that manages the Data Access Server, the Agent manager and the consolidator.
• Agents is an administration that is introduced on a PC that searches for setup information and gathers data for investigation and detailing, determine the health state of objects monitored such as SQL database or disk of logic and performs assignments on request by an administrator or because of a condition. It enables Operations Manager in monitoring UNIX, Windows and Linux systems of operation.
• Database whereby it comprises of the data of configuration for the groups of management and keeps the data of monitoring which is gathered and executed for the group of management. (Guo et al. ,2012)

b. The Administrator profile comprises of access privileges to Operations Manager. The Administrator profile incorporates the greater part of the benefits contained in every other single profile.

The Read-Only Operator profile encloses benefits expected for clients who require read-just access. It enables clients to get to views and view alarms.

The Report Operator profile contains benefits for getting to reports by clients. It awards clients the authorization to see reports with respect to their extent of setup. (Smith, M. B. ,2009)

2.a. Agents are required in the operations manager to gather design information and collects information for detailing and investigation, defines the state of health of objects being observed and executes assignments asked. (Etchevers et. al, 2011)

b. Active directory - The Operations Manager enhances the usage of the active directory to assign computers that are managed by the agents to the groups of management.

Manual installation – this method is used after all the other methods have failed. The setup is installed through a tool of distribution or run in a manual manner on the agent. (Etchevers et. al, 2011)

c. Operation console is utilized as a part of establishment of at least one agent. The console can likewise be utilized to manage agents that have been introduced utilizing the Discovery Wizard. The console can be used to apply patches, arrange the server of administration and bring up to date various versions of agents where the agents are supposed to report. (Etchevers et. al, 2011)

3. Monitoring wizards are contained in the management pack templates that permit making of finish situations of checking with inconsequential information. The wizard creates the needed guidelines, monitors and even concentrations to execute the particular circumstance. The setup of the wizard itself can be adjusted in the case that one requires to change the manner in which monitoring is being carried out.  The accessible formats include:

• Process monitoring template that enables one to observe whether a particular is running in a computer. By utilizing this layout, you can execute two distinctive essential situations: one may need the procedure to keep running for a specific application and requires to be cautioned on the off chance that it isn't running, or one may have to be alarmed on the off chance that you find that an undesirable procedure is running.
• Windows Service Monitoring Template gives you a chance to discover and monitor occurrences of a specific administration introduced on a PC that contains the Windows. The template finds PCs executing the administration and after that uses monitors and standards to try its accessibility and gather execution information. The main data that is needed includes the name of the administration and the kinds of monitoring needed in performance.
• TCP port template that monitors whether an application is available over the TCP. An application to be tried may live on any PC regardless of the agent being installed on the Operations manager or not. Every watcher hub ought to contain an installed Operations Manager operator.
• Web Application Transaction Monitoring Template which Monitors the operation, availability and performance of an application of the web. (Smith, M.B, 2009)

4. After the operation manager is installed, management groups are created. They involve a database that reports the data warehouse, operational database and the management server.

• Administration of the management group and communication with the database is managed by the management server.
• On the other hand, all plan data for the management group and storage of all monitoring data that is accumulated and arranged for the management group are contained in the operational database.

The following steps can be followed in order to discover and monitor objects:

• Computers to be managed are searched by the operation manager:
• The computers are identified.
• Installation of the agent on the computers that have been discovered follows.
• Configuration is sent to the agent upon requesting.
• Objects are discovered. The agent responds to the management server indicating that the disk is available.
• The logic of monitoring is sent to the agent. All the logic of monitoring regarding the disk is collected by the agent.
• The management server is sent the monitoring data.
• The logic of monitoring is updated when the process of change happens. (Ron et al, 2009)

5.i. 

a. In the Operations console, Authoring workspace is selected.

b. Select Create a new distributed application after right clicking distributed applications.

c. In the name box, type a name for the distributed application.

d. Select the template for the starting point of the distributed application.

e. Select the management pack and then click OK. (Ron et al, 2009)

ii. 

a. Start the Operations console

b. Click Monitoring, and then select Discovered Inventory.

c. Click Change Target Type then select View all targets.

d. Select Windows Server 2008 Logical Disk, and then click OK

e. Select one of the instances

f. Select Change Target Type.

Monitoring Wizards for Complete Situation of Checking

g. Select View all targets

h. Select Logical Disk (Server), and then click OK

i. Again select Change Target Type. Select View all targets.

j. Select Logical Disk, and then click OK.

k. Select one of the disks and then click the link on the computer name part of the Path Name property shown in the Detail View. (Guo et al. ,2012)

6. Server side application execution checking uses WebLOAD which accumulates server-side execution data from working structures, application servers, web servers and database servers to empower you to perceive the primary driver of issues. Server side data is indicated ceaselessly as a part of WebLOAD's results examination reports. WebLOAD's worked in compromise with application execution organization (APM) devices helps you do cause examination well beyond. Furthermore, WebLOAD supports standard APIs through which servers reveal execution data, for instance, RSTATD, Monitor, JMX, Windows Performance SNMP, JDBC and SSH. When you recognize an execution issue using WebLOAD you can change to your APM gadget and relate the WebLOAD trade to the server-side event. You can exactly recognize events behind bottlenecks and quickly settle issues.

Client side application performance monitoring empowers estimating ongoing required by an application to complete an exchange. The accompanying methodologies can be utilized to monitor from a customer's side:

Synthetic Transactions technique uses reenacted exchanges to check the response time of an application server and to affirm the got responses by standing out them from effectively recorded reference exchanges. A couple of test framework administrators, going about as clients in a framework, send sales to the application server of interest and decide the time anticipated that would complete a trade. In the event that the response time outperforms a configurable edge or the got server response isn't right, the administrators exhort the chief by making occasions.

GUI based solution empowers metering genuine customer exchanges and evades the necessity for getting to the client application's source code. As every customer request the two starts and terminations changing a GUI part at the client side, simply watching GUI occasions pass on the required information about start and end purposes of customer exchanges. The product item presented at client site devices amasses the exchange data of enthusiasm from a customer's point of view. (Ron et al, 2009)

7.i. To enable server side monitoring, the following can be carried out:

• Setting up of the Monitoring Agent of Rackspace.
• Creation of a configuration file on the server-side.
• Updating or deletion of server-side configuration. (Sanghvi et. Al, 2011)

ii. In the event that one wants to update the environment,

• update and save the YAML file
• followed by restarting the agent.
• Update the target server using the updated alarms and checks.
• Restarting the agent causes the changes made through the API to be overwritten by the file of configuration.  (Ferretti et. al ,2010)

8.i. 

a. Click Library in the service manager console.

b. Expand Library and then click Groups.

c. Click Create Group and click Next.

d. The following is performed on the general page:

• Provide a name for the group
• Type a description for the group.
• Select an unsealed management pack.

e. Click Add and then select a class in the Filter by class.

f. Type the search criteria to use to locate an object, and then click the filter button.

g. Select one or more items in the Available Objects list, click Add and then click Ok.

h. On the Included Members page, click Next.

i. Click Create then close after completion message appears. (Sanghvi et. Al, 2011)

ii. 

1. In the Service Manager console, click Library.
2. Expand Library, and then click Queues.
3. Click Create Queue.
4. To complete the process, the following is done:

Different Monitoring Methods for Server and Client-Side Performance

a. Click Next.

b. Type a name in the Queue name box.

c. Next to Work item type box, click the ellipsis button (...). Select a class and then click OK.

d. Select the unsealed management pack then click Next.

e. Build the criteria to use to filter work items for the queue, and then click Next.

f. Click Create queue and Close. (Garcie-Luna-Aceves, J. J. ,2007)

9.i. 

a. Click Administration in the Operations console.

b. Click Settings

c. Double-click Alerts

d. On the Alert Resolution States tab, click New

e. In Add Alert Resolution State, type a name for the resolution state and select a value in the Unique ID box, and then click OK.

f. In Global Management Group Settings – Alerts, click OK. (Amarendran, A., & Retnamma, M. V. ,2009)

ii. 

a. Right-click Integration Packs in the navigation pane of Deployment manager, click Deploy IP to Action Server or Client.

b. Select the integration pack and then click Next.

c. Inputting the name of the runbook server with the Runbook Designer installed, click Add then click Next.

d. Selection of the Schedule installation check box, time and date from the Perform installation list.

e. Installation of the Integration Packs.

f. Click Next and then Finish. (Sanghvi et. Al, 2011)

Question 11.

Cloud bursting is an application organization prototype in which an application continues running in a private cloud or data center and blasts into an open cloud when the interest for enrolling limit spikes. Its leverage is that, installments for the register assets are just made when required. Its suggested for applications that perform exceedingly and are not basic in handling data that isn't touchy. An application can be passed on locally and after that burst to the cloud to meet peak demands, or the application can be moved to the overall population cloud to free up close-by resources for business-fundamental applications.

Cloud bursting performs awesome for applications that don't depend upon a mind boggling application transport structure or compromise with various applications, parts and systems internal to the server farm.

Issues related with cloud bursting.

• This implies it doesn't bolster applications that rely upon each other in the framework henceforth that winds up one of the test of cloud blasting.
• Another test is contradiction with different situations and furthermore its constrained in accessibility in the administration apparatuses.
• Another issue is the information activity which comes to fruition in that, every one of the information must be duplicated from the cloud and the information happens to be tremendous since current applications contain a great deal of information.
• It doesn't likewise bolster complex foundation. (Jain, P., Rane, D., & Patidar, S. ,2011)

References

Amarendran, A., & Retnamma, M. V. (2009). U.S. Patent Application No. 11/269,512.

Etchevers, X., Coupaye, T., Boyer, F., & De Palma, N. (2011, July). Self-configuration of distributed applications in the cloud. In Cloud Computing (CLOUD), 2011 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 668-675). IEEE.

Ferretti, S., Ghini, V., Panzieri, F., & Turrini, E. (2010, July). Seamless support of multimedia distributed applications through a cloud. In Cloud Computing (CLOUD), 2010 IEEE 3rd International Conference on (pp. 548-549). IEEE.

Guo, T., Sharma, U., Wood, T., Sahu, S., & Shenoy, P. J. (2012,). Seagull: Intelligent Cloud Bursting for Enterprise Applications. In USENIX Annual Technical Conference (pp. 361-366).

Garcie-Luna-Aceves, J. J. (2007). U.S. Patent No. 7,162,539. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Jain, P., Rane, D., & Patidar, S. (2011, December). A survey and analysis of cloud model-based security for computing secure cloud bursting and aggregation in renal environment. In Information and Communication Technologies (WICT), 2011 World Congress on (pp. 456-461). IEEE.

Ron, A., Pizzo, K., Sarabosing, M., Sarwono, E., & Zakrajsek, F. (2009). U.S. Patent Application No. 10/994,818.

Sanghvi, A. J., Lakshminarayanan, A., Bandari, C., Rizzi, L., Wilson, S. O., Wright, T. A., ... & Voloshin, V. (2011). U.S. Patent No. 7,899,903. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Smith, M. B. (2009). Installing and Configuring OpsMgr 2007. Monitoring Exchange Server 2007 with System Center Operations Manager, 51-76.