Importing Management Packs
After the initial
installation, OpsMgr only includes a few management packs. The
management packs contain all the discoveries, monitors, rules,
knowledge, reports, and views that OpsMgr needs to be able to
effectively monitor servers and applications. One of the first tasks
after installing OpsMgr 2007 is to import management packs into the
system.
There are a large number of
management packs in the Internet catalog on the Microsoft website. These
include updated management packs, management packs for new products,
and third-party management packs. It is important to load only those
management packs that are going to be used, as each additional
management pack increases the database size, adds discoveries that
impact the performance of agents, and, in general, clutters up the
interface.
The key management packs for a Windows Server 2008 R2 environment are as follows:
Windows Server Operating System MPs
Active Directory Server MPs
Windows Cluster Management MPs
Microsoft Windows DNS Server MPs
Microsoft Windows DHCP Server MPs
Microsoft Windows Group Policy MPs
Microsoft Windows Hyper-V MPs
Windows Server Internet Information Services MPs
Windows Server Network Load Balancing MPs
Windows Server Print Server MPs
Windows Terminal Services MPs
SQL Server MPs (to monitor the OpsMgr database roles)
There might be other
management packs that are appropriate for the environment, depending on
the applications that are installed. For example, if the organization
has deployed Exchange Server 2010 and HP Proliant server hardware, it
would be good for the organization to deploy the Exchange management
packs and the HP Proliant management packs.
For each of these
management packs, it is important to load the relevant versions only.
For example, if the environment includes Windows Server 2008 only, only
load the Windows Server Core OS 2008 management pack. If the environment
includes both Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008, load both
the Windows Server Core OS 2003 and the Windows Server Core OS 2008. In
addition, a number of language packs don’t need to be loaded unless
those particular languages are supported by the organization at the
server level.
Some collections of
management packs require that all versions be loaded, but the Management
Pack Import Wizard will check and warn if that’s the case.
In versions of OpsMgr prior to
R2, the management packs had to be downloaded from the Microsoft
website one by one, the MSI installed one by one, and the management
packs imported one by one. Dependencies would not be checked unless
additional steps were taken to consolidate the management pack files
prior to importing. This was a very labor-intensive process. Also, there
was no easy way for checking for updates to already installed
management packs.
In OpsMgr 2007 R2, a new
Management Pack Import Wizard was introduced. This wizard connects
directly to the Microsoft management pack catalog and will download,
check, and import management packs. It even does version checks to
ensure that the management packs are the latest versions. This is a huge
improvement over the old method of importing management packs.
To import the key management packs, use the following steps:
1. | Launch the Operations Console.
|
2. | Select the Administration section.
|
3. | Select the Management Packs folder.
|
4. | Right-click the Management Packs folder and select Import Management Packs.
|
5. | Click the Add button and select Add from Catalog.
|
6. | Click the Search button to search the entire catalog.
Note
The View pull-down menu in the
Management Pack Import Wizard includes four options, which are All
Management Packs in the Catalog, Updates Available for Installed
Management Packs, All Management Packs Released in the Last 3 Months,
and All Management Packs Released in the Last 6 Months. The Updates
option checks against the already installed management packs and allows
the download of updated versions of those.
|
7. | Select
the key management packs from the previous bulleted list and click the
Add button for each of them. Each of the major management packs might
include a number of submanagement packs for discovery, monitoring, and
other breakdowns of functionality.
|
8. | When done adding management packs, click OK.
|
9. | The
wizard now validates the added management packs, checking for versions,
dependencies, and security risks. It allows problem management packs to
be removed and dependencies to be added to the list.
|
10. | Click Install to begin the download and import process. Progress will be shown for each of the management packs being imported.
|
11. | After all the management packs are imported, click Close to exit the wizard.
|
After the import
completes, the management packs take effect immediately. Agents will
begin discovering based on the schedule specified in the management
packs and monitors and rules will begin deploying.
