MOM Component Requirements

Each MOM component has specific design requirements, and a good knowledge of these factors is required before beginning the design of a MOM. Hardware and software requirements must be taken into account, as well as factors involving specific MOM components such as service accounts and backup requirements.

Hardware Requirements

Having the proper hardware for MOM to operate on is a critical component of MOM functionality, reliability, and overall performance. Nothing is worse than overloading a brand-new server only a few short months after its implementation. The industry standard generally holds that any production servers deployed should remain relevant for three to four years following deployment. Stretching beyond this time frame may be possible, but the ugly truth is that hardware investments are typically short term and need to be replaced often to ensure relevance. Buying a less-expensive server may save money in the short term but could potentially increase costs associated with downtime, troubleshooting, and administration. That said, the following are the Microsoftrecommended minimums for any server running MOM 2005:

• 1GHz+ Pentium or compatible processor

• 10GB of free disk space

• 1GB of random access memory (RAM)

These recommendations apply only to the smallest MOM deployments and should be seen as minimum levels for MOM hardware. Future expansion and relevance of hardware should be taken into account when sizing servers for MOM deployment.

Determining Software Requirements

MOM can be installed either on Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2 or higher. Installing on Windows Server 2003 for new deployments of MOM is highly recommended, to take advantage of the improvements in the operating system (this is a book on Windows Server 2003, after all).

The database for MOM must be run on a Microsoft SQL Server 2000/2005 database. The database can be installed on the same server as MOM or on a separate server, a concept that will be discussed in more detail in following sections. While technically possible to run MOM on an MSDE, developer-related database, using the more robust SQL database structure for MOM information is highly recommended.

Note

MOM 2005 installs on SQL 2000 SP3a or higher without problems. Installation on SQL 2005 will fail unless the installation is run from the MOM 2005 SP1 media. Although it will install on MOM 2005 SP1, the "official" word from Microsoft is that MOM is not supported on SQL 2005 until Service Pack 2.

MOM itself must be installed on a member server in a Windows Server 2003 (or Windows 2000) Active Directory domain, and not on a domain controller, because it will not physically install if this is the case. It is most often recommended to keep the installation of MOM on a separate server or set of separate dedicated member servers that do not run any other separate applications.

A few other factors critical to the success of a MOM implementation are follows:

• WINS must be installed in environments that utilize any Windows NT nodes.

• SQL 2000 Reporting Services or higher must be installed for an organization to be able to produce custom reports using MOM's reporting feature.

• Email notifications require the use of Microsoft Outlook 98 or higher.

Identifying MOM Service Accounts

The consolidator and data access server components of MOM require the use of a dedicated service account. The same account can be used for these services, and doing so is actually recommended. However, for security reasons, it is theoretically possible to use two different service accounts from different domains. The caveat with this approach, however, is that each service account that accesses the SQL database requires a separate SQL client access license (CAL).

MOM Backup Considerations

Like most technical implementations, MOM includes several key components that require regular backups for disaster recovery scenarios. The system state and system drive of each MOM server should be backed up to provide for quick recovery of MOM configuration information. Special add-ons to backup software specifically written for Microsoft Operations Manager can ensure the ability to back up live data from MOM systems. At this time, many of the large backup software manufacturers offer this type of specialized add-on to their products, and it would be prudent to integrate these components into a MOM design.

In addition, the most critical piece of MOM, the SQL database, should be regularly backed up using an additional add-on to standard backup software that can effectively perform online backups of SQL databases. If integrating these specialized backup utilities into a MOM deployment is not possible, it becomes necessary to periodically dismount the MOM database and perform offline backups. Either way, the importance of backups in a MOM environment cannot be overstressed.

Deploying MOM Agents

MOM agents are deployed to all managed servers through the MOM configuration process. These agents can be configured to be automatically installed for all Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 servers on a specific domain based on managed computer rules. These rules use the NetBIOS name of the computer and the domain to allow you to select which systems should have the client installed automatically. You can use wildcards to specify a broad range of computers. Certain situations, such as monitoring across firewalls, can require the manual installation of these components.

Note

Agent installation is contingent on the MOM service accounts having local Admin rights on the servers in which they will be installed. If applying these rights is not possible, even temporarily, MOM must be installed manually, using an account that possesses these rights.