First published on TECHNET on Mar 11, 2013
The goal of Operations Manager (and of course the whole System Center Suite) is to provide consistent, world-class manageability. We claim that our product provides best in class monitoring for Microsoft server workloads with rich knowledge to help detect, diagnose, and fix issues. This knowledge is encapsulated in “The Management Pack.”
Our Management Packs
cover almost all Microsoft server workloads and without doubt provide the richest knowledge to help detect, diagnose and fix issues compared to other management vendors. However, to be consistently world-class the bar needs to be raised….
This is the start of a new blog post series that will talk about how Microsoft is raising the bar with respect to Management Packs.
My name is Daniel Savage (dsavage at microsoft [dot] com) and I am responsible for all things related to Operations Manager Management Packs including customer satisfaction related to MPs for Microsoft server workloads. Yes, all of them! If you have a problem with a Microsoft MP and are not getting traction through the normal channels, please let me know.
Each blog post will include updates on our MP initiatives and the up and coming MPs due to be released as shown below:
Recent and In-Progress MP Initiatives:
|
Initiative
|
Description
|
State
|
|
Common Engineering Criteria (CEC)
|
As you may know all Microsoft server workloads need to adhere to CEC (
http://www.microsoft.com/CEC/en/us/cec-scorecards.aspx
) and one of those CEC requirements is to produce a Management Pack. The CEC criteria for Management Packs has recently been updated to add additional focus on ensuring the Management Pack meets customer needs with respect to quality and consistency.
|
Complete
|
|
MP Sustained Engineering Streamlining
|
The Operations Manager engineering team has streamlined the process for addressing customer issues related to Management Packs. All MP issues should be directed through the normal Microsoft support channels to the Operations Manager engineering team.
|
Complete
|
|
Management Pack Best Practices Analyzer (MPBPA)
|
Our MP best practice tool is currently being updated with new rules and knowledge
|
In Progress
|
Management packs in pre-release are MPs that are currently being reviewed by the internal Operations Manager community for final release readiness.
|
Management Pack
|
Final Release ETA*
|
|
Windows Server DNS 2012
|
Q2 CY13
|
|
Windows Server DHCP 2012
|
Q2 CY13
|
|
Windows Client 8
|
Q2 CY13
|
|
BizTalk Server 2013
|
Q2 CY13
|
|
Exchange Server 2013
|
Q1 CY13
|
*Dates may change
I look forward to communicating more as time goes on and again please send me an email for any questions or issues related to Management Packs.
Daniel Savage
Program Manager – System Center
