News
MOM Gets into .NET Management
Microsoft demonstrated Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 at Networld+Interop.
At Networld+Interop in mid-May, Microsoft demonstrated Microsoft Operations Manager 2000, the company’s event and performance management server. The software is targeted at enterprises
reluctant to adopt Microsoft’s .NET technology
because of its complexity to maintain. MOM’s debut
was followed by a key software and services partner
announcing MOM extensions.
“Management used to be a luxury,”
said Cliff Reeves, a former Tivoli executive giving
his first speech as Microsoft’s vice president
in the Windows .NET Server product management
group. “As systems scaled up, management became
an absolute necessity... The real challenge is
to augment the world of instrumentation...with
expertise, with knowledge.”
The idea behind MOM 2000 is to automate
the process of recognizing the existence of problem
“events,” identifying probable causes and following
a procedure to eliminate the problems.
At the announcement, Microsoft showed
a live preview of MOM 2000 in action. The demo
simulated multiple remote users receiving browser
errors as they attempted to access an online resource.
MOM identified a downed SQL Server as the source
of the problems. By clicking on the event through
the Microsoft Management Console, the system administrator
could connect to a knowledge base displaying potential
solutions.
Another demonstration showed MOM’s
preemptive management features, in which the software
could predict problems based on symptoms. The
program tracked performance over time, watching
for deteriorating trends in server activity to
predict future behavior.
Administrators will also be able
to set up policies with MOM, which would act as
rules for server behavior.
Reeves said MOM would be released
to manufacturing in June. The base license, including
the server software, agent software, Windows Management
Pack, reporting engine, and administration consoles,
would sell for $849 per processor. Application
licenses for running MOM with Exchange and SQL
Server will be $949 per processor.
Tyler Well, an MCSE and network operations
manager with Thyssenkrupp Elevator, said his company
currently uses HP OpenView, but he still liked
the idea that Microsoft was getting into the management
business in a more serious way.
“[Microsoft] makes the products,
so they should be the ones to manage them,” he
said. Well acknowledged that his company has a
fundamental reason for not adopting MOM yet—the
company still runs Windows NT 4.0. “We’re primarily
a Microsoft show, but we’re not a [Windows] 2000
shop...And they didn’t say it, but you have to
have SMS to use MOM.” Well said his firm is still
beta testing Windows 2000, but expects to deploy
it to run the company’s Web servers. “But we’re
not ready for Active Directory yet,” he added.
NetIQ simultaneously unveiled its
plans to work the edges with MOM connectors to
non-Microsoft software and greater functionality
within some Microsoft software areas. NetIQ calls
its connectors Extended Management Packs (XMP).
The company will introduce a dozen beta XMPs this
summer. XMPs for third-party products target Oracle’s
RDBMS; anti-virus software from McAfee, Symantec
and Trend Micro; server hardware from Compaq,
Dell and Hewlett-Packard; Tivoli TME; Micromuse
Netcool/OMNIbus; HP VantagePoint Operations; and
NetIQ’s own AppManager. Pricing hasn’t been set.
To find out more about Microsoft
Operations Manager 2000, go to www.microsoft.com/mom.