Microsoft Gets the SCOM 07 SP1 Out

Published: February 27, 2008

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft last week delivered a major update to System Center Operations Manager 2007, which is used for monitoring Windows logs, middleware, and applications. With SCOM 07 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Microsoft has made dozens of tweaks that it says combine to make the product much easier to use.

When SCOM 07 shipped about a year ago, Microsoft pledged that it had made it easier for third-party developers to create "management packs" that allow SCOM to monitor products such as SAP and Oracle ERP environments running on Windows computers. With SP1, Microsoft says it has made the process even easier by allowing users to copy views from existing management packs to an unsealed management pack.

New features for monitoring Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista computers were also added to SP1. Support for Hyper-V will be delivered within 90 days of the delivery of the hypervisor.

Another area of improvement is the management console with SP1. With this release, users can export their SCOM diagrams to Microsoft's VDX file format, allowing better interoperability of diagrams with anybody running Visio. Users are also provided views of performance data through the Web console, and the capability to set up filters against performance counters. The "advanced search" mode has also been enhanced with the capability to search across monitors and rules by their overrides.

Auditors will rejoice thanks to the new views, monitors, and alerts added to the Audit Collection Services (ACS) component of SCOM. The backup wizard has also been simplified.

SCOM 07 SP1 is currently available on Microsoft's Web site. For more information, see the Operations Manager Product Team Blog.

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