Microsoft Gives MOM 2005 to Manufacturing

by Alex Woodie

One of the key elements of Microsoft's ambitious Dynamic Systems Initiative fell into place last week, when Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 and Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Workgroup Edition were released to manufacturing. The new versions of MOM, which include a new operator console, better integration with third-party connectors, and new ways to look at managed servers and applications, are expected to be available on October 1.

MOM helps Windows operators and systems administrators manage the day-to-day issues that inevitably crop up in Windows shops, such as users who are unable to access their e-mail, or an SQL Server database issue that's threatening to break an application. Microsoft aims for MOM 2005 to be sort of like your mother, in that she has a knack for spotting and fixing little problems before they escalate into giant disasters. That is a tall order, especially considering the sprawl of Windows servers impacting many companies, but it's an area in which Windows shops are clamoring for solutions.

MOM 2005 uses a series of agents to monitor Microsoft and third-party applications. Microsoft offers dozens of monitors, which it sells as Management Packs and Product Connectors, that allow the previous version, MOM 2000, to manage many components of the Windows Server System, including operating systems, Web servers, database management systems, message queues and message logs, firewalls, and many other Windows applications. Microsoft offers a software development kit to allow third-party developers to build Management Packs and Product Connectors that work with MOM, as well as with Microsoft's Systems Management Server, which is used in the provisioning of new machines.

Microsoft has made big improvements in the area of third-party plug-ins with MOM 2005. With last week's announcement, Microsoft detailed 14 other companies developing systems management tools to work with MOM 2005. Microsoft has already developed connectors for Hewlett-Packard's popular OpenView software, and the two companies are furthering their relationship "to deliver a new management pack that will further complement and extend MOM 2005 with in-depth hardware life-cycle management for HP ProLiant and Integrity servers," said Paul Miller, a vice president in HP's enterprise storage and server unit.

In terms of the MOM 2005 product itself, it will feature a new operator console, which joins existing administrator and reporting consoles. Microsoft has added three new views to its consoles, including state, diagram, and groups views. The new color-coded state monitoring feature shows the health and state of the servers, using a green light to indicate a healthy state, a yellow light to indicate a degraded state, and a red light to indicate a critical state. The new diagram view, also called a topographical view, is located in the new operators console and provides a graphical view of the environment.

Alerts generated from computers undergoing maintenance won't clutter up the operators console, thanks to a new maintenance mode feature. There is also a new "instance aware" monitoring capability that allows MOM to watch only certain instances of an application loaded onto a server, such as a SQL Server database instance used for accounting but not the one used for inventory.

Microsoft also did some name changing with its MOM products. The stripped-down version of MOM, which was to be called MOM 2005 Express, is now called MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition, and it will have the capability to manage 10 or fewer servers.

Microsoft also says that it has changed its licensing with MOM 2005 to make it consistent with similar Microsoft products, such as Systems Management Server 2003. Next year, Microsoft is expected to introduce a bundled offering that combines MOM 2005 and Systems Management Server 2003 into a single product, to be called System Center 2005.

While MOM 2005 actually ships in 2004, Microsoft is using the "2005" in its name to keep parity with the upcoming 2005 releases of Visual Studio 2005 Team Studio, which also plays key roles in Microsoft's Dynamic Systems Initiative, and other upcoming products, such as SQL Server 2005.

The full version of MOM 2005 will cost $729 per server. Windows shops will be able to purchase so-called Operations Management Licenses for each MOM 2005-managed device, in groups of five Operations Management Licenses for about $2,700. The stripped-down MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition will sell for $499. For more information, go to Microsoft's MOM 2005 Product Overview.