Friday, May 15, 2009

SCOM R2: Service Level Dashboard

Even though SCOM R2 already contains a good working solution for Service Level Tracking (look here for a blog posting of mine about it), Microsoft released an additional solution for it, named the Service Level Dashboard (SLD), to be downloaded via Microsoft Connect.

There is much to tell so let’s start. For the answers of the questions I have used the SLD document a bit.

Question 1: What does it add compared to the default solution already available in SCOM R2?

This solution is built on Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and designed in such a way to work in conjunction with SCOM R2, configured to monitor business critical applications. When the SLD components are correctly configured and operating, the dashboard displays – almost real-time at 2 to 3 minutes (!) – summarized data about the service levels.

So this solution combines the strengths of SharePoint and SCOM. Besides that, no more need for a manager to request access to SCOM in order to know whether the SLA’s are being met, since the measured results are available in SharePoint.

Question 2: How does it work?

In SCOM one defines the service level goals (named Service Level Objectives, or SLOs in SCOM) against an application or group of objects. Here the service level targets are set as well.

The SLD evaluates each SLO over a defined time period and decides whether it met its goal or not.

The dashboard displays each SLO and identifies its states based on the defined service level targets. The dashboard can display a maximum of six different applications or groups.

Question 3: What does the dashboard summarize?

  • Current status & health of all defined SLOs
  • Service Level Metrics
  • Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)
  • Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)
  • Service Level Trends

Process Flow of the SLD:
(picture taken from SLD document)

image

Requirements
Of course a working SCOM R2 environment is needed. Besides that:

  • SharePoint Services 3.0 (SQL Embedded won’t work)
  • SCOM Reporting (Data Warehouse database)
  • .NET framework 3.5
  • A good translation of the SLAs to SLOs in SCOM
  • Good knowledge of SharePoint Services 3.0
  • Good knowledge of SCOM R2

Quick Guide
Here is described how this solution is installed, configured and some SLOs are built and displayed in SharePoint. This quick guide presumes SharePoint 3.0 is already present, configured and in working condition.

  • Import the SLD MP in SCOM (only one file)
  • Run the SLD wizard on a server where SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration is installed
  • Follow the steps in the installation wizard
  • Open the SLD site after the installation to see all is well. When this is displayed something is wrong…
    clip_image002
    All is well when this is being displayed:
    clip_image002[5]
  • In the SCOM Console, built one or more Service Level Tracking Management Pack Object(s). (Authoring –> Management Pack Objects –> Service Level Tracking). Of course one can built a Web Application first, use this component in a Distributed Application and target a SLO against it.
  • Now open the SLD SharePoint Site and configure it to display the SLOs:

    The SLOs to be displayed are selected:
    150509_02
    150509_03
    The Windows 2003 Servers meet their agreed SLA:
    Oops! The SQL-servers don’t meet their SLA:
    150509_04
    150509_05
    The earlier mentioned MTTR and MTBF:
    The SCOM WebConsole is also under surveillance:
    150509_06

Conclusion
With this new solution – even though it is still in beta – Microsoft has shown its dedication to SCOM/OpsMgr. It delivers added value for many organizations and combines the strength of SharePoint Services 3.0 and SCOM R2.

Now managers can see – almost real-time – how the Business Critical systems/applications are performing and whether they meet the SLAs.

With this a good tooling has been brought to the market which enables businesses to get a good insight of their processes and their weakest links.

Even though this solution is rather easy to implement one must realize that the most of the time needed to make this work is a good translation of the SLAs to the SLOs in SCOM/OpsMgr.

Otherwise one is looking at a nice dashboard but getting wrong information.

Therefore preparation is the keyword for which most preparation must be done at the organizational level instead of the technical level. Only than this solution will live up to its promises.

Since this SLD is tightly integrated with SharePoint, it can use it’s security as well. Therefore the dashboards can be separated from each other. So customer X can only see his/her related dashboard and customer Y can only see his/her dashboard.

For companies using SCOM as a hosted service, this is a huge advantage. Their customers can now see how their systems are performing.

Special thanks
It took me a while to get everything working. As stated before in an earlier blog posting of mine, this wasn’t because of the solution but because of problems within my SCOM test environment and a shortage in my knowledge of SharePoint.

The Program Manager for this solution, Raghu Kethineni, has been of great help to me for making this work. Thanks Raghu!

21 comments:

Brad Saide said...

I'm interested in the SharePoint SCOM dashboard - how can I get access to it thru Connect? What "Group" do I need to join?

I have a client that asked me about this today, and I quickly found your blog entry.

Thanks
Brad

Brad Saide said...

Never Mind - Google is my friend.

Solution Accelerator info can be found here - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd630553.aspx

There's also a link there to sign up to the beta.

Cheers :)
Brad

Marnix Wolf said...

Hi Brad.

Google is a good friend of mine as well. Good to see you already found the needed information.

Best regards,
Marnix Wolf

omi said...

which part of sharepoint server i have to install before configuring the dashboard.

Marnix Wolf said...

Hi Omkar.

Actually I am not a SharePoint specialist myself. I installed WSS for this article for the first time.

All I did was reading the documentation included with this Solution Accelarator and checked out some websites about WSS.

Another good place to go are the OpsMgr TechNet Forums: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/systemcenteroperationsmanager

Best regards,
Marnix Wolf

Unknown said...

Hi,

Can i have a dashboard view from 3 SCOM serrvers running in three different locations ?

This is one of my customers requirement.

Unknown said...

Hi,

May i know if this dashboard can give me a centralized view from 3 SCOM servers located in different countries ?

Marnix Wolf said...

Hi

It should work. But the SLD can be a bit of a challene to configure. A PFE (Jonathan Almquist) has written a good series about it, to be found here: http://blogs.technet.com/jonathanalmquist/archive/2010/04/10/service-level-dashboard-2-0-installation-considerations-and-guidance-part-1.aspx

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Marnix

Unknown said...

Hi Marnix.

I only know that SLD 2.0 support business hour and workday filtering. So, SL will only be calculated during business hour and weekday.

I would like to know whether SLD 2.0 support excluding specific date from service level calculation on one year calendar. For example, I would like to filter SL calculation on January 1st and December 25th since they are holidays. But, I also want to keep business hours and day settings for SL filtering.

Glad to see your blogs that brings a lot of information for me about SCOM. Thanks

Marnix Wolf said...

Hi ReadOne.

Thanks for visiting my blog and your nice words.

I am not sure whether certain days can be excluded from SLA calculation. If it is possible it must be defined in the SLT which is created in SCOM. However, the GUI does not reveal that kind of option so it comes down to MP authoring.

Cheers,
Marnix

Dominique said...

Hello Marnix,

SharePoint Services 3.0 (SQL Embedded won’t work)

I have to use a SQL installation already in place (SCOM or any other one) but not the internal WSS SQL feature am I correct?
Thanks,
DOm

Marnix Wolf said...

Hi Dominique.

I am afraid I do not totally understand your question. Can you clarify it a bit more for me please?

Cheers,
Marnix

Anonymous said...

Any update on when and if SharePoint 2010 is going to be supported for service Level Dashboard 2.0?

Anonymous said...

Any update on when and if SharePoint 2010 is going to be supported for Service Level Dashboard 2.0?

Marnix Wolf said...

Hi Manoj.
Good question. I will inform myself and get back to you.
Cheers,
Marnix

Dominique said...

I have installed SharePoint 3.0 on Server B with the Database on Server A with SQL Server 2008. Server A host as well the RMS and its Database.
My issue is after installing SLD without any error when I launch http://serverb:51918/ I am getting the page with "Solution Accelerator" in the top right corner but no "Solution Center" in the top left corner... there is apparently no error but there is no access to the RMS SLO predfined already...
any idea?
Thanks,
Dom

Dominique said...

Hello Marnix,
I think I find my issue ... it was a Windows Server 2008 R2 and it needs SharePoint Slipstream... now i got a complete dashboard working on. Thanks,

Do you have a URL for samples of dashboards or SLO?

I have been asked for:
Server uptime
Servers reporting issues

Thanks,
Dom

Marnix Wolf said...

Hi Dom

Sorry for my late answers. I don't have any url but check out the blog of System Center Central. Perhaps they have something.

Cheers,
Marnix

rajiv said...

Any more updates on when MOSS 2010 will be supported by SLD 2.0?

Unknown said...

I can use the application without having sharepoint?

Marnix Wolf said...

Hi Berenice Espinoza,

no as the posting states it's a SharePoint based solution.

Cheers,
Marnix