I, Robot: Opalis and SCOM. Part II: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

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Postings in the same series:
Part I: The Introduction
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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Use of the mentioned zip-file is at your own risk. 

A bit later than originally intended, but here is the second posting about Opalis. First I promised this posting would cover the Opalis terminology, how I built my Opalis Integration Server (most important steps) and how I connected to the SCOM R2 Management Group.

But as it turns out, all this is very simple. The Opalis documentation included in the installation package is very detailed and spot on. I already blogged about it, found here. When using the Administrator Guide, just follow it through and at the end of Section 4 you have a good Opalis environment at hand. And Graham Davies has written a posting about Opalis terminology, so need for me to repeat it here.

The Good
Installing the Management Server, configuring the Datastore, importing a license and installing the Client are easily done. So no need for me to repeat it all here.

Also connecting to the SCOM R2 environment is easily done. Just install the SCOM R2 Console on the Opalis Management Server, Register the SCOM IP (Integration Pack) with the Management Server using the Deployment Manager Tool and – with the same tool – deploy the IP to an Action Server or a Client. Start the Opalis Integration Server Client, go to Options > Microsoft Operations Manager 2007 > Add > enter the credentials of an account with SCOM Admin permissions > Test Connection and when all is well: hit OK > Finish. Now Opalis connects to SCOM.

The Bad & The Ugly
The Opalis Operator Console is really something different here. Compared to the installation of all other Opalis components, which are user friendly, the Operator Console is a ‘bit’ of a pain. Still it is ALL WORTH WHILE since Opalis adds so much to your environment, when you are running it in production you soon ask yourself: ‘How did we ever do it without that SUPER toolbox?’.

So hang in there!
 

With SP1 for Opalis Integration Server 6.2.2 also an installation script for the Console came out, based on PowerShell 2.0. This eases the pain a bit. However, one still has to go all those obscure websites in order to collect the required software. Even though most sites are easy to navigate a couple of them can be a pit of a puzzle.

Therefore I have put all the required software for the Opalis Operator Console into a single zip-file (Opalis Operator Console Software Requirements.zip, 217 MB) and uploaded it to my Dropbox.

The file can be downloaded from here. This will save you a lot of time and hassle I guess.

Graham Davies, again :), has made a document which will aid you further with the installation of the Opalis Components. So life is made even more easier! Thanks Graham! His posting about installing Opalis can be found here.