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This comprehensive resource will help you automate and optimize all facets of service management with System Center 2012 Service Manager.
Expert consultants offer deep “in the trenches” insights for improving problem resolution, change control, release management, asset lifecycle management, chargeback, and more. You’ll learn how to implement high-value best practices from ITIL and the Microsoft Operations Framework.
The authors begin with an expert overview of Service Manager, its evolution, and its new capabilities. Next, they walk through overall planning, design, implementation, and upgrades. Then, to help you focus your efforts, they present stepwise coverage of all topics in each feature area, linking technical information about Service Manager with essential knowledge about the technologies it depends on.
Whatever your role in deploying or running Service Manager, this guide will help you deliver more responsive support at lower cost and drive more value from all your IT investments.
• Leverage MOF and ITIL processes built into System Center 2012 Service Manager
• Plan and design your Service Manager deployment
• Install Service Manager or upgrade from earlier versions
• Efficiently administer work and configuration items
• Use connectors to integrate with Active Directory, Exchange, and System Center components
• Create service maps
• Enable end user access through Service Manager’s self-service portal
• Implement incident, problem, change, and release management
• Utilize workflows to automate key support processes
• Create service level agreements with calendars, metrics, and objectives
• Provide quick access to a standardized catalog of services
• Use notification to ensure that Service Manager items are promptly addressed
• Secure Service Manager and its data warehouse/reporting platform
• Perform maintenance, backup, and recovery
• Manage Service Manager performance
• Customize Service Manager
System Center 2012 Service Management Basics
Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 1 and Index)
Foreword xxiv
Introduction xxvi
A Toolset That Delivers IT as a Service xxvi
About This Book xxvii
Fast Track: A Quick Look at What’s New xxviii
Disclaimers and Fine Print xxix
PART I: SERVICE MANAGER OVERVIEW AND CONCEPTS
Chapter 1 Service Management Basics 3
Ten Reasons to Use Service Manager 4
The Problem with Today’s Systems 5
Why Do Systems Go Down? 6
Configuration “Shift and Drift” 7
System Isolation 8
Lack of Historical Information 9
Lack of Expertise 9
Missing Incidents and Information 10
Lack of Process Consistency 10
Not Meeting Service Level Expectations 11
What It’s All About 11
Service Management Defined 11
The Importance of Service Management to IT 12
Key Concepts in IT Service Management 12
Evolution of the CMDB 13
Strategies for Service Management 13
Microsoft’s Dynamic Systems Initiative 14
Microsoft Product Integration 14
MOF and ITIL 16
COBIT: A Framework for IT Governance and Control 17
Total Quality Management: TQM 17
Six Sigma 17
CMMI 17
Business Process Management 18
Service Management Mastery: ISO/IEC 20000 18
Optimizing Your Infrastructure 18
Bridging the Service Management Gap 22
Delivering System Uptime 24
Addressing Configuration “Shift and Drift” 24
Consolidating Information 25
Providing Historical Information 25
Delivering Expertise 26
Addressing Missing Incidents and Information 27
Providing Process Consistency 27
Meeting Service Level Agreements 27
Overview of Microsoft System Center 28
Reporting and Trend Analysis 30
Operations Management 31
Enterprise Client Management 32
Endpoint Protection 32
Service Management 32
Protecting Data 33
Virtual Machine Management 33
Deploy and Manage in the Cloud 34
Orchestration and Automation 34
Cloud-Based Configuration Monitoring 35
The Value Proposition of Service Manager 35
Summary 36
Chapter 2 Service Manager History and Terminology 37
The History of Service Manager 37
Service Manager 2010 38
Service Manager 2012 39
Service Manager Terminology 40
Technical Terminology 40
Functional Terminology 49
Summary 52
Chapter 3 MOF, ITIL, and System Center 53
About ITIL 53
About MOF 55
MOF, ITIL, and the Cloud 56
Applying IT Service Management 57
Approaching IT Service Management Initiatives 58
MOF and ITIL Processes Supported by Service Manager 59
IT Service Management Processes in Service Manager 59
About Incident Management 60
About Service Request Fulfillment 66
About Problem Management 69
About Change Management 73
About Release Management 79
About Configuration Management 83
Summary 87
Chapter 4 Looking Inside System Center 2012 Service Manager 89
Architectural Overview 90
Management Group Defined 92
Service Manager Server Features 94
Using a Minimum Installation 94
Adding Reporting Capabilities 95
Service Manager Management Server 96
Service Manager Database (ServiceManager) 96
Data Warehouse Management Server 96
Data Warehouse Database 97
Service Manager Console 98
Self-Service Portal (SSP) 99
Windows Services 99
System Center Data Access Service (OMSDK) 99
Microsoft Monitoring Agent (HealthService) 100
System Center Management Configuration (OMCFG) 101
Service Manager Workflow 102
Service Manager Connectors 104
Modeling and Management Pack Schema 105
Data Modeling 105
Management Pack Schema 107
Service Manager Console 109
Communications 114
Fast Track 115
Summary 115
PART II: PLANNING AND INSTALLATION
Chapter 5 Planning and Designing System Center 2012 Service Manager 119
Planning to Use Service Manager 120
Establishing and Optimizing the Business Requirements 120
Scoping the Service Manager Deployment Objectives 120
Assessing and Capturing the Current Environment 122
Creating the Deployment Plan 124
Review and Sign-Off of the Deployment Plan 127
Planning to Deploy Service Manager 128
Planning for Licensing 128
Common Design Scenarios 131
Capacity Planning 135
Security and Authentication Planning 137
Network Considerations 140
Planning for Availability, Resilience, and Fault Tolerance 141
Incorporating a Test Environment into the Design 144
Summary 145
Chapter 6 Installing and Upgrading to System Center 2012 Service Manager 147
Pre-Installation Tasks 148
Preparing and Understanding Installation Prerequisites 148
Installing and Configuring Prerequisites 152
Five-Server Scenario Installation 155
Installing the Service Manager Management Server 155
Installing the Service Manager Data Warehouse Management Server 162
Installing the Service Manager Web Portal 172
Three-Server Scenario Installation 178
Upgrading to Service Manager 2012 179
Upgrading the Data Warehouse Management Server 180
Upgrading the Service Manager Management Server 186
Upgrading the Service Manager Console 188
Troubleshooting Installations and Upgrades 191
Recommended Post-Installation Tasks 192
For New Installations 192
Post-Installation Tasks for Upgraded Environments 193
Removing a Service Manager Installation 193
Summary 194
PART III: SERVICE MANAGER OPERATIONS
Chapter 7 Using Service Manager 197
Service Manager Console Overview 198
Administration of Service Manager with the Service Manager Console 202
Administration Workspace Node Overview 202
Service Manager Portal Overview 211
Portal Main Page 213
Service Offerings 214
Request Offerings 215
Knowledge Articles 215
My Requests 215
My Activities 216
Fast Track 217
Summary 217
Chapter 8 Working with Connectors 219
Understanding the Connector Framework 219
Configuration Item Connectors 222
Work Item Connectors 231
Hybrid Service Manager Connectors 232
Creating and Working with Configuration Item Connectors 233
Creating an Active Directory Connector 233
Creating a Configuration Manager Connector 240
Creating and Working with an Operations Manager Configuration Item Connector 244
Creating a Virtual Machine Manager Connector 248
Creating a CSV Connector 252
Creating and Working with Work Item Connectors 258
Creating and Working with the Operations Manager Alert Connector 258
Creating and Working with the Orchestrator Connector 261
Creating and Working with the Exchange Connector 266
Connector Maintenance and Troubleshooting 269
Summary 270
Chapter 9 Business Services 271
Introducing Business Services in Service Manager 271
Defining Business Services 272
Characteristics of a Business Service 274
Using Operations Manager with Business Services 277
Distributed Applications in Operations Manager 277
Distributed Application Best Practices 278
Service Maps as the Foundation of a Business Service 279
Creating a Business Service 281
Building an Operations Manager Distributed Application 281
Exporting the Operations Manager Management Pack 284
Importing the Management Pack into Service Manager 286
Using Non-Operations Manager Components 291
Authoring a Management Pack 292
Importing and Using the Management Pack 294
Updating a Business Service 296
Automatically Mapping Operations Manager Incidents to a Business Service 298
Fast Track 302
Summary 302
Chapter 10 Service Manager Service Catalog 303
Understanding the Service Catalog 303
Service Catalog Permissions 305
Granting User Access to the Self-Service Portal 306
Creating a Catalog Item Group 306
Creating a User Role 307
Using Service Offerings 308
About Request Offerings 310
Using Request Offering Templates 311
Creating a Request Offering 315
Copying Request Offerings 324
Adding Request Offerings to Service Offerings 325
Working in the Self-Service Portal 326
Using the Knowledge Base 331
Fast Track 335
Summary 335
Chapter 11 Incident Management 337
Understanding the Incident Management Process 337
Incident Management in Service Manager 339
Incident Management Process Activities 344
Incident Creation 345
Incident Detection and Recording 346
Incident Classification and Initial Support 347
Incident Investigation and Diagnosis 350
Escalating Incidents 352
Incident Resolution and Recovery 352
Closing Incidents 353
Configuring Incident Management 354
Incident User Roles, Groups, Queues, and Lists 354
Configuring General Incident Settings 362
Configuring Incoming Emailed Incidents 368
Configuring Operations Manager Integration 374
Configuring Configuration Manager DCM Integration 376
Automating Incident Management 376
Creating Incident Management Templates 378
Creating Incident Management Workflows 380
Automating Incoming Operations Manager Alerts 384
Creating a Desired Configuration Management Workflow 385
Service Level Management 389
Creating a Service Level Objective Calendar Item 391
Creating a Service Level Objective Metric 392
Creating a Service Level Objective 394
Incident Management for End Users 396
Creating Incidents 397
Incident Follow-Up 397
Resolving and Closing Incidents 398
Fast Track 398
Summary 398
Chapter 12 Automation and Chargeback 399
Overview of Service Management and Automation 401
The Role of Automation 401
Service Manager’s Role in Private Cloud 402
Workflows in Service Manager 404
Service Manager SMLets 407
Orchestrator and Service Manager 412
Overview of Chargeback 415
Installing and Using Chargeback 417
Operations Manager Management Server Configuration 418
Service Manager Management Server Configuration 420
Configuring Chargeback 421
Using Chargeback Reports 422
Fast Track 424
Summary 424
Chapter 13 Problem Management 425
Understanding the Problem Management Process 425
Comparing Incident Management with Problem Management 426
Problem Management Functionality 426
Problem Management in Service Manager 428
Problem Management Process Activities 432
Problem Detection 434
Problem Recording, Classification, and Prioritization 435
Problem Investigation and Diagnosis 437
Known Error Control in Service Manager 438
Problem Resolution 440
Problem Closure 440
Configuring Problem Management 441
Problem Management Console Tasks 441
Problem Management User Roles, Groups, Queues, and Lists 442
Configuring General Problem Management Settings 443
Configuring Notification 444
Automating Problem Management 445
Fast Track 445
Summary 445
Chapter 14 Change Request and Configuration Management 447
Change Management in Service Manager 447
Change Management Process Activities 451
Configuration Item Baselines 453
Initiating and Recording Changes 454
Classifying Changes 459
Approving and Scheduling Changes 460
Coordinating Change Implementations 462
Reviewing and Closing Changes 465
Configuring Change Management 465
Change Management Console Tasks 466
Change Management User Roles, Groups, Queues, and Lists 467
Configuring General Change Request Management Settings 468
Configuring Notification 469
Creating a Change Request Template 470
Change Management Workflows 472
Fast Track 474
Summary 475
Chapter 15 Release Management 477
Understanding the Release Management Process 477
Release Management in Service Manager 479
Release Management Process Activities 482
Release Planning 483
Building and Testing the Release 486
Release Deployment 488
Release Evaluation and KPI Measurement 491
Configuring Release Management 492
Using Release Management Console Tasks 493
Creating Release Management User Roles, Groups, Queues, and Lists 494
Configuring General Release Management Settings 494
Configuring Release Templates 496
Building Release Records 498
Fast Track 501
Summary 502
PART IV: ADMINISTERING SERVICE MANAGER
Chapter 16 Managing Notifications 505
Notification Overview 505
Notification Setup 506
Using Recipients 506
Configuring Notification Channels 508
Creating Templates 510
Using Subscriptions 512
Incorporating Different Languages in Subscriptions 515
Adding Localization to Notification Emails 517
Culture XX is a Neutral Culture 519
Using Notification Workflows 520
Configuring a Workflow to Change the Impact of an Incident 521
Using the Workflow 524
Notification for Review Activities 526
Creating a Notification Template 527
Configuring an Activity Event Workflow 528
Creating Recurring Notifications 531
Fast Track 533
Summary 533
Chapter 17 Service Manager Security 535
Role-Based Security 536
Security Boundary Scoping 536
User Experience Optimization Scoping 537
Operations on the Data Access Service 537
About User Roles 538
Default User Roles 538
User Role Profiles 539
Best Practices for Creating Custom User Roles 543
Data Warehouse and Reporting Security 557
Data Warehouse Administrators User Role 558
Granting Access to Reports 558
Advanced User Role Scenarios 559
Scoping Knowledge Articles 560
Scoping Announcements 561
Scoping Software Packages 561
Run As Accounts 562
Run As Account Usage Scenarios 562
Out of the Box Run As Accounts 563
Creating and Using Custom Run As Accounts 564
Security Best Practices 571
Securing Database Access 572
Enabling Auditing 572
Fast Track 573
Summary 574
Chapter 18 Maintenance, Backup, and Recovery 575
Performing Maintenance 577
Planning and Performing Backup 578
Scheduling Considerations 580
Configuration Backup 581
SQL Server Database Backup 585
Operating System Backup 593
Planning and Performing Recovery 593
Configuration and Settings Recovery 594
Feature Recovery 594
Full Operating System Recovery 598
Summary 598
Chapter 19 Managing Service Manager Performance 599
Understanding Service Manager Performance 600
Service Manager Console Performance 602
Infrastructure Performance 602
Configuration Performance 603
Self-Service Portal Performance 610
Self-Service Portal Sizing 610
SharePoint 2010 Performance 610
Web Content Server Performance 610
Custom Icons 611
Service Manager SQL Server Database Performance 612
Input/Output per Second (IOPS) 613
Database and Log Files 613
Available Memory 613
Placement of TempDB 613
Service Manager Data Warehouse SQL Server Database Performance 614
Splitting Data Warehouse Databases 614
Cube Processing 614
Data Collection and Connectors 615
Types of Data 615
Connector Settings 617
Service Manager Management Server Performance 618
Using Orchestrator Runbooks 618
Using Groups and Queues 619
Use of Workflows 619
Testing Performance 620
Stress Testing Service Manager 621
Lab Resources 622
Service Manager Add-ons 624
Cireson 624
Gridpro 624
Summary 625
PART V: BEYOND SERVICE MANAGER
Chapter 20 Management Packs 629
Management Packs Defined 630
Purpose of Management Packs 632
Uninstalling Management Packs 633
Transporting Management Packs 633
Management Pack Versioning 634
Management Pack Componentization 634
Working with Management Packs 634
Sealed and Unsealed Management Packs 634
Management Pack Deployment 636
Creating a Management Pack Using the Service Manager Console 638
Viewing the Properties of a Management Pack 639
Exporting a Management Pack 641
Importing a Management Pack 642
Management Pack Bundles 644
Management Pack Schema 645
Identity Section 646
Versioning 646
About References 646
Entity Types Section 648
Secure References 648
Using Categories 648
About Templates 648
Presentation Section 649
Language Packs 650
Resources Section 650
Image Files 651
About Enumerations 651
Combination Classes 651
Console Tasks 653
Resources 654
Forms 654
Management Pack Best Practices 655
Fast Track 657
Summary 657
Chapter 21 Data Warehouse and Reporting 659
Data Warehouse Overview 660
Data Warehouse Explained 660
Service Manager Data Warehouse Rationale 662
Online Analytical Processing Explained 663
Analysis Library Explained 664
SQL Server Reporting Services Explained 664
PowerPivot Explained 664
PerformancePoint Explained 664
Data Warehouse Architecture 665
Data Warehouse Services 665
Data Warehouse Databases 665
Management Pack Synchronization Process 666
Extract, Transform, and Load Process 666
Data Warehouse Jobs 667
Data Warehouse Schema 669
Deploying the Data Warehouse 669
Data Warehouse Reporting 672
Reporting Permissions 672
Viewing Standard Reports 673
Favorite and Linked Reports 673
Subscribing to and Publishing Reports in SSRS 674
Reports Using Excel PowerPivot 676
Using Analysis Library to Store and View PowerPivot Reports 679
Dashboards in SharePoint PerformancePoint 680
Fast Track 684
Summary 684
Chapter 22 Customizing Service Manager 685
Planning Your Customization 685
What You Can Customize 686
Planning for Management Packs Customization 687
About Data Modeling 690
Presenting Data in Service Manager 697
Automating Processes with Workflows 705
Utilizing Groups and Queues 707
General Considerations for Customization 708
Required Knowledge 709
Performing Customizations in Service Manager 709
Customizing the Console 710
Creating Data Models 723
Creating Workflows 739
Customizing Service Manager Forms 747
Fast Track 753
Summary 754
Chapter 23 Advanced Customization Scenarios 755
Creating Console Tasks Using PowerShell 756
Using Custom Data Models 760
Creating a Management Pack Using Visual Studio Authoring Extensions 763
Creating the Management Pack 763
Defining the Management Pack Display Name 764
Adding References to the Management Pack 765
Creating the Building Base Class 766
Creating the Odyssey Building Room Class 768
Adding the Room Availability Enumeration to the Room Class 769
Adding the BuildingHasRoom Custom Relationship Type 771
Creating the Odyssey Building Bank Class 772
Adding a Type Projection to the Bank Class 773
Creating a Strong Name Key 774
Building and Sealing the Management Pack 775
Adding Views to the Management Pack 777
Customizing View Columns 783
Creating Custom Views 785
Creating Console Forms 789
Additional Resources 797
Viewing Criteria Based on Tokens 797
Building a Custom UserControl to Integrate into Forms 798
Additional Custom Console Tasks 798
Additional Form Customizations 798
Using the TechNet Gallery for Service Manager 798
Fast Track 798
Summary 799
Chapter 24 Using PowerShell 801
Windows PowerShell Cmdlet Primer 802
Frequently Used and Useful Cmdlets 802
Using the PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment 811
Service Manager and PowerShell 812
Connecting to Service Manager Management Server from PowerShell 813
Service Manager Cmdlet Use Cases 814
Writing Service Manager PowerShell Scripts 816
Service Manager PowerShell Script Use Cases 818
Using PowerShell for Data Warehouse Administration 822
Data Warehouse Cmdlet Use Cases 822
Using PowerShell to Manage the Data Warehouse 830
SMLets PowerShell Module 830
Installing SMLets 831
Using SMLets 831
Fast Track 837
Summary 838
PART VI: APPENDIXES
Appendix A User Role Profiles Supplement 841
User Role Profile Classes and Relationship Permissions 841
Mapping User Role Profiles with ITIL/MOF Roles 854
ITIL Role Types 854
Microsoft Operations Framework Role Types 856
Operations and Service Monitoring and Control SMF Role Types 856
Customer Service SMF Role Types 858
Change and Configuration SMF Role Types 859
Appendix B Reference URLs 861
General Resources 861
Microsoft’s Service Manager Resources 864
Other Service Manager Resources 867
Service Manager Authoring 869
PowerShell and SMLets 871
Service Manager Connectors 873
System Center 2012 875
SQL Server Resources 876
Reporting and Data Warehouse Resources 877
Blogs 879
Public Forums 880
Appendix C Available Online 883
Backup and Recovery 883
Managing Workflows 884
Building a Management Pack 884
Adding Service Components to a Business Service 884
Live Links 884
Index 885