Knowledge is power right?
Operations Manager is at its core a knowledge based monitoring system, it’s the knowledge that differentiates it from its competitors.
It is fairly easy to collect some data and visualize it some fancy UX but it is another thing to collect the right data, provide the right visualization and the right context to make decisions on that data. This is where good quality Management packs come in, to provide this knowledge.
In the development of Management Packs we go to straight to the source in the development of this knowledge. We work with each Microsoft Product Group to produce MPs that define what data needs to be collected, how it can be best viewed and perhaps most importantly the knowledge to make decisions on that data. But it really does not stop here, in order to produce the best MPs the knowledge needs to evolve based on real world experiences, when an MP lands in an environment we need to learn what works and what doesn’t, we need to understand what knowledge helps or what is missing.
This is in part covered by the Microsoft standard feedback loop or like I stated in my previous blog if you have a problem or issue with an existing MP please let me know. (dsavage at microsoft [dot] com).
But there is more we can do, the first is ensuring we preview MPs before final release. In a recent change to our process we are working to release MPs to our TAP, MVP and internal communities before official release in order improve the knowledge with real-life experiences.
It is this process that brings me to the just released DNS Management Pack. This MP originally written by the DNS Product Group was previewed last year and put straight to work by the XBOX Live Operations team in Microsoft. During this evaluation the XBOX team provided not only feedback but worked to show how the MP could be evolved to improve its capabilities and quality. Working with the DNS product group they produced a new MP that combines the Product Group knowledge with the real-life experience of running this in production to support XBOX live.
We will continue to invest in this area and ensure like with DNS we are landing MPs with not just the Product knowledge but with the knowledge to make them ‘Field’ ready.
You can read more about the MP and how XBOX uses it here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/omx/archive/2013/03/27/the-new-dns-management-pack-for-system-center-operations-manager.aspx
The MP and MP guide can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=37141
If you want to know more or have any questions or issues related to Management Packs please let me know.
Daniel Savage
Program Manager – System Center
Microsoft Management Pack Wiki : http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/16174.microsoft-management-packs.aspx
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