Microsoft 70-246: Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud..

Learn how System Center 2012 components, service manager, orchestrator, VMM, Operations Manager, and Configuration Manager, unify to manage cloud across SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS with performance, time, and quality KPIs.

Centralize the virtual environment with Virtual Machine Manager to build a private cloud. Use Orchestrator, run books, and the IT interface to monitor services and automate restarts.

The lecture presents a demonstration of Virtual Machine Manager and contrasts it with service manager to show how Virtual Machine Manager appears.

use the virtual machine manager console to provision and operate a private cloud, configure virtualization for hosting networking and storage, and deploy virtual machines.

Explore how to configure host reserves and dynamic resource optimization for virtual machines, balancing cpu, memory, disk i/o, and network i/o, with load balancing, migrations, and power optimization schedules.

Verify network resource inheritance, assign a static IP pool and other resources, review storage allocation for the host group, and configure pro configuration for monitoring, remediation, and admin contact.

Check the VM’s services via the services applet, ensuring System Center Virtual Machine Manager and its Agent are running, and set them to start automatically so the management console loads.

Monitor the entire virtualized environment with operations manager, a centralized tool that manages services, devices, and applications, using SQL Server operational and data warehouse databases to track health and alerts.

Monitor host and network alerts, view severity levels, run synthetic transactions to test load, and verify that SQL Server databases and key services stay healthy using OEM dashboards.

Use the diagram view to inspect the network architecture and connectors among operations manager, virtual machine manager, and hosts, verify healthy status with green indicators, and expand layers.

Explore Microsoft orchestrator and run book designer to automate IT tasks in private cloud infrastructure, integrating service manager, virtual machine manager, and operations manager through drag-and-drop run books.

Build automated workflows with the Orchestrator part 2 run book designer, dragging and dropping tasks from Systems Center tools to configure data protection, backup, failover, and virtual machine manager connections.

Verify data protection manager connectivity and connectors (2010–2007) using PowerShell for automation. Monitor and troubleshoot via the Orchestrator console and Operations Manager, testing connections and reviewing run books.

Explore how server manager provisions the tenant end user interface for cloud services, enabling self-service access, group-based permissions, and centralized incident, change, and capacity management across the private cloud.

Launch the Service Manager console, verify connectors and templates, and customize management packs and run books to support incident, problem, change, and service request workflows in a private cloud.

Explore configuration manager, the console that centrally deploys and manages operating system updates, inventories hardware and software, and creates workflows to install OS images on computers.

Explore data protection manager as a centralized backup and recovery control that supports disaster recovery, business continuity, and audit readiness in datacenters.

Start the data protection manager services and access the DPM console. Use bare metal recovery, policy-driven protection, instant recovery, auto discovery, and email alerts for servers and desktops.

Install and manage data protection manager agents across computers, configure alert recipients, publish job status to operations manager, and deploy agents via configuration manager with domain credentials and restart options.

Automate system administration with PowerShell, using Windows Management Instrumentation and WS-Management tools, while integrating with Orchestrator and the LRC server through packs for Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint, REST, and Azure.

Explore Hyper-V server 2012 as a standalone hypervisor with a small footprint, supporting failover clustering, and license per virtual instance.

Explore the seven System Center 2012 components—app controller, service manager, VMM, orchestrator, operations manager, data protection manager, and Configuration Manager—and their roles in deployment, automation, and backup.

Explore the System Center 2012 components for monitoring and operating a private cloud, including application control, service manager, virtual machine manager, operations manager, data protection manager, and configuration manager.

Configure datacenter process automation with Cinar 2012, using orchestrator run books to automate incident remediation, design end-to-end workflows, and publish service offerings to the service catalog.

Explore how run books comprise seven components—server, orchestrator, web front end, console, management and backend sql server, and tester, and how 41 integration packs connect to active directory and exchange.

Implementing workflows uses the orchestrator run book designer to automate the run book server setup, explore run books, and use the runbook tester and orchestrator integration packs.

Learn to create a group in Service Manager for an incident template, assign a management pack, add members, and configure dynamic membership to trigger runbooks for web services.

Duplicate the built-in operations manager incident template, link it to the service management configuration library, rename it for stock trader web servers, and set default values.

Create and configure an incident template for software outages in a private cloud, set high impact and high urgency, and route to tier 1 service desk.

Build and configure the Operations Manager alert connector in Service Manager, set alert routing rules and templates, and verify polling intervals and default templates to ensure timely incident alerts.

Validate incident creation by stopping the web service to trigger the incident template, then verify alerts in operations manager and confirm the incident details in the work items pane.

Configure alert properties in the global management group to monitor web services and the heartbeat agent, create a service affecting resolution with a unique ID, and enable automatic alert resolution.

Design and test run books with a single trigger, monitor continuously via the designer or orchestrator, and automate tasks using standard integration packs and the run book tester.

Configure logical networks and IP pools for the stock traders app, assigning DHCP, VIP addresses, DNS and WINS servers, and gateway details, while generating automated scripts for auditing.

Create a business unit in a private cloud by provisioning a cloud and defining a logical network, storage, and load balancing for the stock traders unit under the Toso organization.

Configure security for a business unit by defining user roles and run as accounts, then validate domain credentials and enforce scoped delegated administration within the private cloud.

Configure the business unit security and deploy a three-tier service template for the stock traders cloud, selecting hardware, OS, and resources, and enable scalable deployment.

Configure business unit security by adding active directory roles and certificate enrollment policies in server manager, and manage stock trader service template, web tier properties, and IP addressing.

Configure a private cloud's business unit security with high availability, storage and OS configuration, and automated deployments using pre-install and post-install scripts, naming conventions, quotas, and resource packages.

Configure SQL Server security for a private cloud by selecting the default profile, providing a new SQL Server instance, and using SQL Server authentication with appropriate service accounts.

Launch the orchestrator console, deploy integration packs via the deployment manager, and create a bogus incident to test configuration; deploy System Center integration pack for operations manager and verify logs.

Configure the orchestrator connector to operations manager with the run book designer and the System Center 2012 integration pack, then create and rename the incident management run book.

Add activities to the run book by dragging a monitor alert, configure its server and filters, and connect to a Get object widget to generate incidents in service manager.

Select the operations manager incident object and connect to the service manager, then link the update widget to the get object and set escalated, high impact, and high urgency.

Learn to add properties to a run book, publish the ticket id, and configure starts with criteria, then test run books with the run book tester and synthetic incidents.

Filter active alerts in operations manager to identify incidents like web and server unavailability, note IIR 116, set alert status to service affecting, and verify runbook execution.

Build an automated remediation runbook to restart a web site when a site down alert fires, using PowerShell scripting, unrestricted execution policy, and run book designer in System Center 2012.

create a remediation runbook by wiring a dot net script widget to a remote powershell script that starts a web site and uses monitoring data with replace variables.

Create a remediation runbook that uses an integer website state (1 online, 0 offline) to monitor health and auto-create a restart incident from a template in Service Manager.

Create a remediation runbook using the operations manager incident template, set high impact and urgency, and configure monitoring object identifier with escalated true for orchestrator failed to restart the website.

Create and test a remediation runbook that restarts the web site and logs an incident, using orchestrator, IIS manager, and the runbook tester to verify availability.

Create and monitor remediation runbooks to restart web services, view logs and audit history; troubleshoot services, ensure orchestrator rulebook stays running, and use runbooks for change management and staff notifications.

Set up service offerings and service catalogs for business units, enable a self-service component, and manage run books with the service manager and orchestrator.

Use service manager to operate and extend private cloud services, create a business unit servers group, and assign servers like LUN AP One to manage business unit processes.

Create a business unit queue to hold incidents for self-service alerts, selecting the incident class and the custom management pack, and define criteria such as enterprise application problems before finalizing.

Create a business unit user role for the service desk, granting end users access to selected queues, groups, and management packs to resolve incidents and manage service applications.

Create a business unit analyst role to review change requests and an incident resolver/admin role to implement approved changes, with access restricted to business unit servers.

Enable the email notification channel and configure the SMTP server to deliver incident alerts. Set return email and retry behavior to ensure notifications reach recipients.

Configure an incident completion subscription to notify the business unit queue when incidents are updated to resolved or closed, using the toso boot management pack and end user notification template.

Publish an incident service offering by creating a new request offering in the service catalog, selecting the dinner now price problem incident template, and routing for review and implementation.

Configure incident prompts by adding two text prompts—title (required) and description (optional)—map them to incident fields, then publish the offering.

Create a new dinner now service offering in the service catalog to enable self-service requests, configure overview, SLAs, links, related services, and publish for the self-service portal.

Create and submit an incident request as a business unit user, testing the service offering by running Internet Explorer as a different user to access the service manager portal.

Create and submit an incident ticket for a price discrepancy, then track, edit, and resolve it in the incident management system, adding admin comments and confirming the resolution.

Create groups, a queue, and an incident form to enable self-service ticket submission for a price problem; resolve the ticket in the service manager console, noting price modified as requested.

Create a minor change request using the change management node, selecting the minor change template. Submit the request and track its status from new to in progress.

Track a minor change request in a private cloud, moving its status from new to in progress and then to approved via the activities tab.

Implement automated remediation workflows with runbook automation to restart services and reboot servers, and enable self-service incident handling via the service manager and service catalog.

Deploy and monitor resources with System Center by deploying agents, discovering network devices, and configuring management packs to support a healthy private cloud, with dashboards and application performance monitoring metrics.

Deploy core operations manager components in a private cloud, including discovery agents, discovery rules, management packs, and securing access with a VPN; use ICMP and SNMP with complex community strings.

Configure end to end and service side monitoring, confirming a dot net application is discovered. Set performance thresholds and alerts for CPI at 50 percent and monitor the distributed environment.

Configure security to review new manual agent installations and disable automatic approval; install operations manager agent on the OEM server using the local system account Canuto as management group.

Approve the manually installed agent in the Operations Manager console to begin monitoring the stock traders' mid-tier server. Force a healthy state by restarting the Health Service and clearing logs.

Configure end-to-end server-side monitoring for the dinner now application by applying dot net application performance monitoring templates and creating a new management pack in Operations Manager.

Configure monitoring in production by creating a dinner now servers group and monitoring the app server with application performance monitoring management pack. Set thresholds for CPU, memory, network, and disk.

Restart the web server and system center management APM to apply end-to-end monitoring, verify dot net monitoring discovers the dinner now applications, and confirm performance counters in operations manager.

Enable client side monitoring for the dot net application production, review two incompatible pages, and adjust thresholds by removing localhost addresses and setting exception and performance thresholds to 1.

Configure end-to-end monitoring by adding a home page transaction, applying thresholds for exception and performance events, and setting client-side defaults with a 250 ms page load threshold.

Restart the client environment and verify performance data collection, using baselining to justify memory and storage upgrades; monitor the APM agent and test the web site to trigger counters.

Demonstrates configuring end-to-end monitoring by validating performance counters, restarting the System Center Management Service and the System Center Management APM Service, and checking agent health for private cloud monitoring.

Explore the role of dashboards in end-to-end monitoring, enabling executives to view key metrics from a central SharePoint site and IT to react quickly by creating monitoring reports and dashboards.

Explore creating and configuring monitoring dashboards using built-in templates in Operations Manager, set up service level tracking and SLAs, and monitor application health for private cloud environments.

Create a new service level tracking agreement for the dot net application's performance, configure the collection rule to monitor average request time in seconds, and finalize the setup.

Review the service level tracking with availability and performance sla in the reporting library, run the service level report, and create a dashboard for quick executive access.

Create a service level dashboard in the Operations Manager console using the dashboard wizard templates to monitor availability and performance service level objectives.

Deploy and install monitoring agents on target clients, discover monitored objects, configure monitoring for application performance indicators, and create reports and dashboards with SLA tracking for quick insights.

Learn to monitor resources across network devices, servers, and the virtualization layer using operations manager to set up alerts and notifications, ensuring application health and uptime.

Explore how to monitor network devices with Operations Manager and extended monitoring capabilities, including agent requirements, supported devices, security considerations, and configuring secure connectivity with VPNs and SSL certificates.

Create a stock trader port check management pack to monitor stock trader web server on tcp port 80 with the management pack wizard and test the connection every two minutes.

Configure a virtualization layer monitoring pack with the monitoring wizard to monitor the net info process that supports the IRS service and verify it exists under the stock traders group.

Create a stock trader web application transaction monitoring pack, test the web address, and set up the Wotcher node with a custom template for monitored servers.

Monitor a three-tiered distributed application using a management pack and the distributed application designer, adding the dinner now database and sql express, with the agent installed and design saved.

Explore end-to-end monitoring of distributed applications using Microsoft operations manager, focusing on client perspective, tiered layers, and management packs that cover Unix/Linux, .NET performance monitoring, and TCAP port monitoring.

Set up management packs to monitor network devices at the network layer, servers, virtualization processes, and application health through Systems Center to ensure service availability per the service level agreement.

Configure and maintain service management by defining service level objectives and agreements, managing SLA escalation, incidents, and root-cause analysis, monitoring virtualization, and deploying applications and virtual machines via service templates.

Implement service level management by configuring SLA management, setting incident queues, and analyzing SLA metrics in Excel with pivot tables, dashboards, and scorecards, and the analysis library.

Set up service level management by creating an incident queue, defining created date criteria within seven days, and building a calendar with extended hours and holidays.

Create metric for incident response time with created date as start and first response as end, then define service level objective using cloud queue and extended operating hours calendar.

Define and configure service level metrics and objectives to support SLAs, setting a 48-hour resolution target and a 2-hour warning threshold, with adjustable timing.

Review service manager warnings and breaches, expand incident management, and verify there are currently no warnings or breaches, ensuring compliance and monitoring service level objectives.

Create a shared data folder for the analysis library, assign authenticated users read and change permissions, and analyze data with Excel within the service manager workflow.

Review service level management setup, including calendar hours, response time metrics, and the service level agreement, and validate data warehouse integration with the analysis library and report permissions.

Connect the data warehouse cubes to Excel, using pivot tables and charts on the service manager work item cube to analyze incident metrics such as active and resolved incidents.

Save the private cloud incident reports spreadsheet with a pivot table and chart. Link Excel to the service manager in the reporting workspace analysis library to streamline incident management.

Learn to build performance point analytics reports in SharePoint by connecting to analysis services and using the dashboard designer to add data sources and visualize incident metrics.

Configure data connections to SQL Server Analysis Services in service manager, register the data warehouse, and build a performance point report using the service manager work item cube.

Build a Performance Point Analytics report by collapsing measures, expanding dimensions to locate incident date, and dragging it to the axis and series boxes, then save incidence by date report.

Create a scorecard in Microsoft scorecard to track incident resolution time as a KPI from SQL Server, setting targets and measures for stakeholder reporting.

Build and save a scorecard to monitor incident resolution time, then assemble an incident by date dashboard and deploy the incident summary to SharePoint for executives.

Create and publish a SharePoint dashboard that displays incidents by date, flags failed agents, and shows overall health with charts and generated reports from service manager.

Review service level management for clouds and how it supports feedback. Explain incident management across virtual, network, and host/guest levels with a service manager monitoring performance and service level agreements.

Implement security and compliance management with the OTTI governance risk and compliance initiative, analyze configuration compliance, and enable backup, recovery, and business continuity for a multi-cloud private cloud.

Learn how to launch a governance, risk, and compliance initiative by creating authority documents for controlling objectives and activities, and by assigning baselines to manage compliance and protection.

Configure a governance risk and compliance baseline in a private cloud using service manager, and create a credit card processing compliance program.

Explore governance, risk, and compliance for a corporate e-commerce program by refining the business justification, defining scope, and synchronizing the Active Directory connector to display the web object.

Configure a governance risk and compliance program, define the scope for selected objects, and prepare authority documents and controls for the program’s objectives and activities.

Create controls for the credit card compliance library in the compliance workspace by selecting the credit card processing program and adding the Microsoft authority document library.

Select the pci dss authority document for credit card processing, review control objectives and activities, create manual controls, and publish the compliant program to move from data draft to published.

Publish a base IT GRC control program to check PCI environment compliance for an e-commerce site, add authority documents and manual controls, and activate tests for reporting.

Monitor and manage data warehouse jobs in a private cloud, resume and force restarts to load objects for reports, and track the Microsoft program sync until completion.

Review the reporting workspace to run control management reports, monitor outstanding and running jobs, and assess compliance and baselining as data transforms and warehouse processes complete.

Establish a baseline to measure service level and compare future performance. Configure the update baseline from the update catalog, focusing on critical updates, and assign it to a VM server.

Assign baselines for updates on a private cloud by creating a baseline, applying it to a virtual machine, and running a compliance scan to confirm updates are installed.

Explore how to monitor compliance in Virtual Machine Manager, remediate non-compliant baselines with critical updates, and manage maintenance windows to meet service level agreements.

Learn to implement backup and recovery in a private cloud using data protection manager, deploy agents, create protection groups, perform manual and self-service recovery, and automatically protect key data.

Install the data protection manager agents to enable backup and recovery, selecting machines, credentials, and optional restarts, then monitor deployment progress via the wizard.

Create a new protection group for the stock trader database, web app, and order processing servers, add system state and perf logs, and enable consistency checks.

Configure replicas on application server, start AP One VM, and use DPM recovery pane to verify protected data and that stock traders database replicas show OK status.

Learn to manually recover databases from recovery points, choose original or copied destinations, enable SAN-based recovery and email notification, and verify integrity with consistency checks in the DPM console.

Configure a manual recovery by creating a recovery point for a database on the server, producing a shadow copy like a full backup to enable point-in-time rollback.

Enable self-service recovery of the stock trader database by creating a customer recovery role, specifying the sequel server instance, and allowing recovery to another sequel instance.

Set up and monitor a self-service recovery for the stock trader databases using DPM, copying to a network folder and notifying via email upon completion.

Configure automatic protection and recovery for key service data by ensuring orchestrator and DPM protections are running, removing replicas, and submitting a recovery request for the stock trader database.

Practice configuring automatic protection of key data through self-service requests, approving activities, and tracking statuses from in progress to completed in the data protection manager console.

Monitor recovery point jobs, verify the stock trader database was disk recovered and re-added to the protection group, and set up automatic protection with a run book.

Configure automatic data protection and recover a database by selecting the server and protection group, choosing a restore date, entering the cost center, and submitting the service request.

Submit a data protection request via a self-service portal to protect a database and add it to the protection group, then monitor approvals and recovery progress to completion.

Use operations manager to monitor protection status and deploy updates with data protection manager, demonstrating how to manage updates in a private cloud environment.

Monitor protection status with the Operations Manager by viewing System Center Data Protection Manager state views, protection groups, and SQL Server health, while managing distributed applications and updates.

Start by creating a database group in the data protection management pack, select the default pack, click next, add members, and set up a SQL Server with databases for demonstration.

Monitor data protection in the operations manager console, view alert and state views for protected servers and stock traders database protection group, note latency and restart DPM service if needed.

Explore updating distributed applications with DPM by configuring protection groups, verifying healthy protection states, and monitoring health via the operations manager dashboard.

Review cloud governance, risk, and compliance and create manual metrics using System Center data, including Operations Manager and business intelligence, while implementing backup and recovery, baselines, dashboards, and update management.

Explore how Microsoft private cloud spans private and public clouds with shared management and self-service across data centers, using System Center tools like virtual machine manager and data protection manager.