If you want to stay ahead of server failures, server capacity problems and server-related network outages, Microsoft Operation Manager 2005 can help. On a small to midsize network with Windows 2000 Server systems and above, MOM 2005 can do a good job of getting and reporting server status and health information.

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How we did it
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We recently tested MOM 2005 and found that while it used more bandwidth than expected, and was not useful as a monitoring tool for router- or switch-related infrastructure problems, it did a good job monitoring Windows-based servers.

MOM 2005 is the latest incarnation of a product originally from Mission Critical Software (which was bought by NetIQ and then bought by Microsoft). The latest version of MOM sports several user interface improvements, new monitoring capabilities and a new report generation mechanism.

Eye on Windows Server

On Win 2000 and 2003 servers (but not Windows NT), MOM 2005 agents can track every possible Windows performance and capacity metric you can think of. Microsoft offers separately licensed Management Packs for applications and environments (see graphic, below). Microsoft publishes a programming interface a third-party vendor can use to create a Management Pack for that vendor's server-based software. We found that MOM 2005 integrates well with HP's OpenView and IBM's Tivoli network management systems.

The system can work with agents or go agent-less, via the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and Remote Procedure Call (RPC) interface. The MOM 2005 agents help it detect problems quicker, scale better, and give more information to administrators, planners and troubleshooters. The agents used less bandwidth than the agent-less WMI environment. Agents also aren't always optional. For example, the Active Directory management pack requires that you install agents on all domain controllers, and we found monitoring agent-less servers through firewalls problematic because firewalls typically do not allow the passage of RPC messages.

Our test focused on MOM's ability to monitor Windows Server, Exchange and SQL Server (see How we did it). In the Windows Server tests, MOM 2005 indicated when problems arose in an Active Directory database. It alerted us to server CPU utilization, disk space, low memory and network adapter problems. It monitored the Windows registry, server background programs, printer status and system registry health. The system excelled in checking whether service pack and specific Knowledge Base patches had been applied.