10750 Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud with System Center 2012

Course Description

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This course describes the various components of System Center and how to deploy, monitor and manage a service and prepackaged applications in to the private cloud as well as automating incident creation, remediation and change requests.

This course provides an overview of a private cloud infrastructure, the business and technical drivers behind the implementation, and how System Center 2012 can be used to monitor and operate the private cloud infrastructure. Students will learn how to configure and optimize a new business unit cloud as well as how to deploy pre-packaged applications and create a new service template to deploy a service into the cloud. Students will learn how System Center Operations Manager is used to monitor the various services that underpin the private cloud and will gain a deep insight into the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) feature of Operations Manager to monitor the performance and availability of an application. Students will learn about the core functionality of Service Manager and learn how to create and manage change requests, incidents, and release records as well as the security model behind Service Manager.

Students will also learn about problem management and how to use it within a service management framework using Service Manager. They will perform custom event monitoring in Operations Manager and then use it to identify and route incidents and problems to Service Manager, providing automatic incident creation, remediation and change requests. Students will learn how to provide automated self service provisioning and how to protect and recover the resources in the private cloud. Students will learn how to implement IT Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC) in a private cloud. They will configure the environment to verify whether key private cloud infrastructure is correctly patched and updated, and will check for compliance across key Service Components and remediate non-compliant items. Students will learn how to provide surfacing service and performance-related data and how to optimize Cloud Resources.

Audience Profile

This course is intended for Datacenter administrators responsible for monitoring and protecting the private cloud infrastructure and solution architects responsible for designing private cloud architectures and extending existing private cloud solutions. Additionally, this course targets administrators who create service requests.

Prerequisite(s) Recommended

Before attending this course, students must have:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 experience
• Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) knowledge
• Networking experience
• Working knowledge of previous versions of System Center products
• Knowledge of configuration of Microsoft SharePoint
• Hyper-V knowledge
• Knowledge of data center management processes
• SAN Knowledge

Learning Objectives

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Configure Data Center Process Automation

O Implement workflows

O Implement service offerings

• Deploy Resource Monitoring

O Deploy end-to-end monitoring

O Configure end-to-end monitoring

O Create monitoring reports and dashboards

• Monitor Resources

O Monitor Network Devices

O Monitor Servers

O Monitor the virtualization layer

O Monitor application health

• Configure and Maintain Service Manager

O Implement service level management

O Manage problems and incidents

O Manage cloud resources

• Manage Configuration and Protection

 

Course Outline

Module 1: Introduction to the Private Cloud

This module gives students an overview of a private cloud infrastructure, including what it is, the business and technical drivers behind implementing it, and how they can use System Center 2012 to monitor and operate it. Students will understand the key concepts of a private cloud and verify key components of System Center 2012.

Lessons

• Overview of the Cloud Computing Model
• Requirements for the Private Cloud
• Operating a Private Cloud Infrastructure with System Center
• Verifying the Health of the Private Cloud Infrastructure
• Verifying the Health and Configuration of System Center
• Verifying the Compliance of the Private Cloud Infrastructure

Lab : Verifying the Private Cloud Infrastructure

• Exercise 1: Verifying the Infrastructure
• Exercise 2: Verifying System Center Components

Lab : Verifying the Compliance of the Private Cloud Infrastructure

• Exercise: Checking Compliance

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe the features of a cloud computing model.
• Describe the requirements for the private cloud.
• Describe how to use System Center 2012 to monitor and manage the private cloud.
• Verify the health of the private cloud infrastructure.
• Verify the health and configuration of System Center 2012.
• Verify the compliance of the private cloud infrastructure.

Module 2: Configuring and Optimizing Business Unit Clouds

In this module, students will learn how to configure a new business unit cloud within Virtual Machine Manager.

Lessons

• Overview of System Center Virtual Machine Manager
• Managing a Virtual Environment with Virtual Machine Manager
• Creating Business Unit Clouds

Lab : Configuring and Optimizing Business Unit Clouds

• Exercise 1: Configuring Network Resources
• Exercise 2: Creating the Business Unit Cloud
• Exercise 3: Configuring Security for the Business Unit Cloud

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe the core components, key features, architecture, and security features of Virtual Machine Manager, and the role it plays in the private cloud.
• Use Virtual Machine Manager to manage a virtual environment.
• Describe how to build, and configure resources and security for, a business unit cloud.

Module 3: Deploying Cloud Services

In this module, students will learn to deploy pre-packaged applications and create a new service template to deploy a service into the cloud.

Lessons

• Overview of Service Templates
• VMM Machine Profiles
• Configuring SQL Server Profiles
• Configuring Application Profiles
• Overview of Web Deploy Packages
• Overview of Server App-V
• Overview of Data Tier Application Packages

Lab : Importing and Deploying the Stock Trader Application

• Exercise 1: Configuring Prerequisites
• Exercise 2: Preparing the Stock Trader Service Template
• Exercise 3: Deploying the Service Template
• Exercise 4: Configuring the Application Profile
• Exercise 5: Configuring the SQL Server Profile
• Exercise 6: Creating a Service Template
• Exercise 7: Deploying a Service

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe the elements of a service in VMM.
• Create service templates in VMM using the service template designer.
• Describe the process of creating machine profiles.
• Describe the process of creating application profiles.
• Describe the process of creating SQL profiles.
• Deploy services to a private cloud.

Module 4: Monitoring Private Cloud Services

In this module, the students are given an overview of System Center Operations Manager. The students are also shown how Operations Manager is used to monitor the various services that underpin the private cloud. The students are then shown how to deploy agents to key service components running within the private cloud. Custom monitoring is then applied to these components which include the creation of a distributed application model to give a holistic view of the health of the private cloud infrastructure.

Lessons

• Overview of System Center Operations Manager
• Agent Deployment in Operations Manager
• Configuring Custom Monitoring
• Monitoring the Network Infrastructure
• Monitoring Distributed Applications

Lab : Monitoring Private Cloud Services

• Exercise 1: Deploying an Agent
• Exercise 2: Configuring Custom Monitoring
• Exercise 3: Creating a Distributed Application Model
• Exercise 4: Detecting and Recovering from a Failure

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe what Operations Manager is, including the architecture, key features and security.
• Describe how agents are deployed in Operations Manager.
• Describe how to configure custom monitoring.
• Describe how to monitor the networking infrastructure.
• Describe how to monitor distributed applications.

Module 5: Configuring Application Performance Monitoring

This module gives students a deep insight into the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) feature of Operations Manager. A .NET application has been installed into the lab environment that will be used for this module. Students will learn to configure APM to monitor the performance and availability of this application. A break in the application is then instigated where students will see how Operations Manager detects and reports this with the Alerting and Diagnostics tools that are built into Operations Manager.

Lessons

• Application Performance Monitoring
• Advanced Monitoring in Application Performance Monitoring
• Viewing Application Performance in Operations Manager

Lab : Configuring Application Performance Monitoring

• Exercise 1: Configuring Basic Monitoring in Application Performance Monitoring
• Exercise 2: Customizing the Performance Thresholds
• Exercise 3: Validating Monitoring
• Exercise 4: Updating the Distributed Application Model

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe what should be monitored in .NET Web Applications.
• Describe how to check for errors when monitoring application performance.
• Describe the performance and availability checking capabilities of Application Performance Monitoring in terms of code failure, performance bottlenecks, security and connectivity issues.
• Describe how to configure Application Performance Monitoring.

Module 6: Operating and Extending Service Management in the Cloud

Students will learn about the core functionality of Service Manager and learn how to create and manage change requests, incidents, and release records. Students will also learn about the security model behind Service Manager so that they can customize and extend the integral functionality of the service.

Lessons

• Overview of Service Manager
• Configuring Security and User Roles
• Configuring Work Items
• Configuring Incident Queues
• Configuring Service Offerings

Lab : Operating and Extending Service Management in the Cloud

• Exercise 1: Configuring Security Roles
• Exercise 2: Configuring Notifications
• Exercise 3: Publishing an Incident Service Offering
• Exercise 4: Raising an Incident
• Exercise 5: Creating an Approving a Change Request
• Exercise 6: Creating an Assigning a Release Record

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe the core components of Service Manager.
• Configure the security model behind Service Manager.
• Operate the key request types within Service Manager.
• Describe how an incident queue is created and maintained.
• Create and extend a basic service offering.

Module 7: Problem Management in the Cloud

Students will learn what problem management is and how they can use it within a service management framework. Additionally, students will understand its implementation as a manual feature of Service Manager. Finally, students will learn how to create a custom event monitor in Operations Manager and then use it to identify and route incidents and problems to Service Manager.

Lessons

• Overview of Problem Management
• Creating Custom Rules

Lab : Automating Problem Management in the Cloud

• Exercise 1: Manually Creating a Problem Record
• Exercise 2: Creating a Custom Event Rule in Operations Manager
• Exercise 3: Configuring Automated Problem Record Creation

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe all the key problem management functions within Service Manager.
• Discover how to create custom rules within Operations Manager.

Module 8: Automatic Incident Creation, Remediation and Change Requests

In this module, students will learn about Orchestrator and how it integrates with Operations Manager and Service Manager.

Lessons

• Overview of System Center Orchestrator 2012
• Integrating Orchestrator with Operations Manager and Service Manager

Lab : Automatic Incident Creation, Remediation, and Change Requests

• Exercise 1: Configuring SCOM and Service Manager Integration
• Exercise 2: Configuring the Service Affecting Incident
• Exercise 3: Automating Incident Remediation
• Exercise 4: Automating a Change Request

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe the key components of Orchestrator, including Integration Packs.
• Describe how Orchestrator integrates with Operations Manager and Service Manager.

Module 9: Automating Self Service Provisioning

In this modules, students learn about automating self service provisioning using the System Center Cloud Service Process Pack, including the configuration items that are created and the request items that are contained in the System Center Cloud Service Process Pack.

Lessons

• Installing and Configuring the System Center Cloud Services Process Pack
• Cloud Services Configuration Items
• Cloud Services Request Items

Lab : Automating Self Service Provisioning

• Exercise 1: Configuring System Center Cloud Services Process Pack
• Exercise 2: Configuring Service Roles and Settings
• Exercise 3: Creating a Cloud Service Offering
• Exercise 4: Requesting and Updating Projects
• Exercise 5: Requesting and Updating a Cloud Service Capacity Pool
• Exercise 6: Decommissioning Capacity and Projects
• Exercise 7: Requesting and Updating a Cloud Service Virtual Machine

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe the core components of the cloud services process pack.
• Describe all the configuration items created by the System Center Cloud Service Process Pack.
• Describe the request items contained in the System Center Cloud Service Process Pack.

Module 10: Private Cloud Protection and Recovery

In this module students will learn how to protect the resources in the private cloud by using Data Protection Manager. They will also learn how to implement a recovery action by using Orchestrator to recover a database.

Lessons

• Protecting Data in the Private Cloud
• Recovering Data in the Private Cloud

Lab : Private Cloud Protection and Recover

• Exercise 1: Configuring Protection of Key Service Data
• Exercise 2: Configuring the Automatic Protection and Recovery of the Server
• Exercise 3: Monitoring Protection and Recovery Status

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Protect resources using Data Protection Manager.
• Recover data using Data Protection Manager.

Module 11: Configuring Compliance in the Cloud

In this module students will learn how to implement IT Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC) in a private cloud environment using System Center 2012. They will learn how to implement Software Update Compliance in Virtual Machine Manager to verify whether key private cloud infrastructure is correctly updated with the latest software updates and how they can implement the IT GRC Management Pack  in Service Manager to check for compliance across  key Service Components and remediate non-compliant items.

Lessons

• Implementing IT Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC)
• Implementing Software Update Compliance

Lab : Configuring Compliance in the Cloud

• Exercise 1: Implementing Compliance
• Exercise 2: Creating Security Baselines

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Identify key implementation scenarios for IT GRC Compliance.
• Describe common Software Update Compliance scenarios.

Module 12: Configuring SLAs, Dashboards and Widgets

In this module, students will be able to describe and use various methods for surfacing service and performance-related  data from Operations Manager and Service Manager to SharePoint and Microsoft Excel.

Lessons

• Understanding Service Level Tracking in Operations Manager
• Configuring and Deploying Widgets and Dashboards in Operations Manager
• Publishing Real-Time State with Microsoft Visio
• PerformancePoint Overview
• Configuring Service Manager Analytics
• Viewing Data with Excel

Lab : Configuring SLAs, Dashboards, and Widgets

• Exercise 1: Configuring Service Level Tracking and Widgets
• Exercise 2: Configuring Service Level Management
• Exercise 3: Configuring Analytics
• Exercise 4: Configuring Excel Analytics
• Exercise 5: Configuring PerformancePoint Analytics
• Exercise 6: Configuring Real-Time Visual Displays

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Describe how service level tracking is implemented and configured in Operations Manager.
• Configure and deploy widgets.
• Create and publish Microsoft Visio diagrams to display state from SCOM.
• Create SharePoint-based dashboards and scorecards using PerformancePoint.
• Describe how to configure analytics in Service Manager and SharePoint.
• Describe how to view OLAP data from Excel.

Module 13: Optimizing Cloud Resources

In this module, students learn how to optimize cloud resources using various tools from components such as the Microsoft online Management Pack Catalog, Operations Manager, Service Manager, and Orchestrator.

Lessons

• Updating Management Packs through the Catalog
• Configuring Operations Manager Groom Setting
• Configuring Service Manager Groom Settings
• Orchestrator Log Overview

Lab : Optimizing Cloud Resources

• Exercise 1: Updating Management Packs from the Catalog
• Exercise 2: Tuning SCOM Grooming
• Exercise 3: Tuning Service Manager DW

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Update SCOM management packs by using the Microsoft online Management Pack Catalog.
• Change Operations Manager groom settings by using SQL or by using the command-line tool.
• Describe how to change the Service Manager data-retention period.
• Locate Orchestrator troubleshooting logs, interpret the data contained within them, and describe how to change the settings for these logs.