SMS, IntelliMirror, and MOM

You can use both SMS and IntelliMirror in Win2K environments. One strategy is to use SMS for software that you can't easily deploy with IntelliMirror (e.g., .dat files) and for applications (e.g., Microsoft Office 2000) that you want to deploy only on specific machines that have the resources to run them. You can use IntelliMirror to send less crucial applications (e.g., Adobe Systems' Adobe Acrobat Reader) to Win2K machines in the .msi format.

MOM
MOM picks up where the other Microsoft management offerings leave off. Whereas SMS's focus is on Windows desktop- and server-configuration management and IntelliMirror's focus is strictly on Win2K desktop deployments, MOM provides overall centralized monitoring and reporting. MOM doesn't help you deploy software or ensure that your desktops are orderly; rather, MOM's job is to ensure that all your systems are humming along smoothly. Figure 2 shows the MOM Administrator Console.

MOM, which Microsoft sells as a standalone product, provides centralized tracking and trend analysis for crucial systems. MOM can maintain all your Win2K and NT event logs in one central place so that searching for a specific event on one server or on all monitored servers is easy. MOM can also produce detailed reports about server activity over a long period of time.

Out of the box, MOM monitors and reports on the following systems and services: XP Pro, Win2K Server, Win2K Professional, the upcoming .NET Server, Active Directory (AD), Microsoft IIS, Win2K Server Terminal Services, Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC), WINS, DHCP, DNS, RRAS, Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), Microsoft Message Queue Services (MSMQ), and SMS. It even knows how to monitor and report its own events. The MOM Applications Management Pack, which Microsoft sells separately, adds the ability to monitor Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Proxy Server, Site Server, SNA Server, and other IIS items. Note that MOM doesn't yet manage Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 or Host Integration Server 2000, although Microsoft says it will add management packs as its product lines grow.

MOM comes with a set of default rules that tell MOM how to react to an event or a set of events that occur in a specific order or pattern. Events can be in SNMP or Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) format. Thus, if you're already tracking SNMP or WMI events in your environment, MOM will fit right in.

You can extend MOM's default rules to enforce your current "paper-based" policies. For example, if you have a policy that you contact a certain administrator when a domain controller's (DC's) C drive is 85 percent full, you can set a MOM rule to make that contact automatic. MOM calls these automatic notifications alerts.

Alerts can take multiple forms, including email notifications, SNMP trap events, and scripts and batch files that perform actions such as restarting a failed service. After generating an alert, MOM can help you diagnose the problem. Simply look at the rules that triggered the alert, and MOM shows you related Microsoft articles. If a certain problem occurs frequently in your environment, you can generate your own articles that augment the Microsoft articles. MOM's alerts are smart. If the same event occurs repeatedly in succession (e.g., if the DHCP server is down), MOM sends just one alert.

MOM shines when monitoring an all-Win2K-server environment, but plugins called Extended Management Packs (XMPs) are available from NetIQ to extend MOM's monitoring capabilities. NetIQ's management packs let MOM manage NT servers, Novell NetWare, UNIX, Lotus Notes, and other systems and services. Microsoft is also encouraging other vendors to write XMPs. For more information about MOM, see Ed Roth, "MOM 2000," November 15, 2001, InstantDoc ID 22771.

SMS vs. MOM
Some confusion exists about SMS and MOM's similarities and differences. SMS 2.0 includes a small add-in program called HealthMon that lets SMS know when some Performance Monitor counters reach a certain threshold. However, MOM is far more capable than HealthMon.

SMS and MOM also share some similarities in architecture. Both use SQL Server and a central data repository. Both automatically deploy agents to target systems to control and monitor them. Both SMS and MOM clients always talk to intermediary computers in a parent-child hierarchy and never directly talk to their respective central data repositories. SMS and MOM agents peacefully coexist on systems. The difference is that SMS is geared toward maintaining a computer-equipment inventory and deploying software to clients, and MOM is geared toward monitoring system performance and helping you react when things go wrong.

SMS, IntelliMirror, and MOM all have a place in an all-Windows environment. If you extend MOM with XMPs, it can also function in Windows environments that include some non-Microsoft equipment.

The dirty business of managing your environment never ends; if it did, you'd be out of a job. But with SMS, IntelliMirror, and MOM, your work is a little easier. You might even be able to take that ski trip after all.

Editor's Note: Portions of this article were adapted from The Definitive Guide to Enterprise Manageability (Realtimepublishers.com).