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Enterprise Vault 11
Feature Briefing
Enterprise Vault SCOM Enhancements
This document is about the new Enterprise Vault SCOM enhancements introduced in Enterprise Vault 11.If you have any feedback or questions about this document please email them to [email protected] stating the document title.
Page 1 Enterprise Vault 11 Feature Briefing – SCOM Enhancements
Feature Description
Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) reports which monitored objects are healthy, sends alerts when problems are identified, and provides information to help identify the cause of a problem and possible causes. Enterprise Vault includes a management pack for:
SCOM 2007 R2 CU 6 and CU 7 SCOM 2012 CU 3
SCOM 2012 SP1 SCOM 2012 R2 base
This pack defines the rules that enable SCOM application to monitor Enterprise Vault components and critical Enterprise Vault events in the Application Event log on the Enterprise Vault servers.
SCOM also monitors all the alerts that are on the Monitoring tab in the Enterprise Vault Site Properties. These alerts are written as a result of critical events to the Application Event log. SCOM monitors the event logs for these events. The SCOM monitoring rules are applied by default.
Business Value
There were several compelling reasons for this feature enhancement. The main reason being that this is the feature that topped on the idea request portal on Symantec Connect (http://www.symantec.com/connect/). Research has also shown that some customers are still struggling to understand what is going on in Enterprise Vault and need a better understanding and monitoring capabilities of their Enterprise Vault environments.
Additionally, administrators used to spend a lot of time validating that archiving is functioning as expected and that all users have access to their archives at all times.
Prior to this release, the Enterprise Vault SCOM pack had limited alerts. These alerts were not categorized in a detailed manner. With Enterprise Vault 11, SCOM categories have been expanded in order to make the monitoring of an Enterprise Vault environment easier.
Underlying Principles
The Symantec Enterprise Vault SCOM pack is divided into three parts. Table 1 gives details of the various SCOM packs.
SCOM Pack Description
Symantec.EnterpriseVault.Lbrary.MP Creates root “Symantec Enterprise Vault” container Contains Enterprise Vault monitoring profile
Symantec.EnterpriseVault.MP Is a SCOM Enterprise Vault management pack for older versions (9.0.2.x-10.x)
Symantec.EnterpriseVault.Latest.MP Is a library management pack for Enterprise Vault 11 Creates Enterprise Vault container below the root
container Symantec.EnterpriseVault.PowerShell.
Monitoring.dll
Symantec.EnterpriseVault.PowerShell.Core.dll
Are dlls updated to support Enterprise Vault 11 SCOM pack
Register cmdlets used by SCOM pack (x86, x64)
Table 1 - Enterprise Vault SCOM packs
SCOM components
Page 3 Enterprise Vault 11 Feature Briefing – SCOM Enhancements
Figure 1 displays the SCOM components and how different components interact with each other.
SCOM Server also known as Management Server, it administers the management group configurations, administers and communicates with agents, and communicates with the databases in the management group. It is the focal point for administering the management group and communicating with the database. Operational database is an SQL Server database that has all configuration data for the management group. It also stores all monitoring data that is collected and processed for the management group. The operational database retains short-term data, by default 7 days.
Data Warehouse database is an SQL Server database that stores monitoring and alerting data for historical purposes.
Agent Managed Server has a service that is installed on a computer of an Operations Manager agent. The agent collects data, compares sampled data to predefined values, creates alerts, and runs responses. A management server receives and distributes configurations to agents on monitored computers.
SCOM console allows monitoring of all these components.
SCOM dataflow
Figure 2 - SCOM pack dataflow diagram
Figure 2 displays a graphic representation of the Enterprise Vault Management pack dataflow diagram. 1. First the SCOM server searches for computers in the domain for installing agent.
2. The SCOM server then pushes the SCOM agent on the client (Enterprise Vault) server. Once the agent installation is complete, SCOM server pushes the management pack onto the client.
4. The PowerShell cmdlets in the rules are executed on the Client which return the Enterprise Vault server objects to SCOM server
5. Once the objects are discovered, SCOM server sends monitoring logic as data sources to the Client. The Client then returns the monitoring data to the SCOM server.
Guided Tour
There are various metrics that act as vital signs for the Enterprise Vault server’s health. These parameters are related to Enterprise Vault SQL databases, Index locations, Vault Store partitions and Enterprise Vault Server location. Enterprise Vault populates the information related to the services it supports in its performance counter shared memory. This information is available at all times and for all applications like SCOM Agent-Server, Fitness Automation framework, perfom.exe or any other third party application to read and use as required by their business logic.
Table 2 illustrates the various performance counters in the Enterprise Vault SCOM pack. Objects monitored Performance counters
Connectivity Disk Space Backup
Directory database
Vault Store database
Fingerprint database
File Locations (App, temp, cache)
Index location
Vault Store Partition
Website(s)
Table 2 - Enterprise Vault SCOM pack performance counters
For ease of use and understanding, Performance Counters are divided into five broad categories based on the areas they use for providing the functionality. Table 3 displays the Performance Counters in Enterprise Vault 11 in those categories.
Page 5 Enterprise Vault 11 Feature Briefing – SCOM Enhancements
Performance Counter category Name of the performance counter Enterprise Vault Database Files Database file location % used
Hours since last backup Enterprise Vault Databases Connectivity
Enterprise Vault Disk Location Disk space % used Enterprise Vault Indexing Index location % used
Index location connectivity state Enterprise Vault Partitions Connectivity
Hours since last backup
Vault Store partition location % used Enterprise Vault Websites Connectivity
Table 3 - Enterprise Vault Performance Counter categories
Licensing and support considerations
Licensing
A SCOM license needs to be purchased separately from Microsoft for using the software. There is no separate licensing required for monitoring Enterprise Vault from SCOM.
Using or removing an earlier SCOM pack
Older SCOM packs are not removed when the new Enterprise Vault 11 SCOM pack is imported. The new SCOM pack is backward compatible and also has other enhancements. This is why both SCOM packs can be used simultaneously until everything is upgraded to the latest version.
Optional SCOM configuration
The Enterprise Vault SCOM Management pack defines main rules to monitor Enterprise Vault, some of which are disabled by default. Review the rules and enable or disable them as required.
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