speed lab 1! system center 2012 r2: introduction to...

Speed Lab 1! System Center 2012 R2:

Introduction to Infrastructure

Provisioning & Monitoring

Lab Guide System Center 2012 R2 is the industry’s leading datacenter management system, providing a variety of infrastructure, automation, self-service, IT service management, VM and application management capabilities. Learn the basics of every System Center 2012 R2 infrastructure component, including Virtual Machine Manager, Operations Manager, Advisor, App Controller, and Data Protection Manager.

Lab version: 1.7

Last updated: 7/22/2014

Login: contoso\administrator Password: Passw0rd!

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CONTENTS Lab Overview 4

Estimated Lab Duration 4

Exercises 4

Prerequisites 4

Overview of Lab 4

Virtual Machine Technology 4

Computers in this Lab 5

1 - Virtual Machine Manager 6

1.1 - Virtual Machine Manager Overview ....................................................................................................................... 6

1.2 – Provision Pooled Storage ..................................................................................................................................... 13

1.3 - Create a Virtual Machine ...................................................................................................................................... 18

2 – Operations Manager 22

2.1 - Operations Manager Overview ............................................................................................................................. 22

2.2 - Monitor the Infrastructure ................................................................................................................................... 29

3 – Data Protection Manager 43

3.1 - Data Protection Manager Overview ..................................................................................................................... 43

3.2 - Backup System Center Infrastructure .................................................................................................................. 47

3.3 - Recover System Center Infrastructure.................................................................................................................. 52

4 – App Controller 57

4.1 - App Controller Overview ...................................................................................................................................... 57

4.2 – Deploy a Service through Self-Service ................................................................................................................. 62

5 - Advisor 67

5.1 - Advisor Overview .................................................................................................................................................. 67

5.2 – Monitor SQL Server .............................................................................................................................................. 71

Copyright © 2014 by Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Lab Overview

Estimated Lab Duration Up to 120 minutes. This is a long lab as it covers multiple System Center components with an introduction exercise along with a few additional exercises for each component. All the labs are independent of each other and can be performed in any order, with the exception of the Data Protection Manager backup & restore (Exercise 4).

Exercises After completing this lab, you will be able to navigate the following System Center 2012 R2 components:

1. Virtual Machine Manager 2. Operations Manager 3. Data Protection Manager 4. App Controller 5. Advisor

Prerequisites A basic understanding of datacenter components, including servers, virtualization, storage and networking.

Overview of Lab System Center 2012 R2 is the industry’s leading datacenter management system, providing a variety of infrastructure, automation, self-service, IT service management, VM and application management capabilities. Learn the basics of every System Center 2012 R2 infrastructure component, including Virtual Machine Manager, Operations Manager, Advisor, App Controller, and Data Protection Manager.

Virtual Machine Technology The computers in this lab are virtual machines that are implemented using Microsoft Hyper-V. Before starting each virtual machine, ensure you apply the Start-Lab snapshot. When you have started a virtual machine, log on by pressing CTRL+ALT+END and supply the credentials listed in the lab instructions.

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Computers in this Lab This lab uses virtual machines as described in the following table. Before you begin the lab, you must start the virtual machines and then log on to the computers. User: contoso\administrator Password: Passw0rd!

VM Roles RAM DC01 Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, File Server, iSCSI 2

SCCM01 SC2012R2 Configuration Manager, SC2012R2 Endpoint Protection, File Server, Failover Clustering, IIS, Windows Server Update Services, SQL Server 2012 SP1

3

SCDPM01 Hyper-V, Failover Clustering, SC2012R2 Data Protection Manager, SQL Server 2012 SP1

2

SCO01 SC2012R2 Orchestrator, IIS, SQL Server 2012 SP1 2

SCOM01 .NET application (TalkingHeads), Advisor, Hyper-V, Failover Clustering, IIS, SC2012R2 Operations Manager, SQL Server 2012 SP1

5

SCSM01 SC2012R2 Service Manager, SQL Server 2012 SP1 4

SCSM02 [WS2008R2] Service Manager Portal (SM Portal), SharePoint 2013 Foundation, IIS

2

SCVMM01 Hyper-V, SC2012R2 Virtual Machine Manager, SC2012R2 App Controller, IIS, SQL Server 2012 SP1

4

Total 24

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1 - Virtual Machine Manager

1.1 - Virtual Machine Manager Overview In this exercise the user will learn about the different workspaces and functions of System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, including VMs and Services, Fabric, Library, Jobs and Settings.

Estimated time to complete: 10 minutes

Perform the following on SCVMM01

1) From SCVMM01, open the Virtual Machine Manager Console by clicking the icon in the taskbar. If a prompt to Connect to Server appears, keep the default options and click Connect.

2) Navigate to the VMs and Services workspace. This workspace is used to deploy and manage Virtual Machines, Virtual Networks, Clouds and Tenants.

3) Click on Tenants. This provides tenants the ability to deploy preconfigured virtual machines and services.

4) Click on Clouds. Clouds combine hosts and networking, storage, and library resources together to create a private cloud.

5) Click on VM Networks. This manages virtual networks which simplify the administration of diverse networking environments.

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6) Click on Storage. This manages storage resources that can be used by the VM and services.

7) Click on the Fabric workspace. This workspace is used to configure and manage the resources of the environment. These resources include the virtual machine hosts, networking, storage and library servers and shares. These resources must be configured before the user can deploy virtual machines to a private cloud or a virtual machine host.

8) Click on Servers | All Hosts. This section is used to add Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer and VMware ESX hosts and clusters to the VMM environment.

9) Expand Infrastructure. This section is used to add infrastructure servers, these servers include Library, PXE, Update, vCenter and VMM servers.

10) Expand Networking. This section is used to create logical and VM network resources, IP and MAC address pools, logical switches and other network related resources.

11) Expand Storage. This section contains Storage resources, such as storage classifications, logical units, and storage pools that are made available to Hyper-V hosts and host clusters.

12) Click on the Library workspace. This workspace is a catalog of resources that provides access to file-based resources such as virtual hard disks, virtual floppy disks, ISO images, scripts, driver files and application packages that are stored on library servers, and to non file-based resources such as virtual machine and service templates and profiles that reside in the VMM database.

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13) Click on Templates. Templates are used to standardize the creation of virtual machines and services. These configurations are stored in the VMM database but are not represented by physical configuration files. There are several new types of templates and profiles in VMM, most of which are used for service creation. There are also host profiles-- and as of System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager-- physical computer profiles used for deploying a Hyper-V host from a bare-metal computer. There are also capability profiles used to specify the capabilities of virtual machines on each type of supported hypervisor when virtual machines are deployed to a private cloud.

14) Expand Profiles. Profiles standardize the creation of virtual machines and services. These configurations are stored in the VMM database but are not represented by physical configuration files. There are several new types of templates and profiles in VMM, most of which are used for service creation. There are also host profiles-- and

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as of System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager-- physical computer profiles used for deploying a Hyper-V host from a bare-metal computer. There are also capability profiles used to specify the capabilities of virtual machines on each type of supported hypervisor when virtual machines are deployed to a private cloud.

15) Expand Library Servers and browse the different library objects. Library servers and library shares store resources that will be reused by virtual machines, such as VHDs and templates.

16) Expand Updates Catalog and Baselines. These are used to keep the infrastructure up to date. An update baseline contains a set of required updates that is then scoped to an assignment such as a host group, a stand-alone host, a host cluster, or a VMM management server. During a compliance scan, computers that are assigned to a baseline are graded for compliance with their assigned baselines. After a computer is found noncompliant, an administrator brings the computer into compliance through update remediation.

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17) Click on the Jobs workspace. This workspace is used to view any jobs that are currently running. Click History. This view displays all the historical jobs that have been performed by VMM. If the job has an error, the administrator can restart the job from here.

18) Click on the Settings Workspace. This workspace is used to manage the settings for Virtual Machine Manager.

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19) Expand Security and click User Roles. This is used to create a new user or edit existing roles to be used in VMM. There are several role profiles to choose from which will determine the available action to members of that role.

20) Click on Configuration Providers. This is used to manage third party components that integrate with VMM, such as load-balancers and networking components.

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21) Click on System Center Settings. This is used to manage settings related to System Center.

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1.2 – Provision Pooled Storage In this exercise, a SMB file server and an iSCSI Target storage provider has been added to SCVMM. SCVMM can centrally manage pools of storage and provision them for use by other infrastructure components. First an SMB share will be created which stores the virtual hard disk (VHD or VHDX) of a virtual machine. Next an iSCSI LUNs is created which is commonly used as cheap storage and can also support VMs. Finally the iSCSI LUN will be assigned to a group of servers so that they can use it to store their VMs.




2) Navigate to the Fabric workspace.

3) Select File Servers. Note that DC01.contoso.com is now listed as a file server. Although other shares are listed, the ClusterShare is the only one that storage will be provisioned to which is indicated by the column called Managed.

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4) From the Home Ribbon, click Create File Share. The Create File Share wizard will appear.

5) Under File Server ensure DC01.contoso.com is selected.

6) Under Name enter VMStorage.

7) Under Classification select GOLD from the drop-down menu.

8) Under Local path enter C:\Shares\VMStorage and click Create.

9) From the Fabric workspace expand Storage and select File Servers. Note that VMStorage is available as File Shares in the information pane.

10) Open File Explorer and navigate to \\DC01 and the new share (VMStorage) will appear in a moment.

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11) Close File Explorer.

12) Click the Fabric workspace and navigate to Storage | Providers. Note that DC01.contoso.com is listed as an SMI-S WMI provider as it has an iSCSI Target.

13) Click Arrays, then select DC01. Note that DC01 is now an available iSCSI array and also note the Total Capacity and Used Capacity details.

14) From the Home Ribbon click Create Logical Unit. The Create Logical Unit wizard will appear.

15) Under Storage Pool ensure that iSCSITarget: DC01: F: is selected. 16) Under Name enter VMLUN and under Size (GB) enter 2 and click OK.

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17) Navigate to Storage | Classifications and Pools and expand BRONZE | iSCSITarget: DC01: F:. Note that VMLUN has been created. This may take several minutes to appear.

18) From the upper Ribbon, select Allocate Capacity. The Allocate Storage Capacity Wizard will open.

19) Under Host Groups select Contoso from the dropdown.

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20) Click Allocate Logic Units. 21) On the Allocate Storage Units window, select VMLUN, then click Add.

22) Click OK. 23) Click Close on the Allocate Storage Capacity page.

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1.3 - Create a Virtual Machine In this exercise a virtual machine will be created and deployed. During this process different hardware characteristics of the VMs will be reviewed including Dynamic Memory, network settings, and Availability Sets. Additionally VMM will be used to generate reusable PowerShell scripts which can be used to accelerate future VM deployment.




2) Navigate to the VMs and Services workspace.

3) On the ribbon click Create Virtual Machine and then select Create Virtual Machine.

4) On the Select Source page select Create the new virtual machine with a blank virtual hard disk and then click Next.

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5) On the Identity page type VM in the Virtual machine name field select Generation 1 from the Generation dropdown and then click Next.

6) On the Configure Hardware page, scroll down to review the configuration options, including Processor, SCSI Adapter 0, CPU Priority, Network Adapters, Virtual NUMA and Memory Weight.

7) On the Configure Hardware page, under Compatibility select Hyper-V.

8) Select Memory under General in the navigation tree, in the details pane, then select the Dynamic radio button. Enter 128 in the Startup memory field, and type 192 in the Maximum memory field.

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9) On the Configure Hardware page, select VM01_disk_1 under Bus Configuration | IDE Devices in the navigation tree. Change the Size (GB) value to 5 GB. Leave all other default settings.

10) On the Configure Hardware page, select Availability under Advanced in the navigation pane.

11) In the Availability detail pane, click the Make this virtual machine highly available check box.

12) On the Configure Hardware page, click Next.

13) On the Select Destination page ensure that Deploy the virtual machine to a private cloud is selected and then click Next.

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18) On the Select Cloud page select SCOM01.contoso.com and then click Next. VMM scans each host for its current resource usage across CPU, Memory, Disk and Network, and ranks each host based on these factors and the expected needs of the VM, using a feature called Intelligent Placement. SCVMM01 is not recommended as a host because the VM needs to be highly-available and SCVMM01 is not a cluster node.

19) On the Add Properties page review the options, then click Next.

20) On the Summary page click View Script to see the output of these actions. System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager is built on PowerShell so this feature is available at the end of VMM wizards. This makes it easier to learn PowerShell, and these scripts can be saved and updated when automating repetitive tasks. The user can click on this button throughout this lab to see the output from other wizards.

25) Close Notepad and click Create.

26) In the Jobs window select the running Create virtual machine job and review the job details at the bottom of the page.

<--------------END OF LAB-------------->

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2 – Operations Manager

2.1 - Operations Manager Overview In this exercise the user will learn about the different workspaces and functions of System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager, including Monitoring, Authoring, Reporting, and Administration.


Perform the following on SCOM01

1) From SCOM01, open the Operations Manager Console by clicking the icon in the taskbar.

2) Navigate to the Monitoring workspace.

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3) This workspace is used to see what is going in the monitoring environment and is the primary workspace for operators. It contains views, diagrams, and dashboard views that compile and present useful information that Operations Manager has gathered.

4) Click the Active Alerts view. This view shows all alerts that are active (not closed). In this view, select an alert to view its details, such as the rule or monitor that generated the alert and the managed object that has the problem. Double-click an alert to open its properties. Select an alert and click Health Explorer in the Tasks pane to open Health Explorer in the context of this alert. When appropriate, the user can close the alert from this view by clicking Close Alert in the Tasks pane.

5) Click Discovered Inventory. This view shows all objects that have been discovered and their states. Now click Change Target Type in the Tasks pane to filter the discovered inventory list to a single type of object. The target type determines the type of information that will be displayed in the details pane for a selected object. Click Cancel.

6) Click Task Status. This view shows the output from tasks that have been executed in the console. The Task Status view shows when a task is completed, finished, and the user who executed this specific task.

7) Click Windows Computers. This view shows the state of the following aspects of discovered Windows computers: Overall state of the computer, state of the agent on the computer, if an agent is installed, state of the management server role, if the computer is a management server, state of the Windows operating system. To see information that is collected for a computer, select the computer Name field for a specific computer. The properties in the tasks pane can be clicked to display all of the information that is collected. To open other views for a computer, right-click the computer, select Open, and click a view to open.

8) Expand Microsoft SQL Server and click Active Alerts to view the alerts specific to SQL Server.

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9) Click the Authoring workspace.

10) This workspace is used to create new monitoring scenarios. Existing management packs can be added or changed or new management packs can be created for applications that do not have one.

11) Click Management Pack Templates. Management packs contain settings that enable agents to monitor a specific service or application in System Center 2012 – Operations Manager. These settings include discovery information that allows management servers to automatically detect and begin monitoring objects, a knowledge base that contains error and troubleshooting information, rules and monitors that generate alerts, and reports. Management packs might also contain tasks, diagnostics, and recovery tools and guidance to help fix problems.

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12) Click Groups. In System Center 2012 – Operations Manager groups can be used to scope views, reports, overrides, and alert notifications. Groups are created in the Authoring workspace in the Operations console.

13) Click the Reporting workspace.

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14) Operations Manager provides extensive reporting capabilities, including multiple report libraries that can be selected to customize reports for specific requirements. Reports perform a query against the data warehouse database and return the results in an easy-to-read format.

15) Click SQL Server 2012 (Monitoring). This view is used to open and schedule reports for various SQL Server tasks.

16) Click the Administration workspace.

17) The Administration workspace is the primary workspace for administrators. The workspace is used to configure a management group and its managed objects. There are several different options available on this workspace.

18) Expand Device Management. Device management is used to perform configuration of specific management servers, agent-managed computers, agentless-managed computers, UNIX servers, and Linux servers.

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19) Click Agent Managed. Various tasks can be performed on agent-managed computer, these include repairing or uninstalling an agent on a target computer.

20) Click Agentless Managed. An agentless managed machine is a Microsoft Windows-based system in which an agent cannot be installed can be managed without an agent. Not all management packs support agentless management, for example the Active Directory management pack and the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 management pack do not support agentless management.

21) Click Management Packs. This is a listing of all the management packs imported into the management group. Right-clicking an individual management pack in the results gives additional options such as viewing its properties, deleting the pack, or exporting any customizations to another management group. Links in the tasks pane are used to create, import, and download management packs.

22) Click Product Connectors. Product connectors are used to synchronize Operations Manager data with other management systems such as those that monitor non-Windows computers or create trouble-tickets. Product connectors can integrate a deployment of Operations Manager into another management platform or connect other management systems into a full Operations Manager management solution. Any product connectors that the user integrate with Operations Manager will be displayed in this section of the Administration workspace.

23) Expand Security and click User Roles. In Operations Manager, operations such as resolving alerts, running tasks, overriding monitors, viewing alerts, viewing events, and so on have been grouped into user roles, with each user role representing a particular job function. Role-based security allows administrators to limit privileges that users have for various aspects of Operations Manager.

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24) Expand System Center Advisor, click Advisor Connection. System Center Advisor is an online service that analyzes installations of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (and later versions), and Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2, and Lync Server 2010. Advisor collects data from the installations, analyzes it, and generates Alerts that identify potential issues (such as missing security patches) or deviations from identified best practices with regard to configuration and usage. Advisor also provides both current and historical views of the configuration of servers in an environment.

25) Click the My Workspace workspace. This workspace provides an area that can be customized for specific needs. Users can create folders to organize the workspace, add shortcuts to favorite views, save useful searches, and create views.

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2.2 - Monitor the Infrastructure In this exercise many different components of the datacenter infrastructure will be monitored and analyzed using Operations Manager. Operations Manager provides real-time monitoring through alerts, as well as other helpful information about the performance, health and capacity of hardware, networking components, hypervisors, virtual machines and applications.



1) From SCOM01, open the Operations Manager Console by clicking the icon in the taskbar

2) Navigate to the Monitoring workspace. 3) Select Active Alerts

4) Review some of the recent Active Alerts. 5) Under Monitoring, select Windows Computers. Review some of the Active Alerts.

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6) From the Monitoring pane, expand Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, expand Agents and select Health State. This dashboard shows the state of the various Hyper-V hosts and other infrastructure servers that VMM manages.

7) From the Monitoring workspace, expand Cloud Health Dashboard and select Cloud Health. When the dashboard loads, select Contoso-Cloud and view the details. If it does not immediately appear, click Refresh as it may take some time for the cloud to be automatically detected, and continue to the next step.

8) From the Monitoring pane, expand Managed Resources. Select Host Cluster Health.

9) When the dashboard loads, select Cluster-Hyper-V and review the details.

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10) Select Host Health. Select SCVMM01 and review the details. If no information is visible, refresh the group. The information may differ from the screenshot below, depending on the state of the lab.

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11) Select Library Server Health and review the details.

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12) Select Virtual Machine Manager Server Health and review the details.

13) From the Monitoring Pane, expand Performance. Select Host Performance. 14) Right-click the chart and choose Select Time Range.

15) In the Time Range window, change the time range to In the last 1 Hours.

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16) Click OK. 17) Under Legend, click the column named Counter so it sorts by the counter column alphabetically. 18) In the Counter column, find Disk Read Bytes/Sec and ensure the object column is Logical Disk.

19) Click the check box for any host which displays a value for Disk Read Bytes/Sec . Note the chart that is created.

20) From the Monitoring Pane, expand Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager Views and select Diagram View for SCVMM01.

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21) When the diagram loads, click on the + by VMM Infrastructure to expand the node. 22) Expand Agent Watchers by clicking the +, note that SCVMM01 is managing these four servers. Click the - next

to Agent Watches to minimize the node.

23) Expand SCVMM01.contoso.com by click the +. The zoom can be adjusted on the toolbar if a view adjustment is needed.

24) Scroll to the left and expand DC01.contoso.com by clicking the +

25) Expand the node with a GUID as a name by clicking the +, this will open a node with multiple iSCSITargets which have been made available through that network adapter. Click the - next to DC01.contoso.com to compress the node.

26) Scroll to the right and click the VirtualManagerDB. This is the virtual machine manager database that has been previously created.

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27) Scroll to the right and click the node titled VMMLibrary. This is the network share.

28) Scroll the far right and click on Windows Server 2012. Note that this is an offline VMware virtual machine which is stored in the VMM library.

29) From the Monitoring Pane, expand Microsoft Windows Server and select Operating System Performance. 30) Right-click the chart and choose Select Time Range. 31) In the Time Range window, change the time range to In the last 1 Hours. 32) Click OK. 33) Under Legend, click Rule to sort the column alphabetically.

34) In the Rule column, find the Memory Available Megabytes Windows Server 2012 R2 entries and check SCVMM01.contoso.com, DC01.contoso.com and SCOM01.contoso.com. Review the data and then clear the checkboxes.

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35) In the Rule column, find the Memory Pages Per Second Windows Server 2012 R2 entries and check SCVMM01.contoso.com, DC01.contoso.com and SCOM01.contoso.com. Review the data and then clear the checkboxes.

36) In the Rule column, find the Percent Memory Used entries and check SCVMM01.contoso.com, DC01.contoso.com and SCOM01.contoso.com. Review the data and then clear the checkboxes.

37) In the Rule column, find the Processor Information % Processor Time Total Windows Server 2012 R2 entries and check SCVMM01.contoso.com, DC01.contoso.com and SCOM01.contoso.com. Review the data and then clear the checkboxes.

38) In the Monitoring Pane, under Microsoft Windows Server, expand Health Monitoring and select Disk Health and review the information.

39) In the Monitoring Pane, under Microsoft Windows Server, expand Health Monitoring and select Network Adapter Health and review the information.

40) In the Monitoring Pane, under Microsoft Windows Server, expand Health Monitoring, expand Operating System Events and select Services or Drivers Failing to Start and review the information.

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41) In the Monitoring Pane, under Microsoft Windows Server, expand Health Monitoring, expand Operating System Events and select Unexpected Service Terminations and review the information.

42) In the Monitoring Pane, expand Operations Manager and review the Active Alerts. Below Operations Manager, select the Management Group Diagram node. Adjust the zoom so all the information in the diagram is viewable.

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43) Click the Data Access Service node and expand it by clicking +, review the node and then minimize the Data Access Service node.

44) Expand Databases by clicking the +. Expand Data Warehouse by clicking the + and notice the operations Data Warehouse manager has a relationship with SC0M01.contoso.com, as indicated by the blue arrow. Minimize the node by clicking the - next to Data Warehouse.

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45) Under Databases, expand Operations Database by clicking the +, and click the + next to All Management Servers Resource Pool DB Watcher to expand the node.

46) With the All Management Servers Resource Pool DB Watcher node selected, click Health Explorer from the right pane and review the information about the alerts by looking at the Knowledge and State Change Event tabs. Close the window and minimize the Database node.

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47) Expand Infrastructure Group by clicking the +. These are different roles within the operation manager infrastructure.

48) On the far right, click on the + to expand the Web User Interfaces and note the different operation manager web consoles that are also being monitored.

49) In the Monitoring Pane, expand Operations Manager and select Management Group Health and review this pre-configured dashboard.

50) In the Monitoring Pane, expand Operations Manager and select Management Group Health Trend and review the alerts that have recently appeared.

51) Feel free to browse some of the other infrastructure monitoring views. This lab includes views that do not contain any data, as not all infrastructure components are deployed within this lab. Other infrastructure views include:

A. App Controller

B. Data Warehouse

C. Microsoft Application Virtualization Server 5.0

D. Microsoft Message Queue 6.3

E. Microsoft Network Load Balancing

F. Microsoft Windows Internet Information Services

G. Microsoft Windows Server DHCP

H. Microsoft Windows Server DNS

I. Microsoft Windows Server File & iSCSI Services 2012

J. Microsoft Windows Server File Services

K. Microsoft Windows Server Update Services 2012 R2

L. Microsoft Windows Server Network Monitoring

M. Operations Manager

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N. Service Manager

O. Service Provider Foundation

P. Synesthetic Transactions

Q. System Center 2012 Configuration Manager

R. System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

S. System Center Orchestrator

T. UNIX/Linux Computers

U. Windows Azure Pack Monitoring

V. WS-Management and SMASH Monitoring

<--------------END OF LAB-------------->

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3 – Data Protection Manager

3.1 - Data Protection Manager Overview In this exercise the user will learn about the different workspaces and functions of System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager, including Monitoring, Protection, Recovery, Reporting, and Management.


Perform the following on SCDPM01

1) From SCDPM01, open the DPM Administrator Console by clicking the icon in the taskbar.


3) This workspace allows the user to monitor the status of data protection, data recovery, and other DPM operations. There are two tabs in this workspace, Alerts and Jobs. Click All Alerts.

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4) Alerts display errors, warnings, and informational messages. The user can group alerts by protection group, computer, or severity, and the user can choose to display active alerts exclusively or to display both active alerts and a history of inactive alerts. The user can also subscribe to notifications to receive alerts via e-mail.

5) Click All jobs. All jobs displays the status of all the DPM jobs and their associated tasks. The user can group jobs by protection group, computer, status, or type, and the user can filter jobs by time period. The user can choose whether to include regularly scheduled synchronization operations in the list of jobs.

6) Click the Protection workspace then click All Protection Groups.

7) The protection workspace allows the user to create, rename and manage members of protection groups. As well as manage protection schedules, disk allocations, and other options. The user also has the ability to run manual

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synchronization and consistency check jobs, manage recovery points and review and respond to results of Auto Discovery.

8) Click the Recovery workspace expand Search Recovery Points then click Files and folders.

9) The recovery workspace is used to find and recover data from recovery points. It contains a browse tab which allows the user to browse for available recovery points for each protected computer in an environment as well as a search tab which allows for searching of available recovery points based on data type, location, origin or recovery point date.

10) Click the Reporting workspace.

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11) This workspace allows users to generate and view reports on DPM operations. The user can also schedule automatic report generation and manage reporting services settings.

12) Click the Management workspace then click Agents.

13) Use this workspace to manage protection agents, storage pool disks, and tape libraries. The Agents tab displays a list of protection agents deployed on computers and enables the user to install, uninstall, and update the agents and agent licenses. The Disks tab displays a list of disks included in the storage pool and enables the user to add and remove disks from the pool. The Libraries tab displays the tape libraries installed on the DPM server and enables the user to manage the tapes in the library.

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3.2 - Backup System Center Infrastructure In this exercise a SQL Database that is used by System Center Operations Manager will be backed up by Data Protection Manager.




2) Navigate to the Protection workspace.

3) Click New on the ribbon.

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4) Click Next on the Welcome screen.

5) On the Select protection group type, select Servers and click Next.

6) Expand SCOM01 in the list of servers.

7) Expand All SQL Servers, then expand SCOM01. This may take a minute.

8) Select SCOM01, which becomes (Auto) SCOM01, to select all the SQL databases for Operations Manager. The databases for other System Center 2012 components can also be protected using DPM.

9) Expand SCVMM01 in the list of servers. This may take a minute.

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10) Expand All Shares and select MSSCVMMLibrary. This will back up the files in a library server used by Virtual Machine Manager.

11) A notification will appear. Click OK to close it.

12) Click Next.

13) On the Select Data Protection Methods tab, enter System Center Protection Group in the Protection group name box and ensure the first option is selected, I want short-term protection using: Disk. Click Next.

14) On the Select Short-Term Goals screen, review the settings then click Next.

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15) If an Optimize Performance window appears, close the Optimize Performance window by selecting Cancel. Click Next.

16) On the Review disk allocation, deselect Automatically grow the volumes, then click Next. The disk size information may be different from the screenshot below.

17) On the Choose Replica Creation Method screen, ensure that Automatically over the network and Now is selected, then click Next.

18) Click Next on the Choose consistency check options screen.

19) Click Create Group and wait until the tasks complete.

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20) Click Close to close the wizard. This process will take several minutes to complete. Move on to the next exercise while this completes.

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3.3 - Recover System Center Infrastructure In this exercise a SQL database used by Operations Manager is restored from backup by Data Protection Manager.

Exercise 4.2 - Backup System Center Infrastructure must be completed in order to successful recover the System Center information.




2) Navigate to the to the Protection workspace.

3) Under Protection Group: System Center Protection Group verify that the status displays OK. If the status indicates that the replica is still being created, wait until it finishes.

4) Select to the Recovery workspace.

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8) In the Recovery Wizard page, confirm the settings and click Next.

9) On the Select Recovery Type screen, select Recover to original instance of SQL Server (Overwrite database), then click Next.

10) On the Specify Database State screen, select Leave database operational, then click Next.

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11) On the Specify Recovery Options screen, leave the default options, then click Next.

12) On the Summary screen, click Recover.

13) Wait a few minutes until the progress bar completes, then on the Recovery Status tab, ensure that the status shows as Successful.

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14) Click Close to complete the Wizard.

<--------------END OF LAB-------------->

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4 – App Controller

4.1 - App Controller Overview In this exercise the user will learn about the different workspaces and functions of System Center 2012 R2 App Controller, including Clouds, Services, Virtual Machines, Library , Jobs and Settings. Internet Explorer will be used to connect to App Controller which provides a common self-service experience that can help easily configure, deploy, and manage virtual machines and services across private clouds (through SCVMM) and public clouds (through Azure).



1) From SCVMM01, open App Controller by selecting the Internet Explorer icon from the taskbar.

2) If the site does not open, browse to https://SCVMM01.contoso.com.

3) If a notification appears about the certificate, click Continue to this website (not recommended).

https://scvmm01.contoso.com/

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4) When prompted to sign in, enter contoso\administrator for the user name and Passw0rd! for the password. Click the Sign In button.

5) Navigate to the Overview workspace. This shows the overall status view of the clouds in the infrastructure. This is the location to add new clouds to monitor, these include clouds from VMM, Azure and other hosting providers.

6) Navigate to the Clouds workspace. This page is used to connect to and manage public and private clouds, and to deploy services to them. Users who manage public and private clouds must be members of the Administrator user role.

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7) Navigate to the Services workspace. This workspace is used deploy new services to public and private clouds, or to change the properties of services already deployed.

8) Navigate to the Virtual Machines workspace. This is the location to deploy virtual machines to clouds, Azure or other hosting providers.

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9) Navigate to the Library workspace. This page is used to manage file shares, templates, and resources for both System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) and Windows Azure.

10) Navigate to the Jobs workspace. The Jobs page is used to view the status of all the jobs that have run in App Controller. For example, these jobs include changing user roles, adding or removing cloud connections and deploying services.

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11) Navigate to the Settings workspace and click Connections. This manages the connection settings to different clouds. This provides the options to connect to a server running System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Windows Azure, or a service provider. This is also the location to import certificates or set specify proxy settings.

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4.2 – Deploy a Service through Self-Service In this exercise a self-service user will deploy a multi-tier service from a template using App Controller.



1) From SCVMM01, open App Controller by selecting the Internet Explorer icon from the taskbar.

2) If the site does not open, browse to https://SCVMM01.contoso.com.

3) If a notification appears about the certificate, click Continue to this website (not recommended).

4) When prompted to sign in, enter contoso\administrator for the user name and Passw0rd! for the password. Click the Sign In button.

https://scvmm01.contoso.com/

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5) Navigate to the Services workspace.

6) Click Deploy.

7) On the New Deployment page, under Cloud, click Configure.

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8) Select Contoso-Cloud and click OK.

9) In the TEMPLATE box, click Select a template.

10) Select PetShop_Service and click OK. This shows the service template configuration.

11) In the SERVICE box, click Configure.

12) Under Service name, enter PetShopDev.

13) Under Priority select Low then click OK.

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14) Under the VM_PetShop_SQL tier in the upper INSTANCE box, click Configure.

15) For Computer name, enter PetSQL1A and scroll down to review the settings.

16) Click OK.

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17) In the INSTANCE box in the lower left, click Configure.

18) For Computer name, enter PetSQL1B and click OK.

19) Under the VM_PetShop_Web tier in the upper INSTANCE box, click Configure.

20) In the Computer name, enter PetWeb1A and click OK.

21) Click Configure for the INSTANCE in the lower right.

22) In the Computer name, enter PetWeb1B and click OK.

23) In the lower right corner, click Deploy. The Virtual Machine deployment will start. Note that the deployment will fail, this is expected due to limitations of the lab environment (nested virtualization).

<--------------END OF LAB-------------->

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5 - Advisor

5.1 - Advisor Overview In this exercise the user will learn about the different workspaces and functions of System Center Advisor, integrated with System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager. Advisor is a free cloud service which offers proactive monitoring and best practice recommendations to reduce downtime and resolve issues faster. Advisor collects information about the servers and applications, then sends it to Azure for analysis. The resulting best practice recommendations can be viewed a web interface or integrated into System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager. Sign up for free at www.SystemCenterAdvisor.com.



1) From SCOM01 minimize the Operations Manager Console if it is open.

2) Double-click on the folder on the Desktop called Advisor Solutions.

3) Double-click on the document entitled System Center Advisor. This is the System Center Advisor homepage where it is possible to sign up for a free account using a Microsoft ID. This lab does not have a connection to the Internet, so all of the websites which are displayed are actually all offline copies. This means that the links and other references to Internet locations will not work.


http://www.systemcenteradvisor.com/

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5) Navigate to the Administration workspace.

6) Scroll down and expand System Center Advisor.

7) Select Advisor Connection.

8) Read the information on the screen. In this lab a previous System Center Advisor connection had been established.

9) Under the Actions tab, note the Add a Computer/Group link. This is how a new computer would be monitored using Advisor.

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10) On the left navigation pane select Advisor Managed. This displays the servers which are currently managed by Advisor.

11) Select the Monitoring workspace.

12) On the left navigation pane navigate to Monitoring then expand System Center Advisor.

13) Select Advisor Health State. This shows the health of the management server which is SCOM01 and this also shows the health of the various Advisor agents.

14) In the left navigation pane select Active Alerts. This displays all of the alerts for Advisor.

15) Under the list of critical alerts, select the alert with the title Unsupported SQL Server version used by VMM.

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16) On the Alert Details in the center pane, read the information about the alert description. System Center Advisor provides information about both Windows Server and application issues.

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5.2 – Monitor SQL Server In this exercise System Center Advisor alerts and recommendations about SQL Server 2012 will be viewed through Operations Manager.





3) Go to Monitoring and then select the folder called System Center Advisor and select Active Alerts.

4) Select the Name column to sort the names by alphabetical order.

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5) Select the critical alert which states SQL Server security configuration does not allow System Center Advisor to function property. Read the information in this alert. This alert is advising the administrator on how to optimize System Center Advisor so the Advisor service itself can perform better.

6) In the Tasks column under Tasks select Set Resolution State | Assigned to Engineering.

7) Under Critical Alerts, select the Warning with the name "SQL Server Database configuration: number of temp db data files might result in blocking." In the right column under Advisor Tasks, note the option to View Solution/KB Article. Selecting this link would open the website, however there is no internet connection so an offline copy of this information will be used instead.

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8) Minimize the Operations Manager Console window and from the Desktop open the folder named Advisor Solutions.

9) Select the webpage file with the identical name SQL Server database configuration number of tempdb data files might result in blocking. Open the webpage. Read the information on this webpage as an example of an Advisor best practice. Return to the Operations Manager Console.

10) Return to the Operations Manager Console and with the alert still selected select Close Alert from the Tasks pane.

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11) Select the Warning with the name, "SQL Server database mail configuration issue may result in mail not getting processed."

12) Return to the folder on the Desktop called Advisor Solutions.

13) Select the file with the name SQL Server Database mail configuration issue may result in mail not getting processed.

14) Open the webpage in Internet Explorer and briefly review the information.

15) Return to Operations Manager.

16) Under the Tasks pane, select Alert Properties.

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17) Under Owner, select the Change button.

18) In the Select User dialog, under Enter the object name to select, enter Tier2 and click the Check Names button to resolve the object to [email protected]. Click OK.

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19) Under Ticket ID enter Mail1

20) Under Alert Status in the dropdown, choose Scheduled.

21) Click OK.

22) Select the warning that says SQL Server database present without a backup.

23) Go to the AdvisorSolutions folder on the Desktop.

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24) Open the webpage with the same name, SQL Server database present without a backup. This KB article includes best practices and other helpful information to optimize the performance of the SQL database.

25) Return to the Operations Manager console.

26) Select the warning with the name SQL Server feature "Instant File Initialization" is not enabled. Review the information in the details pane under the Alert description. See how this can help optimize the performance of SQL server.

27) Browse several other alerts from Advisor then navigate to the folder on the Desktop named AdvisorSolutions.

28) Open the webpage with the same name as the alert you chose and review. Use the saved webpages in this folder since there is not an active outbound Internet connection available from within the virtual lab environment.

29) Close the AdvisorSolutions folder.

<--------------END OF LAB-------------->

speed lab 1! system center 2012 r2: introduction to...

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