Management Pack modules, which you can install during Setup or import later, contain computer groups and processing rules to support specific customer applications or environments. You can monitor your enterprise immediately using Management Pack modules. You might, however, want to define your own computer grouping rules and processing rules to monitor operations in your specific network enterprise.
Computer groups identify similar computers on which specific processing rules will be evaluated. Processing rules define the information to be collected from the computers, and how Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 (MOM) responds to the collected information.
This topic provides overview tasks for configuring information monitoring, which includes creating computer groups and processing rules. The sections below provide links to specific tasks in the configuration process. Although some computer attributes, providers, processing rule groups, scripts, and notification groups required for your custom computer groups or processing rules may already exist, this topic provides instructions for creating them.
You must identify computers from which you want to collect information. These computers have attributes in common that you use to create a computer group. The Agent Manager deploys required agents on computers based on computer grouping rules. For more information, see the following topics:
Processing rules define the information you want agents to collect, and how you want MOM to process that information. Processing rules also define responses, such as launching a script or sending an e-mail or page.
The following sections provide links to instructions for creating all the parts of a processing rule: provider, notification group, and script. You must create a processing rule group before you can create a processing rule.
You can create providers, notification groups, and scripts within processing rule wizards. For simplicity, the following sections provide instructions for creating these rule components first, before you create the processing rule.
Processing rules collect information from data providers. For more information, see Creating a Data Provider.
Before you can create a processing rule, you must create a processing rule group. Processing rule groups are a way to classify processing rules. For more information, see Creating a Processing Rule Group.
To ensure that the rules in a particular processing rule group are evaluated on the correct computers, you must associate the processing rule group with a computer group. For more information, see Associating a Processing Rule Group with a Computer Group.
If the processing rule you want to create will contain an e-mail, paging, or command response, you must create the notification group to receive the response. For more information, see Creating a Notification Group.
If the processing rule will include a script, you must create the script. For more information, see Creating a Script.
The Consolidator informs an agent when there are updated rules that apply to the agent computer. Within a few moments of its creation, a processing rule can be deployed to an agent and begin to be evaluated. You can create three types of processing rules:
The Agent Manager is responsible for identifying computers that require an agent to be installed or uninstalled. Managed Computer rules define the computers for which the Agent Manager is responsible. These rules create the Managed Computers list. For more information, see Modifying the Managed Computers List.
The Agent Manager performs scheduled managed computer scans to scan for computers that match its Managed Computer rules, collect computer attributes, evaluate computer group membership, and identify computers that require an agent to be installed or uninstalled. If you do not want to wait for the scheduled Managed Computer scan, you can perform a manual scan. For more information, see Scanning Managed Computers.
After a managed computer scan, MOM lists computers requiring agent installations and uninstallations in the Pending Installations window. You can approve or cancel all pending actions or each individual pending action. For more information, see Handling Pending Installations.