You create a distributed application in Operations Manager 2007 to define the health monitoring of a distributed application. It creates the monitors and rules that you need to monitor the application and the individual components that it contains. It also facilitates access to views and reports, scoped to the appropriate locations.. When you create a distributed application, you can save it to an unsealed management pack, save it as a template, or save it as a distributed application definition.

A distributed application that is saved as a template includes the component groups that are built into it; it does not include object instances. A distributed application that is saved as a distributed application definition includes both component groups and object instances.

Note
The Distributed Application Designer requests that you select a management pack to save the distributed application in. If you are planning to save it as a template or a distributed application definition, the distributed application is not saved in a management pack. Therefore, the Management Pack you choose is immaterial; just leave the default selected.

When you create a distributed application as a template or a definition, it is saved as an unsealed management pack. Before you import the template or the definition, you must make the following changes.

  1. Choose a friendly name for your template or distributed application definition. In the .xml file, change the <ID> element so that the ID exactly matches the name of the .xml file.

  2. You cannot reference an unsealed management pack from another unsealed management pack. If you want to reference a template or definition from an unsealed management pack, you must seal the .mp file that is the template or the definition before you import it. To do this you can use the Mpseal.exe tool that is located in the Support Tools folder on your installation media.

To create a distributed application

  1. Log on to the computer with a user account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrator role for the Operations Manager 2007 management group.

  2. In the Operations console, click Authoring, right-click Distributed Applications, and then click Create a new distributed application.

  3. In the Name box, type a descriptive name for the distributed application; in the Description box, type a description.

    Note
    If you are saving the distributed application as a template, this description appears in the user interface to describe the template to any user who uses it.

  4. Under Template, select from one of the available templates. If one of the available templates does not meet your needs, choose the Blank (Advanced) template.

    Note
    You can click any template to view a brief description of it. If this description is not sufficient, click View Details for more detailed information about the selected template.

  5. In the Management Pack box, choose a management pack from the drop-down list of unsealed management packs or click New to create a new Management Pack. Click OK.

    Note
    By default, when you create a management pack object, disable a rule or monitor, or create an override, Operations Manager saves the setting to the Default Management Pack. As a best practice, you should create a separate management pack for each sealed management pack you want to customize, rather than saving your customized settings to the Default Management Pack. For more information, see Default Management Pack.

To design your distributed application

  1. The diagram pane in the Distributed Application Designer displays the component groups of your distributed application. Any component groups that appear after you first create a distributed application are defined by the template you chose earlier. Right-click each existing component group to review it, and, if necessary, edit the object types that are included in your distributed application. Click Add Component on the toolbar create a new component group.

  2. Click Create Relationship on the toolbar to use a cursor to draw relationships that describe the workflow between the component groups of your distributed application.

  3. The buttons at the bottom of the Objects pane list all object types that are defined by the template you chose earlier. If your distributed application does not contain one or more of the components shown in the list, click Organize Object Types to view a list of all currently included object types. Clear the check box for any object type that is not part of your distributed application.

  4. Click each of the remaining buttons at the bottom of the Objects pane to view the objects that are listed in each. By default, the list contains all the discovered objects on your network that are of that object type. Right-click each object that is a component of your distributed application, point to Add to, and then click the name of the component group to which this object belongs.

  5. To save the distributed application to a management pack, click Save.

    To save the distributed application as a template, click Save as Template on the File menu.

    To save a distributed application definition, click Save Distributed Application Definition on the File menu.

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