You can use the Windows Service template to monitor a service running on Windows computers. You can monitor whether a service is running, the percentage of available CPU the service is consuming, and the memory allocated only to this service (also referred to as “private bytes”). You can also monitor a service that is clustered. The following procedures provide detailed information for monitoring both clustered and unclustered services.

To monitor a Windows service (unclustered)

1. Start the Add Monitoring wizard.

2. On the Select Monitoring Type page, select Windows Service, and then click Next.

3. On the General Properties page, type a name and description for this new monitor.

4. Select a management pack in which to save the monitor. You can accept the default, select a different existing management pack, or create a new management pack.

   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 that you want to customize, rather than saving your customized settings to the Default Management Pack. For more information, see Default Management Pack.

5. Click Next.

6. In the Service Name field, type the name of the specific service you want to monitor, such as Alerter. You can also browse for the service.

7. Under Target Group, specify the group of computers on which you want to monitor the service.

8. By default, only those services that are set to start automatically when Windows starts are monitored. Any services with their startup value set to manual or anything other than Automatic are not monitored. To change this, clear the Monitor only Automatic services option.

9. Click Next.

10. Select the performance counters that you want to monitor. You have the following choices:

    Generate an alert if CPU usage exceeds the specified threshold

    
    

    Monitors the CPU usage (by percentage of available CPU) for the service. Specify a percentage of processor time that, if exceeded, triggers an alert.

    Generate an alert if memory usage exceeds the specified threshold

    
    

    Monitors the number of bytes, in MB, allocated only to this service.. Specify the number of bytes, in MB, that, if exceeded, triggers an alert.

11. Specify the sample size for the monitor. Before the monitor triggers an alert, a set number of samples must have exceeded the defined thresholds.

12. Specify the monitoring interval, in seconds, minutes, or hours.

13. Click Next.

14. Review the summary of the monitor, and then click Create.

To monitor a clustered Windows service

1. Create a new Operations Manager group that contains objects of class Virtual Server. For information about creating groups, see How to Create Groups in Operations Manager 2007.

2. Start the Add Monitoring wizard.

3. On the Select Monitoring Type page, select Windows Service, and then click Next.

4. On the General Properties page, type a name and description for this new monitor.

5. Select a management pack in which to save the monitor. You can accept the default, select a different existing management pack, or create a new management pack.

   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 that you want to customize, rather than saving your customized settings to the Default Management Pack. For more information, see Default Management Pack.

6. Click Next.

7. In the Service Name field, type the name of the specific service you want to monitor, such as Alerter. You can also browse for the service.

8. Under Target Group, specify the Virtual Server group that you created to contain all instances of the clustered service.

9. Clear the option to Monitor only Automatic services.

10. Click Next.

11. Select the performance counters that you want to monitor. You have the following choices:

    Generate an alert if CPU usage exceeds the specified threshold

    
    

    Monitors the CPU usage (by percentage of available CPU) for the service. Specify a percentage of processor time that, if exceeded, triggers an alert.

    Generate an alert if memory usage exceeds the specified threshold

    
    

    Monitors the number of bytes, in MB, allocated only to this service. Specify the number of bytes, in MB, that, if exceeded, triggers an alert.

12. Specify the sample size for the monitor. Before the monitor triggers an alert, a set number of samples must have exceeded the defined thresholds.

13. Specify the monitoring interval, in seconds, minutes, or hours.

14. Click Next.

15. Review the summary of the monitor, and then click Create.