action account

The Windows account that is used by the MonitoringHost.exe processes to gather data from providers and to run actions, such as scripts and command-line batch files, on monitored devices.

agent

An Operations Manager component that is installed on the Windows-based computers you want to monitor. The agent collects data, compares sampled data to predefined values, creates alerts, and runs responses.

Agentless managed computer

A computer without an agent that is monitored by a management server or a proxy agent.

agent-managed computer

A computer that has an agent installed on it and reports to a management group.

alert

In Operations Manager, an alert is an item that indicates that a predefined situation has occurred on a monitored object. Alerts are defined by rules.

alert rule

A rule that detects a specific condition and generates an alert.

alert severity

The property of an alert that indicates its seriousness, for example, Service Unavailable, Security Issue, Critical Error, Error, Warning, Information, and Success.

Alert view

A view in the Operations Manager Operations console that displays the alerts that the console user has the rights to see for a specific object.

Agentless Exception Monitoring (AEM)

A feature in Operations Manager that allows the collection of client application crash data to a single location on a management server, which results in data that can be analyzed by your company for patterns. In addition, the management server can forward the AEM data to Microsoft for analysis rather than having each individual client forward the data.

Audit Collection Services (ACS)

A service that collects and forwards all security events from monitored computers to a central database. ACS requires Operations Manager 2007.

class

An item that is targeted for all operations, for example, SQL Server databases or logical drives. Classes can exist in a parent-child relationship with each other with the child class inheriting properties from the parent class. In general, a class is a template that defines a set of objects of a certain kind and the properties of those objects.

command shell

The command shell is a customized instance of Windows PowerShell that provides a collection of Operations Manager 2007-specific cmdlets. These cmdlets allow users to view, query, and set information for the management group to which the shell is connected. The command shell can be installed on any computer that the User Interface option is installed on. It requires that Windows PowerShell v1 be installed as a prerequisite.

company knowledge

An editable field of a rule or monitor where you can capture any relevant information about the required steps to resolve an alert that was raised by the rule or monitor. See also: product knowledge

containment relationship

In a model, a containment relationship represents the idea that one object is included in a set of objects that all have something in common. Containment relationships are primarily used to indicate some type of administrative grouping, such as those created by the Operations Manager Group Wizard. Any individual object can be included in many different sets. In addition, the lifetime of the object is not dependent on the lifetime of the set. For example, a Windows Server 2003 domain controller is a member of the 'All Windows Servers' set of objects as well as being a member of the 'All Windows Server 2003 Computers' and 'All Domain Controllers' sets. Also, the existence of the domain controller computer is not dependent upon the existence of any of the sets it belongs to; it can be discovered by Operations Manager without the 'All Windows Servers' group having been discovered.

Data Warehouse database

The database that stores operations data for long periods of time. This data is then used by the Operations Manager 2007 Reporting Server to build reports. By default this database is named OperationsManagerDW.

Data Warehouse server

The server that hosts the OperationsManagerDW database.

Event view

A view in the Operations Manager Operations console that displays specified events in the management group that the console user has the rights to see.

Favorite view

A view available from the My Workspace area of the Operations console where you can save views that you regularly use, similar to how you save a Web page to your Favorites list in Internet Explorer.

gateway server

A server role in Operations Manager 2007 that enables the monitoring of computers that lie outside of the Kerberos trust boundaries (Kerberos realm) of the management group.

heartbeat

A message, sent by an agent to its owning management server that tells the management server the agent is functioning. In addition, the heartbeat informs Operations Manager of the current rules evaluated by the agent and requests updates, if necessary.

hosting relationship

In a model, a hosting relationship represents the idea that one object exists only within the context of a parent object. In this relationship there can be a one-to-many ratio of parent objects to child objects, but only a 1:1 ratio between a child object and its parent, For example, any given logical drive can only belong to one computer, though a single computer may have multiple logical drives. Also, the logical drive must have a computer on which it exists, if the computer that hosts the logical drive ceases to exist, so does the logical drive itself.

management group

The basic functional unit of an Operations Manager 2007 implementation that can perform monitoring. It must contain a SQL Server 2005 database server, a Root Management Server, one or more Operations consoles and one or more agents. In addition, it can also contain a Reporting Server, gateway server, Audit Collection Services server, and additional collector management servers.

management pack

A grouping of classes, Monitors, Object Discoveries, Rules, Tasks, Views, and Knowledge that provide Operations Manager management servers and agents with the information necessary to monitor an application.

management server

An Operations Manager server that provides a communication channel between the database server and the managed objects within the management group.

model

In Operations Manager, a software representation of hardware, software, services and other logical components that are in your environment. The model captures the nature of those components and the relationships between them.

monitor

In Operations Manager, a state machine that uses events, performance data, and other information to define the state of an object, such as an application. The rollup of the monitors for an object determines the overall state of the object—for example, healthy, warning, or error.

Operations console

The Operations Manager interface that you use to perform monitoring, administration, authoring, and reporting functions.

Operations Manager Connector Framework

An interface to the SDK Service that allows applications to synchronously communicate with the Root Management Server.

Operations Manager database

A SQL Server 2005 database, named OperationsManager by default, which stores configuration data, operations data, and security data.

Operations Manager Health Explorer

A feature of Operations Manager where you can view and then take action on alerts, state changes, and other significant issues generated by monitoring objects on your network.

Operations Manager Reporting server

The server role that is responsible for building and presenting reports.

override

An override is a mechanism by which the default behavior of a rule, monitor, or discovery can be changed for a specific class, group or object.

Performance view

The Operations console pane that displays specified performance information.

product connector

A software component that is used to synchronize data between Operations Manager and other management systems.

product knowledge

Content, embedded in rules and monitors, that contains information from the management pack author about the causes of an alert and suggestions on how to fix the issue that caused an alert to be raised.

reference relationship

In a model, a reference relationship indicates that participating objects work with one another with none of the dependencies or restrictions that exist in the hosting or containment relationships. For example, a network router and an Exchange Mailbox server may work together in providing e-mail services. In addition to working with the Exchange Server, the network router works with any other server or device that it routes network traffic for. Also, the Exchange Mailbox server works with all the other Exchange Servers and certain global catalog servers in the organization to provide e-mail services.

Reporting Data Warehouse

An Operations Manager 2007 component that manages the OperationsManagerDW database and that can be independently installed.

resolution state

The state of an alert in relation to its status in the resolution cycle, and includes default resolution states such as New, Acknowledged, and Resolved.

Root Management Server

The first management server installed for a management group that performs unique functions in the management group. Specifically, it hosts the SDK and Config services and is the target server that all consoles attach to.

rule

In Operations Manager 2007, the definition of what events and performance data to collect from computers, and what to do with the information after it is collected.

Run As account

A Windows account that can be associated with a Run As profile, and that can use Windows Authentication, NTLM, Basic, or Digest methods of authentication.

Run As profile

A profile that associates an identity with a module so that it can run as that identity.

SDK client

An application that uses the Operations Manager class libraries to connect to the SDK Service. The application can include the Operations console, the Web console, the Operations Manager Command Shell, and other customized applications.

SDK service

A Windows service that runs on the Root Management Server in each management group, and that allows client applications to access Operations Manager data and functionality.

synthetic transaction

A feature in Operations Manager that can be used to test the availability or performance of a given service or application from the perspective of an end user. This feature can also confirm the functionality of a low level service.

task

In Operations Manager, a predefined command, script, or piece of code that can be run on a monitored computer.

user role

A combination of a profile that defines actions users can take (such as OpsMgr Administrator or OpsMgr Operator), and a scope, which is the objects the users can take those actions on, such as all Exchange servers. A user role is a security boundary in Operations Manager 2007. The Operations Manager administrator can use user roles to control access to views and tasks for Operations Manager users assigned to that role.

view

In the Operations console, the organization of the data from the Operations Manager database that meets filtering criteria. Operations Manager has predefined views and allows the creation of custom views.

Web Console

An Operations Manager Web-based interface that you use to perform monitoring functions.