This guide is intended as a simple checklist of things you need to do in order to get a "working" SCOM test environment up and running under some form of "virtualising" technology (we use Microsoft's Hyper-V, but exactly the same instructions should work in VMware Workstation, VirtualBox etc).
In order to put this guide together I've made the following assumptions (well, OK, there weren't really any assumptions - this is how the environment I had to use was configured);
Installing the Prerequisites
When you try and install SCOM it will perform a series of checks against your system. If you're using a vanilla 2003 server than a great many of them will fail. Each piece of software listed below needs to be installed in order for SCOM to even begin to install.
Installing Systems Centre Operation Manager (SCOM)After installing the prerequisites this is actually quite easy. The steps below are "guidance" and aren't a screen-by-screen description of what the installer is doing. Just accept the defaults until you are asked one of the questions below;
Optional Extras: The Oracle ClientIf you're going to be using SCOM to access an Oracle database you will also need to install the Oracle client. For the purposes of this example I'm going to suggest the 10g client but that won't work if you need to monitor 8i and earlier systems. I'm not sure what subset of companies are running older versions of Oracle AND want to use something as "new" as SCOM to monitor them!
In order to put this guide together I've made the following assumptions (well, OK, there weren't really any assumptions - this is how the environment I had to use was configured);
- Your server operating system is Windows 2003R2 SP2 32-bit. The links below will install the required software onto this version of Windows. If you are running a 64-bit version , or a different version of the server operating system (i.e. Windows 2008) then follow the links and see if you can find a x64 version - once again Google is your friend.
- Your server, users, etc are all part of an Active Directory domain. There is a group in Active Directory called "Domain Admins" that includes all the users who are Domain Administrators (i.e. your IT Department). The person running this installation has a "normal" (i.e. Standard User) domain account in addition to their Domain Admin account.
- The software is being installed by a Domain Administrator.
- You have either the installation CD's provided by your company or a MSDN account from which you can download the software.
Installing the Prerequisites
When you try and install SCOM it will perform a series of checks against your system. If you're using a vanilla 2003 server than a great many of them will fail. Each piece of software listed below needs to be installed in order for SCOM to even begin to install.
- Install the base operating systems (i.e. Windows Server 2003R2) and add it to the Active Directory domain.
- Install the "Application Server" role (you need to go into "Manage your server" under the start menu). When asked make sure you include the FrontPage Server Extensions and ASP.NET.
- Run the SCOM Installer and it will tell you that MSXML6.0 is missing and will offer to install it for you. This is the only useful thing the installer seems to offer, if you try it again it will just start telling you things are missing and you have to fix them all yourself!
- Download and Install Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (x86).
- Bring up a command prompt (you need this to turn on ASP.NET 2.0).The instructions for doing this are also available if you get the details for the pre-requisite check that fails.
- Type "cd %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727". As you can see the version of the framework is included in the directory path (so if you're using a different version you'll need to modify the path accordingly).
- Type "aspnet_regiis.exe –i –enable" (this performs the switch-on).
- Download and Install Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1
- Install SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition (use your Domain Admin account as the Service Account, choose "Windows Authentication", otherwise accept the defaults).
- Download and install Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (you can do this before you reboot from the previous step if you want to). You should definitely reboot the machine before continuing.
- Download and install Windows PowerShell 1.0 English-Language Installation Package for Windows Server 2003 (KB926139)
Installing Systems Centre Operation Manager (SCOM)After installing the prerequisites this is actually quite easy. The steps below are "guidance" and aren't a screen-by-screen description of what the installer is doing. Just accept the defaults until you are asked one of the questions below;
- Enter the group name as "DEVELOPERS" - technically you can pick anything but it's always good to make sure that your group is a good description of what you are using the system for and who set it up!
- Give the AD Group "Domain Admins" permission to administer the box.
- Select the locally installed copy of SQL Server (should be the only one available)
- When prompted again for a User/Password enter your STANDARD user account, not your Domain Administrator (if you enter the Domain Administrator account you will get a "warning" that it's not good practice - it's unlikely your production box will be setup this way so you should avoid doing it for testing).
- When prompted to enter account details for the SDK account enter your Domain Administrator details.
- Choose to use "Windows Authentication" for the Console.
- I would select "Don't use Windows Update" just because it's usually the simplest option, but I'd go with whatever your production system uses.
- Click "Next"/ accept the defaults until you click "Install" to install the software.
Optional Extras: The Oracle ClientIf you're going to be using SCOM to access an Oracle database you will also need to install the Oracle client. For the purposes of this example I'm going to suggest the 10g client but that won't work if you need to monitor 8i and earlier systems. I'm not sure what subset of companies are running older versions of Oracle AND want to use something as "new" as SCOM to monitor them!
- Go to the URL Oracle 10.2 Client Download (this link is for Windows)
- Download "Oracle Database 10g Client Release 2 (10.2.0.1.0)", this is around 470MB.
- Uncompress the zip file into a local directory
- Run the setup.exe and select the "Administrator Client"
- Accept all the defaults and then click though to the "Install" button and then click that.
- Setup the client to work with your network (i.e. if you have a TNS Names Server then configure the client to use that, if you have a "shared TNS" on a server somewhere then set it up to use that, if you have a copy of TNS under Source Control then get that and copy it into the NETWORK/ADMIN directory, whatever works for you).
- Test the client.
