Authors: Kerrie Meyler, Cameron Fuller, John Joyner
While Operations Manager 2007 is in full swing in many environments, MOM 2005 will enjoy a substantial ongoing presence for a few months yet at least. And although I picked up a copy of MOM 2005 Unleashed at TechEd 2007, it took a few weeks longer than I had intended to review simply because the book is so long. At more than 850 pages plus appendices, it wins the grand prize as the longest MOM 2005 book available. It contains references (with varying degrees of detail) to virtually everything and anything to do with MOM 2005.
Here are a few of my thoughts on books content by category:
Concepts - for those new to MOM 2005, the first 100 pages of the book speaks to MOM concepts and architecture in detail, complete with detailed diagrams of platform components, and a comparison of MOM 2000 and 2005. Anyone you know who falls into the “What is MOM?” category, this is a good reference to get them acquainted with the architecture and functionality of the platform. The architecture diagrams are especially nice.
Design, Planning and Deployment - The book provides verbose coverage of the end-to-end design to deployment process, covering database growth, hardware sizing and topology planning to a degree not seen in other books on the topic. A vast array of deployment topology options and objectives are covered, addressing not only clustering for high availability but maximizing availability without clustering. On the downside, my favorite solution accelerator, Notification Workflow, which was designed for enterprise environments, barely gets a mention. Overall, this section was very well done I thought.
Operations - Great coverage of database management, backup and recovery, and overview of a wide array of management packs. Again, for the new user, this is really great in opening their eyes to the possibilities.
Scripting and Automation - I recommend the scripting chapter for those new to MOM scripting, as chapter 22 covers the common components of the scripting APIs, and contains a section-by-section breakdown of a sample VBScript. A sampling of the vastly under-documented VarSet and State Variable concepts is a welcome addition. Although there is no working example of debugging inclusive of the Response Test utility, managed code responses get more attention in this book than all others combined. In the end, this is a good read for anyone desiring a basic working knowledge of MOM 2005 scripting.
Interoperability - This chapter was a mixed bag for me, with great coverage of the connector framework, but light coverage of options for non-Windows monitoring. Some suggestions from the authors based on their experience with 3rd party tools would have been welcome. On a positive note, they do at least mention all the major players with a brief description, as well as a brief overview of each of the MOM Solutions Accelerators, which will bring new users into the know about their
Appendices - Good reference material in the appendices on database views, registry settings, and links to a broad range of community resources.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, this is a well put-together reference from a group of very knowledgeable authors, and I think it’s worth the price for new and intermediate users for the verbosity of the design, planning, deployment and operational guidance. The scripting chapter is as good as any book I reviewed to date. It earns a place on any MOM administrators bookshelf, sitting alongside “Essential MOM” (Chris Fox) as the ultimate authority on the MOM 2005 UI and “The MOM 2005 Field Guide ” (Andy Dominey and Gary Meaburn), which delivers great info on common issues encountered in the field.
Coming Soon
Cameron, Kerrie and John are hard at work on their next “Unleashed” volume, System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed, due out in January 2008. You can pre-order your copy at the URL below.
Order MOM 2005 Unleashed HERE.
Pre-order Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed HERE.
