I just installed SCOM 2012 and added a few test servers. Without any other configurations, what exactly is SCOM 2012 monitoring, if anything? Is it monitoring the managed agents when the test servers go down?

Hi, Did you import any management packs? Base OS and SQL Management Pack?Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

If you just install scom 2012 without import any MP, you just monitor basic agent health such as heartbeat, agent health status. So, i strong recommend you to install basic MP such as windows OS on your scom 2012 environment Roger

Hi I'd probably say to do as little as possible without reading up about SCOM. There is a big learning curve and it might be useful to take a look at these: http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh769766.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2010/09/02/operations-manager-101-download.aspx With regards to Management Packs - It is easy to deploy a few hundred agents and a dozen management packs in a couple of days and then spend months managing operations manager alerts rather than having operations manager manage your environment. Please go slowly. Very slowly. Here is what I generally recommend for about 100 - 150 servers. It is personal but it works for me! And the basis of this is do one thing at a time and get it right before moving on to the next. 1) Have an alert management process in place before you start. You'll have to fine tune it as the deployment progresses. But if you install Windows, AD, SQL, Exchange, IIS, Cluster, Hardware MPs then the next thing is you'll have a console full of alerts and no process for managing them. A sure recipe for disaster. 2) Deploy slowly - get core components, agents and windows management pack deployed. This means that you are not fire fighting on multiple fronts (e.g. with AD, Exchange, SQL, IIS etc alerts). Just get the agents in and sorted. Get the windows MP in and sorted. The Windows Management Pack is ideal for this as the alerts it generates are usually actionable, relevant and relatively straight forward to resolve so administrators can get familiar with OpsMgr in a fairly controlled environment that is still providing real benefit to the organisation 3) Prioritise other MPs - After windows, I like to get SQL in next as it is a relatively stable MP with less noise than AD, Exchange .. but still gives good business benefit. But deploy the MP and spend time fine tuning it. Make sure you are happy that the alerts you get are actionable. Then move on. 4) Repeat slowly .. MP by MP ... the AD alerts you get might be relevant, they might not be. Even the relevant ones might take time to resolve. Same with Exchange. Expect it to take a few weeks to a couple months to deploy fully rather than days depending on the size of your environment and how much fine tuning of management packs is required (plus how long it takes to fix any problems identified). To change the default settings you need to use overrides: http://thoughtsonopsmgr.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/storing-overrides-good-bad-and-ugly.html As for fixing alert versus override - that is part of the alert management process. It might be an issue that is very real but sadly can't be fixed in the short term. You have options - create an override to stop the alert but have a seperate "To do" list that you work through and remove the override when the task is done. Or you can create a resolution state of "On going" and rather than create an override put the alert into that state. It depends very much on the alert and how quickly the underlying problem can be resolved. Cheers GrahamRegards Graham New System Center 2012 Blog! - http://www.systemcentersolutions.co.uk View OpsMgr tips and tricks at http://systemcentersolutions.wordpress.com/

Management Packs are integral part of SCOM monitoring. As stated above you need to have atlest base MP installed.. based on other monitoring requirement for app, db you can have them installed as well you can get base OS MP from the below link: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=9296 Thanks, Varun

Thanks All. I plan to follow in Graham's footsteps and do one MP at a time but before I start loading the MPs I was curious as to what SCOM was doing with no MPs loaded. My next deploy will be the OS MP. Thanks again.