I am looking to extend the use of our System Center Operations Manager to our network gear and environment to test against our current monitoring solution.

I have not been able to locate any licensing details as to whether or not a network switch, router or AP is considered as an additional device that would require a full OS license or a client license.

I have seen persons references that Layer 3 and below gear does not require any, but I have not seen anyone reference any documentation backing up the statement or defining why this gear would not fall under either categorization.

Hi,

You don't need any additional Operations Manager license to monitor network devices. You only need OS license for your Management Servers............and of course System Center license, but I guess you already have this

Network Devices Supported for Discovery by Operations Manager

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh212728.aspx

dktoa,

I see that these articles describe that this product is capable and designed to do so, there is no mention of this being included under your existing licenses.  System Center has moved to the point where you only license the endpoints, and this is split based on if they are a 'Server OS' or 'Client OS.' I don't really think that a piece of network gear would fit as a client or server OS, but I was explicitly looking for something along the lines of 'others are free'.

Sorry to be nitty gritty, but I need to make sure if my budget numbers are challenged I have evidence for backup.

Thanks,

KJ

Hi,

I haven't bought any additional license for monitoring hardware.

Perhaps you should call Microsoft Licence service?

Hi!

All devices on OSI L3 or lower do not need a management license. This includes devices like bridges, switches, routers and hubs but not load balancers for instance.

I haven't found the official statement on that, so calling MS Lic Service as recommended by dktoa is for sure a good idea.

Cheers,
Patrick

Called into licensing services and they were not very helpful.  They gave me an answer along the lines of its either a client or server os and would require a license.  But the two fellas I talked too did not sound very confident in their reply.