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Distributed Applications Node in Operations Manager 2007

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The Distributed Application Designer enables you to define the component groups that constitute your distributed application so that Operations Manager 2007 can create the monitors and rules that you need to monitor the application. It also facilitates access to views and reports, scoped to the appropriate locations.

You use the Distributed Application Designer to create your distributed application. The following steps describe the process in general.

  1. Define the basic settings of the distributed application, including the name, description, template, and the Management Pack the distributed application is saved to.
  2. Add the individual component groups that are included in your distributed application, create the relationships between them, and add object instances to the component groups.
  3. Configure existing component groups to accept instances of specific object types.
  4. Save the distributed application to a Management Pack, as a template, or as a distributed application definition.

Available Templates

The purpose of a template is to select the object types that your distributed application service contains. Three distributed application templates are included as part of the Management Packs that install automatically when you first install Operations Manager:

  • Line of Business Web Application template
  • Messaging template
  • Blank template

In general you choose a template that includes all or most of the object types that are in your distributed application. For example, the Messaging template automatically includes object types for a mail store, Domain Name System (DNS) components, and directory service components. If your distributed application contains object types that are not included in the template most suited to your needs you can add those object types to the template. Use the Blank template if you would like to start from the beginning to design your distributed application.

Distributed Application Designer Toolbar

The toolbar appears automatically in the Distributed Application Designer. The following table describes each button on the toolbar and its purpose.

Button Description

Save

Saves changes to the distributed application monitoring object.

Objects

Toggles the Objects pane between hidden and appearing.

Details

Toggles the Details pane between hidden and appearing.

Add Component

Opens the Create New Component Group dialog box.

Create Relationship

Toggles between on and off. When toggled to on, use your cursor to draw a relationship between component groups of your distributed application in the diagram pane.

Remove

Removes the selected object from the distributed application monitoring object.

Reset

Discards all changes made after the distributed application was last saved. If the distributed application was never saved, Reset refreshes the Distributed Application Designer to its original state.

Properties

Opens the Component Group Properties dialog box for the selected object. You can change the types of valid objects for a component group by adding new types or removing existing ones.

Org Chart (Type)

Opens a drop-down list that allows you the change the layout of the objects in the results pane.

Relayout

Allows the Distributed Application Designer to choose the layout of the component groups of the distributed application. The Distributed Application Designer then attempts to find a suitable layout for the component groups.

Component Groups

A component group consists of objects in your distributed application that you have grouped together. Some component groups are created from the template that was chosen when your first created your distributed application monitoring object. You can add or remove object types from existing component groups in the properties of the component group, or you can create a new component group by using the Add Component button on the toolbar.

Diagram Pane

The diagram pane displays the components groups of your distributed application.

Objects Pane

Use the Objects pane to define the objects in your environment that are component groups in your distributed application. Each object type that is defined in the template you choose in the Create New Distributed Application page has a button on the bottom of the Objects pane. You can hide any of these object types by using Organize Object Types.

Note

If you add new object types to a new or original component group, new tabs appear in this pane. You can remove the new tabs by removing their corresponding object types from the components group. Or you can hide the object types by using Organize Object Types.

By default, only the object types that are components of your distributed application are shown in the Objects pane. After the Distributed Application Designer starts, you can click each object type button, find the objects that are components of your distributed application, and then add each object to the appropriate component group.

Details Pane

The Details pane contains information about the component group that is selected in diagram pane. From the Details pane, you can open views that are related to your distributed application.

Note

The appearance of the Details pane changes according to your selections in the results pane.

See Also

Tasks

How to Create a Distributed Application in Operations Manager 2007
How to Edit a Distributed Application in Operations Manager 2007

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