About Product Connectors in Operations Manager 2007
Product connectors are used to synchronize Operations Manager 2007 data with other management systems such as those that monitor non-Windows computers or create trouble-tickets. Product connectors can integrate a deployment of Operations Manager 2007 into another management platform or connect other management systems into a full Operations Manager management solution.
A unidirectional connector forwards alerts to another management system. A bidirectional connector both forwards alerts to another management system and receives messages from the originating system when the issue is resolved.
Note
Operations Manager 2005 supports deployments with tiers of management servers. This tiering is accomplished by using the connector framework provided in Operations Manager 2005, which is the Operations Manager Connector Framework (MCF). The implementation of tiers in Operations Manager 2007 uses connected Management Groups. See About the Connected Management Groups Node in Operations Manager 2007 for more information.
Connections to Other Management Systems
Product connectors allow communication between Operations Manager and other management systems regardless of whether Operations Manager is the highest level management system or not. If Operations Manager is not the top-tier management system, a product connector can forward all Windows-generated alerts for consolidation at another management system. If the connector is bidirectional, Operations Manager can update the state of the monitored component in the Operations Console when it receives notification from the top-level management system. If Operations Manager 2007 is the top-tier management system, a product connector allows it to receive and consolidate alert information from another management system.
Operations Manager 2007 and Trouble-Ticketing Systems
In Operations Manager 2007, alerts occur only when an issue requires action. It does not issue alerts that are for information purposes only, such as state changes. With this configuration, a trouble-ticketing system can automatically open trouble tickets when it receives an alert generated from Operations Manager 2007 via a product connector.
Product Connector Installation
If you want to connect to a particular management system, you should ask the vendor of that management system for a product connector. Installation instructions should be included in the download of the product connector files. After a product connector is installed, you can configure which events you want the product connector to accept or forward using subscriptions. See How to Configure a Product Connector Subscription for more information.