Running a complex IT infrastructure is not an easy job. There are the inherent challenges of planning and deploying technology solutions and managing the steady rhythm of scheduled change. You must also remain prepared for the inevitable unexpected problems.
One new member of the System Center family—Service Manager 2010—gives you an integrated platform for implementing and automating IT services management best practices. A centralized configuration management database (CMDB) helps you automate the creation and management of incident, problem and change-management work items. The CMDB is built with information gathered from throughout your infrastructure, including Configuration Manager, Operations Manager and Active Directory Domain Services.
Its built-in processes are based on industry best practices, like those found in Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). It gives you a unified base of operations for managing and responding to problems and changes in the most effective way. You can rely on proven, tested support and information to make your decisions.
The CMDB is the heart of Service Manager, collecting pertinent data on the composition and operation of your entire IT infrastructure. It collects information by connecting to system management tools like Configuration Manager, Operations Manager and Active Directory Domain Services. The CMDB gathers three primary types of information:
1. Configuration Items: any component you need to manage to deliver a service. In Service Manager, configuration items might include services, hardware, software, buildings, people and formal documentation, such as process documentation and service level agreements (SLAs).
2. Workflows: represent a sequence of activities, actions or tasks through which documents or items are passed as part of an automated business process.
3. Knowledge: information that can help a user or analyst solve a problem.
Service Manager also includes Change, Incident and Problem Process Management Packs. These include workflows, views, forms, templates, reports and process activities to extend Service Manager. They provide information for implementing all or part of a service management process. Independent services vendors and in-house developers can also build management packs to provide other functions.
Service Manager combines information it gathers about your infrastructure and stores it in the CMDB, along with the best practices and templates available in the process management packs. This can help you rapidly respond to changes in your environment. For example, the Desired Configuration Management (DCM) feature of Service Manager lets you define and monitor configuration baselines on your users’ devices.
Service Manager can also detect when a device deviates from DCM baselines. It can then generate an incident report with all the details you’ll need to resolve the situation. By integrating your IT organization’s policies, Service Manager can automatically prioritize and determine a remediation path, which helps you and your IT staff expediently resolve any issues.
From these incidents, IT can easily use predefined templates to generate change requests. This way you can resolve compliance issues while maintaining a complete audit trail. By using a set of repeatable incident and change management process activities, you can accurately and quickly resolve issues, helping minimize impact on user productivity and reducing risk to the organization.
Service Manager also has a Self-Service Portal (see Figure 1). This gives your users easy access to tools and information, which helps reduce the cost and effort of IT support. For example, there would be fewer calls to the help desk if users can resolve their own problems. Through the Self-Service Portal, users can:
One new member of the System Center family—Service Manager 2010—gives you an integrated platform for implementing and automating IT services management best practices. A centralized configuration management database (CMDB) helps you automate the creation and management of incident, problem and change-management work items. The CMDB is built with information gathered from throughout your infrastructure, including Configuration Manager, Operations Manager and Active Directory Domain Services.
Its built-in processes are based on industry best practices, like those found in Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). It gives you a unified base of operations for managing and responding to problems and changes in the most effective way. You can rely on proven, tested support and information to make your decisions.
The CMDB is the heart of Service Manager, collecting pertinent data on the composition and operation of your entire IT infrastructure. It collects information by connecting to system management tools like Configuration Manager, Operations Manager and Active Directory Domain Services. The CMDB gathers three primary types of information:
1. Configuration Items: any component you need to manage to deliver a service. In Service Manager, configuration items might include services, hardware, software, buildings, people and formal documentation, such as process documentation and service level agreements (SLAs).
2. Workflows: represent a sequence of activities, actions or tasks through which documents or items are passed as part of an automated business process.
3. Knowledge: information that can help a user or analyst solve a problem.
Service Manager also includes Change, Incident and Problem Process Management Packs. These include workflows, views, forms, templates, reports and process activities to extend Service Manager. They provide information for implementing all or part of a service management process. Independent services vendors and in-house developers can also build management packs to provide other functions.
Service Manager combines information it gathers about your infrastructure and stores it in the CMDB, along with the best practices and templates available in the process management packs. This can help you rapidly respond to changes in your environment. For example, the Desired Configuration Management (DCM) feature of Service Manager lets you define and monitor configuration baselines on your users’ devices.
Service Manager can also detect when a device deviates from DCM baselines. It can then generate an incident report with all the details you’ll need to resolve the situation. By integrating your IT organization’s policies, Service Manager can automatically prioritize and determine a remediation path, which helps you and your IT staff expediently resolve any issues.
From these incidents, IT can easily use predefined templates to generate change requests. This way you can resolve compliance issues while maintaining a complete audit trail. By using a set of repeatable incident and change management process activities, you can accurately and quickly resolve issues, helping minimize impact on user productivity and reducing risk to the organization.
Service Manager also has a Self-Service Portal (see Figure 1). This gives your users easy access to tools and information, which helps reduce the cost and effort of IT support. For example, there would be fewer calls to the help desk if users can resolve their own problems. Through the Self-Service Portal, users can:
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