The following article will cover a basic install of System Center Service Manager 2012 R2. The concept is to perform a limited deployment of SCSM, similar to our deployment guide on TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh519675.aspx The deployment guide on TechNet demonstrates Service Manager in a Two Server model (typical for lab and test environments), and a Four Server Model (More typical for a scaled out production environment). However for this article, I will be choosing a 3 server model, where all the SQL components are installed on a single SQL server, with a dedicated SCSM Management server, and dedicated SCSM Data Warehouse management server. I feel this is a more typical scenario for lab testing and pilot environments where we don’t want to deploy SQL on the SCSM management servers themselves, but don’t need two independent SQL servers. This is to be used as a template only, for a customer to implement as their own pilot or POC, or customized deployment guide. It is intended to be general in nature and will require the customer to modify it to suit their specific data and processes.
This is not an architecture guide or intended to be a design guide in any way. This is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights. Use is subject to the terms specified in the Terms of Use.
Server Names\Roles:
- DB02 SQL Database Services, SQL Analysis Services, SQL Reporting Services.
- SCSM01 Management Server
- SCSM01DW Data Warehouse Management Server
Windows Server 2012 R2 will be installed as the base OS for all platforms. All servers will be a member of the AD domain.
SQL 2012 Enterprise with SP1 will be the base standard for all SQL Database, Analysis, and Reporting services.
High Level Deployment Process:
1. In AD, create the following accounts and groups, according to your naming convention:
- DOMAIN\scsmsvc SM Server service account
- DOMAIN\scsmwf SM Mail Enabled Workflow account
- DOMAIN\scsmrep SM reporting and analysis account
- DOMAIN\SQLSVC SQL service account
- DOMAIN\SCSMadmins SM Administrators security group
2. Add the three SCSM service accounts, and the domain user accounts for yourself and your team to the “SCSMadmins” group.
3. Install Windows Server 2012 R2 to all server role servers.
4. Install Prerequisites and SQL 2012 wSP1.
5. Install the Management Server
6. Install the Data Warehouse Server
7. Post install configurations
Prerequisites:
1. Install Windows Server 2012 R2 to all Servers
2. Join all servers to domain.
3. Add the “SCSMAdmins” domain global group to the Local Administrators group on each server.
4. On the SCSM and SCSMDW server, Open Powershell as an administrator, and install .NET 3.5 by running:
Install-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-Core
***Note – .NET 3.5 is removed from the OS by default, and therefore the content is not present in the OS to add this feature. You might need to provide a “–source” parameter to installation media for Windows Server 2012 R2 in order to add this. Such as “-source D:\sources\sxs”
5. On the SCSM and SCSMDW server, install the SQL 2012 Native Client, and the SQL 2012 Analysis Management Objects, from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29065.
6. Install all available Windows Updates.
7. Install SQL 2012 with SP1 to the DB server role
- Setup is fairly straightforward. This document will not go into details and best practices for SQL configuration. Consult your DBA team to ensure your SQL deployment is configured for best practices according to your corporate standards.
- Run setup, choose Installation > New SQL Installation…
- When prompted for feature selection, install ALL of the following:
- Database Engine Services
- Full-Text and Semantic Extractions for Search
- Analysis Services
- Reporting Services – Native
- Optionally – consider adding the following to ease administration:
- Management Tools – Basic and Complete (for running queries and configuring SQL services)
- On the Instance configuration, choose a default instance, or a named instance. Default instances are fine for testing and labs. Production clustered instances of SQL will generally be a named instance. For the purposes of the POC, choose default instance to keep things simple.
- On the Server configuration screen, set SQL Server Agent to Automatic. You can accept the defaults for the service accounts, but I recommend using a Domain account for the service account. Input the DOMAIN\sqlsvc account and password for Agent, Engine, Analysis, and Reporting.
- On the Collation Tab – you can use the default which is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS or choose another supported collation. The default is only supported for English-only installations. See the product documentation for SCSM for additional details.
- On the Account provisioning tab – add your personal domain user account or a group you already have set up for SQL admins. Alternatively, you can use the SCSMAdmins global group here. This will grant more rights than is required to all SCSMAdmin accounts, but is fine for testing purposes of the POC.
- On the Data Directories tab – set your drive letters correctly for your SQL databases, logs, TempDB, and backup.
- On the Analysis Services screen, add your personal domain user account or a group you already have set up for SQL admins. Alternatively, you can use the SCSMAdmins global group here. This will grant more rights than is required to all SCSMAdmin accounts, but is fine for testing purposes of the POC. Customize data directories for Analysis file locations if needed, and click Next.
- On the Reporting Services Configuration – choose to Install and Configure. This will install and configure SRS to be active on this server, and use the default DBengine present to house the reporting server databases. This is the simplest configuration. If you install Reporting Services on a stand-alone (no DBEngine) server, you will need to configure this manually.
- Continue accepting defaults until you reach Install. Installation will run then complete.
- You will need to disable Windows Firewall on the SQL server, or make the necessary modifications to the firewall to allow all SQL traffic. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175043.aspx
Step by step deployment guide:
1. Install the Management Server role on SCSM. You can also refer to: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh519668.aspx
- Log on using your personal domain user account that is a member of the SCSMAdmins group.
- Run Setup.exe
- Click Install > Service Manager Management Server
- Provide a Name, Org, and a product key, or select to install the 180 day evaluation. Accept the license agreement and click Next.
- The Prereq checker runs. Observe any critical or warnings. At this point you should install the Report Viewer from the link in the checker, as that ships with the SCSM media. Check prereqs again. Common issues at this point will be memory and CPU checks throwing a warning. This is fine for a lab, but should be corrected for any pilots or production work. Click Next.
- For the Management Server role, we will use a remote database server. Input the DB server name and choose an instance. You must be logged on with an account that has SA rights over to remote SQL server in order to create and configure the DB. If you get an error about the collation, click OK. This is normal for SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. See: http://blogs.technet.com/b/momteam/archive/2012/05/25/clarification-on-sql-server-collation-requirements-for-system-center-2012.aspx Select to create a new database, accept default size, and modify the path for the DB files if necessary. Click Next.
- Choose a Service Manager Management group name. If you also have OpsMgr in the environment, its a best practice to always use distinct MG names. Choose your group DOMAIN\SCSMAdmins. Click Next.
- Input the Service manager service account we created above. Test the credentials, then click Next.
- Input the Service manager workflow account we created above. Test the credentials, then click Next.
- Join the customer experience program, or not. Next.
- Choose to leverage Microsoft Update, or not. Next.
- Click Install. When setup completes, backup and save the encryption key for this management group.
2. Install the Data Warehouse Management Server role on SCSMDW. You can also refer to: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh519780.aspx.
- The first step for the DW install, is to prepare the SRS server. We must perform this anytime the SQL Reporting server is installed remotely, on a different server than the SCSM Data Warehouse Management server. See the following for instructions: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh519664.aspx
- Once you have prepared the remote SRS server, log on to the SCSMDW server using your domain user account that is a member of the SCSMAdmins group.
- Run Setup.exe
- Click Install > Service Manager Data Warehouse Management Server
- Provide a Name, Org, and a product key, or select to install the 180 day evaluation. Accept the license agreement and click Next.
- The Prereq checker runs. Observe any critical or warnings. Common issues at this point will be memory and CPU checks throwing a warning. This is fine for a lab, but should be corrected for any pilots or production work. Click Next.
- For the DW Management Server role, we will use a remote database server. Input the DB server name for each database and choose an instance. You must be logged on with an account that has SA rights over to remote SQL server in order to create and configure the DB. If you get an error about the collation, click OK. This is normal for SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. See: http://blogs.technet.com/b/momteam/archive/2012/05/25/clarification-on-sql-server-collation-requirements-for-system-center-2012.aspx Select to create a new database, accept default size, and modify the path for the DB files if necessary. Click Next. This wizard allows us to scale out service manager across multiple SQL servers for the best performance, but for this purpose, we will be deploying to a single SQL server for all database components.
- On the Configuration screen, provide a Management Group name. A good rule of thumb is to use your SCSM management group name we used above, prefixed by DW_. I will use DW_SCSM. Choose your SCSMAdmins group. Next.
- On the reporting server screen, type in the name of the remote SSRS server, and choose an instance. We will validate the URL before letting you continue. Check the box that confirms you have manually prepared this server for SSRS integration with SCSM.
- For the service account, enter in DOMAIN\scsmsvc, and test the credential.
- For the reporting account, enter in DOMAIN\scsmrep, and test the credential.
- For the Analysis Services OLAP screen, input the remote DB server name, and choose an instance. Create a new database, and provide a path if needed different than the default.
- For the Analysis Services credential, we will use the same credential that we used for reporting: DOMAIN\scsmrep. This account MUST be a local administrator on the SQL Analysis server, so ensure that is done in advance.
- Choose whether to join the CEIP, and click Next.
- Choose whether to use Microsoft update, and click Next.
- Choose Install. When setup completes, backup and save the encryption key for this management group.
3. Verify the installation: You can also refer to: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh519793.aspx
- Log on SCSM01 using your domain user account that is a member of the SCSMAdmins group.
- Open the Service Manager Console. Connect to SCSM01.
- Ensure the console opens.
4. Register the Data Warehouse. You can also refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh519811.aspx
- In the Service Manager console – select Administration.
- Click the link to Register the Service Manager Data Warehouse. This launches a wizard.
- Input the DW server name, and select Test Connection. Next.
- Accept the default Run As account, and click Next.
- Type in the password for the service account, and Next.
- Click Create. Click Close. Click OK.
- This process takes a considerable amount of time to complete (two hours or more). To validate this – in the console select Data Warehouse > Data Warehouse Jobs. Examine MPSyncJob details. When it is done, all batches will be in Associated status, and you will see at least the following 5 jobs in the DW Jobs view:
- Extract_<Service Manager management group name>
- Extract_<Data Warehouse management group name>
- Load.Common
- Transform.Common
- MPSyncJob
5. Deploy the Self-Service Portal.
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh667344.aspx
- The Self-Service Portal consists of two elements: a SharePoint website and a web content server. Typically I will deploy a single server running Windows Server 2008R2 and SharePoint 2010 Foundation, then apply SharePoint SP1, then request an SSL cert for the machine via IIS, then install the Web Content and SharePoint webparts on that single server. There is a pretty good walk-thru here: http://blogs.perficient.com/microsoft/2012/10/service-manager-2012-self-service-portal-step-by-step-part-1/
- The steps would be something like:
- Deploy a Windows Server 2008R2 VM for the SSP
- Deploy a Windows Server 2008R2 VM for the SQL database running SQL 2008R2 SP1
- Install SharePoint 2010 Foundation on the SSP server (do not run config wizard)
- Install SharePoint 2010 SP1 update.
- Run SharePoint config Wizard.
- Add a SSL certificate to the SSP server in IIS via Create Domain Request.
- Install the SSP (both parts) using :444 first for the content server, and then :443 for the portal. (defaults are backwards)
6. Configure the Active Directory Connector
7. Configure the Operations Manager Alert Connector and CI Connector
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh524270.aspx
- Import Management Packs
- Create Alert Connector
- Create CI Connector
8. Configure the Configuration Manager CI Connector
9. Configure the Orchestrator Connector:
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh495619.aspx
- The Account used in the connector wizard needs to have Read and List permissions on the Root Runbook folder in Orchestrator Run book designer for the connector wizard to complete successfully. The documentation does not list this information.
10. Configure the SCVMM Connector
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh519785.aspx
- The service account to connect to SCVMM requires rights to the SCVMM server OS and to read properties from SCVMM itself.
11. Set up and configure Notifications:
12. Configure SCOM agents for monitoring
- The SCOM agent is installed by default on all SCSM 2012 SP1 and later servers, it is not configured.
- Open the control panel on your SCSM servers and add your SCOM management group information.
- Ensure your SCOM deployment allows manually installed agents.
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh524312.aspx