The document provides an overview of a presentation on System Center including highlights from the keynote discussing public and private clouds, a demo of Virtual Machine Manager, a discussion of SQL configuration tips for System Center focusing on memory, autogrowth, and TempDB settings, and an overview of features in Operations Manager for monitoring SQL Server performance.

1. Best of MMS 2013

2. Quick Facts
About Us
• 23rd Year
• Grand Rapids &
Royal Oak
• 30 Staff
Approach
• Vendor
Independent
• Non-reseller
• Professional
Services Only
Partnerships
• Microsoft Gold
• VMware
Enterprise
• Citrix Silver
• Cisco Premier
• Novell Gold

3. Microsoft Gold Partner
Competencies
Three Gold
Five Silver
Successes
Customer
Excellence Award
Virtual Technical
Specialist (VTSP)
Managed Partner
Numerous Partner
Awards
Pinpoint
Microsoft’s official
partner directory
5-star rating

4. Expertise

5. Get Social with C/D/H
facebook.com/cdhtech@cdhtweetstech
www.linkedin.com/company/cdh

6. Your Presenter
Erik Gilreath
MCSE, MCITP, CNE, CCNA, CCDA, CCA, CCEA
• Consultant with C/D/H
• Currently focusing on System
Center, infrastructure and
virtualization
• Been with C/D/H since 1999
erikg@cdh.com

7. Today’s Agenda
• Keynote Highlights
• Keynote Debrief
• System Center Overview: V-SCOOPED
• SQL Configuration Tips for System Center
• Global Services Monitoring
• System Center Advisor

8. Keynote Highlights
• Started 25 minutes late due to loss of
Internet – when all demos use the cloud,
the Internet is pretty important.
• Key takeaways:
– Cloud optimize your business
– Mix public and private clouds for greatest
flexibility
– Microsoft workloads run best on Microsoft
Cloud platforms

9. Keynote Highlights (cont.)
• Public cloud
– Microsoft Azure
• Private cloud
– Windows Server 2012
– SQL Server 2012
– System Center 2012
• Microsoft cloud products are enterprise
grade and ready to scale and deploy

10. Keynote Highlights (cont.)
• Server 2012 Hyper-V
– Supports the largest virtual disk
– Largest scale unit: 64-node cluster. Capable of hosting
8,000 VMs
• A few fun facts:
– Microsoft’s test environment provisioned 80,000 VMs in a
single day
– On an average day, spin and tear down 20,000 VMs a day
– Exchange 2013 was able to host 48,000 mailboxes on a
single Hyper-V host
– SharePoint server farm (5 servers) was able to host
1,000,000 users on a single Hyper-V server

11. Keynote Highlights (cont.)
• Hyper-V is THE BEST platform for all
Microsoft workloads (SQL, Exchange,
Lync, System Center, etc.)
• Watch the keynote online at:
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MMS/20
13/KEY1

12. Keynote Debrief
• Went through and showed how every demo in
the keynote was created
• Showed there were no smoke and mirrors
(although there was the occasional 10GB
connection)
• Showed that they actually use their products
to do incredible things
• Watch it online:
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MMS/2013/
MMS105

13. Domino’s Pizza Case Study
• 15,000 Hyper-V VMs managed with System
Center
• 99% reduction in help desk calls over “the
other guys”
• 28% faster hard drive reads
• 38% faster memory operations
Case study video overview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3MI
cvsQ71YA
Case study:
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/case_study_detail.aspx?ca
sestudyid=710000002307

14. V-SCOOPED
Virtual Machine Manager
Service Manager
Configuration Manager
Orchestrator
OPerations Manager
Endpoint Protection
Data Protection Manager

15. System Center
Virtual Machine Manager
• Heterogeneous Hypervisor Management
Microsoft, VMware, Citrix (Public and Private Cloud)
• Enterprise Toolset for Hyper-V
Libraries, Templates, Live-Migration, Backup, Dynamic Optimization
• Service and Application Management
Integrates with App Controller, App-V, and Azure
• Optimization and Standardization
Power, Compute Resources, Bare Metal Hypervisor Deployment
• New in SP1: Highly Available VMM MS
SMB 3.0, Cluster-Free Live Migration, Network Virtualization

16. System Center
Virtual Machine Manager

17. DEMO

18. Managing Services in Multiple Clouds
PublicPrivate
Private
Public

19. App Controller SP1
– Common experience across
public and private clouds
– Platform as a Service
application
– Windows Azure virtual machine
(SP1)
– Start, stop, remote desktop
– Scale, upgrade

20. App Controller is Cloud Independent
Windows Azure Hosted Site
On-PremiseDR Site

21. System Center
Service Manager
• ITIL / MOF Aligned IT Processes
Incident, Problem, Change, Knowledge Management - CMDB
• Integrations with SC2012 Suite
OpsManager, ConfigMgr, Orchestrator, VMM
• Integration with Microsoft Infrastructure
Exchange, Active Directory, SharePoint, Project, Azure
• User Self Service Catalog
Driven by Workflows and Orchestrator Runbooks
• New in SP1: Cost Center Chargeback
SQL 2012 & OLAP, Windows 8 SSP Support

22. System Center
Service Manager

23. Stacking Up SCSM
• There are NO LEADERS
• SCSM hasn’t even made it
to “the quadrant”*
• Big players are BMC,
ServiceNow, LANDesk,
IBM, CA
• Deployment is highly
provider focused
*Do you really care?

24. SCSM: Perspective
• Biggest strength is the suite
• Green field: for better or worse
• Single pain of glass…
• Designed for scale
• Console is not elegant

25. SCSM: Server Roles
• Management Server
• SQL Server: CMDB
• Data Warehouse Management Server
• SQL Server: DW
• Self Service Portal
• Service Manager Console

26. SCSM: Server Roles
Source: SCSM Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=245470

27. SCSM IPD Guide
Source: SCSM Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=245470

28. After Installation
• Establish Process
• Customize Lists
• Author Templates
• Runbook Automation
• Authoring Tool
• Integrate System Center Suite
• Third Party Offerings

29. System Center
Configuration Manager
• Client Application and Desktop Deployment
Updates Management, Operating System Deployment
• Multi-Platform Device Management
iOS, Android, Mac, Linux, Unix
• EndPoint Protection
• Hardware and Software Inventory
Reporting, Asset Intelligence
• New in SP1: Windows 8 and Mobile Device
Intune Integration for On-Demand MDM, Robust Alerting

30. System Center
Configuration Manager

31. Gartner Magic Quadrant –
Client Management Tools

32. SCCM 2012
New
• Improved settings
management with
remediation
• Integrated anti-malware
• Delegated administration
Benefits
• Reduce compliance
complexity
• Reduce cost through
integrated security
SP1 release includes the ability to manage and deploy thin
clients, POS devices, and other Windows embedded
devices, as well as create and provision Windows To Go
portable workspaces

33. SCCM 2012 Feature Set
• Systems Management/Remote Control
• Inventory
• Software Metering
• Software Updates
• Application Management
• Operating System Deployment
• Endpoint Protection
• Mobile Device Management

34. Software Updates
• Integrated with Windows Server Update
Services (WSUS)
– Leverages the client agent
– No need for GPOs in this case
• Create packages of updates for deployment
(just like applications)
• Updates can be configured for automatic
approval
– Endpoint Protection definition updates

35. Application Deployment
• Deployment Type
• Detection Method
• Install Command
• Requirement Rules
• Dependencies
• Supersedence
• Updates

36. System Center
Orchestrator
• Graphical IT Workflow Engine
Activities Managed through Custom Workflows
• Automation for System Center Suite
OpsManager, ConfigMgr, ServiceMgr, DPM, VMM, Self-Service
• Extends to entire Microsoft stack
Windows Server, SQL, Exchange, SharePoint, FTP
• Extensive Third Party Integration
VMware, HP, IBM
• New in SP1: Server 2012 and SQL 2012

37. System Center
Orchestrator

38. Orchestrator Automation
• Several good sessions on Orchestrator
automation and organization
• Automate as much as you can
• Not everything makes sense to automate
• Orchestrator ties into all of the System
Center applications
• With the ability to call PowerShell scripts
and EXEs the power of Orchestrator is
seemingly limitless.

39. DEMO

40. System Center
Operations Manager
• Server and Application Monitoring
Extensible through Management Packs
• Alerts and Incident Generation
Integrates with Exchange and/or ServiceMgr
• Agentless Monitoring
Unix, Linux, Network Devices, Web Applications
• Synthetic Transactions
Simulate Client Activities
• New in SP1: Improved Application Monitor
360 .NET Dashboards, TFS Integration, Global Service Monitoring, System Center
Advisor

41. System Center
Operations Manager

42. Why SCOM is so rarely installed
• First iterations were less than stellar
• Easy to install poorly
• More complicated than it looks
• Poor planning
• Not understanding what SCOM really does
• Bad reputation from people who use or
install it incorrectly

43. Why it’s a mistake not to install:
SCOM in real life
• Notifications of system issues
• Notifications of possible problems
• Alerts of performance issues
• Correct issues with the use of scripts
• Generates help desk tickets

44. SCOM Installation Tips
• Decide ahead of time what MPs to install
– Exchange / IIS / SharePoint / SQL / etc.
• Install one MP at a time
– Let it bake a week or two
– Start with Windows Core
– Create custom MP for each installed MP for
overrides
– Name each custom MP with the same starting
letters
• Alert Monitors vs. Alert Rules

45. Monitoring Services

46. Monitoring Services

47. Synthetic Transactions
• Real time actions performed on monitored
objects
– Test website responsiveness
– Monitor database performance
– TCP port monitoring

48. System Center
Endpoint Protection
• Enterprise Malware and Security Platform
Antivirus, Firewall
• Integrates with ConfigMgr
• Seamless Updates
Software Update Point, Automatic Deployment Rules
• New in SP1: ADR Template

49. System Center
Endpoint Protection

50. System Center
Data Protection Manager
• Volume Shadow Copy Based Backup
• Disk-to-Disk: Archive to Tape
• SQL, Exchange, Hyper-V, SharePoint
• New in SP1: Live Migration Support
Azure Online Backup, “Phase 13”

51. System Center
Data Protection Manager

52. V-SCOOPED

53. Data Center Automation
• Template Based VM Deployment
• Monitoring of Critical Servers
• Backup and Disaster Recovery
• Dynamic Scaling of Heavy Use Applications

54. Client Automation
• User Driven Incident Management
• Self-Service Request Portal
• Automated Provisioning
• Web Based Knowledgebase

55. Service Desk Automation
• Automated Incident Remediation
• Change Management Workflows
• Runbook Driven Escalation
• ITIL / MOF Aligned Knowledge Management

56. SQL Server Configuration
• Proper installation and configuration of Microsoft
SQL Server is critical for System Center products.
• Misconfiguration of SQL Server can cause issues:
– High CPU
– Memory shortages
– Inbox/file backlogs
– Workflow delays
– Stale or inaccurate data in reports
• Carefully consider and plan for data volume
System Center products generate and the load
this will place on SQL server

57. SQL 2012: What’s new?
• Increased performance and scalability
• Power View – SQL Reporting Services
add-in for SharePoint
• PowerPivot - Excel add-in
• PowerShell support to enable automation
• AlwaysOn

58. SQL 2012 AlwaysOn
What is AlwaysOn?
• Provides SQL server high availability and disaster
recovery for databases
• Failover cluster instance for SQL server instances
• Uses Windows Server failover clustering
• Supported in several System Center 2012 products
• Requires SQL 2012 Enterprise edition

59. SQL 2012 AlwaysOn & System
Center 2012
SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn supported on:
• App Controller
• Operations Manager
• Orchestrator
• Service Manager
• Virtual Machine Manager
SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn not currently supported
on:
• Data Protection Manager
• Configuration Manager
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj628198.aspx

60. SQL Memory
• Buffer Pool
• Consists of 8KB pages
• Data cache stored here
• Execution plans that is less that 8KB
• SQL engine
• SQL components
• Execution plan that is more than
8KB
• SQL CLR (Common Language
Runtime)
• Also called MemToLeave 60

61. Maximum Server Memory
Consider limiting SQL to 50%-80% of total memory if SQL will
co-exist with another System Center product
Example: One server running ConfigMgr
primary site server & SQL database
Consider limiting SQL to 80%-90% if SQL server is dedicated
Example: Dedicated SQL server that only
hosts databases or a SQL cluster
NOTE: Setting the maximum and/or minimum server memory
settings only controls the Buffer Pool Memory
SQL: Memory Settings

62. SQL: Memory Settings
Minimum Server Memory
• SQL does not allocate Minimum Server Memory at start up
• Grows until reaches maximum
• Once Buffer Pool hits Minimum Server Memory, SQL will not
release the memory
NOTE: Setting the Maximum and/or Minimum Server memory settings
only controls the Buffer Pool Memory

63. Detecting SQL Memory Pressure
• SQL Buffer Pool Memory pressure happens
when SQL does not have enough memory to
hold data in memory
• Can result in excessive I/O
• Check the following perfmon counters:
– SQL: Buffer Manager  Lazy writes/sec goes up
– SQL: Buffer Manager  Page Life Expectancy
goes down
– SQL: Buffer Manager  Free Pages goes down

64. SQL: Useful SQL Perfmon
Counters
• SQL Server: Buffer Manager
– Buffer cache hit ratio(>90-95%)
– Free pages(>640)
– Lazy writes/sec (<20)
– Page life expectancy (>300)
– Page reads/sec (<90)
– Page writes/sec (<90)
• SQL Server: Memory Manager
– Target Server Memory (KB) (Target >= Total)
– Total Server Memory (KB) (Target >= Total)

65. Monitor SQL Performance
• SQL Server: Memory Manager: Tells
how much memory SQL Server would
like to use to operate efficiently
• SQL Server: Memory Manager: Tells
how much memory SQL Server is
using
• If Total Server Memory >= Target
Server Memory, may indicate SQL is
under memory pressure

66. • CPU
– Processor: %Processor Time – If 80-90% for a
sustained period, identify the process with
Process: %Processor Time and determine if
faster/more processors are needed
– Processor: %Privileged Time – If counter is
consistently high and in-line with Physical Disk
counters, disk sub-system is bottleneck
• Memory
– SQL Server: Buffer Manager: Buffer Cache Hit
Ratio – less than 90% indicates memory
pressure
– Memory: Pages/sec – a high rate for this
counter indicates excessive paging
Monitor SQL Performance

67. Monitoring via Operations Manager
• Deploy the System Center Management Pack
for SQL Server
• Monitors SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008 R2 and
2012
• Monitors the database instances, the databases
themselves, and the SQL agents
• Provides a wealth of data around performance,
availability and configuration.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=10631

68. SQL: AutoGrow
If Autogrow setting is too small:
• SQL spends significant processing
time autogrowing the database
• Each file grow in log file creates a
Virtual Log File (VLF)
• Excessive VLF may cause
performance issues:
– When VLF>250, performance will be impacted
– When VLF >10000, SQL will take longer to
bring up database
Additional information on VLFs available at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2455009

69. SQL: AutoGrow
If Autogrow setting is too large:
• During autogrow, SQL will write zeroes in the
space that is grown.
• During autogrow, queries involving updates,
inserts, deletes may be blocked.
• Can enable Instant File Initialization for the DB but
possible security risk as deleted data may still be
viewable
• Instant File Initialization does not work for log file
Additional information available at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/ms175935(v=sql.105).aspx

70. TempDB
• TempDB database typically heavily used
• Consider pre-sizing the data file. Don’t rely on
autogrow.
• If you need to autogrow, use fixed amount to avoid
frequent growth intervals, which affects performance
(10% of tempdb size good starting point)
• Divide TempDB into multiple files, one data file per
CPU, and each file should be set to the same size
• Additional information here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175527.aspx

71. Storage
• Isolate transaction log files from database files
at disk level
• Recommended to have at least 20% free disk
space on all drives. Important for performance
and to prevent running out of space.

72. • SQL Server and System Center 2012 supported
on physical and virtual servers
• More customers using virtual servers for SQL and
System Center infrastructure. Benefits include:
– Reduced server hardware costs
– Reduced data center costs
– Easier to move virtual servers from one host to another
– Easy to add/remove memory, CPU, etc. to/from guest
OS
– Snapshot technology allows rollback for issues, upgrade
failure, etc.

73. • If you use virtual servers:
– Verify host server can handle the additional load
– Slow disks, low memory and high CPU utilization can have
major impact on SQL Server and System Center products
– Avoid using dynamic virtual drives (VHDs) as they can
decrease performance
– Allocate at least two virtual CPUs for SQL Server instance
– Do not allocate more virtual CPUs than the number of
available logical CPUs
• Ensure recommended memory/CPU/disk requirements
are at least met, if not exceeded. Don’t reduce
resources because it’s a VM

74. SQL: Local or Remote
For System Center 2012 product X,
should I use local or remote SQL server?
Answer: It depends!

75. Product Specific Guidance
Look at product specific planning guidance.
Some links below:
• Configuration Manager:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh846235.aspx
• Service Manager: SM Sizing Helper Tool, part of SM job
aids http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/download/details.aspx?id=13605
• Operations Manager: OM 2012 Sizing Helper Tool
http://blogs.technet.com/b/momteam/archive/2012/04/02/operatio
ns-manager-2012-sizing-helper-tool.aspx

76. Global Service Monitoring
• Azure based service that ties into SCOM
• Available free with Software Assurance
• Monitors from both inside and outside
– Monitor applications from 15 different locations
• Two kinds of monitors
– Web Application Availability
– Visual Studio Web Tests

77. Global Service Monitoring -
Installation
• Signup for GSM:
https://orgaccount.microsoft.com/signup?offerIds=BE2A46EF-0639-43a4-8323-
BB5E1D4340D3
• If doing Visual Studio tests, import the Alert
Attachment MP:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj899889.aspx
• Import the GSM MPs into OpsMgr 2012 SP1
• Configure GSM in OpsMgr 2012 SP1 with
your GSM account
• Start configuring tests!

78. Web Application Availability Monitor
• Test is defined as one URL from one
location
• One test every 5 minutes is the most
frequent interval
• Total tests = # tests * # locations
• Total tests cannot exceed 25 per
subscription

79. Visual Studio Web Tests
• Test is defined as one .webtest file
• One test every 5 minutes is the most
frequent interval
• Total tests = # tests times # locations
• Total tests cannot exceed 25 per
subscription
• Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 or
2012 required to view test results

80. Global Service Monitor

81. DEMO

82. System Center Advisor
• Cloud-based service that examines your
Microsoft-based installations
• Available free to everyone
• Alerts generated due to improper
configuration, potential issues, missing
patches, or simply straying from best
practices
• Remediation recommendations based on
thousands of MS Support cases

83. How System Center Advisor works
SERVER
CONFIGURATIONS
Microsoft Servers
BEST PRACTICES
& RECOMENDATIONS

84. System Center Advisor

85. Royal Oak
306 S. Washington Ave.
Suite 212
Royal Oak, MI 48067
(248) 546-1800
Grand Rapids
15 Ionia SW
Suite 270
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
(616) 776-1600
Thank You
www.cdh.com