Microsoft Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool

  • Article

patterns & practices Developer Center

April 2008

Summary

This productivity tool helps architects and system designers to generate models of an application that contribute to minimized TCO. These models include configuration, instrumentation, health, and performance information. The Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool also assists developers to implement the required instrumentation, and create management packs for monitoring systems such as Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.

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Contents

  • Overview
    • Common Scenarios
    • Audience Requirements
    • System Requirements
  • Getting Started
  • Community
  • Feedback and Support

Overview

Studies show that the most significant costs for modern distributed applications occur during the operational phase. On average, implementation and installation account for only around 20% of the total lifetime cost. The remaining 80% is the cost of deploying, maintaining, and managing a complex application. The Microsoft Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool (TSMMD) can help architects, system designers, developers, and operators to minimize the post implementation costs and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for applications.

Using the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool, architects and system designers can generate models of many of the areas of an application that contribute to minimized TCO. These models include configuration, tasks, instrumentation, health, and performance. The Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool also assists developers to implement the required instrumentation, and create management packs for monitoring systems such as Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.

The Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool helps solutions architects to create a comprehensive model of an application as part of the design process. The TSMMD provides the following features:

  • A familiar and easy-to-use graphical modeling environment within Visual Studio 2008 Team System Edition.
  • Built-in guidance packages that provide step-by-step Wizard-like features for defining the structure of a health model and defining the required instrumentation.
  • Discovery of existing instrumentation in an application, allowing the creation of management models for existing applications.
  • Support for dependencies between the components and services of the application.
  • Support for multiple target environments that match the available instrumentation to the specific requirements of different deployment and installation infrastructures.
  • Instrumentation modeling that ensures the application contains appropriate instrumentation that exposes the required information to operators and administrators.
  • Health modeling that identifies the runtime states for an application, and defines the performance indicators necessary to ensure that the application conforms to business requirements and meets service level agreements (SLAs).
  • Validation of models to ensure they are complete and internally consistent.
  • Code generation for the instrumentation defined within the models, which simplifies development, provides better system architecture through the use of instrumentation helper classes, and reduces development time and cost.
  • Management Pack generation to automatically create suitable management packs for installation into Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.

Common Scenarios

Creating comprehensive management models provides a total system view and provides many benefits, including the following:

  • The model can capture information about all interrelated software and hardware components managed by the administrator in a single source.
  • The model can capture prescriptive configurations and best practices in a single knowledge base. Change testing can take place within the model before committing the changes to the live application.
  • The infrastructure that holds the system model captures and tracks the configuration state, so administrators do not have to memorize settings or record them in an ad-hoc way.
  • Administrators do not have to operate directly on the real-world systems; instead, they can model changes before committing them. This allows for experimentation and "what if" scenarios without affecting the live application.
  • Knowledge of the total system view can improve over time. Initially, the model contains basic rules and configurations defined during the design phase. After deployment, administrators can add and update information revealed through runtime experience can improve the model.
  • The management model becomes the point of coordination and consistency across administrators who have separate but interdependent responsibilities.

The process for creating manageable applications can be summarized as follows:

  1. Use architectural guidance, such as contained in this guidance and from other sources, to determine the structure and design of your application.
  2. Use the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool to create an operations view of the application, and to model health and instrumentation artifacts for the application.
  3. Generate instrumentation code for the application from the model.
  4. Call abstract events from the application code.
  5. Build the application, including the instrumentation helper.
  6. Test the application.
  7. Deploy the application.
  8. Manage the application.

Audience Requirements

The Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool is aimed at people involved in designing, developing, testing, deploying, and operating business applications. These include people in the following roles:

  • Solutions architects can use the TSMMD to generate models of the application and to define the health, instrumentation, and performance requirements.
  • Infrastructure architects can use the TSMMD to generate models of the application and define target environments and configuration requirements.
  • Developers fluent in .NET technologies and Visual Studio can use the TSMMD to generate instrumentation as they build the application.
  • Senior operators can use the TSMMD to view the application models to understand better the deployment and management requirements, and to generate management packs for installation in monitoring systems such as Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.

Solutions architects, infrastructure designers, and administrators should be familiar with the graphical modeling environment of Visual Studio, including the use of the Toolbox, the Solution and Properties windows, and other design-time features in order to build models.

Developers should be familiar with the development environment of Visual Studio, .NET technologies in general, and the C# language.

Administrators should also be familiar with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 if they intend to use management packs exported from the TSMMD.

System Requirements

To install and use the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool, your computer should meet the following software prerequisites:

Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2003

One of the following versions of Visual Studio 2008:

  • Visual Studio Team System 2008 Architecture Edition
  • Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition
  • Visual Studio Team System 2008 Developer Edition
  • Visual Studio Team System 2008 Test Edition
  • Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite
  • Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server

You must install both the C# and C++ languages when you install Visual Studio 2008. The TSMMD requires C++ to generate instrumentation for Windows Eventing 6.0 events.

Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX) February 2008 Release or later

Enterprise Library 3.1-May 2007 or Enterprise Library 4.0

Getting Started

The Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool is a productivity tool from the Microsoft patterns & practices group that helps architects and system designers to generate models of many of the areas of an application that contribute to minimized TCO. These models include configuration, tasks, instrumentation, health, and performance. The Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool also assists developers to implement the required instrumentation, and create management packs for monitoring systems such as Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007.

To get started understanding and using the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool, you should:

  • Check the details of any late-breaking changes and known issues by reviewing the following HTML documents included with the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool installation files:
    • Readme.htm
    • KnownIssues.htm
  • Read the following topics in the Getting Started with the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool section of the documentation to ensure that you understand the nature and contents of the product:
    • How to Use this Guidance, which provides a roadmap of the documentation
    • Features of the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool
    • Target Audience for the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool
    • Requirements and Prerequisites for the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool
  • Ensure that you are familiar with the concepts of health modeling, and the terms commonly used in management models, by reviewing the section:
    • An Introduction to Management Modeling
  • Familiarize yourself with the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool by working through the topic:
    • Walkthrough of the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool
  • After you are familiar with the features and capabilities of the Microsoft ESB Guidance, review the topics in the section Key Scenarios for the Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool of the documentation. This section describes in detail:
    • Scenarios for Building Manageable Applications
    • Scenarios for Application and System Architects
    • Scenarios for Software Developers
    • Scenarios for System Administrators and Operators

Community

This tool, like many patterns & practices deliverables, is associated with a community site. On this community site, you can post questions, provide feedback, or connect with other users for sharing ideas. Community members can also help Microsoft plan and test future versions, and download additional content such as extensions and training material.

Feedback and Support

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? To provide feedback about this Power Tool, or to get help with any problems, please visit the Microsoft Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool Community site. The message board on the community site is the preferred feedback and support channel because it allows you to share your ideas, questions, and solutions with the entire community. Alternatively, you can send e-mail directly to the Microsoft patterns & practices team at netopfbk@microsoft.com, although we are unable to respond to every message.

Team System Management Model Designer Power Tool is a guidance offering. It is not a Microsoft product.