System Center Operations Manager 2007 or Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 does not detect a virtual server after you install MOM 2005 monitoring agents on a server cluster

Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 or Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 does not detect a virtual server after you install System Center Operations Manager 2007 monitoring agents or MOM 2005 monitoring agents on a server cluster.

This issue occurs if the configuration requirements to install System Center Operations Manager monitoring agents or MOM monitoring agents on a server cluster are not met. To detect a virtual server, System Center Operations Manager and MOM require that all the following resources are configured in a cluster group:

• An IP Address resource
• A Network Name resource that has a dependency on the IP Address resource
• An application-specific resource that has a dependency on the Network Name resource

These are typical settings for most clustered programs. However, certain types of clustered resources, such as file shares, do not generally have all these items configured. You must create and configure these resources to let System Center Operations Manager or MOM discover and monitor the clustered resource.

To resolve this issue, configure existing resources in the cluster group so that System Center Operations Manager or MOM detects the virtual server, or create and configure the necessary resources. For example, you may have to create a generic application resource that does nothing. This generic application resource will enable System Center Operations Manager or MOM to discover the virtual server on which the resource is hosted.

Note If more than one Network Name resource is configured in a group, System Center Operations Manager or MOM uses the first network name that it detects as the name of the virtual server.

Important The original release version of MOM 2005 requires that each cluster node is the preferred owner of the cluster group. However, MOM 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1) no longer requires that each cluster node is the preferred owner of the cluster group.

Overview of MOM agent cluster monitoring

The MOM agents discover virtual servers as required. When the MOM agent starts, it first connects to the Cluster service. Then, the MOM agent iterates through each cluster group to discover the virtual servers. Additionally, MOM registers to be notified when a cluster configuration changes. When a cluster configuration changes, MOM then restarts the virtual server discovery process.

The MOM agent sends the virtual servers that are discovered to the MOM server database. The virtual server then appears under the Windows Server Cluster Computers node of the MOM 2005 Administrator console.

Note To view these computers, expand Administration, expand Computers, and then click Windows Server Cluster Computers.

If you monitor the virtual server, MOM deploys any rules that have been configured for the virtual server to the MOM agent. The MOM agent then starts the heartbeat process for that particular virtual server.

For more information about how to deploy MOM agents to clustered computers, visit the following Microsoft Web site:Note This problem also occurs in System Center Operations Manager 2007. If there is more than one network name in a cluster group, System Center Operations Manager 2007 discovers only the first name and the services that are attached directly to it.