Support policy for System Center Operations Manager 2007 that is running on hardware virtualization software

This article discusses guidelines for running Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 roles on hardware virtualization software (that is, on virtual machines). Microsoft has the following two software offerings that provide this functionality:

• Microsoft Virtual PC
• Microsoft Virtual Server

Third parties also have software that provides this functionality.

This article describes the Microsoft support policy for System Center Operations Manager 2007 running on hardware virtualization software.

Support policy for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007

Microsoft supports System Center Operations Manager 2007 running on hardware virtualization software (that is, virtual machines) only when all the following conditions are true:

• The hardware virtualization operating system is Virtual Server 2005 R2 or a later version.
• The hardware virtualization operating system is Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 or a later version.
  
  Note This configuration is only to be used for demonstrating Operations Manager functionality. This configuration is not to be used for production environments.
• The Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Virtual Machine Additions are installed on the guest operating system.
• System Center Operations Manager 2007 is configured as a stand-alone server instead of as part of a Windows cluster during the installation of a Root Management Server (RMS).

Microsoft does not support the following System Center Operations Manager 2007 virtualization scenarios:

• Clustering of the Root Management Server on hardware virtualization software.
• Running the Audit Collection Server Collector role on hardware virtualization software.

Performance and scalability considerations

When you plan to deploy System Center Operations Manager 2007 in a virtualized environment, the same performance and scalability aspects apply when you size each virtual machine for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007. Those performance and scalability aspects are described in the Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 Performance and Scalability white paper. To view this white paper, visit the following Microsoft Web site:However, some factors directly affect the performance and scalability of System Center Operations Manager 2007 when you run on Virtual Server 2005 R2. You must consider these factors when you size the host configurations and the guest configurations.

Virtual machine considerations

• Each virtual machine can have only one virtualized x86 CPU. This limits the processing power of the virtualized System Center Operations Manager 2007 installation. Additionally, this restricts the Operations Manager role installations to 32-bit. The server must be sized in such a way that a single CPU can handle the estimated load on the server. Also, the number of virtual machines that are running at the same time on the host computer affects the overall performance of the whole system. Therefore, you can split roles such as RMS, Management Server, Gateway Server, Operational Database Server, Datawarehouse Database Server, Reporting Server and Web Console Server over multiple virtual machines. You can also add dedicated virtual network adapters between database server roles and the Root Management Server.
• When you size the disk capacity of the virtual machine, you must consider the time that is required to perform a full online backup of the Operations Manager database server data from the Operational database and from the Datawarehouse database over the network. You can add a dedicated virtual network adapter for Operations Manager Database server backups.
  
  Note Although you can perform an offline backup of the virtual hard disk (.vhd) files at the host level, you must still perform a regular Microsoft SQL Server database backup of Operational databases and Datawarehouse databases. For more information about Operations Manager backup processes and restore processes, see the System Center Operations Manager 2007 Operations Guide.
• You can create separate fixed-size virtual disks for Operations Manager databases and for log files. You can store these disks on separate physical drives on the host server.
• You can use Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager to deploy and manage Operations Manager virtual machines together with the Virtual Machine Manager Management Pack to monitor and assess performance of virtualized operations manager roles.
• You must validate Operations Manager performance before production by testing appropriate agent and management pack installations that are compatible with those that you expect in production.

Host considerations

• The server that is running Virtual Server 2005 R2 must be sized correctly to handle the number of virtual machines that you plan to deploy. This estimate should include CPU, memory, network adapters, and disk configuration.
• You must use a hard disk solution that enables fast access. You can use a SCSI hard disk, a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), or a storage area network (SAN) to store the .vhd files that Operations Manager uses.
• If antivirus software is installed on the host, the antivirus software must be configured not to scan .vhd files.

Support policy for non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software

Microsoft has a general support policy for running Microsoft software in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. The policy that is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article also applies to any version of Microsoft Exchange Server that is running in non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software: For more information about the Microsoft Virtual Server support policy, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Note Operations Manager agent monitoring by using Microsoft virtualization software discovers the Virtual Machine Windows Computer property. This property is set to True when the Operations Manager Agent is installed on a virtual machine. This property remains set to False when the agent is running on non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. Unless the third-party vendor supplies a Management Pack to discover their own virtual machine properties, determining real or virtualized hardware from Operations Manager console views may be impossible.

For more information about System Center Operations Manager 2007, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about Virtual Server 2005 R2 performance and scalability, see the Virtual Server 2005 R2 Administrator's Guide. To view the Virtual Server 2005 R2 Administrator’s Guide, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For more information about System Center Operations Manager 2007 performance and scalability, see the System Center Operations Manager 2007 Performance and Scalability white paper. To view this white paper, visit the following Microsoft Web site:For more information about the Operations Manager Backup procedure and the Restore procedure, see the Operations Manager 2007 Operations Guide. To view this guide, visit the following Microsoft Web site: