Sample Management Pack Specification

Sample Management Pack Specification

Contoso POS

Version 1.0
March 21, 2011

This is a sample specification for a System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 management pack supporting a line of business application. The application described in this document is completely fictional but does include aspects of different real world applications taken from different customers. A variety of requirements were collected in order to illustrate different common and challenging scenarios.

The purpose of this sample is to illustrate a process for designing a management pack. This basic process is as follows:

1. Briefly document the application breaking it into distinct groupings.
2. Design a service model comprised of the following:
3. Application Roles and Components
4. Health Rollups
5. Relationships with existing objects
6. Identify the functionality and potential problems for each class in the service model.
7. Define monitors and rules to measure the health of each class and identify each potential problem.

1Application Overview

1.1High Level Architecture

There are two distinct environments to the Contoso automated sales environment. First is the POS environment which includes POS Terminals and the local resources on the Store Server. This is a fully contained environment located at each store. There are currently 53 stores for Contoso meaning that there are 53 store environments.

The Contoso eComm environment is the customer facing web based commerce application and also includes the back end databases and connection to the host and business partners. In addition to supporting online customer shopping, the back end consolidates data from the store servers and updates these local data stores with updated product and pricing information from the data on the host.

There is a nightly process that copies data between the central data store and each store database. The store is fully functional if this process is not operational, but its local pricing and product information may become stale. In addition, the back end services rely on inventory information from the local stores to make purchasing decisions with suppliers.

Figure 1 illustrates the high level architecture while the following sections provide a brief summary on the illustrated components.

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Figure 1 - High Level Architecture

1.2Stores

1.2.1POS Terminals

The POS Terminal is a proprietary computer running Windows 7 and the ContosoPOS client application. Each terminal will have multiple peripheral devices such as card readers and touchscreens attached to it. Each store will typically have the following number of terminals depending on their size.

Small: Fewer than 10 terminals
Medium: 10-20 terminals
Large:20-30 terminals

1.2.1.1ContosoPOS Application

This is the interactive client application that runs on all POS Terminals. When the terminal is started, it will automatically logon and start the ContosoPOS application. The attendant logs into the application using credentials stored in the POCSConfig database.

1.2.1.2ContosoPOS Service

The POSDevices Windows service runs on each POS terminal and manages all connected devices. It reads from the POSConfig database on the Store server to determine the specific local devices that should be connected and then communicates with the devices reporting their status and any errors.

1.2.1.3Credit Connection

When a credit card transaction is performed on a POS terminal, the ContosoPOS application connects to the CreditConnection service for card validation. This is a secure connection across the Internet using a proprietary protocol.

1.2.2Store Server

Each store has an identically configured Store Server that supports the POS Terminals at that store. The terminals will access this server on startup and during every transaction. If the server is unavailable, the terminals will still be able to complete a transaction with limited information. The purchase data will cache locally and then write to the server when it comes available.

1.2.2.1POSExpress Admin Service

The Admin service supports the POS Express Admin application which installed on any client workstation. This application allows the store administrator to perform such actions as create and manage user accounts, view user activity, and manage terminals.

1.2.2.2POSExpress Client Connection Service

Terminals connect to the client connection service both for configuration and security information and for inventory and sales data. It provides the connection to the Store database and the POSConfig database for these functions.

1.2.2.3OrderProcessing Service

The OrderProcessing Service is responsible for processing orders as they are received and putting them into the Orders queue at the central data center. It typically runs on the Store Server but at large stores, it may be installed on a dedicated server.

1.2.2.4POSConfig Database

SQL Database that holds the user and terminal configuration information. The terminals connect to this database through the POSExpress Client Service to read configuration information and then cache it locally. The Admin Service provides services for updating this database.

1.2.2.5Store Database

Holds inventory and pricing information for the local store. This is replicated on a nightly basis from the central database. All purchases are also written to this database and are then replicated up to the central database.

1.3eComm Web Site

The eComm web site is available to customers at and allows product information and purchases. Users register with the site by providing their personal information and are then able to complete purchases. Anonymous users may browse the site and lookup product information.

1.3.1Web Servers

There are 5 front end web servers running Internet Information Services on Windows Server 2003 and load balanced using NLB. The servers are named WEBECMXX where XX is an incremental number – currently from 01-05.

1.3.1.1Web Site

Each web server has a single site called eComm which is configured for ASP.NET 2.0.50727. The site uses forms based authentication with user credentials stored in the Customer database.

1.3.2Application Servers

Three application servers hold web services that perform the business logic for the commerce site and that connect to the back end databases. The servers are named WEBAPPXX where XX is an incremental number – currently from 01-03.

1.3.2.1Web Services

The front end application on the eComm web site calls the web services for execution of business logic and connection to the backend databases.

Table 1 - Web Services

1.3.3Central Order Processing

The Central Order Processingservice picks up orders from the queues populated by the OrderProcessing service from the stores and processes them into the Orders database where they can be picked up for fulfillment. A separate queue is maintained for each store.

2Service Model

2.1Classes Overview

Figure 2 gives an overview of the application structure defined in this management pack. Details on each class are provided below.

Figure 2 - Service Model

2.2Class Details

The following tables provide the details of each class to be created in the management pack. This includes the properties of the class, what it represents, and its potential methods for discovery. It is expected that this information is sufficient to construct the actual classes and discoveries in the management pack.

2.2.1Terminals

2.2.1.1POS Devices

The POS Device service communicates with the different hardware devices that are supported by the POS Terminal. It obtains this information from the Store POSConfig database. The service has a scriptable interface that can be used to collect the inventory of devices. The script will not communicate directly with the devices themselves but will use information that the service reads from the POSConfig database.

Set oPOS = CreateObject("POSExpress.POSDevice ")

Set cDevices = oPOS.Devices

For Each oDevice in cDevices

WScript.Echo oDevice.Model

WScript.Echo oDevice.SerialNumber

WScript.Echo oDevice.Firmware

Next

2.2.2Store Server

2.2.3Central Processing

2.2.4Web Site

2.2.5Health Rollups

2.2.6Additional Relationships

The following table lists the objects discovered by other management packs that should be included in the Contoso POS Application.

3Health Model

3.1Health Measurements Worksheet

The following tables define the primary functions for each class defined in the Service Model. This information will be translated into the definitions for monitors and rules in the following section.

3.1.1POS Terminal

3.1.2POSDevices

The information for the device monitors can be obtained from a script against the POSDevice service. Sample code is shown below.

Set oPOS = CreateObject("Contoso.POSDevice")

For Each oDevice in oPOS.Devices

Wscript.Echo oDevice.SerialNumber

'Status = 0 if device is not available, 1 if on and no error

'If device is in error, then status will be error number which is > 1

WScript.Echo oDevice.Status

'MaintRequired = 0 if No and 1 if Yes

WScript.Echo oDevice.MaintRequired

'Lifetime will be number of days remaining in expected life

WScript.Echo oDevice.LifeLeft

Next

Code Sample 1 - POS Device Status

3.1.3Store Server

3.1.4Store Order Processing

3.1.5Central Order Processing

3.1.6Store Queue