Overview of MOM Connectors
The connector topics provide conceptual information about the planning and design of MOM connectors.
The term connector is used to describe any service or program that is designed to synchronize MOM data and alerts with another management product or help desk ticketing system. In some cases, the connector might update alerts in MOM after they are modified in the other management system.
Connectors are usually created to integrate MOM with other management products that do not offer built-in support for MOM. For developers or companies that are responsible for creating management products, building a separate connector program is usually not necessary, because the management program can directly call the MOM WMI classes or SQL views.
Uses for Connectors
Connectors allow MOM to be used in conjunction with other management products. Using a connector, the two products can share data and remain synchronized, even when users make changes to the alerts.
In a network environment with a variety of computer hardware, operating systems, and software, the strengths of individual monitoring tools, such as MOM, can be combined and viewed through a single user interface.
The following examples show some of the ways that MOM connectors can be used:
- Forwarding MOM alerts to another management program that is running on a Windows platform or on another operating system (which the connector is able to communicate with).
- Collecting alerts from MOM and other monitoring products so they can be displayed in a custom management console.
- Collecting alerts from other monitoring products, so they can be displayed in the MOM Operator console, along with alerts generated by MOM rules.
- Forwarding MOM data to programs or utilities designed to help diagnose and resolve problems.
- Forwarding MOM computer discovery data.
The MOM Connector Framework
The Microsoft Operations Manager Connector Framework (MCF) is a managed .NET class library that provides an infrastructure for developing connectors. The MCF is accessible as both a standalone class library, and a Web service. Developers of 2-way connectors are encouraged to use the MCF, rather than other MOM APIs for several reasons:
- The MCF handles the details of tracking which alerts have been forwarded and which ones require updating.
- The MCF Web service can communicate across firewalls. The SSL protocol can be used to increase security.
- The MCF makes it easy to develop 2-way connectors, which keep alerts synchronized.
- Alert suppression and other logic can be handled by rules. Your connector application does not need to perform these tasks. The rules are stored in Management Packs, and are easily configured by users.
The MCF handles the communication of alert data between MOM and a connector application. The MCF supports these common alert tasks:
- Checking for new MOM alerts.
- Checking for updated MOM alerts.
- Updating existing alerts in the MOM system.
- Inserting new alerts in the MOM system.
For more information about the classes in the MCF, see the MOM Connector Framework reference topics.
Other APIs Supporting Connectors
The data exposed by the MOM SQL views, MOM WMI classes, and the MOM Management Server Class Library is designed to allow developers to create custom applications, including connectors, that use alerts, events, and other data from the MOM system.
MOM SQL views and WMI classes are supported methods for accessing data from the server running MOM. For more information, see MOM SQL Views and MOM WMI Classes. Both support remote data access. If remote data access is not required by the connector, you can use the MOM Management Server Class Library.
If you are developing a connector between MOM and an application on a non-Windows operating system, see Working with Non-Windows Systems for more information about interoperability support in MOM APIs and features.
Skills Needed
For simple, rule-based one-way connectors, you will only need knowledge of creating script responses for MOM rules. Creating a more complex connector application or service requires Visual Basic, Visual C++, or Visual C# programming skills. You will also need information about the application to which MOM will be connected and the APIs it exposes.
Connector Types
Connectors are classified into two main groups, based on the data they are able to send and receive: