Active Directory Services and their System Center Management Packs

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System CenterAs you might be aware, every Microsoft technology has the requirement to be manageable through PowerShell and System Center. Manageability through System Center is done through Management Packs. (MPs).

While I discussed the PowerShell manageability stories for the five Active Directory services last Saturday, below is the overview of the availability and functionality of the Management Packs (MPs) for the five Active Directory services:

 

Active Directory Domain Services

For Windows Servers running the Active Directory Domain Services as Domain Controllers, a System Center Management Pack has been available for ages, even before the products responsible for management were labeled ‘System Center’ (System Center Operations Manager was called MOM Server and System Center Configuration Manager was called SMS Server).

The Active Directory Domain Services Management Pack for System Center provides both proactive and reactive monitoring of your Active Directory deployment. It monitors events that various Active Directory components and subsystems place in the Application, System, and Service event logs. It also monitors the overall health of the Active Directory system and provides alerts for critical performance issues.

When used with the Management Pack for the Windows Server Operating System, the DNS Server Role, File Services, Group Policy and DFS Replication, a complete management view starts to emerge, where you can monitor the health of your Domain Controllers.

The latest version (v6.0.8070.0) adds support for Windows Server 2012.

Download MP for AD Domain Services v6.0.8070.0

Also available is a System Center Integration Pack, that allows System Center 2012 – Orchestrator to connect to your Active Directory Server to automate Identity and Access management tasks.

Download System Center Integration Pack for Active Directory v7.0

 

Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services

The Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) Management Pack provides both proactive and reactive monitoring of your AD LDS deployment running on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. It monitors events that are placed in the Application, System, and Service event logs by various Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services components and subsystems. It also monitors the overall health of the Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services system and alerts you to critical performance issues.

Download MP for AD Lightweight Directory Services v6.0.7220.0

 

Active Directory Certificate Services

The System Center Management Pack for Active Directory Certificate Services provides an early warning to administrators on issues that could affect services so they can investigate and take action, if necessary.

Two Management Packs for Active Directory Certificate Services are currently available. An ‘old’ Management Pack exists to manage Certification Authorities running on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. This Management Pack follows the 6.x version numbering. A completely new 7.x Management Pack is available alongside the 6.x version and enables management of Certification Authorities on Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012.

Note:
The Management Packs for Active Directory Certificate Services monitors the core Certification Authority, but does not monitor Certificate Services role services (such as the Online (OCSP) responder, Network Device Enrollment Services (NDES), Certificate enrollment web services, NDES, or CA web enrollment).

Download MP for AD Certificate Services v6.0.7231.0
Download MP for Windows Server 2012 AD Certificate Services v7.0.8560.0

 

Active Directory Federation Services

The System Center Management Pack for Active Directory Federation Services 1.x has been available since September 2007 and for Active Directory Federation Services  2.x since June 2010.

The Management Pack for Active Directory Federation Services offers the ability to detect service outages, operational errors and operational warnings. It also alerts on configuration issues and background tasks failures. Auditing can also be monitored, as well as the communication between the federation server and the federation server proxy. With the Management Pack you can be notified of malformed access requests and the health of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate of the federation passive website in Internet Information Services (IIS).

Depending on the version of Active Directory Federation Services, you can choose between the 6.x version and the 7.x version of the Management Pack, where version 6.x can be used to monitor Active Directory Federation Services 1.0 and version 7.x can be used to monitor Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 (available as a separate download for Windows Server 2008 R2) and 2.1 (bundled with Windows Server 2012).

Download MP for Windows Server 2003 R2 AD Federation Services v6.0.5000.0 
Download
MP for AD Federation Services 2.0 and 2.1 v7.0.8560.0

 

Active Directory Rights Management Services

The System Center Management Pack for Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) has been available since July 2011 and monitors the performance and availability of the Windows Server 2008 SP2 or Windows Server 2008 R2 versions of AD RMS. By detecting, alerting on, and automatically responding to critical events and performance indicators, this Management Pack helps indicate, correct, and prevent possible AD RMS related service outages. The System Center Monitoring Pack for Active Directory Rights Management Services for Windows Server 2008 SP2 or Windows Server 2008 R2 helps ensure that your AD RMS components are available and working correctly.

In September 2012, Microsoft released a version 7.x of the Management Pack for Active Directory Rights Management Services. This Management Pack can be used to manage Rights Management Services, running on Windows Server 2012. For Rights Management Services running on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the 6.0.7xxx.x version of the Management Pack is the one to use. For sturdy Rights Management Servers on Windows Server 2003, the 6.0.5000.0 version of the Management Pack offers the desired monitoring capabilities.

Download MP for Windows Server 2003 Rights Management Services v6.0.5000.0
Download MP for AD Rights Management Services v6.0.7597.0
Download MP for Windows Server 2012 AD Rights Management Services v7.0.8560.0

 

Related blogposts

Active Directory Domain Services Management Pack for System Center updated last week
System Center Monitoring Pack for Active Directory was updated today

Further reading

Understanding Active Directory Domain Services Management Pack Operations
OpsMgr: Recent Management Pack Releases and Updates (January 2013)
New and Recent System Center Downloads
New Version: Active Directory Domain Services Management Pack for System Center
Windows Server Active Directory Certificate Services 2012 MP *Language Packs* Released

Related downloads

System Center Management Pack for Windows Server Operating System
System Center Management Pack for Windows 8 Client Operating System

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