What is our primary use case?
We use SCOM for all server applications, as well as service monitoring, such as Windows services, and auto-recovery of those services if they fail. Some of the processes that we monitor at the .exe level can also be restarted with SCOM. Then we use it all to monitor availability, health, and performance.
What is most valuable?
Personally, I enjoy it all. It's fairly powerful.
I like some of their newer features, such as maintenance schedules, because SCOM records SLA and SLO time.
When we patch, things are automatically put into maintenance mode so that the numbers for our systems being down, do not count against us.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see them improve their network monitoring.
We use Solar Winds, and it has a direct interface into SCOM. We can see all the Solar Winds dashboards from the SCOM interface, which is nice to have.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been involved with SCOM for seven years.
We just completed a major upgrade from 2012 R2 to 2019.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have had a lot of success with the 2019 product. When we were on 2012 R2, I had to reboot the servers, particularly the database servers, at least once every two weeks. I believe we've been up and running for about three months in 2019 and have only rebooted once a month for monthly patching.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good. It's very easy to scale.
It can support up to a thousand nodes per management server, and we are nowhere near that number. I have three management servers in place for a 400-node network. Load balancing is simple, stable, quick, and efficient.
In terms of speed and agility, I believe it is significantly better than the 2012 version.
Our systems team and then the applications team, use this solution, totaling approximately 75 people within our government. We have 2,000 employees, and our IT department has about 100 people, and about 75 of them use it.
How are customer service and support?
For 2019, I haven't used technical support yet. I've never had to call him.
In 2012, Microsoft's support was good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using HP Open View at the time, and their technology was quickly becoming obsolete. They weren't keeping up, particularly when the 2012 operating system was released. They just couldn't keep up, and their pricing was spiraling out of control.
How was the initial setup?
It's quite complicated. I would call it complex.
On a scale of one to five, I would give it at least four or four and a half.
There are a lot of customizations, and it's quite noisy out of the box.
You have a lot of alerts, which is normal for most of them.
I have tried some of the other monitoring systems as well, and they all seem to work in the same way. Basically, all you have to do is tune it. That is what requires time.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our Enterprise Agreement includes the price.
All of the Systems Center products have a backup, which we don't use, but SCCM is included in the pricing. As a result, we can afford it because we have the Enterprise agreement.
What other advice do I have?
We do use SolarWind, but I am not on that team; it is used by the network group.
I use the Operations Manager to manage my server infrastructure.
The most important thing would be to go to Microsoft and get some training. They provide a lot of free classes in the form of webinars and other similar events. It has a multitude of different deliverables that most people never get into.
It's a lot more powerful than people realize, and I believe people become dissatisfied with it because of the complicated setup, but once it's up and running, it's pretty amazing at what it can do.
I am pretty happy with the way it works right now, I would rate SCOM a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.