Customers like Contoso, who use Operations Manager 2016 or later and want to take advantage of Azure Monitor features, can integrate their existing deployment with Log Analytics.
This allows them to benefit from the advantages described earlier in this module while continuing to use Operations Manager to:

• Monitor the health of on-premises services
• Integrate with local ITSM solutions, including incident and problem management
• Manage agents deployed on on-premises systems

Overview

Integrating Azure Monitor with Operations Manager creates synergy between the two services.
The resulting solution combines the speed and efficiency of Azure Monitor in collecting, storing, and analyzing data with the configurable scope provided by Operations Manager.

Azure Monitor complements Operations Manager’s capabilities with its query engine and reporting features, making it easier to analyze performance, events, and alerts.

For example, if you implement the Azure Monitor for VMs Map feature in combination with Operations Manager, you can use Operations Manager to create distributed application diagrams based on Azure Monitor’s dynamic dependency maps.

Additionally, you can deploy the Service Map management pack on all Windows computers reporting to the management group, giving you a subset of Service Map functionality in the Operations Manager console.

Agents reporting to an Operations Manager management group collect data from servers based on Log Analytics data source settings and the solutions enabled in the corresponding Log Analytics workspace.

Specific solution settings determine whether data is sent to the Operations Manager management server or directly to the Log Analytics workspace.
In the first case, the management server forwards the data to the Log Analytics workspace.

If a management server loses connectivity with Azure Monitor, it temporarily caches collected data locally until access to the workspace is restored.
If one management server is offline due to planned maintenance or failure, another server in the same group takes over communication with Azure Monitor.

Implementing Azure Monitor integration with Operations Manager

Generally, to implement integration between Operations Manager and a Log Analytics workspace, you must register the Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS) connection using the OMS integration wizard available in the Operations Manager console.

During the registration process, you will be asked to provide:

• The target Azure tenant
• The Azure subscription
• The Log Analytics workspace

After registering Operations Manager with an Azure Log Analytics workspace, you must designate the agent-managed computers that will collect log data for Azure Monitor.

Once configuration is complete, the Operations Manager management group establishes a persistent connection with Azure Monitor.
This connection is used to retrieve management packs corresponding to the Azure Monitor solutions you have chosen to implement.

Operations Manager automatically downloads and imports these management packs once they are enabled.

In some cases, additional configuration may be required.
For example, to implement the Map feature for on-premises servers that are part of an Operations Manager management group, you must import the Service Map management pack, which adds the Service Map node to the Operations Management Suite in the Administration pane of the Operations Manager console.

The registration process adds the Service Map node to the Administration pane.

From the Service Map node, you can monitor:

• Active alerts
• The list of monitored servers
• Groups created using the Service Map feature in Azure Monitor, along with their dependencies

These views make it easier to create distributed applications in Operations Manager.

Next unit: Module evaluation