Essential Microsoft Operations Manager: Get Control of Your Windows Network with Microsoft's Operations Management Tool

Well written, supply the technical information needed. Little long prolog but in the end well written and easy readable.

Are you a first-time MOM administrator? If you are, then this book is for you. Author Chris Fox, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that gives you what you must know in order to have a solid foundation for planning, implementing, and administering MOM 2005. Fox, begins by bringing you up to speed on the basic concepts of operations management and how to get MOM 2005 up and running in your environment. Then, the author takes you through the components and tasks that you'll be working with most often as an administrator. Finally, he discusses the specific issues you'll encounter when using MOM in a larger environment, with a variety of platforms. This most excellent book will help you get your job done. More importantly, this book helps you deploy MOM 2005 in large enterprises with heterogeneous platforms.

I just don't understand how can anyone rate an "essentials" book not good enough for not having enough details or "beef" in it. I have to give it 5 stars to make it fair. This book is great if you are absolutely new to MOM, it will get you there to install it and customize it at a basic level. I believe that the author gives you enough detail to let you drive on your own after this test drive. It really made my implementation easier, I gave the book to a coworker and he had about my same views. Just remember, if you are not new to MOM look somewhere else.

If you are looking to get your feet wet with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, this IS the book for you. However - right up front I WILL STATE - if you are an EXPERIENCED MOM Admin - you will not find a lot of value here, unless of course, you want a different viewpoint. As a little bit of background, Chris has worked as a Consultant with a major Microsoft Gold Partner as an Exchange Consultant, he has worked for a major food company as a multi-application administrator, and is now with Microsoft as a Product Specialist in the SharePoint product line. So, how does that qualify him as a MOM Expert - enough so to write this book? Chris simply excels at anything he decides to be involved with. He was (and likely still is to some degree) the pre-eminent Exchange expert in the Midwest during the time he was doing Exchange. He excels in his understanding and ability to provide pre-sales guidance on why SharePoint is important and how it can solve business problems. When he worked actively with MOM (2000 and 2005)he implemented the platform and transitioned the day-to-day maintenance and management to another team.. Essential MOM delivers exactly what it promises - the essential information on how to get started with setting up MOM, configuring MOM, and how to get started with operational management with MOM. It touches on the essentials of database configuration, management pack work, and essentials of how to interact with reports and consoles for administrators and those you want to give view-only to. Some of the crticism for this book is clearly due to expectations that were not met. However, I don't put that blame on Chris - he delivered what he intended. I would ask the critics to do this - If you are very experienced WITH MOM, get ahold of O'Reilly. I suspect that a MOM Cookbook or more advanced treatment or MOM for experienended Admins would interest them greatly. But, please - don't put this book down because it delivered essentials - not advanced MOM techniques. It is, of course, called "Essential Microsoft Operations Manager" for a reason.

Not sure why the previous reviewers gave this a less than 4 start review. It clearly says in the first few pages: "Who Should Read This Book...I wrote this book with the first-time MOM administrator in mind." So to expect the author to start talking about "extensibility" and other stuff that go beyond simply installing the more common management packs and getting the system monitoring working adequately for first time users might be a bit of an unfair assessment. Here's the low-down on the contents as per the author: "What's in This Book? This book is divided into three parts. Part I, "Introducing Operations Management and MOM 2005," brings you up to speed on the basic concepts of operations management and how to get MOM 2005 up and running in your environment. Part II, "Managing and Using MOM on a Daily Basis," takes you through the components and tasks that you'll be working with most often as an administrator. Part III, "MOM 2005 Enterprise Integration," discusses the specific issues you'll encounter when using MOM in a larger environment, with a variety of platforms." I guess the answer's in the title: "Essential Microsoft Operations Manager" (i.e. enough to get you started). Read this to become knowledgeable in whether your environment can benefit from this technology. Look elsewhere if you're already running MOM and you want to get funky with customizations