Global Service Monitor Watches Web Applications

A new online service hosted by Microsoft can monitor Web applications’ availability and performance and display results on an on-premises Operations Manager console. System Center Global Service Monitor (GSM) is a no-charge service for customers who have Software Assurance on System Center 2012. The customer-configured service can help diagnose connection problems by using geographically distributed data centers to get information relevant to local users.

Online Monitoring Service

GSM is an online service that runs in one or more of Microsoft’s globally distributed data centers and reports through a customer’s on-premises management infrastructure. The service works using a specially configured Operations Manager agent that periodically runs synthetic transactions (tests) against a Web site, such as a company catalog or order site, and returns availability and performance information. The results from the transaction are viewed through an Operations Manager console. (See the illustration “Global Service Monitor Dashboard“.) The Operations Manager server must have the GSM Management Pack installed to allow communication with the GSM service.