Hi all, I wish to trial SCOM 2007 in our environment. I have no previous Ops Manager/SCOM software to upgrade therefore I require a trial version of SCOM 2007 that can be installed from scratch. SCOM 2007 R2 requires SCOM 2007 to be already installed (which is no longer available for download!). Can anyone please advise?

Hi. You find OpsMgr 2007 R2 Eval here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/bb738014.aspx That is a full version that will work for 180 days. And you can upgrade to licensed version when you so chose. There is no requirement of having a previous version installed. You can do a clean install with this one! mats.w | www.opsmode.com

Hi, You can install SCOM 2007 R2 Eval directly without the previous version. For the installation instruction, please refer to the following link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=93ddf25b-1ef0-4851-81b0-5fb9a2f76181&displaylang=enPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

If you are evaluating SCOM then I'd also advise to have a plan in place to test each management pack and get a better understanding of the product. Frequently people import every management pack they can find to see what it does and then find that they are suddenly swamped with alerts and it is very easy just to get overwhelmed with the product. SCOM has a very steep learning curve. I generally suggest (even for an evaluation): 1) Deploy slowly - get core components, agents and windows management pack deployed. The Windows Management Pack is ideal for this as the alerts it generates are usually actionable, relevant and relatively straight forward to resolve so administrators can get familiar with OpsMgr in a fairly controlled environment that is still providing real benefit to the organisation. You can also start to get an understanding of how overrides work. What is state? What is the difference between a rule and a monitor? How does discovery work? What are Run As Profiles and Accounts. 2) Proitise other MPs - I like to get SQL in next as it is a relatively stable MP with less noise than AD, Exchange etc but still gives good business benefit. But deploy the MP and spend time understanding what it is doing. But with SQL, make sure you understand the pre-reqs for monitoring: http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2010/08/16/sql-mp-version-6-1-314-36-released-adds-support-for-sql-2008r2-and-many-other-changes.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/kevinholman/archive/2010/09/08/configuring-run-as-accounts-and-profiles-in-r2-a-sql-management-pack-example.aspx 3) The AD and Exchange Management Packs tend to be more complicated. Don't just import and expect them to work. Good Luck GrahamView OpsMgr tips and tricks at http://systemcentersolutions.wordpress.com/

Definitely implement the Windows Management Pack prior to the SQL MP - the SQL MP uses the Windows MP as underlying technology :)