Chopin Management System: improving Windows infrastructure monitoring and management

Abstract

CERN Windows server infrastructure consists of about 650 servers. The management and maintenance is often a challenging task as the data to be monitored is disparate and has to be collected from various sources. Currently, alarms are collected from the Microsoft System Center Operation Manager (SCOM) and many administrative actions are triggered through e-mails sent by various systems or scripts. The objective of the Chopin Management System project is to maximize automation and facilitate the management of the infrastructure. The current status of the infrastructure, including essential health checks, is centralized and presented through a dashboard. The system collects information necessary for managing the infrastructure in the real-time, such as hardware configuration or Windows updates, and reacts to any change or failure instantly. As part of the system design, big data streaming technologies are employed in order to assure the scalability and fault-tolerance of the service, should the number of servers drastically grow. Server events are aggregated and processed in real-time through the use of these technologies, ensuring quick response to possible failures. This paper presents details of the architecture and design decisions taken in order to achieve a modern, maintainable and extensible system for Windows Server Infrastructure management at CERN.