It is not always easy to divide Low-level Design and High-Level Design. How to differentiate between high-level and low-level design depends on the entity that we refer to. When we need to design our cloud then high-level decision could be for example choice of the technology that makes our SQL Servers highly-available. But when we talk about our business or company (the entity) then SQL Servers are in Low-level Design category. This means that following division to High-level Design and Low-level Design are only within our entity.

High-level Design

Following design was chosen for our testing environment. As architect you need to choose own design according needs of your business. Use following design only as help to understand how to model your environment.

Architectural design questions you need to ask

Install Management Server and Data Warehouse separately?

• As architect you need to consider installation topology. To maximize performance and scalability install Management Server and Data Warehouse Management Server on different highly-available (clustered) VMs.
• In the testing environment you can install them on the same VM but I recommend to separate installations for a large production environment because in the future you will not be able to accomplis topology modifications without service downtime.

Install SCSM to SQL Cluster Server with highly-available databases in AlwaysOn Available Groups

• SCSM support AlwaysOn Available Groups but the Available Groups have to be created on the default instance. It is not possible to install SCSM on Available Groups created on the named instance.
• This is reason why I chose standard SQL Server Failover Cluster (AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances) for installation of the SCSM.

Low-level Design

Questions you need to ask

Name of the Management Group

• If you have installed Operations Manager you should not use same name for the SCOM and SCSM Management Groups. Think about you naming conventions and insert for example SCSM and SCSMDW prefixes for the Service Manager management groups.

Environment

Management groups

Service Manager Management Group

• Name: contososervice

Service Manager Data Warehouse Management Group

• Name: DW_contososervice

Virtual machines

• contscsm0
  • Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2012 R2
    • Features
      • [x] Management Server
  • .NET Framework 3.5
  • Microsoft Report Viewer 2008
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client
• contscsmdw0
  • Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2012 R2
    • Features
      • [x] Data Warehouse Management Server
  • .NET Framework 3.5
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client
• contsqlfcic0 (SQL Server Cluster with AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances) or
• contscsmdb0 (Standalone highly-available VM with standalone SQL Server)
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1
    • Features
      • Required
      • [x] Database Engine Services
        • [x] Full-Text Search and Semantic Extractions for Search
      • [x] Analysis Services (only for Data Warehouse Management Server)
      • [x] Reporting Services – Native (only for Data Warehouse Management Server)
      • Optional – Management Tools (I recommended to install them on management server only)
        • [x] Management Tools – Basic
          • [x] Management Tools – Complete
    • Named instance (standalone VM): SCSM0
    • Collation: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
  • Configurations
    • Firewall
      • Open
        • 1433 (SQL Server)
• contmng0 (our management terminal server)
  • Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2012 R2
    • Features: [x] Console
  • .NET Framework 3.5
  • Microsoft Report Viewer 2008 (required by console)
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Management Objects (required by console)

Groups, identities and service accounts

SCSM – Service accounts

• serscsms0
  • Service account: SCSM services account
  • Members of
    • Local Administrators
      • SCSM Servers (Management Server and Data Warehouse)
• serscsmw0
  • Service account: SCSM workflow account
• serscsmr0
  • Service account: SCSM reporting and analysis account
  • Members of
    • Local Administrators
      • SCSM Servers (Management Server and Data Warehouse)

SCSM – Groups

• scsmadmins0
  • Security group: SCSM Administrators
  • Members
    • You and other admins
  • Members of
    • Local Administrators
      • SCSM Servers (Management Server and Data Warehouse)
      • SCSM DB Servers

Standalone highly-available VM with standalone SQL Server

SQL DB Servers – Service accounts

• serscdb0
  • Service account: Microsoft SQL Servers for System Center deployment.

SQL DB Servers – Security groups

• scdbadmins0
  • Security group: DB Administrators
  • Members
    • You and other DB admins that are allowed to work on the DBs for the System Center deployment.