This article describes new name resolution features for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 agent deployment and computer discovery.

In MOM 2000, NetBIOS name resolution is required for client agent deployment. MOM 2000 does not accept a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) when you try to deploy the MOM agent. Additionally, a period (.) cannot be part of a computer name.
This issue is resolved in MOM 2005. MOM 2005 supports FQDNs for MOM agent deployment and MOM 2005 computer discovery in a Microsoft Windows 2000-based domain that is running in native mode. However, MOM 2005 does not support computer names that contain a period (.) that is not part of the FQDN.

In MOM 2005, you can specify computer names in the following formats:

• By using the FQDN name. An example of this is example.contoso.com.
• By using the Net BIOS Domain\Computer name syntax. An example of this is: contoso\example.
• By using the computer name only. An example of this is example.

You can also use wildcard characters, such as the asterisk (*) character, to find matching computers that use an FQDN or that use NetBIOS names.

Note LDAP queries are not supported.

Computer discovery rules

For computer discovery rules, you can include the FQDN domain name or the NetBIOS domain name to speed up computer discovery. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Operations Manager 2005, and then click Administrator Console.
2. In the MOM 2005 Administrator console, expand Microsoft Operations Manager (ServerName), where ServerName is the name of the computer that is running MOM 2005.
3. Expand Administration, expand Computers, right-click Computer Discovery Rules, and then click Create Computer Discovery Rule.
4. In the Computer Discovery Rule dialog box, in the list that is next to Management Server, select the MOM 2005 Management server .
5. Select Include in the list that is next to Rule type.
   
   If you select the Include rule type, but you leave the Domain name field blank, the During computer discovery, contact each computer to verify that is exists check box is selected and unavailable.
6. In the Computer Discovery Rule dialog box, in the Domain name field, you can type the name of a domain or workgroup. You can also leave this field blank. However, we recommend that you specify a domain name to speed up computer discovery. You can specify a FQDN in the following format:
   domain.contoso.com.
   You can also specify a NetBIOS domain name. A NetBIOS name cannot exceed 15 characters.
   
   Note After you enter a domain name or a workgroup name, the During computer discovery, contact each computer to verify that is exists check box is no longer unavailable. You can click to select or click to clear this check box. If you want to push the MOM 2005 agent to a computer that is in an untrusted domain, click to clear the During computer discovery, contact each computer to verify that is exists check box.
   
   Additionally, if the computer resides in a workgroup, you must click to clear the During computer discovery, contact each computer to verify that is exists check box. You must also create a user account that resides on each computer in the workgroup to install the MOM 2005 agent.
7. In the Computer Name field, you can select one of the following match policy options:
   • equals
   • contains substring
   • matches wild card
   • matches regular expression
   • matched boolean regular expression
   
   Note Even when you use any one of the match policies that are in this list, we recommend that you also add the domain name or workgroup name where the computers reside. This speeds up the search process.
8. In the Computer Type field, you can use the list to specify Servers-only or Clients-only, and then click OK. By default, Servers and Clients is selected. In the Initial Management Mode field, you can select Unmanaged, Agentless managed or Agent-managed. By default, Agent-managed is selected.
9. In the MOM 2005 Administrator console, right-click Computer Discovery Rules, and then click Run Computer Discovery Now.

If you are using the Manualmc.txt file that is contained in the Program Files\Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 folder to manually install the MOM 2005 agent, you can use a FQDN or a NetBIOS name for the computer name entry.

Note When you add computer names to the Manualmc.txt file, you must type one computer name on each line of the text file. Additionally, you cannot add a white space before or after each entry. For example, the following FQDN names are not valid:

• ' domain.contoso.com
• 'domain.contoso.com '