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From Microsoft SCOM to Dashboards

Grafana, SquaredUp, Power BI, Azure Workbooks, and More | Whitepaper by NiCE

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From SCOM to Dashboards

Grafana, SquaredUp, Power BI, and More

Practical guide for integrating Microsoft System Center Operations Manager with modern dashboards

As IT monitoring evolves toward real-time observability, organizations are extending the power of Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) through modern dashboards. This whitepaper explores how to integrate SCOM with leading visualization platforms such as Grafana, SquaredUp, Power BI, and Azure Workbooks to unlock deeper insights, unified visibility, and a modern monitoring experience.

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Executive Summary

System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) remains one of the most capable on-premises monitoring platforms for Microsoft environments. However, as IT operations evolve toward real-time observability and self-service insights, traditional SCOM reporting and consoles can feel restrictive.

This whitepaper explores practical ways to extend and modernize your SCOM visualizations using today’s leading dashboarding technologies — including SquaredUp, Grafana, Power BI, and Azure Workbooks.

You will learn:

  • How to connect SCOM to external dashboarding tools via APIs, SQL, and plugins.
  • Which tools best suit various operational and business needs.
  • The pros, cons, and technical considerations of each integration.
  • How to plan a gradual migration from legacy views to a modern observability layer.

The Monitoring Dashboards Landscape

From Monitoring to Observability

Monitoring once meant collecting metrics and raising alerts. Modern observability adds correlation, visualization, and contextual insights. Dashboards have become the lingua franca for cross-team collaboration — from NOC operators to executives.

Where Microsoft SCOM Fits

Despite its age, SCOM remains a robust engine for telemetry:

  • Mature management packs for Windows, SQL, and application workloads.
  • Deep event and performance collection.
  • Enterprise-grade alerting and escalation workflows.

What it lacks natively is a flexible, easily shareable dashboarding experience. That’s where third-party integrations come in.

Integrating SCOM with Modern Dashboards

SCOM data can be surfaced externally through several mechanisms:

Integration PathDescriptionCommon UseNotes
OperationsManager DB / DW DB (SQL)Direct queries to the operational or data warehouse databaseHistorical & trend reportingRequires SQL access and schema awareness
SCOM REST APISecure, token-based access to objects, alerts, and metricsReal-time dashboardsSupported in SCOM 2019+
Power BI ConnectorPrebuilt connector or custom SQL importBusiness reportingNear-real-time only
Custom/3rd-Party PluginsDedicated connectors for dashboard toolsNOC dashboardsE.g., OpsLogix Grafana plugin, SquaredUp native connector

REST API Example

SCOM exposes a REST endpoint (https://<SCOMServer>/OperationsManager/data/alert) that can be queried for live alerts.
Example PowerShell snippet (from Cookdown’s Quick Start):

$creds = Get-Credential
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://scom01/OperationsManager/data/alert `
  -Method Get -Credential $creds ` 
-Headers @{Accept='application/json'}

This can be consumed by dashboards supporting REST or Web API data sources, such as Grafana or SquaredUp.

Dashboarding Solutions Overview

SquaredUp for SCOM

SquaredUp offers native integration with SCOM — no additional database or ETL required. Dashboards are built using “Tiles” that directly read from the SCOM SDK API or via configured data providers (SQL, Web API, PowerShell, etc.).

Setup Highlights

  1. Install SquaredUp Dashboard Server for SCOM.
  2. Connect using a SCOM management group account.
  3. Optionally add Web API or SQL providers to mix in external data sources (ServiceNow, Azure, CMDBs, etc.).

Docs: Integrations Overview, Web API Provider Guide, Web API Tile Configuration

Pros

  • Deep native SCOM integration.
  • Excellent performance and low maintenance.
  • Role-based dashboards for operations, service owners, and management.

Cons

  • Commercial licensing (per-user model).
  • Tightly bound to SCOM data model.

Best For: Organizations heavily invested in SCOM or requiring hybrid dashboards blending on-prem and cloud data.

Grafana

Grafana can visualize SCOM data in multiple ways:

  • Via the OpsLogix SCOM Plugin for Grafana (OpsLogix Knowledgebase)
  • Via SQL queries to the SCOM data warehouse or OperationsManager DB.
  • Via REST API (for custom JSON queries).

Setup Example (OpsLogix Plugin):

  1. Install Grafana and enable plugin installation.
  2. Download and install the OpsLogix plugin.
  3. Configure SCOM Web Console (enable Basic Auth in IIS).
  4. Add SCOM as a new data source in Grafana.

Sample Query (from Microsoft guidance)

SELECT
  CASE MEV.HealthState
    WHEN 1 THEN 'Healthy'
    WHEN 2 THEN 'Warning'
    WHEN 3 THEN 'Critical'
  END AS HealthState,
  COUNT(*) AS ServerCount
FROM dbo.ManagedEntityGenericView MEV
JOIN dbo.ManagedTypeView MTV
  ON MTV.Id = MEV.MonitoringClassId
WHERE MTV.Name LIKE '%.Windows.Computer%'
GROUP BY MEV.HealthState

References: OpsLogix SCOM Plugin for Grafana, Silect Grafana Dashboards for SCOM (free edition), Microsoft: Query SCOM Managed Instance Data on Grafana

Pros

  • Highly flexible and open-source.
  • Supports hybrid and multi-source observability (SCOM, Prometheus, Azure Monitor).
  • Large plugin and visualization ecosystem.

Cons

  • Requires manual setup and maintenance.
  • Security and authentication require careful configuration.

Best For: Technical teams seeking open observability stacks or consolidating multiple monitoring sources.

Power BI

Power BI connects to SCOM via:

  • SQL queries against the Data Warehouse.
  • Dataflows or Power BI Gateway for scheduled refresh.
  • REST-based custom connectors.

Pros

  • Widely adopted for business analytics.
  • Rich formatting and DAX-based aggregation.
  • Easy distribution through Power BI Service.

Cons

  • No real-time updates (refresh cycles).
  • Not designed for operational alert dashboards.

Best For: Management and trend analysis dashboards; SLA reporting.

Kibana / Elastic Stack

  • Forward SCOM events and alerts to Elasticsearch using custom connectors or scripts.
  • Use Kibana to build dashboards on alert logs or metric indices.

Pros

  • Powerful full-text search and correlation.
  • Works well with SIEM pipelines.

Cons

  • Indirect integration; high setup effort.
  • Best suited for organizations already running Elastic.

Azure Dashboards & Workbooks

SCOM 2022 and Managed Instances can push telemetry to Azure Monitor via Azure Arc.
Workbooks in Azure Portal can visualize this data using Kusto queries (KQL).

Pros

  • Native to the Microsoft cloud ecosystem.
  • Good hybrid visibility (on-prem + cloud).

Cons

  • Limited customization for standalone SCOM environments.
  • Requires Azure integration.

Best For: Enterprises gradually migrating from on-prem to Azure.

Comparison Matrix

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DashboardIntegrationReal-timeSCOM DepthEase of SetupCostIdeal Use Case
SquaredUpNative API✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓$$Core SCOM + hybrid
GrafanaPlugin/API/SQL✓✓✓✓✓$Open observability
Power BISQL/DW✓✓✓✓$$Exec reporting
KibanaETL/Forwarder✓✓✓$SIEM/log analysis
Azure WorkbooksArc/Monitor✓✓✓✓✓✓$$Hybrid cloud

Implementation Considerations

Authentication & Security

  • Use service accounts or token-based access for REST APIs.
  • Avoid embedding credentials in dashboards.

Performance & Load

  • Limit query frequency; use caching where possible.
  • API calls from dashboards can increase the management server load.

Data Freshness

  • Decide between near-real-time (API) and periodic (SQL/ETL) refresh models.

Maintenance & Upgrades

  • Keep plugin versions in sync with Grafana or SquaredUp releases.
  • Validate integrations after SCOM updates.

Licensing & Total Cost

SquaredUp or Power BI offer simplicity but require licensing.

Open-source tools like Grafana are low-cost but labor-intensive.

Migration & Coexistence Strategy

Overlay Approach: Keep SCOM as data source; overlay dashboards externally.

Incremental Transition: Start with read-only dashboards (Grafana/SquaredUp) before deprecating SCOM console use.

Hybrid Architecture Example:

  • SCOM collects metrics → Data Warehouse → Grafana for real-time dashboards.
  • SCOM alerts → ServiceNow via connector → SquaredUp dashboards for incident owners.
  • Power BI used for weekly executive summaries.

Governance: Ensure ownership of shared dashboards and enforce data refresh schedules.

Future Outlook

Monitoring is converging with observability — metrics, logs, and traces unified through open standards (e.g., OpenTelemetry).

Future SCOM environments will increasingly operate as one data source among many, feeding visualization layers like Grafana, SquaredUp, or Azure Monitor.

The long-term goal: a single pane of glass that bridges on-prem SCOM and cloud-native telemetry.

Conclusion

Integrating SCOM with modern dashboarding solutions bridges the gap between traditional monitoring and modern observability.

Whether you choose SquaredUp for seamless native integration, Grafana for open flexibility, or Power BI for business analytics, the goal remains the same — to make SCOM data accessible, actionable, and visually insightful.

Appendix – Integration References

SolutionReferenceURL
SquaredUpIntegrations Overviewhttps://ds.squaredup.com/integrations
Web API Providerhttps://scomsupport.squaredup.com/dashboarding/integrations/-web-api-provider
Web API Tile Guidehttps://scomsupport.squaredup.com/dashboarding/tiles/web-api-tile
GrafanaOpsLogix SCOM Pluginhttps://www.opslogix.com/knowledgebase/getting-started-with-the-scom-plugin-for-grafana
Silect Dashboardshttps://silect.com/grafana-dashboards-for-scom-free-edition
Microsoft – Query SCOM Data in Grafanahttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/scom-manage-instance/query-scom-managed-instance-data-on-grafana
SCOM REST APICookdown Quick Starthttps://www.cookdown.com/blog/quick-start-scom-rest-api