Is it more of a complete monitoring solution for the Microsoft Server product line? Is it more for hardware monitoring? What would I use it for? Please share your experiences and war stories.
That's a very loaded question, what is it that you want to monitor? Are all systems part of a domain? Are all systems Microsoft Windows, or mixed with *nix? How many systems are you monitoring, and is SCCM already deployed in the environment? How fluent are you with Powershell to fine tune/customize monitoring? SCOM can monitor whatever environment you want, and it can get down and dirty. You need the right skillset to properly deploy SCOM so that you don't open an unnecessary can of worms (false positives).
SCOM (System Center Operations Manager) is a cross-platform data center monitoring and reporting tool that checks the status of various objects defined within the environment, such as server hardware, system services, etc. The solution allows data center administrators to deploy, configure, manage, and monitor the operations, services, devices and applications of multiple enterprise IT systems via a single pane of glass. It is suitable for businesses of all sizes.
SCOM Features
SCOM has many...
SCOM is really only for MS environments IMHO.
That's a very loaded question, what is it that you want to monitor? Are all systems part of a domain? Are all systems Microsoft Windows, or mixed with *nix? How many systems are you monitoring, and is SCCM already deployed in the environment? How fluent are you with Powershell to fine tune/customize monitoring? SCOM can monitor whatever environment you want, and it can get down and dirty. You need the right skillset to properly deploy SCOM so that you don't open an unnecessary can of worms (false positives).
I recommend reviewing a SCOM deployment guide.