Categories: System Center, ConfigMgr, OpsMgr

As mentioned earlier in several posts on my blog the R2 add-on for ConfigMgr delivers integration with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 and 2005 (SSRS). This enables administrators and managers to generate built-in or custom reports with relevant data across the entire enterprise.

The top reasons to use SSRS with ConfigMgr are:
- the ability to configure timeouts on a report basis
- the ability to export reports to PDF, Excel etc
- to create custom reports with SQL Report Builder or BI Development Studio
- the ability to easily import and export SSRS reports
- the use to enable report caching
- the use to enable snapshots
- to enable report subscriptions to file-share or e-mail

Reporting site-system roles
By default all (more than 380) built-in reports are installed and stored in the ConfigMgr database. But to be able to run reports a Reporting Point- or Reporting Service Point site-system role needs to be configured.

The Reporting Service Point role is used for integration with SSRS and so only available when you’re running the R2 version of ConfigMgr. When this role is configured and you access all reports from the SSRS window there is no need to install the regular Reporting Point role.

When you want to run the reports from the console you need a Reporting Point which is configured as the default Reporting Point.

Adding the Reporting Service Point role
Perform the following steps in the ConfigMgr console to install the Reporting Service Point role:

1. Navigate to and expand Site Systems located under Site Database / Site Management / sitecode – site name / Site Settings

2. Right-click the appropriate server and from the menu select ‘New roles’. The New Site Roles Wizard will start.

3. In the General screen click Next

4. In the System Role Selection screen select Reporting Service Point and click Next

5. Type a name for the Report Folder and click Next

During the installation of this role ConfigMgr will query WMI to locate SSRS instances. The folder is installed on the first instance SSRS found by ConfigMgr.

6. In the Summary screen click Next

7. When the installation is finished click Close to close the Wizard

Configuring the Reporting Service Point role
When the role is added successfully you can see a new node under Reporting in the console named; Reporting Services with the site system under it. In my example this is server SR002.

After the role is added it needs to be configured with a so called Data Source. The Data Source is in this case the database of ConfigMgr. Perform the following steps from the ConfigMgr console to configure the datasource:

1. In the console navigate and expand Reporting Services located under Site Database / Computer Management / Reporting

2. Right-click the server and select Properties

3. In the server properties dialog box click the Data Source Settings tab

4. In the Server name text box enter the name and SQL Server instance of the server that is hosting the ConfigMgr database

5. In the Database name text box enter the name of the database. Default this is SMS_sitecode

6. To test the connection click the Test button

7. When the test is successful click OK to close the dialog box.

When the test was unsuccessful you probably need to configure authentication settings under the Data Source Authentication tab.

Upload built-in Reports
Now that the role is added and a Data Source is configured we can upload the built-in reports to SSRS to make them available through SSRS.

Perform the following steps from the ConfigMgr console to upload the built-in Reports:

1. In the console navigate and expand Reporting Services located under Site Database / Computer Management / Reporting

2. Right-click the server and select Copy Reports to Reporting Services. The Copy Reports Wizard will start.

3. In the Data Source Settings screen click Next to accept the earlier configured Data Source or provide an additional Data Source and Database name

4. In the Data Source Authentication screen click Next to accept the earlier configured Data Source Authentication settings or provide additional settings

5. In the Select Reports screen check the boxes of the reports which should be uploaded to SSRS. When done click Next

6. In the Security screen click Next to inherit the settings configured on the site system.
If you want to configure other settings uncheck the box ‘Inheriting rights from parent object’

7. In the summary screen verify your settings and click Next

8. The reports will now be uploaded to SSRS, when this is done click Next followed by Close to close the wizard.

Verify Reports in SSRS
After uploading the reports we can check them in SSRS. From your workstation or server browse to the following URL: http://SSRSservername/reports

At the home page of SSRS you will see a link with the name of your report folder. In my case the name is ConfigMgr_PC1, when clicking this link you will see a similar page as displayed below:

As you can see all reports are stored in folders to group them. These same folders are also located in the ConfigMgr console. You can also drag and drop reports in folders. Be aware that when deleting a folder also the reports will be deleted!

But you probably also think; what is that GUID / SSID kind of thing in the upper left corner. Well this is the data source, clicking on it you can configure the source, the connection string and security settings.

Remove that GUID from the page
Many SSRS users don’t like to see the Data Source in the home page of the reporting folder. Therefore this is often hide. To hide the Data Source perform the following steps from your ConfigMgr Report folder home page:

1. At the Report folder page click the Data Source GUID

2. On the Data Source properties page select Hide in List and click Apply

So now it is gone forever! No just kidding when you want to unhide it you can perform the same steps as described above you only need to click Show Details to see it again.

Generating Reports
Reports can now be generated in two very simple ways. One way is to browse in the Report folder through the SSRS homepage.

The other way is to generate the reports right from the ConfigMgr console. To generate a report perform the following steps from the ConfigMgr console:

1. In the console navigate and select All Reports located under Site Database / Computer Management / Reporting / Reporting Services / Report Server

2. In the All Reports folder right-click the report you want to generate and select Run

3. Provide the information required for the report and click View Report

Custom Reports
Although ConfigMgr comes with a lot of built-in reports it might not meet your needs. When this is the case you can build your own custom reports and upload these to SSRS as well.

There are several applications / tools which allows you to build custom reports:
- SQL report builder 2008 2.0
- SQL Server Business Intelligence development studio
- SQL 2005 report builder

In my opinion the integration is great. It delivers a lot of new possibilities and it is very easy to set up. In the next version of ConfigMgr, SSRS is the only option for reporting.

Enjoy!

Well here is the first post right from the MMS in Las Vegas. I just attended a session named ConfigMgr State of the Union with Bill Anderson and Josh Pointer.

The session was focusing on what happened in the past regarding ConfigMgr like the release of Service Pack 1 and the R2 add-on.
Besides the past it was of course also focusing on the future like the release of Service Pack 2 and the next version of ConfigMgr for now named ConfigMgr.Next.

Service Pack 2
So let’s first take another look at Service Pack 2. The beta is planned for release in June and the RTM is scheduled about 90 days post the RTM release of Windows 7.

The main topics the Service Pack will deliver are:

Support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
P2P support for Windows 7 (Branch cache)
Support for USMT version 4.0 for Operating System Deployment
The certificate for Asset Intelligence is no longer required
Intel Active Management Technology (iAMT)
64 bit performance counters to monitor site running on a 64 bit platform with OpsMgr
Muli select and delete functions in the driver catalog

ConfigMgr.Next

In the session we saw a lot of demonstration on the next version of ConfigMgr 2007. It is currently of course still under development so no guarantees about the new stuff mentioned below.

Console
With the new version the console is completely new and no longer based on the MMC.
The console is like you have now with OpsMgr 2007 and has the following main nodes in it:

Administration
Resources (Collections, Users, Computers)
Deployment
Monitoring (Client Status, Client Health, Client Activity where you can also set SLA’s on them.)
Reporting
Software Updates
Site Hierarchy Management

Role Based Access Control
Other improvement is that security is now based on Role Based Access Control. So now more instance and class rights. You can define roles like; Security admin, OSD admin, Software advertiser etc. The roles can be copied and customized to fit your own specific needs.
Part of the role based access control are scopes. You can for instance create a scope for the deployment of a package.

Desired Configuration Management
New feature in DCM is that you can set thresholds. A threshold could be a percentage of compliancy. So or instance that compliancy must be above the 80%. If it is below that threshold it will generate an alert in the console.
Software Updates
A new improvement for Software Updates is the ability to create Auto Deployment Rules. These rules can be used to deploy updates like definition files on a regular basis.

Distribution Points
Couple of new things here as well. On a distribution point you will have the ability to specify schedules and rate limits like you have with a sender. With this you no longer need an extra site on a branch location so you have a more flatter hierarchy which is of course easier to manage.

A distribution group can now be added to a State Based Distribution Group. So you can create groups with DP’s in it. These groups can be used to update packages to an entire group at once and when a new DP is deployment you make this one a member and it will automatically receive all the applied packages.

Requirements
New things on the requirements as well. To implement ConfigMgr.next you need SQL 2008 x64 and Windows Server 2008 x64, x86 is only supported for a branch DP or a file share DP.

With R2 SQL Reporting Services was introduced which will be the only supported reporting platform for the next version of ConfigMgr.

Overall I’m very much excited about the new look, features and requirements. I hope to see more of the next version upcoming days here in Vegas. We keep in touch!

I just finished packing my bag for my trip to Las Vegas. In Las Vegas I will attend the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) 2009.

The MMS is a early year event about all the management solution of Microsoft. So a lot of System Center. Yesterday I planned my agenda, which was hard due to a huge amount of interesting sessions I wanted to attend. So I needed to make some compromises.

The MMS is from 27/04/2009 till 2/05/2009. Perhaps we meet in Vegas!

In the month May, Microsoft has 5 new webcasts regarding ConfigMgr. An overview:

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft does IT: System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Client Health Strategies (Level 300)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
9:30 A.M.–10:30 A.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft does IT: Using Local Policies to Solve Complex System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Client Challenges (Level 300)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft does IT: Deploying Windows 7 Using System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and OSD. (Level 300)
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
9:30 A.M.–10:30 A.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft does IT: Using Virtualization with Hyper-V to Deploy System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (Level 300)
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft does IT: Delivering Internet-based Client Management (Level 300)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
9:30 A.M.–10:30 A.M. Pacific Time

You can register here!

System Center Service Manager is a new product in the System Center family. Microsoft has three main goals with the product:

- Comprehensive and easy to use and customizable Service Desk capabilities
- Central integration point for service management workflows across other System Center solutions
- Built-in support for service management best practice frameworks such as Microsoft Operations
Framework (MOF) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

As mentioned, integration is part of the solution and this is really great! Service Manager has three connectors whichs delivers that integration. A connector for Active Directory, Operations Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2007 SP1. In this post we will talk about the last one.

For Service Manager, only version ConfigMgr SP1 is supported. ConfigMgr can collect a lot of information about resources on the network. Information about hard- and software, software deployment, software updates and configuration management information is all collected and stored in the database of ConfigMgr.
Besides the ConfigMgr administrators this information is also very valuable for the Service Desk. With the in Service Manager built-in connector all ConfigMgr assets can be imported and stored in the Configuration Management Database of Service Manager.

Compliancy
A feature in Configuration Manager 2007 is Desired Configuration Management. Based on a configuration item and baseline compliancy of clients can be validated. A simple configuration item can be that the item checks if the Windows firewall is enabled. With the baseline you can specify a schedule and a target collection. When the firewall is disabled for systems in that target collection they will be non-compliant.
These configuration baselines can also be imported in Service Manager so Service Manager can monitor for software-, security and version compliancy. When non-compliancy is detected incidents can automatically be created for these non-compliant systems.

Roadmap
Service Manager is planned for release first quarter of 2010. I’m involved in the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) with Microsoft. Currently we have implemented latest code (CTP2) and the connector with ConfigMgr is created. Upcoming months we will definitely test some scenarios with Service Manager and Configuration Manager 2007, so keep in touch!