Installing and Configuring SCCM 2012 SP2 Reporting Service Point

SQL Server Reporting service

In Configuration Manager , the reporting service point communicates with SSRS(SQL Server Reporting Service)to copy the SCCM reports to a specified folder. Reporting service role plays a major role in configuration Manager 2012 for pulling organised information about inventory, application deployment, patching and  software mettering data.  Configuration Manager provides report definitions for over 450 reports in over 50 report folders, which are copied to the root report folder in SQL Server Reporting Services during the reporting services point installation process. The reports are displayed in the Configuration Manager console and organized in subfolders based on the report category.

Before proceeding with the configuration,

1. Make sure SQL Server Reporting service installed

2. Make sure the connectivity of Reporting Services with site database.

SQL Server Reporting service installation

To verify the SQL server reporting service installation in  windows server 2008, click Start ->click All Programs-->click Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2-->click Configuration Tools --> click Reporting Services Configuration Manager.

To verify the SQL server reporting service installation in  windows server 2012, Just serach for Reporting Services Configuration Manager in Search column.

If  Reporting Services Configuration Manager is not found run the SQL setup and proceed with installation of Reporting services Configuration Manager. Else, open the Reporting service configuration manager and start working with the connectivity verification.

Make sure the connectivity of Reporting Services with site database

Click, Reporting services Configuration Manager

Provide SQL server name and instance name to connect.

Once you connected, Make sure the Report server mode is Native and and reporting service is up and running , else start the reporting service.

Make sure the database Name and service account that connects the Database .

Specify the virtual Directory  and configure a URL to access the Report server . If you have created any SSL certificate for authentication, mention it in SSL certificate column , else proceed with default.

Configure a URL to acess report Manager , So that You can use this URL in future to add folders or to create custom SQL reports by accessing Report Manager .

Once the verification and configuration from SQL Server Reporting service done, proceed with the installation of Reporting Service point configuration Manager role.

Installation of Reporting Service Point

 

To manage report reporting site role must be installed. The reporting services point copies report folders and reports to SQL Server Reporting Services and it applies the security policy for the reports and folders, and sets the configuration settings in Reporting Services.The reporting services point is a site system role that must be configured on a server with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services installed and running .

Installation of Reporting Service Point

1. Run SCCM site role installation Wizard
2. Skip the Proxy tab, if you don’t have proxy environment
3. Select the Reporting Services point role to install

Mention the site database server and database name, run the verification wizard and check for successful verification.

Specify the folder to create on the site system server reports that will contain the SCCM 2012 reports.

Select reporting server instance name, if the instance name is not available, then the SQL server reporting service is not running/installed.

Specify the user name that have read access to configuration manager database.

Click Next

After the successful installation wizard , verify the site server logs

Related logs found under \\SCCMServer\CCM\ Logs

srsrpMSI.log

srsrpsetup.log  

srsrpsetup.log  

Check for the below successful log entry

Installing C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\bin\x64\srsrp.msi SRSRPINSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\SMS_SRSRP" SRSRPLANGPACKFLAGS=0

srsrp.msi exited with return code: 0 ,Installation was successful.

srsrpMSI.log

Check for below log entry in srsrpMSI.log

Windows Installer reconfigured the product. Product Name: ConfigMgr Reporting Services Point. Product Version: 5.00.7804.1000. Product Language: 1033. Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation. Reconfiguration success or error status: 0.

After the successful installation , verify the reporting tab in configuration Manager console. The report manager and report server url can be seen .click on the Report Manager link and make sure the folders you have created is found and it has all the inbuilt SCCM reports found in consle.

Click the folder and view the report .

Thanks Guys!! I will continue with creation of custom report in next post.

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Setting up Maintenance Window in SCCM 2012

Maintenance windows is nothing but a time frame set by administrative users to carry out the operational activities related to configuration Manager on members of a device collection. The reason for setting up maintenance window is to avoid the delay in productivity of the organization due to configuration manager operational task such as installing updates, application, packages, rebooting machines etc.

Maintenance windows are configured for a collection with a start and end date with accurate timing. It is also possible to set a recurrence pattern. Each maintenance window must have duration of less than 24 hours. By default, Machine reboot caused by a deployment are not allowed outside of a maintenance window, but you can override the default in the settings for each deployment. You can also set the deployment to run in maintenance window but the download action to run outside of the maintenance window.

The following Configuration Manager operations support maintenance windows:

• Software deployments
• Software update deployments
• Compliance settings deployment and evaluation
• Operating system deployments
• Task sequence deployments

If we set two maintenance windows and if both the time overlaps, then configuration Manager will assume it as single window encompassing the time period covered by both maintenance windows.

How to set up maintenance window?

Create a collection, for the group of machine you are intended to create specific maintenance window time frame.

Once collection Created, right click the collection > Properties

In maintenance window tab, click the yellow label as highlighted in below figure.

Mention the name, date, time frame and apply this schedule as per your needs like Deployment, Task sequence, software updates etc.

Hope this Helps!! Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, please post it below.

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Discovery Process in Configuration Manager 2012 SP2

Discovery Process in Configuration Manager

Hope you have seen my previous post on Installing configuration Manager 2012 console. So after installing configuration manager, it’s recommended to discover Active directory resource. The Computer and user resource that are planned to manage through Configuration manager is discovered using Configuration Manager 2012 Discovery method. Once the discovery is run, a discovery data record (DDR) for each discovered object are created and stored in the Configuration Manager database. Once discovery successful, it puts information about the resource in a file that is referred to as a discovery data record (DDR). DDRs are in turn processed by site servers and entered into the Configuration Manager database, where they are then replicated by database-replication with all sites. Active Directory Forest Discovery is a new discovery method that can discover subnets and Active Directory sites, and can add them as boundaries for your hierarchy.

There are six different discovery methods available to discover Active directory resource.

Active Directory Forest Discovery 

This discovery method is used to discover Active Directory sites and subnets, and then create Configuration Manager Boundaries for each site and subnet from the forests that you have configured for discovery. When Active Directory Forest Discovery identifies a supernet that is assigned to an Active Directory site, Configuration Manager converts the supernet into an IP address range boundary.. 

Active Directory System Discovery 

This discovery method is used to discover system from the specified locations in Active Directory Domain Services. Active Directory System Discovery Account or the computer account of the site server is used to run this discovery

Active Directory User Discovery

This discovery Discovers user accounts from the specified locations in Active Directory Domain Services. Active Directory System Discovery Account or the computer account of the site server is used to run this discovery 

Active Directory Group Discovery

This discovery Discovers local, global, and universal security groups, the membership within these groups, and the membership within distribution groups from the specified locations in Active directory Domain Services. Distribution groups are not discovered as group resources. Active Directory System Discovery Account or the computer account of the site server is used to run this discovery

Heartbeat Discovery

Used by active Configuration Manager Clients to update their discovery records in the database. This discovery is enabled by default. Computer account of the agent is used to run this discovery. Heartbeat Discovery can force discovery of a computer as a new resource record, or can repopulate the database record of a computer that was deleted from the database. 

Network Discovery 

This discovery Searches your network infrastructure for network devices that have an IP address. This can discover devices that might not be found by other discovery methods. This includes printers, routers, and bridges.

How to Run Discovery?

Once you installed the Configuration Manager console,

Administration > Hierarchy Configuration > Discovery methods

Select Each Discovery and enable the status. For example,

Right click Active Directory Forest Discovery > properties

You will be seeing screenshot like below, check the option Enable Active directory forest and apply to run AS soon as possible.

Active Directory Group Discovery

Right click Active Directory Group Discovery > properties

You will be seeing screenshot like below, check the option Enable Active directory group discovery and select the specific group that you want to discover. 

Specify the Name of the group to be discovered and browse the respective Active directory group you are interested to discover.

Similar to Group discovery, you can perform user Discovery by enabling and selecting Active directory User Discovery in configuration Manager 2012 Sp2.

Active Directory System Discovery

Right click Active Directory OU Discovery > properties

You will be seeing screenshot like below, check the option Enable Active directory System discovery and select the specific container that you want to discover. 

Once you selected the container, clicks apply and run the discovery immediately.

Logs to very Discover status

ADforestDisc.log – The log file that logs information about forest discovery

adsgdis.log - The log file that logs information about group discovery

adsysdis.log - The log file that logs information about system discovery

adusrdis.log - The log file that logs information about user discovery

These site server Logs available in site server from where you are performing discovery, and the path should be %Program Files%\Microsoft Configuration Manager\Logs.

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