Enterprise Reporter 3.2.2 - Configuration Manager User Guide

Table 37. Server Service Credentials in Configuration Manager
From	To	Permission Details	Configuration
Enterprise Reporter Server	Enterprise Reporter Database	Must be in the local administrators group for the service to start properly. Must be able to read and write to the database. If the server is configured to use SQL authentication, the SQL credentials will be used to access the database, not the service account.	Configured automatically during installation. If you change the service credentials for the Quest Enterprise Reporter Server service, you need to ensure that a SQL login exists for that account, and create one if none exists. The login must be added to the database roles. For more information, see Configuring the Database and Security Groups in the Quest Enterprise Reporter Installation and Deployment Guide in the Technical Documentation. For more information, see Configuring the Database and Security Groups.
Enterprise Reporter Server	Discovery Node	Must be in the local administrators group for the server service to fully function. Must be in the group Reporter_Discovery_Nodes for the service to fully function. Must be able to write to the Admin$ share to deploy the node. Controls the actions of the node.	On the node host, grant the service account local administrator rights.

Setting Up Your First Collection Computers

Before you can collect and report on data, you must set up the computers that will perform the collections. The minimum deployment is a single cluster with a single node, with the node residing on the same computer as the Enterprise Reporter server.

Configuring Clusters and Nodes for Effective Data Collection

A cluster is a logical grouping of the physical computers (nodes) that will be collecting the data. Each physical computer in a cluster is a node, and each node may belong to only one cluster. You will be assigning collection jobs to a cluster, and the collection tasks are then spread across the nodes. To help make collections more scalable, all of the computers in the cluster share a data store, where the results of a data collection are stored. Clusters provide scalability and performance benefits—you can have as few or as many clusters as your network demands.

Figure 5 outlines a three cluster implementation of Enterprise Reporter. The server and database are located in New York, with clusters in three other cities. Each cluster contains 3 nodes.

Figure 5. A typical enterprise deployment of Enterprise Reporter


	TIP: To maximize performance, and minimize network traffic, clusters should be physically close to the computers hosting the data you are collecting.


	NOTE: In order to collect data, you need to create a cluster — even if you are only planning to use a single computer to perform the collections.

Things to Consider Before Creating a Cluster

Make sure you are clear on the following before creating the cluster:

Do you want to use a shared data location?

As data is collected, it is compared to previously collected data on either the SQL Server® or the shared data location, depending on how you configure your cluster. If you have a lightly loaded SQL Server® that is physically close to your nodes, you may find that performance is improved by choosing not to use a shared data location. On the other hand, if network traffic is high and your SQL Server® is under a heavy load or physically distant from the nodes in the cluster, a shared data location will produce faster results.

•

If you are using one, where is the shared data location?

Create the shared folder, and give read and write access to the credentials you will be using for the nodes. As long as it is accessible, the shared data location can be located on any computer in your environment. Be cautious and ensure that the location is secured while it is accessible as it contains temporary files of collected data. For maximum benefit, locate the data source physically close to the nodes in the cluster.


	NOTE: Not all discovery types utilize the shared data location. For example, Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Exchange, NTFS, Teams, and Azure Resources discoveries do not use the shared data location to optimize on the number of collection tasks generated to collect the data in a more efficient manner.

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What are the first nodes that you want to add?

A cluster is not functional until you add a node and enable it. The node computer is the computer that will resolve the targets of the collection, and perform the actual collection. You can add as many nodes as you want during the initial creation of a cluster.

•

How many tasks do you want to run at the same time on each node?

Discoveries are run as tasks on the nodes of the assigned cluster. To maximize the performance of a node, you can limit the number of tasks that can run concurrently. The default setting of zero to allow the node to determine how many concurrent tasks it will process is a good place to start; you can later experiment with limiting this number to improve performance. For more information, see Improving the Performance of a Node .

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What credentials are you going to use?

Discoveries are performed by a service that runs on the node computer. The credentials used by the node must have read and write access to the Enterprise Reporter database, and have the read permissions to access the targets, and collect the necessary data, and permission to write to the shared data location. You can optionally choose to use SQL credentials for the database connection. For more information, see Node Credential and Alternate Credential Details for On-Premises Discoveries .


	NOTE: If you use credentials that are different than the Enterprise Reporter server credentials, they need to be granted access to the database. For more information, see Configuring the Database and Security Groups in the Quest Enterprise Reporter Installation and Deployment Guide in the Technical Documentation. For more information, see Configuring the Database and Security Groups.


	NOTE: These credentials are also used to access the target computers during a discovery, unless alternate credentials are specified for a discovery. For more information, see Step 1. Create the Discovery .

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Access to Admin$ on the node host

To ensure the success of node deployment, the node installation files are copied into Admin$ (\\computername\admin$). The service account must have read and write access to this share. Once the node has been successfully installed, you can remove this access if required.

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Enterprise Reporter 3.2.2 - Configuration Manager User Guide

Server Service Credential Details

Setting Up Your First Collection Computers

Configuring Clusters and Nodes for Effective Data Collection

Things to Consider Before Creating a Cluster