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Enterprise Reporter 3.5.1 - Installation and Deployment Guide

Product Overview Installation Considerations for Enterprise Reporter Installing and Configuring Enterprise Reporter Managing Your Enterprise Reporter Deployment Troubleshooting Issues with Enterprise Reporter Appendix: Database Content Wizard Appendix: Encryption Key Manager Appendix: Log Viewer

Divide Discovery Targets According to Cluster Structure

Clusters contain the nodes that actually collect data from the targets of the discovery. The closer your nodes are to your targets, the faster the collection will be. Because Enterprise Reporter is scalable, you can modify your deployment at any time to suit your needs. Consider these approaches for ensuring effective target distribution across your deployment:

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If you have a full understanding of your data collection needs, design your clusters and nodes to fit. For example, if the bulk of your collection targets are located in your head office, and you only have small collections in other areas, you could create a large cluster in your head office, and a single node cluster in each of the areas where other collections occur.
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If you know where some of your targets are, but not the amount of data that will be collected, start by creating a single cluster in the major geographical areas and then when creating discoveries, group targets accordingly. For example, create a small cluster in each network branch, and when discoveries are created, group the targets and assign the cluster accordingly. You can scale up your cluster at any time if the nodes cannot keep up to the data collection.
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Grow your deployment on demand. Create a single node cluster for your first collection. As your discoveries grow, scale this cluster up for targets in the same geographical location, or add new clusters when targets become physically removed from your node.

Collect Only the Data Needed

When you configure a discovery, you choose both the scope of the discovery and what you want to collect from each target. If you know what the data is going to be used for, you can collect only the needed data. If you are not sure, and performance is an issue, consider collecting a minimal set of data, and then wait for requests for more data before extending the discovery.

When scoping your discovery, consider:

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If you add OUs and Domains as your scope in an NTFS, computer or registry discovery, all relevant objects within these containers will be collected. This has the advantage of capturing changes within the containers, but the disadvantage of potentially collecting information that is of little interest. You may want to break up large discoveries into smaller, more focused discoveries.
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Ensure that each target computer is in only one discovery of each type. For example, a computer can be in a Computer discovery and an NTFS discovery, but not in two different NTFS discoveries.
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Collect only the files, folders, and registry keys that you know are required for your reporting users.

Once you have selected your scopes, consider what you need to collect from each target. The following table outlines the collection options for each type of discovery:

Table 34. Collection Options For Each Type Of Discovery
Discovery Type
Collection Options

Active Directory®
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Users
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Token groups count
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Domain controller last logon
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Remote desktop information for domain users
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Photographs for domain users
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Groups and Members
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Members from foreign domains
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Nested groups and their members from foreign domains
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Computers (Active Directory® objects)
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Domain Controllers
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Permissions
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Contacts
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Trusts
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Sites
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Deleted objects
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Service Accounts
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Active Roles Virtual Attributes

Azure Active Directory
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Users
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Additional attributes from Microsoft 365
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Multi-factor authentication attributes
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Users flagged for risk
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Active user data
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Contacts
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Devices
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Groups
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Additional attributes from Microsoft 365‘
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Roles
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Applications and Service Principals

Azure Resource
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Subscriptions (all or specific)
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Resources
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Virtual machines
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Disks
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Networking
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Storage Accounts
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Access control
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Nested group members

Computer
•
Printers
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Shares
•
Volumes
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Accounts
•
Installed Software
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Microsoft Store Applications
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Hotfixes
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Policies
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Services
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Event Log Configuration
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Extended WMI Entities
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Nested group members

Exchange
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Mailboxes
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Mailbox subfolders
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Mailbox delegates
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Include system delegates
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Mail-Enabled Users
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Mail Contacts
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Public Folders
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System public folders
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Distribution Groups
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Permissions
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Mailbox AD permissions
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Mailbox Exchange permissions
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Mailbox folder permissions
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Public folder permissions
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Optionally, only explicit permissions
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Nested group members

Exchange Online
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Mailboxes
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Mailbox delegates
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Mailbox statistics
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Mailbox folders
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Public Folders
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System Public Folders
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Mail-Enabled Users
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Mail Contacts
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Distribution Groups
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Group members
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Dynamic group members
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Permissions
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Mailbox folder permissions
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Optionally, only explicit permissions
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Nested group members

File Storage Analysis
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Shares
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Hidden Shares
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Home Directories
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Collect NAS using Configuration
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If unable to collect volumes then collect shares as volumes
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Files
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Folders
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Follow Directory Symbolic Links
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Owners

Microsoft SQL

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Group members — either Active Directory or computer users who are members of any groups discovered in the collection. You can also get this information through Active Directory and Computer discoveries. For more information, see Optimize Nested Group Membership Collection .

MS Teams
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Channels
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Files and Folders
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Applications

NTFS
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How to collect the information:
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Collect all available public shares
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Include hidden hares
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Collect all available volumes
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Based on your selected scope, if you are collecting against NAS devices, do you want to use specified NAS Configurations?
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Yes
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No
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Collect only selected shares, folders and DFS shares. Collection of all public shares or volumes will not occur.
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Folder options:
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All folder levels
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Folder depth— determines how far into the folder structure to collect data
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File options:
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Collect files and their basic details like size and attributes
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Collect advanced file metadata such as author and title
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Calculate duplicate files within the same computer
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Permission options:
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Folder permissions - these should only be collected if needed by your reporting users
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File permissions - these should only be collected if needed by your reporting users
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Only collect and store files which have explicitly granted permissions
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Calculate permissions differences between folders, subfolders, and files.
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If a group account is found when collecting permissions, recursively collect group members.
Note: Group members of any groups discovered in the collection - either Active Directory or computer users who are members of any groups discovered in the collection. You can also get this information by through Active Directory and Computer discoveries. For more information, see Optimize Nested Group Membership Collection .
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Advanced options:
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Create a task per share for each computer - a collection task is created for each computer in the NTFS discovery. You can select this option to enable additional load balancing between nodes.

OneDrive
•
Drives
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All drives
•
Selected drives
•
Folders
•
Files
•
Permissions
•
Nested group members
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Configuration Settings

Registry
•
Registry values
•
Permissions and group members
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Directory or computer users who are members of any groups discovered in the collection. You can also get this information through Active Directory and Computer discoveries. For more information, see Optimize Nested Group Membership Collection .
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Recursion level — determines how far into the registry structure to collect data.

Plan Discovery and Reporting Schedules

Enterprise Reporter reports on previously collected data. It is important to coordinate the discovery schedules with your reporting schedules, to ensure that the data meets the requirements of the users.

As your deployment grows in complexity, you may find value in coordinating the schedules for your discoveries in a cluster. Things to consider:

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Run your discoveries or scheduled reports at times when network traffic is low.
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Take into account the number of nodes in relation to the number of tasks that will be processed by discoveries. You should only schedule discoveries simultaneously if your deployment is capable of processing them.
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Evaluate the time it takes to run a discovery using the history view for a discovery. This can be very useful when you are trying to get the freshest data possible for a scheduled report—you can schedule to start as late as possible while still providing data for the necessary reports. You can also use this understanding to better coordinate the schedules of your discoveries to avoid overloading your nodes.

Optimize Nested Group Membership Collection

Depending on the reports that will be run, you may need to collect data to show nested group memberships. It is more efficient to collect to group members through Active Directory discoveries than using the nested group membership options in individual discoveries of other types. This also helps avoid collecting the same accounts in multiple discoveries. The recommended practice for collecting nested group members is to:

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Collect accounts from each domain of interest (one discovery per domain, and be sure to include all other data that you need from that domain). This results in the groups and members in the domain being collected once.
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If a domain has groups with members from other domains for which you do not have separate discoveries, you should collect foreign group members to ensure complete data.
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Do not collect group members in NTFS, Registry, or MS SQL discoveries, if you will have all the information needed for reporting from the Active Directory or Exchange discoveries.
* 
NOTE: If you are not running Active Directory or Exchange discoveries, you will need to include the nested group members in NTFS, Registry, or MS SQL discoveries.
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