Enterprise Reporter 3.5 - Configuration Manager User Guide

Improving the Performance of Your Discoveries

When a discovery is run on a cluster, the Enterprise Reporter server assigns work to its nodes. You can add nodes to a cluster at any time. Each node can only belong to one cluster. You can increase the performance of your discoveries by ensuring that nodes are configured to optimize the maximum number of concurrent tasks or by adding new nodes.

Each collection task is assigned to a node, balancing the distribution across the nodes until all the nodes are processing as many tasks as they are able. If no nodes are available to process the task, the task must wait until a node becomes available.

Node performance is based on a combination of memory, processor speed, and network bandwidth. If your network, computer memory, or processor speed are less than you would like, consider adding nodes. If your node is under used, set the maximum concurrent tasks to 0 to optimize node performance instead of adding more nodes. If a node starts to slow down when node performance is already optimized (by setting the maximum concurrent tasks to 0), adding a node will increase performance. For more information, see Nodes and Improving the Performance of a Node .

Adding a Node

Since a node must belong to a cluster, you must first create a cluster. For more information on creating clusters, see To create your first cluster and node .


	NOTE: The credentials you provide are the credentials used to access the targets of your discovery. Ideally, this should be a service account that has elevated privileges, not a user account. The account must be a member of the group Reporter_Discovery_Nodes. If you use credentials that are different than the Enterprise Reporter server credentials, they must be granted access to the database.


	NOTE: Performance counters must be enabled on the node machine as the performance information is required by the Enterprise Reporter node performance optimization functionality.

To add a node

On the Manage Discovery Clusters pane, select the cluster to which the node will be added.

In the bottom pane, on the Discovery Nodes tab, click Add Node.

Browse to the computer where the node is to be created and click OK.

Select a service account from the Credential Manager.

If the account you want is not on the list, click Add and enter the credential, then select it from the list. For more information, see Using the Credential Manager .


	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 (Name) .

To use SQL credentials to connect to the database, select Database Credential, then choose SQL Authentication and select the SQL account from the Credential Manager.

Optionally, select Specify an alternate credential for Node service deployment, then select the account.


	NOTE: This account must have permission to copy files in the Admin$ share folder and to install and run services.

Set tasks to be System - managed to optimize performance. For more information, see Nodes and Improving the Performance of a Node .


	NOTE: CPU load is always used to determine how many concurrent tasks are assigned. Optionally, enter any number greater than 0 to set a Maximum number of tasks that the node will never exceed.

Click Add.

Repeat steps 3 through 7 to add additional nodes.

Click OK.

The new node appears on the Discovery Nodes tab. By default, nodes on this pane are sorted by status. Your node will be enabled, unless you cleared the Enable nodes check box. For a listing of possible node statuses, see What does the status of a node or cluster indicate? .


	NOTE: If a node fails to deploy, you must delete the node and re-create it. For more information, see Node Issues .

Improving the Performance of a Node

It is recommended to set tasks to be System-managed to optimize node performance. CPU load is always used to determine how many concurrent tasks are assigned. You may optionally enter any number greater than 0 to set a Maximum number of tasks that the node can process concurrently.

Modifying the maximum number of tasks on a node

On the Manage Discovery Clusters pane, select the cluster to which the node to modify belongs.

On the Discovery Nodes tab in the bottom pane, select the desired node.

Click Edit Node.

Set tasks to be System - managed to optimize performance.

- OR -

Set the Maximum number of tasks to any number greater than 0 to specify the number of tasks the node can process concurrently and click OK.

A progress dialog box is displayed.

Once the change is successfully made, click Close in the progress dialog box.