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Enterprise Reporter 3.5 - Configuration Manager User Guide

Product Overview Configuring the Configuration Manager
Starting the Configuration Manager Finding answers and getting help Overview of Enterprise Reporter Communications and Credentials Required Using the Credential Manager Setting Up Your First Collection Computers (Nodes) Modifying Your Deployment Configuring Global Settings Customizing the Configuration Manager View
Understanding Discoveries Creating Discoveries
Step 1. Create the Discovery (Name) Step 2. Choose what to include in your discovery (Scopes) Step 2a. Choose scopes for your on-premises discoveries
Choosing your Active Directory Scopes Choosing your Computer Scopes Choosing Your Exchange Scopes Choosing Your File Storage Analysis Scopes Choosing Your Microsoft SQL Scopes Choosing Your NTFS Scopes Choosing Your Registry Scopes
Step 2b: Choose scopes for your cloud discoveries Step 3. Schedule your Discovery Step 4: Review the summary
Managing Discoveries Troubleshooting Issues with Enterprise Reporter Appendix: PowerShell cmdlets Appendix: Encryption Key Manager Appendix: Log Viewer

Step 2. Choose what to include in your discovery (Scopes)

In this section, we will explore what targets (scopes) you can define for each discovery.

See the following sections:

•
Scopes: An Overview
•
How Scopes Affect Tombstoning
•
Using the Browser to Include and Exclude Scopes
•
Including Objects in Your Scope
•
Importing Computers to Your Scopes
•
Refining Your Scope with Exclusions
•
Filtering in the Browser
•
Using Queries to Define Your Scopes
•
Using Subnets to Define Your Scopes
•
Using Subnet Credentials

See also:

•
Step 2a. Choose scopes for your on-premises discoveries
•
Step 2b: Choose scopes for your cloud discoveries

Scopes: An Overview

Scopes define the targets of the discovery. Options vary depending on the type of discovery you are creating. When you choose scopes for on-premises collections, the node credentials or alternate credentials you specify on the Name page of the Create Discovery wizard determine the available targets. If you are using default node credentials, only the targets that the logged-in user can access are shown.

If you provided alternate credentials when you created the discovery, those credentials are used to enumerate your scopes. For more information, see Node Credential and Alternate Credential Details for On-Premises Discoveries .

* 
TIP: It is recommended that you only include a target (computer) in a single discovery for each type.

Use care when changing credentials. Credentials must have read access to all targets of the discovery or tasks will fail. If this is not possible for all targets in one large discovery, break the discovery into smaller discoveries.

Some discovery types have additional options to collect related information that adds value to your reports. For example, if an NTFS discovery encounters Active Directory groups in the security settings on an object, you can collect and report on the nested members of the groups. The data is collected for all scopes in the discovery and will add time to your discovery, so take this into consideration when selecting this option.

You may be able to enable this in a subset of your discoveries. For example, if you have six different discoveries with varying schedules that could potentially collect the same group members, you could enable it in only the discovery that is scheduled once a week, assuming that is sufficient to meet your reporting needs. In this way, performance is maximized, and reports have the data they need. It does not matter what discovery type is used to collect the data, as long as you are sure the data will be complete. Results are available for any report that includes the field.

How Scopes Affect Tombstoning

The concept of tombstoning refers to the process of comparing the objects found in previous collections with those found in current collections and subsequently marking objects that are no longer found in the current collection as tombstoned in the database. Tombstoned objects in the database will not be shown in library reports.

Enterprise Reporter makes the best assumptions it can based on what is collected. For some on-premises discovery types such as Computer, SQL Server, NTFS, and Registry, use caution when changing collection options between collection runs on the same target (same computer). If these options are changed, objects that are not found in resulting collections will be marked as tombstoned in the database.

For example:

•
For a Computer collection, if you collect shares and services for a particular computer in one collection and then run another collection for the same computer but just select shares, all the services will be marked as tombstoned and only shares will be updated.

Other discovery types such as Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Azure Resource, SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams allow for collection of different object types from the same target without tombstoning the objects.

For example:

•
For an Active Directory collection, if you collect users and groups for a particular domain in one collection and then run another collection for the domain computers for the same domain, the users and groups from the previous collection will not be tombstoned.
•
For a OneDrive collection, if you collect a drive from a particular tenant in one collection and then run another collection for a different drive from the same tenant, the previous drive will not be tombstoned.

For the SharePoint Online discovery type, all site collections that are part of the include list are stored in the database while other previously collected site collections are not tombstoned. All site collections that are part of the exclude list are tombstoned while all other site collections are collected.

The following table describes how each discovery type works with tombstoning.

Table 17. How each discovery type works with tombstoning
Discovery Type
Root Object
Tombstoning?*

Active Directory

Domain

No

Azure Active Directory

Tenant

No

Azure Resource

Tenant

No

Computer

Computer

Yes

Exchange

Organization

No

Exchange Online

Tenant

No

File Storage Analysis

Computer

Not applicable - collects historical snapshots

Microsoft SQL

Microsoft SQL Server

Yes

Microsoft Teams

Tenant

No

NTFS

Share

Yes

OneDrive

Drive

No

Registry

Computer

Yes

SharePoint Online

Tenant

No

*Yes indicates that objects will be tombstoned when subsequent collections run on the same target with different collection options.

Note: All discovery types have a root object that is not tombstoned by Enterprise Reporter. For example, in Computer, File Storage Analysis, MS SQL, and Registry discoveries, the computer is the root object, so computers will never be tombstoned.

Using the Browser to Include and Exclude Scopes

The browser is designed to allow you to drill into the acceptable objects for a given discovery type. Although the browser may vary slightly between discoveries, the basic use of it is consistent.

Your discovery should contain objects for which you want to collect similar data because:

•
there are several options that are applied to every object in a discovery, such as global scopes and discovery options.
•
it makes it easier to understand what you are collecting.
•
you are more likely to meet the needs of your reporting users by providing consistent data.
* 
NOTE: The account you are logged in as is used to enumerate the scopes. If you are not seeing the expected objects in your browser, check your permission level.

See also:

•
Including Objects in Your Scope
•
Importing Computers to Your Scopes
•
Refining Your Scope with Exclusions
•
Filtering in the Browser
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