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Enterprise Reporter 3.5 - Installation and Deployment Guide

Table of Contents

Product Overview

Introducing Quest® Enterprise Reporter Key Features of Enterprise Reporter Enterprise Reporter Components

Enterprise Reporter Architecture

Installation Considerations for Enterprise Reporter

Before You Install Enterprise Reporter Reporter server and database considerations

Failover recovery using SQL clusters

System Requirements Overview of Enterprise Reporter communications and required credentials

Node credential and alternate credential details for on-premises discoveries Detailed permissions for Enterprise Reporter discoveries Permissions for Enterprise Reporter discoveries on NAS devices Permissions for Enterprise Reporter tenant applications Minimum permissions for installing Enterprise Reporter Minimum permissions for installing Enterprise Reporter Port Requirements Firewall Requirements

Database Requirements

Configuring the Database and Security Groups

Installing and Configuring Enterprise Reporter

Installing Enterprise Reporter

Installing the Components

Installing and Configuring Individual Components

Installing and Configuring the Configuration Manager Installing and Configuring the Report Manager Installing and Configuring the Database Wizard Installing and Configuring the Log Viewer Installing and Configuring the Encryption Key Manager Creating a Database Prior to Enterprise Reporter Server Installation Installing and Configuring SSRS Installing and Configuring IT Security Search

Upgrading Enterprise Reporter

Preparing to Upgrade Enterprise Reporter Upgrading Enterprise Reporter Components Upgrading Enterprise Reporter Nodes Upgrading Manually-Configured Enterprise Reporter Nodes After Upgrading Enterprise Reporter

Licensing Enterprise Reporter

Activating or Updating Your License

Security Groups in Enterprise Reporter Role-Based Security in Enterprise Reporter Managing Your Database Using the Database Wizard

Using the Database Wizard to Create or Connect a Database Upgrading a Database Deleting a Database Changing the Security Mode Changing the Connection to the Enterprise Reporter Database Performing Database Maintenance

Managing Your Enterprise Reporter Deployment

Optimizing Enterprise Reporter Enterprise Reporter server and database considerations

Failover recovery using SQL clusters

Cluster Deployment Considerations

Consider the Data to Collect Before Deploying Nodes Fine Tune Each Cluster and Node Optimize Node Setup Plan Credential Use

Logged-In User Details Understanding Credentials Using Scenarios

Effectively Deploy Remote Nodes

Deploying a Node to a Trusted Domain

Optimize Data Transfer

Discovery Considerations

Divide Discovery Targets According to Cluster Structure Collect Only the Data Needed Plan Discovery and Reporting Schedules Optimize Nested Group Membership Collection Optimize Nested Group Membership Collection for Azure and Office 365 Discoveries

Discovery Permission Requirements

Detailed permissions for Enterprise Reporter discoveries Permissions for Enterprise Reporter discoveries on NAS devices Permissions for Enterprise Reporter tenant applications Minimum Permissions for Enterprise Reporter Discoveries IDG Managing Your Deployment.4.26.html

Troubleshooting Issues with Enterprise Reporter

Troubleshooting Installation Issues

Connecting to a SQL Server Issues with Multi-Domain Controller Environments

Problems Opening the Consoles Database Configuration Issues Troubleshooting connectivity issues

Restoring a connection to the Enterprise Reporter Server Restoring a connection to the Enterprise Reporter database Troubleshooting Connection Timeouts

Troubleshooting credential change failures Resolving Issues in the Configuration Manager

Node Deployment Issues Dealing with unassociated nodes Problems deleting a node Creating a Node Debug Log File

Data Collection Issues

Troubleshooting features in Enterprise Reporter

Exporting logs from the Configuration Manager Viewing information about your Enterprise Reporter configuration Viewing errors and statistics for tasks

Moving the Enterprise Reporter database Disaster Recovery

Backing up Enterprise Reporter Deploying Enterprise Reporter to another computer after a disaster Checking the Enterprise Reporter configuration after recovery

Appendix: Database Content Wizard

Software Requirements Starting and Configuring the Enterprise Reporter Database Content Wizard Transferring an Enterprise Reporter Database Backing Up an Enterprise Reporter Database Restoring an Enterprise Reporter Database Cleaning an Enterprise Reporter Database Merging Two Enterprise Reporter Databases Running Custom Enterprise Reporter Scripts PowerShell cmdlets

Requirements Database Content Wizard cmdlets Loading the Database Content Wizard cmdlet Backing Up An Enterprise Reporter Database Cleaning an Enterprise Reporter Database Merging Two Enterprise Reporter Databases Restoring an Enterprise Reporter Database Transferring an Enterprise Reporter Database

Appendix: Encryption Key Manager

Starting the Encryption Key Manager Generating a key file Importing a key file Exporting a key file Resetting credentials

Appendix: Log Viewer

Starting the Enterprise Reporter Log Viewer Finding and opening log files Viewing and searching log file entries Filtering log file entries

Fine Tune Each Cluster and Node

A discovery is resolved to a number of tasks. Each task is automatically assigned to a node in the cluster by the server, depending on the node’s availability. If you are collecting from many targets at the same time, you can increase performance by adding more nodes to the cluster and by ensuring that each node is configured to allow the node to optimize how many concurrent tasks it can process (by setting the maximum number of concurrent tasks to a value of zero).

You can see the amount of time it took to run each instance of the discovery in the history view. If you drill down, you can see how the time was distributed across the targets, and what node did the processing. This information can aid in your decisions about how to scale up your deployment.

Adding nodes and optimizing concurrent tasks can only speed things up if there are multiple tasks to assign to the node. When a large amount of data is collected from an individual target, only one task will be created. In that case, you can improve performance by increasing the CPU, the available disk space, and the memory of the node host computer, or by looking at other factors, such as network latency.

The discovery type determines what the targets are and helps you decide on your options for speeding up collections. Clusters that handle large targets will benefit from increasing the CPU, available disk space and memory of the node host computers, or being dedicated to a smaller number of discoveries.

The following table outlines how each discovery type is broken down into tasks:

Table 18. Discovery Types
Discovery Type	Task Breakdown
Active Directory	Each domain, or per object type by domain
Azure Active Directory	Each tenant
Azure Resource	Each tenant
Computer	Each computer
Exchange	The Exchange Organization, or per object type, or per object type per server
Exchange Online	The Office 365 tenant
File Server Analysis	Each computer
Microsoft SQL	Each computer
Microsoft Teams	Each tenant
NTFS	Each computer or per share by computer
OneDrive	Each tenant
Registry	Each computer
SharePoint Online	Each tenant

•

Optimize Node Setup

Optimize Node Setup

Two of the most common questions are, “What nodes do I deploy?’ and, “What computer specifications do I need?” To determine the answers to these questions, we typically look at the following criteria.

1

What discoveries need to be run? (Active Directory, NTFS, Office 365, and so on)

Each discovery has its own performance influences and setup considerations as outlined by the tables in this section.

2

How many objects need to be collected for each discovery?

The number of objects determines whether the setup should accommodate a small, medium, or large collection as outlined by the tables in this section.

3

Where are the objects located across the network?

The location of the objects impacts the setup of each type of discovery differently as outlined by the tables in this section.

The following sections outline considerations when optimizing node setup for each type of discovery.

Active Directory Discoveries: Node Setup

Active Directory collections are sequential and create heavy network traffic as they query the domain controller so the network connection to the domain controller is a primary concern. Locating the node close to the domain controller is recommended. Choose a domain controller close to your node when you configure the discovery.

For more information, see Choosing your Active Directory Scopes.

The CPU benchmarks of the node computer affect the threading capability so it is a secondary concern.

Typically, an organization with one domain only needs one node. Additional nodes usually only help optimize concurrent collection when there are multiple domains.

Table 19. Node Considerations for Active Directory Discoveries
	Performance Influences
# Objects	Network Bandwidth	RAM	Disk Speed	CPU	# Nodes Needed	Discovery Settings
Small < 100K 1 domain	Primary Concern	No Concern	No Concern	Secondary Concern	1
Medium 100K - 500K 1 domain	Primary Concern	No Concern	No Concern	Secondary Concern	1
Large 500K - 1M 1 domain	Primary Concern	No Concern	No Concern	Secondary Concern	1	•break single discoveries by object type •use one discovery per object type combined with schedules

Azure Active Directory and Azure Resource Discoveries: Node Setup

Azure Active Directory collections are sequential and create heavy network traffic as they query Azure. Ensuring the node machine has optimal network bandwidth is the primary concern. The CPU benchmarks of the node computer affect the threading capability, so it is a secondary concern. Typically, an organization with one tenant only needs one node.

Table 20. Node Considerations for Azure Active Directory and Azure Resource Discoveries
	Performance Influences
# Objects	Network Bandwidth	RAM	Disk Speed	CPU	# Nodes Needed
Small < 100K 1 tenant	Primary Concern	No Concern	Tertiary Concern	Secondary Concern	1
Medium 100K - 500K 1 tenant	Primary Concern	No Concern	Tertiary Concern	Secondary Concern	1
Large 500K - 1M 1 tenant	Primary Concern	No Concern	Tertiary Concern	Secondary Concern	1

Computer Discoveries: Node Setup

Computer collections are sequential and create heavy network traffic as they query each local computer. Ensuring the node machine has optimal network bandwidth is the primary concern.

Table 21. Node Considerations for Computer Discoveries
	Performance Influences
# Objects	Network Bandwidth	RAM	Disk Speed	CPU	# Nodes Needed
Small < 5K	Primary Concern	No Concern	Secondary Concern	Tertiary Concern	1 - 3
Medium 5K - 10K	Primary Concern	No Concern	Secondary Concern	Tertiary Concern	3 - 8
Large > 10K	Primary Concern	No Concern	Secondary Concern	Tertiary Concern	8 - 10

File Storage Analysis Discoveries: Node Setup

Table 22. Node Considerations for File Storage Analysis Discoveries
		Performance Influences
# Targets	# Files / Computer	Network Bandwidth	RAM	Disk Speed	CPU	# Nodes Needed
Small 1 - 10 Computers	< 2M	Primary Concern	Secondary Concern	No Concern	Secondary Concern	1 - 3
Medium 1 - 10 Computers	< 20M	Primary Concern	Secondary Concern	No Concern	Secondary Concern	3 - 9
Large > 10 Computers	> 20M	Primary Concern	Secondary Concern	No Concern	Secondary Concern	10

Microsoft SQL Discoveries: Node Setup

Table 23. Node Considerations for Microsoft SQL Discoveries
	Performance Influences
# SQL Servers	Network Bandwidth	RAM	Disk Speed	CPU	# Nodes Needed
Small 1 - 3	Primary Concern	Tertiary Concern	Secondary Concern	No Concern	1
Medium 3 - 5	Secondary Concern	Primary Concern	Tertiary Concern	No Concern	2
Large > 5	Secondary Concern	Primary Concern	Tertiary Concern	No Concern	> 3

NTFS Discoveries: Node Setup

The most important guideline is to collect only the information required. For example, most files have inherited permissions so, typically, collecting folder permissions is sufficient.

By default, NTFS discoveries, will create multiple tasks (one task per share) to improve performance. If disk speed is slow, network bandwidth is low, or there is only one node, disable this performance option.

Table 24. Node Considerations for NTFS Discoveries
	Performance Influences
# Objects	Network Bandwidth	RAM	Disk Speed	CPU	# Nodes Needed	Discovery Settings
Small 0 - 5M	Secondary Concern	Tertiary Concern	Primary Concern	No Concern	1 - 3
Medium 5M - 100M	Secondary Concern	Tertiary Concern	Primary Concern	No Concern	3 - 6
Large 100M - 1B multiple shares	Secondary Concern	Tertiary Concern	Primary Concern	No Concern	6 - 10¹	•use multiple tasks option unless slow disk speed, low network bandwidth, or one node

1

It is recommended that you deploy 10 nodes or less.

Office 365 Discoveries: Node Setup

These considerations apply to Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, and OneDrive discoveries.

OneDrive can be divided into multiple discoveries to increase collection speed. If Microsoft throttling is often an issue, the use of multiple credentials can help minimize throttling.

Table 25. Node Considerations for Office 365 Discoveries
	Performance Influences
# Objects	Network Bandwidth	RAM	Disk Speed	CPU	# Nodes Needed
Small	Primary Concern	No Concern	Tertiary Concern	Secondary Concern	1
Medium	Primary Concern	No Concern	Tertiary Concern	Secondary Concern	1
Large	Primary Concern	No Concern	Tertiary Concern	Secondary Concern	1

Plan Credential Use

There is granular control over the credentials that are used to perform various functions in Enterprise Reporter. For more information, see Role-Based Security in Enterprise Reporter and

•

Logged-In User Details

•

Understanding Credentials Using Scenarios

Logged-In User Details

You can use as many or as few credentials as you need. Many of the credentials used in Enterprise Reporter are stored in the Credential Manager, which makes it easy to replace or update credentials across your environment.

Credentials for the Configuration Manager are stored in a single Credential Manager, shared by all Configuration Manager users. If only certain employees know the passwords or are responsible for certain credentials, such as service credentials, one of those employees can add the credentials to the Credential Manager, and then all Enterprise Reporter administrators can use them.

Credentials in the Credential Manager are used in the following ways in the Configuration Manager:

•

Running the node service.

•

Accessing the Enterprise Reporter server and database from the node. You can use either a Windows® or a SQL account.

•

Accessing the targets of a discovery to collect data.

•

Accessing the shared data location of a cluster, if used.

Each Report Manager user has their own Credential Manager. Credentials in the Credential Manager are used in the following ways in the Report Manager:

•

Delivering scheduled reports to a share.

•

Configuring an SMTP server for email delivery.

•

Publishing reports to SSRS.

The logged in user is used for:

•

Logging into both consoles.

•

Connecting to the Enterprise Reporter server (Configuration Manager and Report Manager).

•

Connecting to the Enterprise Reporter database (Configuration Manager and Report Manager).

•

Browsing the targets of a discovery.

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