System Center Reporting Manager (SCRM 2006) - Overview

By combining performance and event data extracted from MOM 2005 with inventory data extracted from SMS 2003, SCRM is designed to help IT departments and Managers make better operational and planning decisions. However, the first version of SCRM can't be extended to ad data elements or other sources of management data and will also be incompatible with the next release of MOM and SMS.

So, when would it make sense to deploy SCRM? SCRM can be useful complement to the reporting systems in SMS or MOM even when organizations use only one of those products.

When using SMS only, SMS's operational Database holds a great deal of detailed inventory and metering data, but by default SMS keeps only 90 days the information collected (you can modify this Default retention Time on SMS, but it would increase the DB size and therefore slower performance in queries and reports). When SCRM is used with SMS, a subset of that data is moved to the SCRM Data warehouse and then held for longer periods (by default it holds the data for a year). When SCRM is used with SMS reports are executed against a copy of the data on a separated server (rather than the operational DB), reports will display faster without impacting SMS server performance.

When using MOM only. MOM 's built-in reporting system is very similar to that of SCRM, they both load the data into a data warehouse separate from the MOM DB and both use SQL Reporting Services. Large organizations with multiple MOM systems still benefit from SCRM by consolidating all MOM data warehouses into one single data repository.

SCRM 2006 is licensed per Server and does not require any CAL's. Due that SCRM requires SQL 2005, you can buy it separated or in a bundle (only possible for Customers with Volume licensing program), in case that you buy it as a Bundle the SQL 2005 Server must be dedicated for SCRM (the same situation as when you buy SMS 2003 with SQL in a bundle).

Important remarks:

Microsoft plans to remove the actual Build-in reporting functionality on MOM in a near feature. The same will probably happen with SMS 2003 that uses his own reporting environment instead of SQL Reporting services like MOM or SCRM. However on the first betas of SMSv4 and MOMv3 the reporting functionality is still the same as on the actual versions.

Some Limitations of the first release:

- Fixed Schema. Microsoft will not support customers or software partners who modify or extend the SCRM DB Schema to include additional MOM or SMS data elements or add other data sources such as non-MS products. MS has hinted that in future releases of SCRM will be extensible, but gave no details or timeframes.

- Limited data correlation. Although some of the reports can help IT personnel identify cause and effect relationships from captured data, this capability is in some way primitive and is still a long way from providing a "Probable Cause" analysis.

- It's not forward compatible. Because of major changes that are planned for the next MOM and SMS releases, SCRM 2006 will work only with current version s (SMS 2003 and MOM 2005)

- Three separate Database Servers required. Due that you can't use the same SQL instance for MOM 2005, SMS 2003 and SCRM 2006, you will need to dedicate a server for each of them. In SMB environments this could be significant additional costs.

- Uses older DTS technology. SCRM 2006 is using the MOM DTS Jobs to make the Data synchronization, that's why MS decided not to use the new Integration Services from SQL 2005. The new service offers simpler programming, better performance and improved management capabilities compared with SQL 2000 DTS.

- No automatic Jobs to import AD Data. The SCRM Data Warehouse includes elements that can be derived from data in Active Directory or human resources systems. However, due that SCRM does not include a scheduled DTS Job to automatically and periodically import this kind of information to the Data Warehouse, SCRM reports may include out-of-Date information. MS provides an Excel template with SCRM 2006 so that administrators can manually populate it with business contact data extracted from one of the Data Sources (like AD) and import it with SQL Server Reporting Services DTS Import/Export Wizard.

Release History:

*Please notice that the Dates above could change. Please check Microsoft web site.

System Center Reporting Manager Tips and Tricks (SCRM 2006)

After adding an SMS data source in the SCRM Administrator console, the
following steps should be completed on the SMS Database Server:

1. Copy ReportingDataSource.msi and SrcSetup_<DataSourceName>.bat to the SMS
Database server. These will be located in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft
System Center Reporting Manager\Utilities\Data Source Setup\SMS directory on
the SCRM server.

2. Run SrcSetup_<DataSourceName>.bat to install the Data Source component on
the SMS server.

3. If an account other than the machine account for the SMS database server
was entered in the Data Source Account screen of the Add Data Source Wizard,
the SCRM SMS Site Service service should be configured to start with this
account. The account should also be added to the new SC DW SMS DTS local
group.

4. If the domain that the SMS server is in, is not trusted by the domain that
the SCRM server is in, a network drive must be mapped to the SMS data source's
folder in the Staging Share on the SCRM Server with user credentials that
have access to the folder. If the drive is not mapped using the System
credentials, the Data Source service will not be able to access the mapped
folder. The following steps can be used to configure this:

a. Create a text file. Add the following in the file:
net use z:\\<ComputerName>\SCRMSMSShare\<Password>/USER:<Domain>\<User>
b. Change the extension of this file from .txt to .cmd.
c. Create a scheduled task to run this .cmd file.
d. Provide the Run as account NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. Run this WTS task.
e. Open SQL Server Enterprise Manager. Navigate to the SMS database for
which the .bat file is to be run.
f. Open the SCRM_MTD_Configuration table.
g. Change the ShareDirectory path from
\\<SCRMServer>\SCRMSMSShare\<DataSourceName> to z:\<DataSourceName>
h. Restart the SMS Data Source service
 

www.ms-systemcenter.com