System Center Reporting Manager 2006 Frequently Asked Questions

A. Microsoft System Center Reporting Manager 2006 is a data warehouse and reporting platform that will help IT managers better support corporate decision making, improve the quality of service provided, and better administer IT resources through improved reporting capabilities and management data integration from Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003, Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005, and business context data sources, such as Active Directory.

A. The top benefits can be categorized as follows:

• Making informed decisions for IT systems resources
  If you are planning to consolidate servers, it is critical that you are able to analyze how your servers are loaded and what type of hardware configuration they have. If you are considering data center consolidation, you will need data location and business unit ownership for all your servers. System Center Reporting Manager 2006 will give you visibility into asset information, performance, and business context regarding all servers and server groups in your environment.
• Making decisions on hardware acquisition
  With System Center Reporting Manager 2006, you will be able to analyze purchase trends before making a decision. You will also be able to evaluate and compare server performance across vendors before acquiring new equipment.
• Improving software and security updates deployment
  System Center Reporting Manager 2006 will help you make more informed decisions about the deployment of new applications and security updates. You can track how these deployments have progressed in different parts of the organization to improve operational efficiency. With System Center Reporting Manager 2006, you will be able to analyze the impact that configuration changes could have on the performance of your servers.
• Improving software and security updates deployment
  System Center Reporting Manager 2006 will help you make more informed decisions about the deployment of new applications and security updates. You can track how these deployments have progressed in different parts of the organization to improve operational efficiency. With System Center Reporting Manager 2006, you will be able to analyze the impact that configuration changes could have on the performance of your servers.

A. The target markets for System Center Reporting Manager 2006 are large mid-sized businesses and enterprise customers. Smaller mid-market customers will also find value in System Center Reporting Manager 2006.

A. To get the full benefit of System Center Reporting Manager 2006, you should have both SMS 2003 and MOM 2005 installed. If you have installed only SMS 2003, you can get historical and analytical reports that are not feasible in SMS 2003 (for example, software update deployment success rate over a year). If you have MOM 2005 only installed, you can get MOM reports that are enabled for multiple management groups.

A. System Center Reporting Manager 2006 will only support current versions of the products and will not support future versions of MOM or SMS. This support will be added in the next version of System Center Reporting Manager.

A. System Center Reporting Manager 2006 is not intended to replace reporting functionality included with SMS and/or MOM. For up-to-the-minute operational reporting, SMS and MOM reports are more appropriate since they run against the operational databases. System Center Reporting Manager 2006 is more suited for running complex queries needed for historical and trending/analytical reporting.

A. The two main components of System Center Reporting Manager 2006 are a data warehouse and a reporting server. The data warehouse contains data transferred and aggregated from SMS 2003, MOM 2005, and business context data, such as Active Directory, and the reporting server that delivers analytical and historical reports from that data.

A. All data currently available in the MOM 2005 operational database will be in System Center Reporting Manager 2006. It uses the same data transfer service (DTS) jobs that are used to move data from the MOM 2005 operational database to the MOM 2005 data warehouse. With SMS 2003, all the software inventory, hardware inventory, software distribution, and security update related data will be moved to System Center Reporting Manager 2006. Data about software metering or detailed status messages about advertisements will not be moved.

A. Yes. The System Center Reporting Manager 2006 presentation schema will be published to enable you to create custom reports and ad hoc queries.

A. No. While it is technically feasible to define new database tables and processing logic, System Center Reporting Manager 2006 does not have a published way to extend its schema.

A. Yes. Given that System Center Reporting Manager 2006 is based on SQL Server Reporting Services technology, you will be able to edit reports or create new ones as needed.

A. You can use various export formats, pagination, report subscription, and full reporting lifecycle support, such as authoring, management, and delivery, among other features.

A. Yes. Some of the SMS 2003-related reports are:

• Microsoft operating system or Office inventory by domain or location
• Other applications by domain or location
• Hardware inventory by domain, building, cost center, or manager
• Hardware changes by domain, location, cost center, or manager
• Environmental baseline and compliance
• Software distribution by domain or location
• Software update compliance by domain, region, cost center, computer owner, or software update ID

A. Yes. All reports included in MOM 2005 are also included in System Center Reporting Manager 2006 and have been extended to allow for reporting across multiple MOM 2005 management groups.

A. Some of the "better together" reports included in System Center Reporting Manager 2006 are:

• Critical alerts by operating system/application
• Performance statistics comparison
• Overutilized/Underutilized computers
• Computers that showed a specific alert
• Server/baseline server configuration comparison
• Hardware/software changes by building/computer owner/computer group
• Performance comparison before/after configuration change

A. To use Microsoft System Center Reporting Manager 2006, you need:

• Computer with a 600 MHz processor; 2.0 GHz dual processors or faster Pentium-compatible processor recommended
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with SP1 or later (or) Windows Server 2003 R2—Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, or Datacenter Edition
• 512 MB of RAM minimum; 2 GB of RAM or more recommended
• 10 GB of available hard-disk space minimum; 500 GB or more recommended based on size of SMS and MOM data source.
• Super VGA (1024 × 768) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
• Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition
• CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive

A. Based on customer feedback received, we decided that at release, System Center Reporting Manager 2006 will support only SQL Server 2005 to allow customers to take advantage on the newest and richest database technology.

A. Yes. You may download a free 180-day evaluation version of System Center Reporting Manager 2006 from the Trial Software page.

A. For pricing information, see the How To Buy page or the Microsoft Product and Technology Catalog.

A. System Center Reporting Manager 2006 is licensed per server, regardless of the number of processors, and does not require any Management Licenses or Client Access Licenses (CALs).

A. Yes. System Center Reporting Manager 2006 requires a SQL Server 2005 license. A SQL Server license may be purchased stand-alone on either a per processor or a server/CAL basis. For more information on SQL pricing and licensing, please visit the SQL Server How to Buy page.

A. No. System Center Reporting Manager 2006 only supports SQL Server 2005.

A. Yes, customers with active Software Assurance coverage on MOM Server 2005 or SMS Server 2003 as of May 1, 2006 are eligible to receive one (1) System Center Reporting Manager 2006 license at no charge. Customers who take advantage of this offer have the option to purchase Software Assurance coverage on the System Center Reporting Manager 2006 license anytime prior to July 29, 2006.

A. Yes, customers with active Software Assurance coverage on MOM 2005 w/SQL Server Technology or SMS 2003 w/SQL Server Technology as of May 1, 2006 are eligible to receive one (1) System Center Reporting Manager 2006 license at no charge. Customers who take advantage of this offer have the option to purchase Software Assurance coverage on the System Center Reporting Manager 2006 license anytime prior to July 29, 2006.