Extending Reporting capabilities of the Desired Configuration Monitoring Solution - DCM Solution

  • Article

As you are already aware, the DCM Solution comes out of the box with four out-of-compliance and ten in-compliance reports. You can get access to all these reports by deploying the Reports Component of the DCM Solution. Now, the questions still remain... Can I extend the reporting component of DCM? In what ways can I extend the reporting component of DCM to get what I need? These are most often asked questions. Hence I planned to post this to the blog! :-)

 

Well, the DCM Solution is extensible when it comes to reporting. Again, there are two points where you can extend the reporting capability of the Desired Configuration Monitoring Solution.

 

  • Create new SRS Reports

The DCM Reports are essentially SQL Server Reporting Services Reports. All of them are deployed to the Report Server during installation. All the reports are driven based off the data stored in the database (DCMSolution database). Having said this, you can definitely create new SQL Server Reporting Services Reports and have them deployed to the Report Server which would address your need. All the data you would need for Reporting is available in the DCMSolution database. Hence, if you want to go by this option, you can:

    1. Create a SRS report and deploy it to the Report Server
    2. Associate the SRS report with the shared data source (rds). This is already deployed to the Report Server along with the canned reports.
    3. Create a new Stored Procedure which would supply the required data to your newly created report.

Please refer to the help on SQL Server Reporting Services on how to create / deploy reports with SQL Server Reporting Services. Take caution while doing this so as not to corrupt the existing reports. Please do not alter the database structure / existing SPs cause it might not be supported by PSS.

 

  • Create SMS Reports

The DCM WMI Classes (DCMClass and DCMInComplianceClass) which are collected during the SMS hardware inventory would show up in the Resource Exporer in the SMS Administrator Console. Hence, you can also create custom SMS reports based on the classes available in the resource explorer. Please refer to the help on Systems Management Server 2003 on how to create SMS reports.

 

Well, I have tried to present a brief overview on the extensible points of the DCM Solution with respect to reporting. If you have further questions in this regard, let me know! Thanks.