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The main issues you would encounter when running a report, aside from creating the wrong query statement, involve security. It's important to remember that for someone to run a report, they must have access permission to the SMS Administrator Console, the folder containing the query (such as the Queries, Reports, or Status Message Queries folders), and the database information the query is searching for; otherwise, the query will fail. As mentioned, you'll learn more about security in Chapter 16.

The other "gotcha" pertinent to this chapter involves Crystal Info and comes from the Microsoft Systems Management Server Version 2.0 Service Pack 1 Release Notes (which by now you've discovered contain a wealth of useful information of the "gotcha" variety). This tool has a built-in limitation. If your site will have more than 500 clients reporting data, Crystal Info will unnecessarily bog down the server, causing significant performance problems. The published workaround involves creating a separate (or new) central site that your current site will report to. On this new central site, you will install SMS 2.0 in a custom installation, selecting only Crystal Info as a component option and clearing all other component choices. Refer to the Microsoft Systems Management Server Version 2.0 Service Pack 1 Release Notes for a complete explanation of this limitation and its workaround.

A more effective workaround is to purchase the newest version of Crystal Info from Seagate Corporation. It is fully SMS-compatible and will offer you more options for creating and manipulating reports, without the same strain and overhead.

Also, like other SMS components, once you have installed Crystal Info you cannot uninstall it properly without also uninstalling SMS. It is true that you can select Crystal Info and remove it through Add\Remove Programs in the Control Panel, but once it is removed in this way it can never be reinstalled, even if you perform a site update, without first uninstalling SMS.



Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Administrator's Companion
Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Administrators Companion (IT-Administrators Companion)
ISBN: 0735608342
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 1999
Pages: 167

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