Reporting Options for SMS 2.0

Systems Management Server (SMS) version 2.0 includes an optional reporting component, Crystal Info for SMS, and several Crystal Info reports designed to provide you with useful information about your SMS site and network. SMS 2.0 is designed to utilize the comprehensive Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) framework for enterprise data, so you can use these and other tools to access the SMS Provider to obtain SMS data.

This chapter describes the following additional tools for producing reports from SMS data:

• The SMS Query Extract tool, a Microsoft Excel 97 application that is distributed on the SMS 2.0 compact disc. You can use the SMS Query Extract tool to extract the data returned from SMS queries at your site server into individual spreadsheets of an Excel workbook. This tool uses the WMI Scripting API (Application Programming Interface) to access the SMS Provider.
• Microsoft Access 97. To use Access 97 to access SMS data, you must install the WBEM ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) driver that is distributed with the WBEM SDK. You can either create links to the SMS data, or import SMS data into tables. Or, you can bypass the Access Jet database engine and use the SQL pass-through method to directly send SQL statements to the WMI ODBC driver, improving the performance of your queries.

Before reading this chapter, you should be familiar with the basics of using Excel 97 and Access 97. You should also be familiar with the material in Chapter 19 “Creating Administrative Reports” in the SMS 2.0 Administrator’s Guide. In addition, to understand the underlying class and attribute structure of WMI, you should review Appendix E “Attributes, Attribute Classes, and WBEM Class Names” in the SMS 2.0 Administrator’s Guide as well as Appendix B “SMS Object Properties” and Appendix C “Hardware Inventory Classes” of the Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0 Resource Guide. Information about WMI and WBEM can be obtained on the Web at http://www.microsoft.com/management.