Dell Knowledge Portal Product Overview

Transcription

1 Dell Knowledge Portal 2.8.4

2 2015 Dell Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This guide contains proprietary information protected by copyright. The software described in this guide is furnished under a software license or nondisclosure agreement. This software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the applicable agreement. No part of this guide may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the purchaser s personal use without the written permission of Dell Software Inc. The information in this document is provided in connection with Dell Software products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual property right is granted by this document or in connection with the sale of Dell Software products. EXCEPT AS SET FORTH IN DELL SOFTWARE S TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS SPECIFIED IN THE LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR THIS PRODUCT, DELL SOFTWARE ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER AND DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTY RELATING TO ITS PRODUCTS INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL DELL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF INFORMATION) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS DOCUMENT, EVEN IF DELL SOFTWARE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. Dell Software makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this document and reserves the right to make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time without notice. Dell Software does not make any commitment to update the information contained in this document. If you have any questions regarding your potential use of this material, contact: Dell Software Inc. Attn: LEGAL Dept 5 Polaris Way Aliso Viejo, CA Refer to our web site ( for regional and international office information. Trademarks Dell and the Dell logo are trademarks of Dell Inc.and/or its affiliates. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Legend CAUTION: A CAUTION icon indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if instructions are not followed. WARNING: A WARNING icon indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. IMPORTANT NOTE, NOTE, TIP, MOBILE, or VIDEO: An information icon indicates supporting information. Dell Knowledge Portal Updated - November 2015 Software Version

3 Contents Dell Knowledge Portal: Smart Reporting for Auditing and Policy Compliance 5 Key Features 6 What's New in Dell Knowledge Portal Dell Rebranding 7 Windows Server 2012 R2 Support 7 Port to.net Framework Support for ASP.NET New in Dell Knowledge Portal Windows Server 2012 Support 8 SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services Support 8 New in Quest Knowledge Portal Dashboard Reports 9 SQL Server 2008 R2 Support 9 Setup Enhancements 9 Advanced Reporting Services Detection 9 Configurable Reporting Services Timeout 9 Port to.net Framework New in Quest Knowledge Portal Subscription Management 11 Windows 2008 R2 Support 11 Internet Explorer 8 Support 11 Administrative Reports 11 Supplying Filter Values from a File 12 New in Quest Knowledge Portal My Reports Folder 13 SQL Server 2008 Support 13 Quick Data Source Switch per Report 13 Organize Reports Dialog Enhancements 13 Security Management Improvement 14 Performance Improvement 14 Scenario for Reports Delivery to SharePoint How It Works 15 About Dell 17 3

4 Contacting Dell Inc. 17 Technical support resources 17 4

5 Dell Knowledge Portal: Smart Reporting for Auditing and Policy Compliance Dell Knowledge Portal provides a single, unified reporting platform for a variety of Dell products. The Portal facilitates scheduled and ad hoc reporting, enabling complete business views into IT at both a summary and a granular level. Several Report Packs for the Knowledge Portal were designed to help you analyze data collected by Dell products; they will provide you with valuable information you can use to establish proper baselines and track the business-critical processes, including: Configuration Management Incident Management Problem Management Security Management Storage Management Change Management 5

6 Key Features Single Point of View: Knowledge Portal integrates, analyzes, and reports on data from heterogeneous sources to give you a single business view into your IT environment. Smart Reporting: Predefined reports for Dell products were designed with expert knowledge, offering a variety of filters so you can get exactly the information you need. Many reports allow drill-down to increased detail. Customizable Reports, Views, and Distribution: You can customize the fields in predefined reports and specify the sort order for them. Besides, you can start Report Builder right from the Portal and use predefined models to create your own reports. Also, you can set up subscriptions so that users receive updated reports via or through a file share. Secure Access: Users must authenticate into the Portal when they log on. Once logged in, users can view only the reports and associated data for which they have been assigned access rights. Easy Deployment: Authenticated users can access the reports from anywhere in the world because the Knowledge Portal is Web-based; no applications other than Microsoft Internet Explorer browser need to be installed on a desktop to view the reports. Enhanced Report Management: You can quickly and easily organize your reports and folders, modify report properties, export and import reports, and search through reports. Enhanced Data Source Management: You can easily configure your data sources during the setup, and then use a friendly wizard to change their settings. To avoid excessive database size growth, you can periodically remove temporary tables from the databases assigned to your data sources. For that, you can schedule a special Temporary Tables Clean-Up job for the data source you need. 6

7 What's New in Dell Knowledge Portal 2.8 Dell Rebranding In this release, Quest Knowledge Portal is rebranded to Dell Knowledge Portal. Windows Server 2012 R2 Support Dell Knowledge Portal 2.8 provides support for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2012 R2. Port to.net Framework 4.0 Knowledge Portal is now powered exclusively by.net 4.0. If version 4.0 of the framework is installed, earlier versions are no longer additionally required. Support for ASP.NET 4.0 From this version, Knowledge Portal uses ASP.NET

8 New in Dell Knowledge Portal 2.7 Windows Server 2012 Support Quest Knowledge Portal 2.7 provides support for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Server SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services Support Quest Knowledge Portal 2.7 supports SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services reporting engine. 8

9 New in Quest Knowledge Portal 2.6 Dashboard Reports You can now view reports of the dashboard type in Knowledge Portal. Dashboard reports are an easy way to get a visual summary of the state of the environment and quickly drill down to specific areas of interest. Dashboard reports require regular snapshots for correct and up-to date data presentation. The Schedule dashboard update option lets you quickly configure the snapshot schedule. SQL Server 2008 R2 Support Version 2.6 of Knowledge Portal fully supports the following: SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services reporting engine Data sources associated with SQL Server 2008 R2 databases Setup Enhancements Advanced Reporting Services Detection During Knowledge Portal setup, available Reporting Services deployments are detected automatically. You just need to select the option you need from the list, rather than specify the Reporting Services URL manually. Configurable Reporting Services Timeout During installation, you have the option of specifying a custom timeout value for Reporting Services connection attempts. This is helpful if you are working with reports that contain a lot of data. 9

10 Port to.net Framework 3.5 Knowledge Portal is now powered exclusively by.net 3.5. If version 3.5 of the framework is installed, earlier versions are no longer additionally required. 10

11 New in Quest Knowledge Portal 2.5 Subscription Management Microsoft SQL Reporting Services provides a rather inconvenient interface for creating report subscriptions. A subscription is a request to deliver a report at a specific time and present the report the way you specify. For example, you cannot subscribe to a number of reports at once; you need to create a separate subscription for each report. With Quest Knowledge Portal 2.5, you can use the New Subscription Wizard to easily schedule and automate report delivery by creating a report subscription. The wizard guides you through the following steps: Specify the name for the new subscription Specify the report delivery method and its options Specify the schedule for the new subscription Specify the reports and filters for them in the subscription Windows 2008 R2 Support Quest Knowledge Portal 2.5 provides support for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008 R2. Internet Explorer 8 Support Unlike the previous version of the product, Quest Knowledge Portal 2.5 introduces support for Internet Explorer 8. Administrative Reports With Quest Knowledge Portal 2.5, you can audit access activity to determine who has accessed which Quest Knowledge Portal reports, as well as when and how the access took place. The following reports are available: Report Usage Statistics This report helps you monitor which Quest Knowledge Portal reports were processed within a specified time period. Report Usage Statistics with Users This report lets a security administrator track report execution initiated by a certain user within a specified period of time. 11

12 Supplying Filter Values from a File Quest Knowledge Portal has always allowed report filters to accept values from a specified input file in *.txt format. Version 2.5 introduces a user-friendly interface for this feature: next to each multiple-value filter is a button that calls the interface to supply a path to the file containing filter values. 12

13 New in Quest Knowledge Portal 2.0 My Reports Folder In Quest Knowledge Portal 2.0 the SSRS native folder named "My Reports" is displayed in the report tree. This personal folder, visible only to its owner, provides each user with a personal workspace in the Portal where he or she can set up reports for personal use, or experiment with them before publishing them for common use. The "My Reports" folder is also available in the Organize Reports dialog (which enables users to re-arrange reports and folders), and in the Property Manager Wizard. Besides, users can quickly copy any report selected to their "My Reports" folder using the "Add to My Reports" command. SQL Server 2008 Support Quest Knowledge Portal 2.0 supports the following: SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services reporting engine Data sources associated with SQL Server 2008 databases Quick Data Source Switch per Report This new feature allows users to run the same report against different data sources (for example, daily, weekly and monthly data collections). To assign a data source to a report, use the "Change Data Source" menu command. The list of data sources available for the selected report (there may be multiple data sources for one report). Select a data source and click "OK". If a report has links to subreports, you can also review and re-assign the datasources for those subreports. Organize Reports Dialog Enhancements With Quest Knowledge Portal 2.0, users will not have to open this dialog each time they are to organize their own report folder structure, but can invoke it once and make all the necessary changes. The entire report tree (with the focus on the current folder) is shown in the target structure pane (instead of only showing the current folder). To place a report or folder to desired location, select the source and target folders and click the "Copy to" button. The "Organize Reports" interface also introduces an option to duplicate subreports of those reports that are to be copied. Refer to the Knowledge Portal User Guide for details on working with subreports. 13

14 Security Management Improvement To provide users with Read access to all QKP reports, or a folder or a subset of folders with reports within the QKP folder structure, you can use Property Manager Wizard (with no need to open SSRS Report Manager for additional security configuration of the Home folder). Performance Improvement Expanding a report tree node is now faster, and the 1-3 seconds delay you might have experienced while navigating through the report hierarchy has been eliminated. Scenario for Reports Delivery to SharePoint 2007 You can provide your authorized SharePoint 2007 users with the reports they need. For that, the following scenario is recommended: 1. Configure delivery of attachments to the Document Library on your SharePoint Set up subscriptions to the desired reports in SSRS, specifying as the delivery method. Reports will be generated automatically on schedule, sent via as the attachments to the specified SMTP address, and kept in the Document Library. Refer to the Knowledge Portal User Guide for details. 14

15 How It Works Dell Knowledge Portal architecture is shown in the figure below. The following are the components shown in the figure: 1. Product database a SQL Server database storing data collected by a product (such as InTrust or Enterprise Reporter); reports are generated on that data and RDL files (report definitions) 2. SSRS DB Reporting Services database storing information required for reporting (for example,.rdl files defining the report structure) 3. SSRS Web Service the main service that is responsible for report generation and delivery 4. SSRS GUI Report Manager, a component of Reporting Services that provides for configuration of reporting process (delivery options, scheduling and so on) and report management (filtering, properties configuration and so on) 5. Dell Knowledge Portal (DKP) a Web application designed to simplify report management tasks, providing a user-friendly interface and enhanced functionality (for example, arrangement of reports and folders, applying properties to multiple reports at once). In fact, this is an add-in for SSRS; for some tasks, users are redirected to the SSRS GUI (exploring filtering parameters, changing data source name and so on). Reports and other predefined product-specific objects are brought in by Report Packs. 6. Browser Client Microsoft Internet Explorer used on the client computers to work with Knowledge Portal Knowledge Portal operation consists of the following: 1. Browser client interacts with the Knowledge Portal interface: a user connects to the Knowledge Portal, selects a report to open, and clicks View Report. 2. Knowledge Portal web application sends a request to SSRS web service for this, an appropriate SSRS role is required for the account under which the Knowledge Portal is running. NOTE: In some cases, for example, to manage access rights for the reports, client is redirected to Report Manager. 15

16 3. The SSRS Web service accesses the database, gets the required data, fills in the report fields, and returns the generated report to the Knowledge Portal web application to be finally displayed to the end user. 4. Ready reports are delivered to users through scheduled subscriptions (sent by , or stored to a file share) Depending on your environment, you can select DKP deployment scenario that suits you in the best way. For example, you can use SSRS currently installed in your network, and install Knowledge Portal to the same computer, while product database will reside on a dedicated SQL Server. To learn about possible deployment scenarios and related considerations, refer to the Installation Guide. 16

17 About Dell Dell listens to customers and delivers worldwide innovative technology, business solutions and services they trust and value. For more information, visit Contacting Dell Inc. Technical Support: Online Support Product Questions and Sales: (800) Technical support resources Technical support is available to customers who have purchased Dell software with a valid maintenance contract and to customers who have trial versions. To access the Support Portal, go to The Support Portal provides self-help tools you can use to solve problems quickly and independently, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In addition, the portal provides direct access to product support engineers through an online Service Request system. The site enables you to: Create, update, and manage Service Requests (cases) View Knowledge Base articles Obtain product notifications Download software. For trial software, go to Trial Downloads. View how-to videos Engage in community discussions Chat with a support engineer 17