How To Install Management Reporter — Server

Microsoft Dynamics GPYesterday, I posted the first in a series of posts on how to install management reporter; how to install Management Reporter – Prerequisites. Today I’ll cover the server side of the installation.

The first step is to download the installation packages; Microsoft Dynamics Management Reporter SP1 (Full Install) and Management Reporter Service Pack 2 October Update (PartnerSource or CustomerSource login required).

The server configuration I am using is four separate servers, all running Windows Server 2008 R2, but could easily be installed on one machine, or virtual machine, for use as a test system;

  • Domain Controller (DC1) running the ideal domain (a slight departure from my usual azurecurve) on
  • SQL Server (SQL1)
  • Reporting Server (RPT1)
  • Terminal Server (TS1)

The server installation is done on which the same machine that the prerequisites were installed upon; the Reporting Server (RPT1). Run the SP1 respun installer and select Management Reporter Server;

Management Reporter Setup

Accept the License Agreement;

Management Reporter Setup - Microsoft Software License Terms

Ensure all services are selected on the Customize Installation step;

Management Reporter Setup - Customize Installation

At the Configure Service Account stage you have thee options for installing Management Reporter (Custom account, NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE and NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE);

Management Reporter Setup - Configure Service Account

When installing Management Reporter it is always advisable to install it with a Custom Account, but when making a demo system I often just use the NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE account; in this instance I have a domain user, IDEAL\DynamicsGPUser;

Management Reporter Setup - Configure Service Account

This is a new installation of Management Reporter so select Create a new database;

Management Reporter Setup - Select New or Existing Database

As mentioned at the start of the post I have a separate SQL Server in this system so I entered the SQL database server name SQL1 (although if I had a CNAME DNS Alias configured for GPLIVE I should have used that instead) along with the sa username and password;

Management Reporter Setup - Create Database

Check the database connection details;

Management Reporter Setup - Configure Database Connection

For the Management Reporter Administrator I re-used the Service Account user but this could be any user within your organistion; I would generally advise that a ‘special’ user be used for this rather than someone from within your organisation. After all, this person may leave but creating, for example, a ReportingAdministrator user avoids this potential issue;

Management Reporter Setup - Specify Management Reporter Administrator

Next a Web Application Port needs to be specified. This wil default to 4712 but can be changed (ensure the selected port is open in the Windows Firewall);

Management Reporter Setup - Configure Application Service

Unfortunately, there is no confirmation step showing all selections just a step to click Install;

Management Reporter Setup - Ready to Install Management Reporter

Once Management Reporter has finished installing you’ll see the following;

Management Reporter Setup - Completed Management Reporter Server

Which means it is time to install Management Reporter SP2. Run the setup and select Management Reporter Server;

Management Reporter for Microsoft Dynamics ERP Service Pack 2

Confirm the upgrade of Management Reporter from 2.0.1663.3 to 2.0.1700.31;

Management Reporter Setup - Install Management Reporter Update

Fill in the details for the database server (the same details as in the original SP1 respun install);

Management Reporter Setup - Update Database

And confirm the update should be installed;

Management Reporter Setup - Ready to Install Update

Once the update has successfully installed a confimration will be displyed;

Management Reporter Setup - Completed Management Reporter update

The final stage of installing the server component of Management Reporter is to install the Microsoft Dynamics ERP Data Provider » Dynamics GP 2010. To do this you do not need to install the SP1 provider and upgrade it, you only need to run the Management Reporter SP2 setup (if you have previously installed the SP1 data provider you should uninstall it before installing the SP2 version);

Management Reporter Setup for Microsoft Dynamics ERP SP2 Setup

If they are not present the Dexterity Shared Components 11 x64 will be installed (the standard Microsoft Dynamics GP Dexterity Shared Components 11 are the x86 version);

Microsoft Dynamcis ERP Management Reporter GP 11.0 Prerequisites

Confirm acceptance of the License Agreement;

Microsoft Dynamics ERP Management Reporter GP 11.0 Provider Setup - License Agreement

Microsoft Dynamics ERP Management Reporter GP 11.0 Provider Setup Complete

Once installed successfully a confirmation dialog will be displayed and the server side installation of Management Reporter is completed.

Tomorrow I will be back with another post covering the client side of the installation.

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14 thoughts on “How To Install Management Reporter — Server

  1. Jay Hari says:

    Hello,
    With regards to installing Management Reporter 2012. Is it a definate requirement that the SQL SERVER has to reside on the same domain as the application server?
    I ask this because the client has a hosted environment where they have a dedicated application server, however, the SQL server is shared with other clients and the SQL Server is not on the same domain where the application server is.

    Regards,

    Jay

    1. Ian Grieve says:

      Hi Jay,

      I’ve never tried and I also haven’t seen anything discussing using Management Reporter where the report server is on one domain and the SQL server on a different one.

      I’m tempted to say that it won;t work because the MR installer validates the user accounts used in the install process before allowing you to continue. And I believe it will validate only against the domain you’re logged into.

      However, I am not a AD expert. I have seen people discuss moving MR to a new domain and do so by creating a trust relationship between the two domains so the new domain’s administrator user can be added to MR. Assuming this does work, then you can possibly use the same methods during install to use a SQL server on a different domain.

      Unfortunately, as I say, I have never tried to do this so it may be one to have a go at. If you do try please keep me updated with progress and I’ll do what I can to help.

      Ian

  2. Bharat says:

    Hi,

    Can you install Management Reporter on separate server with SQL Server 2008 while GP 2010 Server/Database is on a separate server??

    Are there any downside of such architecture??

    -Bharat

  3. Sunday Otaiku says:

    How can i uninstall Management Reporter 2012?

    Please Help me…

    1. Ian Grieve says:

      Management Reporter can be uninstalled via the Programs and Features control panel applet and the database deleted; this would be a total removal of the product.

  4. Jay Campey says:

    Is there any way to pull this off WITHOUT an on-premise domain?
    We are trying to migrate to full Azure using Intune as our MDM and no more on-premise footprint.
    Our SQL server is a local Windows 10 workstation, and while it would be a neat idea to simply hack in the Windows SID in the Reporting.SecurityServer data table, it doesn’t work that way.

    1. Ian Grieve says:

      Hi Jay,

      MR validates users against Active Directory when they launch it, so a domain is a hard requirement for running MR.

      You can have a domain controller running on an Azure server, but I think this would be the only way to get it working.

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