One of the significant enhancements to Management Reporter is support for a multi-tiered architecture.  In Management Reporter, the client, server, and database can all reside on separate physical machines.  The Management Reporter server is comprised of two components: the application service and the process service.  The application service handles authentication and access to data within Management Reporter, whereas the process service generates reports which are created and queued by the Management Reporter clients.

The following post will provide a walkthrough of installing and configuring the Management Reporter server.  With my configuration, I ended up with 12 steps total.  Depending on the options selected during install, you may have more or less.

Step 1 License Terms

Pretty straightforward here....you must agree to the license terms.

Step 2 Customize Installation

You can select to install just the application service, just the process service, or both services simultaneously.  If the application service is selected, you will also have the option of installing the Management Reporter database.

Step 3 Configure Service Account

You must specify the account under which the services will run.  In my example, I simply used my own domain account, although you may prefer to use a different account.  If you enter a specific account, you will have to provide the password for that domain account.

Step 4 Select New or Existing Database

Since I am installing the application service, I must either create a new database or connect to an existing database.  For this example, I will create a new database.

Step 5 Create Database

If you decide to create the database, you will have to specify the database server and authentication method to be used to create the database.

Step 6 Configure Database Master Key

The installation will require you to enter a password which will be used to encrypt sensitive data in the SQL Server database.  Do not lose or forget this password.

Step 7 Configure Database Connection

The next step configures how the Mangement Reporter services will access the Management Reporter database.

Step 8 Specify Management Reporter Administrator

During the install, one administrator user will be created for Management Reporter.  Specify the user who will be the first administrator.  This user will then be able to add additional users after the application installed.

Step 9 Configure Application Service

The application service runs within IIS, therefore it needs to be configured to use a port number.  The default port is 4712.  To change this, enter a different port number.  The Management Reporter installation can optionally open the firewall for this port.

Step 10 Ready to Install

Once all of the steps have been completed, click "Install".

Step 11 Installing Management Reporter

The installation will communicate progress and may take longer if the database is being installed.

Step 12 Application Service and Process Service are installed

After the server installation completes, you will be able to verify the application service and process service have both been installed.  In the Server Manager, navigate to the sites under IIS and you should be able to find Management Reporter.  Selecting the option titled "Application Pool" will also show a Management Reporter application pool.

In the Services window, there will now be a new service titled "Management Reporter Process Service".