This post will be the first in our series of Did You Know...

All of the log files associated with our Enhansoft products (Monitor Information Reporting, Warranty Information Reporting, Enhanced Web Reporting and Enhanced Network Device Discovery) are SMS Trace compliant and can be found in one of the following locations: %WINDIR%\System32\CCM\Logs folder, %WINDIR%\SysWOW64\CCM\Logs (for x64 OS) or in the temp file.

Here are your choices for Enhansoft’s next SSRS report give-away:

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or

Component Health

Please register your vote at:

http://support.enhansoft.com/Forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=28

Remember that you can still request a license key for the Software Distribution Status Report - http://www.enhansoft.com/downloads/custom%20reports/softwaredistributionstatus.zip – the winning choice of the last SSRS Report give-away vote.

Enhansoft is pleased to announce that it will be attending the Microsoft Management Summit 2011 (MMS-2011) at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada from March 21 to March 25, 2011.   We hope that you will drop by Enhansoft’s booth #128 for an informative demonstration of all our product software.   Enhansoft is an industry leader in comprehensive asset reporting and custom report writing.    Enhansoft’s product software includes: Warranty Information Reporting, Monitor Information Reporting, and Enhanced Web Reporting.  All products are available either on their own or in the Enhanced Asset Management Suite. Our products have a worldwide reputation for extending and enhancing Microsoft technologies by leveraging Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr / SCCM) & Systems Management Server (SMS) technologies to extend their asset information and reporting capabilities.  For more information on Enhansoft products please visit our website www.Enhansoft.com.  More information on MMS-2011 may be obtained at www.mms-2011.com.

Here are your choices for Enhansoft’s next SSRS report give-away:

Advertisement Home

or

Component Health

Please register your vote at:

http://support.enhansoft.com/Forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=28

Remember that you can still request a license key for the Software Distribution Status Report - http://www.enhansoft.com/downloads/custom%20reports/softwaredistributionstatus.zip – the winning choice of the last SSRS Report give-away vote.

Enhansoft has created many reports and we keep report layout in mind. To this end, we have several guidelines that we use when creating reports.

• Use a standard page size
• Provide a minimum of ¼ inch for margin all the way around
• Use a footer
• Note the date and time the report
• Note the Page numbers
• Highlight alternating lines
• Allow tables to be sorted by any column

We make an effort to ensure that all Enhansoft SSRS reports will print on standard page sizes. Each Enhansoft report is designed to be printout on one of the following page formats:

• 8.5 inches by 11 inches
• 11 inches by 8.5 inches
• 14 inches by 8.5 inches

Of course with our custom reports, we will design the reports to suit the client‘s preferences.

How can I create a report using a SQL query provided by Enhansoft or that I find on a blog. (Like the personal blog of Garth Jones, the Chief Architect of Enhansoft.)

· Within the ConfigMgr Console, Browse to Site Database | Computer Management | Reporting | Reports

· In the left pane, right click the Reports node

· Point to New

· Click Report

· In the New Report Wizard, fill in details for:

o Report name

o Category

· Click Edit SQL statement…

· Remove contents of the SQL statement: text box

· Paste the query provided into the SQL Statement:

· Click OK

· On the Display window, click Next >

· On the Links window, click Next >

· On the Security window, click Next >

· On the Wizard Complete window, click Close

Enhansoft is pleased to announce that Monitor Information Reporting (MIR) now includes SQL Server Report Services (SSRS) reports. Moving forward all new reports created for MIR will included SSRS reports.

SQL Reporting Services in Configuration Manager 2007 R2 enables administrators to use the advanced reporting features of SSRS. Some of the advantages of using SSRS are:

· Report subscriptions by allowing report to be e-mailed on a schedule.

· Cleaner user interface

· Allows for reports to be exported to various file formats such as PDF and Excel.

· Allows for graphics and data to be intermixed within reports.

To see samples of all the reports available, please see http://support.enhansoft.com/wiki/mir%20-%20ssrs.ashx

Sample report for MIR:

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, January 19, 2010--- Enhansoft Inc., a leading developer of System Center Configuration Manager solutions, was awarded Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status on January 15^th 2010. Holding the Systems Management competencies confirms Enhansoft’s commitment to Microsoft customers and technologies. 

Microsoft Gold Certified Partners have access to exclusive resources and early product information. The program includes direct access to Microsoft staff, product support, new products and technologies, and planning tools and events on the latest Microsoft product developments and future direction.

 “Our new partnership provides us greater access to the Microsoft System Center team. Our dedication to providing the best solutions and support in the industry has paid off. ”

Garth Jones

Chief Architect

About Enhansoft Inc.

Enhansoft, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, specializes in providing software solutions and consulting services within the system management area focusing on Microsoft System Center products. Maximize the potential of your systems, the productivity of the company workforce and, best of all, the impact on the bottom line.

Our products have a worldwide reputation for extending and enhancing Microsoft technologies by leveraging Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr / SCCM) & Systems Management Server (SMS) technologies to extend their asset information and reporting capabilities.

Enhansoft professional services bring together a deep product knowledge of system management focused on Microsoft System Center products.

Our Clients Benefit From:

Our Focus

We specialize in the system management area, focusing on Microsoft System Center products with an emphasis on asset management.

Our Experience

The team at Enhansoft combines real-world system management experience with high-level programming expertise to design software that is easy to implement and has an immediate impact on workload and company bottom line.

Our professional services team helps customers realize value within their system management environment. Many of our consultants have more than 10 years of experience within system management area, are leaders in their respective IT communities and user groups, and have presented at such conferences as Microsoft Management Summit, Techdays, and EnergizeIT.

Our Expertise

Our products and services are designed for ConfigMgr experts by ConfigMgr experts.

From global corporations to institutes of higher learning and public school systems, to global government agencies, Enhansoft has the software and expertise to help any organization realize the long-term efficiencies and cost savings associated with asset management. Our headquarters are located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada with remotes offices in Chicago, Illinois. We leverage hands-on experience, as well as client feedback to continually refine our products. We also work with a network of partners — including software resellers and consulting firms — who recommend our products, service and expertise to their own clients.

http://www.enhansoft.com/

On a regular base Enhansoft is asked how Monitor Information Reporting (MIR) compares to the community monitor scripts. So we thought that we would compare MIR to a few of the existing scripts. Throughout this white paper we will try to provide a fair comparison.

Download the Whitepaper below:

We are pleased to announce the beta of Monitor Information Reporting v3.

As a participant in this beta, you will receive a 4-month license for MIR v3 and will help shape the final release of MIR v3. To participate in this private beta, please contact support@enhansoft.com and we will send you a license key and link to the MIR v3 setup program.  

During the beta program Enhansoft will send out surveys to participants to help guide us with future releases of MIR v3. Support can be obtained by posting issues within support forum http://support.enhansoft.com/Forum/  or contacting support@enhansoft.com 

What is new in MIR v3:

·         Interface changes to provide a better listing of monitors

o   Minor changes to layout

o   Removed Default Monitor data

o   Filtered out truly duplicated monitors.

·         Option to scrub monitor data and allow for a fresh start

·         Capture native pixel format data

·         Capture monitor power option data

·         Update the active monitor status

·         Calculated serial numbers

·         Even more detailed logging.

Interface

Based on feedback we have simplified the interface.

Scrubbing monitor data

Removing old monitor data from a PC can be a tedious process as demonstrated by the blog poston how to manually clean up monitor data. MIR v3 allows you to remove this data either by using an option within the MIR GUI found under tools menu or by using a command line switch “/Scrub”.

It is important to note that a reboot is required to repopulate the monitor data, otherwise you will see the following message displayed. MIR v.3 will NOT force the reboot of a system once the scrub command has been executed.

Native pixel format

The Native Pixel format also called Preferred Timing Mode or default resolution has been added. This allows an Administrator to determine if a monitor is blurriness’s caused by incorrectly setting the native pixel format.  With most PCs now having liquid crystal display (LCD), most LCD flat panel monitor users do not realize that operating their monitor in a resolution other than the native resolution negatively impacts the performance of their flat panel monitor. Unlike cathode ray tube (CRT) displays, the liquid crystal display panel used in flat panel monitors has a fixed, predefined pixel format over a set area. A fixed pixel format means that if the native resolution of the LCD panel is 1,024 x 768, there are exactly 1,024 pixels in each horizontal line and 768 pixels in each vertical line or 786,432 total pixels. When a PC’s resolution is set to the native pixel format, this allows for a 1:1 ratio and yields the best results. When the non-native resolution such as the 800 x 600 is displayed on a 1024 x 768 native resolution monitor scaling occurs. Scaling adjusts the image to fill the entire monitor screen. This results in manipulation of pixels to fill the screen, but the manipulation may cause text and images to appear blurry.  There is no good way to show a non-native resolution on a fixed matrix display. 

Monitor Power option

What are the 4 monitor power management options and what do they mean?

The 4 options are: 

From these options we can see that a significant power saving can be achieved just by ensuring that all monitors have suspend mode and are set up to use it. For more details please see the blog post entitled “Monitor Power Management Options”

Update the Active monitor status

Within the previous screenshot for the interface section you will notice within the Active Monitor section that the HP monitor is “Marked Active”, but if you look at the screenshot below you will see that the Samsung is “Active”. You might ask yourself why have we added this feature. The answer is simple: we have determine that there are cases when a monitor is “Marked Active” when in fact is it not active. Until now, there was no way to determine this if a monitor was truly active, let alone clean up this issue. MIR v3 solved this issue in two ways, First for Vista , Windows 7 and Windows 2008 we can determine the truly active monitors; those will be set as “Active”, and other monitors will marked appropriately. Secondly, we have provided mechanisms to scrub the existing monitor data, which allows for this data to be cleaned up and the correct data to be displayed. See the scrub section for more detail.

Active Monitor States:

Active – This monitor is truly active (Vista, Window 7, Windows 2008 only)

Marked Active – This monitor is marked as active but could be a false positive (Active state for Windows XP and Windows 2003)

Non-Active – this monitor is not active

Calculated serial numbers

Based on the standards for monitors, the maximum serial number length is 13 characters. However many monitor manufacturers have serial numbers greater than 13 characters.  This leaves the question: how can I determine what is the right serial number for a given monitor?

Through a number of processes we have been able to expand the functionally of MIR to help determine the correct serial number and in some cases even provide almost all of the serial number for some manufacturers. The following screenshots illustrate this.

Notice the following for each screenshot:

We will be expanding this feature to included more Calculated Serial numbers as we confirm details for each model. Please feel free to pass along any details to help expand this feature. We require a copy of the EDID for the monitor and physical serial number as displayed on the monitor.

System Management Server 2003

MIR v3 is fully backwards compatible with SMS 2003, however the setup program is designed only for ConfigMgr, therefore will not install correctly on SMS 2003. If you require manual installation instructions, please review the MIR v2 documentation as it still applies. If you need additional assistance please contact support.

Troubleshooting:

To aid in troubleshooting, please provide us  with the following details:

MIR

·         A description of the issue that is occurring

·         Export of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\DISPLAY

·         MIR.log, generally found with the ConfigMgr client logs.

·         Physical serial number of monitor as displayed (optional but recommend)

MIR Setup

·         A description of the issue that is occurring

·         MIR_setup.log, generally found with the ConfigMgr client logs; in some cases it will be within the %temp% directory

·         A description  of your environment: please include Windows version(2003/2008/2008 R2) (x86/x64), ConfigMgr version, SQL version (2005 / 2008) and location (Local to site server or remote)