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Deploying ACS and ACS Reporting

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager, System Center 2012 - Operations Manager, System Center 2012 SP1 - Operations Manager

In System Center 2012 – Operations Manager, Audit Collection Services (ACS) provides a means to collect records generated by an audit policy and store them in a centralized database. Using ACS, organizations can consolidate individual Security logs into a centrally managed database and can filter and analyze events using the data analysis and reporting tools provided by Microsoft SQL Server. For more information, see Collecting Security Events Using Audit Collection Services in Operations Manager 2012

Audit Collection Services (ACS) reporting can be installed in two configurations.

  • A supported version of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) instance with Operations Manager Reporting already installed. A benefit of this is the ability to view ACS Reports in the Operations console.

  • An SSRS instance without Operations Manager Reporting installed.

The installation procedures for ACS Reporting do not differ, but the application of access control is different. By deploying ACS Reporting on the same SQL Server Reporting Services instance as your Operations Manager Reporting, the same role-based security applies to all reports. This means that ACS Reporting users need to be assigned to the Operations Manager Report Operator Role to access the ACS reports.

In addition to membership in the Operations Manager Reporting Role, ACS report users must also be assigned db_datareader role on the ACS database (OperationsManagerAC) to run ACS reports. This requirement is independent of the presence of Operations Manager Reporting

If you choose to install ACS Reporting independently of Operations Manager Reporting, you can also use SSRS security to secure the reports. For more information, see the SQL Server Books Online tutorial Tutorial: Setting Permissions in Reporting Services.

Preparing for installation

Deploy ACS as described in the following topics prior to installing ACS Reporting.

Before you start

  1. A management server for your management group must be installed and ACS must be configured on the management server. For more information, see Collecting Security Events Using Audit Collection Services in Operations Manager.

  2. An instance of a supported version of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services must be installed on the target computer.

  3. During the procedure, you need to be logged on as member of Operations Manager Report Operator user role.

  4. IIS must be installed on the hosting system. IIS will have already been installed if you are co-locating with a Reporting server.

  5. You need to have access to the ACS database.

  6. You need the Operations Manager installation media.

The following content will help you install ACS on a secondary management server, and install ACS Reporting.