Reporting in Configuration Manager 2012 has changed almost completely from its previous versions. The output, while informative, was criticized in Configuration Manager 2007; however, you could take advantage of reporting services in Configuration Manager 2007.
In Configuration Manager 2012, the reporting now takes full advantage of SQL Reporting Services (SSRS). This means that your reports are more feature rich and the graphics you produce will be much more detailed.
In this chapter, we will follow a real-world reporting example from data that we are collecting as part of inventory and looking to expose in some custom reports in Configuration Manager. We will cover:
An introduction to Report Builder
Creating custom reports
Creating custom charts
Using report subscriptions