How data is collected

When you set up the Remote Desktop administrator computer for the first time using the setup assistant, a default reporting policy is created, defining what types of data are collected, and when.

Each time you add a computer, you can choose to use the default reporting policy for the computer by selecting the “Apply default offline reporting policy” checkbox. However, if the computer has an existing Remote Desktop reporting policy, the administrator’s reporting policy is ignored.

• To change the administrator’s default reporting policy, choose Remote Desktop > Preferences, then click Reporting.

• To change the reporting policy for a client computer, select the computer, choose File > Get Info, then click Reporting. (To set the policy for multiple computers, select all the computers, then choose File > Get Info.)

You can create a custom reporting policy for client computers. A custom reporting policy allows you to collect data from some clients on a separate schedule, or to enable or disable the collection of specific types of data for those clients.

For information about setting the reporting policy, see Generate report data automatically.

Where reporting data is stored

You can choose where reporting data is stored:

• Store it on the Remote Desktop administrator’s computer (this is the default).

• Install Remote Desktop on a computer and configure it as a Task Server. You can use the Task Server to collect reports or install packages on computers that are offline as soon as they rejoin the network, and to track computers that have dynamic IP addresses.

If you use a Task Server to collect reports, the reporting data is stored in the Task Server’s SQL (Structured Query Language) database.

For information, see Configure a remote Task Server and Use a Task Server to create reports.

When reporting data is collected

If the default reporting policy is enabled, report data is collected each day at 12:00 a.m. However, for each computer, you can create a custom schedule for when reporting data is collected. For example, you can choose to schedule data collection only on the days you generate the reports.

For information, see Generate report data automatically.

Bandwidth considerations

Generating new report data has low impact on the client’s CPU. Your network bandwidth speeds might be affected if all your clients are sending reporting data at the same time. Here are ways you can reduce the impact on network bandwidth:

• Set different schedules for collecting reporting data for different groups of computers.

• Disable system data collection on clients where you don’t need system data. System data is needed for the Network Interfaces report and the Network Test report. Because clients must poll their network for total number of network interface connections, data collection for these reports has the highest impact on your network bandwidth.