Load Data

Aug 14, 2017

To use the Organization Reports feature, which shows the status of managed applications by division or department (for example), you must first load your Active Directory (AD) and System Center Configuration Manager data into AppDNA.

The AppDNA Load AD and ConfigMgr Data wizard provides options to load data directly or indirectly from AD and Configuration Manager. The indirect option involves downloading a tool that can be run remotely from AppDNA – for example, a Configuration Manager administrator can run it on the Configuration Manager server. This is useful when you do not have the required credentials to do this from the AppDNA machine.

AppDNA extracts the AD and Configuration Manager data using a read-only API, which means that it does not change the data in AD or Configuration Manager.

When extracting data from Active Directory, you select the organizational units that you want to load into AppDNA. AppDNA automatically extracts and subsequently loads into the AppDNA database all of the associated AD groups, users, and computers, and the deployment information for any applications that have been deployed through AD to those entities. If you want to extract data from multiple domains (for example, all of the domains that belong to a forest), you need to run through the wizard for each domain.

When extracting data from Configuration Manager, you have the choice to automatically extract all of the relevant changes since the last extraction or to select the packages and applications (individually or in batches) that you want to load. This extracts and loads the selected packages and applications and all of the associated Configuration Manager collections, users, and computers, along with the deployment information. If a package or application that has been deleted is included, AppDNA removes the corresponding Configuration Manager data from the AppDNA database. However, AppDNA retains the associated application if it has been imported into AppDNA while removing any links to the deleted Configuration Manager entities.

Note:

  • For best results, load both Active Directory and Configuration Manager data into AppDNA. Typically Active Directory provides rich data about organizational structure and Configuration Manager provides data about applications that are managed centrally.
  • Extracting data from a large Configuration Manager site can take a considerable amount of time. The more users and devices there are, the longer the process takes. When extracting data from large Configuration Manager sites, Citrix recommends that you extract the data in batches of 2,000 applications or packages (or a mixture of both) and run the extraction overnight. (In this context, a large Configuration Manager site is one that has a total of more than 5,000 packages and applications, and/or more than 50,000 users or computers.)