When you use the Control Center console to run a report, ensure the following points:
Create a management group that only includes your report agents.
Run reports on an ad hoc basis. Do not run reports as part of a monitoring policy. You should not run the same report on more than one report agent as part of a monitoring policy.
Configure each report agent to query a single QDB data source. AppManager reports can only include data from a single QDB.
The list of discovered Knowledge Script categories under the QDB data source is up-to-date. If necessary, rediscover the report agent to update the list of Knowledge Script categories upon which you can report.
The data you want to report on is in the QDB. If you want to report on data collected by a new Knowledge Script job, make sure the job runs at least once and is configured to collect data. Not all Knowledge Scripts are configured by default to collect data.
At a minimum, configure a report to identify the data streams and time frame you want. Most reports do not have a default configuration that will generate a report.
(Conditional) If you have more than one report agent, configure the report to select the report agent with the correct QDB data source. If you attempt to run a Report Script on more than one report agent, the report runs on the first selected report agent in the Objects tab of the job Properties window.
Run reports on the report agent from a management group that you have configured to select the Master view or the Report view. If you run a report from a management group that is not configured with the Master or Report view as one of its members, you cannot see the reports in the list of available Knowledge Scripts.
Starting a report is similar to starting a Knowledge Script job. For more information, see Section 5.2, Starting a New Job.
To start a report:
In the Control Center console, expand the Enterprise Layout view of the Navigation pane to select a management group that contains the report agent you want.
Make sure the report agent is configured to report on the QDB where you want to run the report. Use the Details tab of the Server Information pane to verify the QDB with which the report agent communicates.
In the Knowledge Scripts view of the management group, click to expand the categories and browse reports.
To start a report, right-click a Report Script and click Create a new job.
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To create... |
Do this... |
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An application-specific report |
Expand a Knowledge Script category and select a report from the list. Reports are prefixed with Report_. |
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A generic report |
Expand the ReportAM category and select a report from the list. |
In the Server Selection window, select the report agent computer and click OK.
In the Properties window, select a tab to configure its properties:
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Click... |
To... |
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Schedule |
Configure the default schedule for running the report. For more information, see Section 10.3.2, Setting the Schedule. |
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Values |
Configure the parameters of the report. For information about the report, including the data source for the report and information about the configuring the parameters in the Values tab, click Help to display the Help. In most cases, you cannot use the default values. For more information, see Section 10.3.3, Setting the Report Values. |
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Actions |
Configure an action to run, for example, after the report completes successfully. You can use the Action_SMTPMailRpt Knowledge Script to email the first page of a report. The first page contains hyperlinks to the other pages in the report. To run this action, first configure the URL mapping parameter on the report agent. For information about the Action_SMTPMailRpt Knowledge Script, see the Help. |
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Objects |
Configure the report agent to run the report. For more information, see Section 10.3.4, Selecting a Report Agent to Run the Report. |
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Advanced |
Configure advanced properties. Advanced properties are not applicable to Report Scripts. |
Use the Schedule tab to set the schedule for your report.
When scheduling reports, try not to overload the report agent. The resources necessary to generate a report increase as the amount of data in each report increases, and as the complexity and number of charts increases.
Reports should be scheduled for a time of day when network traffic is lighter and when your QDBs are less busy, in order to speed the transfer of data and to maximize the SQL Server resources available to your Report Scripts.
Beyond choosing off hours, it is best to schedule small batches of reports to run consecutively (rather than simultaneously) with some amount of time between them. The time and system resources required to generate a report are directly proportional to the amount of data in that report.
By default, the report agent is configured to process up to three reports at a time. You can use the AMAdmin_ConcurrentRpt Knowledge Script to change the number of reports concurrently processed by the agent. Keep in mind that even if you are running the agent on an especially robust computer, it is not recommended to ever configure the agent to process more than five reports at a time.
Under circumstances where you are using the default configuration of the agent, you could, for example, schedule the first three reports to run at 2:00 A.M., the next three to run at 2:05 A.M., and so on. You will need to monitor how long it is taking for each report to complete so you can adjust the schedules accordingly.
To set the schedule for a report:
Display the Properties window for the Report Script job.
If the report is already running, double-click the job identifier in the Jobs tab of the Server Information pane; or select the job, right-click, and then click Properties.
Click the Schedule tab and set the report schedule.
For more information about the scheduling options, see Section 5.3, Setting the Schedule or click the Help button to display the Help.
Click another tab to change its properties or click OK to start the job.
Reports have default parameters that control how they select and display data. Typically, configure the Values tab to specify the data source and time frame.
If you do not select a data source and configure a time frame, your report will raise an event indicating there was “No data for report.”
For reports that display data in graphical format, you might also need to select a chart type. For information about selecting a chart type, see the Report Script Help.
You can configure a report with properties that can be sorted, including Author, Component, Company, and Custom Fields. For more information, see Section 10.4.1, Tips for Configuring Reports.
To set the report values:
Display the Properties dialog box for the Report Script job.
If the report is already running, double-click the job identifier in the Jobs tab of the Server Information pane; or select the job, right-click, and then click Properties.
Click the Values tab to change the default properties of the report.
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For... |
Do this... |
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Data source |
Select the data streams and time frame you want. Some reports allow you to configure the report style which determines how the first page of the report is organized, for example, by computer or data stream, and the aggregation interval. To reduce the size of the report, limit the amount of data returned by reporting on a particular data stream for a group of computers. |
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Report Settings |
Specify the following:
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Event Notification |
Raise events associated with generating the report, and to set severity levels for those events. |
For complete information about configuring a report, click the Help button to display the Help.
Click another tab to change its properties or click OK to start the job.
When you run a Report Script, the Objects tab of the Job Properties window displays a list of available report agents and data sources.
Make sure each report agent is configured to query a single QDB data source. AppManager reports can only include data from a single QDB.
Make sure the list of discovered Knowledge Script categories under the QDB data source is up-to-date. If necessary, rediscover the report agent to update the list of Knowledge Script categories upon which you can report. For more information, see Section 10.1.4, Discovering the Appmanager Report Agent.
Make sure that the data you want to report upon is in the QDB. If you want to report on data collected by a new Knowledge Script job, make sure the job runs at least once and is configured to collect data. Not all Knowledge Scripts are configured by default to collect data.
If you have more than one report agent, be sure to configure the report to select the report agent with the correct QDB data source. If you attempt to run a Report Script on more than one report agent, the report runs on the first selected report agent in the Objects tab of the Job Properties window.
To select the report agent to run the report:
Display the Properties window for the Report Script job.
If the report is already running, double-click the job identifier in the Jobs tab of the Server Information pane; or select the job, right-click, and then click Properties.
In the Objects tab of the Properties window, select the QDB data source on the report agent you want to run the report.
Note that the data source information for the report agent information is displayed using the following syntax:
AM Repositories:server:database:category
where:
server is the name of the server that hosts the QDB
database is the name of the QDB
category is the name of the Knowledge Script category the report agent uses to query the repository
Click another tab to change its properties or click OK to start the job.