NetIQ Documentation: Novell® PlateSpin® Recon 3.7.4 User Guide - Report Explorer

5.2 Report Explorer

The Report Explorer is used to organize and generate reports.

5.2.1 Report Explorer Template Nodes

The Report Explorer hierarchy consists of template nodes that have various types of report templates.

Table 5-3 Report Explorer Template Nodes

Template Node	Report Templates	Node Description
Analysis	Application - Exchange Workloads Application - SQL Server Workloads Disk - Average 30 Day Forecast Disk - Peak Hardware Utilization - Average 30 Day Forecast Hardware Utilization - Peak Memory - Average 30 Day Forecast Memory - Overutilized Memory - Peak Memory - Underutilized Network -Average 30 Day Forecast Network - Peak Processor - Average 30 Day Forecast Processor - Overutilized Processor - Peak Processor - Underutilized Resource Utilization Trend Volume Utilization - Average Volume Utilization - Peak Workload Size - Average 30 Day Forecast Workload Size - Peak	For reporting dynamic data such as hardware utilization and workload sizes.
Chargeback	Cost Allocation	For reporting the transfer of charges incurred by the IT department back to the business units that are using services. See Section 7.4, Chargeback Reporting.
Consolidation	Project Scenario Summary Workload Assignment	For reporting on projects, scenarios, and servers in the Consolidation Planning Module. See Section 6.7, Viewing Consolidation Reports for information on how to use templates within this node.
Consolidation Project Samples	Good Consolidation Candidates Inventory Summary Poor Consolidation Candidates Utilization Summary Workload List with Conditional Formatting	Commonly used sample consolidation reports.
Diagnostics	Error Report Missing Data - Detailed Missing Data - Summary	For diagnosing errors that cause monitoring data to be missing from a chart.
Disk	Disk Allocation Disk Inventory	The Disk Allocation report is generated based on the last collected monitored data. For reporting the size and type of physical disks on machines.
Inventory	Hardware - Obsolete Hardware Inventory Power and Cooling Virtual Machine Server Candidates Virtual Machine State VM Files Report VM Snapshots Report VM Sprawl Report	For reporting static data such as operating system, processor speed, memory, disk space, network, power, and cooling.
Reclamation	Disk Reclamation Memory Reclamation Powered On VMs Reclamation Volume Reclamation	For reporting on elements that can be reclaimed to ensure efficient use of resources.
Software	Application > Application Inventory Application Complete > Application Complete Inventory Processes > Process Inventory Service > Service Inventory Service Complete > Service Complete Inventory	For reporting installed applications, services, and running processes.
Virtual Infrastructure	Cluster Configuration Resource Pool Configuration VI Configuration VirtualCenter Report VM Cluster VM Details Report VM Host Partition Alignment VM Partition Alignment VM Resource Pool VM Virtual Infrastructure	For reporting on virtual machines and virtual machine hosts.
Volume	Volume Inventory	For reporting the space and file system associated with each logical volume on machines.

As shown in Table 5-3, within each report node are one or more templates that you can use as is or that you can customize with sorting, filtering, and view selection options. You can add additional Analysis, Chargeback, Disk, Inventory, Software, and Volume report templates.

5.2.2 Commands

The following Report Explorer commands are accessible by right-clicking a report template or a generated report:

Table 5-4 Report Explorer Commands

Commands	Tooltip/Description
	Create Report Template. Create a new report template based on the report node selected.
	Copy Report Template. Copy a report template.
	Edit Report Template. Edit a report by setting group, views, filters, summaries, and forecasts for a report template or a report.
	Generate Report. Generate a report based on the report template selected.
	View Report. View an existing (previously generated) report.
	Send Report. Send a generated report via e-mail or to an FTP server or network location.
	Delete. Delete the selected report or template.

5.2.3 Analysis Reports

Analysis reports use dynamic data such as hardware utilization and workload sizes. To view workloads or utilization of servers that are being monitored, generate an Analysis report. The report is displayed with historical data, which is useful for getting a single value (maximum, minimum, peak, average) for expressions over a specified period of time. Use this data to identify over-utilized or under-utilized server resources.

NOTE:Data must be collected for at least one hour before Analysis reports are generated. If there is insufficient data, the report is displayed without dynamic data.

To get detailed historical data for each data point, click the report cell to view the related detailed chart.

Machines without monitoring data are included in Analysis reports by default to allow complete analysis of all inventoried machines.

Figure 5-2 Sample Analysis Report

5.2.4 VM Disk Partition Alignment Reports

PlateSpin Recon provides the following two reports that show the alignment status of the disk partitions:

VM Host Partition Alignment Report

The VM Host Partition Alignment Report displays the disk partition alignment status of ESX servers that are supported by PlateSpin Recon. The following table describes the data that is generated and displayed by the VM Host Partition Alignment report:

Category	Fields	Additional Details
Operating System	Version
Disk	Disk Type
	Storage Type
	Alignment Boundary Size (KB)	Alignment Boundary Size defines the starting offset of a partition. For example, the EMC CLARiiON storage vendor recommends a starting block of 128 to align the partition to the 64-KB boundary. The 64-KB boundary value is used by default according to VMware Recommendations. However, every disk or disk array does not have the alignment boundary at 64 KB. To know the alignment boundary of the disk of your machine, refer to your storage vendor recommendations or refer to the system guides.
Partition	Name
	File System
	Starting Offset (bytes)
	Alignment Status	The disk partition alignment status is one of the following: Aligned Unaligned Indeterminate: Indicates that the starting offset value of the partition has not been inventoried properly or the value is set to zero (0).

The VM Host Partition Alignment report displays the alignment status for external disks that might have different boundary sizes; however, the alignment status might not be correct. To obtain the correct alignment status, ensure that the boundary size of the disks in the report template is correct.

To view or change the boundary size of the disks in the report template:

In the Report Explorer, browse to Virtual Infrastructure, right-click the VM Host Partition Alignment report template, then click Edit Report Template.

The Edit Report Template dialog box is displayed.
Click the Custom Attributes tab.
Verify and modify the Alignment Boundary Size of the partition disk, if necessary.

The default alignment boundary size is 64 KB. To know the alignment boundary size of an external disk, contact your storage administrator or the disk vendor.
Click OK.

VM Partition Alignment Report

The VM Partition Alignment Report displays the disk partition alignment status of the Windows and Linux virtual machines that run on the ESX host machine supported by PlateSpin Recon. The disk partition alignment status is applicable for the disks that reside on the VMFS partition of the ESX host machine. The host machine can be inventoried or not. The data of the inventoried virtual machines is grouped under their host, and the data of virtual machines whose host is not inventoried is grouped as VMs without Host.

The following table describes the data that is generated and displayed by the VM Partition Alignment report:

Category	Fields	Additional Details
Operating System	Type
	Edition
	Version
Disk	Disk Type
	Storage Type
	Alignment Boundary Size (KB)	Alignment Boundary Size defines the starting offset of a partition. For example, the EMC CLARiiON storage vendor recommends a starting block of 128 to align the partition to the 64-KB boundary. The 64-KB boundary value is used by default according to VMware Recommendations. However, every disk or disk array does not have the alignment boundary at 64 KB. To know the alignment boundary of the disk of your machine, refer to your storage vendor recommendations or refer to the system guides.
Partition	Name
	File System
	Starting Offset (bytes)
	Alignment Status	The disk partition alignment status is one of the following: Aligned Unaligned Indeterminate: Indicates that the starting offset value of the partition has not been inventoried properly or the value is set to zero (0).

Although reporting of the alignment status for external disks attached to the virtual machines that run on ESX host is not supported, the VM Partition Alignment report also displays the alignment status for external disks. However, the alignment status of the external disks might not be correct if the boundary size of the disks are different. To obtain the correct alignment status, ensure that the boundary size of the disks in the report template is correct.

To view or change the boundary size of the disks in the report template:

In the Report Explorer, browse to Virtual Infrastructure, right-click the VM Partition Alignment report template, then click Edit Report Template.

The Edit Report Template dialog box is displayed.
Click the Custom Attributes tab.
Verify and modify the Alignment Boundary Size of the partition disk, if necessary.

The default alignment boundary size is 64 KB. To know the alignment boundary size of an external partition disk, contact your storage administrator or the disk vendor.
Click OK.

5.2.5 Working with Report Templates

Creating a Report Template

Right-click the report type node in the Report Explorer for the type of report that you want to create, then select Create Report Template from the menu.

The Create Report Template dialog box is displayed.
Define the template settings, using the procedures and guidelines for editing an existing template. See Section 5.3, Editing Report Templates.
Click OK.

The new template is displayed under the report type node in the Report Explorer.

Copying a Report Template

Right-click the report template you want to copy in the Report Explorer and select Copy Report Template from the menu.

The Edit Report Template dialog box is displayed with (COPY) added to the template name.
(Optional) Edit the template name.
Click OK.

The new copy of the template is displayed in the Report Explorer.

Deleting a Report Template

Right-click the report template you want to delete in the Report Explorer and select Delete from the menu.

The Confirm Delete dialog box is displayed.
Click OK.

The report template is removed from the Report Explorer.