9 Using Summary Reporting
This chapter describes the summary reporting capabilities of Oracle Advanced Support Platform. It covers the following topic areas:
Note:
If you cannot see the Advanced Monitoring tab when you log in to Oracle Advanced Support Platform, contact your Oracle Advanced Support Platform customer user administrator.Report List
The Oracle Advanced Support Platform Report List displays all the reports that have been defined in the system for a specific customer. The name of the creator of each report is also displayed. These reports contain user-defined data and formatting that can help you focus on specific aspects of your organization's application and infrastructure resource performance. Once saved, reports are available for viewing by all system users with appropriate privileges.
You can mark or unmark favorite reports using the Name column. The Report Name column provides a star rating, which is inactive (gray) by default. You can designate a report a favorite by selecting the star. Selected stars are yellow, which indicates a favorite report. In the Name column, you can also see all favorite reports using the filter Favorite.
From the Report List dashboard, you can also select Advanced Operation to show more operations. You can generate, edit (if such privileges are granted), delete, and subscribe to different report types. In addition, the Reporting service enables creating reports based on queries that extract data from the Reporting database. You can create, view or delete queries that have been defined for a specific customer such as an availability summary, change ticket summary, incident ticket summary, or organization summary query.
You view reports and queries in any spreadsheet program capable of reading CSV format (Comma Separated Values) files as well as viewing reports online through Oracle Advanced Support Platform.
Generating Availability Reports
The Availability Reporting function collects and analyzes data from the event logs of monitored servers and then generates configurable reports that users can view and customize to suit the needs of their organization. Users can use these reports to identify the causes for planned and unplanned downtime and take preemptive actions to decrease downtime in the future.
Availability reports calculate the metrics of server availability and a standard report is configured to display the resulting data. Each configuration includes tables or graphs with information about the availability and reliability of servers, devices, and services in the monitored environment. Users can enter parameters, such as specific periods of time, to filter the data presented.
Availability reports provide the following advantages:
-
Determine whether monitored servers are meeting their availability and reliability objectives.
-
Filter reports to track trends by viewing information collected over a specific length of time, such as over a period of months or years.
-
Filter reports to view information on a specific subset of monitored servers.
-
Identify the best and worst performing computers for a particular area. For example, you can identify which servers suffer the most or least number of system failures.
-
Identify problem areas, such as a particular application or operating system version that stops responding.
-
Gather information about operating systems and applications.
To generate an Availability Report:
-
Log in to Oracle Advanced Support Platform.
The Oracle Advanced Support Platform page appears.
-
Click Advanced Monitoring.
The Advanced Monitoring page appears.
-
From the Reports tab, select (View) Availability Reports.
The Detailed Availability Reports page appears.
-
From the Probe list, select the probe that you want to report upon.
-
In the Start/End Time fields, specify the date and time over which you want the report data to cover.
-
From the Interval list, specify how often you want to create the report.
-
Click GENERATE to create the report using the parameters you specified in the steps above.
Oracle Advanced Support Platform generates an availability report similar to Figure 9-2.
Generating External Reports
Use this procedure to make local reports available to your users. The External Reports page provides a local URL instance of the report.
To create an external report:
-
Log in to Oracle Advanced Support Platform.
The Oracle Advanced Support Platform page appears.
-
Click Advanced Monitoring.
The Advanced Monitoring page appears.
-
From the Reports tab, select (View) External Reports.
The External Report List page appears.
-
Click Add External Report.
The Add External Report area appears on the page.
-
Complete the Add External Report area as required.
-
Click SAVE.
Viewing Reports
Use this procedure to view a report. A report can consist of query components from the Incident, Change, Configuration Management System (CMS), and Monitoring service applications. You can generate a report from the View Report page for your company within a specific data and time range.
To view a report:
-
Log in to Oracle Advanced Support Platform.
The Oracle Advanced Support Platform page appears.
-
Click Advanced Monitoring.
The Advanced Monitoring page appears.
-
Click the Reports tab.
The Reports page appears.
-
Locate the report you want to view, then click the Report Name.
The View Report page appears.
-
For the relevant report, click More actions... in the Advanced Operation column.
The Advanced Operation page appears.
-
You can select a time frame or choose to generate a report within a particular date and time range:
Select a time frame as follows:
-
Current hour
-
Current day
-
Current week
-
Past 24 hours
-
Past 1 day
To generate a report within a particular date and time range:
-
In the Begin Time field, click the calendar icon; then select the begin date and time range. Click Apply to apply your selection to the Begin Time field.
-
In the End Time field, click the calendar icon; then select the End date and time range. Click Apply to apply your selection to the End Time field.
Then click EXECUTE REPORT to generate the report for the selected time frame or the specified date and time range.
The system generates the report for the customer organization and date/time window you selected and displays the data in the Report Results area.
-
-
Click Download CSV to download all report results or you can download only an individual result. You can export the results to any common spreadsheet program that supports comma-separated value (CSV) files.
Viewing Favorites
The Favorites area is displayed on the Report List page, the View Report page, and the View Query page. You can show or hide the Favorites area using the arrows on the top right of these pages.
The upper part of the Favorites area displays the top 5 favorite reports or queries, ordered by frequency of use. Hold the cursor over the report or query to show the number of times it was used. Click the query or report link to view more information about it.
The lower part of the Favorites area displays the top 5 recently used reports or queries. Hold the cursor over the report or query to show the date and time it was last used. Click the query or report link to view more information about it.
To view favorite queries or reports:
-
Log in to Oracle Advanced Support Platform.
The Oracle Advanced Support Platform page appears.
-
Click Advanced Monitoring.
The Advanced Monitoring page appears.
-
Click the Reports tab.
The Reports page appears.
-
From the Report Name or Query Name list, select Favorites.
The Report List page reappears, displaying all favorite reports or queries, as appropriate.
-
To view more details about a favorite report or query, click the report or query link in this list.
Creating Subscriptions
When you create a subscription, you instruct Oracle Advanced Support Platform to e-mail, on a periodic basis, certain types of user reports to recipients defined in a subscriber list.
You configure scheduled reports by defining which type of report to send, the frequency with which the report is sent, and to whom the report is sent. You can schedule reports to be sent to one or more recipients.
To create a report subscription:
-
Log in to Oracle Advanced Support Platform.
The Oracle Advanced Support Platform page appears.
-
Click Advanced Monitoring.
The Advanced Monitoring page appears.
-
From the Reports tab, select (Create) Subscription.
The Create Subscription page appears.
-
In the Subscription Title box, enter a name for the report subscription, for example, Jim's daily update of CMS inventory.
-
From the Report/Query list, select the report or query you want to schedule to be delivered to a subscriber list.
-
From the Date Period list, select the date period for the report:
-
Current hour
-
Past 48 hours
-
-
From the Schedule Type list, select a schedule for the report. You can choose from any of the following options (you must choose at least one):
-
To send a report on a daily basis, select Daily report (you must select the time of day at which the report should be sent).
-
To send a report on a weekly basis, select Weekly (you must select the day of the week on which the report should be sent).
-
To send a report on a monthly basis, select Monthly (you must select the day of the month on which the report should be sent), Quarterly, or Yearly.
-
-
From the Deliver At list (filtered from your Schedule Type selection), select when the report should be sent as follows:
-
Time of day
-
Day of the week
-
Day of the month
-
Day of the quarter
-
Day of the year
-
-
From the Time Zone list, select the time zone region associated with sending the report.
-
From the Date Format list, select the date format associated with sending the report.
-
From the Time Format list, select the time format associated with sending the report.
-
From the E-mail Format list, select the format in which to send the report.
-
Select Archive Report if you want to view reports from the archive from the Subscription Summary page.
Note:
You must have the relevant privileges to view archived reports.The Max Archives box appears.
-
Enter the maximum number of reports that you want to archive. 10 is the default maximum.
-
From the Subscribers area, select the report recipients by selecting the appropriate subscriber e-mail list.
-
Click SUBSCRIBE.
Oracle Advanced Support Platform creates the subscription and schedules the report to be delivered to the selected subscribers.
Viewing Subscription Summaries
Use this procedure to view a summary overview of all subscriptions belonging to your company. You can apply filters to display certain subscription information by subscriber list and report list.
From the Subscription Summary page, you can also choose to edit or delete a subscription.
Note:
When editing a subscription, you cannot change the report type.To view the Subscription summary:
-
Log in to Oracle Advanced Support Platform.
The Oracle Advanced Support Platform page appears.
-
Click Advanced Monitoring.
The Advanced Monitoring page appears.
-
From the Reports tab, select (View) Subscriptions.
The Create Subscription page appears.
-
In the Filter section, from the Subscriber and Report list, select filter information as appropriate, then click FILTER.
The filter results appear in the Summary section.
View Reports from the Archive
If you selected the Archive Report option when you created your subscription, then you can view the reports from the Subscription Summary page.
To view archived reports:
-
Log in to Oracle Advanced Support Platform.
The Oracle Advanced Support Platform page appears.
-
Click Advanced Monitoring.
The Advanced Monitoring page appears.
-
From the Reports tab, select (View) Subscription.
The View Subscription page appears.
-
From the Subscription Summary page, locate the subscription that you want to edit.
-
From the View Archives column, click View.
The Archives page appears.
-
Locate the required report, then click View.
The Subscription_Name page appears.
Creating SLA Reports
Oracle Advanced Support Platform enables you to generate reports about service level agreements (SLAs), if you have been granted the appropriate privileges.
To create an SLA report:
-
Log in to Oracle Advanced Support Platform.
The Oracle Advanced Support Platform page appears.
-
Click Advanced Monitoring.
The Advanced Monitoring page appears.
-
From the Reports menu, select (Create) Report.
The Create Report page appears.
-
From the Report Type list, select SLA.
-
In the Report Title box, enter a name for the SLA report.
-
From the Access Type list, select the type of access to the report.
-
From the Customer list, select the customer organization associated with the report.
-
In the Description box, optionally provide a description of the report.
-
From the Queries list, select one or more queries you want to use to build the report; then click Add to move the query to the Selected Queries window.
-
To add report parameters that the user must complete when running the report:
-
Under Report Parameters, click Add.
The Add Parameter window appears.
-
Select the parameter type, enter the name, and title to be displayed to the user.
-
Click ADD.
-
-
To edit a selected query:
-
From the Selected Queries window, select a query, then click Set parameters. The parameter settings for the selected query appear under Query Parameters.
-
In the Title box, change the name of the query if required.
-
Under Group Settings, from the Can group fields list, select the fields that you want to group, then click Add.
-
Under Fields Settings, you can do the following:
-
Select Hide this field if you want to omit a specific field from the report.
-
From the Subtotal function list, select the aggregation value to display as a subtotal within the report for the specific field, such as number of rows (COUNT ROW) or number of unique values within a column (COUNT UNIQUE VALUE.)
-
From the Filters list, select an operator to filter the results, such as between to display results between two defined points.
-
-
-
Under Render Settings, select how you want to represent the report.
The system uses the queries you selected to create the report and display a tabular or graphical representation of the query data retrieved from the Reporting database.
Modifying Chart Display Settings for Reports
This section describes how to modify the display settings for reporting charts. Display settings can be modified in the Edit Report view and View Query view.
Depending on the field types used, charts can be rendered as any of the six chart types - table, pie chart, bar chart, line chart, area chart, and time series. The default chart type is table, which is used for queries with no numeric fields.
To Modify Display Settings:
-
Open the Edit Report view or View Query view.
-
Expand Display Setting.
-
From the Render As list, select one of the following formats:
-
Table (default)
-
Pie
-
Bar
-
Line
-
Area
-
Timeseries
Depending on the query, one or more types is displayed. For example, if there is no numeric field, only the table format is displayed. Each type is described in more detail later.
-
Display Settings for Pie Charts
This section describes the display settings for a pie chart:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Target Value | Select the target value field from the list. |
| Category Name Settings | Select the category name from the list.
|
| Chart Height | Set the chart height in pixels. |
| Chart Width | Set the chart width in pixels. |
| Choose Label Format | Select one of the following label formats:
|
| Show Legend | Check this check box to show the legend in the chart. |
Display Settings for Area Charts or Bar Charts
This section describes the display settings for an area or a bar chart:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| X Field Name | Move the X field value(s) to be included in the chart from the left pane to the right pane. |
| Y Field Name | Move the Y field value(s) to be included in the chart from the left pane to the right pane. |
| Category Name Settings | Select the category name from the list.
|
| Chart Height | Set the chart height in pixels. |
| Chart Width | Set the chart width in pixels. |
| Max X Ticks Label (n>3,0:all) | Set this value to determine how many ticks label in the X axis. To show all possible labels in the X axis, set this value to 0. |
| Opaque Chart | Check this check box to use the opaque feature |
| Show Legend | Check this check box to show the legend in the chart. |
| Show Unified Metric of Y-Axis | Check this check box to show only one Y-axis. Otherwise, each Y field will be displayed as a separate Y-axis. |
| Show X-Axis As Category | Check this check box to use Category mode. If X fields are all numeric type, by default, we use XY-Plot mode to render chart - that means the number of X axis is meaningful as they number stand for.If use category mode, we treat the number as string. |
| Threshold Function Settings | Select the threshold line from the list:
|
| Vertical X-Axis Labels | Check this check box to show the label for the X-axis. |
| XField Label Format Settings | Select the following X Axis label formats, used to shorten the label as needed:
|
Display Settings for Line Charts or Time Series Charts
This section describes the display settings for a line or time series chart:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| X Field Name | (Time Series) Select the X field value from the list.
(Line Series) Move the Y field value(s) to be included in the chart from the left pane to the right pane. |
| Y Field Name | Move the Y field value(s) to be included in the chart from the left pane to the right pane. |
| Category Name Settings | Select the category name from the list.
|
| Chart Height | Set the chart height in pixels. |
| Chart Width | Set the chart width in pixels. |
| Choose Line Width | Select the line width from the list. |
| Set Data's Time Granularity | (Time Series only) Select the unit of time over which data is measured from the list. |
| Show Legend | Check this check box to show the legend in the chart. |
| Show Node Shape | Check this check box to show the node shape of each point of the line or time series. |
| Show Unified Metric of Y-Axis | Check this check box to show only one Y-axis. Otherwise, each Y field will be displayed as a separate Y-axis. |
| Threshold Function Settings | Select the threshold line from the list:
|
| Value Axis Include Zero | Check this checkbooks to show values from zero to the highest value on the Y-axis. Otherwise, the Y-axis shows the lowest to the highest value only. |
| Vertical X-Axis Labels | Check this check box to show the label for the X-axis. |
| XField Label Format Settings | Select the following X Axis label formats, used to shorten the label as needed:
|