Running & Scheduling Reports

This section briefly describes the user interface for generating reports in SL1. For additional information about the default reports that are included in SL1 and managing scheduled reports, see the section on Reports.

Use the following menu options to navigate the SL1 user interface:

To view a pop-out list of menu options, click the menu icon ().
To view a page containing all of the menu options, click the Advanced menu icon ().

Quick Reports

The Run Quick Report page (Reports > Run Report) allows you to select and manually generate a custom report. You can choose the report to generate from the list of default custom reports in the SL1 system.

This list includes the default custom reports provided by ScienceLogic and any reports developed by you or another user in the SL1 system. Quick Reports allow you to quickly generate a spreadsheet or graphical report using the information you wish to view.

Generating a Quick Report

In the user interface for a report, users of type Administrator can view options and devices for all organizations. Users of type User can view only options and devices for organizations of which they are a member.

You can specify how many days SL1 will retain data from reports by going to the Data Retention Settings page (System > Settings > Data Retention) and adjusting the Ad-hoc and Scheduled Reports field. Possible values are 0 - 365, in days. If you use the default value of 0, SL1 will remove files older than 30 days from the populated directory: /opt/em7/gui/ap/www/em7/libs/od_templates/populated.

If you want to adjust the default timeout of 1800 seconds (30 minutes) for running a report, navigate to the Run Quick Report page (Reports > Run Report) for that report and click the Edit button. On the Report Template Editor modal page, update the Timeout value and click Save.

Quick Reports run on the current appliance (the appliance on which the report user is logged into) in a distributed SL1 stack.

SL1 might not be able to generate reports that contain extremely large amounts of data. The amount of data that SL1 can process when generating a report is constrained by the configured memory limits of SL1. The upper limit of data is dependent on the number of rows, number of columns, and the size of each field. Each report will have different data limits. For example, the Interface Usage report is limited to 10,000 interfaces. For reports of a similar size, ScienceLogic recommends you test to ensure that the report generates correctly with the number of data points you require. If the report does not generate correctly, you will need to generate multiple smaller reports. You can use the Row Count Estimate field next to the Generate button to get an estimate of the number of rows that will appear in the report before SL1 generates it.

To generate a report on the Run Quick Report page:

Go to Run Quick Report page (Reports > Run Report).
Expand the appropriate category, such as Asset Management or Devices, and select the report you want to run.

Quick Reports are listed by category. For details on defining and editing categories, see the Report Categories section. If a Quick Report is not associated with a category, that Quick Report appears under the "Others" category. To assign or change a category for a Quick Report, edit the Category field in the Report Template Editor page (Reports > Management > Report Manager > create/edit).
Update the fields on the input form to specify the options and data to include in the report. For more information, see Filling Out Input Forms.

As you update the fields for this report, the Row Count Estimate field next to the Generate button is updated to provide an estimate of the number of rows that will appear in this report. You can use this field to manage the size of the generated report by adding or removing items from the report as needed. To disable the Row Count Estimate feature, de-select the Report Size Estimation option on the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior). This feature is enabled by default. For more information about how to edit the settings for this field, see "Creating a Report Template" in the Report Development manual.

The following reports utilize the Row Count Estimate field: Device-At-A-Glance, Device Availability, Device Top Metrics, Device Top Utilization, Device Utilization, Interface In Use, Interface Top Metrics, Monitored Element, and PowerPack Information.
In the Output Format drop-down at the bottom of the page, select a format in which to generate the report. You can choose from Open Document Format (ODF) Spreadsheet (.ods), Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet (.xlsx), Adobe Acrobat Document (.pdf), or a Web Page (.html).
Click the Generate button. The Report Generation pop-up window appears with a message that a link to your report will be displayed when the report is created. The link will also be sent to the mailbox of the current user.

You can opt to not receive an email with a link to a report by going to the Account Preferences page (Preferences > Account > Preferences) and selecting No in the Ad-hoc Report Email Preference field.
After the report is created, the Report Generation window displays a link to the report and icons that you can click to download the report in various formats.
Save the report in the format you prefer and close the pop-up windows.

Filling Out Input Forms

After you select the report to run, you must specify the input options. The input form lets you select the options and data to include in the report.

These options vary by report. However, the following input options appear for multiple default custom reports in SL1 and are available for use in custom reports:

Organizations. Select the organizations that you want to include data for in the report. You can select all organizations, individual organizations, or a grouping of organizations. Organizations contain other entities, like users, devices, assets, and policies.
Select By. You can select the specific entities you want to include data for in the report. These options include selecting by Org/Device, selecting by Org/Asset, and selecting by ESX Server/VM, among others.
Report Span. Some reports provide input options that specify the time span that the data on the report should cover. These options include Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
Device Categories. Select the device categories of the devices you want to include in the report. You can select all device categories, individual device categories, or a grouping of device categories.
Optional Columns. Provides a list of additional, optional information to include in the report.

As you update the fields for this report, the Row Count Estimate field next to the Generate button is updated to provide an estimate of the number of rows that will appear in this report. You can use this field to manage the size of the generated report by adding or removing items from the report as needed. For more information about how to edit the settings for this field, see Creating a Report Template.

Scheduled Reports

You can schedule a custom report to be automatically generated by the SL1 system at a specific time, either once or on a recurring schedule. Scheduled reports can be automatically emailed to users, external contacts, or vendors.

Creating a Report Job

You can define a report job in the Report Jobs page (Reports > Create Report > Report Jobs). From this page, you can create a report job, run the report job, edit the report job, or delete the report job.

To create a report job:

Go to the Report Jobs page (Reports > Create Report > Report Jobs.
Click the Create button. The Report Job Editor page appears.
The Report Job Editor page contains fields where you can select the parameters of the report job. The fields are:

Job Title. Specify a title of up to 220 characters for the report job.
Run as User. Specify the type of user to run the report as. When a scheduled report uses this report job, the report generates as if the Run As User was running the report. This field is useful when a system administrator, who can access all entities in all organizations, is configuring a report job for a regular user, who is allowed to access only entities aligned with the regular user's organizations. Two access hooks affect the behavior of the Run As User field:

Run As Org User. If this Access Hook is included in an Access Key that is aligned with your account, the Run As User field will contain a list of users with the same primary organization as your own. You can select one of these users to align with the generated report.
Run As Any User. If this Access Hook is included in an Access Key that is aligned with your account, you will be able to schedule report jobs as any user. The Run As User field will contain a list of all users. You can select one of these users to align with the generated report.

If your user account does not include either of these Access Hooks, you can schedule report jobs only as yourself. The Run As User field will not appear in the Report Job Editor page. For more information on organization restrictions, see the section on Access Permissions.

Report Definition. Select a report from the list of all reports defined in the Report Management page. Only report definitions to which you are allowed access will appear in this field. For more information on selecting input options, see the Filling Out Input Forms section in Generating Quick Reports. When you select the report, the Report Options section for that specific report appears at the bottom of the Report Job Editor page.

Report definitions are listed by category. For details on defining and editing categories, see Report Categories. If a report definition is not associated with a category, that report definition appears under the "Other" category. To assign or change a category for a report definition, edit the Category field in the Report Template Editor page (Reports > Management > Report Manager > create/edit).

Report Appliance. Select the appliance on which to run the report, if more than one appliance is available. By default the current appliance is selected. If you select "Active Database", SL1 locates the active database server at run time and will execute the report on that database server.
Job Recipients. Specifies the recipients for the report. Clicking in this field displays the Add Recipients modal page, where you can select users, external contacts, and vendor contacts to include in the Job Recipients field. To learn how to add job recipients to the report job, see Step 4, below.
Job Type. Specifies how the generated report will be delivered. Choices are:

Email & Archive. Report is emailed to the specified email address (in the Email To field) and also archived on the server.
Archive. Report is stored on the server.

Delivery Method. Specifies the method of delivery and the output format (if applicable) for the report. Choices are:

Inline (HTML). The generated report will be sent to the selected users in the body of an Email.
Attachment. The generated report will be sent to the selected users as an attachment to an Email. To select this option, select one of the output formats in the Attachment section of the drop-down list.
Link to EM7. The generated report will be made available via a direct URL. The link will be sent to the selected users in an email. To select this option, select one of the output formats in the Link to EM7 section of the drop-down list.

For the Attachment and Link to EM7 options, the following output formats are available:

Adobe Acrobat Document (.pdf)
Web page (.html)
Microsoft Excel 2007+ Spreadsheet (.xlsx)
Open Document Format (ODF) Spreadsheet (.ods)

The options that can be selected in the Delivery Method field are defined in the Delivery Method field in the Report Template Editor page for the selected report.

Report Options. The interface for the selected report appears in this pane. Select the options you want included in the automatically generated report. These options are limited by the Access Keys aligned with your account and the organization memberships aligned with your account.

You can add recipients to a report in the Add Recipients modal page. The Add Recipients modal page allows you to select users, external contacts, and vendor contacts to include in the "To" field of the Job recipients field.
The options in the Add Recipients modal page are:

Recipient Types. Displays checkboxes for EM7 User, External Contact, and Vendor. If a checkbox is selected, the users in the selected contact group will appear in the Matched Recipients field.
Search For. Select All recipients, Organization, Product, or Ticket Queue. The Matched Recipients field will display only users in the specified group.
Search. Enter the name of the user, external contact, or vendor you are searching for.
Matched Recipients. Displays the possible recipients based on the criteria you specified in the Recipient Types and/or Search For and/or Search fields.

To add a user, external contact, or vendor as a job recipient, select its checkbox. To select all users displayed in the Matched Recipients field, select the checkbox next to the Action heading.
Click the Add/Remove button to add the selected users. To remove users as job recipients, de-select users by removing the check mark and then clicking the Add/Remove button.
On the Report Jobs page, click the Save button. The new report job will appear in the list of report jobs in the Report Jobs page.

Running a Report Job

After you save a report job, it will appear in the Report Jobs page. You can run the report job immediately from this page.

If you want to adjust the default timeout of 1800 seconds (30 minutes) for running a report, navigate to the Run Report page for that report and click the Edit button. On the Report Template Editor modal page, update the Timeout value and click Save.

You might find it helpful to immediately run the report job to test the parameters you selected and verify that the report is delivered correctly.

To avoid potential "504 Gateway Timeout" errors, ScienceLogic recommends that you only run a report job with a schedule, instead of using the lightning bolt icon () to run the report job on an ad-hoc basis. ScienceLogic recommends you run the report from the list of reports in the Run Report entry on the Reports page.

To run a report job:

Go to the Report Jobs page (Reports > Create Report > Report Jobs.
Find the report job you want to run and click its lightning bolt icon (). The Report Generation pop-up window appears with a message that a link to your report will be displayed when the report is created. The link will also be sent to the mailbox of the current user.

To avoid potential timeout errors, ScienceLogic recommends that you use this option sparingly.

You can opt to not receive an email with a link to a report by going to the Account Preferences page (Preferences > Account > Preferences) and selecting No in the Ad-hoc Report Email Preference field.
After the report is created, the Report Generation window displays a link to the report and icons that you can click to download the report in various formats.

Scheduling a Report Job

After a report job has been created, you can schedule the report to run automatically on the report Schedule Manager page (Reports > Create Report > Scheduler). Scheduled reports are automatically generated by SL1 once, at a specified time, or at specified regular intervals. You can select the day and time the report job runs or the recurrence of the report job, if necessary, and save these parameters to view, edit, enable or disable, or delete later.

You can also view and manage all scheduled processes from the Schedule Manager page (Registry > Schedules > Schedule Manager). For more information, see the section on Managing Scheduled Tasks.

Viewing Upcoming and Archived Scheduled Report Jobs

The Scheduled Report Jobs page (Report > Create Report > Scheduled Job / Report Archive) displays a list of all upcoming instances of scheduled report jobs. For example, if you schedule a PowerPack Information report to run once a day, the Scheduled Report Jobs page will display the PowerPack Information scheduled report job and its current status. This page automatically refreshes at a set interval; the default interval is 10 seconds.

In the silo.conf file, the auto_page_refresh setting under [ADHOC_REPORT_IN_BATCH] defines the interval at which this page refreshes, as well as other settings for ad hoc batch reports. For more information about updating the silo.conf file, see the section on Settings in Silo.Conf.

From the Scheduled Report Jobs page, you can also access the Scheduled Report Archive page by clicking the Archived Job button in the top right corner of the page. (You can click the Scheduled Job button to return to the Scheduled Report Jobs page.) The Scheduled Report Archive page displays a list of all past report jobs. For example, if you schedule a Device Availability report to run once every hour, the Scheduled Report Archive page will display each of the Device Availability reports that have already run.