Chapter 3. Reports

Click the Reports accordion under Cloud Intelligence → Reports to see a list of reports available. These reports have been constructed to help you view the most commonly requested and significant data. From here, you can also create reports if you have appropriate access. Red Hat CloudForms provides a large group of default reports organized into categories. Each category has its own set of subfolders.

  • Use Configuration Management to see hardware, application, network, service, user account, operating system, and snapshot information for all of your items.
  • Use Migration Readiness to see information specifically related to items required to migrate a virtual machine.
  • Use Operations to look at free space on registered and unregistered virtual machines, to see power states for virtual machines, and see which offline virtual machines have snapshots or have never been analyzed. You are also provided with reports specifically related to the operation of Red Hat CloudForms, such as user ids and snapshots taken by Red Hat CloudForms.
  • Use VM Sprawl to check on usage information and disk waste.
  • Use Relationships to see virtual machine, folder, and cluster relationships.
  • Use Events to view operations and configuration management events.
  • Use Performance by Asset Type to see a report on the performance of your virtual infrastructure. You must be capturing capacity and utilization data to get this information.
  • Use Running Processes to view the information on processes running on a virtual machine. You must have domain credentials entered for the zone to collect the info for these reports, and the virtual machine must have been analyzed at least once.
  • Trending shows projections of datastore capacity and host CPU and memory use.
  • Tenants: quotas report aggregated by each tenant that shows quota name, total quota, in use, allocated, and available. The report currently lists all tenants and there is no nesting information available by parent and child tenants.
  • Provisioning shows provisioning activity based on the approver, datastore, requester, and virtual machine.

For a complete list of reportable fields in Red Hat CloudForms, see Appendix B, Reportable Fields in Red Hat CloudForms.

3.1. Running Reports

There are two different ways to generate a report: by scheduling the report, or running the report manually by clicking the report generation button on the Reports page. Red Hat CloudForms uses interactive report generation so that reports are placed on a queue. A visual indicator of the reports status is shown. All reports are automatically saved so that they can be downloaded and analyzed later.

3.1.1. Generating a Single Report

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports
  2. Click the Reports accordion and select the report you want to view.
  3. Click 1847 (Queue).

  4. The report generation is placed on the queue and its status shows in the reports page.

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  5. Click 2106 (Reload current display) to update the status.
  6. When a report has finished generating, click on its row to view it.

3.2. Scheduling a Report

You can view historical data by creating reports on a scheduled basis. In addition, scheduled reports can be emailed directly to users.

  1. There are two ways to schedule a report. Select a report from the Reports accordion and click 1847 Configuration, 1862 Add a New Schedule, or click the Schedules accordion and click 1847 Configuration, 1862 Add a New Schedule.

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    • In the Basic Information area, type in a Name and Description for the schedule.
    • By default. Active is checked to enable the scan.
    • Check E-Mail after Running to send an email after the report has been generated. The email will be sent to the users email address as show in the Accounts area in Configuration. The email will include a link to the report.

  2. The Report Selection area is pre-populated if you added the schedule directly from the report. If you are adding from the schedule according, use the Filter drop downs to select the report that you want to schedule.

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  3. In the Timer area, click the Run drop down to specify how often you want the analysis to run. Your options after that will depend on which run option you choose.

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    • Click Once to have the analysis run just one time.
    • Click Daily to run the analysis on a daily basis. You will be prompted to select how many days you want between each analysis.
    • Click Hourly to run the analysis hourly. You will be prompted to select how many hours you want between each analysis.
    • Type or select a date to begin the schedule in Starting Date.
    • Select a Starting Time based on a 24 hour clock in the Red Hat CloudForms appliance’s Time Zone.

  4. To send an email that includes an attachment with the report contents, check Send an E-mail. Parameters required for sending an email are displayed.

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    • In From (leave blank for default), type in the sending email.
    • Use Add a User, to select a specific user. The user must have a valid email address entered under accounts.
    • Use Add (enter manually) to type in the address not registered to a User.
    • Then, click 1862 (Add).

  5. If you are sending an email after the report runs, then you can select further options under Email Options.

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    • Check Send if Report is Empty if you want an email even if no records exist in the report.
    • Next to Attachments, check if you would like the report attached as a Text, CSV, or PDF file.
  6. Click Add.
Note

You may need to disable, change the report filter, or change the frequency of a schedule. To do this, you will need to edit the schedule.

3.2.1. Modifying a Report Schedule

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports
  2. Click the Schedules accordion and select the schedule you want to edit.
  3. Click 1847 (Configuration), then click 1851 (Edit this Schedule).
  4. Make the required changes.
  5. Click Save.

3.2.2. Running a Scheduled Report Immediately

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports.
  2. Click the Schedules accordion and select the schedule you want to run.
  3. Click 1847 (Configuration), then click 1847 (Queue).

3.3. Viewing Reports

Once you have created a schedule for a report, you can view it at any time after the first scheduled time has occurred.

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports.
  2. Click the Saved Reports accordion or the Reports accordion.
  3. Click on the instance of the report you want to view.

3.3.1. Changing Report Views

Some reports can be viewed as charts as well as lists. Note that this will depend on the type of data and on how the report has been created. Where applicable, you will see these additional buttons.

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports.

  2. Click the report to view. Click one of the following buttons for the view you want.

    • Click 2284 for Graph View.
    • Click 2285 for Hybrid View.
    • Click 2022 for Tabular View.

3.3.2. Report Download Buttons

When you click on one of the supplied reports, you are presented with a group of buttons to download the report in one of three formats or to view the report in a full screen.

Note

Edit and delete buttons are only visible to administrators and super administrators. Edit and delete functions are only available to customer-created reports. The Red Hat CloudForms pre-configured reports cannot be edited or deleted, but they can be copied.

3.3.3. Downloading a Report

Download reports to analyze the data using other tools or to print the report.

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports.
  2. Click the report you want to view.
  3. Click on the row for the instance of the report you want to download. If the report needs to be generated, see Section 3.1, “Running Reports”.

  4. Click on the report download buttons for the type of export you want.

    • Click 2133 (Download this report in text format) to download as text.
    • Click 2133 (Download this report in csv format) to download as a comma-separated file.
    • Click 2134 (Download this report in PDF format) to download as PDF.
    • The report is automatically named with the type of report and date.

3.3.4. Showing a Report in Full Screen

View the report in full screen to zoom into the report screen. From full screen, you can also print the chart that accompanies a report.

3.4. Adding a Report

Add reports if the default reports do not include what you need or you want to narrow the scope of a report. For example, you may want a report that shows only Windows virtual machines.

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports.
  2. Click the Reports accordion.
  3. Click 1847 (Configuration), then click 1862 (Add a New Report).

  4. In the Columns tab, edit the Basic Report Info area.

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    • Type a unique name in Menu Name for how you want the report described in the menu list.
    • Type the Title you want displayed on the report in title.

  5. Add fields in the Configure Report Columns area.

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    • Use the Base the report on table dropdown to choose a table to get fields from.

      Note

      If you change the report base or the interval, all selections below will be reset.

    • Select fields that you want in the report from Available Fields, and then click 2289 (Move selected fields down). In addition to the fields, you can also select any tags that you have created and assigned.
    • Change the order of the fields in the report by clicking 2290 (Move selected fields up) or 2289 (Move selected fields down).

  6. Click on the Consolidation tab to consolidate and aggregate data points into maximum, minimum, average, and total. Specifically, this would be useful for analyzing performance data over a specific period of time. Note that if you do this, you will not see individual records, but rather the calculation as a column header.

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    • Select the columns to group by.

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    • For each numeric field selected in the report, you can click the dropdown under Calculations. Check the calculations you want to use.

  7. Click on the Formatting tab to set the size of paper for a PDF and column header format.

    • From the PDF Output area, select the page size from the dropdown.

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    • From Specify Column Headers and Formats, type the text you want displayed for each field. For each numeric field, you can also set the numeric format.

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  8. Click on the Styling tab to change the color of the text or the background for a row based on a condition.

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    • Use Style to select the format for the value. You can choose to change the text color or the background.
    • Use If to create a conditional statement for the style.

  9. Click on the Filter tab to set filters for the data displayed in the report. There are two types of filters: the first is the Record Filter which is the primary filter of the main tables records, the second is also a Display Filter, which is a secondary filter of rows based on the fields of the child table. Click 1851 in the appropriate area to use the expression editor to choose the appropriate options for your criteria. Based on what you choose, different options will show.

    • Click Field to create criteria based on field values.

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    • Click Count of to create criteria based on the count of something, such as the number of snapshots for a virtual machine, or the number of virtual machines on a host.

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    • Click Tag to create criteria based on tags assigned to your resources. For example, you may want to check the power state of a virtual machine or see if it is tagged as production.

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    • Click Registry to create criteria based on registry values. For example, you may want to check if DCOM is enabled on a Windows system. (Note that this applies only to Windows operating systems.)

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    • Click Find to seek a particular value, and then check a property. For example, finding the Admin account and checking that it is enabled.

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    • Click 1863 (Commit Expression Element Changes) to add the expression.

      Note

      The filters that you apply will show at the bottom of the report so that you know which filters have been applied.

  10. Click on the Summary tab to select sort order, sort type, groupings, and group calculations for the report. Summary groups rows of data based on the sort breaks. You can only sort by fields that display in the report.

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    • Set the primary sort in Sort the Report by.
    • Set the next sorts in Within Above Field, Sort By.
    • Select the type of sort, ascending or descending, in Sort order.

    • In Show Sort breaks, select Yes to show the sort breaks, Counts to show sort breaks with the count, or No for no sort breaks.

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    • For any numeric field, you can select to show minimum, average, maximum, and total in the sort break.

  11. Click on the Charts tab to create a chart for the report. This is not required.

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    • Use Choose a chart type to select a type of chart. Note that some charts may not produce the result you are looking for based on the types of fields in the report and its sort order.
    • If you only want to see the top values, select the number of top values from Top values to show.
    • If you want to see the total number of values that are not categorized or evaluated against others, check Sum 'Other' values.

  12. Click on the Timeline tab to select a timeline for the report. You must have a field of time or date format to use this feature.

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    • Use Base Timeline on to select a column in date or time format for the report.
    • Select a unit of time for the first band in First band unit.
    • Select a unit of time for the second band in Second band unit.
    • Select a unit of time for the third band in Third band unit.
    • Select an Event to position at.

    • Select the range for the event to position from Show events from last.

      Note

      If you select a timeline for a report, that timeline will also show on the timelines page of Cloud Intelligence. The filters that you apply will show on a timeline report so that you know which filters have been applied.

  13. Click the Previews tab to see a sample of your report.
  14. When you have the report that you want, click Add to create the new report.
Note

After the new report is created, to make the report accessible from the report menu, you must add it to a report menu.

3.5. Copying a Report

Use this feature to copy a report that is similar to one that you want to create. By copying a report, you only need to make minor edits instead of creating an entirely new report.

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports.
  2. Click the Reports accordion and select the report that you want to copy.
  3. Click 1847 (Configuration), then click 1859 (Copy this report).
  4. On the Columns tab, edit the Basic Report Info area to include a new Menu Name. Each Menu Name must be unique.
  5. Make any other changes you need. See "Adding a Report" for details on the changes you can make.
  6. Click Add.

3.6. Editing a Report

If you find that a report is not giving you the data that you need, you can edit it after it has been created. Note that only reports that you have created can be modified. Only administrators and super administrators of Red Hat CloudForms can add, copy, edit, and delete reports.

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Report.
  2. Click the Reports accordion and select the report you want to edit.
  3. Click 1847 (Configuration), 1851 (Edit this Report).
  4. Make any changes you need.
  5. Click Save.

3.7. Deleting a Report

Delete reports when you find that they are no longer useful. Only administrators and super administrators of Red Hat CloudForms can add, copy, edit, and delete reports. Note that only customer-created reports can be deleted.

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports.
  2. Click the Reports accordion and select the report you want to delete.

  3. Click 1847 (Configuration), 1861 (Delete this Report from the Database).

    Note

    The Delete this report from the Database option will only appear on reports you have created. Default reports cannot be deleted.

  4. Click OK.

3.8. Importing a Report

Reports are stored in the VMDB; however, you can share customized reports among VMDBs. To do this use the export and import feature of reports.

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports.
  2. In the Import/Export accordion, click Custom Reports.
  3. In the Import area, click Browse to select an import file.
  4. To overwrite an existing report with the same menu name, select Overwrite existing reports.
  5. Click Upload to import the report to the Company-Custom folder.

3.9. Exporting a Report

Reports are stored in the VMDB; however, you can share customized reports among VMDBs. To do this use the export and import feature of reports.

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports.
  2. In the Import/Export accordion, click Custom Reports.
  3. In the Export area, select the reports to export.
  4. Click Export.

3.10. Report Menus

By default, all account roles have the same reports available. If you have the super administrator or administrator role, you can customize the accordions, the folders within them, and the locations of your reports.

Note

When you create your own report, the report is not automatically available. You must add it to a report menu.

The report menu is a hierarchical structure that consists of the following components:

  • The top level, under which the accordions are shown. (Top level is only displayed when you are in the report menu editor.)
  • Accordions that are general categories for the reports. The defaults supplied are Configuration Management, Migration Readiness, Operations, VM Sprawl, Relationships, and Events.
  • Folders that are used to further organize reports within an accordion. For example, under the Configuration Management, there are folders for virtual machines, hosts, and other virtual infrastructure components.
  • Reports that are stored directly in the folders.

3.10.1. Managing Report Menu Accordions

  1. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports.
  2. Click the Edit Report Menus folder.
  3. Click the role whose menus you want to customize.

  4. Click on Top Level to organize, add, and delete folders.

    • Click 2305 (Move selected folder to top) to move the folder to the top of the list.
    • Click 2290 (Move selected folder up) to move the folder up.
    • Click 2289 (Move selected folder down) to move the folder down.
    • Click 2306 (Move selected folder to bottom) to move the folder to the bottom of the list.
    • Click 1888 (Delete selected folder and its contents) to delete a folder.

    • Click 1848 (Add folder to selected folder) to add an folder.

      Note

      If you are creating a new folder, Top Level must be selected under Reports. Be sure to select the folder you want to create a subfolder for on the left pane. To name the folder, double-click on New Folder, then click on Top Level in the Reports area.

  5. When you are finished adding folders, click Commit. To revert, click Discard.
  6. Click Save.

The new folder is added, and you can add folders in which to store reports to it. You can also organize the reports into folder that are meaningful to you.

3.11. Managing Report Menu Folders

  1. Log in to the console as a user who is assigned either the super administrator or administrator account role.
  2. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports.
  3. Click the Edit Report Menus accordion.
  4. Click the role whose menus you want to customize.

  5. Click on the accordion name you want to organize or add folders to.

    • Click 2305 (Move selected folder to top) to move the folder to the top of the list.
    • Click 2290 (Move selected folder up) to move the folder up.
    • Click 2289 (Move selected folder down) to move the folder down.
    • Click 2306 (Move selected folder to bottom) to move the folder to the bottom of the list.
    • Click 1888 (Delete selected folder and its contents) to delete an folder.
    • Click 1848 (Add subfolder to selected folder) to add a folder. When creating a subfolder, be sure to select the folder that you want the subfolder to show under. To name the folder, double-click on New Folder.
  6. When you are finished making changes click Commit. To revert, click Discard.
  7. Click Save.
Note

Only reports that are not already in another folder can be assigned.

3.12. Organizing Reports in Report Menus

  1. Log in to the console as a user who is assigned either the Super Administrator or Administrator Account Role.
  2. Navigate to Cloud Intelligence → Reports.
  3. Click the Edit Report Menus accordion.
  4. Click the role whose menus you want to customize.
  5. Expand the Report accordion and menus using the triangles to the left of the item name until you are able to select the subfolder where you want to put reports.

  6. Choose one of the following actions:

    • To add a report, select a report from the Available Reports area on the right and click 1876 (Move selected reports left).
    • To remove a report from a folder, select the report from the Selected Reports area and click 1878 (Move selected reports right).
    • To move a report to the top of the folder, select the report and click 2305 (Move selected reports to top).
    • To move a report up one place in the folder, select the report and click 2290 (Move selected reports up).
    • To move a report down one place in the folder, select the report and click 2289 (Move selected reports down).
    • To move a report to the bottom of the folder, select the report and click 2306 (Move selected reports to bottom).
  7. When you are finished making changes click 1863 (Commit report management changes).
  8. Click Save.

The changes are made. The next time a user with this Account Role logs in, the new report and menu structure will be displayed.