eG Reporter
 
Executive Reports - Service

Using Service Reports, an executive can receive a broad idea about the performance of a particular service during a specific period. To generate this report, do the following:

  • Select the Service option from the Executive menu.

  • From the Service list box in the page that appears next,select the service for which the executive report needs to be viewed.

  • This report comes with a set of default specifications. These settings are hidden by default. If you do not want to disturb these default settings, then you can proceed to generate the report by clicking the SUBMIT button soon after you select a Service. However, if you want to view and then alter these settings (if required), click on the button. The default settings will then appear. To hide the settings, click the button. The steps below discuss each of these settings and how they can be customized.

  • Provide a Timeline for the report. You can either provide a fixed time line such as 1 hour, 2 days, etc., or select the Any option from the list to provide a From and To date/time for report generation.

    Note:

    For every user registered with the eG Enterprise system, the administrator can indicate the maximum timeline for which that user can generate a report. Once the maximum timeline is set for a user, then, whenever that user logs into eG Reporter and attempts to generate a report, the Timeline list box in the report page will display options according to the maximum timeline setting of that user. For instance, if a user can generate a report for a maximum period of 3 days only, then 3 days will be the highest option displayed in the Timeline list - i.e., 3 days will be the last option in the fixed Timeline list. Similarly, if the user chooses the Any option from the Timeline list and proceeds to provide a start date and end date for report generation using the From and To specifications, eG Enterprise will first check if the user's Timeline specification conforms to his/her maximum timeline setting. If not, report generation will fail. For instance, for a user who is allowed to generate reports spanning over a maximum period of 3 days only, the difference between the From and To dates should never be over 3 days. If it is, then, upon clicking the Submit button a message box will appear, prompting the user to change the From and To specification.

  • Next, indicate the type of graphs to be generated in the report page - whether 3D or 2D - by choosing the appropriate option from the Graph list. The default selection in this list is determined by the Show reporter graphs in 3D flag in the MONITOR SETTINGS page of the eG administrative interface. If this flag is set to Yes, then the 3D option will be selected by default in the Graph list. If this flag is set to No, then the default selection in the Graph list will be 2D.

  • In large environments, while generating reports for long time periods, say a few weeks to months, report generation was found to slow down, owing to the large volume of data being processed. If users needed to generate many such reports quickly, the slowdown compelled them to generate these reports one after another, thus affecting the speed of their operations, and consequently, their productivity. eG Enterprise now includes a background processing feature that will enable users to process multiple reports, spanning long time periods in the background, while allowing them the bandwidth to generate short-term reports in the foreground. This way, users can generate multiple reports with little-to-no loss of time. To schedule background processing of a report, select the Background Save - PDF option from the Report Generation list. In this case, a Report Name text box will appear, where you would have to provide the name with which the report is to be saved in the background. To process reports in the foreground, select the Foreground Generation - HTML option from this list.

    Note:

    • The Report Generation list will appear only if the EnableBackgroundReport flag in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the {EG_INSTALL_DIR}\manager\config directory) is set to Yes.

    • The default selection in the Report Generation list will change according to the Timeline specified for the report. If the Timeline set is greater than or equal to the number of days specified against the MinDurationForReport parameter in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Background. On the other hand, if the Timeline set for the report is lesser than the value of the MinDurationForReport parameter, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Foreground. This is because, the MinDurationForReport setting governs, when reports are to be processed in the background. By default, this parameter is set to 2 weeks - this indicates that by default, reports with a timeline of 2 weeks and above will be processed in the background.

  • Finally, click on the SUBMIT button to generate the report. If the option chosen from the Report Generation list is Foreground Generation - HTML, then, clicking on the SUBMIT button will invoke the Service Report.

  1. There are four sections in the generated report. The first section is a pie chart that provides a bird's-eye view of the health of the service during the designated period. The slices of the pie chart and their respective colors represent the percentage of time the service has been in different states (Normal, Critical, Major, Minor, and Unknown).

    To drill down to the root-cause of the problems indicated by a slice in the pie chart, click on the slice. When this is done, you will be lead to the Executive Report of exactly that component (associated with the chosen service), the performance of which was badly hit by the problems indicated by the slice clicked on. For example, Component causing problems in the service performance will appear when the ‘Critical’ slice in the pie chart is clicked.

    From the Executive Report, it is evident that the Windows Internal Naming Server (WINS) is responsible for all the critical problems in the service during the given timeline.

  2. The second section of Executive Service Report is a bar graph that depicts how well the service has performed on a daily basis during the specified period. The information depicted here will enable an executive to detect the daily trends in the performance of the service. Here again, the various divisions within a bar and their respective colors denote the state variations in the service during the given period. The height of a division depends upon the duration (in minutes) for which the service has remained in a particular state.

    3. Note:

    By default, the DAYWISE DISTRIBUTION section of this page depicts the duration for which a service has remained in a particular state, in minutes. Instead, if you prefer to view the percentage of time during a day a service was in any particular state, set the Daywise distribution reports in flag in the MONITOR SETTINGS page (Configure -> Monitor Settings menu in the eG administrative interface) to Percentage.

    When you click on a problem division in the bar, you will be able to view the Executive Report of the Component, which was the root-cause for the occurrence of that problem in the service on that particular day. For example, say, that you click on the Minor division in the bar that corresponds to the first day of the chosen timeline

  3. The third section is a summary table that highlights the top five alarms that have remained for the longest duration. The details displayed include the alarm priority, the service Component in which the problem was detected, the Duration of the problem, the date and time of problem occurrence (From) and the date and time of problem resolution (To). This information will help an executive figure out which components were responsible for some of the most severe problems in the service.

    Note:

    The state of a service is determined based on the states of its individual components. If any component of a service is in a critical state, the service is regarded as being in a critical state.

    Click on the Component hyperlink in this section to view the Executive Report of that Component for the specified period.

  4. The fourth section of the Executive Service Report is another event summary, which not only lists all the components associated with the service, but also indicates the percentage of time a component encountered Critical, Major, or Minor issues. This event summary, when viewed along with the top 5 summary, will help you accurately identify the problem-prone components of the service. Clicking on the Component name hyperlink will reveal the Executive Report of that component for the chosen Timeline.

  5. On the other hand, if the Background Save - PDF option is chosen from the Report Generation list, then, clicking on the SUBMIT button will not invoke the report. Instead, a message will appear. To view the report, click on the Click here to see a list of generated and processing reports link, and proceed as indicated in the Executive Reports - Component.