eG Reporter
 

Website Performance Report

To generate site-specific reports, select the Website Performance option from the Operational KPI Reportsnode of the REPORTS BY FUNCTION tree.

The WEBSITE PERFORMANCE page then appears. To generate reports using this page, do the following:

  1. From the Site drop-down list box, select the web sites for which a measurement graph is to be generated. This list box will list all the fully configured web sites in the environment.

  2. Selecting a Site will result in the display of a ComponentType list box listing all component types associated with the selected web site. From this list box, select the type of component for which reports are required.

  3. Once a component type is chosen, all components of the selected type that are associated with the chosen web site will then be listed in the Components list. Pick a component of your choice from this list. If the Components list consists of too many components, then viewing all the components and selecting the ones you need for report generation could require endless scrolling. To avoid this, you can click the button next to the Component list. This will open the Components pop up window using which you can view almost all the components in a single interface and Select the ones for which the report is to be generated.

  4. Then, select the period (Timeline) for which the graph is to be generated (Timeline). 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.

  5. 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.

  6. In addition to the settings discussed above, 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 Run Report button soon after you pick a component from the Components list box. However, if you want to view and then alter these settings (if required), click on the button. The default settings will then appear in the MORE OPTIONS pop up window. The steps below discuss each of these settings and how they can be customized.

  7. Select the type of report to be generated from the Report Type list box. The options available are:

    • Measure: Select this option if measurement values for different metrics have to be plotted with time of day.

    • Summary: Select this option to plot the service level achievements of different metrics during a designated period. When this option is chosen, a Duration list will appear with the following options:

      • Hourly Summary: This option, when chosen, highlights the service levels of different measurements (i.e. the % of time a measurement was in compliance with its threshold) on an hourly basis.

      • Daily Summary: This option, when chosen, highlights the service levels of different measurements (i.e. the % of time a measurement was in compliance with its threshold) on a daily basis.

      • Monthly Summary: This option, when chosen, highlights the service levels of different measurements (i.e. the % of time a measurement was in compliance with its threshold) on a monthly basis.

    • Trend: Selecting this option will enable you to plot the trend values of different metrics computed over a period of time. Past trends in performance can be analyzed and accordingly, the future operational capacity of the targets can be planned using this report. If you select Trend as the Report type, a Graph Type list will appear. The Graph Type options are as follows:

      • Min/Max: Select this option to generate a report that plots the minimum and maximum values registered by different metrics during a specified timeline.

      • Avg: Select this option to generate a report that plots the average values computed for various metrics during a specified timeline.

      • Sum: Select this option to generate a report that plots the sum of the values of a measure during a specified timeline.
  8. The speed with which a report is generated depends primarily on the report Timeline. While a Timeline that varies between a couple of days to a week enables the eG Enterprise system to quickly retrieve the required data, timelines that span multiple weeks/months could slow-down the data retrieval and report generation process to a considerable extent, owing to the volume of data involved. In order to ensure quick and easy access to reports, eG Enterprise provides you the option of enabling data retrieval from the Trend information in the database, instead of the Detailed test information that is used by default for report generation. The Detailed test information comprises of multiple measurement records for a test - one or more each for every test execution. Whereas, the Trend information includes only hourly, daily, and monthly summary computations for a test performed on a continuous basis. For instance, during a period of 1 hour, a test that runs every 5 minutes would be inserting atleast 12 records into the Detailed test information base. The Trend information base on the other hand would consist of only 1 record for the same 1 hour period. Fewer the number of records, query execution becomes much quicker, and data retrieval faster. To enable the usage of trend data for report generation, select the Trend option from the Show Data field. By default, the Detailed option is selected here, indicating that the report data is retrieved from the detailed test information in the database.

    If need be, you can also ensure that all reports always use the Detailed test tables alone by hiding the Show Data field from the reporter interface. To achieve this, do the following:

    • Login to the eG administrative interface as ‘admin’.

    • Select the Manager option from the Settings tile that appears when the button against the Admin tab is clicked.

    • From the GENERAL SETTINGS page that then appears, if you set the Compute average/sum of metrics while trending flag to No, then the Show Data field will not appear in the reporter interface; this denies users access to the Trend option, and thus ensures that reports are always generated using the Detailed tables.

    Note:

    • A Trend report will not include the data for the current day since trend data is only computed at the end of the day.

    • If the Trend option is chosen, the time period of the report should be greater than 1 day.

    • The usage of Detailed test tables for generating reports, especially those that span weeks, increases the stress on the eG database, thus resulting in undue delays in report generation. In order to ensure that the database is not choked by such voluminous data requests, you can configure eG Enterprise to automatically "force" the use of the Trend option if the Timeline of a report exceeds a pre-configured duration. To specify this time boundary, do the following:

      • Edit the eg_report.ini file in the {EG_INSTALL_DIR>}\manager\config directory.
      • In the [MISC] section of the file, you will find a DetailedTime parameter.
      • Specify the duration (in days) beyond which Detailed reports cannot be generated, against the DetailedTime parameter, and save the eg_report.ini file.
        For instance, to make sure that Detailed reports are disallowed for a Timeline of over 2 weeks, set the DetailedTime parameter to 14 and save the file.
      • Say, subsequently, you attempt to generate a Detailed report for a Fixed Timeline of 3 weeks (which is greater than the 14-day limit set in our example). The instant you select the 3 weeks option from the Fixed list box, the Detailed option gets automatically disabled, and the Trend option gets enabled. Similarly, if you specify an Any Timeline that runs over 14 days, then, upon clicking the SUBMIT button to generate the report, a message box will appear informing you that only the Trend option is permitted.
      • To proceed with the Trend report generation, click the OK button in the message box. To terminate Trend report generation, click the CANCEL button.

  9. In large environments, reports generated using months of data can take a long time to complete. Administrators now have the option of generating reports on-line or in the background. When a report is scheduled for background generation, administrators can proceed with their other monitoring, diagnosis, and reporting tasks, while the eG manager is processing the report. This saves the administrator valuable 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.

  10. Finally, click on the Run Report button to generate the report. Upon clicking, reports for each of the measures associated with the specified Site, Component, and Report Type combination, will appear.

  11. On the other hand, if the Background Save - PDF option is chosen from the Report Generation list, then clicking on the Run Report button will not generate the report and display it in this page for your benefit. Instead, a message indicating that the report is being processed in the background will appear. This will be accompanied by a link that will lead you to the page that lists all the reports that are being processed in the background, and their current status. If background report generation fails for a report, you can regenerate that report using this page, or can even delete that report if need be. On the other hand, if background processing successfully completes for your report, then, you can view a PDF of the report by clicking on the PDF icon in that page.

  12. Using the icons available at the right, top corner of the report, you can do the following:

    • PRINT the report
    • SAVE the report as a PDF file
    • MAIL the report to configured individuals
    • Save a Data report to a CSV file
    • Add the report as a FAVORITE
    • SCHEDULE the automatic mailing of the report at configured intervals to specific recipients

Note:

The maximum number of descriptors that can be displayed in the WEBSITE PERFORMANCE report page is configurable. For that, set the MaxInfos parameter in the [INFOS] section of the eg_report.ini (in the {EG_INSTALL_DIR}\manager\config directory) to the required value. By default, this parameter will be set to 10, indicating that a maximum of 10 descriptors can be plotted in a single graph in the OPERATIONS REPORT page.