Comparison Reports - Components

The Comparison Reports - Components allows administrators to compare statistics pertaining to selected components. For example, consider an environment comprising of a Web server supported by an Oracle server, LDAP server, and a DNS server.

Say for example, the web server hosts a web site that depends upon the Oracle server for storage and recovery of critical data. The Oracle server uses the Active Directory server for authenticating user accesses.

Assume that the user accessing the web site (on the web server) begins to experience a marked deterioration in the responsiveness of the site. An increase in the response time of a web site could be caused by either/all of the following reasons:

• A network delay between the web server and the user

• A problem in the response time of one/all of the other servers (Oracle, Active Directory) that the web server relies on.

A Comparison report provides an easy way of comparing the response times of each application.

To generate a Comparison report for the above-mentioned scenario, do the following:

1. Follow the menu sequence: REPORTS BY FUNCTION -> Analytical Reports -> Comparison Reports -> Components.

2. From the Comparison Reports - Components page that appears, define the configuration for comparison of the componnets of your choice by clicking the Please define configuration link. The Define Configuration pop up window will then appear. From this window, select a filter criterion from the Analyze By list box. Administrators of large IT infrastructures, which are characterized by hundreds of components, may find it difficult to pick and choose the components for which a report is to be generated; this is because, in such environments, the Component list in this page will be populated with a large number of components, which would naturally make component selection tough. To enable administrators of such environments to quickly locate the components of interest to them and swiftly generate the reports, eG Enterpise provides a Analyze By list that consists of a variety of filter options. By default, the Component option is chosen from this list - this indicates that all the managed components of a chosen Component type will be available for selection in the Component list by default. In addition to this, the Analyze By list provides the following filter options as well:

   • Service: If the component for which reports are to be generated is involved in the delivery of a particular service, then pick this option from the Analyze By list. Doing so will invoke a Service list from which a service name is to be chosen. Upon selection of a service, the components that are part of the service will populate the Component list in this page. If there are still too many components in the list to choose from, you can narrow your search further by using the Component Type text box. Select the component type of the component for which the report is to be generated. The Component list will then be populated with all component names of the chosen Component Type. Select the component of your choice from this list.

   • Segment: If the components for which a report is to be generated is part of a segment, pick the Segment option from the Analyze By list. Then, select the segment of interest to you from the Segment list. This will populate the Component list with the components that are part of the chosen segment. If there are still too many components in the list to choose from, you can narrow your search further by using the Component Type text box. Select the component type of the component for which the report is to be generated. The Component list will then be populated with all component names of the chosen Component Type. Select the component of your choice from this list.

   • Zone: If the components for which a report is to be generated is part of a zone, pick the Zone option from the Analyze By list. To include sub-zones also in your search for components, set the Include SubZones flag to Yes. Then, select the zone of interest to you from the Zone list. This will populate the Component list with the components that are part of the chosen zone. If there are still too many components in the list to choose from, you can narrow your search further by using the Component Type text box. Select the component type of the component for which the report is to be generated. The Component list will then be populated with all component names of the chosen Component Type. Select the component of your choice from this list.

3. In the case of our example, the components to be compared are part of a web site service. Therefore, from the Analyze By list, select Service as the basis for comparison. Doing so populates the Service list with the complete list of fully configured services in the environment. From this list, select the service for which the Comparison Reports is to be generated.

4. The Component Type list will then be populated with the component types that are involved in the delivery of the chosen Service. By default, All is displayed in this list box. Pick the component type of the Component that is a candidate for the comparison from this list.

5. The Component list will then be populated with the components that are involved in the delivery of the chosen Service. Pick the Component that is a candidate for the comparison from this list.

6. The Layer list box will now display the layers that are part of the layer model of the chosen component. From this list, select the layer for which a graph is to be generated.

7. Upon selection of a layer, the Test list box will display the tests associated with that layer. Select the Test that generates the measure for which a graph is to be generated.

8. All the measures that will be generated by the selected test will then appear in the Measure list box. From this list, pick the Measure that is to be included in the comparison report.

9. If the chosen test consists of descriptors, these will be listed in the Descriptors list box. Select the descriptor that needs to be included for comparison.

10. If a meaningful name for the measurements chosen should be displayed on the report, provide a Display Name here.

11. Now, add these specifications to the list box below by clicking the Add button.

12. Similarly, add the specifications pertaining to all the measures that need to be compared and analyzed. In our example, to compare response times, add the response time measure related to the web server, AD server, and Oracle server, and the Average delay measure pertaining to the web server.

13. If any of the added specifications need to be removed, select the specification by clicking on the check box corresponding to it, and then click on the Remove button. If all the specifications are to be removed at one shot, simply select the check box before the Display Name column. Then, click the Remove button.

14. Next, from the added measures, select the ones for which a comparison graph is to be generated by clicking on the relevant check boxes. Since all the added measures in our example need to be compared, select them all.

15. Then, specify the Timeline for the graph. 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.

16. 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 one/more Components for report generation. 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.

17. Select the Graph Type. To view a single graph that plots the values of all the selected measures, select the Single option. If individual graphs for each of the selected measures need to be viewed, then, select the Multiple option.

18. 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 Run Report 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 CANCEL button.

19. 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.

20. Finally, click the Run Report button to generate the graph. If the Graph Type is set to Single, and the option chosen from the Report Generation list is Foreground Generation - HTML, then, clicking on the Run Report button will invoke the Comparison Report.

21. As stated earlier, besides service components, the Comparison Reports - Components page can be used to compare independent components, segment components, and even, zone components. For instance, to compare independent components, select Component from the Analyze By list, select an independent Component, pick the Layer, Test, Measure and Descriptor (if applicable) to be compared, and click the Add button. This way, multiple components can be chosen for comparison.

22. Similarly, to draw a performance comparison chart for segment components, select Segment from the Analyze By list, choose the Segment whose components are to be compared, select the segment Component that will participate in the comparative analysis, pick the Layer, Test, Measure and Descriptor (if applicable) to be compared, and click the Add button. This way, multiple components from the same segment or across segments can be chosen for comparison.

23. Likewise, for comparing performance across a particular zone, select Zone from the Analyze By list, choose the Zone, select the zone Component that will participate in the comparison, pick the Layer, Test, Measure and Descriptor (if applicable) to be compared, and click the Add button. In the same manner, multiple components from the same zone or across zones can be chosen for comparison.

24. 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 icon in that page.

25. 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