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Title
How to run reports in Foglight -
Description
Quest Foglight contains a number of pre-defined report templates. Each template serves a particular purpose, but many templates have the same expected inputs. The values you specify for these inputs define the content of the report.Use a template as-is to quickly generate or schedule a report, or change the report input values to meet specific requirements. -
Resolution
Click Run a Report on the Reports dashboard to select and generate a report immediately (in the PDF format, for example) using the Create Report wizard. If you have the Manager Report role or the Advanced Operator’s role, you can also schedule a report from this wizard.
To generate a report:
1. On the navigation panel, click Reports.
2. Click Run a Report.
* TIP: The Run a Report menu is accessible from other locations on the browser interface. You can run a report from any dashboard you are viewing by selecting Run a Report from the Reports menu at the top right corner of that dashboard. In addition, you can select the same option by clicking Run a Report on the General tab of the action panel.
3. Select a template for your report. To make your selection easier:
• Click the Templates by Module tab to sort the list of templates by the module (for example, Services) for which the templates were created or click the Templates by Role tab to sort the list of templates by the role (for example, Operator) with which the templates are associated.
* TIP: Use the Templates by Module tab to find a report that is included in a particular cartridge.
Hover the cursor over a template name in the Description column of the Select a Template wizard page to view a description of the template in a tooltip.
• Filter the list of templates by typing the first few letters of the template name or module in the Search field. You can also click the Search menu to perform an advanced or regular expression search.
• Hover the cursor over the template name or click the description. A tooltip appears that describes the template and its inputs.
4. Click Next.
The wizard describes the report template and lists the required, and optional input parameters.
5. Leave the report input values as they are or tailor the report by specifying different input values.
To specify a value, click the Edit icon () next to the report input. The contents of the dialog box that appears vary depending on the input value that you are editing.
6. Click Next.
7. Type a unique name for the report in the Name field.
8. Choose the Output Format:
• PDF is the default option.• Excel creates a report that you can open in Microsoft Excel.• XML creates a report in the XML format. Select this format if you want to import the data into other applications.* NOTE: In certain cases, the XML output format contains more information than the other output formats. For example, the XML format can provide all the metric information for a given time range, whereas the Excel format only displays the current average value. This is because the Excel output is limited to what can be placed in a cell.
9. Optional—if you want Quest Foglight to send this report to specific individuals, type a comma-separated list of their email addresses.
* NOTE: Your Administrator must configure Foglight to direct outgoing mail through your mail server before you can use this functionality. Contact your Administrator for details.
10. Optional — Specify any of the following scheduling options for your report.* NOTE: These scheduling options are not available to users who have the Operator role only. Contact your Administrator if you require this functionality.
a. Select the Schedule This Report check box to enable scheduling. The wizard will present scheduling options on the next page.
b. In the Retain field, type the number of instances of a scheduled report that you want Quest Foglight to keep. For example, if you type 3, Quest Foglight deletes the oldest instance of this report when it generates a fourth instance.
c. The Enable Scheduling check box is selected by default. When this option is selected, the scheduled report is automatically enabled when you click Next.
Clear this check box if you want to disable the scheduled report for now. If you do so, Quest Foglight does not run the report on the schedule until you enable the report manually.
d. Click Next.
A list of report schedules appears.e. Select a schedule from the list or click the New Schedule icon to create your own schedule. If you choose to create your own schedule, select a schedule pattern type and specify the schedule time and expiration details. When you are finished, type a name for the schedule and a description.* NOTE: To delete a schedule, contact your Administrator. Schedules are deleted in the Administration | Schedules | Manage Schedules dashboard. For more information, see the Administration and Configuration Guide.
f. Click Next.
The Report Summary appears.
11. Confirm that the report values are correct. If they are not correct, click Previous and make the appropriate changes. If they are correct, click Finish to generate the report. The report is automatically generated and displayed in a browser window. The report is also listed in the Generated Reports View on the Manage Reports dashboard.* TIP: You can add parameterized input values to a report and change them at any time. For example, you can create a report to capture the memory utilization used by a specific host machine. By using a top parent node data element as the parameterized input value, you can later run this report on any host found under the parent node. For more information about working with parameterized input values, see Using Parameterized Input Values.
The following video provides a walkthrough on how to run a report based on a templates using the Create Report wizard.