Generate reports

This chapter describes features you need to manipulate to be able to generate & manage reports.

Jobs

A job is an entity that you configure to be able to generate a report and should be configured in terms of:

• A report design to use
• Centreon objects (hosts, services, host groups, service groups, business activities, etc.)
• A specific period (last month, current month, yesterday etc.. )

Job list

The following menu lists jobs according to their state: running, scheduled, failed, stopped or finished: Reporting > Business Intelligence > Configuration > Jobs

Description of columns:

Column	Description
Name	Name of scheduled job
Report design	Design to be used for report
Period	Period covered for generated report
Output format	Export formats of generated report (PDF, Excel, Powerpoint,CSV, DOC)
Execution time	Execution date and time of scheduled job
Options	Number of job duplications if the duplication option is selected in the menu "More Actions"

In the "Name" column on the table, an icon is displayed according to the job state:

Icon	Status
	Job stopped
	Job scheduled
	Job being executed
	Job ended (only for a single-use job)
	Job failed or canceled

Search filters

Search filters are available for quick access to jobs:

The "Search" field allows to filter by job name and "Job state" filters by job state.

Description of the different states:

State	Description
Scheduled	Job planned, will be executed
Running	Job running, the report is being generated
Failed	Job failed
Stopped	Job stopped, will not be executed
Finished	Job is completed, report has been generated. This state appears only for single jobs. Cyclic jobs return to the "Scheduled" state once the report is generated
All	All states displayed

Refreshing the job list

The following icons allow you to dynamically update the job list:

Icon	Description
	Manually refresh the list and state of each job.
	Start or stop the automatic refresh of the page

More action menu

The action menu allows you to perform a variety of tasks on one or more jobs in the list.

The following table describes the different options:

Action	Description
Trash	Sends the selected jobs to the trash.
Stop	Stops the selected jobs.
Reschedule	Schedules/Runs the selected jobs.
Duplicate	Duplicates the selected jobs. All settings and relations will also be duplicated.

Adding / Editing a job

To generate a report, you need to create a job by clicking "Add" in the job listing page. Configuring a job is done in two main steps (tabs):

• Select the report design you want to use (see all the designs available here)
• Select the perimeter on which to generate the report

Two optional steps (tabs) can be done to:

• Publish the report
• Tune the job

The following menu is used for adding a new scheduled job:

1. Configuration

A report generation job must be linked to a report design ("Report design").

Several report output formats are available:

• Acrobat PDF
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Powerpoint
• CSV: Only the first BIRT Data Set of the report can be exported in CSV format. Usually, this format requires a specially designed BIRT report.

Reports can be generated in other languages. Currently available languages are:

• French
• US English

The icon on the right of the selection menu allows you to refresh the list of available report languages in the case you want to add a translation yourself

Scheduling

A job can be executed in three different ways: immediately, scheduled for later, or in a cyclic way.

Immediate execution

The job will start when saving the form.

SCHEDULED > One shot

CYCLIC

This parameter causes the job to run on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

For cyclic jobs, the period is calculated automatically according to job frequency:

• Daily reports cover the previous day.
• Weekly reports cover the previous week.
• Monthly reports cover the previous month.

2. Report parameters

The "Report Parameters" menu is used to set the specific parameters for the report design.

This part of the menu changes according to the report design selected under the "Configuration" tab of the scheduled job.

There are three types of field in this form:

• Text fields

• Radio buttons

• Selection and multi-selection menus for the following resources:

  • Hosts
  • Metrics
  • Host groups
  • Service groups
  • Service categories
  • Time periods
  • Business groups (Centreon BAM module is required)
  • Business activities (Centreon BAM module is required)
  • Images that will be inserted in the reports (logo for example).

In the Time period field for reports concerning BAM, do not use time periods that include exceptions, as the exceptions will not not be taken into account.

Note: A value must be specified for each field in this menu except for the multi-selection parameter when metrics are excluded.

By default, all metrics will be applied.

3. Report publication (Optional)

Once a report is generated, it can be automatically published using pre-defined rules. When creating a job, you can create several rules under the "Publication" tab.

4. Tuning (Optional)

The "Tuning" menu contains three parameters:

• Report color theme: Color theme management has been implemented, allowing you to choose a color palette. Seven default themes are available: Maroon, Orange, Blue, Ice, Green, Multicolor-1 and Multicolor-2.

  Theme color does not apply to business activity reports

  The available color palettes are:

  

  The default color theme can be changed through the Centreon MBI General options menu. For more information, see the General options chapter General options

• Multiplier coefficient of the scheduled task: Each report design has a weight. A scheduled task can multiply this weight according to the parameters used to run the report design. The sum of the weight of the running tasks cannot exceed the maximum load the reporting engine can handle (defined in General Options).

• Administrator e-mail notification: Enable or disable notification when scheduled job is generated.

Accessing generated reports

After a scheduled job is executed, a new report is generated and then stored on the Centreon server. You can then view or download it using the following menu Reporting > Monitoring Business Intelligence > Report view

The following table lists the reports generated:

Column	Description
Name	Name of the report
Period	Period in which data was selected to build the statistics
Date of generation	Date the report was generated
Download	Link for downloading the file

Search filters

You can search in any of these criteria:

• Period: chosen period on which to generate the report
• Date of generation: when was the report generated
• Frequency (daily, monthly, etc.)
• Search by job name (applies to the "Name" column)
• Search by report design

Action menu

Use the action menu to move reports that are no longer needed to the trash:

Job groups

Job groups are used to manage user access to reports and mail publication

Job group list

The following menu lists all job groups available on Centreon MBI: Reporting > Monitoring Business Intelligence > Configuration | Job groups

More action menu

Action	Description

• Delete | Delete group
• Duplicate | Duplicate group

Add / Edit

A job group can be added or modified through the following menu:

Description of menu fields:

Column	Description
Name	Job group name
Description	Job group description
Linked job	Jobs linked to group

Report design

The design of the reports you generate with Centreon MBI originates from ".rptdesign" files, which are created with the open-source tool Business Intelligence Reporting Tool (BIRT).

To generate a report, a report design should be configured in terms of:

• Centreon objects (hosts, services, host groups, service groups, business activities, etc.)
• A specific period (monthly report, weekly report, etc.).

Each report design can have a several parameters, which must be defined in the Centreon interface.

Report design list

The following menu lists the report designs available in Centreon MBI Reporting > Monitoring Business Intelligence > Configuration > Report Design

Description of the above table:

Column	Description
Name	Name of report design
Description	Short description of report design
State	Status of report design (Enabled/Disabled)
Weight	Report weight: report generation workload index.

Add / edit

A report design can be edited or a new one can be added if you develop your own reports (using BIRT)

Description of the menu fields:

Fields	Description
Name	Name of report design
Report Source file	Name of the ". rptdesign" BIRT file corresponding to the report design. This file is stored in the "reports/" directory of "Centreon MBI" installation directory.
Description	Short description of report design.
XML parameters file	Each report can have several specific parameters. This .xml file defines those parameters.
Weight	Report weight: report generation workload index.
Report design groups	Report design group linked to report design for ACL management.

Only Centreon administrators are authorized to edit report designs or add a new one. Users without privileges only have read-only access to existing report designs.

Action menu

The "More actions" menu allows you to perform certain actions on report designs:

Action	Description
Trash	Move file to trash.
Activate	Enable a report design for report generation.
Deactivate	Disable a report design for report generation.

Report design groups

Report design group list

The following menu lists all report design groups available on Centreon MBI Reporting > Monitoring Business Intelligence > Configuration > Report design groups

Add / Edit

The following menu is used for adding or editing a report design group:

Column	Description
Name	Name of report design group
Description	Short description of report design group
Linked report designs	Report designs linked to the group

Logo

You can store images in the Centreon MBI configuration for reuse in future reports to be generated. Use the selection menu to incorporate an image (or logo) into the desired report design.

Regardless of the size of the image (or logo), it must have an aspect ratio of 4:4 to fit into the required space.

Image list

The following menu lists all the images available:

Reporting > Business Intelligence > Configuration > Logo

Description of columns:

Column	Description
Name	Image name
Preview	Display loaded image
Type	Image format: PNG, JPEG or GIF
Size	Image size (width x height)

Add/Edit images

To add a new image, click "Add" and then fill in the following menu fields:

Description of fields:

Column	Description
Name	Name of image. No special characters allowed
Image	Image source file

Action menu

Use the following menu to delete images from the list. You cannot, however, delete images already linked to jobs generating reports.

Trash

All deleted report designs or scheduled jobs are first sent to the trash, as a security measure, before being permanently deleted. Use the following menu to access the trash:

Reporting > Monitoring Business Intelligence > Administration > Trash

Properties of the trash:

• Once in the trash, an element will not appear in any other menu.
• Scheduling is stopped for all jobs in the trash.
• Deleting a report design or scheduled job does not cause any linked PDF reports to be deleted.

Items can be restored or permanently deleted through this menu:

Search filters

The following search filters allow you to search for an item in the trash:

• "Search", filter by element name
• "Object type", filter by element type