Reporting Tools

Types of Reports

Built-in Reports

The Built-in Reports page (Reports > Built-in from the main menu) offers quick access to a number of useful reports. A short description beneath each available report indicates what each report provides. The available reports are listed in the Built-in Reports Page section above.

Built-in reports are available to users of any access level. Users with an access level of Power User or above have the additional option of adding the configured report as a section to a custom report (see Custom Reports below).

Many of the built-in reports must be configured before being run. These reports prompt the user to input certain parameters in order to configure the report's filter (see the General Options for Reports section above). Simply provide the required parameters and select Generate Report. Once configured and run, a report's configuration filter may be tweaked (or totally reconfigured) to produce different results as long as the page for that report is open. Once you navigate away from that report, all of its filter options are reset. Once you've configured a built-in report to produce the desired results, it is recommended to save that configured report to the Favorites menu (see the General Options for Reports section above) so that you don't need to configure that report each time you wish to run it.

Some of the built-in reports are "canned," meaning that they don't accept any further input from the user and run immediately. These reports are preconfigured to produce very specific results and may not be customized by the user.

Some other built-in reports are "partly-canned," meaning that they use a customizable configuration filter that is simply preconfigured to use typical settings to produce immediate results. Once run, the configuration filter for this type of report may then be customized by the user in exactly the same way as a report that must be configured first (as explained above).

Once any built-in report has been run, options to view or email the report (as a PDF file) become available.

Custom Reports

A custom report is a combined group of individual reports tailored to a specific recipient or group. It is typically made up of a collection of built-in (see above) and other reports. Any individual report in Netreo may be added to a custom report as a section. (However, other custom reports and advanced reports (see below) may not be added to a custom report.) 

Custom reports may be run ad hoc and previewed in your browser, run and emailed ad hoc to arbitrary recipients, run and emailed ad hoc to its configured recipients, and run and emailed on a regular schedule to its configured recipients. Emailed reports are exported as either PDF or CSV files (configurable in the report) and attached to an email which is sent to each recipient.

Reports delivered on a schedule are queued and sent from the Netreo server at 1:30 a.m. (server time). Weekly scheduled reports are sent on Mondays, while monthly scheduled reports are sent on the 1st of the month. Individual delivery schedules for reports may be paused to prevent them from running without the need to delete the schedule.

Custom reports are managed on the Custom Reports Administration page (Reports > Custom from the main menu or select Custom Reports on the Built-in Reports page).

Only users with an access level of Power User and above may create and configure custom reports.

See Work With Custom Reports for instructions on creating and managing custom reports.

Advanced Reports

An advanced report is conceptually similar to a custom report (see above), but uses a report template as a base. These templates are made up of report widgets that serve the same purpose as adding individual reports to a custom report (thus becoming a "section" in the advanced report). Using a template allows you to quickly create multiple versions of the same report (for different device groups, interfaces and time frames) instead of manually assembling separate custom reports for each variant you need.

Each report widget in an advanced report has some basic options that must be configured before running the report (you only need to do this once, in the template). The advanced report itself is where you configure the devices and time frame to report on. This way, one template can be used to quickly create multiple versions of the same report for different devices, covering different times, etc.

Advanced reports may be run ad hoc and previewed in your browser, run and emailed ad hoc to arbitrary recipients, run and emailed ad hoc to its configured recipients, and run and emailed on a regular schedule to its configured recipients. Emailed reports are exported as PDF files and attached to an email which is sent to each recipient.

Reports delivered on a schedule are queued and sent from the Netreo server at 1:30 a.m. (server time). Weekly scheduled reports are sent on Mondays, while monthly scheduled reports are sent on the 1st of the month. Individual delivery schedules for reports may be paused to prevent them from running without the need to delete the schedule.

Advanced reports are managed on the Advanced Reporting page (Reports > Advanced from the main menu).

Only users with an access level of Power User and above may create and configure advanced reports.

See Work With Advanced Reports for instructions on creating and managing advanced reports.

Advanced Report Templates

Since an advanced report uses a report template as a base; to create an advanced report, you must first create a report template.

As part of a report template, you may optionally configure additional text content for the email that will contain the report. This added text is appended to the contents of the report email.

Report widgets are added to a report template by dragging and dropping them into the template. Each widget then becomes a section in the advanced report, and the widget's name becomes the name of the section.

Some widgets are device- or interface-specific. These are indicated by an icon to the right of the widget name. These widgets can only be used by themselves in a report template. Once added, no other widgets can be used in that template. Conversely, once any generic widget is added to a report template, the device- and interface-specific widgets are no longer available for use.

All other report widget types are considered generic.

Some generic widgets may be added to a report template multiple times with each configured to show data from different sources. These are indicated by an icon to the right of the widget name. You may add as many generic widgets to a report template as you wish.

A generic widget with no icon to the right of its name indicates that that widget type may only be added to a template once (and not multiple times, as above). These widgets typically show global data of some kind, so it would be pointless to add more than one of each type. They still may be freely mixed with other widget types, but no additional widgets of that same type may be added to the template.

Once a report template has been created, any number of advanced reports may be created using that template. However, advanced reports are limited to one report template per advanced report.

General Options for Running Reports

When running an individual report, there are several features that are common to almost all reports in Netreo. This section looks at each of those features in detail.

Filter

Most reports in Netreo have filtering options that can be used to tune (or even drastically alter) the report results. These include such things as which devices are included in the report and the time period for which the report should be run. If a report has a configuration filter it may be accessed by selecting Filter on the report page (if the options are not already visible).

A typical filter for a report.

 

The list below details the filter options common to most reports.

• Grouping - Allows you to specify the devices that should be included in the report. Grouping options generally include functional groups, categories, sites, web applications, tags, etc. Once you've selected a grouping type, the next field will let you select the actual group of that type to populate the device selection list. (Occasionally, a report only allows selection of a specific group type. In that case, you will only see the field to select the specific group you wish to use.) Generally, selecting a group includes all devices in that group in the report. However, if a report needs you to instead select individual devices to be included, then after selecting a group type and specific group, you are presented with the device selection table.
  
  This table shows all devices in the selected group. (Note on selecting functional groups: When selecting a functional group, two additional options are available - Everything, which includes all devices under management, and None, which includes only devices that are not  assigned to any functional group.) Since this table may contain a very long list of devices, several options are available to help you work with it.
  At the top left, you may select the number devices shown per page in the table (use the page numbers at the bottom right to navigate through the table).
  At the top right is a search box that acts as a realtime filter for the list. Entering a term in the search box searches each column of the table for that term (returning partial matches as a term is entered). The filter uses basic text matching on all columns.
  Check the box to the left of a device to select it in the table. (Devices will remain selected when paging through the table and while using the search filter.)
  The table is made up of the following columns (click the column header to sort the table by that column):
  • Device - The name of the device in Netreo.
  • IP - The IP address assigned to the device.
  • Category - The category device group to which the device belongs.
  • Site - The site device group to which the device belongs.
  • Type - The device type assigned to the device.
  • Validated State - Whether the device has been validated for monitoring or not.
• Timing Options - Allows you to specify the time period on which to report. Available options are:
  • Quick Times - Allows you to select from one of Netreo's prebuilt time selections.
  • Custom Times - Allows you to specify and exact start and end date/time. When using this option, select the calendar icon next to the time variable you wish to set. Select a date from the calendar that appears, then select a time from the time matrix that appears.
• Output - For reports that provide tabular data, this filter option allows you to specify the output format of the report. Available options are:
  • CSV - (default) The report is output as a comma separated values file. You are prompted with a save dialog, as this format is not directly viewable in your browser.
  • Table - The report is output as an HTML table. This option is directly viewable in your browser.

Many other options may be available, but they are generally specific to their respective reports and should be self-explanatory based on the report type. Once you have finished configuring a report filter, you must select either Filter Report or Generate Report (as applicable) to display the new report results.

View PDF

Netreo can export many of its reports in PDF format. Select View PDF on a report results page to export that report. (You must first run a report before it may be viewed in PDF format.)

What happens when the report is exported is dependent on your browser settings. Generally, a new browser tab or window is opened containing the report in PDF format. Otherwise, you may be prompted with the file save dialog for your operating system and must download the exported PDF file before viewing.

Save to Favorites

This option isn't a feature exclusive to reports, but it's worth mentioning here as it's particularly useful.

Any report may be saved to your user-specific favorites list (actually, any page in Netreo may be saved to your favorites list). Configure a report as desired (if necessary) and run it. Then select the Add to Favorites icon (heart shape in the top right of the main menu), provide a title for the report, and select Add to Favorites. All report configuration parameters are saved. Then, if you run the report from Favorites (in the main menu), the report is run exactly as configured and updated with the most current data.

Any Netreo pages saved to the Favorites menu are saved for the logged in user only.

You may add as many reports to your personal user favorites menu as you like, each with custom titles to tell them apart. Manage your favorites list by going to the main menu and selecting Favorites > [YourUserName] Views > Favorites Admin.

Email & Schedule

Netreo can send many of its reports (in PDF format) to recipients using its built-in email server. (You must first run a report before it may be emailed in PDF format.)

A report may be manually emailed ad hoc for immediately delivery or scheduled to be run automatically and delivered regularly. Select Email & Schedule on a report results page to email a report.

When emailing a report, you have two options:

• Email Now - Allows you to specify recipients, add a message and email the report immediately.
• Add to Custom Report - Allows you to add this report to an existing or new custom report (see Custom Reports below) as a report section. Selecting this option displays a list of existing custom reports from which to choose. The number to the right of a report name indicates how many sections that report currently has included in it. Select Add to new custom report (at the bottom of the selection list) to create a new custom report and add this report to it.

Where to Find Reports

Each heading below is named for a location in Netreo where reports are available.

See Data Retention for information on how long Netreo retains data of each type.

Main Menu

The following reports are available from the main menu under Reports. The list items are arranged to reflect the menu navigation to the listed report.

• Alerts >
  • Anomalistic Behavior - Reports history of non-OK states for each (anomaly) threshold check on the selected devices within the selected time period. Can be filtered for statistical group type and incident/check status.
  • Configured Alerts - Reports full details for all host alert contacts configured for the selected devices (including alert threshold level, and configured threshold check values and configured service checks for the device).
  • Current Outage Report - Reports on devices currently experiencing an outage of the selected service. (Requires a service check to be currently monitoring that service on each respective device.)
  • Incidents - Reports on all incidents that are either active or have changed status within the selected time period. Can be filtered on incident attribute (using exact text string match).
  • History Logs - Reports on the history of status changes for any service checks on the selected devices that have changed status within the selected time period.
  • Notification >
    • Detailed - Provides the same information as "Summary" below, as well as the log details for each notification. The notification log details table may have additional filters cumulatively added to it (after the initial report filtering) by clicking the vertical 3-dot pull-down menu at the right side of any column header and selecting the Add Filters item (not all columns have filters available). You may add as many filters from each column as you require. Added filters are displayed along the top of the table in the Active Filters section. Remove individual filters by clicking the close (X) icon next to the filter name, or click the Clear All button to remove all filters at once.
    • Summary - Reports on the number of alert notifications (for each incident status change) sent for the selected devices within the selected time period.
  • Threshold History - Reports on the history of non-OK states for each (static) threshold check on the selected devices within the selected time period. Can be filtered for statistical group type and incident/check status.
• Built-in - See the Built-in Reports Page section of this article below.
• Custom - See the Custom Reports sectionof this article below.
• Executive >
  • Incident Overview - Reports high-level performance information related to incidents (number per day, duration, average response time, etc.) for the previous month or month to date.
  • Site/Business Workflows Overview - Reports high-level performance information (aggregate uptime, service availability, capacity, etc.) on business workflows or sites for the previous month or month to date.
• Incidents >
  • Incident Management - Reports all incidents that were "active incidents" at any point during the time frame selected for the reports. Includes a variety of information about each incident. Resulting data can be exported to CSV.
  • Problem Management - (Netreo Enterprise edition only) Reports on alarms for monitoring checks that have occurred within a specified time frame (the incident search window) that have also occurred within another specified time frame (the reoccurrence lookback window) and are thus considered "recurring" alarms. Includes the number of occurrences for each alarm along with their current state. Only primary alarms are included in the report. Resulting data can be exported to CSV.
• Syslog & Traps >
  • Search - Allows you to search all received logs and traps for specific activity within the specified time period.
  • Summary - Reports on received log and trap activity (code, count, worst offender, etc.) within the specified time period.
• Top Talkers - Reports on the top 10 devices with the highest usage of the selected resources. Devices included in the report are filtered by selecting a device grouping (business workflow, category, arbitrary device, device attribute, email application, site, tag, web application) and then selecting a specific member of that group. Any available performance metrics from the devices in that group may then be selected as variables to be included in the report.
• Uptime >
  • Detailed - Reports on aggregate availability performance for the selected device group type within the selected time period, as well as performance values for individual devices within the group that fell below 100% availability.
  • Monthly - Reports on uptime average for the selected device group type within the selected time period(s). (Multiple time period selection is allowed, but periods must be contiguous.)
• Advanced - See the Advanced Reports sectionof this article below.

The following reports are available from the main menu under Utilities.

• Arbitrary Instance - Reports on arbitrary selected performance statistics for a given device. Multiple statistics may be included in a single report.
• Traffic - See "Conversation Report" in the Built-in Reports Page section below.
• Configuration Compliance - Reports on devices that have had their device configurations updated to comply with a device configuration ruleset in a device template.

Built-in Reports Page

The following reports are available on the Built-in Reports page in the indicated section (Reports > Built-in from the main menu).

Infrastructure and Capacity Planning

• Bandwidth Analysis - Reports on average, peak and 95th percentile utilization for interfaces and latency on the selected devices.
• Business Workflow Health - Reports on performance trends for devices in a selected business workflow.
• Business Workflow Incidents - Reports on active incidents for the selected business workflows.
• Inventory Report - Reports device information for selected devices - including device name, IP address, device groups, description, serial number, location and contact information. (Note: The Inventory Report is subject to the same reporting limitations regarding queried OIDs as the Host Information panel of the Device Dashboard.)
• Last Reboot Report - Reports on devices that have recently restarted, or alternatively, devices that have not rebooted within a specified time period.
• Most-Errored Router Ports - Reports on router interfaces with the highest number of errors/sec.
• Most Utilized Hard Drives - Reports on the most utilized storage devices.
• Percentile Report - Reports the statistical percentile of bandwidth utilization for all interfaces on the selected devices.
• Time in State - Reports on the percentage of time each host, service or threshold check of the selected devices spent in each state during the specified period.
• Top Router Bandwidth Usage - Reports on the most utilized router ports for the selected devices.
• Virtualization Report - Reports on a variety of virtualization-specific statistics, such as storage I/O and latency.

Microsoft 365

 (Only available if you have the Microsoft 365 Insight add-on installed.)

• Microsoft 365 Time in State - This report shows you the percentage of time each Microsoft 365 application spent in a critical or warning state during the specified period.

Traffic

• Conversation Report - View traffic volume by conversation, interface in, or interface out.

Web

• Web Time in State - This report shows you the percentage of time each web application spent in a critical or warning state during the specified period.

Device Dashboard

The following are "per device" reports, available from the "Reports" menu of the Device Dashboard under "History Reports." Only reports applicable to the type of device will appear in the menu. These reports are intended for device forensics and cannot be added to scheduled custom reports or advanced reports.

(Note: The entries in the "Summary Reports" section of the Reports menu are not actually "reports," they are performance graphs that may not be added to custom or advanced reports, and so are not covered here.)

History Reports

• Availability Time in State - Reports on the percentage of time each service check on this device spent in each state during the specified period.
• Anomalistic Behavior - Reports history of non-OK states for each (anomaly) threshold check on this device.
• History Logs - Reports history of status changes for any service checks on this device.
• Notification Logs - Reports on the number of alert notifications (for each incident status change) sent for this device within the selected time period, as well as the log details for each notification.
• Threshold History - Reports history of non-OK states for each (static) threshold check on this device.
• Threshold Time in State - Reports on the percentage of time each threshold check on this device spent in each state during the specified period.
• Maintenance Window History - Reports on the maintenance window history for this device. (Includes every maintenance window for this device since it was added to Netreo as a managed device.)
• Logs and Traps - Allows you to search logs and traps originating from this device for text strings, codes or built-in notification types (alert, error, notice, etc.).
• Autopilot Activity Log - Opens the activity log for Autopilot, filtered for this device. (This report is only available if you have the Autopilot module for AI Ops installed.)

Config Manager

The following reports are available from the Config Manager page (Quick Views > Config Manager from the main menu).

• Config Manager Authentication Failures Report - Reports on devices that Config Manager could not access for configuration management (due to authentication failure) over the last 24 hours. (Select Config Manager Failures Report to view report.)

Device Templates Administration

The following reports are available from the Device Templates Administration page (Administration > Templates from the main menu - limited to SuperAdmin users only).

• Template Baseline - (Select Baseline Templates to view report.)
• Unlocked Thresholds Report - Reports on individual threshold checks that should be controlled by a device template, but that have been unlocked for manual configuration. (Select Template Released Report to view report.)