Data reporting is a integral part of operations management. Reporting is important for identifying capacity issues and usage trends in the SOA environment. It is also important for demonstrating conformance with established performance requirements and usage targets. JaxView includes reporting options to meet these objectives.
There are two categories of reports in JaxView: scheduled reports and on-demand reports. Within each category are different types of report. In this context, the report category refers to mode of report generation. The report type refers to the content of the report. The following table describes the report categories and types.
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Report Category |
Report Types |
Description |
Creation and Access |
|---|---|---|---|
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Scheduled |
Scheduled Report |
Includes performance summary, error, warning, and graph data options. Can be generated daily or weekly. |
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Scheduled SLA Report |
Includes performance summary, faults, error, warning, and graph data options. Can be generated daily or weekly. |
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On-demand |
Dynamic Report |
Includes performance summary, error, warning, and graph data options. The same content as for scheduled reports but can be created for any time period selected at the time the report is generated. |
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Message Report |
A list of message exchanges recorded for the selected Web service operation. Can be created for any time period selected when the report is generated. |
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On-demand SLA Report |
Includes performance summary, faults, error, warning, and graph data options. The same content as for scheduled SLA reports but can be created for any time period selected at the time the report is generated. |
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Operation Monitor Report |
Displays performance summary, error, warning, and graph data for the selected monitor. The same content as for scheduled reports but only displays the last three hours of data. |
Click the monitor name in the Message List table display for operation nodes under the Services tab |
One of the uses of reports is documenting performance over time. This requires that data for a given period of time be available for the reporting application. By default, JaxView is set to maintain data logs for 30 days. This means that on-demand reports are only available for the last 30 days. You can change how long JaxView keeps data logs by modifying the _logKeepDays setting in the Master Config node in the Admin tab. Alternatively, you may configure JaxView to write performance data to an external database. See the section Using a Central Database for JaxView Configuration for more information.
Note: The response time for JaxView reporting request will vary according to several factors. This includes the time period of the report, the number of records in that time period, the load on the server and whether JaxView is querying an external database.
The following sections describe how to work with reports and the applicable report definition properties.
The Reports tab is divided in to two main sections. On the left side is the Reports object tree that you use to add, edit and navigate to report definitions. On the right is a display panel you use to edit report definitions or view report that have been generated. The following sections describe how you work with reports in JaxView.
The Reports object tree is a hierarchy of scheduled report objects defined in JaxView. Report definitions that are in the Reports object tree can be assigned to one or more Web service operations in the Services tab. The report will then gather monitor performance information from the messages collected by the monitors assigned to the operation(s).
The contents of the right side display panel of the Reports tab page is determined by the context selected in the left Reports object tree. Each object node in the left Reports object tree includes an action menu that you access by selecting the node and then use the right mouse click to display the node action menu. The following table describes the nodes in the tree and their associated actions:
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Object Node |
Action Menu Item |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Reports Root node |
Add Report |
Add a new Scheduled report definition to the Reports object tree |
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Add SLA Report |
Add a new Service Level Agreement report definition to the Reports object tree |
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Report type definition node |
Assign to Operation |
Assign the selected report definition to one or more Web service operations in the Services object tree |
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Assign to Transaction |
Assign the selected report definition to one or more Web service transactions in the Transactions object tree |
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Edit |
Edit the selected report definition |
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Delete |
Delete the selected report definition from the Reports object tree |
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Enable |
Enable the selected report definition (if it has been previously disabled) |
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Disable |
Disable a previously enabled scheduled report. The report will not be generated run at its scheduled time if disabled |
The Reports object tree includes a root node that when selected displays the View Reports table in the right panel. This table is the list of scheduled reports generated by JaxView. The table has two sections, one for scheduled reports assigned to operations and one for transaction reports. You use the hyper linked labels in the Reports column of the table to view previously generated reports. The following figure is an example of an View Reports table when the Reports root node is selected.
Clicking on an individual report definition node in the Reports object test displays the Report Properties table for that report. This table has three subsections that list the Web service operations, transactions, and J2EE containers to which the report definition is assigned. The following figure shows an example of the Report Properties table for a Weekly report definition.
Scheduled reports are generated automatically by JaxView at the interval specified for the report. Reports Services tab by clicking on the node for the report definition in the Reports object tree and then selecting the link to the desired report in the View Reports page. Use the following steps to create new scheduled report definition.
To add an new scheduled report definition:
Select the Reports tab from the Main View navigation menu
Select the Reports root node in the Reports object tree on the left side of the page.
Right-click the mouse to display the action menu for the node and select Add Report or Add SLA Report. The corresponding Add Report definition form is displayed in the right panel.
Complete the Add Report form as indicated for the selected report type. See report properties section for the selected report type in the sections below for more information.
Click the Save button near the bottom of the form. After a refresh cycle cycle, the new report definition is displayed in the object tree.
To activate the report, it must be assigned to a Web service operation or a transaction. Select the report node in the object tree and right-click to view the action menu. Select the Assign to Operation or Assign to Transaction item to make the assignement.
There are 2 steps in creating a scheduled report. Creating the report and assigning the report to one or more operation.
To create a scheduled report, right click on the reports root node in the report tree under the Report Tab. Then fill out the information needed.
Then after the report that was just created appears in the report tree, right click on the name allows the user to assign the report to one or more operations. This is a mandatory step for the report to run.
You can create an SLA report in 2 ways. The first is by right clicking on a specific operation in the Services Tree. This is a dynamic SLA report. The other is by adding an SLA report from the reports tab. This is a scheduled SLA report.
On-demand reports are generated from the Services tab by using the right click action menus for Service or Operation nodes in the Service object tree. Use the following steps to generate on-demand reports.
To generate an on-demand report using the Services object tree
Select the Services tab from the Main View navigation menu
Using the Services tree navigation icons, click to expand the group node containing the service or operation for which you want to generate a report.
Select the service or operation node that is to be the subject of the report in the Services object tree.
Right-click the mouse to display the action menu for the node and select report generation item you want. To generate a Dynamic report select Generate Report. To generate a Message report or an on-demand SLA report, select the applicable menu item. The corresponding report definition form is displayed in the right panel.
Complete the view report form as indicated for the selected report type. See report properties section for the selected report type in the sections below for more information.
Click the View button near the bottom of the form. After a processing cycle, the report is displayed in the right panel.
To email a copy of Dynamic reports or on-demand SLA reports, click the Send Email button at the bottom of the report page. The report will be sent to the addresses entered in the Recipient Email settings when the report was defined.
Dynamic reports include a performance summary as reported by the monitors assigned to watch a particular Web service operation. This includes average and maximum performance metrics recorded by each monitor, a listing of messages that exceeded the Error conditions and Warning conditions, and graphs or performance over the time interval of the report. After the report has been generated, the user can email report by clicking on Send Email at the bottom of the page.
The Message report type is used to display individual message records that were exchanged with a Web service operation.
The Operation Monitor Report type is a predefined report available for each Web service operation in the Services object tree. To access these reports, select an Operation node in the Services object tree. When the Message List view is displayed in the right side panel, select the hyper linked monitor name in the Operation Monitor Last Result sub table below the Summary table near the top of the page. The report will show the performance results for the monitor for the last three hours.