Reporting Center user’s guide Part number: T2558-96324 Third edition: March 2009
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Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction .........................................................1-1 Intended audience ............................................................................ 1-1 Resources ......................................................................................... 1-1 Chapter 2 Installing Storage Mirroring Reporting Center ......2-1 Requirements ................................................................................... 2-1 Configuring the SQL database ..........
Emailing reports ............................................................................... 5-2 Scheduling email reports .................................................................. 5-3 Selecting a reporting time period ..................................................... 5-7 Customizing report appearance parameters ..................................... 5-8 Cell styles ............................................................................................................ 5-8 Table fields ..
Data collection errors ..................................................................................... 5-39 Alerts . .......................................................................................................... 5-39 Chapter 6 Viewing Alerts ......................................................6-1 Configuring alerts ............................................................................. 6-1 Chapter 7 Troubleshooting ...................................................
Introduction Storage Mirroring Reporting Center (SMRC) is a centralized reporting and analysis solution that allows users to access detailed, custom analyses, reports, and monitoring of all Storage Mirroring servers in the environment. Storage Mirroring Reporting Center reports, analyses, and dashboards provide the ability to show the overall effectiveness of Storage Mirroring protection over time and to analyze trends in a data protection scheme.
Installing Storage Mirroring Reporting Center Review the server requirements. When your servers meet the required conditions, continue with the installation instructions. Requirements Storage Mirroring Reporting Center requires the following minimum system configuration: z Operating system—Storage Mirroring Reporting Center can be installed on any of the following operating systems.
Configuring the SQL database If you are using the default SQL Express database, you may skip this section and proceed to Permissions on page 2-2. When you install Storage Mirroring Reporting Center, two data stores are automatically created, which are by default named config and datamine. The following table describes therecommended minimum sizes for these databases.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\OLE\EnableDCOM Y Uninstalling Storage Mirroring Reporting Center Use these instructions to uninstall an existing Storage Mirroring Reporting Center installation. 1. Close any open applications. 2. Using the Windows Add/Remove Programs feature to uninstall Storage Mirroring Reporting Center. 3. Any files created by the Microsoft Windows Installer during the Storage Mirroring Reporting Center installation can be safely deleted after an uninstall.
Console Storage Mirroring Reporting Center has the following components: z Storage Mirroring Reporting Center server, including storage database z Storage Mirroring Reporting Center GUI Storage Mirroring Reporting Center server The Storage Mirroring Reporting Center server performs monitoring of all Storage Mirroring servers in the environment, and stores configuration, status, and performance data in a relational database.
Configuring system settings There are a number of system-wide settings that change or modify the behavior of the product. To view or modify these settings, select File, System Settings from the main menu. The System Settings dialog box appears. NOTE: When changing the Log Directories, the desired directories must already exist or logging will not occur. 1. Select the Data Collection tab. Update the interval at which you want to gather statistics.
Update the length of time you want to maintain Storage Mirroring Reporting Center data in the database. z Performance—The length of time that performance data is maintained in the database. The default is 2 weeks. z Status—The length of time that server status data is maintained in the database. The default is 1 month. z Config—The length of time that configuration data is maintained in the database. The default is 3 months.
5. Select the Logging tab. z z Log Directory—Location where the Storage Mirroring Reporting Center server and collector processes are written to. Server Log Level—Verbosity level at which to write the log file for the controller, reporter, analysis engine, publisher, and listener processes. The default value is Info, which includes fatal issues, errors, and warnings. It is recommended that you change this value only to assist with troubleshooting a problem.
Configuring views A view is the hierarchy of nodes and groups that are displayed in the navigation tree. The View Properties dialog box displays the name and description of the Storage Mirroring Reporting Center view. This name and description can be changed. To change the name and description of the Storage Mirroring Reporting Center view: 1. Select the Storage Mirroring Reporting Center folder. Right-click, and select Configuration, Properties from the menu. The View Properties dialog box appears. 2.
z z Drilling down within detailed tables—You can drill down on detailed table reports by right-clicking a row from the table. If the report is configured to have a menu, it displays and lists all available reports. Displaying previous reports—Each report frame within the GUI maintains a report history of all the reports displayed within that frame. To go back to a previous report, click Last Report on the main toolbar.
Adding Servers After verifying the system requirements as described in Requirements on page 2-1 and installing Storage Mirroring Reporting Center, you can begin adding servers to be monitored. Adding a Storage Mirroring server to be monitored After you have installed Storage Mirroring Reporting Center, you must configure it to monitor your Storage Mirroring servers. In order to monitor a Storage Mirroring server, you must define it in the navigation tree as a “Node” in the user interface.
Configuring nodes A node represents a Storage Mirroring server. The following rules apply to nodes: No two nodes can share the same name No node can share its name with an alias of another node All host node names and aliases must be in lowercase You may need to add alternative names as aliases to the node definition for Storage Mirroring servers. These alternate names should include either the short or fully-qualified hostname of the Storage Mirroring server.
8. To add an alias, click Add and enter a new alias for the node when prompted. 9. To edit an alias, select the alias to edit. Click Edit. Edit the alias when prompted. 10. To remove an alias, select the alias to remove and click Delete. 11. (Optional) Click the Verify button to verify that the specified credentials are valid. 12. Click OK. The node is created and assigned to the folder that you selected in step 1. For information about troubleshooting nodes, see Troubleshooting on page 7-1.
Configuring groups You can create groups to contain nodes that represent the Storage Mirroring servers. The benefit of creating groups is the ability to run reports against all nodes within that group. Creating a group To create a group: 1. Click to select a folder in the navigation tree under which you want to create a group. 2. Select Node, New, New Group from the main menu. The Group Properties dialog box appears. 3. Enter the name of the group node in the Name field.
Viewing Reports You can run reports from group objects or individual nodes in the Navigation tree. When generating a report for a group object, the results include the data for all nodes within that group. In addition, you can compare the performance of one object to another object by running comparison reports. To do this, select multiple objects using Control + Click from the Navigation tree. The resulting report displays a comparison of these two objects for the report specified.
3. Select the format in which you will save your report in the Files of type field. z Comma Separated Values—Saved as a .csv file. You can import the data to an Excel spreadsheet or some other application that reads comma-delimited text files z Graphic—Saved as a .jpg file. You can import this file to Word or some other application that reads .jpg files z PDF—Saved as a .pdf file. You can view this file using Adobe Reader. z Web Page—Saved as an .html file.
Scheduling email reports You can schedule when reports are sent. 1. Select Tools, Scheduled Report Editor. The Scheduled Report List dialog box appears. 2. In the Scheduled Report List, click New to add a new scheduled report, or select an existing report and click Edit. The Scheduled Report Properties dialog box will appear. 3. In the Name field, enter a name to identify the scheduled report. 4. In the Description field, enter a description to identify the scheduled report (optional).
5. Click the Edit Schedule button to set up a new schedule. The Schedule List dialog box will appear. a. Click the New button to create a new schedule, or select a schedule and click Edit. The Schedule Properties dialog box appears. b. On the Basic tab, enter a Name and Description for the schedule. c. Position the crosshair cursor on the grid to indicate the day and time you want the report to run, then click to select. You can enter multiple reporting times. d.
f. On the Advanced tab, enter a Name and Description for the schedule. g. Click the Add button. The Schedule Component Properties dialog box will appear. 1. Select whether the rule is to Include or Exclude the criteria. 2. Select the Type of schedule. The bottom half of the screen will display different configuration criteria based on the schedule type. Type Criteria Description Dates Date Click on the Date button to view a calendar dialog box.
Type Days Weeks Months Criteria Description At Enter the hour, minute, and second for the time to run the daily report. Time Zone Enter the time zone for the selected time. Filter Select the filtering criteria. z No Filter—Runs the report daily. z Every N days—Run the report at the selected interval of days, beginning on the date you select. z Week—Run the report on the selected day(s) of the week. z Month—Run the report on the selected days of the month.
8. Select the format in which you will generate your report in the Report Format field. z Web Page—Saved as an .html file. You can view the file within a web browser or another application that reads HTML files z Graphic—Saved as a .jpg file. You can import this file to Word or some other application that reads .jpg files z Comma Separated Values—Saved as a .csv file. You can import the data to an Excel spreadsheet or some other application that reads comma-delimited text files z PDF—Saved as a .
To specify a specific set of dates and times over which you want to run a report: 1. Click the Calendar icon to the right of the displayed time period. The Calendar dialog box appears. 2. Enter a specific date and/or time by clicking the date in each calendar (for start and end dates) and choosing the hour and minute from the appropriate fields. 3. Select the Time zone. 4. Click OK. The display in the main window updates to reflect the time periods you select.
To configure cell styles: 1. Click the Cell Style icon. The Styles Editor dialog box appears. 2. The Styles Editor dialog box allows you to add rules that control the appearance of cells and rows within the table. To add a rule, click Add; or, select an existing rule and click Edit. The Style Editor dialog box appears. 3. Add a rule to control the row colors by selecting the Condition checkbox in the Style Editor dialog box and clicking Edit. The Conditions dialog box appears.
The conditions dialog allows complex conditions to be applied to the table data. a. Add a Condition by clicking Add Condition. The Condition dialog box appears. b. In the Field Name field, select a field that is included in the table. c. In the Operator field, select an operator. d. In the Value Type area, select either Static Value or Dynamic Value. A static value is a fixed value. A dynamic value is one that is calculated at run time. z If you select Static Value, enter a value in the Value field.
8. In the Select field, select whether to apply the specified colors to the entire row that matches the condition or to just specific fields in that row. Click OK when you are finished. The Styles Editor dialog box appears. 9. To delete an existing style, select the style then click Remove in the Style Editor dialog box. 10. Click OK. Table fields Use the Table Fields parameter to specify which fields are displayed in the table and to configure the scaling of data within the table.
Report filter The Report Filter allows you to filter the data in a report result using conditions. The current condition statement is displayed at the top of the dialog. You can remove any operator or condition expression by selecting the node and clicking Remove. The Report Filter Editor allows you to filter the results of the report by using conditions. 1. Click Result Filter icon. The Report Filter Editor dialog box appears. 2.
7. If specifying a dynamic value, the Dynamic Value field includes the following values: User Selected, Current Time, Start Time, End Time, End of Time. If you select Variable, you must specify the name of the variable in the Variable Name field. For the other value types, the times are evaluated at the time the report is ran and substituted into the report. 8. Click OK. The condition is added to the Report Filter Editor. 9.
4. To specify a font for the text in the table, clear the User Selected checkbox, then click the Font button. The Font Properties dialog box appears. 5. Select the Font, Size, and Style, then click OK. 6. Click OK to save the Table Style settings. The display of the report is updated with the changes you made. Title parameter Although different report types have different parameters, all reports share the Title parameter. This parameter provides the ability to create and modify the title of the report.
2. Customize the report by entering data in the Report Title Editor fields as follows: z Display—If selected, the report title is displayed in the report. z Title—Text of the report title. If variables are passed in to the report, then these can be substituted in the title string by surrounding the variable name with @ signs. z Include Nodes—If selected, the node names for which the report was run are included in the title.
4. In the Grid Color field, select a color to be used for chart grids. NOTE: This applies only to charts with grids. 5. In the Plot Area Color field, select a color for the area where the main chart is plotted. In case of 3D chart, this color will be applied to the walls of the cube containing the 3D chart. 6. In the Axis Color field, select a color for the axis and axis text. 7. To specify a font for the axis label text, clear the User Selected checkbox, then click the Font button.
To specify when to display the legend: 1. Click Legend Option icon. The Legend Option dialog box appears. 2. Specify when the legend should be displayed. 3. Click OK. The option is applied to the report in the report display area. Series All chart-based reports provide the ability to select which series are displayed in the report. By default, when a chart is displayed, all series in the data set are displayed. You can modify this behavior to only display certain series using the Series parameter.
Series styles All two-dimensional charts including trend, area, bar, and pie charts let you change the colors used to represent a different data series within the chart. To modify the colors used by a data series: 1. Click Series Styles icon. The Style Editor dialog box appears. 2. The Style Editor dialog box contains a list of all of the series styles that are defined for a report. By default, the list is empty. 3. Click Add to add a new series style, or select an existing series and click Edit .
Data views A data view on a chart is the object against which a data series is plotted. A chart can have two data views. The data view appearance parameter provides the ability to control the following: z Number of data views to display on the chart z Data view against which a series should be plotted z How the axis within that data view is presented To edit data views: 1. Click Data Views icon. The Data View Editor appears. 2. Specify the Data Views Editor fields that apply to your report.
z Unit—The base unit for the y axis. z Scale To—The multiplier to scale the y axis to. If set automatically, the y axis is scaled to the highest possible multiplier. z Fields in View—List of fields in the view. The include checkbox controls whether the field should be included when rendering the report. This is useful in dashboard editing where it is not possible to adjust the report definition and the only way to drop fields is from this parameter.
X axis The X axis parameter is only available when configuring stacked bar charts. Use the X axis parameter to control whether the X axis displays the values in the data set over time or displays the value at a point-in-time. To configure the X axis settings of a bar chart: 1. Click X axis icon. The X Axis Editor dialog box appears. 2. To specify whether the X axis should display over time or at a point-in-time, choose either the Time or Value radio button.
To change any of these parameters: 1. Click the Bar 3D Option icon. The Bar Chart 3D Option Editor dialog box. 2. Change any of the parameters by sliding the relevant slide bar and observe the changes to the appearance of the report in the Report window. z Elevation—Controls the viewing elevation of the chart. Higher values move the viewing angle towards the top. z Rotation—Rotates the bar chart. Higher values move the viewing angle towards the right.
Horizontal bar data views YA data view on a chart is the object against which a data series is plotted. A horizontal bar chart can have two data views. The data view appearance parameter provides the ability to control the following: z Number of data views to display on the chart z Data view against which a series should be plotted To edit data views for a horizontal bar chart: 1. Click Horiz Bar Data Views icon. The Data View Editor appears. 2.
Horizontal bar series styles Horizontal bar charts let you change the colors and styles used to represent a different data series within the chart. To modify the colors used by a data series in a horizontal chart: 1. Click Horiz Bar Series Styles icon. The Style Editor dialog box appears. 2. The Style Editor dialog box contains a list of the fields that are defined for a horizontal bar report. 3. To change the color for a field, select the field, then double-click on the Color bar.
Pie chart fields Allows selecting the fields to plot in the pie chart. To modify the fields displayed on a pie chart: 1. Click Fields icon. The Pie Chart Fields Editor dialog box appears. 1. In the Plot Pie per area, select whether to plot the pie per Key (node) or per Field. Plotting pie per node requires that the fields used to plot are all of the same unit. 2. In the Plot column, select or clear the checkboxes for the fields listed in the Name column that you want to include in the pie chart. 3.
3D rendering options To modify the 3D Rendering options of a 3D Surface Chart or 3D Bar Chart: 1. Click 3D Rendering Options icon. The 3D Render Options Editor dialog box appears. 2. Specify the following 3D rendering options: z z Meshed—If selected, the wireframe of the bar or surface is plotted. Shaded—When meshed is selected,if shaded is selected then the bar or surface color is filled; otherwise, a wireframe is drawn. When meshed is not selected, the bar or the surface is always shaded.
Z axis The Z axis parameter allows you to select the field to be plotted on the Z axis and set the scale used for plotting. To modify the Z axis: 1. Click Z axis icon. The Z Axis Editor dialog box appears. 2. Specify the following fields. z Field—Field to plot. z Unit—Unit for the selected field (not editable) z Scale To—The multiplier the field is scaled to. Selecting None does not perform any scaling. Automatic scales to the highest possible multiplier. 3. Click OK.
Types of reports NOTE: Reports are customizable, so not all available data may be visible in a particular report view. Dashboard reports Server utilization dashboard The Server Utilization Dashboard displays the processor, memory, network interface, and file system utilization for a Storage Mirroring server or group of Storage Mirroring servers. To run the Server Utilization Dashboard, select a Storage Mirroring server in the tree. Right-click and select Dashboards, Server Utilization from the menu.
Connections dashboard The Connections Dashboard displays the connection status, source disk queue utilization, and protected time for a Storage Mirroring server or group of Storage Mirroring servers. To run the Connections Dashboard, select a Storage Mirroring server in the tree. Right-click and select Dashboards, Connections from the menu.
Transmission dashboard The Transmission Dashboard displays the transmission and network interface utilization for a Storage Mirroring server or group of Storage Mirroring servers. To run the Transmission Dashboard, select a Storage Mirroring server in the tree. Right-click and select Dashboards, Transmission from the menu.
Server performance dashboard The Server Performance Dashboard displays the monitor status, source queue performance, target queue performance, and Storage Mirroring transmission for a Storage Mirroring server or group of Storage Mirroring servers. To run the Server Performance Dashboard, select a Storage Mirroring server in the tree. Right-click and select Dashboards, Server Performance from the menu.
Report Target queue Information displayed The information returned by this report includes: Storage Mirroring transmission z Server—Name of the Storage Mirroring server z Source—The name of the source server z Target—The name of the target server z Source IP Address—The address of the source server z Target IP Address—The address of the target server z Disk Queue—The number of bytes in the target disk queue z Total Queue—Total bytes in queue programmatically calculated by adding mirror and r
Storage Mirroring server connections The Storage Mirroring Server Connections report provides a list of all connections that a server is a member of along with information about that connection. To run the Storage Mirroring Server Connections report, select a Storage Mirroring server in the tree. Right-click and select Configuration Reports, Connections from the menu.
Network interface details The Network Interface Details report displays information on the configuration and status of network interfaces on the Storage Mirroring server. To run the Network Interface Details report, select the Storage Mirroring node in the tree. Right-click and select Configuration Reports, Network Interface from the menu.
Status reports Connection status The Storage Mirroring Connection Status report provides information on the current status of the Storage Mirroring connections in the environment, for the servers specified in the report. To run the Storage Mirroring Connection Status report, select a Storage Mirroring server in the tree. Right-click and select Status Reports, Connections from the menu.
z Mirror Duration—The amount of time for mirror activity z Total Mirrors—The total number of mirror tasks The following are optional fields that can be added to the report by selecting the Field Editor: z Server—Name of the Storage Mirroring server z Source IP Address—The address of the source server z Target IP Address- The address of the target server File system details The File System Details report displays information on the configuration and status of each file system on the Storage Mirrori
z Replication Queue—Bytes in replication queue z Disk Queue—The number of bytes in the source disk queue z Total Queue—Total bytes in queue programmatically calculated by adding mirror and replication queues z Memory Queue—Bytes in memory queue programmatically calculated by adding mirror + replication - disk queue Target queue performance The Storage Mirroring Target Queue Performance report provides performance statistics for the target server on the servers selected.
Utilization reports File system utilization The File System Utilization report provides information on the file system utilization in the environment over a specified time period and for the servers specified in the report. To run the File System Utilization report, select a Storage Mirroring server in the tree. Right-click and select Utilization Reports, File System from the menu.
Processor utilization The Processor Utilization report provides information on the utilization of the CPUs in the environment, for the servers specified in the report. To run the Processor Utilization report, select a Storage Mirroring server in the tree. Right-click and select Utilization Reports, Processor from the menu.
Viewing Alerts Alerts are user-configurable. For more information about configuring alerts, see Configuring alerts on page 6-1. To see any alerts that have been generated against a Storage Mirroring server by Storage Mirroring Reporting Center, perform the following steps: 1. In the navigation tree, select the node that you want to view any alerts against. 2. Select the time period that you require alerts to have occurred in by selecting a value from the Window drop-down box on the main tool bar. 3.
3. In the Server Alerts region, select the checkboxes for the conditions for which you want an alert to be displayed in the Alerts report.
Troubleshooting Troubleshooting Storage Mirroring Reporting Center consists of: z Changing log levels z Removing non-Storage Mirroring nodes z Viewing collector reports z Verifying Storage Mirroring server connectivity z Verifying WMI connectivity The following files may need to be gathered to troubleshoot Storage Mirroring issues. z For install and setup information, see C:\windows\temp\dtrc_setup.log z For configuration information, look for controller.
Viewing collector reports If you are not seeing data returned for the nodes you have created, run the Collector Errors Report. This can be accessed by: 1. Right-click on the node that isn't returning the data. 2. Select SMRC Reports. 3. Select Data Collection Errors. Looking at the error messages can often determine the cause of the data not being displayed.
Where MODULE is either STATUS, CONFIG, or PERF, HOSTNAME is the Storage Mirroring server node, and USERNAME and PASSWORD are the credentials supplied to Storage Mirroring for that node. NOTE: Server names with spaces will need to be in “double quotes”. The command will return data if the connectivity is achieved, or errors if connectivity fails.
