Metrics Evolution Reports

Another type of report offered by WOCU-Monitoring is the Metrics Evolution report. This functionality allows to collect a set of data for a selected metric and visualise it in an organised way.

The process of creating and running customised user-configured reports is detailed below.

Metrics Evolution Report configuration and generation

In general, when creating reports, the user must access the blue button New Report, located in the Reports.

Before generating the report, it will be necessary to set a number of filters and parameters as described below.

Scheduling Reports

WOCU-Monitoring also allows the automation of the reporting operation, thanks to the possibility of scheduling its generation and launch at the user’s discretion through the New Scheduling option. More information at: Scheduling.

Report

In this drop-down field the user must select the type of report he/she wishes to create, in this case it will be Metrics Evolution.

Note

Depending on the type of report selected, new fields to be defined will be automatically included.

Template

In this optional field the user selects the template to be applied to the Report. Templates are created prior to reports. This element is further developed in section Templates.

Name

Mandatory field in which the user assigns an identification term that differentiates the report from the rest.

Description

Optional field where the user may include descriptive text relating to the report.

Visibility

In this field the user determines whether the report will be visible to the rest of the users, i.e. a public report, or whether it will be private and only visible to the creator of the report.

Host Groups

This configuration parameter allows filtering the data collected and reflected in the report, showing only those related to the Host Groups existing in WOCU.

To select and filter the results of the report by a specific Host Group, simply choose the name of the group from the Host Group drop-down menu. All the groups registered within the realm will be displayed.

To deactivate the filter, the user must choose the No HG filter option, which appears first in the list.

Metrics Configuration

To configure a metric it is necessary to define a set of parameters explained below:

✓ Host Selector

Drop-down for the selection of a specific Host on which the new report will be based. If you want to generate the report with all the Hosts in the Realm, select the All Hosts option at the top of the list.

Attention

The list of Hosts can be affected by the previous selection of a Host Group (Host Group). Only the Hosts belonging to the selected group will be displayed. See the following example:

✓ Chart title

Field to add the title of the metrics evolution graph(s) to be displayed in the report.

✓ Filter Metrics and Services using regular expressions (Regex)

By activating this option it is possible to filter Metrics and Services by applying regular expressions. This will be done by using a search pattern, providing greater flexibility and customisation of the filtering.

Ultimately, reports will be generated taking into account only those metrics and/or services whose name/description includes the defined text string.

Enabling this configuration method, will affect the parameter configuration parameter: Metric. As a result of the operability checks that the service launches on the Host to which that it is associated with, a set of metrics are generated that record performance, availability, storage, etc. values.

The following are the two configuration options available: Regex enabled and disabled.

A. Regex Enabled

Two new parameters will be displayed:

1. Metric: for the filtering of a metric.

2. Service Description: for filtering a service.

The operation of both fields is very simple, you will have to enter a search pattern that will act as a regular expression. For example, note that when you enter a certain term, such as “traffic”, the system constructs the regular expression /.*traffic.*/. These wildcards replace any character before or after the entered term.

Following the example, with the regular expression /.*traffic.*/ the report will capture all metrics whose name contains the characters “traffic”, i.e. all those metrics related in some way to the incoming and outgoing traffic of the monitored assets. This operation is similar in the Service Description field. In a sense, the use of regular expressions allows generic queries on a specific aspect in a quick and easy way.

Depending on the chosen Host (Host selector), only the set of metrics generated by the service(s) linked to the Host on which this report will be generated will be displayed.

Attention

As there can be several services associated to a metric and vice versa, the filtering is bidirectional. That is, by capturing one or several services (after defining a regular expression), the metrics filter will be updated showing only the specific metrics associated to the service or group of services and vice versa. In this way, the user can use this relationship to narrow the scope of the report.

B. Regex Disabled

A single selector will be displayed for the search and selection of a specific metric. To do this, type its name in the search bar. When entering characters, WOCU will display a list of metrics whose name corresponds to the characters entered. The search works with the first characters of the name, even with several characters in between or at the end. The user finally has to select one of the proposed metrics from the list. Following the metric name, the service that generates and records the metric is specified in brackets (e.g.: Metric (Service) = metric_CLOSE (TCP States)).

Note

Depending on the chosen Host (Host selector), only the set of metrics generated by the service(s) linked to the Host on which this report will be generated will be displayed. See the following example:

WOCU-Monitoring allows you to set up several metrics and visualise them on a single graph. To the right of the metrics panel there is a button with a plus sign (+). Pressing it will bring up a new row of parameters that will be configured. In case you want to delete one of them, you only have to click on the button with the cross (x) and the set of fields will disappear.

Attention

Given the wide variety of Systems and Hosts that WOCU-Monitoring is able to monitor, a detailed description of the different metrics is beyond the scope of this manual.

✓ Alias

Optional field to add a term identifying the metric, which will appear in the legend of the graph(s) presented in the report.

This option is very useful, as metric names can be complex or imprecise and the use of aliases would make them easier to understand.

✓ Color

WOCU-Monitoring allows you to select the colour of the line of graph values that will appear in the report. As it is possible to add several metrics in a single graph, this option is very practical for analysis, visualisation and comparison.

Attention

The fields highlighted with an asterisk (*), such as: Name, Chart title and Metric are mandatory configuration fields, then their completion is necessary to proceed with the generation of the new report. Otherwise, the system will display the following warning:

✓ Add multiple charts (+ Add group)

It is possible to add several graphs in a single report. At the top of this field there is a button + Add group. Clicking it will bring up a new row of parameters that must be configured. If you want to delete one of them, just click the button with the cross (x) and the set of fields will disappear.

Date Interval

Before running the report, it is necessary to indicate to WOCU a date range(s) or time frame(s) to which the data reflected by the report will refer.

There are a number of time criteria already in place:

Today: filters and displays only events generated during the time period elapsed in today’s day.

Yesterday: filter and display only data recorded yesterday.

Last 24 hours: filters and displays only data recorded in the last 24 hours.

Last 48 hours: filters and displays only data recorded in the last 48 hours.

Last 7 Days: filters and displays only data recorded in the last seven days.

This Week: filters and displays only data recorded during the time period elapsed in the current week (from the start day of the week to the current day).

Previous Week: filters and displays only data recorded in the previous full week (Monday to Sunday).

Last 30 Days: filters and displays only data recorded in the last thirty days.

This Month: filters and displays only data recorded during the time period elapsed in the current month (from day 1 to the current day of the month).

Previous Month: filters and displays only data recorded in the previous full month (day 1 to days 28/30/31).

In case you want to set a specific period of time there is the option Custom Range. To configure the time frame it is necessary to set a start date and an end date. By clicking on one of the days, this date will be set as a selection, being marked with a blue background. In addition to the day, a specific time can be set for that day, using the drop-down menus in the hour, minute and second boxes, until the desired time is set. The selected date and time can be seen both in the upper boxes and in the lower part of the view.

By clicking the button with the plus sign (+), it is possible to add multiple date ranges for data collection in the configured report. Date ranges can be deleted by clicking the red button with the cross (X), making the range disappear and only the remaining ranges apply when the report is run.

Attention

It is of course not possible to choose start and end dates after the current date, nor to set an end date before the start date.

Once the programming is done, you must press the Apply button for it to be applied.

Execution and scheduling of Metrics Evolution Reports

To save the configuration and generate the report, click on the blue button Create.

Once the report has been created and programmed, you will go back to the initial screen of this section, where the reports will be stacked sequentially in the Centralized Report Management. Within the panel is the user can access the generated report by clicking on the name of the report.

The user is then directed to a new window dedicated to the report where information generated and collected by the system. These panels are described in detail in the following section.

Scheduling Reports

WOCU-Monitoring also allows the automation of the reporting operation, thanks to the possibility of scheduling its generation and launching at the user’s discretion through the Scheduling option.

Exporting Metrics Evolution Reports

WOCU-Monitoring also allows the export of the report in PDF, CSV and JSON formats. These condense all information on the availability of the monitored assets in a document that can be easily dissemination and simple analysis.

Through the Export selector located in the global report panel, the corresponding files shall be downloaded.

Analysis and Options for Metrics Evolution Reports

Note

By clicking on the name tag, the report is accessed. In this space, the report is presented entirely through panels and graphs, for reading and interaction by the user.

The information generated by WOCU-Monitoring for this type of Report is presented to the user through two panels: a configuration panel and another one that includes all the data related to the evolution of the selected metric.

Metric Evolution Reports Configuration Panel.

This configuration panel presents the filters and parameters set in the configuration of the generated report.

These are:

ID: report identifier code.

Name: identification name assigned to the report.

Description: descriptive text relating to the report.

Comments: shows the comments added by the user.

Create at: indicates the date and time the report was created.

Create by: indicates the user who created/owns the report.

Realm: indicates the name of the Realm which is the subject of the report.

Scope: indicates the scope of the report (Host, Host & Services, Business Processes and All).

Metric groups: summary of the metrics analysed indicating:

• Time frame: indicates the start time and date (From:) and end time of the period established (To:) in the report.

• Host column: device selected for studying its metrics. If the space is empty, it indicates that a specific device has not been specified.

• Title column: of the graph of a metric/s.

• Metrics Column: Set of collected metrics.

When the report configuration includes filtering by regular expressions, these shall be specified for both Metrics (Column Metric) and Services (Column Service Description).

Metrics Evolution

This panel is presented to the user through two main blocks:

• Filtering options

• Metrics Evolution Graph

Filtering options

Since there can be a large number of hosts and metrics, WOCU has filtering options to refine and organise the data displayed on the graph. These are:

Host

Indicates the Host for which the metric data has been collected. If the report has been run with all the Hosts in the Realm, a list will be displayed so that you can freely choose one of them and view the evolution of the metrics applied.

Service description

This field indicates which Service of a Host the report refers to for the selected metric.

Note

A service can have multiple metrics, for example, the service Traffic_lo has two different metrics: incoming traffic (metric_1_traffic_in) and outgoing traffic (metric_1_traffic_out), for the device wocu-engineer. Therefore, when this service is selected in this filter, both metrics will be displayed in the graph. This field makes it easier to establish the relationship between the different metrics displayed for the services of a host.

Metric group

If you have generated several graphs, this field will display a list of all of them. You can view the graphs both individually and together by selecting the All option.

Metrics Evolution Graph

This graph reflects the evolution of a metric/s for a monitored Host over a given time interval.

The graph provides historical information according to the data recorded, which allows to observe its metric evolution over time (values reached on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis).

Important

The type of unit of the values ​​obtained from the metrics represented (%, ms, KB/s…), will be indicated on the Y axis of the graph, always and when:

1. The unit is already specified from the source metric storage DB. Otherwise, the magnitude in which the values are modelled and displayed shall not be shown.

2. All metrics collected for the report share the same unit. Otherwise, it will not be displayed.

Thanks to the legend on the right of the graph, we can identify the colour of the line representing the values collected for a given metric, as well as the maximum (MAX), average (AVG) and minimum (MIN) values recorded. As it is possible to add several metrics in a single graph, the legend makes it easier to visualise and compare them.

The maximum and minimum values are also visible on the graph. By placing the cursor over the highlighted circles at a particular point in the function, a pop-up window with additional information will appear. WOCU will first indicate the type of value (maximum or minimum) and the metric it belongs to, then the date and time it was recorded, and finally the exact value reached (in the unit recorded in the database).

Attention

To reduce the computational burden of the report, the data shown in the graph is the result of averaging the actual values recorded. This situation is notified to the operator with the following message:

In addition, the legend can be hidden to leave more space for viewing the graph. To do this, simply click on the icon with the arrow to the right (“→”), located to the left of the legend.

By clicking the i button, a new Metric group stats summary box is displayed that makes it easy to view highlighted data about a selected metric and device.

This information consists of:

• Service Name

• Title

• Global table with relevant values achieved in the evolution of the metrics (MAX, MIN and AVG).

Finally, the graph incorporates a set of functionalities that make it easier to understand and analyse. These are:

Download plot: a download of the plot in svg.

Pan: with this option it is possible to scroll or move the graph along its axes.

Autoscale: this option will automatically scale axes so that all data points are visible on the graph, preventing any point from being outside the visible range.

Zoom in: the option of the magnifying glass icon with the “+” sign, zooms in on the displayed graph.

Zoom out: the magnifying glass icon option with the “-” sign zooms out the view of the displayed graph.

Rearrage: the option of the icon with horizontal lines, returns to the default zoom view.

Reset axes: this option automatically resets the limits of the axes to their default values, undoing any manual adjustments previously made.