Setting Measurement Time Windows

Switch Port Management (SPM) Date/Period menus enable flexible measurement and reporting for any device, interface or end host. You can effectively go backward in time to view data sets for any device, interface, or end host phenomena.

For any page in SPM, clicking the icon on the top left of the table displays the Select Date/Period menu. The Select Date/Period menu fixes the current SPM page to a specific date or range of dates, going backward from the current date, using a drop-down calendar.

Calendar dates shown in green represent an immediately available data set to display in a Switch Port Management table. The most current data in any SPM table (such as the most recent 7 days for the Daily selection) is always available by default and appears highlighted in green. Older data requires the user to wait while NetMRI generates the requested data as a background task. After generation, the requested date appears in green, indicating the data is instantly available by reloading the page. Any date in the past or in the future appearing in grey that cannot be selected represents information that is unavailable to the current NetMRI system.

Consider the Device category, with the default time measurement set to Daily.

As an example, you decide to look at the list of network switches that have changed in their status or their configuration over the previous 30 days from the current date. Choose Devices > Changed Devices, click the Select Date/Period icon, and choose the time period (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, 7-Day, or 30-Day). The time window shown in the currently selected page changes to the new value, and the current page changes in a number of ways:

The Capacity Summary – Ports pane adjusts to reflect the different data sample, and the Total Ports, Free Ports, and other counters may change to reflect new values.
The chosen time window applies to any further selected pages in Switch Port Management until you change the settings again for the same page or for a different page.
The chosen time window also applies to any other tables and information charts under Network Explorer, Network Analysis, or the Dashboard until you change the value chosen under the Select Date/Period.

You can shift time windows across the calendar. Select a date three weeks previous to the current. Then, choose Period > 7-Day. The current table redraws to show the currently selected data set. Then, use the Select Date/Period menu to select day three months in the past. The 7-day time window shifts to the new position, with the selected date as the last day in the time window.