Reports are a critical tool for network management. You can run any report from NetMRI's bundled set of standard reports, and devise custom reports of your own to supplement the standard ones and add new functionality to the reporting system.
NetMRI's Report Manager provides quick visibility into all reporting tasks, scheduled reporting jobs, inactive jobs and completed jobs. Report Manager notifies you when NetMRI is producing a large, demanding report, and indicates the current progress level of the report. The Report Manager allows cancellation of reporting tasks that use unacceptable levels of appliance resources.

Note: The Report Manager provides warnings when available storage for completed Reports is below recommended levels.

Opening the Report Manager

The Report Manager (Reports –> Report Manager tab) lists all Active and Inactive Reports for the current NetMRI appliance, and enables monitoring of currently running and active reports.
The Report Manager divides into two sections:
Active Reports, lists currently running and scheduled Report jobs. Click the Cancel button to stop currently running report jobs;
Inactive Reports, lists all recently executed, cancelled and paused Report jobs. Click the Delete button to remove any entries in Inactive reports.

Two or more Reports can simultaneously execute in the Active Reports queue. The Active Reports queue displays the following information:

• Report Name: the name of the report selected for execution (sortable);
• Report Type: indicates whether the report is an on-demand or scheduled report (sortable);
• Priority: the numeric priority value of the Report job;
• Created By: The administrative account running the report (sortable);
• Status: Pending, Cancelled, or Running. Pending status occurs when an active job is in the queue but cannot be run at the moment due to the appliance limit on the number of concurrently running jobs;
• Last Action Timestamp: The timestamp indicating when the Report job started (sortable).

Inactive Reports show the following:

• Report Name: the name of the report chosen for execution (sortable);
• Report Type: indicates whether the report is an on-demand or scheduled report (sortable);
• Size: the final size in bytes of the completed Report;
• Created By: The administrative account running the report (sortable);
• Status: Completed or Cancelled;
• Last Action Timestamp: The timestamp indicating when the (sortable).

To set the permissible value for concurrently running Reports: select Settings icon –> General Settings –> Advanced Settings and page to the Reports category. The default value is 2, supporting two Reports to run concurrently in the appliance. For most applications, Infoblox recommends keeping the default.
To start a report that is waiting in the Active Reports queue: select the desired report and click Run Next. The selected report will start when another Report is already running.
To stop execution of a currently running Report: select the Report in the Active Reports pane, and click Cancel. To delete a Report from the Inactive Reports pane: select the Report, and click Delete.

Note: The Inactive Reports page has an expiration of seven days, after which the oldest Inactive Reports in the list are deleted.

Changing Report Views

The Views drop-down list resides on the top right of the Report Manager panes. Its functionality is similar to other data tables in NetMRI. You can use this labor-saving feature to save the exact appearance and arrangement of the Report Manager tables. Views does not save the reports themselves or the results within the table — it saves the tabular arrangement, including all columns' sort settings,
table filtering and any resizing of columns as a template that can be applied to the current data set. An Auto Refresh feature may be turned on or off in any Report View.
To turn off Auto Refresh for Active or Inactive Reports: click the Turn Auto Refresh Off button above either table.

Saving Report Views

After arranging and sorting the Active Reports or Inactive Reports, save the arrangement in a View for future use without requiring subsequent resorting of report data columns.
To save a Report View: click the Views drop-down list.
To save either Reports table as an Excel-compatible .CSV file: click the CSV Export icon just above the Active Reports or Inactive Reports table.
To Manage Saved Views: click the Views drop-down list and choose Manage Views. A Manage Views dialog appears, listing the currently saved Views.

Note: Reporting is heavily resource-dependent. You can simultaneously execute two reports in NetMRI. Different users can also concurrently execute reports. The Report Manager allows tracking of all of these events and helps you evaluate whether any given report imposes an unacceptable load on the appliance.

Scheduling and Running Reports

Note: When scheduled reports run concurrently with on-demand reports in NetMRI, scheduled reports will take priority for completion in the appliance.

All standard reports allow Running and Scheduling. You can run any report at any time, and schedule them to run at chosen time intervals. Custom reports, which you create, also offer exporting, editing and deletion features.
Exporting, editing and deletion cannot be performed on the standard reports bundled with the appliance. To schedule a report, do the following:

1. In the Report Gallery, choose the report you want to schedule.
2. Under the report's thumbnail, click Run or Schedule. A configuration/scheduling window opens for the selected report ("Network History Report," for example).
3. To select a group in the Device Groups list, double-click any group name. Add multiple group names if needed.

Note: To run the report against a specific device, click the Devices tab. The following section, Running Reports Against Individual Devices discusses this in more detail.

4. Click Next.

5. Edit the Report Name as needed.

6. The To Emails field is pre-populated with a default e-mail address, which you can delete and change.

Note: You can add multiple e-mail addresses by separating multiple addresses with commas.

The To Users field is pre-populated with the e-mail addresses for all NetMRI users. You cannot edit this list.

7. Choose an Output Format (PDF, XLS, DOC or HTML in Email).

8. Choose a Recurrence Pattern (Once, Hourly, Daily, Weekly or Monthly).

9. Choose an Execution Time (the drop-down list spans a 24-hour time period, with half-hour increments).

10. Under Occurs Every [ ] Week On:, select the check boxes for each day of the week where the report will run. This value also defaults to one (1) week and can be changed.

11. Click Next.

12. Click Schedule. The job is listed in the Scheduled Reports tab.

You can edit scheduled reports at any time. Once the report executes, the admin accounts specified in the To Emails field receive a notification email with a file attachment in the specified format.

Running Reports Against Individual Devices

Running reports against individual devices allows you to check specific firewalls, routers, switches or other network entities. For example, you can use the Chassis Inventory report to check a specific router for its installed collection of interface cards. Use the VLAN Interface Summary report against a specific Ethernet switch or subset of switches inside a Device Group.

1. In the Report Gallery, choose the report you want to run.
2. Under the report's thumbnail, click Run.
3. Click the Devices tab.
4. Choose a Date and Period from the respective drop-down lists.
5. From the Device Group drop-down list, select the device group from which the desired device is chosen for the report. The list below is populated with the devices belonging to the group.
6. Click the Add icon to add a chosen device to the Selected Devices list for the new Report.
7. Click Run.

Managing Scheduled Reports

To copy a scheduled report job: Click the Copy button, enter a name for the report, then click OK. To edit a scheduled report job, do the following:

1. Click Edit. The Report Scheduling Wizard opens.
2. As needed, change report parameters.
3. Review the scheduled report specifications, then click Schedule.
   • To run a scheduled report now: Click Run Now.
   • To delete a scheduled report: Click Delete, then confirm the deletion.

NetMRI Standard Report s

The Report Gallery (Reports tab–> Report Gallery) lists the standard and custom reports that are available in the current NetMRI instance.
The gallery contains a series of thumbnails, each representing a report type. NetMRI bundles a pre-defined set of reports, gathered into a series of categories. Some categories will or will not appear depending on your license type.

NetMRI bases its reports on information stored in the database after devices are discovered and collected from across the network. Reports can apply against any device group in the appliance, a single device in the database, or against the entire network. Depending on the size of the data set, a report can take a significant amount of time and occupy significant resources in the NetMRI appliance while generating the report.
Some reports are designed to run against the entire network but can also be run against subsets; other reports, such as Port Saturation or Switch Port Management, are designed to be run against more specialized network topologies.

1. In the Report Gallery tab, click the report thumbnail.
2. Click Run.
3. In the Device Groups list, double-click the group name (or click the group, then click –>).

• • Click the Clear button to remove all groups from the Selected Device Groups list.

Note: You can click the Devices tab to select one or more devices from any group for the report run.

4. If available for the report you are running, choose the initial Date for the period covered by the report.

5. From the Period drop-down list, choose the time period to be covered by the report.

6. Click Run.

7. In the Report Gallery tab, hover over the report you want to schedule.

8. Under the report's thumbnail, click the Schedule link. The report scheduling wizard opens.

9. Specify the device group(s) to be covered by the report. To select a group in the Device Groups list, double-click the group name.

10.To deselect a group in the Selected Device Groups list, double-click the group name. Click Clear to remove all groups from the Selected Device Groups list.

11. Click Next.

12. Change the Report Name as needed.

13. The To Emails field is pre-populated with a default e-mail address, which can be changed. You can enter multiple e-mail addresses (each address must be separated with commas).

14. The To Users field is pre-populated with e-mail addresses for all NetMRI users. You cannot edit this list.

15. Select an Output Format.

16. Specify a Recurrence Pattern, then select scheduling options as shown for the recurrence pattern.

17. Click Next.

18. Review the scheduled report specifications. Click Previous to return to steps needing to be revised.

19. If the specifications are correct, click Schedule. The job is listed in the Scheduled Reports tab.

Note: Reports can be exported as Adobe PDF or Microsoft Word-compatible files. Exporting also supports Excel-compatible files with the limitation that graphs are not exported.

Running and Scheduling Switch Port Manager Reports

MAC Address Summary Reporting

The MAC Address Summary report provides a survey of the complement of MACs in the switched network for the defined date range.
Two primary categories comprise the count: Infrastructure and End Station. NetMRI counts End Station MAC addresses by studying the ARP tables or forwarding tables of other networking devices. These end stations count towards the total count.

Port Saturation Summary Reporting

The Port Saturation Summary report analyzes the consumption and usage of ports during a specified time period. It answers such questions as:

"Am I running out of ports?" (port consumption)

"How many ports are available and how many are used?" (port allocation)

"How heavily are ports being used?" (port usage)

"Which switches are underused?" (top N)

"How are ports being used?" (port usage detail)

The Port Saturation Snapshot report displays port consumption and usage for a specific day. It answers such questions as:

"How many ports are available and how many are used?" (port allocation)

"Which switches are underused?" (top N)

"How are ports being used?" (port usage detail)

Note: Port Saturation reports may take a long time to generate, depending on the size of the network. As a result, Port Saturation reports are limited to 2000 items.

1. In the Report Gallery tab, hover over the Port Saturation report you want to run.
2. Under the report's thumbnail, click the Run link. The Run Report Wizard opens.
3. Specify the device group(s) to be covered by the report:
4. In the Device Groups list, double-click the group name (or click the group, then click the button).
5. In the Selected Device Groups list, double-click the group name.
   Or: click the Clear button to remove all groups from the Selected Device Groups list.
6. Click Next.
7. Specify the Date to be covered by the report (or for the Port Saturation Summary report, the last day of the period covered by the report).
8. (For the Port Saturation Summary report only:) Specify the Period, Interval and Time Window for the report.

Note: If you select a date or period that starts before the maximum data retention date (default is 90 days), the report will not show data for the time before the maximum data retention date.

9. In the Top N list, select the number of underused ports to be listed in the report.

10. In the Interface Groups list, click, SHIFT+click or CTRL+click to select the groups to be covered by the report.

11. Click Run.

To run Report Scheduling, do the following:

1. In the Report Gallery tab, hover over the Port Saturation report you want to schedule.
2. Under the report's thumbnail, click the Schedule link. The Report Scheduling Wizard opens.
3. Specify the device group(s) to be covered by the report:
4. To select a group: In the Device Groups list, double-click the group name (or click the group, then click the button).
5. To deselect a group: In the Selected Device Groups list, double-click the group name. Or: click the Clear button to remove all groups from the Selected Device Groups list.
6. Click Next.
7. Specify the Date to be covered by the report (or for the Port Saturation Summary report, the last day of the period covered by the report).
8. Port Saturation Summary report only: Specify the Period, Interval and Time Window for the report.
9. In the Top N list, select the number of ports to be covered by the report.
10. In the Interface Groups list, click, SHIFT+click or CTRL+click to select the groups to be covered by the report.
11. Deactivate the Hide Neighbor Details option (this will increase the time required to generate the report).
12. Click Run. Step 3 of the Wizard appears.
13. Change the Report Name as needed.
14. The To Emails field is pre-populated with your default e-mail address. If needed, you can replace this with another e-mail address. You can also specify multiple e-mail addresses (separated with commas).
15. The To Users field is pre-populated with e-mail addresses of all NetMRI users. This list cannot be edited.
16. Select an Output Format.
17. Specify a Recurrence Pattern, and select additional scheduling options as displayed for the recurrence pattern you selected.
18. Review the scheduled report specifications. If you need to change anything, click < Previous to return to the step(s) needing to be revised.
19. If the specifications are correct, click Schedule. The job is listed in the Scheduled Reports tab.

Port Saturation Report Definitions

For Port Saturation report definitions, data collected during a reporting time window is displayed as a single bar in the Port Saturation Summary report graphs. You can filter data in the time window by criteria such as business hours, off-hours, etc.
Port: A port is included in the Port Saturation Report if it meets the following criteria:

The device containing the port is a Switch or Switch-Router, and

The port supports Ethernet (i.e., serial ports are not included), and

The port is not a VLAN port, and

The port is not a trunk port.

Port Availability: A port is available (unused) if it has zero neighbors (usually corresponding to no bar in a graph) for the reporting time window.
% Available: The ratio of Available Ports to Total Ports for the reporting time window.
Port Consumption: A port is consumed (used) if it has one or more neighbors at any time during the reporting time window.
% Consumed: The ratio of Consumed Ports to Total Ports for the reporting time window.
Device Usage: The average of all port usages for those ports meeting criteria for port inclusion and belonging to the device during the reporting time window.

Defining Custom Report s

Administrators can create custom reports to supplement the standard reports provided with NetMRI. After you create them, custom reports are listed in the Reports –> Report Gallery tab, and can be run immediately or scheduled by any user using the same procedures as standard reports.
To create a custom report, do the following:

1. In the Report Gallery tab, click the Add Custom Report button (in the upper right corner of the Gallery). The Custom Report Wizard appears.
   1. Enter a Title for the report. The title will appear in the Report Gallery tab next to a generic custom report thumbnail.
   2. Enter a Description for the report.
   3. Select a Data Type. This determines which attributes are available in the next steps. A substantial list of data types is available, including data objects such as ARP Table Entries, Best-Origin Routes, CDP Neighbors, Certificate Repository, and dozens of other choices. (With the Data Type list open, you can hover the mouse over an item to see a description.) A single data type can be chosen for a report.
   4. Select a Gallery Category. Choices include the options in the Report Gallery, including Asset, Change & Config, Compliance, Health and Switch Port Management.
2. Click Next. In Step 2 of the Wizard, specify filters to be applied to the data. Do the following for each filter:
   
   1. In the left-most field at the top of the screen, select an attribute. The attributes (With the list open, hover over an item to see its description.)
   2. In the second field at the top, select an operator or a matching condition, depending on the attribute.

Note: Available operators (typically =, !=, <, >, <= and +>) depend on the chosen attribute.

c. In the right-most field at the top of the screen, enter the value to match or compare against (i.e., the argument for the operator). (If an attribute involves a date or date/time, the argument can be a relative date. See the Entering Relative Dates and Times topic.)

The "matches" or "does not match" operator requires a regular expression as the argument.

The "contains" or "does not contain" operator requires a string as the argument.

The "=" and "!=" operators require a numeric or true/false argument. For true, use any of the following: 1, yes, on or true. For false, use any of the following 0, no, off or false.

d. Click Add to add the term to the filter term list. (Click Delete to delete a term.)

e. In the left-most field at the bottom of the screen, select the logic for the filter term(s), such as When ALL of the Conditions are Met, which is a logical AND, When ANY of the Conditions are Met, which is a logical OR expression, or Customlogicbuilder....

Note: If you select Custom logic builder..., use term numbers, Boolean AND and OR operators and parentheses to specify the filtering logic. For example: 1 and (2 or 3).

3. Click Next. To specify the columns to appear in the report, select and order the columns:

1. 1. To select a column: In the left list, double-click the attribute name (or click the attribute name, then click the button, or drag the attribute name into the right list).
   2. To de-select a column: In the right list, double-click the attribute name (or click the attribute name, then click the button, or drag the attribute name into the left list).
   3. To re-order a selected column: In the right list, drag a attribute name up or down (or click the attribute name, then click the or button).

4. Click Next. You then specify how the rows are sorted.

Note: Rows can be sorted using attributes not displayed in the report. You must specify at least the First Sort Column.

1. 1. Open the First Sort Column list, then click the attribute to be sorted. (With the attribute list opened, hover over an item to see its description.)
   2. Select a direction.
   3. As needed, specify Second Sort Column and Third Sort Column.

5. Click Next. This is the final Wizard step.

1. 1. Review the report specifications.
   2. If you need to change anything, click the <Previous button to return to the step(s) needing to be revised.
   3. If the specifications are correct, click Finish.

The custom report appears in the Report Gallery tab under the specified category. Test the report to make sure it operates.

Editing Custom Reports

To edit a custom report, do the following:

1. In the Report Gallery tab, hover over the custom report you want to edit.
2. Under the report's thumbnail, click the Edit link. The Custom Report Wizard opens.
3. The wizard displays a summary of the custom report specifications. To edit the report, click the Edit button.
4. Navigate through the wizard's steps and change fields as needed.
5. In Step 5, click Finish.

To delete a custom report, do the following:

1. In the Report Gallery tab, hover over the custom report you want to delete.
2. Under the report's thumbnail, click the Delete link.

Entering Relative Dates and Times

In Step 2 of the Custom Report Wizard, you specify one or more attributes as report filters. If an attribute involves a date or date/time, its argument can be specified as a relative date. This enables arguments including the following:

• now (which resolves to current time, i.e., time that the report executes)
• yesterday, today, tomorrow (which resolves to midnight of the respective day, where "today" is the day the report is executes)
• 3 days ago
• 10 days since 2010-01-15 (which resolves to 1/25/10)
• 1 month after first day of year (which resolves to February 1)
• First day of the month 1 month from today (which resolves to the first day of next month)
• Last day of the month (which resolves to the last day of today's month)

A valid relative date argument string is a list of space-delimited <datestr>s, which are defined as:

<datestr> = CONSTANT | <relative>

where

CONSTANT = <date time> in the format yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS, or <date> in the format yyyy-mm-dd (which resolves to midnight, i.e., 00:00:00, on that date)

<relative> = today | yesterday | tomorrow | now | <which> day <dateinterval> | [<number> <interval> <direction>] | starttime | endtime

(starttime resolves to midnight, i.e., 00:00:00, on the starting day of the period covered by the report, which is specified by the user when running or scheduling the report. endtime resolves to midnight, i.e., 00:00:00, on the day after the ending day of the period covered by the report, which is specified by the user when running or scheduling the report.)

<which> = first | last

<dateinterval> = year | month | week

<number> = an integer

<interval> = <dateinterval> | hour | minute | second

<direction> = ago | before | until | after | since | from

where ( ago = until = before ) and ( after = since = from )

Of and the are ignored throughout the string, but can be included to make the string more readable, and plural forms are correctly interpreted (e.g., days = day).

Importing and Exporting Custom Reports

You can export and import custom reports as XML files to facilitate report distribution and sharing. Appropriate permissions are required:

• If you can run reports, you can export custom reports.
• If you can create, edit and delete custom reports, you can import custom reports. To export a custom report, do the following:

Note: If you have the administrative permissions to run reports, you can also export custom reports.

1. In the Reports –> Report Gallery tab, hover over the custom report, then click the Export link.
2. Open or save the custom report file.

To import a custom report, do the following:

Note: If you have the administrative permissions to create, edit and delete custom reports, you can also import custom reports.

1. In the Reports –> Report Gallery tab, click Import Custom Report.
2. Click Browse... to select the custom report file.
3. Open the Select Category list and designate the report category where the report will reside.
4. Click Import.
5. If the custom report has the same name as an existing custom report, you are prompted to rename the incoming report or overwrite the existing report.
6. If the custom report has the same name as an existing report, you are prompted to rename the new report.

Note: During a NetMRI upgrade, if a standard report has the same name as an existing custom report, the custom report is renamed "<report_name - N", where N is a random number. Currently scheduled versions of the report all also be renamed.

Note: Chassis Inventory reports are limited to 2000 items.