Overview

GroundWork Reports are a set of predefined service level reports available for immediate report generation and visibility into IT service levels. These standard availability and status reports are viewable in GroundWork Monitor through the integrated BIRT Report Viewer. This page reviews the Availability Reports including Host Availability, Host Group Availability, Host State Transitions, and Service State Transitions.

1.0 About Availability Reports

1.1 Host Availability

The Host Availability report graphically displays the specified host service availability and host availability information by day. Two bar charts present host daily status by percent.

• Host Service Availability - The first bar chart in this report shows a breakdown of the availability data for each Service related to the specified host. Each bar represents a particular Service. For each Service, a stacked bar for each day is displayed showing the percentage of time that it was in the following availability states, % time critical scheduled and unscheduled, % time warning scheduled and unscheduled, % of time OK, and % time other. The % Time Other aggregates all the time that the service was in another availability state other than the states explicitly identified.
• Host Availability - The second bar chart shows a stacked bar for each day specified in the report. The stacked bar breakdowns the percentage of time the host was in the following availability states for that day, % time down scheduled, % time down unscheduled, % time up and % time other. The % Time Other aggregates all the time that the host was in another availability state other than the states explicitly identified.
• Service Availability and Host Availability Lists - The last section of the report contains two lists (not shown in the diagram popup), one for Service availability and one for host availability. Both lists are ordered by date and are a textual representation of the information displayed in the bar charts. The Service Availability List breaks down each Service related to the host and shows % of time the Service was in the particular availability state for that day. The Service availability is broken down into 6 categories, % OK, % Critical Scheduled, % Critical Unscheduled, % Warning Scheduled, % Warning Unscheduled and % Other. If the % Critical unscheduled or scheduled value is greater than 0 then it will be highlighted in red. The Host List is similar. It shows availability each day for the Host specified. The Host availability is broken down into 4 categories, % UP, % Down scheduled, % Down Unscheduled and % Other. If the % Down unscheduled or scheduled is greater than 0 it will be highlighted in red. The data for this report is coming from directly from the availability (dashboard) database.
• Host Availability Report Parameters
  • Host Name - Identifies which host to include in the availability report. The list of hosts presented include all hosts represented in the GroundWork system. Note: If a host is not selected, the host defaults to localhost.
  • Start Date - The start date report parameter indicates the beginning date of the availability information to display in the report. This parameter cannot be empty and must be provided in the form, MM/DD/YYY (e.g. 01/01/2010). Also, note that the date is inclusive. The availability information for the date specified will be in the report.
  • Upper Date - Indicates the ending date of the availability information to display in the report. This parameter cannot be empty and must be provided in the form, MM/DD/YYY (e.g. 01/01/2010). Also, note that the date is inclusive. The availability information for the date specified will be in the report. This date combined with the start date provides the date range (inclusive) of the availability information to be included in the report.
    
    Figure: Host Availability
    
    

1.2 Host Group Availability

The Host Group Availability report graphically displays the specified host group's host and service availability information by day. Two bar charts present host group daily status by percent.

• Host Group Service Availability - The first bar chart in the report shows a breakdown of the availability data for specified host group for each day specified in the report. Each stacked bar represents the host group service availability breakdown for the day. The Host Group Service availability is broken down into 6 categories. These categories are % Known Time Critical Scheduled, Known Time Critical Unscheduled, % Time Warning Scheduled, % Known Time Warning Unscheduled, % Total Time OK and % Time Other. The % Time Other aggregates all the time that the Service was in another availability state other than the states explicitly identified.
• Host Group Host Availability - The second bar chart shows a stacked bar for each day specified in the report. The stacked bar breakdowns the percentage of time the host groups hosts were in the following availability states for that day, % Time Down Scheduled, % Time Down Unscheduled, % Total Time Up and % Time Other. The % Time Other aggregates all the time that the host was in another availability state other than the states explicitly identified.
• Service Availability and Host Availability Lists - The last section of the report contains two lists (not shown in the diagram popup), one for Host Group Service availability and one for Host Group Host availability. Both lists are ordered by date and are a textual representation of the information displayed in the bar charts. The Service Availability List shows the percentage of time the host group services were in a particular availability state for that day. The Service availability is broken down into 6 categories, % OK, % Critical Scheduled, % Critical Unscheduled, % Warning Scheduled, % Warning Unscheduled and % Other. If the % Critical unscheduled or scheduled value is greater than 0 then it will be highlighted in red. The Host Availability List is similar. It shows availability each day for the host group hosts. The host availability is broken down into 4 categories, % UP, % Down scheduled, % Down Unscheduled and % Other. If the % Down  unscheduled or scheduled is greater than 0 it will be highlighted in red. The data for this report is coming from directly from the availability (dashboard) database.

  Availability reports can only be generated for host groups existing in Nagios.

• Host Group Availability Report Parameters
  • Host Group Name - The Host Group name report parameter identifies which host groups to include in the availability report. The list of host groups presented include all host groups represented in the GroundWork system.

    If a host group is not selected, the host group defaults to Linux_Servers.

  • Start Date - The start date report parameter indicates the beginning date of the availability information to display in the report. This parameter cannot be empty and must be provided in the form, MM/DD/YYY (e.g. 01/01/2010). Also, note that the date is inclusive. The availability information for the date specified will be in the report.
  • Upper Date - The upper date report parameter indicates the ending date of the availability information to display in the report. This parameter cannot be empty and must be provided in the form, MM/DD/YYY (e.g. 01/01/2010). Also, note that the date is inclusive. The availability information for the date specified will be in the report. This date combined with the start date provides the date range (inclusive) of the availability information to be included in the report.
    
    Figure: Host Group Availability
    
    

1.3 Host State Transitions

The Host State Transitions report displays a graphical representation of the specified host and its state transitions over the specified time period.

• Host State Transitions - The first bar chart in the report shows a breakdown of the transition data for specified host for each transition over a period of time specified in the report. Each bar height represents the specified hosts' transition state for a transition change. The transition states for hosts are; Down, Unreachable, Pending, and Up, and for Services are; Critical, Warning, Unknown, Pending, and OK.
• Transition Date - The second section of the report displays a list of transitions. Each time the host state changes a date, time, state, and duration of the transition is charted. The list is ordered by date and is a textual representation of the information displayed in the bar chart.
• Service State Transitions - The third section of the report displays a list of the Host Service State Transitions. Each Service is listed with state transition and duration information allowing for easy scanning of state transition status. A transition is charted only if the state has changed since the last transition. The Host Service State Transition table offers drill-down capability which charts an individual service state for the specified host.
• Host State Transitions Report Parameters
  • Host Name - The host name report parameter identifies which host to include in the availability report. The list of hosts presented include all hosts represented in the GroundWork system.
  • Start Date - The start date report parameter indicates the beginning date of the availability information to display in the report. This parameter cannot be empty and must be provided in the form, MM/DD/YYY (e.g. 01/01/2010). Also, note that the date is inclusive. The availability information for the date specified will be in the report.
  • Upper Date - The upper date report parameter indicates the ending date of the availability information to display in the report. This parameter cannot be empty and must be provided in the form, MM/DD/YYY (e.g. 01/01/2010). Also, note that the date is inclusive. The availability information for the date specified will be in the report. This date combined with the start date provides the date range (inclusive) of the availability information to be included in the report.
    
    Figure: Host State Transitions Report
    
    

1.4 Service State Transitions

The Service State Transitions report graphically displays the specified host-service and its state transitions over the specified time period.

• Service State Transitions - The first bar chart in the report shows a breakdown of the transition data for specified host-service for each transition over a period of time specified in the report. Each bar height represents the specified hosts-service transition state for a transition change. The transition states for hosts are; Down, Unreachable, Pending, and Up, and for Services are; Critical, Warning, Unknown, Pending, and OK.
• Transition Date - The second section of the report displays a list of transitions. Each time the host-service state changes a date, time, state, and duration of the transition is charted. The list is ordered by date and is a textual representation of the information displayed in the bar chart.
• Service State Transitions Report Parameters
  • Host Name - The host name report parameter identifies which host to include in the availability report. The list of hosts presented include all hosts represented in the GroundWork system.
  • Host Service Name - The Host Service name report parameter identifies which host-service to include in the availability report. The list of services presented include all services represented for the selected host in the GroundWork system.
  • Start Date - The start date report parameter indicates the beginning date of the availability information to display in the report. This parameter cannot be empty and must be provided in the form, MM/DD/YYY (e.g. 01/01/2010). Also, note that the date is inclusive. The availability information for the date specified will be in the report.
  • Upper Date - The upper date report parameter indicates the ending date of the availability information to display in the report. This parameter cannot be empty and must be provided in the form, MM/DD/YYY (e.g. 01/01/2010). Also, note that the date is inclusive. The availability information for the date specified will be in the report. This date combined with the start date provides the date range (inclusive) of the availability information to be included in the report.
    
    Figure: Service State Transitions
    

2.0 Generating Reports

The steps below will guide you through the process of generating GroundWork Reports.

1. Select Reports > BIRT Report Viewer.
2. Select a report type you wish to generate.
3. A report parameter screen will be displayed (if required). Select the appropriate parameters and select OK. A processing message will display on the screen while the report is being generated. Report navigation is available at the top right of the window and enables you to quickly jump to the top of the report, previous page, next page, bottom of report, or to a specified page number. Useful report options displayed at the top of the report are described in the table below.
   
   Table: Report Options

   Run Report	This command lets you view and reset the parameters of the report which will automatically run again after you make changes and select OK.
   Export Data	This command lets you export the data to a Comma Separated Value (CSV) File Format. CSV format is often used to exchange data between disparate applications.
   PDF	Print report as a PDF file. The report footer indicates the date and time the report was generated. One in the PDF viewer you can email reports.

   Immediately following an installation, there will not be any data for the GroundWork Availability Reports. The data for these reports are generated by the dashboard_data_load.pl and dashboard_avail_load.pl scripts which are normally run once a day, at night, as a cron job. This is the expected behavior. These scripts can be run manually to generate data earlier if required.