Creating Custom Reports

Net Inspector lets you configure custom report pages, containing graphs and tables displaying metrics monitored on one or more devices. A custom report page can contain one or more frames and each frame can contain one report (graph, table, map, external HTTP page, etc.). Examples of reports are Top10 reports, a table of collected values (e.g., response time, disk usage, interface bitrate, etc.),  a graph showing device CPU usage, etc.

You can also create a “network map” type of report that displays the contents of a (sub)map that exists in the Devices panel, Map View frame.

In addition, custom report pages can be added (docked) to quick link tabs that appear under the main header tabs in Net Inspector desktop. For more information about quick links, refer to the Configuring Quick Links section.

Furthermore, custom report pages can be converted to PDF format.

 

Creating a Custom Report Page

This section describes how to configure a custom report page with one custom report - a table showing the Top 5 devices by CPU load. It also describes how to add this custom report page to quick link tabs.

Custom report pages can contain more than one report (graph or table), as described in the next topic.

 

  1. Click the Reports tab in the main window to display the Reports page.

Figure: Reports page

 

  1. In the Custom Pages frame, click the Add New button (), as shown in the figure above to start configuring a new custom report page.

  2. The Custom Report Page configuration page appears (Figure) with the Edit Page Layout drop-down frame open at the top of the page, and one custom report Properties frame where you can configure the first custom report on this page. Note that custom report pages can contain more than one report (graph or table).

  3. Into the Custom page title input line in the Edit Page Layout drop-down frame at the top of the page, enter the title of the custom report page you are creating (see the figure below).

Figure: Setting the number of columns for a custom report page

 

  1. Select the desired number of columns for the custom report page from the Number of columns drop-down list in the Edit Page Layout drop-down frame (as shown in the figure above). A custom report page can contain 1, 2 or 3 columns of custom reports.

  2. Use the Columns' width slider in the Edit Page Layout drop-down frame to set the width of the columns (reports) in the page (as % of the total page width) and click the Apply button to apply and view the change.

Figure: Example of setting a Top5 report properties in the custom page configurator

 

  1. In the Properties frame, specify the following settings for the new custom report:

Title (input line)

Enter the title for the report you are creating (if left blank, automatic title will be created based on the options you select below).

Report type (radio button and associated property controls):

 

Depending on the type of the custom report you select, a different set of options is available from the accompanying drop-down lists (e.g., Time period, Statistics, Sample Interval, Value, etc.). Select the desired options from available drop-down lists  (in our example, we selected the Time period=Current value, TopN=Top 5, and Statistics=Host resources statistics - CPU load options).

  1. Click the OK button () in the titlebar of the report Properties frame to create and view the new report page containing one object (=table of 5 devices with currently highest CPU usage). Note that custom report pages are dynamic in nature, meaning that their content is automatically updated (when the page is refreshed) to reflect the current state (i.e., in our example we selected to show the current value in the Top5 report in order to always display those 5 devices that have the highest CPU load at that time).

    Figure: Viewing custom report page containing one report (table)

 

  1. Click the Apply button in the Edit Page Layout drop-down frame at the top of the page (see the image above) to apply and save the changes.

  2. Optionally, click the New button in the Edit Page Layout drop-down frame to add another report (frame) to the custom report page.

  3. When finished, click the Close button  in the Edit Page Layout drop-down frame to close it.

  4. The custom report page is now created and available for viewing to all users with the same privileges.

  1. Click the Reports tab in the main window to display the Reports page again, where the new report page is listed in the Custom Pages frame (as shown in the figure below).

Figure: Reports page with one (newly configured) custom report page

 

 

Tip: To make the custom report page easily accessible, you can add it to the quick link tabs (displayed under the main header tabs) by clicking the Dock to quick links button in the right section of the titlebar (see the image below). For more information about quick links, refer to the Configuring Quick Links section.

 

Figure: Adding a custom report page to quick links