Setting Up Reporting

Published : April 8, 2005 | Updated : August 17, 2005

DPM reporting enables you to view, schedule, and subscribe to DPM reports. DPM reports enable you to identify trends in data recovery, disk usage, and network traffic generated by synchronization jobs, and to track the success rate of synchronization and shadow copy creation jobs. DPM reporting services include five standard reports. Table 5.1 provides a description of each report.

Table 5.1 Standard DPM Reports

For each of the standard reports, you can create either new or historical versions of the reports:

• A new report is created dynamically, based on the options that you select when you generate the report. New reports are not saved for future reference.

• A historical report is created and saved based on a schedule that you specify. You select the options you want for the report when you set the schedule.

Activating DPM Reporting

Before you can start working with reports, you must activate DPM reporting by setting a password for the DPMReport account. DPMReport is an account that the Web and NT services of Microsoft® SQL Server™ Reporting Services use to securely access the DPM database.

To activate DPM reporting

1. In DPM Administrator Console, click the Action menu, and then click Options.

   The Options dialog box is displayed.

2. On the Reporting Password tab, type and confirm the password for the DPMReport account.

3. Click OK.

–Or–

1. In DPM Administrator Console, click Reporting on the navigation bar.

2. On the Actions pane, click Set reporting password.

3. In the Options dialog box, type and confirm the password for the DPMReport account.

4. Click OK.

Scheduling Reports

To prompt DPM to start creating and saving historical reports, you must specify report creation schedules. Each of the standard reports operates on an independent schedule. You can schedule DPM reports to run one time, weekly, or monthly, and you can customize the way data is organized within the report. When you schedule reports, you can also elect to send reports to specified recipients through e-mail.

To schedule a report

1. In DPM Administrator Console, click Reporting on the navigation bar.

2. On the Display pane, select the report that you want to schedule.

3. On the Actions pane, click Schedule.

   –Or–

   Right-click the report icon, and then click Schedule.

4. In the Schedule dialog box, click Enable schedule.

5. On the Schedule tab, select schedule options and click OK.

   • Frequency: Choose the frequency of the report, using the guidelines in the following table.

     Select this…	To generate…
     Once	A one-time report on the specified date for the current time period or for the specified number of past full weeks, months, quarters, or years.
     Weekly	A weekly report on the specified date for the current week or for the specified number of past full weeks (Sunday through Saturday).
     Monthly	A monthly report on the specified date for the current month or for the specified number of past full months.

   • Day or Date: Choose the day of the week on which to generate the report. If you chose Once as the Frequency setting, choose the date on which to generate the report.

   • Time: Choose the time of day to generate the report.

   • Group by: Choose whether to group items in the report by file server or by protection group.

   • Granularity: Select Weeks, Months, Quarters, or Years.

     The Granularity setting is limited by the parameter you select in the Frequency box. For example, if you select a weekly frequency, you are limited to weekly granularity.

     The following table explains how DPM interprets each unit of time.

     Unit of Time	Definition
     Week	Seven days — from Sunday through Saturday
     Month	A full month from the first to the last day of the month
     Quarter	Jan–Mar, Apr–Jun, Jul–Sept, or Oct–Dec
     Year	January 1 to December 31 of a particular year

   • Content: Select the time period for which you want to include report data.

     The term “Last” in the Content box is defined as the last full time period. For example, Last 2 weeks is defined as the past two full weeks excluding the current week. If today is a Tuesday, the last two weeks are the previous two full weeks (Sunday to Saturday). The time period covered for each report is displayed at the top of the report. The term “Current” is defined as the current time period, even if it is only a partial time period.

   • Number of copies to retain in history: Select the number of reports that you want to retain as history up to a maximum of 18.

     When the number of reports saved equals the number specified in this box, the next saved report will replace the oldest copy of the report, so you can retain the maximum number of copies at all times.

6. To prompt DPM to send reports to selected recipients by e-mail, subscribe to e-mail reports by doing the following:

   Note

   Before you can subscribe to e-mail reports, you must configure the SMTP server that you want DPM to use to send the reports. For instructions, see “Configuring the SMTP Server” earlier in this chapter.

   • Click the E-mail tab.

   • Type the e-mail address for which you want DPM to send a copy of the report. Use semicolons to separate the e-mail addresses.

   • Specify the format for the report.

7. Repeat Steps 2 through 6 for each report that you want to schedule.

Note

You cannot set multiple schedules for a report. If you modify a report schedule, the previous schedule is replaced.

Displaying Reports

DPM displays new and historical reports in Microsoft® Internet Explorer by default. When viewing a report in Internet Explorer, you can use the Reporting Services Web toolbar to customize the view or to export the report.

Note

To allow DPM time to accumulate enough information to generate meaningful report data, wait at least 24 hours after the start of data protection operations before you begin viewing reports.

For help with interpreting reports, see “Interpreting reports” in DPM Help.

Displaying new reports

1. In DPM Administrator Console, click Reporting on the navigation bar.

2. Select a report and then, on the Actions pane, click View.

   Alternatively, you can double-click a report or right-click a report in the Display pane and click View.

3. Select display options for the report and click OK.

   • Group by: Choose whether to group items in the report by file server or by protection group.

   • Granularity: Select Weeks, Months, Quarters, or Years.

     The following table explains how DPM interprets each unit of time.

     Unit of time	Definition
     Week	Seven days — from Sunday through Saturday
     Month	A full month from the first to the last day of the month
     Quarter	Jan–Mar, Apr–Jun, Jul–Sept, or Oct–Dec
     Year	January 1 to December 31 of a particular year

   • Content: Select the time period for which you wish to display report data.

     The time period covered for each report is displayed at the top of the report.

     To exclude the current period from the report, clear the “Include this period’s data” check box. This setting is selected by default.

   • DPM may take several moments to display the report. If you want to save the data generated for the report, export the report by using the Reporting Services Web toolbar.

Displaying historical reports

1. In the DPM Administrator console, click Reporting on the navigation bar.

2. Select a report and, on the Actions pane, click View.

   Alternatively, you can double-click a report in the Display pane, right-click it and click View, or click View in the History section of the Details pane.

3. In the View dialog box, click History.

4. From the “Available reports” list, click the specific report that you want to view and then click OK.

   The “Available reports” list displays all saved copies of a report. When the number of historical reports saved equals the maximum number specified in the report schedule, the next report that is saved will overwrite the oldest copy of the report, allowing you to retain the maximum number of copies at all times.

Using the Web toolbar

You can use the features of the Reporting Services Web toolbar at the top of each report to customize the report display, to export the report, and to print the report. The following table describes what each of the toolbar features allows you to do.