Trend Reporter

Use Trend Reporter to define, save, and generate reports. To generate a report, select the agent, domain, report template, and start and end times that you want, and run the report. Trend Reporter lets you select the display resolution, database, and output.

Use the Auto Report Scheduler to quickly set up the reports you want to run on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Add them to the auto report job schedule, and Trend Reporter automatically runs the reports (or jobs) at the interval you specify until you remove the job from the schedule.

Launching Trend Reporter

To launch Trend Reporter from any level of the TrafficDirector main window, take the following steps:

Step 1 Launch TrafficDirector, if you have not already done so.

Step 2 Click the Trend Reporter icon.

The Trend Reporter application (Figure 42-1) opens.

Figure 42-1: Trend Reporter Application

Understanding the Trend Reporter Interface

Before you begin working with the procedures in this chapter, take a moment to review the various sections of the Trend Reporter graphical user interface (GUI).

View the agents, agent groups, switches, and Frame Relay agents configured in TrafficDirector by selecting the corresponding radio button. Depending on the radio button you select, an additional list box is displayed:

• If you select Agent, all available agents are displayed in the Agent list box (Figure 42-2). No additional list box is displayed.

• If you select Agent Group, all defined agent groups are displayed in the Agent Group list box. When you select a group, all agents in the group are displayed in the lower list box (Figure 42-2). You can generate a report based on all, some, or one of the agents in an agent group.

Figure 42-2: Trend Reporter Agent Group List Boxes

• If you select Switch, all switches defined in TrafficDirector are displayed in the Switch list box. All switch ports are displayed in the lower list box (Figure 42-3). You can generate a report based on all, some, or one of the ports on a switch. You can select up to 20 switch ports for a single report. If you run a report with just the switch name selected, you will get data for the first 20 ports.

Figure 42-3: Trend Reporter Switch List Boxes

• If you select Frame Relay, all available Frame Relay agents are displayed in the Frame Relay Agent list box. When you select a Frame Relay agent, a list of DLCIs and the trunk are displayed in the lower list box (Figure 42-4). You can generate a report based on just the trunk, on the Data-Link Connection Identifiers (DLCIs) only (up to 20), or the trunk and the DLCIs. If you run a report with just the agent name selected, you will get data for the trunk and 19 DLCIs.

Figure 42-4: Trend Reporter Frame Relay Agent List Boxes

The Domain list box lists all protocol and generic domains defined in TrafficDirector that you can select to see data for in a report. Keep in mind that you can select multiple domains for some reports, and only one domain for others.

The Report Templates list box lists the report templates you can choose from to generate reports. This includes the predefined templates and any new report templates that you have defined using Report Editor.

Report template files (*.rt files) contain parameters that determine the title, header, footer, statistic, and display format information for generating a report. When you select a template file in the Report Templates list box, the following read-only information is automatically displayed in the Report Preview area:

Title	The title of the report.
Header 1	Any descriptive information defined in the first header.
Header 2	Shows any descriptive information defined in the second header.
Footer	Shows any descriptive information defined in the footer.
Format	The format of the report:chart (bar, stacked bar, plot, or pie), ASCII, comma-separated value (CSV), or tab- separated value (TSV).
Statistic	The statistic defined for the report template.

Use the drop-down menus in the Report Details area to specify the report database, the report display resolution, and how you want the report output--to the screen, to a file, appended to a file, or to a printer. When outputting or appending a report to a file, use the Name selection box to specify a file name. When e-mailing, use the Name selection box to specify the e-mail address.

Defining Reports

You use two sets of parameters to generate reports. The first set consists of basic report type and format options called report template files (*.rt) that you define with Report Editor. Once you have selected a report template, you specify additional Report Details parameters with the Trend Reporter application. Specify a display resolution to control the intervals displayed in history reports.