<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: Reports Step By Step

To create a new report or to run an existing one, follow the steps in this section. In the PRTG web interface, click on the Reports entry in the main menu to show the reports main screen.

icon-i-roundThis documentation refers to the PRTG System Administrator user accessing the Ajax interface on a master node. If you use other user accounts, interfaces, or nodes, you might not see all of the options in the way described here. If you use a cluster installation, note that failover nodes are read-only by default.

Quick Start: Run an Existing Report

PRTG is delivered with several pre-configured reports. To use one of them, click a report's name in the reports main screen and select the Settings tab. The next steps are the same as for completely new reports. Although some settings are already given, we recommend that you check them. For example, check the sensors that are included in the report. For some reports that come with PRTG, there are no sensors added yet. Continue with Step 3: Define Additional Options in this section.

Step 1: Add Report

Click the Add Report button to add a new report. An assistant appears where you can define various settings. First, enter a meaningful Report Name.

Add Report Assistant

Add Report Assistant

 

Click here to enlarge: http://media.paessler.com/prtg-screenshots/add_report.png

Step 2: Select a Template

In the Template option, select one of the report templates from the list. This defines the overall look of your report and how detailed (regarding the intervals) monitoring data is included. For a detailed description of the available template options, please see the Report Settings section. If you are not sure yet, try a template that appears most suitable to you. You can still change all settings later.

Step 3: Define Additional Options

Select a Security Context (best choose PRTG System Administrator, if available), your Timezone, and the Paper Size for PDF generation.

icon-book-arrowsFor detailed information, see section Report Settings.

Step 4: Select Nodes and Sensors

Choose the sensors you want to include in the report. When running a cluster, define the Cluster Node the monitoring data is taken from first. Select a specific node from the list. If you select All nodes, PRTG creates a report with data from all of your cluster nodes, but only the primary channel of every sensor appears in the report.

Every report shows monitoring results based on sensor data. There are two ways to include sensors in a report: You can either add sensors manually or by tag. In the Add Sensors by Tag field, enter one or more tags that match the sensor range you want a report for.

For example, enter the tag bandwidthsensor to include all sensors that measure bandwidth (or select it from the list of tags which PRTG suggests). PRTG provides this tag by default when you add any bandwidth sensor, so the tag typically gathers all bandwidth sensors, unless you configured your system differently. You can enter several tags. Hit the enter key, or insert comma or space after each tag and enter the next one. Use the Filter Sensors by Tag field to explicitly filter sensors with certain tags from the bulk of tags or manually selected sensors defined above.

Tagging is a great option to group sensors or other objects. For more information, see the Tags section. You can also leave the tag fields empty and only choose specific sensors manually later.

Step 5: Decide on a Schedule and Additional Settings

In the Report Schedule section, choose if you want to run the report on a regular basis or on demand only. Also define which time Period will be covered by the report, if you want to show percentiles, if you want to generate CSV and XML data files for reports with data tables, and add report comments or special access rights.

icon-book-arrowsFor detailed information, please see the Report Settings section.

icon-i-round-redScheduled reports are not executed on failover nodes by default.

Click the Continue button to save your settings. If you change tabs or use the main menu, all changes to the settings will be lost!

Step 6: Check and Adjust the Sensors Included

After saving the settings, switch to the Sensors Selected by Tag tab to see a list of all sensors that you added with the tag(s) you defined in step 4. To change tags, go back to the Settings tab. You can additionally add sensors manually. To do so, switch to the Select Sensors Manually tab. The final report shows sensors from both manual and by tag selection.

icon-book-arrowsSee section Report Settings for detailed information.

Step 7: Run Report

Switch to the Run Now tab, select a period, and in the Processing Options select View Report as HTML. Click the Run Report button. PRTG generates the report in a new browser window or tab immediately. Depending on the number of selected sensors and the used template, it may take a few minutes until you see the report. If you do not want to wait, close the newly opened browser window or tab and select a PDF option in the Processing Options. Click the Run Report button again. The report is then generated in the background and you get a ToDo ticket or email once it is finished.

icon-book-bulbFor large PDF reports, PRTG automatically splits the output into separate files to avoid huge PDF files. You can change the number of sensors that PRTG includes into each PDF file by editing the report templates manually. For details, see this Knowledge Base article: Can I change the number of PDFs created by a report?

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Knowledge Base: Can I change the number of PDFs created by a report?

 

 

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