Chapter 4: Generating Reports

Generating Reports

You can perform all your reporting-related tasks from a single location: the Reports drawer in the Tasks tab on all ANA perspectives.

These tasks include:

•Scheduling the reports. See Creating an Inventory Summary Report.

•Managing reports. You can export a report, print a report, delete a report, and so on. See Using the Report Browser.

•Performing administrative tasks. You can set the purge policy for the archived reports. See Reports Preferences, page 14-24.

Roles Required to Manage Reports

Table 4-1 lists the roles that are required to manage reports. For more information on roles, see Creating and Managing Users and Scopes, page 14-27.

Table 4-1 Roles Required to Manage Reports
Task	Required Roles
Creating an Inventory Summary report	Any of the following roles: •Administrator •Configurator •Network Operator •Viewer
Viewing the generated Inventory Summary reports	Any of the following roles: •Administrator •Configurator •Network Operator •Viewer
Exporting a report	Any of the following roles: •Administrator •Configurator •Network Operator •Viewer
Saving a report	Any of the following roles. •Administrator •Configurator •Network Operator •Viewer
Printing a report	Any of the following roles. •Administrator •Configurator •Network Operator •Viewer
Deleting a report	Any of the following roles. •Administrator •Configurator •Network Operator •Viewer
Reports preferences	Administrator

Creating an Inventory Summary Report

The Inventory Summary Report displays the Inventory information present in the ANA database for the network elements being managed by ANA.

You can create an Inventory Summary report that contains a summary of physical and logical inventory information. The reports can be either generated immediately or scheduled. You can export the reports to PDF, CSV, HTML, and XML formats.

While creating the report job, you can mark the report as either public or private. If it is a private report, only the user who created the report, and administrators, can view the report.

While creating the report job, you can also specify the purge policy of the scheduled report. You can purge reports based on two criteria:

•Number of versions to retain. Minimum and maximum number of versions to retain.

The oldest report is purged when the maximum number is reached. For example, if you set the maximum versions to retain to 10, when the eleventh version of a report is archived, the earliest (first version) is purged to keep the total number of latest archived report versions at 10.

•Delete report older than. Archived reports older than the number of days that you specify are purged.

ANA does not purge the archived reports if the number is less than or equal to the specified minimum number of versions to retain.

The purge policy that you specify while creating the Inventory Summary report job override the policy that you have specified in the Report Settings option in the Task tab on the Administration perspective.

To generate an Inventory Summary report:

Step 1 Go to the Task tab and click the Reports drawer.

Step 2 Double-click New Report. The Define Report workspace is displayed.

Step 3 Enter the information required to generate the report and click Next:


Field	Description
Report Category	Category of the report, such as Inventory Reports.
Report Type	Type of the report, such as Inventory Summary Report. This is a mandatory field.
Report Security	Specify whether you want the report to be public or private. •Public reports can be seen and used by other users who have the permission to do these tasks. •Private reports can be seen and used only by the owner (creator), of the reports, and by administrators.
Report Name	Name of the report. You can enter up to 256 characters.
Description	Description of the report.

Step 4 Select the required network elements using the NE selector in the Select Inventory Parameters workspace and click Next.

Step 5 Customize your report in the Customize Layout workspace. The physical and logical attributes that are listed in the workspace are displayed in the generated report. See Table 4-2 Inventory Groups and Attributes for more information.


Field/Button	Description
Table Field
Name	Displays the physical and logical attributes.
Visible	Select the physical and logical attributes that you want to view in the generated Inventory Summary report. The value can be True or False. You can change the value using the drop-down list. See Viewing the Generated Inventory Summary Reports for details on physical and logical inventory attributes.
Width	Enter the table column width in pixels. This value is used in the generated report.
Sort Order	Change the order of the attributes using the Move Up and Move Down buttons. The specified order is used in the generated report.
Sort Type	Change the sorting order as ascending or descending using the drop-down list. The specified order is used in the generated report.
Button
Move Up/Move Down	Define the order of the attributes. The specified order is used in the generated report.
Reset to Default	Restore to default values.
Add/Remove Columns (icon)	Add or remove columns. (This icon is available at the right corner of the Customize Layout workspace.)

Step 6 Enter the scheduling and purging details in the Configure Schedule/Purge workspace and click Next:


Field	Description
Scheduling
Run Type	Specify the type of schedule for the report job: either immediate or scheduled.
Start date	Specify the date and time when the report job should start. You can either enter the date and time or click the drop-down list to select the date and time. Note The date and time displayed in ANA Client machine show the client timezone and not the ANA gateway timezone. Report jobs with an immediate start date are not displayed in Job Management in the Administration perspective. Upon creation, they are displayed immediately in the Report Browser. If you try to schedule a report to take place at a time in the past, the report is run immediately.
The number of times this job should run	Specify the number of times this job should run. You can either select Infinite or enter number of times this job should run. If you specify Infinite, the job is run until ANA is uninstalled. If you enter a number, the job is run for that number of times. This is not applicable if you have scheduled an immediate job.
Delay interval between jobs	Specify the time interval between periodic jobs. In other words, if you scheduled to run this job multiple times, enter the time interval between the jobs. You can enter the interval in seconds, minutes, hours, or days. This is not applicable if you have scheduled an immediate job.
Purging
Delete report older than	Check Delete report older than and enter the number of days.
Minimum number of versions	Enter the minimum number of archived reports to retain.
Maximum number of versions	Enter the maximum number of archived reports to retain.

Step 7 Click Finish.

The Job Browser displays the following two jobs in the Job Management workspace in the Administration perspective:

•Inventory report job.

•Purge-Inventory report job.

Using the Report Browser

You can manage reports using the Report Browser. To launch the Report Browser, go to the Task tab and click the Report drawer.

The Report Browser lists all the generated reports. The columns in the Report Browser are:


Field	Description
Report Security	Security of the report, Public or Private.
Report Name	Name of the report.
Report Type	Type of the report, such as Inventory Summary Report.
Report Category	Category of the report, such as Inventory Reports.
Report Description	Description of the report.
User	Username of the report job creator.
Creation Time	Creation date and time of the report job.

The Report browser contains the following icons:


Icon/Tooltip	Description
Advance Filter	Enables you to filter based on the Report browser fields.
Add/Remove Columns	Enables you to add or remove columns from the Report browser
Refresh	Enables you to refresh the Report browser.

You can perform these tasks from the Report Browser:

• Viewing the Generated Inventory Summary Reports

• Exporting a Report

• Saving a Report

• Printing a Report

• Deleting a Report

Viewing the Generated Inventory Summary Reports

To open a generated Inventory Summary report, double-clink a report in the Report Browser. The Inventory Summary report contains a summary of both physical and logical information present in the ANA database and is presented as a stack of table reports.

The generated report displays the same information for all network element types. In addition to physical and logical inventory, the report contains:

•The user who created the report.

•The time when the report was generated. The generated report shows the ANA gateway server time.

•The network elements without any successful inventory collection.

•The number of network elements selected.

The physical and logical information, such as Device Information, Chassis Information, Module Information, Flash Devices, and so on appears as individual tables, and the attributes listed under them appear as columns of the report table.

You can also perform these tasks on the generated reports:


Icon	Tooltip	Description
	Stop	Stop a report while it is being generated
	Refresh	Refresh the generated report.
	Print	Print the generated report.
	Save	Save the generated report.

The report contains the following information:

Table 4-2 Inventory Groups and Attributes
Report Inventory Group	Custom Report Group/Attribute	Description
Module	Number of Ports	Number of ports.
	Hardware Version	Module hardware version.
	Serial Number	Serial number of module.
	Manufacturer	Manufacturer details.
	Part Number	Module part number.
	Number of Slots	Number of slots.
	Operational Status	Operational status of module.
	Hardware Type	Module hardware type.
	Module IP Address	IP address of the module.
	Module Index	Index of module.
	Firmware Version	Firmware version of module.
	User Asset ID	User-assigned asset ID, such as a bar-coded asset tag.
	Slot Description	Slot description of module.
	Service State	Operational status of module.
	Software Version	Module software version.
Flash Files	Flash Partition Index	Flash partition index.
	Flash File Index	Flash file index.
	Name	Name of the Flash device.
	Flash Device Index	Flash device index.
	Size	Total Flash device size in megabytes (MB).
	Checksum	Checksum of Flash file.
Module Port Interfaces	Type	Type of interface.
	Interface Index	Interface index.
	Speed	Speed of interface in megabits per second (Mb/s).
	Last Changed	Time at which the last change occurred.
	Port Index	Port index.
	Admin Status	Administrative status of interface.
	Module Index	Module index.
Image Information	Image Size	Software image present on the network element.
	Version	Version of the software image on the network element.
	System Boot Variable	System boot variable.
	Boot Reason	String indicating how the operating system (OS) was last booted.
	Total Visible Memory	Total amount of physical memory (in bytes) available to the OS.
	ROM Version	Version of ROM.
	Boot Host	If the OS was booted over the network, this property holds the Internet address of the boot host.
	Feature	Image feature.
Flash Partitions	Status	Status of Flash partition.
	Flash Partition Index	—
	Flash Device Index	—
	Free	Free space in MB.
	Upgrade Mechanism	Method of upgrade of Flash partition.
	Size	Flash partition size in MB.
	Erasure Needed	Whether the partition requires erasure before any write operations can be done in it.
	Module Index	Module index.
	Checksum Algorithm	Enumeration describing the checksum algorithm that is in place for the file system.
Flash Device	Type Of Memory	Enumeration indicating the type of the memory.
	Minimum Partition Size	Minimum partition size, in bytes, as defined by the system.
	Maximum Partitions	Maximum number of partitions supported by the system for this hardware.
	Module Index	Module index.
	Is Volatile	Boolean indicating whether the element is volatile (TRUE) or not (FALSE).
	Removable	Indicates whether or not the hardware is removable.
	Chip Count	Number of chips that make up the physical memory.
	Partition Count	Number of partitions on the Flash device.
	Flash Device Index	—
Device Information	Display Name	Network element name that you provide while adding a VNE in ANA.
	System Name	System name of the network element.
	IP Address	IP address to manage this equipment.
	Description	System description of the network element.
	UDI (PID, VID, Serial Number)	—
	Contact	Contact details.
	Location	System location.
	Product (Services)	—
	Uptime	Time when the network element became activated.
	Communication State	VNE state (either reachable or unreachable).
	Lifecycle State	—
	Enabled State	—
Chassis Information	Element Type (Vendor Equipment Type)	Vendor-specific equipment designator: hardware type.
	Chassis Serial Number	Number of the chassis.
	Vendor	—
	Slot Capacity	Number of slots in this chassis, or -1 if neither applicable nor determinable.
	Manufacturer	Manufacturer details.
	Equipment Type	Element's base classification.
	Administered State	—
	Manufactured Date	—
	Product Name	Physical name (text string) assigned to the Cisco entity.
	User Asset ID	A user-assigned asset ID, such as a bar-coded asset tag.

Exporting a Report

The Inventory Summary reports can be exported in the following formats:

•PDF. You must have Acrobat Reader installed on your ANA client machine to open the Inventory Summary report in PDF format.

•CSV

•HTML

•XML

To export a report:

Step 1 Right-click a report in the Report Browser and select Export Report. The Export Report dialog box is displayed.

Step 2 Choose the export format from the drop-down list. The generated report appears in the workspace.

Step 3 Click Save.

Saving a Report

To save a report:

Step 1 Double-click a report in the Report Browser. The generated report is displayed in the workspace.

Step 2 Click Save.

Printing a Report

To print a report:

Step 1 Double-click a report in the Report Browser. The generated report is displayed in the workspace.

Step 2 Click Print.

Deleting a Report

To delete a report, right-click a report in the Report Browser and choose Delete Report.

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