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BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation

User Guide: Report Authoring

Supporting

BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automationversion 8.2.02

August 2012

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4 BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation Report Authoring Guide

mailto:[email protected]

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ContentsChapter 1 Introduction 7

Intended audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Documentation conventions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Related documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation documentation . . . . . 9BMC Server Automation documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Cognos documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Chapter 2 Report authoring tools 13

Query Studio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Report Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Query Studio and Report Studio comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Accessing authoring tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter 3 Reporting overview 17

Report packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17BladeLogic report package and data domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Audit domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Compliance domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Inventory and Change Tracking domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Job Activity domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44RBAC domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Patch domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Command Usage domain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54Provisioning domain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Site data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Model extensibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Custom properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Extended objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Chapter 4 Integration with external systems 61

Create an Inventory report using Query Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61Configure Cognos to save a report in CSV format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Specify the output file location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Schedule the report to save the output to the file location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Contents 5

Chapter 5 Creating reports in Query Studio 75

Query Studio features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Filtering report data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Grouping data in reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Creating sections in reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Adding calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Creating charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Adding summaries to reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Applying conditional styles to reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Creating a report in Query Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Saving a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Sample reports demonstrating Query Studio features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Creating a report with filters and calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Creating a report with groups and sections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Creating a report with filters, summarization, and groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Creating a report with filters, summarization, and calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Creating a report with filters, summarization, and charts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Creating a report with filters, groups, and conditional styles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Chapter 6 Creating reports in Report Studio 95

Creating a report in Report Studio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95Sample reports demonstrating Report Studio features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Creating a simple Audit list report using an out-of-box template . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Creating a Job Activity crosstab report with filters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Customizing built-in reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Chapter 7 Custom report examples 105

Sample Inventory reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Sample Inventory report with summarization, chart, and property . . . . . . . . . . 106Sample Inventory report with groups and calculations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108Sample Inventory report with filters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Sample Compliance reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112Sample Compliance report with filters, groups, and calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . 112Sample Compliance report with filters, groups, calculations, charts, and

conditional styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Sample Compliance report with filters, grouping, sections, calculations, and

summarization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Sample Change Tracking reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Sample Change Tracking report with filters and groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122Sample Change Tracking report with filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124


C h a p t e r 1
1 Introduction
BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation is a web-based reporting application that provides extensive report capabilities related to your data center servers that are managed by BMC.

BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation uses rich data warehouse schema and dimensional modeling principles to access and report on historical data captured by BMC Server Automation. In addition to a wide variety of built-in reports, BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation also provides a way to easily create your own custom reports.

This guide provides information for report authors who use BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation to create reports on various aspects of server configuration management. The guide focuses on the data model that is available in the report authoring tools bundled with the product. The data model is the abstraction layer that business users and report authors use on a daily basis for data mining.

This guide provides the following categories of information:

■ An in-depth discussion of the data model.

■ Overviews of the report data groups (domains).

■ Comparisons of the report authoring tools: Query Studio and Report Studio.

■ Examples of custom report creation.

This guide includes report creation examples that illustrate the ad hoc reporting capabilities available with the product and illustrate some of the data model areas. The data model enables a vast array of reports and a small sample of them are described in this document. The document is not a comprehensive reference guide for the report authoring tools. Separate IBM Cognos documentation provides comprehensive information about these tools and is available with the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation product.

Chapter 1 Introduction 7

Intended audience

Before using this guide, see the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation User Guide at BMC online documentation portal to become familiar with the basic product concepts from a report viewer and administrator perspective.

Intended audienceThis document is intended for use by business analysts and report authors using BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation for their organization’s business analysis tasks, including report production.

Documentation conventionsThis topic provides an overview of the conventions used in the documentation.

Path separators

When describing paths, this guide uses UNIX-style path separators (forward slashes) except in situations where Windows-style path separators (backslashes) are specifically required.

Multiple approaches

When you perform a task in the user interface, multiple approaches are usually possible. You can use menu options, tool bar icons, or pop-up menus to achieve the same goals. Typically, the documentation describes only one approach, usually involving the use of pop-up menus.


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Related documentation

Related documentationThis topic lists additional documentation that is related to the product.

BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation documentation

The following BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation documents are available at BMC online documentation portal:

Title Description

BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation Installation Guide: for Oracle

Documents how to install the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation module with Oracle on all supported platforms.

BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation Installation Guide: for SQL Server

Documents how to install the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation module with Microsoft SQL Server on all supported platforms.

BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation Database Administration Guide

Documents database requirements, setup, and administration for BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation.

BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation User Guide

Documents how to administer and use BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation module.



BMC Server Automation documentation

BMC Server Automation documentation

The following BMC Server Automation documents are available at BMC online documentation portal:

Cognos documentation

BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation uses the Cognos 8.4.1 reporting framework for its reporting product. The BMC documentation includes references to the Cognos documentation for additional information about BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation.

The Cognos documentation is available at BMC online documentation portal and from the product Help menu. In the menu, choose a specific document from the menu, choose More Documentation for a list of additional documents, or choose Help for a document related to the current product area. Most Cognos documents include a Related Documentation section, which includes a hyperlinked list of all Cognos documents. (See the BMC documentation first, as the primary source of instructions for installing, configuring, and using BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation.)

Title Description

BMC Server Automation User Guide Documents the functionality of BMC Server Automation.

BMC online technical documentation at: BMC Server Automation 8.2

■ Explains how to install all the components of the BMC Server Automation system on all supported platforms.

■ Explains how to perform all the tasks necessary to make the components of a BMC Server Automation system function together smoothly.

BMC BladeLogic Network Shell Command Reference

Provides a complete description of all Network Shell commands and utilities.

BLCLI Help Documents how to use the BMC Server Automation Command Line Interface (BLCLI), how to access the BLCLI using the Jython Line Interface, and describes the BLCLI commands.


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The following Cognos documents are available from the product Help menu.

Title Description

IBM Cognos 8.4 User Guide Documents how to view, organize, schedule, create, and distribute reports.

IBM Cognos 8.4 Business Intelligence Query Studio User Guide

Describes how to create simple reports.

IBM Cognos 8.4 Business Intelligence Report Studio Professional Authoring User Guide

Describes how to create complex reports.

Note that if you have not installed Report Studio as an add-on package to your BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation installation, you will not see the features described in this document.

IBM Cognos 8.4 Administration and Security Guide

Provides details on administering BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation and security

IBM Cognos 8.4 Business Intelligence Installation and Configuration Guide

Provides configuration information.


C h a p t e r 2
2 Report authoring tools
BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation provides report authors and business analysts the following tools for report creation and authoring: Query Studio and Report Studio.

Query StudioThis tool is geared towards business analysts who understand the data model and need to quickly generate simple reports. The tool provides easy drag-and-drop methodology for users to create ad hoc reports, quickly analyze data, and apply filtering, grouping, sorting, and simple formatting. This tool also provides limited charting capabilities.

Query Studio is licensed by named users. A single user license comes with BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation. You can purchase additional licenses from BMC.

Report StudioThis tool is geared toward advanced report developers. In addition to providing access to the data model, Report Studio has many capabilities that are not included with Query Studio. Report Studio provides robust reporting capabilities, such as prompt pages, filter panels, complex SQL statements and joins.

The built-in (or out-of-box) reports included with BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation are created by using Report Studio. You can customize these reports according to your requirements.

Report Studio is an optional tool, licensed by named users. Individual licenses can be purchased from BMC.


Query Studio and Report Studio comparison

Query Studio and Report Studio comparisonThe following table compares the report authoring tools. The table lists typical reporting tasks and specifies what tool can be used to perform each task.

NOTE This is not a complete list of the available functionality in each tool. For more details about each tool, see the IBM Cognos Query Studio User Guide and Report Studio User Guide at BMC online documentation portal.

Task Report Studio Query Studio

Create simple ad hoc reports Yes Yes

Ability to access full data model Yes Yes

Create drill-throughs Yes No

Create charts Yes Yes, limited

Filtering Yes Yes

Grouping Yes Yes

Sorting Yes Yes

Create crosstab reports Yes Yes

Create conditional formatting Yes Yes, limited

Create prompt pages Yes No

Create multi-page reports Yes No

Create multiple query reports Yes No

Apply conditional styles and style variables Yes No

Apply conditional rendering between lists, crosstabs, and charts.

Yes No

Import and export report definitions Yes No

Use custom SQL in reports Yes No

View generated SQL for reports Yes No

Create calculations using complex SQL functions

Yes No

Create filters with complex calculations Yes No

Create joins Yes No

Create dashboard reports Yes No

Use objects, such as HTML items, value prompts, and hyperlinks

Yes No

Set default values and static values in prompts

Yes No

Create detailed customized layout and formatting

Yes No




Accessing authoring tools

Accessing authoring toolsAccess to the report authoring tools requires appropriate authorizations. Users who are assigned to a role with the Reports.QueryStudio authorization can access Query Studio. Users who are assigned to a role with the Reports.Studio authorization can access Report Studio.

You can access the report authoring tools from the Launch menu in the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation portal.

For more information about BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation authorizations and access, see the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation User Guide at BMC online documentation portal.

Set page breaks on multiple data items Yes No

Control exact placement of objects on a page Yes No

Task Report Studio Query Studio



Accessing authoring tools


C h a p t e r 3
3 Reporting overview
The BladeLogic data model is a data abstraction layer used in BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation. This data model exposes a business intelligence view of BMC Server Automation information that is captured in the data warehouse.

The model is an object-tree representation of all of the results and objects that are maintained in BMC Server Automation, such as jobs and job results, servers, templates, roles, and users. Data from all job results and core objects such as jobs, servers, and templates are organized as domains.

The model maintains information about relationships between data and security. The gathered data is transferred from the BMC Server Automation On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) database to the reports warehouse using the extract, transform, and load (ETL) process.

Report packagesBMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation ships with report packages that combine a data model and a set of built-in reports that are created using that model. Report packages include folders for results data, objects, and other elements that are exposed when you select a package.

When you open Query Studio or Report Studio, the left panel displays report packages. The following report packages are available:

■ BladeLogic

The BladeLogic package contains built-in reports that are arranged in a hierarchical tree structure.


BladeLogic report package and data domains

■ BladeLogic KPI

The Key Performance Indicator (KPI) package includes data elements used in the built-in KPI reports. You can use these data elements to create custom KPI reports.

For more information about KPI reports, see the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation User Guide at BMC online documentation portal.

BladeLogic report package and data domainsThe BladeLogic report package, which is available from Query Studio or Report Studio, displays folders for results data, objects, and other elements. The folders are organized in a way that is specific to each domain group. For more information about launching Query Studio or Report Studio, see “Creating a report in Query Studio” on page 78 or “Creating a report in Report Studio” on page 95.

The BladeLogic report package folders are called domain groups (or domains) throughout this document. The BladeLogic package contains the following domain folders:

■ Audit (see “Audit domain” on page 20)■ Compliance (see “Compliance domain” on page 27)■ Inventory (see “Inventory and Change Tracking domains” on page 33)■ Job Activity (see “Job Activity domain” on page 44)■ RBAC (see “RBAC domain” on page 47)■ Patch (see “Patch domain” on page 49)■ Command Usage (see “Command Usage domain” on page 54)■ Provisioning (see “Provisioning domain” on page 56)

WARNING Do not modify the templates the built-in reports use as any modifications of the templates can result in corrupted reports.


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BladeLogic report package and data domains

Each domain group contains individual query subjects, which contains query items (data items) that you can add to your report to define the report columns. The following example shows the contents of the Job Activity domain.

NOTE For information about query items, see the documentation at BMC online documentation portal.

Attribute

Query subject

Measure

Dimension

Filter

Folder





Audit domain

Reporting objects are classified into the following categories:

To create a meaningful report, you would usually need at least one measure, and one dimension or one attribute. You should avoid combining summary level query items with the detail level query items in a single report. For example, you should not combine Servers Attempted (measure) with Server Name (dimension) because the number of servers attempted for a Compliance Job are counted twice for both the servers, as shown in the following figure:

The following sections explain domains, query subjects, and filters available in the domain folders.

Audit domain

The Audit domain contains data associated with the Audit Jobs in BMC Server Automation and a set of statistical metrics based on the results of running the jobs.

You can use Audit Jobs to determine whether server configurations match a standard configuration and identify servers that deviate from the standard. You can automatically correct any deviations from that standard.

Icon Object

Query subject: Represents a table in the database.

Attribute: Represents a column of qualitative data in the database, such as operating system name.

Dimension: Represents a group of descriptive data about a major aspect of a business, such as product or date.

Measure: Represents a column of quantitative data in the database, such as time.

Filter: You can apply filters to query items.

Folder: You can use a folder to organize query subjects.


Audit domain

The Audit domain folder contains the query subjects shown in the following figure:

Combining query items from Audit domain

The query subjects in the Audit domain are divided into generic, detail level, and summary level categories. Query items from the generic query subjects can be combined with query items from the detail or summary level query subjects. BMC recommends you do not combine query items from the detail and summary level query subjects as the combination might result in inconsistent results.

NOTE The Audit job run result measures (Servers Attempted, Servers Not Audited, and Servers Successfully Audited), which are present in the Audit Job query subject, can be combined only with the Job Name and Job Run Start Time query items.

Generic query subjects Detail level query subjects Summary level query subjects

■ Audit Source Component■ Audit Target

Components■ Audit Job■ Audit Job Run Date■ Audit Job Property■ Audit Source Server

Property■ Audit Target Server

Property■ Audit Component

Property■ Audit Template Property

Audit Details ■ Audit Summary■ Audit Server Result


Audit domain

The following sections describe sample summary level query subjects with query items, which can be combined with other query items to generate useful reports. For more information about creating reports, see Chapter 5, “Creating reports in Query Studio”.

Generating reports using the Audit Server Result query subject

You can combine the query items in the Audit Server Result query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Audit Job■ Audit Source Component■ Audit Target Component■ Audit Job Run Date■ Audit Source Server Property■ Audit Target Server Property■ Audit Template Property■ Audit Job Property


Audit domain

Generating reports using the Audit Job query subject

You can combine the query items in the Audit Job query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Audit Job■ Audit Job Run Date■ Audit Job Property

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying the number of compliant and non-compliant servers for a given audit policy, combine the following query items:

■ Audit Target Component/Target Template(Policy) Name ■ Audit Job/Job Run Start Time■ Audit Server Result/Server Is Complaint■ Audit Server Result/Server Is Non Compliant ■ Audit Server Result/Server Unknown/Error


Audit domain

Generating reports using the Audit Summary query subject

You can combine the query items in the Audit Summary query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Audit Source Component■ Audit Target Component■ Audit Job■ Audit Job Run Date■ Audit Source Server Property■ Audit Target Server Property■ Audit Component Property■ Audit Template Property

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying the Audit job run success parameters for the latest job runs, combine the following query items:

■ Audit Job/Job Name ■ Audit Filters/Audit Job Latest Run■ Audit Job/Servers Attempted■ Audit Job/Servers Not Audited■ Audit Job/Servers Successfully Audited


Audit domain

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying an overview of deviations for object types on servers, combine the following query items:

■ Audit Job/Job Name■ Audit Filters/Audit Job Latest Run■ Audit Target Component/Target Server Name■ Audit Summary/Object Type■ Audit Summary/Total Differences


Audit domain

Generating reports using the Audit Detail query subject

You can combine the query items in the Audit Detail query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Audit Source Component■ Audit Target Component■ Audit Job■ Audit Job Run Date■ Audit Summary■ Audit Source Server Property■ Audit Target Server Property■ Audit Job Property■ Audit Component Property■ Audit Template Property


Compliance domain

Compliance domain

The Compliance domain contains data associated with the Compliance Jobs in BMC Server Automation and a set of statistical metrics based on the results of running these jobs. Compliance reports provide detailed information on the results of Compliance Jobs for servers in your data center.

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying details of deviations found on servers for an Audit job run, combine the following query items:

■ Audit Job/Job Name■ Audit Filters/Audit Job Latest Run■ Audit Target Component/Target Server Name■ Audit Summary/Object Type■ Audit Detail/Item Name■ Audit Detail/Item Difference Details


Compliance domain

The Compliance domain folder contains the query subjects shown in the following figure:

Combining query items from Compliance domain

The query subjects in the Compliance domain are divided into generic, detail level, and summary level categories. Query items from the generic query subjects can be combined with query items from the detail or summary level query subjects. BMC recommends you do not combine query items from the detail and summary level query subjects as the combination might result in inconsistent results.

The following sections describe sample query subjects with query items, which can be combined with other query items to generate useful reports. For more information about creating reports, see Chapter 5, “Creating reports in Query Studio”.


■ Compliance Template(Policy)

■ Compliance Job■ Compliance Job Run Date■ Compliance Job Property■ Compliance Template

Property

■ Compliance Server■ Compliance Rule■ Compliance Rule

Result■ Compliance Exception■ Compliance Server

Property

■ Compliance Job Run Result

■ Compliance Server Result


Compliance domain

Generating reports using the Compliance Server Result query subject

You can combine the query items in the Compliance Server Result query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Compliance Job■ Compliance Server■ Compliance Template(Policy)■ Compliance Job Run Date■ Compliance Server Property■ Compliance Job Property■ Compliance Template Property

NOTE Rollup aggregation for the % Compliance measure in the Compliance Server Result query subject is average of all the compliance results. For example, if the % Compliance for two job runs for a server is 40% and 50%, % Compliance for that server is 45%. For all other measures in the Compliance Server Result query subject, the result is sum of all compliance results.


Compliance domain

Generating reports using the Compliance Job Run Result query subject

You can combine the query items in the Compliance Job Run Result query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Compliance Job■ Compliance Template(Policy)■ Compliance Job Run Date■ Compliance Template Property■ Compliance Job Property

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying % compliance by rules for servers under various compliance policies, combine the following query items:

■ Compliance Template(Policy) Name/Template(Policy) Name■ Compliance Job/Job Run Start Time■ Compliance Filters/Compliance Job Latest Run ■ Compliance Server/Server Name■ Compliance Server Result/Rules Compliant■ Compliance Server Result/Rules Compliant With Exception■ Compliance Server Result/Rules Non Compliant■ Compliance Server Result/Rules Unknown■ Compliance Server Result/% Compliance


Compliance domain

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying weekly statistics of number of servers that get covered by compliance checks, combine the following query items:

■ Compliance Job Run Date/Year (apply filter to display details of a particular year)■ Compliance Job Run Date/Week Of Year■ Compliance Job Run Result/Servers Targeted■ Compliance Job Run Result/Servers Attempted■ Compliance Job Run Result/Compliant Servers ■ Compliance Job Run Result/Non Compliant Servers ■ Compliance Job Run Result/Unknown Servers


Compliance domain

Generating reports using the Compliance Rule Result query subject

You can combine the query items in the Compliance Rule Result query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Compliance Job■ Compliance Template(Policy)■ Compliance Rule■ Compliance Server■ Compliance Job Run Date■ Compliance Exception■ Compliance Server Property■ Compliance Job Property■ Compliance Template Property


Inventory and Change Tracking domains


The Inventory domain contains data associated with BMC Server Automation Snapshot Jobs. These jobs gather inventory information on a collection of server configuration objects that are defined in the templates associated with the jobs.

You can use Inventory reports to determine the hardware and software objects that are present in your server environment. Several reports provide information about virtual machines in your environment.

BMC recommends that you use the inventory templates supplied by BMC to capture inventory data. These templates captures the relevant data for assets without impacting the performance of the product. For information about downloading templates, see the “Installing Inventory templates and other scripts” section in the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation Installation Guide for Oracle or BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation Installation Guide for Microsoft SQL Server at BMC online documentation portal.

NOTE ■ The Rule Result String dimension in the Compliance Rule Result query subject shows

values only for the failed rules.

■ The Exception Name dimension in the Compliance Exception shows exception names only for rules that are complaint with an exception.

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying the number of servers on which a rule is compliant, non-compliant, compliant with exception, or indeterminate for a given job run, combine the following query items:

■ Compliance Server/Server Name■ Compliance Rule/Rule Name (apply filter to display details for a particular rule)■ Compliance Job/Job Run Start Time■ Compliance Rule Result/Rules Compliant■ Compliance Rule Result/Rules Non Complaint■ Compliance Rule Result/Rules Compliant with Exception■ Compliance Rule Result/Rules Indeterminate

NOTE BMC does not recommend that you modify these templates. If you want to add additional assets or attributes, you must make a copy of the templates and modify the copy to include additional assets or attributes as required.




The Change Tracking domain contains changed results data for all Inventory assets. Change Tracking reports provide overview and detailed information about the changes to hardware and software objects in your server environment.

Information in the Change Tracking reports is mainly derived from the Snapshot job runs in BMC Server Automation. Snapshot Jobs include a feature called change tracking that lets you view the changes that occur between the first time you take the snapshot, which functions as the baseline, and the next snapshot at the current moment in time. If no changes are made to either the job definition or the component template associated with the job, subsequent runs of the job only collect server object attributes that have changed since the last time the job was run.

The Change Tracking domain has an attribute, Change Type, which shows whether data is added, modified, removed or captured through baseline. For more information about baseline, see the BMC Server Automation User Guide at BMC online documentation portal.





The Inventory domain folder contains the query subjects for the Inventory and Change Tracking domains shown in the following figure:

Combining query items from Inventory and Change Tracking domains

The query subjects in the Inventory and Change Tracking domains are divided into generic, detail level, and summary level categories. Query items from the generic query subjects can be combined with query items from the detail or summary level query subjects. BMC recommends you do not combine query items from the detail and summary level query subjects as the combination might result in inconsistent results.




Generating reports using the Snapshot Job Results query subject

You can combine the query items in the Snapshot Job Results query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Snapshot Job■ Snapshot Run Date■ Server■ Virtualization Properties■ Snapshot Template■ Inventory Server Property■ Inventory Job Property■ Inventory Template Property

NOTE ■ If you want to view the inventory data for servers, use the Show Latest Data option to run

an Inventory report.■ If you want to view data for servers for particular policies, use the Show Template Latest

Data option to run the report.■ If you choose query items from the Change Tracking folder under Inventory domain,

BMC recommends that use the Show Snapshot Data (Change Tracking) option to run the report.

For more information about these options, see “Running an Inventory report” on page 44.


■ Server■ Snapshot Template■ Snapshot Job■ Snapshot Run Date

Query subjects in the following folders:

■ Common■ Software Discovery ■ Windows ■ Unix

Snapshot Job Results (in the Snapshot Job query subject)



EXAMPLE To create a report displaying the total number of changes found by a Snapshot Job on servers, combine the following query items:

■ Server/Server Name■ Snapshot Job/Job Name■ Snapshot Job/Snapshot Job Results/Object Type ■ Snapshot Job/Snapshot Job Results/Total Changes■ Filters/Snapshot Job Latest Run



Generating reports using the Hardware Information query subject

You can combine the query items in the Hardware Information query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Server■ Virtualization Properties■ Snapshot Template■ Snapshot Job ■ Snapshot Run Date■ Inventory Server Property■ Inventory Job Property■ Inventory Template Property



Generating reports using other query subjects

You can combine the query items in the File, Software, Extended Objects, Software Discovery, and Active Directory query subjects with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:


EXAMPLE To create a report displaying a brief configuration of servers, combine the following query items:

■ Server/Server Name■ Common/Hardware Information/Machine Summary/Installed Memory (GB) (Choose

the Show Latest Data option when prompted)■ Common/Hardware Information/Machine Summary/Virtual Memory (GB)■ Common/Hardware Information/Machine Summary/Total Number Of Socketed

Processors ■ Common/Hardware Information/Hardware/Storage Devices/Physical Storage

Device/Capacity (GB)■ Common/Hardware Information/Hardware/Processor/Architecture■ Common/Hardware Information/Operating System/OS Details/Product■ Common/Hardware Information/Operating System/OS Details/Version



EXAMPLE To create a report displaying a list of software by software type, combine the following query items:

■ Server/Server Name■ Common/Software/Software Type (Choose the Show Latest Data option when

prompted)■ Common/Software/Software Full Name



Generating reports using Windows query subjects

You can combine the query items in the Windows query subjects with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:


EXAMPLE To create a report displaying the number of software that got added, modified, removed when a Snapshot Job was run on a server, combine the following query items:

■ Server/Server Name■ Common/Software/Software Type (Choose the Show Snapshot Data (Change Tracking)

option when prompted) ■ Snapshot Job/Job Run start Time ■ Common/Software/Change Tracking/Added■ Common/Software/Change Tracking/Modified■ Common/Software/Change Tracking/Removed



EXAMPLE To create a report displaying a list of users, their account expiry dates, and the last date when the users changed their passwords on servers, combine the following query items:

■ Server/Server Name■ Windows/Local Users/User Name (Choose the Show Latest Data option when

prompted)■ Windows/Local Users/User Expire Date ■ Windows/Local Users/Last Password Change



Generating reports using UNIX query subjects

You can combine the query items in the UNIX query subjects with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:



Job Activity domain

Running an Inventory report

When you run an Inventory report, you can use the following options to view the latest inventory data and change tracking information:

■ Show Latest Data: You can use this option to view the latest inventory data for an asset on a server. This option shows the data captured by the most recent snapshot job run on the asset, irrespective of the templates used.

■ Show Snapshot Data (Change Tracking): You can use this option to option to view changes for an asset captured by the snapshot job runs. This option shows the data captured by all job runs (irrespective of templates) for an asset. You can limit the data by choosing the Year, Month, or Week query item from the Snapshot Run Date query subject. In addition, you can compare values for an asset over multiple job runs.

■ Show Template Latest Data: You can use this option to view the latest inventory data for an asset that is captured by a particular template for a server. This option shows the data captured by the most recent snapshot job run on an asset for a particular template. You can use this option to track a particular asset that is using a particular template.

Job Activity domain

The Job Activity domain contains a set of statistical metrics based on the results of running BMC Server Automation jobs.

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying the information about UNIX groups existing on servers, combine the following query items:

■ Server/Server Name, ■ Unix/Unix Groups/Full Name (Choose the Show Latest Data option when prompted)■ Unix/Unix Groups/Name■ Unix/Unix Groups/GID


Job Activity domain

The Job Activity domain folder contains the query subjects shown in the following figure:

Combining query items from Job Activity domain

The query subjects in the Job Activity domain are divided into generic, detail level, and summary level categories. Query items from the generic query subjects can be combined with query items from the detail or summary level query subjects. BMC recommends you do not combine query items from the detail and summary level query subjects as the combination might result in inconsistent results.

The following section describes sample summary level query subjects with query items, which can be combined with other query items to generate useful reports. For more information about creating reports, see Chapter 5, “Creating reports in Query Studio”.


■ Job ■ Job Run Date■ Job Activity job Property

■ Job Runs■ Job Approval/Remedy

Approval■ Job Schedule■ Job Activity Server

Property

Job Activity Calculations


Job Activity domain

Generating reports using the Job Runs query subject

You can combine the query items in the Job Runs query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Job■ Job Run Date■ Server■ Job Activity Calculations


RBAC domain

RBAC domain

The RBAC domain contains data associated with BMC BladeLogic authorizations.

RBAC reports provide summaries of role-level and object-level authorizations, assigned roles for users, and audit trails for changes to system objects.

To view the reports data, you must have the GlobalReportAdmins, GlobalReportViewers, or RBACAdmins role assigned to you.

The RBAC domain folder contains the query subjects shown in the following figure:

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying the parent folder path and job folder for latest job runs and the number of servers on which those job runs were attempted, combine the following query items:

■ Job/Parent Folder Path■ Job/Job Folder Names■ Job/Job Name■ Job Runs/Job Run Start Time■ Job Runs/Run Status■ Job Runs/Time To Execute (Sec)■ Job Activity Calculations/# Servers Attempted■ Job Activity Filters/Job Latest Run

NOTE User with all other roles can view only the RBAC reports (without data) and the RBAC folder in the model.


RBAC domain

Combining query items from RBAC domain

You can combine the query items in the Role query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ User■ RBAC Role Property■ RBAC User Property■ RBAC Server Property■ RBAC Job Property■ RBAC Template Property

In addition to the query items shown in the preceding figure, you can combine the query items in the Role query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Audit Trail■ Object■ RBAC Role Property■ RBAC User Property■ RBAC Server Property■ RBAC Job Property■ RBAC Template Property

For more information about creating reports, see Chapter 5, “Creating reports in Query Studio”.


Patch domain

Patch domain

The Patch domain contains data associated with BMC Server Automation Patch Analysis Jobs and a set of statistical metrics based on the results collected by these jobs.

Patch reports provide overview and detailed information about the vendor-recommended patches that are installed on or missing from the servers in a data center. You can use Patch reports to evaluate how well servers in your data center conform to vendor recommendations and to track patch policy compliance over time.

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying all roles with their authorizations that exist on a server, combine the following query items:

■ Object/Server/Server Name■ Role/Role Name■ Object/Object Authorization


Patch domain

The Patch domain folder contains the query subjects shown in the following figure:

Combining query items from Patch domain

The query subjects in the Patch domain are divided into generic, detail level, and summary level categories. Query items from generic query subjects can be combined with query items from the detail or summary level query subjects. BMC recommends you do not combine query items from the detail and summary level query subjects as the combination may result in inconsistent results.


Generating reports using the Patch Information query subject

You can combine the query items in the Patch Information query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Patch Analysis Result■ Patch Job Run Date■ Patch Information■ Query subjects in the Patch Details folder■ Patch Job Property


Patch Job Run Date ■ Patch Overview■ Patch Server■ Missing Patch Details■ Patch Server Property■ Patch Job Property

Patch Analysis Result


Patch domain

Generating reports using the Patch Analysis Result query subject

You can combine the query items in the Patch Analysis Result query subject with the query items in the Patch Job Run Date query subject to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure.

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying the number of servers on which a patch is missing, combine the following query items:

■ Patch Analysis Result/Patch Analysis Policy■ Patch Job Run Date/Job Run start Time■ Patch Overview/Patch Information/Patch Catalog Name■ Patch Overview/Patch Information/Patch Name■ Patch Overview/Patch Information/Patch Type ■ Patch Overview/Patch Information/Missing Server Count


Patch domain

Generating reports using the Patch Server query subject

You can combine the query items in the Patch Server query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Patch Analysis Result■ Patch Job Run Date■ Patch Server■ Patch Server Property■ Patch Job Property

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying the number of compliant and non-compliant servers for a patch analysis policy in a particular month, combine the following query items:

■ Patch Analysis Result/Patch Analysis Policy■ Patch Analysis Result/Scanned Server Count■ Patch Analysis Result/Not Scanned Server Count■ Patch Analysis Result/Servers Attempted Count■ Patch Analysis Result/Compliant Server Count■ Patch Analysis Result/Non Compliant Server Count■ Patch Job Run Date/Week■ Patch Job Run Date/Month


Patch domain

Generating reports using the Missing Patch Details query subject

You can combine the query items in the Missing Patch Details query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Patch Analysis Result■ Patch Job Run Date■ Patch Server■ Query subjects in the Patch Details folder■ Patch Information■ Patch Server Property■ Patch Job Property

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying the number of patches that are installed or missing on a server for a patch analysis policy, combine the following query items:

■ Patch Analysis Result/Patch Analysis Policy■ Patch Job Run Date/Job Run start Time■ Patch Server/Server Name■ Patch Server/Installed Patch Count■ Patch Server/Missing Patch Count


Command Usage domain


The Command Usage domain contains data associated with the servers being used at a data center, such as information about the users accessing those servers.

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying details about missing patches on servers, combine the following query items:

■ Patch Analysis Result/Patch Analysis Policy ■ Patch Job Run Date/Job Run Start Time■ Patch Server/Server Name ■ Patch/Patch Information/Patch Name■ Missing Patch Details/Vendor Reason



The Command domain folder contains the query subjects shown in the following figure:

To collect data for the Command Usage reports, you need to run the collect_agent_logs.nsh script on the BMC Server Automation application server, which copies data from agent logs on specified target servers to files on the reports server. Use the script to create a BMC Server Automation Network Shell Script Job that you can run on a regular basis. For more information about the script, see BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation User Guide at BMC online documentation portal.

Combining query items from Command Usage domain

You can combine the query items in the Command Usage query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ Usage/Log Date■ Command Usage Server Property




Provisioning domain

Provisioning domain

The Provisioning domain contains data associated with BMC Server Automation Provisioning Jobs.

Provisioning reports provide detailed information about provisioning activity in a data center.

The Provisioning folder contains the query subjects shown in the following figure:

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying weekly statistics of commands executed on a server, combine the following query items:

■ Command Usage Summary/Server Name■ Command Usage Summary/Host Name■ Command Usage Summary/Usage Count■ Usage/Log Date/Week Of Year■ Usage/Log Date/Year


Provisioning domain

The query subjects in the Provisioning domain are divided into generic and detail level categories. Query items from generic query subjects can be combined with query items from detail level query subjects.

Combining query items from Provisioning domain

You can combine the query items in the System Package query subject with the query items in the following query subjects to generate useful reports, as shown in the following figure:

■ System Package Type■ Provisioned Devices■ Provisioning Job Runs■ Provisioning Job Run Date■ Provisioning Calculations

Generic query subjects Detail level query subjects

■ Provisioning Job Runs■ Provisioning Calculations■ Provisioning Filters

■ Provisioning Devices■ System Package■ System Package Type■ PXE Boot Image■ Provisioning Job Run

Date■ Provisioning Job

Property■ Provisioning Server

Property


Site data

Site dataBMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation can aggregate data across multiple BMC Server Automation sites. In these cases, report authors might need to report on a subset of sites or allow report viewers to filter by site.

EXAMPLE To create a report displaying provisioning details of a server, combine the following query items:

■ System Package Type/System Package Type ■ System Package/System Package Name■ Provisioned Devices/Computer Name ■ Provisioned Devices/OM Server Name■ Provisioning Job Runs/Job Name■ Provisioning Job Runs/Provisioning Start Date


Model extensibility

The reports model includes a site data column for several data groups, such as job, template, and server. This enables you to create reports in which you can view site information and filter data by sites.

In a multiple site configuration, independent sites (with locally managed servers) provide data to a central reports data warehouse for consolidated, enterprise-wide reporting. Data from the BMC Server Automation core databases is used to populate the central reports data warehouse.

Users with the GlobalReportAdmins role can view data from all sites in a multi-site reports installation. Other users can view data from the site to which their role has access. For more information about roles and access to data, see the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation User Guide at BMC online documentation portal.

Model extensibilityThe model dynamically extends to reflect changes that take place in BMC Server Automation. When BMC Server Automation customizations are detected, the ETL process picks them up and updates the model. Model extensions can occur with custom properties and extended objects.

This section provides an overview of custom properties and extended objects and their availability in the model. For more information about BMC Server Automation custom properties and extended objects, see the BMC Server Automation User Guide at BMC online documentation portal.

Custom properties

Core objects, such as server, template, and job have a number of properties that ship with BMC Server Automation. These objects are also available in the BladeLogic data model. You can create custom properties for these objects in BMC Server Automation and mark these properties for inclusion in reports. During the model update process, these properties are added to the BladeLogic model and appear in the model when you open it.

For information about how properties are marked for inclusion in reports, see the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation User Guide at BMC online documentation portal.







Extended objects

Extended objects

Extended objects are wrappers that encapsulate a script that captures configuration information on servers. Extended objects do not modify the data model in the same way as custom properties; however, extended objects show up in the model in a dynamic fashion. Data for extended objects is stored as value-name pairs. You can filter on the object name and select the columns that you want included in reports.

When a new extended object is deployed in BMC Server Automation, it is picked up during the next ETL run and the reports data warehouse is updated. Report authors can then locate the object in the Inventory domain by filtering on the Full Name field under the Common/Extended Objects folder. You can combine query items in the Common/Extended Objects folder with other query items such as server, job, or template in the Inventory folder to create meaningful reports.


C h a p t e r 4
4 Integration with external systems
This chapter describes how you can provide BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation data to external systems, such as configuration management databases, asset management, and change management.

You can use BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation to generate report output in a variety of file formats to known network locations. External processes can use these output files for integration.

This section illustrates an example that details the steps required for data integration. This example is based on a scenario in which BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation delivers basic inventory data in CSV format on a daily basis.

This integration example includes the following steps:

1. Create a simple Inventory report using Query Studio.

2. Configure IBM Cognos to save the file in CSV format.

3. Specify the output file location.

4. Schedule the report to save the output to the file location.

Create an Inventory report using Query StudioThe following procedure describes how to create an Inventory report that displays the names of all of the servers in a site and what operating system they are running. This is a simple list report.

For more information about how to create a report in Query Studio, see “Creating a report in Query Studio” on page 78.


Create an Inventory report using Query Studio

To create the Inventory report

1 Launch Query Studio and select the BladeLogic report package.

2 In the left pane, expand the package tree, locate and expand the Inventory folder, expand the Inventory Summary subfolder to locate the Server Name and OS Name data items and drag them to the report body.

3 To save the report, click Save on the toolbar.

4 Specify a name and location for the report.


Configure Cognos to save a report in CSV format

You can save the report to several locations. By default, the report is saved to the BladeLogic public folder. You can click the Select My Folders link to save the report to the My Folders folder. To drill down further into subfolders of the selected parent folder (BladeLogic or My Folders), click the Select another location link.

Configure Cognos to save a report in CSV format

This procedure describes how to configure Cognos to save a report to a file in the CSV format.

To save a report in CSV format

1 Access BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation.

2 From the Launch menu, select IBM Cognos Administration.

3 Select the Configuration tab.

4 Click the Dispatchers and Services link in the left pane.

5 Click Set properties - Configuration .

6 Select the Settings tab.


Specify the output file location

7 Locate the Environment, Advanced Settings row and click Edit.

8 In the Set advanced settings - Configuration dialog box, add the following parameter settings:

9 Click OK.

Specify the output file locationThis section describes how to set up the output file location and how to save a report to that location. Use the instructions based on the applicable operating system type.

Parameter Value

RSVP.CSV.DELIMITER ,

RSVP.CSV.TERMINATOR CRLF



To specify the output file location on Windows systems

1 From the Start menu, select Programs > BMC > Reports > Cognos Configuration.

2 Select Actions > Edit Global Configuration to open the Global Configuration dialog box.

3 Select the General tab.

4 Locate the Archive Location File System Root field.



5 In the Value column, type the location in which the report will be saved, in the following format:

file://fileSystemPath

The fileSystemPath variable indicates the full path.

For example,

file://d:/Output

6 Click Test to test the archive location.

7 When testing completes, click Close.

8 Click OK.

9 In the Explorer window, under Data Access, click Content Manager.

10 In the Save report outputs to a file system box, click True or False.

11 Save your changes in Cognos Configuration.

Cognos Configuration validates several tasks.

12 When the tasks are complete, click Close.

13 Restart the Cognos service from IBM Cognos Configuration.



14 Specify the location details for the file system in BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation as follows:

A Access the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation portal.

B From the Launch menu, select IBM Cognos Administration.

C Select the Status tab.

D Click the System link in the left pane.

E From the All Servers list, select Services > Content Manager.

F From the ContentManagerService list, select Set properties.

G Select the Settings tab.

H Locate the Environment, Advanced Settings row and click Edit.

I Select the Override the settings acquired from the parent entry check box.

J Add the following parameter settings:

The outputLocation variable specifies the path at which you want to save the report (for example, d:/output).

K (Optional) To specify a script, such as a .bat or .sh file, that will run after the report output is saved to the target directory, add the following parameter settings:

The scriptName variable specifies the script name with the location of the script.

L Click OK.

M Select the Configuration tab.

N Click the Dispatchers and Services link in the left pane.

O Click Define File System Locations .

Parameter Value

CM.OUTPUTLOCATION outputLocation

Parameter Value

CM.OUTPUTSCRIPT scriptName



P From the bottom right corner of the Define file systems locations display panel, click New.

Q In the New File System Location page, specify a name for the file and a folder in the file system root location (you can also provide optional information, such as description and screen tip).

In the previous example, the name is Archive and the folder location is Sample. Note that the file system root location that you specified earlier in this procedure appears under File system root location. In this example, it is file://d:/Output.

R Click Finish.

S Restart the Cognos service from the reports server.

To specify the output file location on UNIX systems

1 On the reports server, at the command prompt, type the following command:

cd $BLREPORTS_HOME/portal/configuration

2 Edit the cogstartup.xml file and search for the outputCMReportToFile parameter.


Schedule the report to save the output to the file location

The parameter entry looks similar to the following sample:

3 Edit the parameter to change the false value to true so that the parameter entry is modified, as shown in the following sample:

4 Save and close the file.

5 Restart the Cognos service as follows:

A Navigate to the appropriate directory for your installation type:

■ (for 32-bit installations) BDSSAInstallationDirectory/Portal/bin ■ (for 64-bit installations) BDSSAInstallationDirectory/Portal/bin64

B Type the following command: ./cogconfig.sh -s

6 Perform step 14 on page 67.


This section describes how to schedule a report to save the output to a specified file location.

To schedule the report to save the output to a file location

1 Access the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation portal.

2 Click More corresponding to the report that you want to save the output for.

3 Under Available Actions, click New schedule.

4 Under Frequency, you can set the required scheduling interval in days, weeks, months, or set the schedule to be trigger based. Select the frequency as required.

<crn:parameter name=”outputCMReportToFile”> <crbLvalue xsl:type=”xsd:boolean”>false</crn:value></crn:parameter>

<crn:parameter name=”outputCMReportToFile”> <crbLvalue xsl:type=”xsd:boolean”>true</crn:value></crn:parameter>



The following figure illustrates the options needed for saving the report output every week day.

5 To specify the period for which you want the output saved, use the Start and End fields.

The following illustrates July 9, 2010 as the start date with no end date.

6 Under Options, select Override the default values to display the options and choose formats and delivery options.

■ Under Formats, select the required format for the report output.



The following figure illustrates report output set to the CSV format.

■ Under Delivery, select Save to the file system. To specify more options when saving to the file system, click Edit the options.

■ For Name, select Use the report name and for Location, select the location name you specified in step O on page 67 (in the example it was /Archive).



7 Click OK.

8 Under Prompt values, select Override the default values and then click Set to display the prompts that are associated with the report.

9 Set the prompt values that you want to use when the report runs and click OK.

The report runs at the scheduled frequency or the scheduled trigger and the report output is saved to the specified location.



The following figure shows a sample report output:


C h a p t e r 5
5 Creating reports in Query Studio
You can use Query Studio to create simple reports in BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation. Query Studio enables you to change the appearance of the reports. In addition, Query Studio allows you to compare and analyze reports by using filters, summaries, and calculations.

Query Studio featuresQuery Studio features enable you to perform the following tasks:

■ Filter report data (see “Filtering report data”)

■ Group data in reports (see “Grouping data in reports” on page 76)

■ Create sections in reports (see “Creating sections in reports” on page 77)

■ Add calculations (see “Adding calculations” on page 77)

■ Create charts (see “Creating charts” on page 77)

■ Add summaries to reports (see “Adding summaries to reports” on page 77)

■ Apply conditional styles to reports (see “Applying conditional styles to reports” on page 78)

For more information about these features, see the IBM Cognos Query Studio User Guide at BMC online documentation portal.



Filtering report data

Filtering report data

Report filters enable you to specify criteria for including or excluding data from a report. Filtering data also enables you to make the required information more accessible and improves performance by minimizing the time required to process a report.

The BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation model includes some built-in filters (also called stand-alone filters). These filters are available from the package in the report creation area. You can add these filters to your custom reports. You cannot modify the built-in filters. To include specific data, you add filters and to exclude specific data, you can add a filter with the NOT condition.

An example of a built-in filter is the Audit Job Latest Run filter. If you use this filter in a report, only the data from the latest job run is included in the report. If you apply the NOT condition to the filter, the report includes data from all relevant job runs except the latest.

You can select any field in your custom reports and make that field a filter (also called dynamic filter). This enables you to filter the report using that field to set your conditions. You can specify a value or range of values for that field. Only data that satisfies the filter conditions is included in the report.

You can also specify that a filter include prompts. When you run a report, you are prompted to provide specific values to filter the report data. For example, a report that provides information about servers can include a prompt for an OS type. After you specify the OS type, the report includes the data only for the specified OS type.

For information about how to add filters, see “Creating a report with filters and calculations” on page 80.

Grouping data in reports

You can group identical data in a report column if that column contains multiple instances of the same value. When you group data, report rows might be reordered to display identical values together and to suppress the duplicate data.

For example, in a report listing the capacity of servers for all OS types, you can group the report by the OS Name column to suppress the duplicate rows in this column.

For information about how to create groups, see “Creating a report with filters, summarization, and groups” on page 84.


Creating sections in reports

Creating sections in reports

When you create sections in a report, the selected report item is shown as the heading of a section. For example, in a report listing the rules for each template, you can create sections by using the Template(Policy) Name column. Each template is listed as a section heading that contains the rules for that template.

For information about how to create sections, see “Creating a report with groups and sections” on page 82.

Adding calculations

You can perform calculations on one or more items in reports. For example, you can add the values of the Rules Compliant and Rules Compliant with Exception columns to see the total number of compliant rules.

You can also concatenate multiple columns. For example, you can concatenate the Parent Folder Path and Job Folder Name columns to get the full path of a job.

For information about how to add calculations, see “Creating a report with filters, summarization, and calculations” on page 86.

Creating charts

Charts enable you to present your data graphically. For example, you can create a chart to see the trend of weekly Audit Job runs in a particular year.

For information about how to create charts, see “Creating a report with filters, summarization, and charts” on page 88.

Adding summaries to reports

You can apply summaries to reports to calculate the total, count, maximum, minimum, or average of the values in report columns. For example, you can count the total number of servers attempted against an Audit Job, by applying the Count summary function to the Server Name column.

For information about how to summarize data, see “Creating a report with filters, summarization, and charts” on page 88.


Applying conditional styles to reports

Applying conditional styles to reports

Conditional styles enable you to change the appearance of columns based on the values in these columns. For example, if the value of the % Compliance column is less than 33 percent, you can apply a background color to the column.

For information about how to apply conditional styles, see “Creating a report with filters, groups, and conditional styles” on page 91.

Creating a report in Query StudioUse the following instructions to create a report in Query Studio.

To create a report using Query Studio

1 Launch Query Studio from the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation portal.

2 Select a package (for example, BladeLogic) from the list of available packages.

NOTE BMC recommends that you create reports with the Preview with No data option. After previewing the report, apply the required filters and run the report with full data to get optimal performance.


Creating a report in Query Studio

The following figure shows the report creation window with the default report template in the right panel and the domain folders in the left panel, based on the selected BladeLogic package. These domain folders contains query subjects and query subjects contain query items. You can use the query items to create reports.

3 Click the Run Report link.

4 Click the Preview with No Data link.

5 Click the Insert Data link.

6 To add a query item to the report, drag the query item from the corresponding domain folder onto the report template or double-click the query item.

7 Apply filters based on your requirements. For information about filtering, see “Filtering report data” on page 76.


9 Click the Run with All Data link.

10 Save the report (see “Saving a report” on page 80).


Saving a report

Saving a reportTo save a report, you must specify a name and a description for the report. You can save a report to several locations. By default, the report is saved to the BladeLogic public folder. You can click the Select My Folders link to save the report to the My Folders folder.

To save a report in sub-folders of the selected parent folder (BladeLogic or My Folders), click the Select another location link and select the required sub-folder.

Sample reports demonstrating Query Studio features

The following sections demonstrate examples of how to use Query Studio features to create reports.

Creating a report with filters and calculations

The following example demonstrates how to retrieve the jobs and job runs that took more than one hour to run in the last 365 days.

You add the Division function so that the time taken to execute a job or job run is displayed in hours, not in seconds.

To create a report with filters and calculations






Domain Report name Features used

Job Activity Jobs and job runs taking more one hour to run in the last 365 days

■ Add filters■ Add calculations


Creating a report with filters and calculations

6 Open the Job Activity folder and drag the following query items to the right pane:

■ Job/Job Name■ Job Runs/Job Run Start Time■ Job Runs/Time To Execute (Sec)■ Job Activity Calculations/# Servers Attempted

7 Select the Job Run Start Time column and click Filter on the toolbar.

8 From the Operation list, select Last number of days.

9 In the Number of days before today field, type 365, and click OK.

10 Select the Time To Execute (Sec) column and click Calculate on the toolbar.

11 From the Operation type list, select Arithmetic.

12 From the Operation list, select / (division).

13 Verify that in the Order list, Time To Execute (Sec) / <Number> is selected.

14 In the Number field, type 3600.

15 In the New item name field, enter Time To Execute (Hr) as the new column name.

16 Click Insert.

A new column, Time To Execute (Hr), is added.

17 Select the Time To Execute (Hr) column and click Filter on the toolbar.

18 In the Filter dialog box, in the From field, type 1, and click OK.

19 In the Combine filters dialog box, click OK.

20 Select the Time To Execute (Sec) column, and click Delete on the toolbar.





Creating a report with groups and sections

The following figure shows a sample report:


The following example demonstrates how to create a report that lists server capacity by OS type.

To create a report with groups and sections







Inventory Server capacity by OS ■ Group data■ Create sections



6 Open the Inventory folder and drag the following query items to the right pane:

■ Server/OS Name■ Server/OS Version■ Server/Server Name■ Common/Hardware Information/Hardware/Processor/Max Speed (MHz)■ Common/Hardware Information/Hardware/Storage Devices/Physical

Storage Device/Capacity (GB)■ Common/Hardware Information/Hardware/Memory/Physical Memory

Device/Capacity (in GB)

7 Select the OS Name and OS Version columns and click Group on the toolbar.

8 Double-click the Capacity (GB) column and enter Physical Storage Device: Capacity (GB) as the new name of the column.

9 Double-click the Capacity (in GB) column and enter Physical Memory Device: Capacity (in GB) as the new name of the column.

10 Select the OS Name column and click Section on the toolbar.



13 On the Prompt page, choose the required option (for information about options, see “Running an Inventory report” on page 44).



Creating a report with filters, summarization, and groups



The following example demonstrates how to retrieve the number of jobs created by a user with a particular role in the last 30 days.

You add the Count summarization function so that the total number of jobs for each user is displayed in the report.


Job Activity Jobs created by a user with a particular role in the last 30 days

■ Add filters■ Group data■ Summarize data



To create a report with filters, summarization, and groups







■ Job/Created Role Name■ Job/Created User Name■ Job/Job Name■ Job/Job Creation Date

7 Select the Job Creation Date column and click Filter on the toolbar.

8 From the Operation list, select Last number of days.


10 Right-click the Job Name column and select Summarize.

11 Click the Advanced link.

12 From the Summary for cells list, select Count Distinct, and click OK.

13 From the Summary for footers list, select Total, and click OK.

14 Select the Created Role Name column and click Group on the toolbar.

15 Select the Created User Name column and click Group on the toolbar.

16 Select the Job Creation Date column and click Delete on the toolbar.

17 Clear the Job Creation Date: 30 days before today filter check box, and click OK.





Creating a report with filters, summarization, and calculations



The following example demonstrates how to retrieve the number of jobs that exist in job folders.

You add a filter to not count the jobs that were deleted. You add a Concatenate summarization function to concatenate the Parent Folder Path and Job Folder Name columns to get the full path of a job. You use the Count summarization function to count the number of jobs.

To create a report with filters, summarization, and calculations






Job Activity Number of jobs in job folders ■ Add filters■ Add calculations■ Summarize data





■ Job/Parent Folder Path■ Job/Job Folder Name■ Job/Job Name

7 Open the Job Activity Filters folder and drag the Job is not deleted filter to the right pane.

8 Select the Parent Folder Path and Job Folder Name column names and click Calculate on the toolbar.

9 From the Operation list, select Concatenation.

10 In the Separator between report items field, specify / as the separator.

11 Click Insert.

The calculated results appear in a new column, Parent Folder Path/Job Folder Name. By default, the expression used in the calculation is used as the heading name.

12 Right-click the Job Name column and select Summarize.


14 From the Summary for cells list, select Count.

15 From the Summary for footers list, select None, and click OK.

16 Select the Parent Folder Path column and click Delete on the toolbar.

17 Select the Job Folder Name column and click Delete on the toolbar.

18 Double-click the Job Name column and specify Job Count as the new name of the column.





Creating a report with filters, summarization, and charts



The following example demonstrates how to retrieve a weekly Audit job run trend.

You add a filter to retrieve the number of Audit job runs for a particular year. The Count summarization function enables you to count the number of job runs.


Audit Weekly Audit job run trend ■ Add filters■ Summarize data■ Add charts



To create a report with filters, summarization, and charts






6 Open the Audit folder and drag the following query items to the right pane:

■ Audit Job Run Date/Year■ Audit Job Run Date/Week of Year■ Audit Job/Job Run Start Time

7 Select the Year column, and click Filter on the toolbar.

8 In the Filters dialog box, Select the Prompt every time the report runs check box.

Each time you open or run the report, you can choose or type in the filter values. If you do not specify any filter values, all relevant data is returned.

9 From the Condition list, select the check box corresponding to the year that you want to display as default filter values. When you run the report, these values are selected by default. You can change the filter values a required.

10 Click OK.

11 Right-click the Job Run Start Time column and select Summarize.


13 From the Summary for cells list, select Count.

14 From the Summary for footer list, select Total, and click OK.

15 Select the Year column and click Sort on the toolbar.

16 Select the Week of Year column and click Sort on the toolbar.

17 Double-click the Job Run Start Time column and specify Number of Job Runs as the new name of the column.



18 Click Chart on the toolbar.

19 In the Chart type field, select Column as a chart style, and click OK.



The calculated results appear in a new column. By default, the expression used in the calculation is used as the heading name.




Creating a report with filters, groups, and conditional styles


The following example demonstrates how to retrieve the latest job run summary for the last 90 days.

You add a filter to retrieve the latest job run summary for the last 90 days. You can apply conditional styles to apply different background colors on the Errors On Target and Total Differences columns depending on the values of these columns.

To create a report with filters, groups, and conditional styles






6 Open the Audit folder and drag the following query items to the right pane:

■ Audit Job Run Date/Week of Year■ Audit Job Run Date/Calender Date■ Audit Job/Job Name■ Audit Job/Job Run Start Time■ Audit Target Component/Target Server Name■ Audit Summary/Object Type■ Audit Summary/Errors On Target■ Audit Summary/Total Differences■ Audit Summary/Extra On Target■ Audit Summary/Missing On Target■ Audit Summary/Changed On Target

7 Open the Audit/Audit Filters folder and drag the Audit Job Latest Run Filter filter to the right pane to display only the latest job runs.


Audit Audit latest job run summary for the last 90 days

■ Add filters■ Group data■ Apply conditional style



8 Select the Job Run Start Time column and click Filter on the toolbar.

9 In the Filters dialog box, from the Operation list, select Last number of days.


11 When you are prompted to combine the filter conditions, click OK.

12 Apply the conditional style to the Errors On Target column as follows. The query item will be highlighted in a different color if its value is greater than 0.

A Right-click the column and select Define Conditional Styles to open the Define conditional styles dialog box.

B In the New value field, type 0.

C Click Insert.

D In Style, for a value greater than 0, click Edit Style to open the Change font styles dialog box.

E Choose a background color, and click OK.

F Click OK.

13 Apply the conditional style to the Total Differences column as follows. The query item will be highlighted in a different color if its value is greater than 0 and in a different color for a value less than or equal to 0.

A Right-click the column and select Define Conditional Styles to open the Define conditional styles dialog box.

B In the New value field, type 0.

C Click Insert.

D In Style, for a value greater than 0, click Edit Style to open the Change font styles dialog box.

E Choose a background color and click OK.

F In Style, for a value less than or equal to 0, click Edit Style to open the Change font styles dialog box.

G Choose a background color and click OK.

H Click OK.



14 Select the Week of Year, Calender Date, Job Name, Job Run Start Time, and Target Server Name columns and click Group on the toolbar to group the data by these columns.





C h a p t e r 6
6 Creating reports in Report Studio
You can use Report Studio to create complex reports in BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation. This chapter explains how to create reports by using built-in (out-of-box) templates and by using the Report Studio templates.

Creating a report in Report StudioUse the following instructions to create a report in Report Studio.

To create a report in Report Studio

1 Launch Report Studio from the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation portal.

2 Select a package (for example, BladeLogic) from the list of available packages, as shown in the following figure:


Creating a report in Report Studio

3 In the Welcome window, click Create a new report or template.

A report window displays the available report types that you can create.

This window also displays the BMC-Corporate-List_Portrait, a template, which you can use to create a list report that uses the same styles as the built-in reports that are included with the product.

4 Select the report type that you want to create and click OK.


Creating a report in Report Studio

5 If the Insertable Objects pane does not display the domain folders, right-click in the pane and select Refresh.

The report creation window displays the report template in the right panel and the insertable package objects in the left panel. The following figure shows a report creation window in which the BladeLogic package and the List template were chosen.

6 At this stage, you can add objects to your report. To add objects, double-click the required objects, or drag them to the report template.

7 To run the report, click Run Report on the toolbar.


For more information about setting up reports in your environment, see the report creation examples illustrated in this document.


Sample reports demonstrating Report Studio features

Sample reports demonstrating Report Studio features

The following sections demonstrate examples of how to use Report Studio features to create reports.

Creating a simple Audit list report using an out-of-box template

If you want your custom list report to have the same look and feel as the built-in reports that are included with the product, use the BMC-Corporate-List_Portrait template.

The following example demonstrates how to create an Audit report that lists the total differences for target servers for Audit Job runs on different objects.

To create a simple Audit list report




4 Select the BMC-Corporate-List_Portrait report type and click OK.

5 In the Report Studio window, ignore the error and click OK.

6 In the report title and body, delete the The Component is not loaded message.

7 If the Insertable Objects pane does not display the domain folders, right-click in the pane and select Refresh.


Audit Audit differences for objects ■ Create a list report■ Add a group


Creating a simple Audit list report using an out-of-box template

8 In the Insertable Objects pane, open the Audit folder, and drag the following objects to the right pane:

■ Audit Target Component/Target Server Name■ Audit Job/Job Run Start Time■ Audit Summary/Object Type■ Audit Summary/Total Differences

9 Select the Target Server Name column and click Group / Ungroup on the toolbar.

10 Change the title of the report as required.




Creating a Job Activity crosstab report with filters



The following example demonstrates how to create a Job Activity crosstab report that lists the number of job runs for different job types on target operating systems.


Job Activity Number of job runs of different job types on target operating systems

■ Create a crosstab report■ Add filters



To create a crosstab report




4 Select the Crosstab report type and click OK.

5 If the Insertable Objects pane does not display the domain folders, right-click in the pane and select Refresh. The following figure shows the crosstab report template:

6 In the Insertable Objects pane, open the Job Activity folder, and expand the folders to locate, select, and drag data items into the report as follows. Use the following figure as a reference.

■ Drag Job Runs/Server/Server Name to the Rows section.■ Drag Job/Job Type to the Columns section.■ Drag Job Run Date/Month Full Name to the Columns section, above the Job

Type section.■ Drag Job Run Date/Year to the Columns section, above the Month Full Name

section.■ Drag Job Activity Calculations/# Servers Attempted to the Measures cell.



7 Add filters to the report for the Year and Month Full Name data items. When you run the report, you are prompted for the year and month for which you want to create a report.

A Click Filters on the toolbar to open the Filters dialog box.

B Click the Add button to open the Detail Filter Expression dialog box.

C Drag the Job Activity/Job Run Date/Year query item to Expression Definition.

D Add the following expression: =?promptYear?

E Click OK.

F Click the Add button to open the Detail Filter Expression dialog box.

G Drag the Job Activity/Job Run Date/Month Full Name data item to Expression Definition.

H Add the following expression: =?promptMonth?

I Click OK.



The Filters dialog box shows expression definitions, as shown in the following figure:

8 Change the title of the report as required.





Customizing built-in reports

Customizing built-in reportsYou can use Report Studio to customize built-in reports. If you want to customize a built-in report, BMC recommends you save a copy in another folder with a different name and modify the copy. Modifying the original version of the built-in report might result in corrupted reports that may not work in future releases.

In addition, you should not modify the report names of the original versions of the built-in reports to avoid corrupting these reports.


C h a p t e r 7
7 Custom report examples
This chapter provides examples of how to create custom reports in the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation environment by using Query Studio.

These examples use Query Studio features such as:

■ Changing the appearance of reports

■ Creating charts

■ Filtering, sorting, and grouping data in reports

■ Adding calculations to reports

For information about how to use these features, see Chapter 5, “Creating reports in Query Studio.” For details about the authoring tool environment, including its user interface, icons, and menu commands, see the IBM Cognos Query Studio User Guide at BMC online documentation portal.



Sample Inventory reports

Sample Inventory reportsThe following sections include sample Inventory reports that you can create by using Query Studio.

Sample Inventory report with summarization, chart, and property

This example demonstrates how to create an Inventory report that shows how servers are distributed in different locations across an organization. To retrieve the location of a server, you add a property, Location, in BMC Server Automation. You assign a default value to this property and change its value in the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation environment, if required.

To create an Inventory report with summarization, chart, and property







■ Inventory Server Property/Location■ Server/OS Name■ Server/Server Name

7 Select the OS Name column and click Group on the toolbar.

8 Apply the Count function to the Server Name column with no summary for footers.

Report Name Features used

Server distribution by data center location ■ Summarize data■ Create a chart■ Add a property


Sample Inventory report with summarization, chart, and property

9 Rename the Server Name column to the Server Count column.

10 Create a Column chart.



13 Save the report.

The following figure shows a sample Inventory report:


Sample Inventory report with groups and calculations


This example demonstrates how to create an Inventory report that shows the last restart time of a server and the duration for which a server has been running since the last restart.

To create an Inventory report with groups and calculations







■ Server/OS Name■ Server/OS Version■ Server/Server Name■ Common/Hardware Information/Machine Summary/Last Boot Time

7 Group the report by the OS Name and OS Version columns.

8 Apply the following calculation to the Last Boot Time column:

Current time - Last Boot Time

9 Rename the Current time - Last Boot Time column as the Server uptime column.

10 Format the Server Uptime column as follows:

A Right-click the column and select Format Data.

B From the Category list, select Interval.

C Select the following format: 1 23:45:12

Report name Features used

Server uptime report ■ Group data■ Add calculations



D Click OK.

11 Sort the Server uptime column in descending order.




15 Save the report.



Sample Inventory report with filters


This example demonstrates how to create an Inventory report that lists all servers violating the password policy applicable in your organization.

To create an Inventory report with filters







■ Server/Server Name■ Snapshot Template/Template Name■ Windows/Security Settings/Policy Category■ Windows/Security Settings/Policy Full Name■ Windows/Security Settings/Local Policy Setting■ Windows/Security Settings/Effective Policy Setting

7 On the Policy Category column, add a filter as follows:

A Select the column and click Filter on the toolbar.

B On the Prompt page, select the required option, and click OK.

C Select the column and click Filter on the toolbar.

D Select the Password Policy check box, and click OK.

8 On the Policy Full Name column, add a filter and specify Security Settings\Account Policies\Password Policy\Passwords must meet complexity requirements as the filter value.



Servers violating password policy Add filters



10 On the Local Policy Setting column, add a filter and specify Disabled as the filter value.





15 Save the report.



Sample Compliance reports

Sample Compliance reportsThe following sections include sample Compliance reports that you can create by using Query Studio.

Sample Compliance report with filters, groups, and calculations

This example demonstrates how to create a Compliance report that shows the percentage compliance of servers with the templates for the latest server runs.

To create a Compliance report with filters, groups, and calculations






6 Open the Compliance folder and drag the following query items to the right pane:

■ Compliance Template(Policy)/Template(Policy) Name■ Compliance Server/Server Name■ Compliance Job/Job Name ■ Compliance Job/Job Run Start Time ■ Compliance Job Run Date/Calendar Date

7 To display a date range every time you run the report, apply a filter on the Calender Date column, as follows. You can view the percent compliance results for this date range.


% Rule compliance of servers for latest server runs ■ Add filters■ Group data■ Add calculations



A Select the Calendar Date column and click Filter on the toolbar.

B From the From field, select a date starting from which to view the percent compliance results.

C From the To field, select Latest Date.

D Select the Prompt every time the report runs option.

E Click OK.

8 Group the report by Template(Policy) Name and Server Name columns.

9 Select the Job Run Start Time column and click Calculate on the toolbar.

10 From the Date field, select the date from which you want to retrieve the latest server runs.

11 Verify that in the Order field, the Job Run Start Time - <Date> option is selected.

12 Click Insert.

A new column, Job Run Start Time - Date, is added.

13 Format the Job Run Start Time - Date column as follows:



C From the Type list, select 1 23:45:12.

D Click OK.

14 Apply the Rank calculation on the Job Run Start Time - Date column, as follows:

A Select the column and click Calculate on the toolbar.

B From the Operation type list, select Analytic.

C From the Operation list, select Rank.

D From the Options field, select the Based on values within each group option, and from the list, select Server Name.

E Click Insert.

A new column, Rank (Job Run Start Time - Date) is added.



15 Apply the filter on the Rank (Job Run Start Time - Date) column as follows:


B In the From and To fields, type 1.

C Click OK.



■ Compliance Rule Result/Rules Compliant■ Compliance Rule Result/Rules Compliant with Exception■ Compliance Rule Result/Rules Checked

18 Apply the Sum arithmetic function on the Rules Compliant and the Rules Compliant with Exception columns.

A new column, Rules Compliant + Rules Compliant with Exception, is added.

19 Apply the Percentage operation on the Rules Compliant + Rules Compliant with Exception and Rules Checked columns.

A new column, % ((Rules Compliant + Rules Compliant with Exception), Rules Checked), is added.

20 Rename the % ((Rules Compliant + Rules Compliant with Exception), Rules Checked) column as % Compliance.

21 Delete the following columns without deleting the associated filters:

■ Job Run Start Time - Date■ Rank (Job Run Start Time - Date)■ Calender Date■ Rules Compliant■ Rules Compliant with Exception■ Rules Compliant + Rules Compliant with Exception



24 Save the report.


Sample Compliance report with filters, groups, calculations, charts, and conditional styles

The following figure shows a sample Compliance report:


This example demonstrates how to create a Compliance report that shows the percentage for non compliance of servers for an OS type and version for the latest server runs. This report also shows the trend of percentage of non compliance for OS type and version.



To create a Compliance report with filters, groups, calculations, charts, and conditional styles







■ Compliance Server/OS Name■ Compliance Server/OS Version■ Compliance Server/Server Name■ Compliance Template(Policy)/Template(Policy) Name■ Compliance Job Run Date/Calendar Date■ Compliance Job/Job Name■ Compliance Job/Job Run Start Time

7 To display a date range every time you run the report, apply a filter on the Calender Date column, as follows. You can view the percent non compliance results for this date range.

A Select the Calendar Date column and click Filter on the toolbar.

B From the From field, select a date starting from which to view the percent non compliance results.

C From the To field, select Latest Date.

D Select the Prompt every time the report runs option.

E Click OK.


% Non compliance for OS name and version for latest server runs

■ Add filters■ Group data■ Add calculations■ Create charts■ Apply conditional styles



8 Group the report by the OS Name, OS Version, Server Name, and Template(Policy) Name columns.

9 Select the Job Run Start Time column and click Calculate on the toolbar.

10 From the Date field, select the date from which you want to retrieve latest server runs.

11 In the Order field, verify that the Job Run Start Time - <Date> option is selected.

12 Click Insert.

A new column, Job Run Start Time - Date, is added.

13 Format the Job Run Start Time - Date column as follows:



C From the Type list, select 1 23:45:12.

14 Apply the Rank calculation on the Job Run Start Time - Date column as follows:

A Select the column and click Calculate on the toolbar.

B From the Operation type list, select Analytic.

C From the Operation list, select Rank.

D From the Options field, select the Based on values within each group option, and from the list, select Template (Policy) Name.

E Click Insert.

A new column, Rank (Job Run Start Time - Date), is added.

15 Apply the filter on the Rank (Job Run Start Time - Date) column as follows:



C Click OK.





■ Compliance Rule Result/Rules Non Compliant■ Compliance Rule Result/Rules Indeterminate■ Compliance Rule Result/Rules Checked

18 Apply the Sum function on the Rules Non Compliant and Rules Indeterminate columns.

A new column, Rules Non Compliant + Rules Indeterminate, is added.

19 Apply the Percentage operation on the Rules Non Compliant + Rules Indeterminate and Rules Checked columns.

A new column, % ((Rules Non Compliant + Rules Indeterminate), Rules Checked), is added.

20 Rename the % ((Rules Non Compliant + Rules Indeterminate), Rules Checked) column as % Non Compliance.


■ Job Run Start Time - Date■ Rank (Job Run Start Time - Date)■ Calender Date■ Rules Non Compliant■ Rules Indeterminate■ Rules Non Compliant+ Rules Indeterminate

22 Apply conditional styles to the % Non Compliance column as follows:

■ The column cell appears in green if the value is more than or equal to 33%.■ The column cell appears in red if the value is less than 33%.

23 Create a Bar chart that plots the OS Name, OS Version data against % Non compliance.



26 Save the report.


Sample Compliance report with filters, grouping, sections, calculations, and summarization


This example demonstrates how to create a Compliance report that shows the top five rules that failed across templates.

To create a Compliance report with filters, groups, sections, calculations, and summarization







■ Compliance Template(Policy)/Template(Policy) Name■ Compliance Rule/Rule Name■ Compliance Server/Server Name■ Compliance Job/Job Run Start Time■ Compliance Rule Result/Rules Non Compliant■ Compliance Rule Result/Rules Indeterminate

7 Apply the Sum function on the Rules Non Compliant and Rules Indeterminate columns as follows:

A Select the columns and click Calculate on the toolbar.

B From the Operation type list, select Arithmetic.

C From the Operation list, select + (sum).


Top five rules failed across templates ■ Add filters■ Group data■ Add calculations■ Apply summarization



D Click Insert.

A new column, Rules Non Compliant + Rules Indeterminate, is added.

8 Apply a filter on the Rules Non Compliant + Rules Indeterminate column as follows:



C Click OK.

9 Apply the Count function on the Server Name column, as follows:

A Right-click the column and select Summarize.

B In the Summarize dialog box, click Advanced.

C From the Summary for cells list, select Count.

D From the Summary for footers list, select None.

E Click OK.

10 Repeat step 9 for the Job Run Start Time column.

11 Apply the Count function on the Rules Non Compliant + Rules Indeterminate column, as follows:

A Right-click the column and select Summarize.

B In Cell values, verify that Summarize first, then apply the calculation option is selected.

C In Footers, select the No summarization in the footers option.

D Click OK.

12 Sort the Rules Non Compliant + Rules Indeterminate column in descending order.

13 Click the Change Layout link.

14 Click the Set Web Page Size link.

15 In the Set web page size dialog box, from Number of rows, select 5.

16 Select the Show row numbers check box.


Sample Change Tracking reports

17 Click OK.


■ Job Run Start Time■ Rules Non Compliant■ Rules Indeterminate■ Rules Non Compliant + Rules Indeterminate



21 Save the report.


Sample Change Tracking reportsThe following sections include sample Change Tracking reports that you can create by using Query Studio.

Sample Change Tracking report with filters and groups

The following example demonstrates how to create a Change Tracking summary report that shows a summary of the software changes that happened on servers for the latest job runs.


Sample Change Tracking report with filters and groups

To create a Change Tracking report with filters and groups







■ Server/Server Name■ Common/Software/Software Type■ Common/Software/Software Type/Change Tracking/Change Type■ Common/Software/Software Type/Change Tracking/Added■ Common/Software/Software Type/Change Tracking/Modified■ Common/Software/Software Type/Change Tracking/Removed

7 Open the Inventory/Filters folder and drag the Snapshot Job Latest Run filter to the right pane for obtaining data only for the latest job runs.

8 Group the report by the Server Name column.

9 Group the report by the Software Type column.

10 Apply the filter on the Change Type column with the Added, Modified, and Removed filter values selected.


12 Create a Bar chart that plots the Server Name and Software Type columns against the Added, Modified, and Removed columns.



15 Save the report.


Software change tracking summary on servers ■ Add filters■ Create groups


Sample Change Tracking report with filters

The following figure shows a sample Change Tracking summary report:


This example demonstrates how to create a Change Tracking report that lists the changes that happened in disk space over a period of time.


Change tracking information for disk space Add filters



To create a Change Tracking report with filters







■ Server/Server Name■ Snapshot Job/Job Run Start Time■ Common/Hardware Information/Hardware/Storage Devices/Physical

Storage Device/Capacity (GB)■ Common/Hardware Information/Hardware/Storage Devices/Physical

Storage Device/Available Space (GB)■ Common/Hardware Information/Hardware/Storage Devices/Physical

Storage Device/Used Space (GB)

7 Add a filter to the Available Space (GB) column as follows:


B In the Filter dialog box, click the arrow next to the Missing Values link.

C From the list, select the Leave out missing values option.

D Click OK.



10 On the Prompt page, select the Show Snapshot Data (Change Tracking) option.

11 Click OK.

12 Save the report.



The following figure shows a sample Change Tracking information report:


A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Glossary

Aad hoc report

A model-based report in which the data, presentation type (chart or table), filter criteria, data items to display, and data grouping and sorting are all customizable.

Bbuilt-in report

A report that is installed with BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation. Built-in reports are customizable using the Report Studio add-on package.

The BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation installation includes single reports and dashboards as built-in reports.

CCognos Connection

The BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation portal. In this area, reports are stored, shared, viewed, and administered. This is also the access point for all other parts of BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation.

Ddashboard

A report that is comprised of more than one report definition.

dimensionRepresents a group of descriptive data about a major aspect of a business, such as product or date.

EETL

Export, transform, and load. The tool used to fetch data from the BMC Server Automation OLTP database, aggregate it, and load it into the reports warehouse. In BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation, the ETL tool is Metadata Navigator.

Glossary 127


Mmeasure

Data items in the reports model that represent quantitative data.

Metadata NavigatorThe ETL tool used in BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation to fetch data from the BMC Server Automation OLTP database, aggregate it, and load it into the reports warehouse.

modelThe representation of the data structure in the data source. It describes data objects, structure, grouping, relationships, and security. After creation, it is published to the reports server as a package that is used to create and run reports.

Ppackage

The published form of the report data model (a subset or the whole model). Reports are created using data items from the report package.

pageThe means of storing customized content in the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation user interface. This content can be a collection of reports or other content portlets.

QQuery Studio

A report creation tool for creating simple reports.

query subjectRepresents a table in the database and contains query items.

RReport Administration Utility

A command line interface for administering BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation.

report definitionThe rules that specify how to produce a report, such as the data to include, how to manipulate the data, and the report presentation format. This is also called a report specification.

report resultsThe report that comes from running a report definition (the output from the run).



Report StudioA report creation tool for creating complex reports. Report Studio is an add-on package to BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation.

reports warehouseThe database for storing data used in reports. This is sometimes called the data warehouse (DW).

report viewA reference to another report definition that has its own properties, such as prompt values and schedules.

Sscenario

The runtime version of the ETL code. The specification for the transfer of data from the BMC Server Automation OLTP database to the reports warehouse using Metadata Navigator. It is the execution unit for production, that can be scheduled.

sessionAn execution of a scenario in Metadata Navigator. It is made up of steps, which are made up of tasks.

single reportA report comprised of only one report definition.

siteA location in a BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation environment that includes a BMC Server Automation OLTP database. A BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation environment can include one or more sites.

Glossary 129


Index

Aaccessing authoring tools 15audience

for BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation 8

authoring toolsaccessing 15comparison of 14Query Studio 13Report Studio 13

BBMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation

audience 8introduction 7overview 7

BMC Software, contacting 2

Ccreating reports

in Query Studio 78in Report Studio 95using built-in templates 98using out-of-box templates 98

customer support 3customizing built-in reports 104

Ddata integration 61data, reports model 18domains

Audit 20Command Usage 54Compliance 27Inventory and Change Tracking 33Job Activity 44Patch 49Provisioning 56RBAC 47

Gglossary 127

Mmodel extensibility 59

Ooverview

BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation 7

Query Studio 13Report Studio 13reporting 17

Pproduct support 3

QQuery Studio

creating reports 78introduction 13

Rreport data

adding calculations 77applying conditional styles 78creating charts 77creating sections 77filtering 76grouping 76summarizing 77

report package, data 18report packages, overview 17Report Studio

creating reports 95

Index 131


introduction 13overview 13

reportingdata model 17overview 17

reportscreating in Query Studio 78creating in Report Studio 95

reports model, data 18

Ssample Change Tracking reports 122sample Compliance reports 112sample Inventory reports 106sample reports

Query Studio 80Report Studio 98

saving reports 80saving reports, in CSV format 63sites, data in reports 58support, customer 3

Ttechnical support 3

Uusing

custom properties 59extended objects 60

132 BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Auto
mation Report Authoring Guide

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