BMC Communities: Message List - Analyzer for Perceive - Monthly Report Template discussion

RE: Analyzer for Perceive - Monthly Report Template discussi

forums@developer.bmc.com — Wed, 10 May 2006 16:47:09 GMT

Karl,

I've taken the liberty of including the template in the v0.8.2 build which is up on the site now. I'd like to use this forum as the master copy / discussion but I will update the distributions periodically.

As far as which build to use, I would encourage people to download the latest version - it installs in seconds over the top provided you haven't made any changes to the expression which I suspect most people have not (it installs in minutes if you have made changes). This will give them the latest template and also some misc. new features and bug fixes.

The date format isn't that big a deal, I will continue to add support for flexible date formatting wherever possible and whenever it makes sense. As per your list;

1) Date-split "months" changes the date to 2006_04.

>> This is built in to the function. I will add options for date formatting provided it doesn't break any of the existing processing rules. In this particular case I would be somewhat concerned with the representation as there is a big difference between the fourth month and the first of April. There are also potential sorting issues since the date is a string at this point for simple manipulation. Anyway, again, I'll give this some more thought and will consider additional input.

2) $start.getShort() produces 01-Apr-06.

>> You can substitute this with $start.format(dd MMM yyyy) in most places, where it doesn't work currently I will add it. If this is in a chart title attribute you will need to make it $start.format("dd MMM yyyy") because of the xml parser but otherwise you should be fine. (Note: You will need v0.8.2 for this to work in word templates).

3) $now.getDate() produces Tue May 09 16:33:45 CDT 2006

>> Same as #2 above, getDate() can be changed to format(...). Personally I like to have timestamps in the event that I run multiple copies in the same day, this way I know which one is the most current but the flexibility is there for whatever format you want to make it.

4) Date-split "days" changes the data to 2006_04_02.

>> Same as #1, will take it under consideration.

5) X-axis in charts use 22-Apr.

>> While very thorough, this isn't something I'll probably go to the trouble of changing unless it is met with significant criticism. It is part of the charting package and my main concern would be that it causes too much clutter on the axis. The date range can easily be put in the title in whatever format you want, this will have to be enough for now.

I'd like to mirror Bob's comments below, thanks very much for taking the time and the initiative to head up this thread. Thanks for your input and for putting together such a great template! I look forward to any additional discussions on the subject going forward and for ways to collaborate on making this report and Analyzer more valuable.

Regards,

Perry.

RE: Analyzer for Perceive - Monthly Report Template discussi

forums@developer.bmc.com — Wed, 10 May 2006 12:53:34 GMT

Perry and I have created two new views, attached. The first is an "Application Report", a stripped down version my original report. The second is a set of standard charts that reviews the group as a whole, and each individual server. Both views work with Perceive out of the box, no need to create additional extensions. You will need a recent build, 0.8.0 or above. See Perry for more version details.

To install, copy the html and xml files into your ~/analyzer/WEB-INF directory. Edit the application.properties file and add monthly.xml to the end of the comma-separated list called views.filelist. You must restart for Analyzer to recognize the new monthly.xml file. After it reads the file in the first time, subsequent edits do not require a restart, just a refresh by clicking the word “Views” in the Analyzer browser window.

The “Application Report” requires two interval selections. The “Interval@Rules:” interval is applied to the rules section of the report, and allows for multi-month history. The other interval is used as the main analysis period of the report. I would suggest adding two new named intervals to Perceive: Last Month and Last 3 Months. They make interval selection much easier.

I share your concern with the date formatting. Unfortunately, it will require a significant investment in development time to provide date formatting across all functions and instances. Perry – please chime in where I am wrong. There are several places that we just can't get a different format yet. I have listed some of them below.

1) Date-split "months" changes the date to 2006_04.
2) $start.getShort() produces 01-Apr-06.
3) $now.getDate() produces Tue May 09 16:33:45 CDT 2006
4) Date-split "days" changes the data to 2006_04_02.
5) X-axis in charts use 22-Apr.

What I have done is everywhere possible, used the “DD MMM yy” format. A majority of the output now matches the same general format.

As far as tailoring a report to each application, what we are providing is a template that is executed against a Perceive group name. At my firm, we use the same set of rules across all applications/groups. This definitely requires a least-common-denominator approach, but is still valid. We use the report as a monthly proactive analysis of our key applications. This is a Red-Yellow-Green light type of capacity analysis. From the data provided in the report, we determine if the application requires an in-depth analysis, or not. The analyst reviews the document, supplements with other data if necessary, gives the application a R/Y/G light, and summarizes his/her opinion of the application and if further investigation is warranted. Action items are created and tracked separately. The report has been very well received from management, business customers, and other IT groups. It is a huge step forward at my firm.

If there is interest, I would be happy to continue to discuss how we are using our report, what we are accomplishing, and what we want to add. Which will require a much longer post.

RE: Analyzer for Perceive - Monthly Report Template discussi

forums@developer.bmc.com — Wed, 10 May 2006 04:47:57 GMT

Just wanted to provide initial feedback. I've been looking for something like this template for a while. It will save a great deal of time. This forum will also allow others (myself included) to offer feedback, improve on the template and give back.

Huge thanks to Karl for providing the template and to Perry for assisting and driving this forum.

RE: Analyzer for Perceive - Monthly Report Template discussi

forums@developer.bmc.com — Tue, 09 May 2006 19:13:58 GMT

I like the report a lot, Karl. At this point, I believe that my management would appreciate such a report immensely. They typically find it hard to articulate what they want ahead of time, but will let me know if they like and find useful what I provide to them. This report would be an improvement over what I have been doing.

Can the date format in the report be easily changed? I notice there are three different ones in use: YYYY_MM, YYYY_MM_DD, and Mmm DD YYYY. I prefer the last one.

I assume that separate reports could be tailored for distinct groups of servers and/or applications. Are these specified by Perceive groups or some other way?

RE: Analyzer for Perceive - Monthly Report Template discussi

forums@developer.bmc.com — Tue, 09 May 2006 14:44:24 GMT

Please find a sample output attached. Let me know what you think!

RE: Analyzer for Perceive - Monthly Report Template discussi

forums@developer.bmc.com — Mon, 08 May 2006 16:11:00 GMT

Perry and I are working on two different templates. Both templates will work with Perceive and Analyzer out-of-the-box.

(1) a general set of views for a group, with detailed charts per servers.
(2) a short version of the application report.

Template (1) Contains a calendar overview of the analysis period depicting CPU utilization; application level charts with CPU, Memory, Network, and IO rates; and server specific views with CPU, Memory, IO rate, and Network.

Template (2) Contains a Analyzer generated paragraph reviewing the analysis period; a CPU contention rule; two memory contention rules; collection status; the group's busiest busines hour; the group's busiest batch period; server CPU usage; and server memory usage.

It would be helpful to know what you had in mind. Have you given thought to who your audience is, and what they would like to get out of the report?

With your input, we should have something ready in the next couple of days.

RE: Analyzer for Perceive - Monthly Report Template discussi

forums@developer.bmc.com — Fri, 05 May 2006 19:36:12 GMT

I would be most interested in getting a starter version of the XML files required to create a report similar to Karl's. Something that works as-is and can easily be customized to meet all my needs would be nice.

Analyzer for Perceive - Monthly Report Template discussion

forums@developer.bmc.com — Mon, 01 May 2006 15:31:13 GMT

We will use this forum to discuss ideas around the creation of a standard "
Monthly Performance / Capacity Status Report" as originally created by Karl Steger. Feel free to post your questions, thoughts and Analyzer Function Expressions on how to enhance this report here.