Service Level Analysis - By Segment Report

Using Service Level Analysis - By Segment reports, an executive can receive an overview of the performance of a particular segment during a specific period. To achieve the same, do the following:

  1. Select the By Segment option from the Service Level Analysis sub node available under the Executive Reports node of the REPORTS BY FUNCTION tree. Figure 1 will then appear.

    Figure 1 : Generating a Service Level Analysis - By Segment report

  2. From the Segment list box in the page that appears (see Figure 1), select the segment for which the executive summary report needs to be viewed.

  3. Provide a Timeline for the report. You can either provide a fixed time line such as 1 hour, 2 days, etc., or select the Any option from the list to provide a From and To date/time for report generation.

    Note:

    For every user registered with the eG Enterprise system, the administrator can indicate the maximum timeline for which that user can generate a report. Once the maximum timeline is set for a user, then, whenever that user logs into eG Reporter and attempts to generate a report, the Timeline list box in the report page will display options according to the maximum timeline setting of that user. For instance, if a user can generate a report for a maximum period of 3 days only, then 3 days will be the highest option displayed in the Timeline list - i.e., 3 days will be the last option in the fixed Timeline list. Similarly, if the user chooses the Any option from the Timeline list and proceeds to provide a start date and end date for report generation using the From and To specifications, eG Enterprise will first check if the user's Timeline specification conforms to his/her maximum timeline setting. If not, report generation will fail. For instance, for a user who is allowed to generate reports spanning over a maximum period of 3 days only, the difference between the From and To dates should never be over 3 days. If it is, then, upon clicking the Run Report button a message box will appear, prompting the user to change the From and To specification.

  4. In large environments, reports generated using months of data can take a long time to complete. Administrators now have the option of generating reports on-line or in the background. When a report is scheduled for background generation, administrators can proceed with their other monitoring, diagnosis, and reporting tasks, while the eG manager is processing the report. This saves the administrator valuable time. To schedule background processing of a report, select the Background Save - PDF option from the Report Generation list. In this case, a Report Name text box will appear, where you would have to provide the name with which the report is to be saved in the background. To process reports in the foreground, select the Foreground Generation - HTML option from this list.

    Note:

    • The Report Generation list will appear only if the EnableBackgroundReport flag in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the {EG_INSTALL_DIR}\manager\config directory) is set to Yes.
    • The default selection in the Report Generation list will change according to the Timeline specified for the report. If the Timeline set is greater than or equal to the number of days specified against the MinDurationForReport parameter in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Background Save - PDF. On the other hand, if the Timeline set for the report is lesser than the value of the MinDurationForReport parameter, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Foreground. This is because, the MinDurationForReport setting governs when reports are to be processed in the background. By default, this parameter is set to 2 weeks - this indicates that by default, reports with a timeline of 2 weeks and above will be processed in the background.

  5. Finally, click on the Run Report button to generate the report. If the option chosen from the Report Generation list is Foreground Generation - HTML, then, clicking on the Run Report button will invoke Figure 2.

    Figure 2 : The Service Level Analysis - By Segment Report

  6. There are four sections in the generated report. The first section is a pie chart that provides a bird's-eye view of the health of the segment during the designated period. The slices of the pie chart and their respective colors represent the percentage of time the segment has been in different states (Normal, Critical, Major, Minor, and Unknown).

  7. If a slice in the pie chart reveals problems with the segment, then you can zoom into the segment component causing these problems, by clicking on the slice. Doing so will reveal the Service Level Analysis report of the Component that was most affected by the problems indicated by the slice clicked on, during the specified period. For example, if you click on the Critical slice in the pie chart of Figure 2, then Figure 3 will appear. Using the Service Level Analysis - By Segment report of Figure 3, you can conclude that the Active Directory server in the segment was the one that suffered the maximum number of critical issues during the specified period. This in turn would have affected the functioning of the entire segment.

    Figure 3 : The Service Level Analysis of the Component that is the root-cause of the problems in the segment

  8. The second section of the Service Level Analysis report for a segment is a bar graph that depicts how well the segment has performed on a daily basis during the specified period. The information depicted here will enable an executive to detect the daily trends in the performance of the segment. Here again, the various divisions within a bar and their respective colors denote the state variations in the segment during the given period. The height of a division depends upon the duration (in minutes) for which the component has remained in a particular state.

    Note:

    • The state of a segment is determined based on the states of its individual components. If any component of a segment is in a critical state, the segment state is regarded as being critical.
    • By default, the DAYWISE DISTRIBUTION section of this page depicts the duration for which a segment has remained in a particular state, in minutes. Instead, if you prefer to view the percentage of time during a day a segment was in any particular state, set the Daywise distribution reports in flag in the MONITOR SETTINGS page (Configure -> Monitor Settings menu in the eG administrative interface) to Percentage.

  9. To know the root-cause of the Critical/Major/Minor problems that have occurred in the segment on a particular day, simply click on the corresponding division in the bar of Figure 2. The Service Level Analysis report of the segment Component that has caused the problem (Critical/Major/Minor) on that day will appear (see Figure 4). For example, if you click on the Critical division in the bar corresponding to a day of the chosen Timeline, Figure 4 will appear displaying the Service Level Analysis report of the Active Directory server component that encountered the maximum number of critical issues on that day.

    Figure 4 : Service Level Analysis Report of the Component causing problems in segment on that day

  10. The third section of the Service Level Analysis - By Segment report is a summary table that highlights the top five alarms that have remained for the longest duration. The details displayed include the alarm priority, the segment Component in which the problem was detected, the Duration of the problem, the date and time of problem occurrence (From) and the date and time of problem resolution (To). This information will help an executive figure out which components were responsible for some of the worst problems in the segment.

  11. Click on the Component in this section to view the Service Level Analysis Report of that Component for the specified period (see Figure 5). For example, clicking on the Citrix AppController in Figure 2 will reveal the Service Level Analysis - By Component Report as shown in Figure 5. 

    Figure 5 : The Service Level Analysis By Component Report that appears when a component is clicked on

  12. The fourth section of the Service Level Analysis By Segment report is another event summary, which not only lists all the components in the chosen segment, but also indicates the percentage of time a component was faced with Critical, Major, or Minor performance issues. This event summary, when viewed along with the top 5 summary, will help you accurately identify the problem-prone components of the segment.

  13. Click on the Component in this section to view the Service Level Analysis Report of that Component for the chosen period. Clicking on the Component Type hyperlink, will lead you to the Service Level Analysis Report of that particular Component Type for the specified timeline (see Figure 6). This will help you assess the performance of the component type as a whole during that timeline.

    Figure 6 : Service Level Analysis report of the Component Type that is clicked on

  14. On the other hand, if the Background Save - PDF option is chosen from the Report Generation list, then, clicking on the Run Report button will not invoke the report. Instead, a message depicted by Figure 8 will appear. To view the report, click on the Click here to see a list of generated and processing reports link in Figure 8, and proceed as indicated in Service Level Analysis - By Component Report of this document.