Reporting Like You've Always Known It...And a Whole Lot More
By now, you are no doubt aware that SAM 6.0 and NPM 10.6 are both out. Yes, we're pretty excited about it around here, and I want to highlight one particular feature you may have missed: web-based reporting.
Report Writer? Yeah, It Works, But...
Yeah, we've been giving you the ability to create solid, information-packed reports for years; it's basic network monitoring, and Report Writer was handling it. The process would go roughly as follows:
- Select a type of data (e.g. Historical Application or Node Availability, Interface Traffic, Active Alerts, etc)
- Select the devices you want to report on
- Apply some limited filtering and formatting
- Execute the report query
It was pretty straightforward, but somewhat limited: you couldn't include a chart of reported data, and you'd need to configure a specific resource just to see the report in the web console. Some of you let us know how limited reporting was, and we listened. After some significant effort we are quite pleased to give you web-based reporting.
Web-Based Reporting. Sounds Good. What is it?
Web-based reporting in SolarWinds products using Orion Platform 2013.2 and higher is a radical reworking of SolarWinds' established approach to IT management reporting. Previously, you designed and generated your reports in a separate application--Report Writer--and then you either printed them out, emailed them to interested parties, or linked to them from designated resources in the web console. Now, with web-based reporting you can construct reports directly from the Orion Web Console using the very same resources you have already been configuring and using in the web console. Any resource in the web console is eligible for inclusion in a new web-based report, and you are no longer limited to a single list of data, as you can include as many charts and resources as you want. Yes, it's pretty exciting. For a thorough walk-through of the process, check out the SolarWinds Orion Web-Based Reports Technical Reference and the chapter "Creating Reports in the Web Console" in the SolarWinds Orion.NPM Administrator Guide. After you've read up, or maybe even before, download your own evaluation of NPM 10.6 or SAM 6.0 and give it a try yourself.
