Use the Reports page to add, edit, execute, and delete automated reports, and to access the Statistics page.

Add or Modify a Report

To add a report, select the category of report you wish to create, and click the Continue button. This will bring up the Add Report page (for a list of report categories, and the report types available in each category, see the Report Types page). To edit an existing report, click on the name of the report in the report list, or click the Edit link associated with the report.

Name

Each report must have a name, which will be listed on the reports page. The name for the new report should be chosen to convey the category and type of the given report. Names such as "Total File Transfer Report" or "Memory Usage for the Last Month" are good choices. Names such as "Report 1" or "My Report" are less desirable. The report name can be changed after creation without affecting the operation of the report.

Report Type

The type of report to execute is selected from this drop-down menu. Each report category has several report types to choose from. Most report categories have Total reports, which provide aggregated information, as well as By Month, By Week, and By Day reports, which break the aggregated information into the selected timespans. A complete list of report categories and the types available in each can be found on the Report Types page.

Format

The format of the report is selected here. This defines how the report information will be presented. Available formats are:

  • XML - Information will be presented in an XML document. This format is ideal for loading into external applications for post-processing. The report document will have the following schema:

    <DMZReport>

    <ReportRow>

<Column_Name>Value</Column_Name>

<Column_Name>Value</Column_Name>

...

</ReportRow>

... 

</DMZReport>
  • CSV - Information will be presented in a text document in comma-separated-value format. This format is ideal for loading into spreadsheet programs such as Excel. When this format is selected, two additional options become available:
    • Value Delimiter - This character will be used as the delimiter character in the report document. By default, this is a comma (,).
    • Text Qualifier - This character will be used to surround each column and value. Set to a blank string to not use any qualifier character. By default, this is a double-quote (").
  • Bare HTML - Information will be presented in an HTML file with very basic formatting.
  • Styled HTML - Information will be presented in an HTML file styled with the organization's stylesheet rules. This format is ideal for presenting the report content in a professional manner.
    • When Styled HTML Only is selected, check or uncheck option to Display raw SQL query at the end of the report.

Run On Days

Reports may be scheduled to run on specific days of the week, or days of the month. Enter the days you wish the report to run in this field, or "All" to have it run every day. Scheduled reports will be run during the nightly scheduled task on the days configured. By default, this task runs at 1am. You may also leave this field blank if you do not want reports to run automatically.

Some examples of values which may be entered in this field and how those values would be interpreted may help.

  • 1,2,5 - Run on the first, second and fifth day of the month
  • Tue, Sat - Run on every Tuesday and Saturday
  • 3, 4, Wed - Run on the third and fourth day of the month and every Wednesday
  • 3, 4, Wed, All - Run everyday

Save In Folder, Save As File

These fields determine where the resulting report document will be saved. The Save In Folder value should be a MOVEit Transfer folder path, and will be where the report document will be saved on the system. The value does not need to be an existing folder, as MOVEit Transfer will create the folder if it does not exist. Date macros may also be used to create date-specific folders. For example: "Distribution/Reports_[yyyy][mm]" would save reports to a folder named "Distribution/Reports_200510" during the month of October, 2005.

The Save As File value defines the name of the file which the report document will be saved to. As with the Save In Folder value, date macros can be used to create date-specific filenames. For example: "Total_File_Transfers_[yyyy][mm][dd].txt" would save a report to a file named "Total_File_Transfers_20051020.txt" on October 20, 2005.

If the Overwrite Existing File option is checked, the report generator will attempt to delete a file that has the same name as the new report, if such a file exists. This is especially useful for reports with static names, as errors could occur if the destination folder is not configured to allow file overwrites.

Report Parameters

The rest of the configuration of a report deals with setting the available parameters for the report type. These parameters can narrow down the scope of report, as well as define the output of a report. To see which parameters are available for each report category, see the Report Types page. Available parameters are:

  • Start Date - Defines a date before which data will be ignored when creating a report. Use this along with the End Date parameter to narrow down the timespan that a report will cover. This parameter can accept date macros. Dates MUST be expressed in YYYY-MM-DD format (e.g., "2005-03-04").
  • End Date - Defines a date after which data will be ignored when creating a report. Use this along with the Start Date parameter to narrow down the timespan that a report will cover. This parameter can accept date macros. Dates MUST be expressed in YYYY-MM-DD format (e.g., "2005-03-04").
  • Size Units - Defines the size units a report will return bytecounts in. Available options are Kilobytes, Megabytes, and Gigabytes.
  • Attempt Threshold - For the "Suspicious Usernames - Many Attempts" and "Suspicious IPs - Many Attempts" reports in the Security category, this parameter defines the number of failed attempts a username or IP address needs to have made to register in these reports.
  • IP Threshold - For the "Suspicious Usernames - Many IPs" report in the Security category, this parameter defines the number of failed attempts an IP address needs to have made to register in this report.
  • Username Threshold - For the "Suspicious IPs - Many Usernames" report in the Security category, this parameter defines the number of failed attempts a username needs to have made to register in this report.

Date and Time Macros

Date and time macros provide a powerful way to define dates, times and date-and-time ranges relative to the current date and time. The six basic elements of date and time macros are:

  • [YYYY] - Year (4 digits)
  • [MM] - Month (2 digits)
  • [DD] - Day-of-Month (2 digits)
  • [HH] - Hour (2 digits)
  • [TT] - Minute (2 digits)
  • [SS] - Second (2 digits)

To express relative dates and times, plus (+) and minus (-) modifiers are used within the square brackets of the macros. For example, "[DD-2]" represents two days ago. Date and time macro modifiers affect the entire macro expression. Some examples of this behavior may help explain it.

  • Today is Sep 14, 2005. "[YYYY]-[MM]-[DD-3]" will be interpreted as "2005-09-11"
  • Today is Oct 15, 2005. "[YYYY]-[MM-1]-01" will be interpreted as "2005-09-01"
  • Today is Nov 16, 2005. "[YYYY+5]-[MM+3]-[DD]" will be interpreted as "2011-02-16"
  • Today is Jan 1, 2006. "[YYYY]-[MM]-[DD-1]" will be interpreted as "2005-12-31"

Schedule and Date Macro HINTS:

  • To get an "end-of-month" report, schedule a report to run on "1" (first day of month), set the Start Date to "[YYYY]-[MM-1]-01" and set the End Date to "[YYYY]-[MM]-[DD-1]"
  • To get an "end-of-week" (ending on Saturday) report, schedule a report to run on "Sunday", set the Start Date to "[YYYY]-[MM]-[DD-7]" and set the End Date to "[YYYY]-[MM]-[DD-1]"
  • To get "daily" reports that cover "yesterday's" activity, schedule a report to run on "All", set the Start Date to "[YYYY]-[MM]-[DD-1]" and set the End Date to "[YYYY]-[MM]-[DD-1]"

Other Parameters

The rest of the configuration of a report deals with setting the available parameters for the report type. These parameters can narrow down the scope of report, as well as define the output of a report. To see which parameters are available for each report category, see the Report Types page. Available parameters are:

Run (Generate) a Report

Scheduled reports will be run during the nightly scheduled task on the days configured in the Run On Days field. However, reports may also be run manually using one of two buttons in the Run Report section.

Tip: For keyboard-only systems, use the Tab key to browse and select the next item on the page, the Enter key to press buttons (once selected), and Spacebar to check or clear a checkbox.

Select Play Button Using Tab Key

Clicking the "Run Report and Download" button will cause the report to be created and sent directly to the browser. At this point, the browser should prompt to save or open the file. Clicking the "Run Report and Save" button will cause the report to be created and saved just as scheduled reports would be, in the folder specified by the Save In Folder value, with the filename specified by the Save As File value.

Additionally, an administrator may click the Run link for a report in the report list on the main Reports page. This link will perform the same action as the "Run Report and Download" button above.

Default Report Settings

The Default Report Settings entry exists in order to save administrators from having to enter similar configuration information into each report they add. Configuration information entered in this report entry will be automatically provided when adding new reports. Therefore, settings that many reports will have in common (Format, Schedule, etc) should be configured here.

Because the Default Report Settings entry is not a real report, it cannot be run, and cannot be deleted. Editing the entry, however, works just like editing any other report. Note that changes made to the Default Report Settings entry will NOT be applied to existing reports, only to new reports.