SRM for Windows File System - Reports

Basic Advanced Filters Summaries SRM Archiver Integration FAQ  

Table of Contents

Overview

Configuration

Enable SRM for all backups

Run a Backup

Generate SRM Reports

Running a Report

Scheduling a Report

Saving a Report

Send a Notification when an SRM Report Has Run

Getting Started with Windows File System Reports

Capacity by File System

Current File System Usage

Current File System Usage by Subclient

Overview

Managing storage resources is a critical job for any organization, which can be challenging because these resources are distributed across the network. SRM Windows File System reports provide a sleek, versatile, and easy-to-use reporting framework that enables you to easily and effectively choose, view, and analyze vital data. Customized reporting is available through the selection of filter criteria e.g., individual columns, specific clients, specific client computer groups, report options, and SQL Queries, a SRM Windows File System report helps you to:

Configuration

If SRM feature is enabled, SRM reports can be generated for all backup data as soon as the first full backup job has completed. Be sure to perform the following before generating reports:

Option Description
Enable SRM for all backups SRM can be enabled from the Agent levels for the iDataAgent. When Enable SRM is selected at the Agent level, SRM options get enabled for all subclients.
  1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the iDataAgent for which you want to enable SRM feature and select Properties.
  2. Enable SRM must be selected from the General tab.

    A Discovery and Analysis Data Collection job is automatically set when you enable SRM.

  3. Then confirm your selection by clicking OK.
Run a Backup A full backup contains all the data that comprises a subclient's contents. If a client computer has multiple agents installed, then the subclients of each agent require a full backup in order to secure all of the data on that client. If a new subclient is added, a full backup is required on all subclients in order to maintain file level detail integrity.
  1. To perform a full backup, right-click the subclient, and click Backup in the CommCell Browser.

    One of the following options must be selected from the Backup Options dialog box:

    • Backup Type:
      Select Full.
    • Backup Schedule:
      Select Immediate if you want to run the backup now.
    • Granular Recovery:
      Select Enable Granular Recovery if you intend to restore individual files and folders from a disk or volume-level backup.
  2. Then confirm your changes by clicking OK.

You can track the progress of the backup job from the Job Controller window. When the backup has completed, the Job Controller displays Completed.

After performing a first full backup you may select any other backup type for performing Data Collection operations.

Generate SRM Reports

The sections below discuss running, scheduling, and saving a report.

Running a Report

You can choose to run a report so that you view it immediately. Alternatively, to view it at a later point in time you can schedule it or save it as a template to a file. When running a report, you can choose an out-of the box template or generate a more customized report by picking and choosing individual columns from a category.

To run a SRM Report immediately:

1. From the CommCell Browser, click Reports, and then click SRM Report Manager.  
2. Expand the applicable tree to view your agent. Then click a template to display the Options window.  
3. Click the Client Selection tab and select the client computers or client computer group. This is a required step.  
4. Click Column Selection tab.

For an out-of-the-box template, the columns are displayed here. To change the columns, select a category and click Add or Remove to move the columns between the Available and Selected boxes. Clicking Remove All will remove all previously selected filters for the reports.

5. Click Run to generate the report immediately and view the results.  

Scheduling a Report

Scheduling allows you to run a report on a user-defined schedule, send it in a different language or format, and configure notifications for specified recipients when the report has run. Reports can be scheduled so that they follow a backup schedule in order to guarantee up-to-date reporting. Scheduling a report involves these tasks:

To schedule a SRM Report:

1. From the CommCell Browser, click Reports, and then click SRM Report Manager.  
2. Expand the applicable tree to view your agent. Then click a template to display the Options window.  
3. Click the Client Selection tab and select the client computers or client computer group. This is a required step.  
4. Click Column Selection tab.

For an out-of-the-box template, the columns are displayed here. To change the columns, select a category and click Add or Remove to move the columns between the Available and Selected boxes. Clicking Remove All will remove all previously selected filters for the reports.

5. Click Schedule to generate and schedule the report on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or even one time basis.

Optionally, click Report Options to repeat sending the report every so many days, or run it for a particular number of times.

Click Next.

 
6. Select the report output options, such as:
  • Format - select MHTML, EXCEL, or PDF.
  • Specify a path in Destination Path if you want to save the report to a local drive or network share.

Click Next.

 
7. Configure the notifications for the scheduled report, such as:
  • Select the E-Mail/Pager tab and click Select [E-Mail/Pager] for notification. Click either Use default message or add more tokens by selecting Add Token.
  • Select the SNMP tab and click Select [SNMP] for notification. Click either Use default message or add more tokens by selecting Add Token. The SNMP Enabler software must be installed on the CommServe. See SNMP Enablers for more information.
  • Select the Event Viewer tab and click Select [Event Viewer] for notification. Click either Use default message or add more tokens by selecting Add Token.
  • Select the Run Command tab and click Select [Run Command] for notification. Click either Run on CommCell or Run on Client. Specify a path in Command Script Location and optionally specify arguments for the script in Arguments.
  • Click Run Data Archiver tab to write files and directories of the report to a text file.
  • Click RSS Feeds tab  and click Select [RSS Feeds] for notification. Click either Use default message or add more tokens by selecting Add Token. Specify a feed location in Select/Enter the FeedLocation field.

Click Next.

Refer to the Actions documentation for more comprehensive information.

 
8. In this dialog, select the recipients for the scheduled report.

Use the Add>  or <Remove buttons to specify CommCell users as the notification recipients.

Or, enter one or more email addresses in the Email to Recipients field. Separate multiple addresses with commas.

Click Next.

 
9. Review the summary and if satisfied, click Finish.  

Saving a Report

Saving a report allows you to save the filter criteria and schedule information, including notifications, to a template so it can be used to generate a report at a later date. All report templates are saved under My Reports.

To save a SRM Report to a template:

1. Create a report and optionally specify scheduling criteria as explained in Scheduling a Report. Advanced criteria such as Filters will also be saved in the report template.  
2. In the right-hand corner, click Save As... and enter a name for the report and click OK.  
3. The report template is saved under My Reports.  

Send a Notification when a SRM Report Has Run

Configuring notifications is a step when scheduling a report. For example, when scheduled reports are run, an email notification can be sent to inform the recipient that a report has run and is now available. The recipient can be either a CommCell user, a CommCell user group, a domain or external user (e.g., yahoo, gmail, etc.), or a pager address.  For a comprehensive description of all notification types, refer to Actions.

To send an Email notification when a scheduled report has run:

1. From the CommCell Browser, click Reports, and then click SRM Report Manager.  
2. Click Applications or Enterprise. Then click a template to display the Filters window.  
3. Configure the report by specifying clients and columns, report options, and optionally, ad hoc queries. Refer to Options, Report Options, and Filters respectively.  
5. Click Schedule to generate and schedule the report on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or even one time basis.

Optionally, click Options to repeat sending the report every so many days, or run it for a particular number of times.

Click Next.

 
6. In this dialog, select the report output options, such as:
  • Format - select HTML, EXCEL, or PDF.
  • In Locale, select a report language. See Languages - Support for the list of supported languages.
  • Specify a path in Destination Path if you want to save the report to a local drive or network share.
TIFF is no longer a supported output format. SRM supports saving Reports in these formats: HTML, EXCEL, and PDF.

Click Next.

 
7. In this dialog, configure the E-Mail/Pager notification for the scheduled report as follows:
  • Click Select [E-Mail/Pager] for notification.
  • Either accept default format or add more tokens by selecting a token from the pulldown menu and clicking Add Token. The tokens are explained in Alert Tokens. Click Use default message to revert back to original default format.

Click Next.

 
8. In the User(s) and User Group(s) Selection dialog, specify the recipients to whom the notification will be sent as follows:
  • To add or remove CommCell users or a CommCell user group, select a user in the Available or Selected boxes and click Add> or <Remove.
  • To specify a domain or external user (e.g., yahoo, gmail, etc.) or a pager address, enter the email address in Email to Recipients field. Separate multiple addresses with a comma.
  
9. Review the summary and if satisfied, click Finish.  

Getting Started with Windows File System Reports

The following illustrates a few possibilities of how Windows File System reports can be generated and used. For more information that explains the reports comprehensively and how to generate reports using all possible features, refer to Advanced page.

Capacity By File System

Use this report to display total, free and used space on the basis of File System.

To view this report:

1. From the CommCell Browser, expand Reports and then click SRM Report Manager.  
2. Expand File Systems | Windows | Storage.  
3. Click the Capacity by File System template and select the client computers in the Client Selection tab.  
4. Click Run.

A statistics of file system capacity comprising of but not limited to total space, used space, free space, etc. for clients and client computer groups is displayed in chart and table formats.

Current File System Usage

Use this report to display details about files, directories, file size, depth, file count etc. for File System.

1. From the CommCell Browser, click Reports, and then click SRM Report Manager.  
2. Expand File Systems | Windows | Storage.  
3. Click the Current File System Usage template and select the client computers in the Client Selection tab.  
4. Click Run.

A statistics of Current File System usage on the basis of files, directories, file size, depth, file count etc. is displayed in chart and table formats.

Current File System Usage by Subclient

Use this report to view details about files, directories, file size, depth, file count etc. on the basis of subclient of a file system.

To view this report:

1. From the CommCell Browser, click Reports, and then click SRM Report Manager.  
2. Expand File Systems | Windows | Storage.  
3. Click the Current File System Usage by Subclient template and select the client computers in the Client Selection tab.  
4. Click Run.

Details such as files, directories, file size, depth, file count etc. on the basis of subclient of a file system are displayed in chart and table format.

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