Eugene Bykov : General

What’s new in Operations Manager 2007 R2 reporting?

eugenebykov — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:04:00 GMT

Operations Manager 2007 R2 adds a set of valuable and long awaited features targeted to reporting users and report authors. Here is the list:

Service Level Tracking reporting.
First step towards solving a problem of service level monitoring. Service Level Tracking "contract" along with tracking objectives needs to be created before the report could be run but they can use existing state and performance data that is already collected by the system.
Saving reports to a Management Pack.
Now in addition to saving reports to Favorites and Publishing reports you can also save reports to a management pack. This solves a problem of sharing published reports with all reporting users in the organization. Reports get deployed to SSRS automatically after the management pack is imported in the system. Delete saved reports functionality is obviously also there.
Class filtering for report object picker.
The feature allows filtering down search results to only certain classes of objects. Filter settings are available under "Options" button for both "Add Objects" and "Add group" functions.
This feature has most value when the list of supported classes is defined in a management pack. Not all the management packs take advantage of this feature though yet.
Reporting support in Authoring console.
Authoring console now has a new "Reporting" space and exposes all available reporting elements including Reports, linked reports, scripts and resources. This feature for sure should simplify custom repot authoring a lot. There is no integrated editor for RDL and RPDL but existing files could be easily uploaded there.
Improved search interface for performance rules.
Additional fields had been added to the search dialogs to help distinguish rules with the same name.
Multi-selection parameters for Most Common Events report.

Operations Manager 2007 SP1 training videos

eugenebykov — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 03:55:00 GMT

A set of SCOM 2007 SP1 specific training videos are now published on TechNet at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/opsmgr/bb986763.aspx. There are two videos out there I am doing on new reporting features in SCOM 2007 SP1. Here are the links:

Using the Microsoft Generic Report Library
This video demonstrates generic overrides report.
Running Time (minutes): 6:16

Using favorite reports and the report publishing feature
This video demonstrates favorite reports and report publishing features.
Running Time (minutes): 6:44

Enabling EnterpriseManagementChartControl in Visual Studio 2005

eugenebykov — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:16:00 GMT

If you try editing some generic reports like Performance in Visual Studio you will get an error saying that EnterpriseManagementChartControl is not installed. The reason is that SCOM 2007 does not configure EnterpriseManagementChartControl development environment during normal install. If you like to use chart control designer in Visual Studio you would need to configure it manually. Here are the steps:

Make sure SCOM 2007 Reporting is installed.
Copy MicrosoftRSChart.dll and MicrosoftRSChartDesigner.dll from SSRS bin directory to Visual Studio private assemblies directory on your development machine.

Location of SSRS bin directory depends on the way you install SQL Sever but usually the path looks like this: \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.N\Reporting Services\ReportServer\bin

Visual Studio private assemblies directory usually could be found under \Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies
Find RSReportDesigner.config file in the Visual Studio private assemblies directory and add the following records to it:
<Configuration>
    <Extensions>
            ...
            ...

        <ReportItemDesigner>
            <ReportItem Name="EnterpriseManagementChartControl"
                    Type="Dundas.ReportingServices.DundasChartDesigner,
                              MicrosoftRSChartDesigner" />
        </ReportItemDesigner>
        <ReportItems>
            <ReportItem Name="EnterpriseManagementChartControl"
                    Type="Dundas.ReportingServices.DundasChart,
                              MicrosoftRSChart" />
        </ReportItems>
        <ReportItemConverter>
            <Converter Source="Chart" Target="EnterpriseManagementChartControl"
                    Type="Dundas.ReportingServices.RSChartConverter,
                              MicrosoftDundasRSChartDesigner" />
        </ReportItemConverter>

    </Extensions>
</Configuration>
Restart Visual Studio.

Please note that these steps will only work with SCOM 2007 SP1 RC or later releases. The files mentioned here were not a part of SCOM 2007 RTM.

OpsMgr 2007 SP1 RC is released!

eugenebykov — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:29:00 GMT

The Release Candidate of Service Pack 1 for Operations Manager 2007 is released and ready for download from http://connect.microsoft.com/systemcenter. This release is fully supported and it will be an upgrade form it to SP1 RTM.

SP1 RC is adding several interesting reporting features to the product. Here are some of them:

Ability to view favorite reports in the Web Console.
Report publishing functionality.
Brand new Overrides report.
Basic data warehouse capacity planning using data warehouse properties report.
Improved availability reporting by introducing new "Monitoring Available" state.

Report parameter controls

eugenebykov — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:15:00 GMT

Nearly any report requires you to fill some parameters before you run it. Most commonly you are asked to provide a date range, objects you are interested in and maybe some other parameters that drive report content.

"Report parameters block" is the place where all these parameters are entered. Report parameters block consist of a set of report parameter controls. Each parameter control defines a visual representation for one or more underlying report parameters.

Report parameter controls used for a particular report are defined in the RPDL file.
Here is the schema for them:

<xs:element name="Control" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>

            <xs:element name="ReportParameters" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1">
                <xs:complexType>
                    <xs:sequence>
                        <xs:element name="ReportParameter"
                                           minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded">
                            <xs:complexType>
                                <xs:sequence>
                                    <xs:element name="Prompt" type="xs:string"
                                                       minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />
                                </xs:sequence>
                                <xs:attribute name="name" type="xs:token" use="required" />
                                <xs:attribute name="binding" type="xs:token" use="optional" />
                            </xs:complexType>
                        </xs:element>
                    </xs:sequence>
                </xs:complexType>
            </xs:element>

            <xs:element name="Properties" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1">
                <xs:complexType>
                    <xs:sequence>
                        <xs:element name="Property"
                                           minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded">
                            <xs:complexType>
                                <xs:sequence>
                                    <xs:element name="Value" type="xs:string"
                                                       minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" />
                                </xs:sequence>
                                <xs:attribute name="name" type="xs:token" use="required" />
                            </xs:complexType>
                        </xs:element>
                    </xs:sequence>
                </xs:complexType>
            </xs:element>

        </xs:sequence>
        <xs:attribute name="type" type="xs:token" use="optional" />
        <xs:attribute name="columnSpan" type="xs:unsignedByte" use="optional" />
        <xs:attribute name="rowSpan" type="xs:unsignedByte" use="optional" />
    </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

As you can see from the schema parameter control has a list of underlying report parameters it uses. The way it uses them is defined by "binding" attribute. Binding are defined by specific control code. You cannot change the way it is handled but you can set which report parameter is used for it. "Empty" or default binding is usually used for a report parameter the control sets value for but this is not a strict rule.

Next section is parameter control properties. It's a name multi-value collection. These properties changes control behavior or visual appearance. An example of a property could be control maximum width or background color.

All "out of the box" report parameter controls are defined in Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.Library management pack. Here are some most commonly used ones:

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
TextBox

A way to enter string parameter value. Replaces standard SSRS text box control.

Bindings

Default

Parameters

Multiline (True/False)

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
BooleanPicker

A way to enter parameter value of Boolean type. Replaces standard SSRS Boolean picker

Bindings

Default (report parameter has to be Boolean type)

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
ComboBox

A way to select a value from a set. Replaces standard SSRS value picker control.

Bindings

Default (report parameter has to have a list of valid values)

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
CheckedListBox

A way to select multiple values from a list of valid ones. Replaces standard SSRS multi-value value picker control.

Bindings

Default (report parameter has to be a multi-value parameter with a list of valid values)

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
DatePicker

A way to select date value. Replaces standard SSRS date picker control.

Bindings

Default (report parameter has to be DateTime type)

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
DateTimePicker

A way to select date and time value.

Bindings

Default (report parameter has to be DateTime type)

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
NumericUpDown

A way to select an integer value.

Bindings

Default (report parameter has to be Integer type)

Parameters

Minimum (minimum possible integer value)

Maximum (maximum possible integer value)

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
RelativeDateTimePicker

A way to select relative date time range. Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Reporting.ParameterProcessor class is used on the report side to process values entered by this control.

Bindings

TimeZone (time zone reference)

TimeZoneName (name of the time zone displayed in the report)

StartDate_BaseType (start date base type)

StartDate_BaseValue (start date base value)

StartDate_OffsetType (type of start date offset)

StartDate_OffsetValue (start date offset value)

EndDate_BaseType (end date base type)

EndDate_BaseValue (end date base value)

EndDate_OffsetType (type of end date offset)

EndDate_OffsetValue (end date offset value)

Parameters

MaxWidth (control maximum width in pixels)

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
BusinessRelativeDateTimePicker

A way to select relative date time range with business hours. Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Reporting.ParameterProcessor class is used on the report side to process values entered by this control.

Bindings

TimeZone (time zone reference)

TimeZoneName (name of the time zone displayed in the report)

StartDate_BaseType (start date base type)

StartDate_BaseValue (start date base value)

StartDate_OffsetType (type of start date offset)

StartDate_OffsetValue (start date offset value)

EndDate_BaseType (end date base type)

EndDate_BaseValue (end date base value)

EndDate_OffsetType (type of end date offset)

EndDate_OffsetValue (end date offset value)

TimeType (type of time entered (business or regular))

TimeWeekMap (days of week selected for business time)

Parameters

MaxWidth (control maximum width in pixels)

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
MonitoringObjectPicker

A way to select monitoring object for report. List of Monitoring Object IDs are passed to the report as a result value (default binding).

Bindings

Default (report parameter has to be multi-value Integer type)

GroupList (list of management groups objects are allowed to be selected from)

Report parameters block

eugenebykov — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:35:00 GMT

It is not a secret that standard way of presenting report parameters in SQL Server Reporting Services does not give you much flexibility. Designing reporting solution for SCOM 2007 we wanted to change that and enable a way reach controls could be used for report parameter selection. Imagine yourself scrolling though a list of all computers in your organization trying to pick a particular one. We didn’t want that to happen…

As you know report parameters are traditionally defined in the RDL file. The RDL file parameter definition contains name, type, list of valid values, default value etc. It also contains parameter presentation attributes like display name and hidden flag. Standard SSRS parameter block layout logic is very simple: visible parameters are rendered in two columns (from left to right then from top to bottom) based on the order of parameters in the RDL file.

In SCOM 2007 we introduced report parameter definition block which provides additional layout and parameter presentation logic. The parameter block definition is stored in the RPDL (Report Parameter Definition Language) file. This file has to be stored in the same folder with the repot and have report name with ".rpdl" extension.

RPDL file is optional. SCOM 2007 will render parameters similarly to standard SSRS parameter block if you do not specify one.

What is inside RPDL file? Let’s take a look. Here is an example:

As you can see the parameter block XML has a list of parameter controls. This is similar to parameters definition in RDL file. The difference however is that RDL defines parameters while RPDL defines controls to edit the parameter values. Control can manage or use one or more parameters in the underlying report. Controls are defined in a management pack and can have different implementation depending on what platform they are running.

RPDL still uses left to right / top to bottom layout model but you can control how many columns you have and define if you like controls to span several rows or columns to achieve desired parameters layout.

SCOM 2007 Report Catalog

eugenebykov — Mon, 14 May 2007 15:10:00 GMT

Data from two sources is combined when report hierarchy is displayed in the Operations Manager console. List of reports always comes from SSRS while additional metadata like report display name and knowledge come from management packs.

OpsMgr console always looks for everything under SSRS root folder and shows it under the Reporting node in the console. That’s right, everything that is visible even if this is not part of a management pack. That said you can simply create any directory in the SSRS, drop a report in it and it will be displayed inside the console. Is that the way to go with the custom reports? May be or maybe not. It all depends again on what you actually trying to accomplish.

Creating a report and just dropping it to the SSRS is definitely the easiest way to go. This will work just fine for certain cases where you need to quickly share some simple reports with others in your organization. This solution doesn’t scale however and also has some side effects. One of the things to look for is automatic report deployment.

SCOM 2007 assumes that all reports come in management packs. If management pack contains reports they are going to be automatically deployed to the SSRS when the time comes. That means that when all dependencies for these reports are ready (database objects are created all dependent management packs are deployed etc) deployment module creates a directory with management pack ID under SSRS root folder and puts all reports in this management pack in it. It also puts images, parameter block definitions and other resources if they are defined in the management pack. Names for all the objects are IDs again.

Why use IDs for names? The answer is simple: localization. Remember I said that SCOM combines information from SSRS and management packs when displays them in the console? That’s how it does it. When IDs match SCOM assumes that this is a management pack object and displays it metadata instead of SSRS name. Try to compare what you see in the SSRS Report Manager with the Console report view and you quickly understand what I am talking about.

Imagine now that you created a folder in SSRS and put some reports in it. If all your employees speak one language localization is not a problem for you, but you still need to watch for name collisions. If some time down the road you install a management pack that happens to have the same ID as your folder name your reports are going to be overwritten without notice. You would also need to care about dependencies yourself. If your custom report happened to depend on some management pack objects or reports from other management packs SCOM is not going to stop administrator from deleting this management pack from the system if your reports are not in a dependent management pack. The reports will just simply stop working for you.

Packaging report in a management pack is not that difficult and I encourage everybody to do so. It will save you time and effort in a long run.

Authoring reports for System Center Operations Manager 2007

eugenebykov — Thu, 03 May 2007 22:19:00 GMT

My name is Eugene Bykov and I am a developer responsible for reporting user interface in Microsoft System Center Operations Manager. I frequently get asked questions about new Operations Manager 2007 reporting infrastructure and ways of adopting it to needs of particular organization. I will try to answer some of those questions in this blog. As a developer I will primarily concentrate on using Operations Manager reporting infrastructure to create new reports and ways to customize existing reports to your specific needs.

As you probably already know, reporting was completely rewritten in the Operations Manager 2007. It is still based on SQL Reporting Services (SSRS) though so all skills and experience you have with SSRS applies for the new version. In this version however SSRS is much more integrated with the OpsMgr. This integration comes in different ways. First and most visible is UI. Reports now run inside the console and parameters are frequently in context with things you are currently doing. For normal activity you shouldn’t have a need to use standard SSRS Report Manager UI anymore. It is still available for you though and you can use it to do some advance tasks.

So, how do I author reports? Well, it depends on the problem you are trying to solve. There are several ways available to introduce a new report for the OpsMgr. First and the least expensive one is reusing existing OpsMgr generic reports. OpsMgr Generic Report Library contains a set of highly customizable reports that allow you to report on pretty much any data in the data warehouse. It is usually only a question of providing the right set of parameters. You customize generic reports providing parameters and the best way to do that in SSRS is create a linked report.

The second way to create custom reports in Operations Manager is using Report Builder. Unfortunately we do not ship any Report Builder models at this time so this way is available to you only if you create the models yourself. This could be beneficial for organizations that would want to allow their end users to create new reports using report models created by administrator.

If neither first nor second way solves your problem you can always create report from the scratch using Visual Studio. This is the most powerful way that allows you to use full set of functionality provided by both SSRS and OpsMgr.

There is a set of OpsMgr specific extensions available to you if you decide to write a custom report. Relative date support; custom parameter block; localization; chart extensions. All of this is available for you to use in your reports. You do not have to use and know all of them however. Any SSRS report would work in OpsMgr. It all depends on how much complexity you need and like to put in your solution.

To access data OpsMgr data warehouse has a set of public views. Make sure you use these views rather than going directly against database tables so no future schema updates break your reports. This is also true for building Report Models.

Eugene Bykov : General

What’s new in Operations Manager 2007 R2 reporting?

Operations Manager 2007 SP1 training videos

Enabling EnterpriseManagementChartControl in Visual Studio 2005

OpsMgr 2007 SP1 RC is released!

Report parameter controls

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.TextBox

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.BooleanPicker

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.ComboBox

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.CheckedListBox

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.DatePicker

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.DateTimePicker

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.NumericUpDown

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.RelativeDateTimePicker

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.BusinessRelativeDateTimePicker

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.MonitoringObjectPicker

Report parameters block

SCOM 2007 Report Catalog

Authoring reports for System Center Operations Manager 2007

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
TextBox

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
BooleanPicker

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
ComboBox

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
CheckedListBox

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
DatePicker

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
DateTimePicker

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
NumericUpDown

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
RelativeDateTimePicker

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
BusinessRelativeDateTimePicker

Microsoft.SystemCenter.DataWarehouse.Report.ParameterControl.
MonitoringObjectPicker