Scheduling reports for automatic distribution

Reports are the PDF, CSV, or XLS snapshots of dashboards. As a tenant administrator or editor, set up a schedule to send reports to external or internal email addresses. By scheduling the reports, the tenant administrators can make sure that the reports are sent automatically to the appropriate set of recipients by the scheduled time. The recipients can evaluate the data in the reports and take corrective actions. On the BMC Helix Dashboards home page, use the Scheduled Reports page to create report schedules.

By default, each licensed account can configure up to 1000 schedules per tenant. However, the trial accounts can only configure up to 100 schedules per tenant.

Related topic

Adding-logo-and-branding-on-scheduled-reports

Setting-up-variables-for-dashboard-queries

To download a dashboard or panel as a CSV file

Important

The default format for dashboard reports is PDF, but you can also generate reports in CSV or XLS formats.

  • In the PDF report, you will see a snapshot of the dashboard as it appears in the portal. If you want to see the complete data of a panel, you must resize the panel to display the required data. 
  • You can use the CSV format only for table-type panels in a dashboard. If a dashboard contains multiple panels with only a few table-type panels amongst them, the CSV report is created only for the table-type panels in the dashboard. If a dashboard contains no table-type panels, the CSV report is not created. In this case, the scheduled email is sent without the report attachment. To avoid this scenario, send a test email while scheduling the report to ensure that the recipients receive the attachment.
  • You can use the XLS format for all types of dashboard panels, such as table-type, charts, and so on. Each dashboard panel is exported as a separate tab in the XLS report.
Scenario

Susan is a Service Desk Manager in an organization that provides enterprise monitoring software. Susan's responsibilities include sending out incident assignment reports to the internal and external stakeholders of their software. Her company uses BMC Helix Dashboards to create dashboards that provide insight about all performance parameters of their software. Susan uses the report scheduling feature of BMC Helix Dashboards to send the dashboard reports to all stakeholders on a schedule. The stakeholders can analyze the incident monitoring reports and take corrective actions for the performance metrics. With this feature, Susan can perform the following tasks:

  • Create a PDF, CSV or XLS report of her dashboards. 
  • Create a schedule for the report to be sent to the stakeholders.
  • Add or update the list of the stakeholders who would receive the report.
  • Limit the number of recipients of scheduled reports. 

Susan can also send a test email to a few recipients to verify that the report is sent correctly.

You can also configure the formats of reports to be shared. For more information, see To configure variable for supported report formats.

To schedule reports through email

Refer to the following video (5.12) to see how you can schedule reports through email:

icon_play.png https://youtu.be/EqBlc90lKgM

  1. From the navigation menu menu_icon.png, click Report scheduler.
  2. Click New scheduled report.
  3. Enter the name and the description of the report.
  4. Select a dashboard for which you will receive the report.
  5. Specify any one of the following types to be used for generating the report: PDF, CSV, and XLSX
    The default is PDF.
  6. Select the Schedule Type.
    Based on the Schedule Type selected, you can either send the report through an email.
    By default, the reports are sent to the recipients by email.
  7. In Mail Settings, add a list of the recipients of the report.
    You can select the recipients from the list or add a new recipient.
  8. Add the subject and the custom message for your email.
  9. Specify whether you want to compress the report to be shared (in the CSV or XLSX format) as an email attachment.
    The maximum permissible attachment size is 30 MB. By default, compression is enabled for CSV files and disabled for XLSX files.
  10. In Filter Settings, configure the following options:
    • Select the time range. For example, filter the data in the dashboard by days, months, year, fiscal quarter, fiscal year, previous week, previous month, and so on.
    • Select variables to add data into the subject and message body of the email. You can either select the default variable or create your own custom variables.
  11. Select the orientation and the layout for the PDF report.
    These options appear only when PDF is selected as the report type.
  12. In Schedule, configure the following options:
    • Time zone
    • Frequency of the schedule
    • Time to send out the report
    • Append date to the report file
    • Append time to the report file.
      The date and timestamps are appended to the report file name in the following format: <filename><MM-DD-YYY> <HH:mm:ss>. For example, Event data report 10-18-2022 17-43-25.pdf. 
  13. Save the report schedule. 


To schedule reports through FTP or SFTP server

Refer to the following video (2.53) to see how you can schedule reports through FTP or SFTP server:



icon_play.png https://youtu.be/e4fq46yFIaQ

  1. From the navigation menu menu_icon.png, click Report scheduler.
  2. Click New scheduled report.
  3. Enter the name and the description of the report.
  4. Select a dashboard for which you will receive the report.
  5. Specify any one of the following types to be used for generating the report: PDF, CSV, and XLSX. The default is PDF.
  6. Select FTP as the Schedule Type.
    Based on the Schedule Type selected, you can send the report either through an email or by FTP. By default, the reports are sent to the recipients by email.
  7. Enter the location of the FTP Server Directory.

  8. Select the required server from the FTP Servers listed.
    The FTP configured as the default in Settings appears readily. The default option is zipped for CSV and individual for XLSX.

    Important

    Before sharing reports through FTP or SFTP servers, you must configure the FTP or SFTP server:

    1. On the Scheduled Reports page, click Settings tab.
    2. Under FTP connections, click New FTP connection.
    3. Select the Protocol and specify the Server, Port, User, and Password.
    4. Click Submit.
    5. (Optional) To add a new FTP configuration, click New FTP connection.
      A maximum of 20 configurations can be added.
  9. (Optional) From the FTP connections listed, click Actions image-2024-5-24_17-56-36.pngand select the option as required:

    • To set an FTP as default, click Set as default.

      Important

      • When you configure multiple FTP connections, the FTP connection you configured first is set as the default.
      • All existing report schedules are automatically mapped to the default FTP server. You must change the default FTP server to the applicable server if required.
      • While you are creating or updating a report schedule, the report schedule is mapped to the selected FTP server.
    • To edit the FTP, click Edit.
    • To delete the FTP, click Delete.

  10. In Filter Settings, configure the following options:
    • Select the time range. 
      For example, filter the data in the dashboard by days, months, year, fiscal quarter, fiscal year, previous week, previous month, and so on.
    • Select variables to add data into the subject and message body of the email.
      You can either select the default variable or create your own custom variables.
  11. Select the orientation and the layout for the PDF report.
    The orientation options are only visible when PDF is selected as the report type.
  12. In Schedule, configure the following options:
    • Time zone
    • Frequency of the schedule
    • Time to send out the report
    • Append date to the report file
    • Append time to the report file.
      The date and timestamps are appended to the report file name in the following format: <filename><MM-DD-YYY> <HH:mm:ss>. For example, Event data report 10-18-2022 17-43-25.pdf. 
  13. Save the report schedule. 


To monitor and manage report schedules

As a tenant administrator, use the report schedule administration console to monitor and manage the scheduled reports in your account.

  1. From the navigation menu menu_icon.png, click Report scheduler.
  2. Click History.
    The scheduled reports are listed by the name of dashboards. You can sort them alphabetically, by the state of the report, and the report type.
  3. From the list of scheduled reports, select the appropriate report folder.
  4. From the list, select a preconfigured report.
    An overview of the report is displayed. For example, the report ID, the creator, the last run, its next run, and so on.
    You can perform the following actions:
    • Edit or delete a report
    • View and edit the dashboard for which the report has been scheduled
    • Run the report before its next scheduled run
    • Disable the report
    • View the last 10 run schedules

report_history_22_4_01.png

Important

A tenant administrator can view, delete, re-run, and disable the reports created by other users. The tenant administrator can also view the schedule history of all the reports.

Alternatively, a tenant administrator can access an overview of the report schedule from the report scheduler home page.

  1. Hover over the Report scheduler icon and select History.
  2. From the list of scheduled reports, select the appropriate report folder.
  3. Click View more info view_more_info_22_4_01.png to see the overview of the report schedule: 
    • Created by
    • Created at
    • Updated at
    • Last run time
    • Next run time

Refer to the following video (2.29) to learn how you can monitor and manage report schedules:


icon_play.png https://youtu.be/pFgeC-60gOM


To download a report

As a tenant administrator or an editor, download the report copies in the same format as was used during scheduling the automatic distribution. You can download a copy of the report before the automatic distribution is run. 

  1. Hover over the Report scheduler icon and select History.
  2. Select the appropriate report folder from the list of scheduled reports.
  3. From the list, select a preconfigured report.
  4. Click Download to save a copy of the last run.
    The Download button is enabled only after the first run of the schedule.

  5. If you want to download the last 10 schedule runs, click Show last ten schedules, and click the Download download_report_copy_22_4.png icon next to each run.
    The report will be downloaded on your computer.

    Important

    You can download reports for last ten schedules only. 


 

Tip: For faster searching, add an asterisk to the end of your partial query. Example: cert*