Usage scenarios
Aggregating the time-series measurement data into different levels of granularity in the RDBMS
The following data granularity options on the Add Report View panel (in addition to the Measured option), it is now possible to aggregate the time-series measurement data:
- Measured as Hourly (Disabled if DURN=60)—Aggregates the measured data for each selected hour into a single interval
- Measured as Daily—Aggregates the measured data for each selected day into a single interval
- Measured as Weekly—Aggregates the measured data for each selected week into a single interval. A week is a 7-day period starting on Sunday.
- Measured as Monthly—Aggregates the measured data for each selected month into a single interval
- Measured as One Span—Aggregates the measured data for the entire selected span into a single interval
When you select one of these options, the generated Query SQL performs aggregation inside the RDBMS. This drastically improves query performance, making it possible to create multi-year, monthly, or weekly charts. For each of the these options, you can select either Dynamic or Fixed Date Timespan.
When you select one of these Data-Granularity options, an additional field—Time Range is displayed, in which you can select only specific hours for each selected day. For example, if you select 08:00 A.M. to 04:00 P.M. in the Time Range field, only 8 hours of measurements are aggregated for each day.
You can specify the Start time after the End time to effectively exclude certain hours of the day from aggregation. For example, if you select 04:00 P.M. to 08:00 A.M. in the Time Range field, only hours from 00:00 A.M. to 08:00 A.M. and 04:00 P.M. to 11:59 P.M. are aggregated for each selected day, effectively excluding hours 08:00 A.M. to 04:00 P.M.
Each aggregated interval (hour, day, or week) is marked by the date and time of the first measurement interval.
The Measured as One Span option produces a single aggregated value for each object and metric combination. Because the aggregation results in a single value, the chart must be a Bar chart or Stacked Bar chart.
The Measured as One Span option can provide very interesting data for analysis. For example, using this option with the Last N Business Weeks dynamic date span, and a 09:00 A.M. to 10:00 A.M. time span, you can compare the average activity of multiple Applications during the opening hour of a stock market.
Using Category Viewer panel
The Add Category panel has many features. When you click any intermediate level of the Category (for example, CPU, LPARs, or the Workloads), the right pane displays a brief description of that level or sub-level of the Category tree. When you click an individual category, a list of metrics and their descriptions are displayed. You can also see the descriptions for all calculated metrics.
To optimize the search results, the Search function is now combined with category and metric selections. When you specify a search, the Category tree is narrowed down to only those branches, categories, and metrics that satisfy the search condition. Search options are now extended to include:
- Whole word only
- From current Folder
- Include Folder Names
- Include Category Description
- Include Metric Name (default)
Include Metric Description
Comparing data by using the same category multiple times in a View
You can use a category multiple times in the same View using different groups of objects, or different levels of aggregation.
For example, it is possible to use the General Purpose Processors LPAR twice. In the first instance, you can select a group of production LPARs, and in the second instance you can select all the LPARs on this CPC and aggregate them into one CPC object. BMC AMI Capacity Reporting 2.2 automatically adds -n to additional instances of the same category.
You can rename the category name by clicking Edit 
. Press Enter when you have finished editing.
The changed name exists only in this View and does not affect the native category name.
Comparing data by using the minimum and maximum band range
In the Data-Granularity field, when you select one of the Measured as options, such as Measures as Daily, Measures as Daily, or Measures as Daily, the statistical band characteristics are replaced by minimum and maximum values for each aggregated interval.
To display the minimum and maximum band, click Min/Max.
Managing Data Grouping by using the Chart package
The third-party Chart package that BMC AMI Capacity Reporting uses automatically compares the number of points on the chart with available resources in your browser. When the number of points exceeds the capabilities of the Chart package for a given amount of resources, the Chart package automatically groups several sequential points into one. You can use the new Data-Grouping control on the More Actions panel to select the grouping algorithm by using the Maximum (default), Average, or Minimum value of the group.
The date/time legend in the chart view and in the chart tool-tip indicate whether a data grouping is in effect.