Trend Reports

Trend Reports enable you to analyze fluctuations in data over time and predict future values. For example, you can plot the amount of traffic sent and received by each department over time enabling you to see patterns of traffic and make smarter network configuration adjustments.

Creating a Trend Report Template

To create a Trend Report Template:

  1. Click the Reports tab at the top of the screen.
  2. Click the Trend Reports tab at the top of the Reports tab to view all existing Trend Reports.
  3. Click the New Template button in the left Navigation bar. This launches the Add Template dialog.
  4. Give your template a name such as 'Bandwidth Trends' in the Name edit box
  5. Select the Schema that you want to report on from the Schema dropdown list. Only Schemas available in your open Storages are shown here.
  6. Ensure the 'Trend' radio button is selected and click OK.

Adding Content To Trend Report Templates

You can now build the content you want to see in the report by adding Nodes. Each Node creates a graph or number of graphs displaying activity over time.

As an example, lets add a node that displays the number of hits and the total size transferred by each Department over time:

  1. Edit your Trend Report and click the New Node link.
  2. On the General page, enter 'Department Activity' in the Name edit box.
  3. Select 'User' from the Series ID Field drop down list and select 'Department' from the Alias drop down list. This will create a new series (line) on the Trend Graph for each Department. Click Next.
  4. On the Time Axis page, select DateTime from the Time Field drop down list. This is the Field in your Schema that will be used to chart time on the X-axis.
  5. Enter '1' into the Time Unit edit box and select 'Hour' from the drop down list. For each hour in your data, a point will be plotted for each Department. Leave the 'Limit chart length and wrap data' checkbox unchecked. Click Next .
  6. On the Aggregates page, check 'Hits' and 'Size' in the Aggregates list.

  7. Select 'Hits' in the list and click the Edit button on the toolbar. This launches the column Dialog. Click Options and check the 'Create a separate graph for each value in the Series ID column' checkbox and click OK and OK again.

    Note: If you do not check the 'Create a separate graph for each value in the series ID column' checkbox in step 7, all the Departments will be displayed as separate series on the one graph for the Hits aggregate.

  8. On the Trending tab, select the 'Linear' trend type and forecast forward 24 hours by entering 24 into the Forward spin box.

  9. Click OK on the Trend Element dialog.

You have now added a Node that will create graphs to display the number of hits and the total size transferred by each Department. For the Hits aggregate, a separate graph will be created for each Department. For the Size aggregate, all series will be put on the same graph. A linear trend line will be drawn through each series on each chart and the chart will be extrapolated 24 hours into the future.

Trend Report Template Nodes

When adding a new Node to a Trend Report, the following options/pages are available:

General

One the General page, select the Summary from your Schema, and an optional Alias, for this template element to describe. Each value in your Summary/Alias will become a new line (series) on the trend graph. For example, if you select the Series Field 'User', the graphs will contain a line (series) for each individual user over time. is a special field that is used to chart all your data in one line (series).

The General page also configures the Report's Name and Description shown on the cover page of the report.

Time Axis

On the Time Axis page, select the field you wish to use for time in your charts. This will be the x-axis (Horizontal) value of the trend charts. Many Schemas only have one DateTime field.

The Time Unit option defines how frequently to plot new points on the chart. For example, if you would like a new point to be plotted every 15 minutes, then select '15' and 'minutes'.

The Limit Chart length and Wrap Data option is best explained by example. Imagine you are reporting on one month of data, and you are plotting a point for every hour. This will produce a long line with 31 curves/humps as the data for each day flows up and down. Now let's say you want to know what hours on average most of the data occurs. You can use the Limit Chart Length and Wrap Data option to limit the x-axis of the chart to 24 hours. Each hour point on the line chart will then show the average of that hour over the course of the entire month.

Aggregates

On the Aggregates page, select the aggregate column(s) to uses on the y-axis (Vertical axis).

For example, if you selected 'Users' as the series on the General page, and the 'Size' aggregate on the Aggregates page, a chart will be produced showing Size over time for each of your users.

By default, each line (series) is displayed on the one chart. If you have many values in your series, the chart may become very cluttered, and you may prefer to create a new chart for each series.

To create a new chart for each series: 1. Select the Aggregate and click the Edit button on the toolbar. 2. Go to the Options tab and check the 'One graph per series' option. 3. Click OK

Please note: this option is not available if you are reporting on the special series as there is only one series being charted.

On the Trending page, select the type of trend line you would like to appear on your charts. If you choose a linear trend line, you can extend that line forwards or backwards in time from the time range covered in your data. This is useful for estimating future values.

Filters

You can include or exclude specific traffic for each Trend element using the Filter page. For more information see Filtering.

Having

The Having page configures a limit for the number of series to show, such as the Top 10 by Size, or values greater than 100 MB.

It is a good idea to apply a limit if you are showing all series on the same chart (not using the 'One graph per series' option) to avoid the chart becoming too cluttered.

Once you have built the Trend Report Template by adding Nodes as desired, you can Generate the report as a document, and/or publish the report to the Web Module.