Creating custom reports with Microsoft Reporting Service

Article Contents

• Overview
• Before You Begin
• Setting Up a Database Connection
• Configuring a Report using Microsoft Reporting Services
• Publishing a Report to IIS

Overview

Although up.time has powerful reporting features, you may want to generate reports in a custom format with a specific set of user-defined data. Microsoft Reporting Services allows you to take data from an MS SQL Server DataStore and use that data to create a report that addresses your specific needs.

Before You Begin

This article assumes that you have installed Microsoft Reporting Services and its pre-requisites:

• Internet Information Server (IIS) with ASP.NET
• SQL Server
• Visual Studio .NET

Please also refer to Running up.time on MS SQL Server.

Setting up a Database Connection

To set up a database connection:

1. Start Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and choose File>New>Project.

   The following window appears:

   

2. Select the Business Intelligence Projects folder in the left portion of the window.
3. Select Report Project template in the right portion of the window.
4. Enter a name for your report in the Name field and click OK.
5. Click the View / Solutions Explorer button to open the Solution Explorer window.
6. Right click Shared Data Sources and then select Add New Data Source.
   
   

   

7. In the Data Link Properties window, click the Provider tab.
8. Double click Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server, which opens the Data Link Properties window on the Connection tab.
   
   

   

9. Enter the name of the database server and the user name / password combination needed to login to the server.
   
   

   

10. Click the Test Connection button to verify that you can establish a connection to the database.
11. Choose the database from which the data will be retrieved and then click OK.

Configuring a Report using Microsoft Reporting Services

To configure a report in Microsoft Reporting Services:

1. In Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, right-click Reports and choose Add New Report.

   The Report Wizard starts.

2. Click Next.
3. Select Shared data source and then select the database from which you are retrieving data.
   
   

   

4. Click Next.
5. Enter the following query string:

   SELECT e.display_name AS 'Description',AVG(p.cpu_usr + p.cpu_sys + p.cpu_wio) 
   AS 'CPU Workload Average',(CONVERT(char(10),s.sample_time,102)) AS 'Date' 
   FROM performance_sample s,
   performance_aggregate p, entity e
   WHERE s.id = p.sample_id
   AND e.entity_id = s.uptimehost_id
   AND s.sample_time > '2006.11.29'
   AND s.sample_time < DATEADD(day,5,'2006.11.29')
   GROUP BY (convert(char(10),s.sample_time,102)), e.display_name
   ORDER BY (convert(char(10),s.sample_time,102)), e.display_name;
   

   This example will report on the CPU workload average for all systems over the five day period from 2006-11-29 to 2006-12-03 (simply change the dates or the interval as required).

6. Click Next after you change the range to suit your needs.
7. Choose the Matrix option and then click Next.
   
   

   

   The Design the Matrix window appears, which enables you to change the way in which data is arranged in the report.

   

   In this example:

   • Description is moved to the Rows field.
   • Date is moved to the Columns field.
   • CPU Workload Average is moved to the Details field.

8. Click Next.
9. In the Choose Matrix Style window, select Compact.

   The Design the Matrix window appears.

   

10. Select to display all of the fields in the report and then click Next.
11. Click the Preview Report check box at the bottom of the page.
    
    

    

12. Click Finish to generate a preview of the report.
    
    

    

Publishing a Report to IIS

When you are satisfied with your report, you can publish it to IIS (Internet Information Server, a Web server that runs under Windows) by completing the following steps:

1. In Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, access the Solutions Explorer to open Solution Explorer.
2. Right click the current project and select Properties.
3. In the Properties window, change the value of TargetServerURL to the URL where Reporting Services has been installed. For example, http://localhost/ReportServer.
   
   

   

4. Click OK.
5. In the Solutions Explorer, click Debug / Start to publish the report.

   After the report has been published, your default Web browser will automatically open in the directory in which the report was published. Click on the file name of the report to open it.

   

6. You can also export the report from your web browser by selecting a format from the dropdown list, as shown below:
   
   

   

Note: Published reports may not render properly in web browsers other than Internet Explorer. If, for example, you have set your default browser to Firefox and the report does not open properly after you have published it, copy and paste the URL of the report into Internet Explorer. You can also view the report by navigating to the Report Manager URL in Internet Explorer. By default, the URL is http://localhost/Reports/Pages/Folder.aspx.