ReportCenter Overview

ReportCenter is a software program from Packeteer that gives IT and network managers a detailed view of application performance and service levels across a network of PacketShapers.

ReportCenter collects, aggregates and stores network performance data, produces network summary reports and template reports, and allows you to perform custom queries.

With ReportCenter, you can establish performance goals for your network, and then compare the actual network performance to the established goals. Using collected data, you can see how your network is running now, understand how well it has performed in the past, and predict future performance.

Graphical Reports on Demand

You can produce graphical reports on demand by accessing the web interface of your ReportCenter Report server.You can narrow reports, depending on their category, to specific PacketShapers, specific applications, or, if you are using FDR, to specific IP addresses. The reports produced appear by default in your web browser.

You can also configure ReportCenter to send reports as email attachments on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis in either HTML or PDF form. Each user configured in ReportCenter can have individually assigned access rights, and a unique schedule for reports sent by email. You can limit user accounts so that only specific traffic classes or applications are visible in ReportCenter.

Data Collection

A server process called the Collection Agent in ReportCenter collects performance data from the PacketShapers in your network according to a schedule you can configure. These devices may be PacketShaper or AppVantage units - both of these products are referred to collectively as PacketShapers. Components are logical or virtual elements that appear on those devices - one component for the device (PacketShaper component), and one component for each traffic class on the device (Traffic Class component). By default, the Collection Agent process contacts each PacketShaper once per hour to collect measurement engine data.

If Host Accounting is enabled in a PacketShaper and in ReportCenter, Host components are also detailed.

If Flow Detail Records are configured in your PacketShapers and ReportCenter, FDR data is sent to ReportCenter by your PacketShapers independently of the Measurement Engine data that is gathered by the Collection Agent process. When you configure your PacketShapers and ReportCenter to use FDR data a new Host report category appears in the ReportCenter Report Server.

Custom Queries

ReportCenter includes a remote configuration application you can use to perform custom queries against your ReportCenter database. Using the ReportCenter Administrator Console program, you can custom design queries that let you drill down to very specific data.

A row of icons at the top of a ReportCenter Query allow you to change the way the data is presented. You can choose between a tabular display, or a number of graphical styles like pie charts, line charts, area charts, and multi-column bar charts. You can export the results of a query in HTML format, or as an ASCII file in Tab-delimited or CSV format.

Central or Distributed Installation

ReportCenter's architecture is designed to easily support distributed installations. The ReportCenter Server and Collection Agent may both be installed on a single computer, or they may be installed on separate computers over a network. If you are using the FDR features of your PacketShapers and ReportCenter, you can also have a separate server configured to act as a Flow Collection Agent by receiving FDR packets from your PacketShapers.

For some networks a single ReportCenter system (ReportCenter Server and Collection Agent) installed on the same computer will be appropriate. For other networks multiple Collection Agents forwarding data to a single ReportCenter Server may be the best solution. To achieve the greatest degree of scalability in large networks you should install the ReportCenter Report Server without a local Collection Agent (standalone), and then install one or more Remote Collection Agents on other computers. This separates the disk intensive process of data collection from the disk and CPU intensive report creation and overall administration functions. For guidelines on selecting an installation strategy see PacketGuide for ReportCenter.

Whatever the installation configuration, there can only be one ReportCenter Server installed. It can be located on the same computer as the Collection Agent, or it can be located on a separate computer.