Java Installations Report

In this modern era, applications often include their own versions of Java and multiple versions of Java can be installed on a system. While this may sound simple, from an administrator's perspective, security and compliance always remain a concern. Often, older versions of Java may have vulnerabilities that need to be addressed. Likewise, installation of some vendor JREs (e.g., Oracle, Azul) are not free. Hence, tracking JRE versions by vendor is also important for the administrators. Similarly, Java may not be installed on standard directories. Administrators should also track Java versions wherever they are available. To address all these issues, it is essential for the administrators to generate a Java Installations report. eG Enterprise offers to generate the Java Installations report to mitigate the concern of the administrators and thus help ensure security and compliance of Java installations in the target environment.

To generate the report, do the following:

Select the Java Installations option by following the menu sequence: REPORTS BY FUNCTION -> Domain-specific Reports -> Security and Compliance.
Figure 1 then appears. In Figure 1, select a criteria for analysis from the Analyze By list box.

Figure 1 : Specifying the criteria for generating the Java Installations report
Using this report, you can analyze the Java installations on the managed components, or those that are part of a zone, service or segment. The options provided by the Analyze By list box are discussed hereunder:
- Component: Select this option to choose the component(s) from across all the managed components in the environment.
- Zone: To generate a report for one/more components that are included in a zone, pick the Zone option. A Zone drop-down list will then appear, from which you would have to select the zone to which the components of interest to you belong. A Sub zone flag also appears. Indicate whether the components present within the sub-zones of the chosen zone are also to be to be considered for report generation, by setting the Sub zone flag to Yes.
- Segment: If you want to generate a report for one/more chosen components that belong to a segment, select the Segment option from Analyze By list box, and then pick the Segment from the drop-down list that appears.
- Service: If you want to generate a report for one/more components involved in the delivery of a service, select the Service option from Analyze By, and then pick the required Service from the drop-down list that appears.
Next, from the Component Type list, pick the component type for which the report is to be generated. By default, All Component Types option is chosen from this list.
The Components list will now be populated with all the components that are managed in your environment for the chosen component type. If the Components list consists of too many components, then viewing all the components and selecting the ones you need for report generation could require endless scrolling. To avoid this, you can click the button next to the Components list. A Components pop up window will then appear using which you can view almost all the components in a single interface and Select the ones to be included in this report.
Since installation of some vendor JREs (e.g., Oracle, Azul) are not free, generating a report by tracking JRE versions by vendor is important. Therefor, pick a Java vendor that distributes JDK/JRE in the target environment from the Vendor list. By default, All Vendors is chosen from this list.
Pick the version of Java in the target environment that is considered as compliant in the target environment from the Java Version list. The report will be generated based on this version of Java installation. Also, you are allowed to pick a relational /comparison operator preceding the version that you had chosen. By default, >= is displayed in this list indicating that any version greater than or equal to the chosen Java version is deemed as a compliant Java installation in the target environment.
Then, specify the Timeline for generating this report. You can either provide a fixed time line such as 1 hour, 2 days, etc., or select the Any option from the list to provide a From and To date/time for report generation.

Note:

For every user registered with the eG Enterprise, the administrator can indicate the maximum timeline for which that user can generate a report. Once the maximum timeline is set for a user, then, whenever that user logs into eG Reporter and attempts to generate a report, the Timeline list box in the report page will display options according to the maximum timeline setting of that user. For instance, if a user can generate a report for a maximum period of 3 days only, then 3 days will be the highest option displayed in the Timeline list - i.e., 3 days will be the last option in the fixed Timeline list. Similarly, if the user chooses the Any option from the Timeline list and proceeds to provide a start date and end date for report generation using the From and To specifications, eG Enterprise will first check if the user's Timeline specification conforms to his/her maximum timeline setting. If not, report generation will fail. For instance, for a user who is allowed to generate reports spanning over a maximum period of 3 days only, the difference between the From and To dates should never be over 3 days. If it is, then, upon clicking the Run Report button a message box will appear, prompting the user to change the From and To specification.
In addition to the settings discussed above, this report comes with a set of default specifications. These settings are hidden by default. If you do not want to disturb these default settings, then you can proceed to generate the report by clicking the Run Report button soon after you pick one/more components for report generation. However, if you want to view and then alter these settings (if required), click on the icon. The default settings will then appear in the More Options drop down window (See Figure 2). The steps below discuss each of these settings and how they can be customized.

Figure 2 : The default settings for generating the report
In large environments, reports generated using months of data can take a long time to complete. Administrators now have the option of generating reports on-line or in the background. When a report is scheduled for background generation, administrators can proceed with their other monitoring, diagnosis, and reporting tasks, while the eG manager is processing the report. This saves the administrator valuable time. To schedule background processing of a report, you can either select the Background Save - PDF option or the Background Save - CSV option from the Report Generation list. To process reports in the foreground, select the Foreground Generation - HTML option from this list.

Note:
- The Report Generation list will appear only if the EnableBackgroundReport flag in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory) is set to Yes.
- The default selection in the Report Generation list will change according to the Timeline specified for the report. If the Timeline set is greater than or equal to the number of days specified against the MinDurationForReport parameter in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Background Save - PDF. On the other hand, if the Timeline set for the report is lesser than the value of the MinDurationForReport parameter, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Foreground. This is because, the MinDurationForReport setting governs when reports are to be processed in the background. By default, this parameter is set to 2 weeks - this indicates that by default, reports with a timeline of 2 weeks and above will be processed in the background.
Click the Done button if any changes were made to the More Options drop down window.
Finally, click the Run Report button to generate the report.
If the Report Generation is Foreground Generation - HTML, then Figure 3 will appear as soon as you click the Run Report button.

Figure 3 : The generated Java Installations report

The generated report (see Figure 3) displays the following sections:
- The Summary section reveals at a single glance the total count of Java installations on the servers in the target environment over a period of time, the count of unique vendors in the target environment over the chosen period of time, the number of Java installations that are not in compliance with the version chosen from the Java Version list in the report generation section (see Figure 1), the percentage of servers on which the Java installations are not in compliance with the version chosen from the Java Version list in the report generation section (see Figure 1) and the count of unique vendors that had distributed the JDK / JRE installations that are not in compliance with the version chosen from the Java Version list in the report generation criteria (see Figure 1).
- The next section is a series of doughnut charts that reveals the count of Java installations with respect to the vendors over a chosen period of time and the count of Java installations that are not in compliance with the version that was chosen from the Java Version list in the report generation section (see Figure 1). Using these charts, administrators can easily figure out the vendor with maximum Java installations in the target environment and also the Java installations that are not in compliance with the minimum version chosen from the Java Version list (see Figure 1).
- The Java Installation Details table (see Figure 4) provides a detailed analysis on the Java installations in the target environment. For each component managed in the target environment, this section provides the version of Java installation installed, the vendor that distributed the Java installation, the name of the JDK/JRE installation, the path on which the Java is installed on the server, the exact build version of Java installed and the configured minimum version on the server. This table also provides an at a glance view of whether/not the installed Java version is in compliance with the minimum version based on which the report was generated (Java version chosen from the Java Version list of Figure 1). Whenever the version of Java installed is not in compliance with the configured minimum version based on which the report was generated, then the value YES in the IS NOT IN COMPLIANCE? column is highlighted with a bright red color (see Figure 4).
  
  Figure 4 : The Java Installation Details table in the generated report