Similarity Analysis Report

When monitoring hundreds of applications, servers, or devices, it’s crucial to quickly identify performance patterns and detect any outliers that may indicate issues. The Similarity Analysis report streamlines this process by analyzing key percentiles (25th, 50th, 75th) and min/max values to assess the overall performance of each entity. By grouping similar entities and highlighting dissimilar ones, the report enables efficient identification of outliers, allowing for prompt action to address potential bottlenecks or anomalies, ensuring smoother operations and optimized performance across all systems.

To generate this report, do the following:

  1. Select the Similarity Analysis option by following the menu sequence: REPORTS BY FUNCTION -> Analytical Reports.

  2. Figure 1 will then appear.

    Figure 1 : Generating the BSOD Analysis report

  3. Here, select a criterion for analysis from the Analyze By list box. Using this report, you can analyze the outliers detected on one/more components, or those that are part of a zone or 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.
    • 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
    • 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.
    • Group: If you want to generate a report for one/more chosen components that belong to a group, select the Group option from Analyze By list box, and then pick the Group from the drop-down list that appears.
    • 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.
  4. Pick a component type for which you wish to generate the report from the Component Type list. By default, All Component Types option is chosen from this list.
  5. In the Component list box, all the components pertaining to the chosen Component Type will be listed. Select the component for which this report is to be generated. 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 Components button next to the Component list. A Component 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. You can narrow your search further by using the Search text box. Specify the whole/part of the component name to search for in this text box, and click the icon next to it.

  6. Next, pick the test for which the report is to be generated from the Test list. By default, System Details test is chosen from this list.

  7. Then, pick a measure from the Measure list. By default, CPU utilization is chosen from this list.
  8. By default, the Include option is chosen from the Descriptor Filter list indicating that all the descriptors of the chosen Test are included for analyzing the rate of changes. However, if you wish to exclude a few descriptors from the scope of generating this report, then, you can choose the Exclude option.
  9. In the Descriptors list box, all the descriptors pertaining to the chosen Test will be listed. Select one/more descriptor(s) for which this report is to be generated. If the Descriptors list consists of too many descriptors, then viewing all the descriptors and selecting the ones you need for report generation could require endless scrolling. To avoid this, you can click the Components button next to the Descriptors list. A Descriptors pop up window will then appear using which you can view almost all the descriptors in a single interface, select the descriptors of your choice and Apply your selection. You can narrow your search further by using the Search text box. Specify the whole/part of the descriptor name to search for in this text box, and click the icon next to it. In case, if you wish to remove your selection at any point of time, you can use the Unselect All button.

  10. Then, specify the Timeline for the 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.

  11. 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 the criteria for generating the report. However, if you want to view and then alter these settings (if required), click on the button. 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 Similarity Analysis report

  12. If the timeline specified for the report needs to exclude the data collected during the Weekends, then set Exclude weekends to Yes(Saturday,Sunday). If not, select No.

    Note:

    You can configure the days of the week that need to be considered as a ‘weekend’ using the Days parameter in the [EXCLUDE_WEEKEND] section in the eg_report.ini file (in the <eg_install_dir>\manager\config directory). The Days parameter is set to Saturday,Sunday by default. To change this weekend specification, enter two other days of the week against the Days parameter.

  13. By default, Yes option is chosen from the Show Min/Max list indicating that the Minimum and Maximum values of the chosen measure:descriptor combination are captured and displayed in the generated report. If you do not wish this report to display the Minimum and Maximum values, choose No from this list.

  14. Next, indicate the report Time Period.

    Note:

    By default, the Time Period is set to 24 hours. Accordingly, the From and To parameters in the [timeframe] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the <eG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory) are set to 00:00 and 24:00 respectively. If need be, you can override this default setting by configuring a different timeframe against the From and/or To parameters.

  15. By default, All hours is chosen from the Report by list indicating that this report will be generated for default Time period. However, if you wish to generate the report only during the business hours of the organization, then, you can choose Business Hours option from this list. Upon choosing the Business Hours option, the From and To parameters of the Time Period is automatically set to 9 Hour 00 Mins and 17 Hour 00 Mins respectively. Picking the Non-Business Hours generates the report for a Time Period excluding the default business hours of the organization i.e., excluding 9 Hour 00 Mins and 17 Hour 00 Mins chosen from the From and To parameters of the Time Period.

  16. 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. In this case, a Report Name text box will appear, where you would have to provide the name with which the report is to be saved in the background. 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. 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.

  17. Click the Done button if any changes were made to the More Options drop down window.

  18. Finally, click on the Run Report button to generate the report.

  19. If the Report Generation list is Foreground Generation - HTML, then, clicking on the Run Report button will invoke Figure 3.

    Figure 3 : The generated Similarity Analysis report

  20. The generated report consists of the following sections (see Figure 3):

    • The Similarity Analysis section reveals a box plot chart with the Components/Descriptors Group as the x-axis and the Percentage as y-axis. By default, the Components/Descriptors are grouped based on the percentile value of the chosen measure over the chosen period of time. The height of the rectangle of each Component/Descriptor group indicates the range of variation of the metric for the group. The width shows the number of entities in the group. Every group has entities based on their 25th to 75th percentile values remaining within a specific range over a period of time. You can even drill down to see all the members of each group further as a box plot chart until outliers with minor variations are identified. Using this chart administrators can instantly detect outliers i.e., unusual values that fall far outside the normal range over the chosen period of time. The Observations section reveals the count of entities with dissimilar properties and the groups that contain those entities.

    • The Dissimilar Entities table reveals the dissimilar entities detected over the chosen period of time. For each dissimilar entity, this table reveals the minimum value, 25th percentile, 50th percentile, 75th percentile and the maximum value recorded for the entity over the chosen period of time. Clicking the graph icon against each dissimilar entity reveals the time of day variations for the chosen descriptor of the chosen measure (see Figure 4).

      Figure 4 : Viewing the graph of the chosen descriptor over the chosen time period

    • The Grouped Entities Details table reveals the count of entities in each group, the minimum value, 25th percentile, 50th percentile, 75th percentile and the maximum value recorded for the group over the chosen period of time. Clicking on each group reveals the Similarity Analysis report of that group (see Figure 5) and detect outliers within that group.

      Figure 5 : The Similarity Analysis report generated for a group