PRTG Manual: Report Settings

Report Name

Enter a name to identify the report. PRTG uses the name in reports lists and as the title of generated reports.

If the name contains angle brackets (<>), PRTG replaces them with braces ({}) for security reasons. For more information, see the Knowledge Base: What security features does PRTG include?

Tags

Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited.

It is not possible to enter tags with a leading plus (+) or minus (-) sign, nor tags with parentheses (()) or angle brackets (<>).

For performance reasons, it can take some minutes until you can filter for new tags that you added.

Report Template

Templates define the overall look of your report and in which detail the report shows monitoring data. PRTG includes several preconfigured report templates. Select a template for the report from the dropdown list:

• Graph with data table (data files available): Create a report with graphs and data tables. Choose from different intervals. Reports that use one of these templates also generate .csv and .xml files if you select the respective setting in the Data Files section.
• Data table only (data files available): Create a report with data tables. Choose from different intervals. Reports that use one of these templates also generate .csv and .xml files if you select the respective setting in the Data Files section.
• Graph only (data files not available): Create a report with graphs. Choose from different intervals. Reports that use one of these templates cannot generate .csv or .xml files.
• List of sensors (data files not available): Create a report in a compact sensor list style. The list is available with and without graphs. Reports that use one of these templates cannot generate .csv or .xml files.
• Top 100 highest and lowest (data files not available): Create a report with up to 100 objects with the highest and lowest average values. Choose from different intervals. Reports that use one of these templates cannot generate .csv or .xml files.
• Top 10 uptime and downtime (data files not available): Create a report with up to 10 objects with the highest uptime and downtime for each object. You can choose between data in percent and hours. Reports that use one of these templates cannot generate .csv or .xml files.
• Top 100 uptime and downtime (data files not available): Create a report with up to 100 objects with the highest uptime and downtime for each object. You can choose between data in percent and hours. Reports that use one of these templates cannot generate .csv or .xml files.

PRTG automatically averages monitoring data within an interval.

Security Context

Define the security context that the report uses for access to monitoring data. Select a user account from the dropdown list to define which objects are visible in the report. The report only contains objects that the selected user has the access rights to view. By default, the security context is the user account that creates the report.

Basically, the security context defines the minimum access rights to objects like libraries, reports, or maps, that a user account has. If the security context of an object is PRTG System Administrator, for example, every user sees all objects in a library, in a report, or on a map, no matter what the particular user access rights are.

Time Zone

Select a time zone from the dropdown list. PRTG uses this time zone for all date-specific settings in the report.

Page Format

Define the page size in which PRTG creates .pdf files:

• None: Do not specify a page format. PRTG automatically sets a size.
• DIN A4: Use the German DIN A4 format.
• DIN A3: Use the DIN A3 format.
• DIN A2: Use the DIN A2 format.
• Legal: Use the North American legal page format.
• Letter (default): Use the North American letter page format.
• Ledger: Use the North American ledger page format.

Page Orientation

Define the page orientation for the data in PDF reports:

• Portrait (default): Use the portrait orientation.
• Landscape: Use the landscape orientation to show data tables of sensors with many channels. Other parts of the report remain in the portrait orientation and do not resize to the landscape orientation.

Cluster Node

This setting is only visible if you run PRTG in a failover cluster.

Select the cluster node from which the report takes monitoring data from the dropdown list. The available options are specific to your configuration.

By default, the master node is set. Select All cluster nodes to create a report that includes data from all of your cluster nodes.

A report for all cluster nodes only includes data for the primary channels. Be careful with big reports for all cluster nodes because the report generation might significantly slow down your monitoring.

If you select a failover node, report and data files do not show data from the local probe or from a remote probe and might be empty or show 0 values.

You can generate .csv and .xml data files only for a single failover node. If you select the option All cluster nodes, the report does not create data files.

Sensors by Tag

Select the sensors that you want to include in the report by tag. Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited. The report covers all sensors that have at least one of the tags. You can also leave the field empty.

You can also use the plus sign (+) or the minus sign (-) to categorize tags as must have or must not have, for example, +snmp –wmi (must have the tag snmp and must not have the tag wmi).

For performance reasons, it can take some minutes until you can filter for new tags that you added.

The report automatically includes all channels of sensors that you add by tag, unless you run a cluster and select All cluster nodes in the Cluster Node setting above.

If you want to manually select the sensors to include in the report, save your settings and go to the Select Sensors Manually tab.

Filter Included Sensors by Tag

Filter the included sensors further. Use this option, for example, if you manually add entire probes, groups, or devices to the report and do not want to include all sensors that have these objects as their parent objects. PRTG then only includes the sensors in the report that have at least one of the tags that you enter here.

Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited. You can also leave the field empty.

You can also use the plus sign (+) or the minus sign (-) to categorize tags as must have or must not have, for example, +snmp –wmi (must have the tag snmp and must not have the tag wmi).

For performance reasons, it can take some minutes until you can filter for new tags that you added.

Schedule

Define the time at which you want to automatically run the report:

• No schedule (default): Only use the options on the Run Now tab to manually start the report generation.
• Every full hour: Run the report every 60 minutes.
• Every day at a specific hour: Run the report every 24 hours. Specify the exact time below.
• Every specific day of the week: Run the report every 7 days. Specify the exact time below.
• Every specific day of the month: Run the report on a specific day every month. Specify the exact time below.
• First day after the quarter: Run the report on the first day after the end of the quarter. This means, for example, on April 1st for the first quarter of the year (January 1st - March 31st).
• Every specific date: Run the report on a specific date every year. Specify the exact date below.

Specific Hour

This setting is only visible if you select Every day at a specific hour above.

From the list, select the hour at which you want to run the report.

Specify Day

This setting is only visible if you select Every specific day of the week above.

From the list, select a day of the week or a day of the month for which you want to run the report.

If you select Last, the report always runs on the last day of the month, regardless of how many days the month has. If you select a date that does not exist in every month, for example, 30th, PRTG automatically runs the report on the last day of the month.

Specific Date

This setting is only visible if you select Every specific date above.

Enter a valid date in the format DD.MM., for example, 31.12. The report runs on this date every year.

Report Handling

This setting is only visible if you select one of the schedule options above.

Define what you want to do with a finished report:

• Store report and send it by email: Create a .pdf file and, depending on the Data Files setting, create data files of the report, store the files, and send them via email to the email address that you define below. You can find the stored report files on the Stored Reports tab.
• Store report (default): Create a .pdf file and, depending on the Data Files setting, create data files of the report and store it. You find the stored report files on the Stored Reports tab. You also receive a ToDo ticket. By default, PRTG sends out a notification email to administrators in this case.
• Send report by email: Create a .pdf file and, depending on the Data Files setting, create data files of the report and send them via email to the email address that you define below. PRTG does not permanently store the report files.

PRTG only generates .csv and .xml data files for report templates that include data tables.

To create .pdf files, make sure that the print spooler service runs on the PRTG core server system.

Some special characters, for example, 4-byte unicode characters, might not be displayed correctly in PDF reports. As a workaround, we recommend that you generate an HTML report and save it as a .pdf file.

Target Email Address

This setting is only visible if you select one of the email options above.

Enter one or more valid email addresses to which PRTG sends the report. Use commas to separate email addresses.

PRTG sends an email to all recipients. All recipients appear in the To field of the email.

You can change the configuration for outgoing emails in the Notification Delivery settings.

Email to User Group

This setting is only visible if you select one of the email options above.

From the list, select a user group to which you send an email with the report. All members of this group receive the email. You can edit user groups in the User Groups settings.

If you define both individual email addresses and select a user group, PRTG sends the report to the individual email addresses as well as to the members of the selected user group.

PRTG sends an email to all recipients. All recipients appear in the To field of the email.

File Compression

This setting is only visible if you select one of the email options above.

Define if PRTG compresses the attached report files before it sends them:

• Disable (default): PRTG sends the report files by email in their original size.
• Enable: PRTG compresses the report files to a .zip file before they are sent by email.

Report Period Type

Define the type of period for which you want to create the report:

• Current period: Use monitoring data of the current period.
• Previous period (default): Use monitoring data of the previous period.

This setting works in combination with the Period setting below. For example, Previous period (default) means yesterday if you select the Day option.

Period

Define the period that the report covers:

• Day
• Week (default)
• Month
• Quarter of year
• Year

Day Period

This setting is only visible if you select Day above.

From the list, select the hours at which a day starts and ends. The default setting is 0:00-23:59.

Week Period

This setting is only visible if you select Week (default) above.

From the list, select the days of the week when the week starts and ends:

• Monday-Sunday: A reported week starts on the Monday and ends on the Sunday of the week.
• [Day-Day]: A reported week starts on the [Day] of the week and ends on the [Day] of the following week.

Month Period

This setting is only visible if you select Month above.

From the list, select the days of the month when the month starts and ends:

• first-last day: A reported month starts on the first day and ends on the last day of the month.
• [15.-14.]: A reported month starts on the 15th of the month and ends on the 14th of the following month.

Year Period

This setting is only visible if you select Year above.

From the list, select when the year starts and ends:

• 1/1-12/31: A reported year starts on January 1st and ends on December 31st.
• 7/1-6/30: A reported year starts on July 1st and ends on June 30th the following year.

Report Schedule

From the list, select a specific time span for which you want to generate the report. The report only includes monitoring data for specific hours or weekdays within the defined period.

Select None to include all available monitoring data in the report, or choose a schedule, for example Weekdays, to exclude all weekends from the report. The available schedules depend on your configuration.

For more information, see section Schedules.

Percentile Results

Define if you want to include an additional percentile calculation of your data in the report:

• Do not show percentiles (default): PRTG does not use a percentile formula to calculate your monitoring results. It only shows the standard values.
• Show percentiles: PRTG displays an overview table with the percentiles of each channel for the whole report period, and the percentiles of the primary channel in the table for each scanning interval.

Percentiles are not available for all report templates. If a template does not support percentiles, they do not show up in the report, even if you enable this setting.

Percentiles are also not available for a cluster if you select All cluster nodes in the Cluster Node setting in section Included Sensors. Select a failover node to include percentiles.

Percentile Type

This setting is only visible if you select Show percentiles above.

Enter the percentile type that you want PRTG to use for the calculation. If you choose, for example, to calculate the 95th percentile, enter 95 here and 5% of peak values are discarded. Enter an integer.

Percentile Averaging Interval

This setting is only visible if you select Show percentiles above.

Enter a value to define the averaging interval on which PRTG bases the percentile calculation. The default value is 300 seconds (5 minutes). This means that PRTG takes 5-minute averages as basic values for the percentile calculation. Enter an integer.

Percentile Mode

This setting is only visible if you select Show percentiles above.

Select the mode for percentile calculation:

• Discrete: PRTG takes discrete values to calculate percentile results.
• Continuous (default): PRTG interpolates between discrete values and bases the calculation on interpolated values.

Files in CSV / XML Format

Define if you want to generate .csv and .xml files for data tables in the report in addition to the .pdf file:

• Do not include data files (default): PRTG does not generate .csv or .xml files for the report. It only creates a .pdf file.
• Include only .csv files: PRTG generates and stores .csv files in addition to the .pdf file. The data files are only generated if the report uses a report template that includes data tables.
• Include only .xml files: PRTG generates and stores .xml files in addition to the .pdf file. The data files are only generated if the report uses a report template that includes data tables.
• Include all data files: PRTG generates and stores .csv and .xml files in addition to the .pdf file. The data files are only generated if the report uses a report template that includes data tables.

If you run PRTG in a cluster, the report does not generate data files if you select All cluster nodes in the Cluster Node setting. Select a failover node to get data files.

Setting

Description

Introductory Comment

Enter a custom text that the report displays at the top of the first page. Enter a string or leave the field empty.

Final Comment

Enter a custom text that the report displays below the last data table or graph on the last page. Enter a string or leave the field empty.

User Group Access

Define the user groups that have access to the object. You see a table with user groups and group access rights. The table contains all user groups in your setup. For each user group, you can choose from the following group access rights:

• No access: Users in this user group cannot see or edit the object. The object does not show up in lists.
• Read access: Users in this user group can see the object and view its settings.
• Write access: Users in this user group can see the object and view and edit its settings. However, they cannot edit the object's access rights settings.
• Full access: Users in this user group can see the object, view and edit its settings, and edit its access rights settings.

You can create new user groups in the User Groups settings.

Add items

From the device tree on the right side, drag objects and drop them onto the list on the left side. You can add entire probes, groups, devices, or single sensors. PRTG adds each dropped object as a new list item.

The objects you drop on the left side are always added to the end of the list, you cannot directly add objects in a different order.

Select channels

If you add a sensor to the selection, you can specify the channels that the report includes. By default, PRTG selects all channels. To exclude a channel from the report, disable the check box in front of a channel name.

If you run PRTG in a cluster, you can only choose between single channels if you select a specific Cluster Node in the report settings. If you select All cluster nodes, the report contains only the primary channel of each sensor.

Change order

You can change the order of list items on the left side via drag-and-drop. Click in the upper-right corner of a selected object, drag it to the desired position, and drop it there.

Remove

To remove any objects from the report, click next to the respective list item, or select several list items while holding down the Ctrl key, then click .