<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: Reports Step By Step

To create a new report or to run an existing report, follow the steps in this section. In the PRTG web interface, click the Reports entry in the main menu bar to show the reports main screen.

In this section:

icon-i-roundThis documentation refers to the PRTG System Administrator user accessing the PRTG web interface on a master node. If you use other user accounts, interfaces, or nodes, you might not see all of the options in the way described here. If you use a cluster installation, note that failover nodes are read-only by default.

icon-i-roundWhen a user with admin rights creates a new object, only other users with admin rights can view or edit the new object by default. When a read/write user creates a new object, all members of the read/write user's primary group can view and edit the new object as well. This behavior applies to Libraries, Maps, Reports, Notification Templates, and Schedules.

icon-book-arrowsFor more information, see section User Access Rights.

Quick Start: Run an Existing Report

PRTG comes with several preconfigured reports. To use one of them, click a report's name in the reports overview and select the Settings tab. The next steps are the same as for completely new reports. Although some settings are already specified, we recommend that you check them. For example, check the sensors that are included in the report. For some reports that come with PRTG, there are no sensors added yet. Continue with step 3 in this section.

Step 1: Add Report

Hover over plus_button and select Add Report from the menu to add a new report. An assistant appears where you can define various settings. First, enter a meaningful Report Name.

icon-i-roundYou can also add a report via the context menu of an object. In this case, the selected object is automatically included in the report.

Add Report Assistant

Add Report Assistant

Step 2: Select a Template

In the Template option, select one of the report templates from the list. This defines the overall look of your report and in which detail (interval) monitoring data is included. If you are not sure yet, try a template that appears most suitable to you. You can still change all settings later.

icon-book-arrowsFor a detailed description of the available template options, see section Report Settings.

Step 3: Define Additional Options

Select a Security Context (best select PRTG System Administrator, if available), your Timezone, the Paper Size, and the paper Orientation for PDF generation.

icon-book-arrowsFor detailed information, see section Report Settings.

Step 4: Select Nodes and Sensors

Select the sensors that you want to include in the report. When running a cluster, first define the Cluster Node that the monitoring data is taken from. Select a specific node from the list. If you select All nodes, PRTG creates a report with data from all of your cluster nodes, but only the primary channel of every sensor appears in the report.

Reports show monitoring results based on sensor data. There are two ways to include sensors in a report: You can either add sensors manually or by tag. In the Include Sensors by Tag field, enter one or more tags that match the sensor range that you want a report on.

For example, enter the tag bandwidthsensor to include all sensors that measure bandwidth (or select it from the list of tags that PRTG suggests). PRTG provides this tag by default when you add any bandwidth sensor, so the tag typically gathers all bandwidth sensors, unless you configured your system differently. You can enter several tags. Press the Enter key or Spacebar key or insert a comma after each tag and enter the next tag. Use the Filter Included Sensors by Tag field to explicitly filter for sensors with certain tags from the bulk of tags or manually selected sensors defined above.

Using tags helps you group sensors or other objects. You can also leave the tag fields empty and only choose specific sensors manually later.

icon-book-arrowsFor more information, see section Tags.

Step 5: Decide on a Schedule and Additional Settings

In the Report Schedule section, choose if you want to run the report on a regular basis or on demand only. Also define which time Period is covered by the report and define if you want to show percentiles, if you want to generate .csv and .xml data files for reports with data tables, and add report comments or special access rights.

icon-book-arrowsFor detailed information, see section Report Settings.

icon-i-round-redScheduled reports are not run on failover nodes by default.

icon-i-round-redSave your settings. If you leave the current page, all changes to the settings are lost.

Step 6: Check and Adjust the Included Sensors

After saving the settings, PRTG opens the Select Sensors Manually tab where you can manually add individual sensors. Open the Sensors Selected by Tag tab to see a list of all sensors that you added with the tags that you selected in step 4. To change tags, go back to the Settings tab. The final report shows sensors from both manual selection and selection by tag.

icon-book-arrowsSee section Report Settings for detailed information and mind the Remarks for Reports.

Step 7: Run Report

Open the Run Now tab, select a period, and in the Processing Options select View report as HTML. Click the Run Report button. PRTG generates the report in a new browser window or tab immediately. Depending on the number of selected sensors and the used template, it may take a few minutes until you see the report. If you do not want to wait, close the newly opened browser window or tab and select a PDF option in the Processing Options. Click the Run Report button again. The report is then generated in the background and you get a ToDo ticket or email once it is finished.

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Knowledge Base: Creating a PDF report does not work. What can I do?

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