Reports

There are a number of options for giving reports a context, i.e. to fill them with the data from specific hosts and services. As a result, reports have to be called in different ways in order to contain meaningful information. If the context is missing, i.e. specifying which hosts and services should be included in the report, instead of the correct output you will receive only error messages highlighted in red:

The difference is where the context is specified:

Now think again about the Reporting snap-in mentioned above: this takes you directly to the rendered reports without any further preselection / restriction etc. — so only those reports that have a built-in context actually make sense here. Reports whose context is only created via (filtered) views can therefore be safely excluded from the Monitor menu as well as the snap-in via the Hide this report in the monitor menu option.

You can use the following functions to edit your own reports:

A description of the various available options follows in the subsequent sections.

Things get a little more complex now if you want to create a completely new report instead of a copy of an existing report. As an example, below you will create a simple overview of all problematic services on your site, i.e. all services with a WARN, CRIT or UNKNOWN status. This overview will be titled ‘critical_services‘.

You create a new report on the Edit Reports page via Reports > Add report.

In the first step, leave the filter Select specific object type on the No restrictions to specific objects selection and go directly to the next selection page with Continue.

As with copying an existing report, first specify a Unique ID and Title:

In the Context / Search Filters section, under Service now select the Service states, then with a click on Add filter you can set the desired states:

With Save & go to list the new report will be added to the Customized section of the reports overview list.

If you now call up this report in joyful anticipation, the result is sobering. The report page has an initial layout and also a heading, but is otherwise empty. Not exactly the result to impress your boss with …​

So now you need to define the design of the content for the report. The will take you to the page for defining the content to be included in the report. The selection of report elements is done in three stages, each with a click on Continue in between.

Start by clicking Add content. For this example in Step 1 select the element type Availability table. Set Step 2 to All services and Step 3 to No restrictions to specific objects. Leave the other options on the following page unchanged for the moment. Instead, click directly on Save. Now view the preview of your report:

On the left you can see the preview, here for the report of critical_services. To the right, the elements of the report are displayed in a list. These elements can be edited, copied, deleted and reordered.

You can now flexibly customize this simple, self-created report with additional elements as required (see below) and call it up at any time, e.g. from the sidebar.

In almost every step of the report creation there is the possibility to adjust the content to suit your needs.

In the first step, at the start you can set a filter and limit the report to a specific host or data source, such as network interfaces, BI aggregations, sensors, and so on:

Next, again enter the Unique ID and the Title. For the title you can also use the provided macros (= text modules). Next, choose a Icon with which the report should be visible in the menus. By setting the Make this report available for other users option to the contact group, in the example check-mk-notify, you give the associated group members the ability to independently access the report at any time and get information on their own.

In the Context / Search Filters box, as usual extensive filtering options are available, from specific hosts to individual Docker containers to values from Oracle monitoring.

For this example, the host selection is limited to one folder and additionally to specified host issues. This restriction speeds up data retrieval, especially in more complex environments.

With Save & go to list you get to the report overview. The next step is to define the report’s content.

Using the you get to the report content:

Open report content editing with Reports > Add content. Use this to add tables, graphs, tables of contents, or text (also via macros or HTTP) to the report, for example. These contents appear one after the other and thus also determine the final length of the report.

In Step 1, select the element you want, for this example Multiple graphs. This will give you, depending on your other settings, multiple graphs of the same type arranged one below the other. For example, you can map a direct comparison between the states of multiple hosts.

Continue with Continue. As the data source for the graphics, for this example, in step 2 select All services, i.e. all services running on the hosts:

Continue with Continue. In step 3 you could now limit the volume of data to be displayed. This option is not needed for the current example. Again, switch to the next selection with Continue.

For the sample report, under Graph layout, in the Properties box, specify that you want provide a title for each of the graphs, consisting of the graph’s title, host name, and service description. In addition, set the displayed time range to four hours under Graph time range.

In the Context / Search Filters box, you limit the report to specified host or service characteristics. Here you select the CPU utilization for the Service in this example.

By clicking Save you have completed the first report element.

For the second graph in this exercise, start again with Reports > Add content and in Step 1 select Metrics graph of a single service. Switch to Step 2 with Continue and restrict the search filters to host name and service description:

By clicking Save the second report element will now also be ready.

The third element to be created is an overview of the current alerts. The procedure remains the same:

With a click on Save this report element is also finished.

To make the display clearer, add headings:

Open Reports > Add content to edit the report content. In Step 1 select Heading as element type. Switch to Step 2 with Continue. Optionally, specify a hierarchy level for the heading. Enter the heading at The text.

Click Save to return to the overview. However, the new heading will now be positioned below the graphics in the list. So, in the list of content items, use the icon to drag the heading to the desired position in the list.

Tip: In the preview, you may see red lines and error messages instead of real data — because in these places the report in the editor lacks context, here, for example, the specification of a host that would only be revealed by calling the report from an appropriate view. If you want to see a usable preview, simply filter for a specific host in the report settings in the Context / Search Filters area in the meantime. This makes designing the report much easier.

There are complementary design elements available for structuring the appearance of the report, such as horizontal line, image, page frame and a single line of text. You can display these building blocks on all or specific pages in your report.

For the example report, insert a frame around the report. Again, the definition is done step by step, each continued by clicking . Start with Reports > Add page element.

Since the frame should be visible on all pages, the next step requires no changes:

The new page frame is now displayed in the overview, both in the preview on the left and in the static page elements table on the right.

Tip: You can also use the macros (=text modules) available in Checkmk, for example, to create another footer with page numbers and the name of the report. To do this, select the page element One line of text and in the second step specify the position at the bottom of the page as well as the text including the desired macros:

Right away reports look more appealing with a higher-quality appearance, for example, with the company logo added.

Open the report settings with Reports > Edit properties:

In the second box, you will find the Report Properties. This is where you configure values for font, page format, time and date settings, report layout, and file name for downloads.

Copy your company logo to the ~/local/share/check_mk/reporting/images/ directory and save it as logo_mk.png file. From now on this logo will be displayed on all reports.

Note: Currently, you customize the existing report template to suit your needs. Alternatively, you can create a complete, new report template according to your company specifications, to reflect the company’s corporate design (CI/CD), for example.

Open a new schedule using Scheduled reports > Add schedule, then select the report and click Continue.

In the General Options box, you specify basic settings such as title, creation time, reporting period, and so on:

Under Context / Search Filters you will find the usual filter options, depending on the selected report. Then save the schedule to return to the list of your scheduled reports.

In the list you will also find information about the last time the report was generated/sent, if there was an error, when it will be generated/sent the next time and some more information (shown slightly abbreviated here):

Entries in the list are managed using the five icons at the beginning of an entry:

Note: Reports that have been sent are not stored on the site.

Instead of sending the report, you can also store it locally. To do this, select Action - Store locally:

Next specify a file name and optionally a report title. To be able to build a history of reports — Checkmk provides various macros (= text modules) instead of overwriting the previous report version every time the report is newly created.

The overview of all locally stored reports can be accessed in the Edit Reports window via the Reports > Stored reports menu item:

Content elements are listed when you select Reports > Add content when editing a report.

Page elements are listed when you select Reports > Add page element when editing a report.