Setting up Central Reports

Setting up Central Reports
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Before setting up Central Reports, please review the prerequisites in the previous section. If you have not yet set up your external databases at each site, including the reporting site, you must do this first by following the instructions in the section called “Upsizing to an External RDBMS”.

Select a server as your reporting server. This is the server at which you will configure and run Central Reports. You may choose whichever server is most convenient for you. In fact, it is possible to configure several or all servers to be able to run Central Reports.
On the server, open the server config file [app-path]/server/server.properties in a text editor (e.g. Notepad).
At the bottom of the file, add central-reports configuration statements as documented in the section called “Server Configuration” below and save the file
Log into the PaperCut admin interface to configure admin rights and email notifications:
To grant Central Reports admin rights to users who need access:
1. Navigate to the Options → Admin Rights page.
2. Select the group you wish to add Central Reports rights for and click Add Group. Or if adding a single user, enter the user and click Add User.
3. By default the group or user you added will have access to all features. To change this, click on the edit link to the right of the group or user entry. You may then select the specific rights you wish to apply. In particular, ensure that Access Central Reports is checked and click Apply to save your changes.
Enabling an email (SMTP) server allows scheduled Central Reports to be sent. Additionally, enabling email error notifications is recommended so that administrators are notified of any issues that would prevent Central Reports from running successfully). E.g. if a scheduled central report fails, this allows administrators to be notified by email rather than needing to log into the admin interface and check the App. Log tab. To enable email notifications, navigate to Options → Notifications and:
1. Under Email Options, enter an SMTP server and other details so that PaperCut can send emails.
2. Recommended: under System Notifications, enable Error level events.
Log into the Central Reports interface using the URL https://[server-name]:9192/central-reports and check the Status page for any errors. If this page is not available, please check that you have added Central Reports admin rights to your login.
Select the Central Reports tab and run several reports to test. Verify that the reports run and that the results are as expected.

Server Configuration

Central Reports is enabled by configuration statements in [app-path]/server/server.properties. Changes to the Central Reports related settings in this file do not require a restart of the PaperCut application server (although most other settings in this file do).

This file should include template examples for configuring Central Reports. If it does not then you can see the [app-path]/server/server.properties.template (which is kept up to date with every upgrade) and copy the Central Reports related settings into your server.properties file.

As an example, if using Microsoft SQL Server as the external database, the following statements configure a Melbourne application server to run consolidated reports across the Melbourne, Perth and Sydney sites:

                central-reports.enabled=Y
                               
                               
                central-reports.database.local.include=Y
                central-reports.database.local.label=Melbourne HQ
                
                central-reports.require-all-databases-online=Y 
                
                central-reports.database.1.label=Perth Branch
                central-reports.database.1.url=jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://per1.example.com/papercut
                central-reports.database.1.username=admin
                central-reports.database.1.password=xJf56gy

                central-reports.database.2.label=Sydney Branch
                central-reports.database.2.url=jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://syd1.example.com/papercut
                central-reports.database.2.username=admin
                central-reports.database.2.password=dF95FCd

Note that in this example the server.properties file is for the "Melbourne HQ" site, and it would contain configuration for its own SQL Server database above (as documented in the section called “Upsizing to an External RDBMS”).

The database statements detailed below must be specified for each remote server. Where specified, n is a numeric ID (e.g: 1, 2, 3) used to associate statements for the same site, as per the example above.

Key	Description
central-reports.enabled	Central Reports is enabled (but not configured) by default. The purpose of this setting is to allow you to disable Central Reports if required. This will result in users not being able to log into the Central Reports interface, and scheduled Central Reports will not run. Values: Y or N. Default: Y.
central-reports.database.local.include	Specify whether to include the local server in the aggregated Central Reports. Values: Y or N. Default: Y. You would specify N if your local server was set up for running reports only and is not to be used as a PaperCut application server.
central-reports.database.local.label	Provide a meaningful name for the local site. Default: "Local Site".
central-reports.require-all-databases-online	This option configures whether or not all databases must be online to create reports. If set to N, reports are created even if some remote databases are not available, but the aggregated reports will not include data from those databases. Values: Y or N. Default: Y.
central-reports.database.n.label	A text label to identify the remote server n, in the Central Reports status page and reports.
central-reports.database.n.url	Specify the JBDC URL providing remote access to your database. This URL is specified in the same way as for the external database you have already configured on this system.
central-reports.database.n.username	A database username providing read access to the remote database.
central-reports.database.n.password	A database password for the supplied username.

Table 12.1. Central Reports statements in server.properties

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