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Setting up Central Reports

Before setting up Central ReportsCentral Reports provide a consolidated data and reporting view across multiple Application Servers. Central Reports provide a large subset of the same reports that provided by the standard PaperCut reporting feature., 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 Upsize to an external RDBMS.

  1. Select a server as your reporting server. This is the server on which you will configure and run Central Reports. You can choose which ever server is most convenient for you. In fact, you can configure several or all servers to be able to run Central Reports.

  2. On the server, open the server config file [app-path]/server/server.properties in a text editor (e.g. Notepad).

  3. At the bottom of the file, add central-reports configuration statements as documented in Server Configuration below and save the file

  4. Log in to the PaperCut Admin web interface to configure admin rights and email notifications:

    To grant Central Reports admin rights to users who need access:

    1. Select Options > Admin Rights.

      The Admin Rights page is displayed.

    2. Select the group you want to add Central Reports rights for; then click Add Group.

      Or if adding a single user, enter the user; then click Add User.

      By default the group or user you added will have access to all features.

    3. Click the edit link to the right of the group or user entry.

    4. Select the specific rights you want to apply. In particular, ensure that Access Central Reports is selected.
    5. Click Apply.

    Enabling an email (SMTPSimple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the mechanism by which an email client program sends emails to an outgoing mail server (SMTP server) for delivery to the intended email address.) 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 in to the Admin web interface and check the App. Log page.

    To enable email notifications:

    1. Select Options > Notifications.

      The Notifications page is displayed.

    2. Under SMTP Server Options, enter an SMTP server and other details so that PaperCut can send emails.

    3. Recommended: under System Notifications, select Error level events.

  5. Log in to 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, check that you have added Central Reports admin rights to your login.

  6. 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 ServerAn Application Server is the primary server program responsible for providing the PaperCut user interface, storing data, and providing services to users. PaperCut uses the Application Server to manage user and account information, manage printers, calculate print costs, provide a web browser interface to administrators and end users, and much more. (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 SQLStructured Query Language (SQL) is a special-purpose programming language designed for managing data held in a relational database management system (RDBMS), or for stream processing in a relational data stream management system (RDSMS). 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 Upsize 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.

Table 66: Central Reports statements in server.properties
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 results in users not being able to log in to 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.