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.