Introduction

Report scheduling will allow you to centrally schedule and distribute Grafana Dashboards as hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly PDF and Excel reports. The Grafana dashboard forms the basis of the scheduled report. Skedler will automatically discover all the existing Grafana dashboards for you. You just need to select one dashboard for your report.

Note: For Skedler v3.12 and below How to create and schedule a report based on Grafana dashbaord

Note: For Skedler v3.2 and below How to create and schedule a report based on Grafana dashboard

Pre-requisites

• A successful configuration of Skedler settings. Refer How to configure Datasource and Notification channel details

Step-by-Step Instruction

To schedule the report, click the Create Report button.

Enter the appropriate values in the fields to generate the report.

Report Details

1. Enter the name of the report in the Report Name field.

2. Select the type as a Dashboard to schedule the report.

NOTE: If you have multiple Organizations configured in Grafana, select the organization from the Select Organization drop-down. The dashboards list will be discovered based on the selected organization.

3. Select the required dashboard from the Select Dashboard drop-down to generate reports.

4. Load Time for Dashboard is the time taken for Skedler to evaluate the Grafana Dashboard. By default, the value is set to 10 seconds. If you have a heavy Grafana Dashboard (ie heavy aggregation or huge data for the specified time window) you can increase the Load Time for dashboard variable value.  

5. Optionally, select the required filter from the Select Filter drop-down. By default, the “No filter” option is selected.

Refer How to use filters with scheduled reports to set up the filter and configure the filter for the scheduled reports.

6. If the Kibana Dashboard is saved with Store time with dashboard in Kibana then Use dashboard time window option is enabled by default. This schedules the report for the stored time. If Use dashboard time window checkbox is not selected, Time Window is enabled, which allows you to generate the report for a specific time window.

7. Optionally, enter the Tags which helps you to search the report based on the tags.

8. In the Advanced option optionally, enter the Report Output Directory. It allows storing the scheduled reports on the Skedler server. You can also customize your report output directory by adding the custom parameters. To display the list of custom parameters created type $ in the Report Output Directory field. By default the Include Basepath is enabled Skedler will take the base path configured in the Advanced settings page and the report will be generated in that location. You can also override by unchecking the Include Basepath checkbox.

Report Design

1. Enter the title of the report for the generated PDF report in the Report Title field.

2. Select the format of the report from the Select Format drop-down. The following formats are available: PDF, PNG - Inline, PNG - Attachment, Excel, and HTML.

Note: When the Email setting is disabled, the report is downloaded in the PDF or PNG format.

3. Optionally, you can enable the Include Report type option to generate an excel report along with the other report types.

4. Select the required template from the Select Template drop-down.

• By default, the “Default Template” is selected. Refer to Schedule a custom template report based on Kibana dashboard to learn how to design a custom template and use the template for the scheduled reports.

• If "No Template" option is selected,

  • Select the Layout type as Smart Layout or Dashboard Layout, by default “Smart Layout” is enabled. Note: Layout Configuration applicable only for PDF reports.
  • Choose page Orientation (portrait or landscape). By default “Portrait” is selected

  • Advanced Option (is applicable for PDF reports) allows you to select the following,

    • Page size: If the report type is PDF, you can configure the paper size of the report as  A4, A3, Legal or Letter

    • Optionally, you can set a logo for the report to be generated. By default "No Logo" is selected. The logo options are as follows:

      • Choose Default Logo: If you would like to use the default logo that you configured on the Settings page. 

      • Custom Logo: You can use a custom logo for this report by uploading logo in the Logo field.

    • Font Family: You can select the type of font in which the report needs to be generated.

Schedule Details

Optionally, you can enable Schedule. If you would like to schedule the reports specify the following details and click the Schedule button.

1. Set up the schedule for the report by selecting the Frequency Type as “Hourly”, “Daily”, “Weekly”, “Monthly”, or “Yearly”

2. Enter the scheduled frequency time in the Schedule Frequency Time section to schedule report generation.

3. Enter/select the start time to generate the report from the Start Time field.

Once the report is scheduled you will find the schedule details as shown below,

Report Action

Optionally, you can configure Report Actions details.

Click the + button to add the action(Email/Slack). Click on the respective action to configure the details for the reports.

Mail Action Type

1. Enter the recipient email address in the Email To field.

2. To send a copy of the email, enter the email addresses in the Email CC field.

3. To send a copy of the email privately, enter the recipient email address in the Email BCC field.

4. To send the generated reports to the recipients corresponding to the filter, select the Include Recipients in Filter checkbox. Refer to Set up Filters section for information on setting up the filter.

5. Enter the subject of the email in the Subject field.

6. Enter the message for the email in the Message field.

7. Select the parameter name from the Merge Parameter Name field. You can merge the Custom parameter names in the Subject and Message fields for the email with the generated report.

8. Optionally, you can customize the Warning Message Option. If the generated report has no date for the specified Time Window then the email will be sent to recipient entered in the Warning Email field.

8. To send a copy of the report instantly, click the Action button and click Email Report option.

9. To save the scheduled report, click the Save and Exit button.

10. If the Email Setting option is set of "off" in the Configuration > Notification Channels , you can generate the reports using the Generate now option.

Slack Action Type

You can also schedule the slack for the report if the Slack Setting option is set to “on” in the Slack configuration settings page.

1. Click the Slack Channel action button. The Slack action tab is displayed.

2. Enter the Channel name or the user name or the user id in the Send To field to which the reports have to be sent.

3. Enter the message for the email in the Message field.

4. Select the parameter name from the Parameter field and click the Merge button. This enables  you to merge the parameter names in the Message fields for the slack with the generated report.

5. Additional Information lets you send the parameter name to the Slack message. By default, the Additional Information option is enabled with the default parameters.

6. To send a copy of the report instantly, click the Action button and click Slack Report option.

7. If the Setting Setting option is set to "off" in the Slack Configuration page, you can generate the reports using the Generate now option.

8. Once the action tab details are configured click the Save and Exit button.

When the report is scheduled, you can view the scheduled report for the Dashboard.