Documentation forVirtualization Manager
Monitoring virtual environments is a key capability of Hybrid Cloud Observability Advanced and is also available in a standalone module, Virtualization Manager (VMAN). Hybrid Cloud Observability Advanced and VMAN are built on the self-hosted SolarWinds Platform.

Reports in VMAN

Create and modify custom reports to through the SolarWinds Platform Web Console for virtual environment historical use, alerts, and recommendations. Orion reporting includes over 40 predefined virtualization reports accessible through My Dashboards > Virtualization > Reporting. Click Manage Reports to review the full list of available reports or create a new report.

With VMAN 2020.2.6, if you're monitoring VMware vCenters or ESXi hosts, you can also use VMware tags as a base for generating VMAN reports.

You can create reports in the following methods:

With your reports created and modified, you can restrict each report to be viewed and accessed by specific Orion users.

Run reports on-demand or schedule for specific systems and times. As you create reports, assign them to an existing schedule or create a new schedule. Every schedule can have different configurations for frequency to run and actions after completion:

  • Frequency: run the report on a specific date or daily, weekly, or monthly.

    Example: Run the report daily at 6 a.m., after overnight maintenance hours.

  • Action: steps to complete when the report runs including sending a report in email (CSV, HTML, PDF, or XLS format), print, or save to disk. Add multiple actions as needed.

    Example: Email a PDF to a network admin mailing list and save a copy in all file types to a snapshot VM.

We recommend scheduling reports during off-peak times if intensive queries are used.

To better create and run reports:

  • Test reports before scheduling. To test performance and format, run your report for a limited date/time range after you customize it. Verify data, table columns, chart content, and performance of the report during peak times.
  • Limit data by time and filter. To refine and speed up report results, modify the data displayed in the report content to filter and limit data. Every report section can be formatted as a chart, graph, table, gauge, and resource available in views and dashboards displaying only selected data available to objects and resources.
  • Schedule reports after maintenance. If you have a nightly maintenance, schedule reports to run after the maintenance window ends. Snapshots and recommendations run during the maintenance that can greatly change the virtual environment. Generating reports after maintenance ends provides immediate updates based on completed VM moves and resource allocation.
  • Schedule heavy load reports after business hours. If a report pulls a large amount of data, or you have multiple larger reports, schedule them to run during off-peak hours.
  • Create copies of reports. Use copies of existing reports to quickly customize reports to gather data per configured objects, resources, and conditions. Report copies give you the flexibility to create multiple versions for specific data gathering and schedules.

  • Create reports for specific virtual objects and date ranges. Create multiple reports for specific virtual systems or data sets for better performance when you generate reports and refine content. Configure a report for specific VM objects (cluster, host, datastore, or VM), the Dynamic Query Builder per object properties (example all VMware or all Hyper-V), or database queries to further restrict virtual objects.

For an example, see information for customizing and reviewing the Recommendations report.