To generate a set of reports on a regular schedule, you schedule a report task. The report task specifies which reports to generate and what parameters to use; which volumes and folders to report on; how often to generate the reports; and which file formats to save them in.

Scheduled reports are saved in a default location, which you can specify in the File Server Resource Manager Options dialog box. You also have the option of delivering the reports by e-mail to a group of administrators.

Note

To minimize the impact of report processing on performance, generate multiple reports on the same schedule so that the data is only gathered once. To quickly add reports to existing report tasks, you can use the Add or Remove Reports for a Report Task action. This allows you to add or remove reports from multiple report tasks and to edit the report parameters. To change schedules or delivery addresses, you must edit individual report tasks.

To schedule a report task
  1. Click the Storage Reports Management node.

  2. Right-click Storage Reports Management, and then click Schedule a New Report Task (or select Schedule a New Report Task from the Actions pane). This opens the Storage Reports Task Properties dialog box.

  3. To select volumes or folders on which to generate reports:

    • Under Scope, click Add.

    • Browse to the volume or folder on which you want to generate the reports, select it, and then click OK to add the path to the list.

    • Add as many volumes or folders as you want to include in the reports. (To remove a volume or folder, click the path, and then click Remove.)

  4. To specify which reports to generate:

    Under Report data, select each report that you want to include. By default, all reports are generated for a scheduled report task.

    To edit the parameters of a report:

    • Click the report label, and then click Edit Parameters.

    • In the Report Parameters dialog box, edit the parameters as needed, and then click OK.

    To see a list of parameters for all the selected reports, click Review Selected Reports. Then click Close.

  5. To specify the formats for saving the reports:

    Under Report formats, select one or more formats for the scheduled reports. By default, reports are generated in Dynamic HTML (DHTML). You can also select HTML, XML, CSV, and text formats.

    The reports are saved to the default location for scheduled reports.

  6. To deliver copies of the reports to administrators by e-mail:

    On the Delivery tab, select the Send reports to the following administrators check box, and then enter the names of the administrative accounts that will receive reports. Use the format account@domain, and use semicolons to separate multiple accounts.

  7. To schedule the reports:

    On the Schedule tab, click Create Schedule, and then in the Schedule dialog box, click New. This displays a default schedule set for 9:00 A.M. daily, but you can modify the default schedule.

    • To specify a frequency for generating the reports, select an interval from the Schedule Task drop-down list.

      You can schedule daily, weekly, or monthly reports, or generate the reports only once. You can also generate reports at system startup or logon, or when the computer has been idle for a specified time.

    • To provide additional scheduling information for the chosen interval, modify or set the values in the Schedule Task options.

      These options change based on the interval that you choose. For example, for a weekly report, you can specify the number of weeks between reports and on which days of the week to generate reports.

    • To specify the time of day when you want to generate the report, type or select the value in the Start time box.

    • To access additional scheduling options (including a start date and end date for the task), click Advanced.

    • To save the schedule, click OK.

    To create an additional schedule for a task (or modify an existing schedule), on the Schedule tab, click Edit Schedule.

  8. To save the report task, click OK.

The report task is added to the Storage Reports Management node. Tasks are identified by the reports to be generated, the namespace to be reported on, and report schedule.

In addition, you can view the current status of the report (whether or not the report is running), the last run time and the result of that run, and the next scheduled run time.