Schedule Weekly DCT Reports
Data Control Tower has a wide variety of reports such as VDB summaries, data at risk, and storage capacity. Usually, customers like to see and view these reports in the DCT UI. However, it’s often beneficial to schedule a CSV version of the weekly report for audit or a simple reminder. Particularly, our original Mission Control customers might find this feature particularly valuable!
Automated and scheduled sending of any DCT report can be configured via the DCT API using the Swagger UI. See below to understand how you can schedule the report and refine it further.
Before we begin, if you need more information about our API and how to use the Swagger UI, please read our documentation. (Remember to specify `apk` when entering your API Key!)
A sample curl command might look like the following:
-H 'Authorization: apk <YOUR_API_KEY>' \
-H 'accept: application/json' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
"server": "smtp.gmail.com",
“authentication_enabled": true,
"username": "<TEST_USERNAME>",
"password": "<TEST_PASSWORD>"
If testing, there are various free test SMTP servers out there (such as smtp.gmail.com). But for production usage, work with your IT team to identify the correct SMTP server.
Lastly, the “/management/smtp/validate” API is often helpful to confirm the SMTP is working before you start scheduling any reports.
Step #2: Schedule the Report
A sample curl command might look like the following:
-H 'accept: application/json' \
-H 'Authorization: apk ' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
"report_type": "VIRTUALIZATION_STORAGE_SUMMARY",
"cron_expression": "0/20 * * * * ?",
"message": "Delphix storage summary",
"recipients": [ "test@email.com", “test2@email.com” ]
The available options for `report_type` include:
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MASKING_EXECUTION_METRICS
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ENGINE_PERFORMANCE_ANALYTIC
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VIRTUALIZATION_STORAGE_SUMMARY
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Make sure you configure the `cron_expression`and `time_zone` values to get the cadence as desired. As an example, sending the report at 9am on Monday, the expression would be: “0 9 * * Mon”. If you are unfamiliar with cron job formatting, then I recommend the crontab.guru website.
If you ever need to modify the configuration of this weekly report, simply run the same API command again but with the values modified. Setting the `enabled` value to false will also disable the scheduler.
Advanced: Filter and Refine the Report
In addition to using the out-of-box reports, you can also further customize the reports to meet your needs or users. For many of the above reports, there are separate commands that allow you to further customize and refine the delivered CSV.
Schedule Multiple Reports
If you need additional reports scheduled, then simply re-run the POST `reporting/schedule` API called above, but specify a different report, cadence, or email recipient.
Lastly, if you need to clean up, simply use the GET `reporting/schedule` API call to see the configured schedules and run the DELETE `reporting/schedule/{scheduleId}` to remove it.
Outro
Thanks to DCT’s API-first model, there’s often more than meets the U-eye. Its API is quite extensive and the Swagger UI and DCT Toolkit make it easy to investigate the large set of functionality.
The set of insights and reporting available within DCT is only going to grow as we look to the future. Keep an eye on our release notes to see what new reports will be available to review and schedule!