Reporting for Rackspace - Help

Reporting for Rackspace just takes a few minutes to learn.

Here's a quick guide to what you will find in Reporting for Rackspace:

1. the Main Window
2. the Settings Window
3. the About Window
3. Getting started (initial setup)
5. Automatic silent updates

The Main Window

Its pretty simple, the main window shows the graphs and reports over a series of panels.

Here are a few things to know:

 -  double clicking on a panel enlarges it to the full size of the window,
 -  double clicking on an enlarged panel restores it to its original size,
 -  clicking on a link in the Referrals Report brings your default browser to that link,
 -  the bottom of the main window shows a quick recap of what is being reported, and
 -  some menu items have function key short cuts, such as F1 for Help.

screenshot

 

The Settings Window

The Settings window is pretty simple too, it allows you to control how the program behaves.

Here are a few things to know:

  -   if you set the option to 'Delete downloaded logs from Rackspace' then once the log files have been downloaded from Rackspace they will be deleted from Rackspace and can not be undeleted.  Accordingly, if you don't want the original log files deleted from Rackspace then simply don't check the option to 'Delete downloaded logs from Rackspace',
  -  if the option to 'Delete downloaded logs from Rackspace' was not set and you set it, once you click 'Ok' on the Settings Window all logs previously downloaded by Reporting for Rackspace will be deleted from Rackspace,
  -  if the option 'Show fully and adjusted completed downloads' is not checked, Reporting for Rackspace will graph partial downloads,
  -   if the option 'Show fully and adjusted completed downloads' is checked, Reporting for Rackspace will analyze the ip addresses, dates and times associated with of your partial downloads and based on these compute and graph equivalent completed downloads, and
  -   you can't change the location of the data directory at the bottom of the Settings window, but you can click on the [...] button to open it up and see what's in it.

screenshot 

 

The About Window

The About Window tells you the version of the program and provides links to the licensing information and where you can make donations.

Task Scheduler Window 1

 

Getting started

Welcome to Reporting for Rackspace!

The very first time Reporting for Rackspace is run on your computer you will see a bunch of blank graphs and reports.  You will also be brought to this section of this webpage which describes how to set up the program.

To set up the program:

 -   on main window's menu, click on 'File' - 'Settings' (or press the F2 key) and enter, at a minimum, your Rackspace User ID and API Key
 -  you may optionally change other options on the Settings window as you like
(of note, and as described above, if you set the option to 'Delete downloaded logs from Rackspace' then once the log files have been downloaded from Rackspace they will be deleted from Rackspace and can not be undeleted.)
 -  click the 'Ok' button to save your changes
 -  from the main window's menu, click on 'File' - 'Refresh' (or press F5) to update your graphs and reports.

   If you need more help, you can scroll up and down on this web page.

Automatic silent updates

You can schedule Reporting for Rackspace to run at predefined times during the day using Microsoft Task Scheduler.  Much has been written on the internet on how to setup Microsoft Task Schedule.   Here are screen shots of the main Task Scheduler windows to show you how to set it up:

Task Scheduler Window 1

Task Scheduler Window 2

Task Scheduler Window 3

Task Scheduler Window 4

Task Scheduler Window 5

Task Scheduler Window 6