Check Reports for Data

The above steps can only identify if the Data Collector is basically functioning. It may be possible that the Data Collector is behind in collecting data due to connectivity, traffic load, or other issues.

About this task

You can use event charts to monitor Data Collector performance. An event chart is generated by querying the database for the number of instances of an event for the specified time period. For example, you can generate an event chart for an event that occurs every session or on every page to provide indicate when the Data Collector is gathering data. Since event charts typically break down the reporting period into hourly periods, you can check to see when the most recent data is displayed in the event chart. Please complete the following steps.

Procedure

  1. In the Portal menu, select Reports > Report Builder.
  2. Change Focus to today's date, if it is not currently selected.
  3. From the Event Selector, select an event that occurs every page or every session.
    • For example, if your web application uses a Session Start event or always begins with a Login page, a related event can be selected for this test.
      Note: Depending on traffic load and processing resources, creating an event that is triggered on every page may be problematic. If your system can handle the load, one example of an event triggered on every page is an event that is fired when the application message HTTP - 200 is in the response. Since this message is part of every response, it is a valid event to test.
  4. After you have selected the event, click Select.
  5. If the report does not automatically refresh, click Refresh
  6. In the displayed report, compare the time for the most recently displayed bar in the bar graph to the local system time.
    • Any discrepancies between the hour in the bar chart and the current hour in your time zone indicates that there may be a general data flow problem in the main processing pipeline.
      • If you have already completed the preceding steps on this page and have not found the source of the issue, you may infer that the problem is with the Data Collector. Further analysis is required. See Reviewing Data Collection Events and Logs.
      • You can compare the event count value in this report to the count among active events. See "Monitoring Active Events" in the Unica Discover Manuals.
    • If there are no differences, you might check the Count of events in the most recent hour in the displayed table to verify that the count is within reason.
    • To retrieve a list of sessions where the selected event was triggered within an hour, click the time indicator for the hour period.