Overview

The MetaReportGenerator solution is a service application that extends the capabilities of the InterSync technology by providing e-mailed reports on various aspects of digital assets processing and database backup activities.

InterSync is a service application bundled with Digital Storage Manager that manages the digital resources (DRs) used in the production process - it ensures that the database is synchronized with the file system and updates corresponding thumbnails, extended previews, and other file metadata.

During the production cycle multiple changes occur to the contents of the production database every day. The reports provided by the MetaReportGenerator solution are created to assist you in analyzing daily/weekly/monthly activity and performance of your company's production departments and to detect "weak links" in the production cycle.

The solution combines three types of reports which are generated at regular intervals for a production database:

• The InterSync report that summarizes information on various stages of the DRs processing.
• The File Type report that provides information on methods used to generate thumbnails for the file types registered in Virtual Ticket/Digital Storage Manager.
• The Backup report that informs you of the last full backup status and backup file sizes.

The generated reports are automatically sent to the email address set for the Administrator user within a particular Virtual Ticket/Digital Storage Manager database.

Installation

Before installing this solution, make sure you have InterSync installed, configured, and running.

To install the MetaReportGenerator solution:

1. Download and import the solution MetaReportGenerator.osf file (see attached below).
2. To activate the solution, restart the Application Server or shut down/restart the database links using the Application Server Shell.

Setting Up the MetaReportGenerator

The reports comprised in the solution are implemented as SQL Server Agent jobs associated with a particular database. By default, every database has a "helper" MetaSQLMail job scheduled to run every minute to check for emails that need to be sent. This solution utilizes the MetaSQLMail job to send the reports via email.

To set up the MetaReportGenerator solution for a particular database:

1. Configure the MetaSQLMail job as described in the Configuring the E-Mail Mechanism section of the How to Send E-Mail from T-SQL Scripts guide. Note that you can also use the Configuration plug-in of the MetaCommunications Management Console to configure the job.
2. Using the Microsoft SQL Server Studio or the Configuration plug-in of the MetaCommunications Management Console, schedule the following jobs as needed (by default the backup report is generated once a day, the other reports are issued twice a day every 12 hours):
1. MetaReportGenerator "Backup Report"
2. MetaReportGenerator "File Types Report"
3. MetaReportGenerator "Standard Report" (i.e. the InterSync report)

Resources

For more details, including descriptions of each report's contents, see the Using MetaReportGenerator Solution guide.