Configure reports to receive regular updates from VMware Aria Automation for Secure Clouds on critical violations across your organization

The reports feature enables you to extract data from VMware Aria Automation for Secure Clouds and consume it outside the service. The reporting engine is designed to support multiple report types and formats and to distribute these reports periodically over different channels.

You can create a report from the Reports tab in the VMware Aria Automation for Secure Clouds browser client.

Available report types

The following table lists the currently supported reports and their respective distribution channels.

Report Type	Description	Format	Channel
Findings	Lists each individual finding according to your filter criteria.	CSV	Email
Findings Overview	High-level summary of top findings and other associated metrics for selected cloud accounts.	PDF	Email

Create a report

1. Select Reports.

2. Select Add Report.

3. On the General page, enter information for the following options, then click Next.

   • Report Name - Choose a name for your report.
   • Type of report - Choose the report type you want to receive.
   • Context - Choose whether the report captures findings for a specific project or the entire organization.

4. On the Criteria page, choose the cloud accounts you want to include in the report. You can also select Add Another to add more filters for provider, region, severity, and so on. Click Next when your selections are complete.

   Note

   If you want to add a rule filter to capture third-party findings for an alert, ensure the rule is entered correctly as there is no validation or auto-complete service available for third-party. Review the third-party findings section of the Findings guide for more information.

5. On the Schedule page, choose whether you want to generate the report manually or on a set schedule. If you choose to set a schedule, you can further define the time, date, and cadence (daily, weekly, or monthly) for the report to run. Click Next when your selections are complete.

   Note

   Regardless of how the report schedule is configured, you can manually run the report at any time from the Archive tab.

6. On the Delivery page, enter the email addresses for the individuals or groups who should receive the reports.

7. Select Create.

Note

You may include email addresses outside of your VMware Aria Automation for Secure Clouds organization. Such emails are identified and labeled as external users in the text bar.

VMware Aria Automation for Secure Clouds delivers reports by sending a download URL to the designated email recipients at the cadence you defined. The URL expires 72 hours after sending as a security measure, after which you can download the report from the Archive tab.

Manage reports

The Reports tab also provides a list of all the current reports for your organization. You can select the checkbox next to any report to edit the properties you selected during creation, or permanently delete it from VMware Aria Automation for Secure Clouds. The following are several other useful actions you can take to manage reports:

Check report status

The Status field provides information about the health of your report at glance. There are three possible states a report can be in:

• Healthy - The report is functioning normally. Indicated by a green checkmark.
• User Disabled - The report has been turned off by the user. Indicated by a gray minus symbol.
• System Disabled - The report has been turned off by VMware Aria Automation for Secure Clouds. Indicated by a red exclamation point.

Of these three, the system disabled status requires investigation from the user. One possible scenario where a report can get disabled by the system is if you set a criteria filter for a specific project or cloud account that is later deleted from VMware Aria Automation for Secure Clouds. When this happens, the report stops running and displays the system disabled status. You can correct this by editing the report and updating it to remove or replace the filter for an object that no longer exists.

View report properties

To view the properties of a given report, click on its name from the list under the Reports tab to go into report details. You can review the report's schedule, email recipients, criteria, and an archive of previously issued reports.

Run a manual report

If you created a manual report, you can run it by going selecting it from the reports table and clicking Run Now on the properties tab. You can also do this for any scheduled report you have if you need to run it outside of the normal reporting cadence.

Download a report

To download a copy of a previous report, locate it in the archive of section of the properties tab and select Download. You can change the dates listed in the archive to narrow or broaden the reporting window.

De-activate a report

You can de-activate a report when you want it stop running without deleting it. To de-activate, click the report then click the Enable button on the report details page. This ends any scheduled activity for the report until it is activated again. You can't select the Run Now button while a report is deactivated.

Delete a report

To delete the report for a specific date, move your cursor over the report in the archive section. Click the three-dot menu icon that appears, then select Remove.

Add a comment to a report

To add a comment to a report for specific date, move your cursor over the report in the archive section. Click the three-dot menu icon that appears, then select Edit Details. Enter your comment and select OK. The comment text now appears beneath the reporting date.

Customize a report layout

To customize the data included on a report's output file, follow these steps:

1. Select Reports.

2. Locate your report in the list and click on the name.

3. Select the Layout tab.

4. Select the Customize button.

This puts you in the customization wizard, where you can change what data is included in the report and the order in which it is displayed. After you've made the changes you want, click Update to save them to the report. Updates are reflected on the next CSV or PDF output file you receive when the report runs.