Working with Pivot Tables and Charts in IT Analytics Symantec Endpoint Protection Pack

This article provides a hands-on overview of browsing cubes in IT Analytics Solution 7.1 and the Symantec Endpoint Protection Content Pack.  You will learn how to browse cubes and configure Pivot Tables using common usage scenarios.  Leveraging the ad-hoc data mining capabilities of IT Analytics we will perform some forensic analysis of client’s last check in date, online status and virus definition version from Symantec Endpoint Protection.

To complete this exercise, you should have IT Analytics with the Symantec Endpoint Protection Content Pack already installed. For more information, please refer to the Connect article for installing IT Analytics.

1. Launch the Symantec Management Console 7.1.
2. Click the Reports menu item and select All Reports.
3. Expand the Reports folder.
4. Expand the IT Analytics folder.
5. Expand the Cubes folder.
6. Select the Symantec Endpoint Protection Clients Cube.
7. Click anywhere in the Pivot Table window to display the Field List. Clicking on this icon  in the toolbar will also cause the field list to be displayed.
8. Drag and drop the Client Count measure into the Totals pane:

9. Drag and drop the Group System attribute into the Rows pane:

10. Drag and drop the Client – Online Status attribute into the Columns pane:

Now that we have very quickly and easily built our initial clients view which showcases the client’s online status by group, we will expand upon this view by bringing in more information and adding filtering capabilities.

11. Click on the dropdown arrow for the Client – Online Status attribute, uncheck All and check Offline, then click OK.

12. Drag the Last Checkin Date – Date attribute into the Rows pane between the Group attribute and the Client Count.

13. Right click on the Last Client Checkin Date – Date field and select Sort Ascending to ensure chronological order:

14. Right click again on the Last Client Checkin Date – Date field and select Subtotals to remove them from the chart:

15. Click the Chart icon  in the toolbar to switch the view to chart format.

16. Click on the Group column header in the lower left of the chart and then click the Collapse button  in the toolbar.
17. Select the Commands and Options button  on the toolbar, then click on the Type tab.
18. Select Bar chart and the orientation depicted in the screenshot below:

19. Click the 3D View tab and select the Orthographic projection mode:

20. Select the Show/Hide Legend button  from the toolbar.
21. You should see the new pivot chart depicted as follows:

22. Add an additional field by clicking on the Field Lists button in the toolbar  then select the Virus Definition - Version attribute and drag it just above Group on the left of the chart:

23. Finally you can save this report by clicking the Save icon  in the toolbar.
24. Select the “Save as new view” radio button and name it appropriately.
25. You may also check the “Available to all users” checkbox in the event that you would like this report to be available to all users.  Leaving this unchecked will make this a private view only available to you.

26. Refresh the Symantec Management Console and navigate back to the SEP Clients Cube (Reports > IT Analytics > Cubes). 
27. To open the view you just saved click the Open icon  in the toolbar and select the report you just created in the dropdown list.  Note that the report is loaded exactly as you left it, for quick and easy access.

The ad-hoc nature of browsing the pivot tables and charts provides a simple and efficient way of creating custom reports on the fly, without previous knowledge of the SEP database schema or any query languages. Depening on your reporting requirements, you will want to experiment with the different cubes and fields to discover how IT Analytics can best meet your needs.