• Article

How to View Orchestrator Data by Using PowerPivot

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Orchestrator, System Center 2012 - Orchestrator, System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator

You can use Microsoft PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel to create reports for System Center 2012 - Orchestrator. You configure PowerPivot to use the Orchestrator web service as a data feed, filter the Source Tables for the data you want to use, and import the tables into the PowerPivot worksheet. PowerPivot lets you create relationships between tables, and manipulate the data to fit your requirements. By using the PivotTable feature in PowerPivot, you can generate a report that uses any of the data contained within the PowerPivot workbook.

Connect the Orchestrator web service to PowerPivot for Excel

You must install PowerPivot for Excel to enable the product.

PowerPivot for Excel requires Excel 2010 (64-bit or 32-bit).

To install PowerPivot

  1. Follow the instructions found at Install PowerPivot for Excel.

Use PowerPivot to configure a connection to Orchestrator web service. Orchestrator uses the Open Data Protocol (OData), which PowerPivot can consume.

Note

The OData provider in PowerPivot does not support the data contained in the Runbook Diagram box. Attempts to add a Runbook Diagram table will fail.

To create a connection to an Orchestrator feed

  1. Open Excel.

  2. Click the PowerPivot tab above the ribbon.

  3. Click PowerPivot Window on the ribbon. A PowerPivot for Excel book opens.

  4. Click From Data Feeds on the ribbon. A Table Import Wizard opens.

  5. Enter the Orchestrator web service URL in the Data Feed URL box. The web service URL is on port 81 of the Orchestrator SQL Server. For example, http://orchestrator:81/Orchestrator2012/Orchestrator.svc.

  6. Click Test Connection.

  7. If the test connection is successful, click OK and proceed to the next step.

    If the test connection fails, do the following:

    1. Click OK.

    2. Click Advanced. The Advanced dialog box opens.

    3. In the Security section, change Integrated Security to Basic.

    4. Change Persist Security Info to True.

    5. Enter your User ID and Password in the appropriate boxes.

    6. Click Test Connection.

    7. Click OK and click OK.

  8. Click Next.

  9. Select the check boxes of the table or tables that you want to import.

  10. To filter columns, select a table, click Preview & Filter, clear any boxes to exclude, and then click OK.

  11. Click Finish. The data is imported.

  12. Click Close.

Create a Summary of Runbook Results

The following procedure describes the steps to create a pivot table containing a list of all runbooks and the count of results, grouped by the runbook server that ran the runbook instance.

Note

For this example, the orchestration database must contain results from at least one runbook for PowerPivot to import a table.

To create a connection to the data feed

  1. Open Excel.

  2. Click the PowerPivot tab above the ribbon.

  3. Click PowerPivot Window on the ribbon. A PowerPivot for Excel book opens.

  4. Click From Data Feeds on the ribbon. A Table Import wizard opens.

  5. Enter the Orchestrator web service URL in the Data Feed URL box.

  6. Click Next.

  7. Select the check boxes of the Runbooks, RunbookInstances, and RunbookServers tables.

  8. Click Finish. The data is imported.

  9. Click Close.

To create relationships in PowerPivot

  1. In the PowerPivot for Excel window, select the RunbookInstance tab.

  2. Right-click the header of the RunbookId column to select Create Relationship.

  3. In the Related Lookup Table list, select Runbooks, and in the Related Lookup Column list, select Id, and then click Create.

  4. Right-click the header of the RunbookServerId column to select Create Relationship.

  5. In the Related Lookup Table list, select RunbookServers, and in the Related Lookup Column list, select Id, and then click Create.

For additional information about PowerPivot relationships, see Introduction to PowerPivot relationships.

To create a pivot table

  1. In the PowerPivot for Excel window, click PivotTable on the ribbon, and select PivotTable.

  2. In the Create PivotTable dialog box, select New Worksheet, and then click OK.

  3. In the PowerPivot Field List, under RunbookServers, click and drag Name to the Row Labels box.

  4. In the PowerPivot Field List, under Runbooks, click and drag Name to the Row Labels box.

  5. In the PowerPivot Field List, under RunbookInstances, click and drag Status to the Column Labels box.

  6. In the PowerPivot Field List, under RunbookInstances, click and drag RunbookId to the Sum Values box.

  7. Right-click RunbookId to select Summarize by, and then click Count.

You can now modify the default labels and format your table for presentation.

For more information about the workflow of a runbook and an explanation of runbook jobs and runbook instances, see Orchestrator Architecture in the Getting Started with System Center 2012 - Orchestrator.

For more information about PowerPivot for Excel, see Introducing PowerPivot for Excel.

See Also

Administering System Center 2012 - Orchestrator