Understanding data sources

A data source is a probe instance that supports “Network Trending” in Observer to gather statistical information for the reports. It can also be from an Observer Infrastructure installation.

Adding a new data source tells ORS about a new Observer, probe instance, or Observer Infrastructure from which you want to get data. One Observer analyzer is usually an aggregation point that gets data from several probes.

Observer Reporting Server needs only to connect to that Observer to see the data from all of the probes that send network trending data to the Observeranalyzer.

Table 2. Data Sources tab options

Setting	Description
New	Adds a new data source. Provide the host name or IP address of the Observer or Observer Infrastructure you want ORS to connect to gather its network trending, NetLive, and Observer Infrastructure data.
Edit	Allows you to change the user name and password that ORS uses to connect to the data source. You cannot change the IP address. If the IP address of your data source has changed, you must create a new data source.
Delete	Deletes the selected data source.
Refresh	Verifies the connection between ORS and the data source.
Get Data Now	Retrieves the most current trending data available. Oftentimes this might be used just after clicking Reset Last Transferred Time on the Schedules > Data Transfer tab.
Get Data Range	Gets the network trending, NetLive, and Observer Infrastructure data for the time specified.
Open Current Log File	Opens the ORS log file that contains information about when trending data was retrieved. You may be asked by Network InstrumentsSupport for this file.
Business Group Status column	Lists the current status of ORS. Possible values are: Waiting: ORS is waiting to connect to Observer. Connected: ORS is connected to Observer. Observer is transferring data. Disconnected: ORS is no longer connected to ORS. This does not indicate that there is a problem. Success: ORS connected to ORS and successfully received the data sent. Failure: ORS cannot connect to Observer because Observer is not running, the network connection is down, or the wrong user name/password were used.