Queries, Summaries, and Reports
Understand the three types of reporting in Open-AudIT — Queries, Summaries, and Reports — how they differ, and how to use filters and permissions.
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Queries, Summaries, and Reports
These three types of reporting all live under the Report menu in Open-AudIT. They look similar in use, but each one serves a slightly different purpose.
Queries
A query is a SQL statement run against the device database. It returns a flat table of results — each row is a device (or device component), each column is an attribute you asked for.
Example use case: "Give me the hostname, IP address, operating system, and last-seen date for every device."
Queries support:
- Filtering by any column (e.g., only show devices from manufacturer VMware)
- Row limits
- JSON output via the API
All users can execute a query. Only users with the org_admin or reporter role can create, edit, or delete queries.
Summaries
Summaries take the query concept a step further by grouping (rolling up) results. The summary output shows each unique value with a count. Click a row to drill down and see the individual devices behind that group.
Example use case: "Show me all installed software grouped by name and version, with the number of devices each version is installed on." Click a row to see which devices have that specific version.
Reports
Reports are available in Professional and Enterprise editions. They extend queries with more advanced capabilities — typically date-range filtering and more complex joins.
Example use case: "Show me all devices added to the network in the last 30 days."
Filters and Limits
All three types support:
- Column filters — add
&system.manufacturer=Dellto the URL (or use the GUI filter controls) to narrow results - Row limits — add
&limit=50to cap the result set - Format — add
&format=jsonto get JSON output instead of the HTML table
Menu Categories
Each query, summary, and report is assigned a menu category, which determines which submenu it appears in under the Report menu. This lets you organise your reporting by device type, function, or team.
Permissions
Queries, summaries, and reports all belong to an Organisation. Users can only see results for devices within their own organisation(s). The actual data returned is always filtered by user permissions — even if a user has access to a query itself, they'll only see devices they have permission to view.