Reports Overview

Administrators can use the statistics and reporting feature to generate detailed reports of client activity based on user names, date ranges, and file access.

Cerberus FTP Server Report Manager

Generating a Report

Administrators can use the statistics and reporting features in Cerberus FTP Server Enterprise edition to generate detailed reports of client activity based on usernames, date ranges, and file access. In addition to client activity, the administrator can also generate native account reports indicating account creation and last login dates.

Reports are displayed in tables in the Report Manager, but each report also has a button to export the report data as a CSV file.

NOTE: Using Report Manager requires that a reporting database has been configured.

User and File Report Settings

An administrator can generate five types of reports:

• File Report
• Login Report
• Audit Report
• Account Report
• Folder Report

File Report (File Statistics Report)

The File Report displays a list of files uploaded or downloaded for the time period specified. File access reporting can be filtered by file name, date and time, and username. The file reports contain important information about file transfers, including:

• The full local path of the file
• The type of file operation performed on the file (upload, download, rename, delete, copy)
• The user that accessed the file
• The IP address the user accessed the file from
• The date and time the access occurred
• The protocol used to access the file (FTP, FTPS, SSH SFTP, HTTP, or HTTPS)
• The type of encryption used, if any, to perform the file operation

Cerberus FTP Server File Access Report, viewed via the Web Admin Portal, Filtered by Date

The administrator can also use the Include feature to decide what type of file activity to include in the report (downloads, uploads, file renames/moves, public file shares, etc.).

Login Report (Session Statistics Report)

The Login Report displays a list of user log-ins for the time period specified. File access reporting can be filtered by host, username, and date and time. The login reports contain important information about user sessions, including:

• The username
• The IP address the user logged in from
• The protocol used (FTP, FTPS, SSH SFTP, HTTP, or HTTPS)
• The type of encryption used for the session
• The Login date and time
• The Logout date and time

Cerberus FTP Server Session Statistics Report, viewed via the Web Admin Portal, Filtered by User

The administrator can also use the Include feature to decide what type of file activity to include in the report (downloads, uploads, file renames/moves, public file shares, etc.).

Audit Report

The admin audit report provides a list of server activities undertaken by Cerberus administration users.

Admin Access Report

Account Report

The account status report provides a report on all native Cerberus user accounts as well as Active Directory or LDAP users if you have integrated Cerberus with AD/LDAP.

The report lists

• User
• Any Primary Groups the user is a member of (As a member of a Primary Group, the user's settings are overridden with the settings and virtual directory access set in the group)
• Any Secondary Groups the user is a member of (As a member of Secondary Group, the user is granted access to the virtual directories assigned to the group in addition to their own, but the user retains their own settings and virtual directory access)
• Virtual directories assigned to the user and their permissions
• Disabled status (An 'x' will appear in this column for disabled users)
• Date when password last changed ('Anonymous' will appear in this column if the user has been set to not require a password)
• Date when the password expires if applicable (or 'Never')
• Date when the user was created
• Date of last login ('Unknown' means the user has never logged in)

Folder Report

The Folder report provides a report on folders that have been assigned to Cerberus and AD/LDAP users.

The report lists

• Folder path
• Folder Access (Lists the user accounts that have access to the folder. The users are clickable. If you click on a user, you are taken to their user account

Storage Encryption Report

The Storage Report displays the encryption status of volumes and virtual directories (folders) assigned to AD/LDAP, SSO and native Cerberus users.This feature is particularly useful for administrators who need to ensure data security and compliance by monitoring encryption settings on the virtual directories. The report identifies whether the folders are encrypted using technologies like BitLocker or Encrypting File System (EFS).

A sample Storage Encryption Report 

How It Works

1. Enable Encryption: Administrators can enable encryption on a user’s virtual directory through Windows settings. This can be done at the volume level (e.g., C:) or folder level (e.g., C:\test) using BitLocker or EFS.

2. Generate Report: In the Cerberus Admin console, navigate to the Report Manager and select “Storage Report”. Before generating the above sample report, both “volume” and “folder” options were selected. 

Tip: We recommend unchecking the “Ignore BitLocker Volumes in EFS Folder checks” checkbox because BitLocker is commonly enabled at the volume level in Windows-based systems and reports might miss to capture data appropriately due to ignoring a volume entirely. 

3. Review Results: Click “Generate Report” to produce a detailed report listing the directories and their corresponding encryption statuses. The report will indicate whether a directory is encrypted with EFS or an equivalent method. Generated Report will be also seen in the "Report" tab.

Storage Override

As part of the Encryption Report, we also provide “Storage Override” functionality. This functionality allows administrators to override the default Windows-based encryption status values with custom statuses for specific folders, providing greater flexibility in managing and reporting on the encryption status of virtual directories.

Adding of  Storage Override Option

How Storage Override Works

Add Override: Navigate to the Reporting section and select “Storage Overrides”. Click the “Add Override” (plus + sign) button.

Select Override Type: Choose any override type. Say,  the “Override type” as “ignored folder” and select a virtual directory that was originally encrypted (EFS).

Update Overrides: Click “Update Storage Overrides” to apply the changes.

Generate Report: Generate the report as usual. The folder with the override will now show its status as “Admin ignored” in the “Folder Encryption Status”.

This functionality allows administrators to have more control over the encryption reporting process, ensuring that the reports accurately reflect the desired encryption status of virtual directories by overriding the default Windows-based encryption values with the specified override values.

Following is a snapshot of a report with Overriding Status where the overriding option “Admin ignored” was added for the virtual directory “C:\test”. 

Server Statistics Report

This report displays simple server statistics from installation until now. This report does not use or require the statistics database. You can view the following

• Connections by Day
• Connections by Month
• Transfers by Day
• Transfers by Month
• Summary (Failed Transfers, Total Transfers, Bandwidth Used)