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OpenSearch Reporting: Automating Insights & Visualizations for Data-Driven Teams

vijay k

Introduction

In the era of real-time analytics and observability, teams rely on clear, shareable insights derived from large-scale log, metric, and trace data. OpenSearch Reporting—a powerful plugin for the OpenSearch Dashboard (formerly Kibana for OpenSearch)—enables users to generate, automate, and distribute reports from visualizations, dashboards, and saved searches.

Ideal for monitoring systems, compliance reporting, security analytics, and business metrics, OpenSearch Reporting helps ensure that data-driven decisions can be shared with non-technical stakeholders, executives, and external auditors in a secure, automated, and consistent manner.

📊 What is OpenSearch Reporting?

OpenSearch Reporting is a plugin for OpenSearch Dashboards that allows users to generate and download reports from dashboards, visualizations, and saved searches in PDF, PNG, or CSV formats.

Developed by the OpenSearch Project (an open-source Elasticsearch fork by Amazon), the reporting plugin is ideal for:

  • On-demand report generation
  • Scheduled and automated reports
  • Sharing insights without exposing the full dashboard

It works seamlessly with OpenSearch’s observability, security, and dashboarding capabilities.

🎯 Major Use Cases of OpenSearch Reporting

  1. System Monitoring Reports
    • Generate scheduled reports from dashboards monitoring logs, metrics, and uptime.
  2. Security & Audit Reporting
    • Create traceable PDF/CSV reports on security events for compliance and investigation.
  3. Business Intelligence
    • Export charts and visualizations for revenue, sales, or operational performance.
  4. Service Level Agreement (SLA) Tracking
    • Provide evidence of uptime or issue resolution in scheduled reports to clients.
  5. Executive Summaries
    • Share static, clean versions of complex dashboards with leadership teams.
  6. Regulatory Compliance
    • Automatically generate timestamped reports for data retention and audit requirements.

⚙️ How OpenSearch Reporting Works: Architecture Overview

OpenSearch Reporting is built as a plugin on top of OpenSearch Dashboards and integrates with the existing visualization, security, and scheduling infrastructure.

🔧 Core Architecture Components:

  1. OpenSearch Dashboards (Frontend)
    • Users create dashboards, visualizations, and saved searches.
  2. Reporting Plugin UI
    • Adds buttons to export reports from supported panels and dashboards.
  3. Reporting Backend Service
    • Processes report generation requests by rendering the UI, capturing visuals, and converting to formats (PDF, PNG, CSV).
  4. Scheduling Engine (via Alerting Plugin or Job Scheduler)
    • Automates generation based on cron schedules or trigger events.
  5. Storage and Delivery
    • Reports can be downloaded immediately or sent via email, webhooks, or S3 (if integrated).

📐 Architecture Flow (Simplified)

[User Dashboard Action / Trigger]
          ↓
[Reporting Plugin UI Button Click]
          ↓
[Render & Capture via Headless Browser]
          ↓
[Convert to Format (PDF, PNG, CSV)]
          ↓
[Deliver Report: Download / Email / S3]

🔄 Basic Workflow of OpenSearch Reporting

  1. Install OpenSearch and OpenSearch Dashboards
  2. Enable the Reporting Plugin
  3. Create Visualizations and Dashboards
  4. Generate or Schedule Reports
  5. Distribute via download, email, or storage integration

🚀 Step-by-Step Getting Started Guide for OpenSearch Reporting

🧰 Prerequisites

  • OpenSearch and OpenSearch Dashboards installed (v2.6+ recommended)
  • Access to Linux or containerized environment
  • Node.js and headless browser dependencies (if self-building)
  • Email server credentials (optional for email delivery)

✅ Step 1: Install the Reporting Plugin

You can download a compatible version from OpenSearch GitHub releases:

cd /usr/share/opensearch-dashboards/plugins
wget https://github.com/opensearch-project/dashboards-reporting/releases/download/v2.6.0/dashboards-reports.zip
unzip dashboards-reports.zip

Install into Dashboards:

./bin/opensearch-dashboards-plugin install file://dashboards-reports

Restart Dashboards:

systemctl restart opensearch-dashboards

📁 Step 2: Access the Reporting UI

  • Navigate to http://localhost:5601 or your Dashboards URL
  • Go to any saved dashboard or visualization
  • You’ll see a “Reporting” icon or “Generate report” button at the top-right

🧾 Step 3: Generate an On-Demand Report

  • Click “Generate report”
  • Choose format: PDF, PNG, or CSV
  • Click Generate → Download or preview the result

📅 Step 4: Schedule Reports (Optional)

To automate reporting:

  • Go to Reporting → Create report definition
  • Choose:
    • Dashboard/visualization to include
    • Format and frequency (e.g., daily, weekly)
    • Email recipients or delivery method

Ensure SMTP or S3 configuration is set in opensearch_dashboards.yml for delivery.

🔐 Step 5: Configure Permissions (Optional)

Use OpenSearch Security Plugin to:

  • Restrict who can generate or schedule reports
  • Define roles for view-only users vs. report creators

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