Comparing data for various parameters across distributed networks is crucial to performance analysis, but creating a separate dashboard for each option can be time-consuming.
The Challenge: Find a simple means to view comparable data for different systems, data centers, or devices at different time intervals.
The Solution: A new tool in the CA Unified Management’s Dashboard Designer gives users the ability to change views quickly within a single dashboard, giving one dashboard the function of many.
This capability is provided by the new dashboard context widget. By changing context parameters, data displayed in dashboard widgets reflect ad hoc choices without generating a new dashboard or updating data sources.
The widget contains three types of selectors: Time, Custom, and Dashboard. Here’s how they work.
- In the Time selector, the user can select a time period from a dropdown menu, ranging from the last hour to the last 12 months. The selector passes start-time and end-time values to the dashboard parameter list; all SQL data sources in the dashboard that use these parameters pick up those values; and the resulting data is displayed at runtime. Selecting a different time interval from the menu passes new values to the parameter list, and the dashboard automatically updates.
- In the Custom selector, the designer can draw from a variety of data sources: a website, SQL query, dynamic database, or static table. The selector can accommodate up to two columns of data, any SQL values are likewise passed to the parameter list, and the dashboard updates output.
- In the Dashboard selector, the current dashboard is linked to other dashboards. Selection allows easy navigation between dashboards. In addition, if both contain similar context selectors, parameter values pass from one dashboard to the next. In this way, dashboards that display similar data choices for different locations can be linked in a coordinated series.
So, for example, selectors could be created to display comparable information for different data centers and time periods. The user would select a time period from the Time selector menu, a data center from a list defined in a Custom selector to display data for that data center and time interval. After viewing the initial results, the user can then change the time period or data center and run the dashboard again to view the new results. If drill-down data is needed, the user can open a linked dashboard created separately, with selected parameters passed to that dashboard. Any parameters changed in that linked dashboard are likewise passed back to the first dashboard.
This one-to-many relationship within and across dashboards provides system administrators with a means to view data dynamically without having to create multiple dashboards, rewrite SQL queries, or change data sources within dashboard widgets. Context selectors extend the usefulness of a single dashboard, supporting the ease and speed of data retrieval: the wider window to system data.
To learn more about CA’s UIM dashboards, visit the wiki documentation here.
And, as always, we’d like to know what you think of this and other Cookbook articles. Let us know by taking the survey on Survey Monkey.
All Frame and No Picture by Kevin Dooley (2009), used with Creative Commons license permissions*, originally published on Flickr.com.