What are Entuity dashboards and dashlets?

Introduction

Static dashboards vs Dynamic dashboards

System dashboards vs Custom dashboards

How does Entuity determine which dashboard to display?

Using and accessing Dashboard Configuration

To change dashboard order and set favourite dashboards

Understanding dashlets

Introduction:

Entuity uses dashboards to display information about each part of your network. Every managed object in your network - Views, Subviews, devices, services, VM platforms, components etc - has its data displayed in dashboards.

The information in every dashboard is displayed in dashlets. Please see the below section for further information.

Static dashboards vs Dynamic dashboards:

Static dashboards and Dynamic dashboards refer to the way in which information is displayed.

Static dashboards - These dashboards do not have a specific context. The types of information that they display will always stay the same. This means that the content will always stay the same, regardless of the context. Static dashboards are only displayed in the My Network view.

Dynamic dashboards - these dashboards are context-specific, meaning that they have a context in which they are accessed. For example, when you create a dynamic dashboard with a router context, then this dashboard will only be displayed when navigating to a router on your network. This means that you can create a single dynamic dashboard that will be displayed whenever you navigate to a particular context.

Multiple dashboards can share the same name. Entuity chooses which dashboard to display depending on the context. For example, there is a different Summary dashboard for a View, for a device and for a service (and other objects), each containing different dashlets. In this case, when you click on the Summary dashboard for a View, Entuity will display the Summary dashboard specific to the View context. The data in the dashlets in the Summary dashboard will change dynamically, depending on which context they are displayed.

System dashboards vs Custom dashboards:

System dashboards and Custom dashboards refer to the editing that you can make to the dashboards.

System dashboards - these are out-of-the-box dashboards. These dashboards are usually dynamic. These cannot be edited, but can be duplicated and that duplicate can then be edited.

Custom dashboards - these are dashboards created by users, and can be edited at any time by users with the appropriate permissions.

How does Entuity determine which dashboard to display?

There can be many dashboards that have the same name, so which one is chosen to display in which context?

Entuity determines which dashboard to display based on the:

• current context (the currently selected type of object).
• order in which dashboards are arranged in Dashboard Configuration.
• user access.
• enabled status.

Current context:

Entuity will choose which dashboard to display depending on the context. For example, there is a different Summary dashboard for a View, for a device and for a service (and other objects), each containing different dashlets. In this case, when you click on the Summary dashboard for a View, Entuity will display the Summary dashboard specific to the View context. The data in the dashlets in the Summary dashboard will change dynamically, depending on which context they are displayed.

Dashboard order:

You can specify dashboards to be your 'favorites', which means that they will always be accessible from the breadcrumbs in the top right of the browser. All other dashboards will be accessible from the All Dashboards dropdown menu in the top right of the window.

The default dashboard that is displayed when you navigate to an object is the dashboard on the furthest left of the favourites breadcrumbs. By default, out of the box, this is the Summary dashboard. Please see the below section for help and further information on how to set favourite dashboards.

User access:

You can specify user access to custom dashboards. If a user is a member of a user group that does not have access to a dashboard, then that dashboard will not display for that user. Please see this article for help and further information on how to set user access for dashboards.

Enabled status:

If a dashboard is disabled, then it will not be displayed. The only place to access a disabled dashboard is on the Dashboard Configuration page. Please see this article for help and further information on how to enable or disable a dashboard.

Using and accessing Dashboard Configuration:

Dashboard Configuration is where you can manage your dashboards. There are two ways to access Dashboard Configuration:

• via Main Menu > Administration > Dashboard Configuration.
• via All Dashboards > Dashboard Configuration.

The Dashboard Configuration page displays a table of all system and custom dashboards. In the Showing Dashboards Applicable To dropdown field at the top of the browser, you can filter the system and custom dashboards that are displayed in the table according to the dashboards' context. These contexts are as follows:

• Views.
• devices.
• ports.
• other.

You can configure the columns in the table by clicking Configure Columns via the Overflow Menu. This will open the Configure Columns form. Select which columns you want to display, and drag them into the order you want. Click Save in the top right of the form, otherwise click Cancel.

You can order the columns into ascending or descending order by clicking on the column headings.