How do I use the Geographical Map? User guide and best practices

If you are using the Map dashlet in Topological Mode, please see this article.

To add a Map dashlet to a custom dashboard

To set map preferences

To assign geographical locations to Views

To view the Geographical Map in the map dashlet

Features of the Geographical Map

To identify specific issues on the map

To change a map's overlay

To specify which links to display on a map

To view details of links on a map

To drill down into a subView

Example workflow for using the Geographical Map

Example custom dashboard workflow with the Geographical Map

To switch between Geographical Map and Topological Map

To add a map dashlet to a custom dashboard:

Please see this article for help and information on the initial process of adding or editing a Map dashlet.

To set map preferences:

You can specify universal map preferences via the Preferences form.

To assign geographical locations to Views:

You can specify the geographical location of a View, so that it can appear in the Geographical Map mode of the Map dashlet. You can specify the geographical location of a View either when creating it or editing it.

1. In the New View (via the Create View button) or Edit View form, scroll down to and click the Location field. This will open the Location form.
2. You can specify whether to manually add a geographical location, or to use Google Maps to find it. Manually adding a geographical location is useful in cases where the location you for which you are searching is not recognized by Google Maps.
   • if you leave the Add Location With Coordinates switch off, you can enter your desired location in the Location Search field. Select from the suggested results (which are generated by Google Maps). When you have selected a result, the Location form will close and you will return to the New View or Edit View form, where you will see the Location field is populated with your choice.
     
     
     
     
   • if you turn the Add Location With Coordinates switch on, you can enter a Location Name as well as a Latitude and Longitude for the location.
     
     
     

To view the Geographical Map in the map dashlet:

1. Navigate to your desired View, and access the Map dashboard (or a custom dashboard containing a Map dashlet).
2. Click the Mode toggle at the top of the Map dashlet (which will be showing Topological Mode), and select Geographical Mode. The dashlet will then change to the Google Maps satellite map display.
3. To switch back to the topological mode, click the Mode toggle (which will be showing Geographical Mode) and click Topological Mode.

Features of the Geographical Map:

What is shown on the map

• The map will be populated by the subViews within the View, according to their specified locations (you will only see Views that have been assigned a geographic location). If a View has been added to multiple servers, or you are viewing the map in consolidation mode, and the View has different locations set on different servers, then only one of the locations will be shown (the location that is specified on the local server). A hover tooltip will explain that there is a conflict between locations of the View on different servers.
• Markers will appear on the geographic map at the specified geographic location of each View. Each marker will be colored and contain a number or tick:
  • the marker is be colored according to the highest-severity incident for that View (e.g., if there are any critical incidents in the View, the marker will be colored red). Note, you can change the color scheme of markers via Marker Color Control. Please see below for further help and information on this.
  • the number in the marker shows the number of the highest-severity incidents in that View (e.g., if the marker is red, and the number is 10, then this means that there are 10 criticial incidents in the View).
  • if the View does not contain any incidents, it will display as a green circle with a tick in it.
• The size of each marker will depend on the count of the highest-severity incidents. The more of these incidents there are in the View, the larger the marker.
• You can specify markers to pulse if the View contains certain severities or incident types, which can help you differentiate certain situations from others. For example, you could set a marker to pulse if a Network Outage incident is seen in the View. Please see below for help on how to enable pulsing.
• As is the case with topological maps, you can specify whether to display the links between the objects on geographic maps. For example, if a switch in View A is linked to routers in View B and View C, then the marker for View A will have a line linking it to both the View B marker and View C marker. This is specified in the same way as with topological maps, i.e. accessible via a toggle on the dashboard level. Please see below for help on displaying links on the map.
• Entuity will automatically update the map to reflect the following:
  • addition of new devices to Views.
  • discovery of new links between devices on the network.
  • removal of links with the removal of unmanaged devices from the map.

Status and utilization

Depending on the Map Overlay that you have chosen (please see below for changing map overlay), you can immediately see status or utilization information about the links between Views on the map. Entuity indicates the status or utilization of a link between Views by color.

• The status colors are as follows:
  
  

  Link Color	Link Status	Description
  	Down	device or port is being polled and is down.
  	Degraded	device or port is being polled and is degraded.
  	Unknown	device or port is being polled, but Entuity could not determine the status, for example because: -device unreachable but not root cause. -port data unavailable because the device is down.
  	OK	device or port is being polled and is OK.
  none	Administrative Down	Entuity identifies an object as administrative down when: -for a device, polling of the device is disabled. -it is a custom device and is therefore not polled. -for a port, it is set to administrative down. -a link does not have an associated port, e.g. when using a physical connection.

• The utilization colors are as follows:
  
  

  Object Color	Link Color	Utilization Status	(Object Status)	Description
  		Critical	(Ok/Degraded)	device or port is responding and has crossed its critical utilization threshold.
  		High	(Ok/Degraded)	device or port is responding and has crossed its high utilization threshold.
  		Low	(Ok/Degraded)	device or port is responding and has crossed its low utilization threshold.
  		Unknown	(Ok/Degraded)	device or port utilization could not be determined.
  		Any	(Unknown)	device or port utilization could not be determined.
  		Any	(Down)	device or port utilization could not be determined.
  		Normal	(OK/Degraded)	device or port is responding and has not any utilization thresholds.
  none		Any	(Administrative Down)	Entuity identifies an object as administrative down when: -for a device, polling of the device is disabled. -it is a custom device and is therefore not polled. -for a port, it is set to administrative down. -a link does not have an associated port, e.g. when using a physical connection rather than to an interface on the device.
  none		Any	(System Uninitialized)	device or port has not yet been fully discovered by the system.
  none		Null (no data returned)	(Ok/Degraded)	device or port is OK, but utilization data cannot be retrieved. Possible causes might include: -the device might be a hypervisor or a managed host. -the map's Links are displaying only routing links, and the routing protocols do not refer to ports.

Automatic zoom

• The map will automatically zoom based on the geographic separation of objects. You can, however, zoom in and out as you desire, either by holding ctrl and scrolling or by using the + and - zoom buttons. You can also scroll around the map as you desire.
• There is also a Fit to View option, which will reset the zoom on your map to include all the contents of the currently selected View. To use this, navigate to the Overflow Menu and click Fit to View.

Clustering of View markers

By default, clustering of markers is set to On. This means that, depending the level of zoom, 2 or more markers that are near each other on the map will cluster into a single marker, to keep the map clear and clean. The markers will remain clustered until you have zoomed in close enough for there to be enough space on the map for markers to be displayed separately. If switched off, markers on the map will not cluster at any zoom level.

• When switched on, the color of and number in the clustered marker will be generated from the highest-severity incident within the cluster of Views.
• The number of Views that are contained within the clustered marker, i.e. the number of Views that the cluster represents, will be displayed below the marker.
• To automatically zoom in on a cluster and separate it into its constituent markers, single click on the clustered marker.

You can enable clustering of markers when creating or editing a map dashlet, via the New / Edit Dashlet form for the map, by switching on the Cluster markers on the map switch. Whichever clustering setting you specify here will be persistent through the dashboard. 

You can also change the clustering setting via the Clustering: Enabled / Disabled option in the Map dashlet's Overflow Menu. Note that changing the setting via the Overflow Menu will not be persistent, however - if you navigate away from and then back to this Map dashlet, then the setting will revert to the setting made in the New / Edit Dashlet form, as described above.

To see further information about a View

• To see further information about a View on the map, hover over the marker and a tooltip will appear. This contains the following information about the View:
  • View name.
  • Devices under management - number of managed devices in the View.
  • Location - geographical location given to the View, e.g. 1 The Street, London, UK.
  • Network Paths - number of network paths in the View.
  • Services - number of services in the View.
  • Incidents - breakdown of incidents in the View, by severity and number of each severity.
  • Pulsing incidents - the type of incident that match the pulsing criteria set.
• To navigate to a View from the map, double click on its marker and you will access the Map dashlet for that View. If the selected View contains subViews within it, then the Map dashlet will automatically display the geographical map (if the View that you are accessing does not contain any further subViews, then the Map dashlet will display the topological mode).

To identify specific issues on the map

To edit marker color settings

Markers on a Geographical Map are colored according to the highest-severity incident for that View (e.g., if there are any critical incidents in the View, the marker will be colored red). However, you prefer, you can enable Marker Color Control to specify markers to automatically display as green, rather than the color of their highest-severity incident. You can also specify incidents and/or severity states to exclude from the color scheme. By default, Green mode/Marker color control is not enabled. To enable this, you will need to either duplicate the Map dashboard and edit the Map dashlet within it, or enable it in a custom Map dashlet:

1. When editing a duplicate or custom dashboard, find and click Settings on the Map dashlet. This will open the dashlet's Edit Dashlet form.
2. Scroll down to and click the Marker Color Settings field. This will open the Marker Color Settings form.
3. To enable Green mode/Marker color control, turn the switch in the Green mode enabled/Marker color control enabled field to on. When enabled, further fields will appear below which will allow you to exclude specific incidents and/or severities from the general green color scheme. Any exclusions will behave in the same manner as if green mode was not enabled:
   1. Click the Exclude Type field to open the list of incidents. Select as many incidents as you want to exclude from Green mode/Marker color control, and click Done to save your choice, otherwise click Cancel.
   2. Click the Exclude Severity field to open the list of severities. Select as many severities as you want to exclude from Green mode/Marker color control, and click Done to save your choice and return to the Marker Color Settings form, otherwise click Cancel.
4. Click Done to save your settings, otherwise click Cancel. 

To set marker pulsing settings

You can specify markers to pulse if the View contains certain severities or incident types, which can help you differentiate certain situations from others. For example, you could set a marker to pulse if a Network Outage incident is seen in the View. To enable pulsing markers, you will need to either duplicate the Map dashboard and edit the Map dashlet within it, or enable it in a custom Map dashlet:

1. When editing a duplicate or custom dashboard, find and click Settings on the Map dashlet. This will open the dashlet's Edit Dashlet form.
2. Scroll down to and click the Marker Pulsing Settings field. This will open the Marker Pulsing Settings form.
   1. Click the Map Marker Pulsing on Incident Type field to open a list of incidents. From this list, specify the incidents for which you want to set the marker to pulse. You can select all, none, or as many incidents as you like. Click Done to save your choices and return to the Marker Pulsing Settings form, otherwise click Cancel.
   2. Click the Map Marker Pulsing on Incident Severity field to open a list of incident severities. From this list, specify the incident severities for which you want to set the marker to pulse. You can select as many severities as you like. Click Done to save your choices and return to the Marker Pulsing Settings form, otherwise click Cancel.
3. Click Done to save your settings, otherwise click Cancel. 

To change a map's overlay:

In topological mode, a map can display the subViews within the View as well as any devices in the View that do not belong to a subView.

In geographical mode, however, only subViews will appear on a map but not devices. Therefore, in geographic mode, the Overlay will only apply to links between the subViews. By default, the map overlay is set to 'Status'.

1. Click Overlay: Status. The Map Overlay form will slide in on the right.
   
   
   
   
2. Click the field and select Status or Utilization.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Done in the top right of the form to save and exit, or Cancel to cancel.

To specify custom utilization bands:

You can specify your own custom utilization bands. The existing Utilization map overlay displays utilization relative to thresholds that you set, but with custom utilization bands you can specify link color based on overall utilization.

To specify custom utilization bands:

1. In the Map Overlay form, select Utilization.
2. The Use Custom Util Bands field will appear below. Switch it on.
3. By default, a single custom util band appears for 0-100% utilization, colored red. Either click + Add Util Band or click on an existing band to edit its value parameters and change its color.
   
   
   
   
4. Edit or curate new bands as you wish by entering the lowest value % of the band and its color, and then click Done to save the band.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. The bands will appear on the Map Overlay form. Click Done to save your changes, otherwise click Cancel. Note, if you switch off Use Custom Util Bands or change Map Overlay to Status, your saved custom utilization bands will still be available when you turn custom utilization bands back on.
   
   
   

To specify which links to display on a map:

You can specify whether to display the links between the objects on geographic maps. For example, if a switch in View A is linked to routers in View B and View C, then the marker for View A will have a line linking it to both the View B marker and View C marker. By default, the map link type is set to 'All'.

1. Click Links: All. The Map Link Types form will slide in on the right.
2. Select or deselect the types of links you want or do not want to be highlighted on the map.
3. Click Done in the top right of the form to save and exit, or Cancel to cancel.

Please see below for a list of the link types that you can select:

• Layer 2: CDP - Cisco Discovery Protocol.
• Layer 2: LLDP - Link Layer Discovery Protocol.
• Layer 2: Physical Address Matching - physical address matching.
• Layer 2: SONMP - SynOptics Network Management Protocol.
• Layer 2: Spanning Tree.
• Layer 3: IP Peers - IP peering.
• Layer 3: Trace Route - Trace Route ping state.
• Other: Custom Connection - displays any user defined physical connections in the map. You can create a custom connection from the map via the right-click context menu.
• Other: Host Detection - host detection.
• Other: IPv6 ND - IPv6 ND is available in Entuity through the IPv6 module. When it is activated through configure, Entuity discovers port IPv6 addresses on IPv6 managed devices. You can then use the IPv6 ND to show links between IPv6 devices using neighbor discovery.
• Other: VM Detection - VM detection.
• Routing: BGP - Border Gateway Protocol.
• Routing: EIGRP - Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol.
• Routing: IS-IS - Intermediate System to Intermediate System.
• Routing: OSPF - Open Shortest Path First.

To view details of links on a map:

1. Navigate to the Map for your chosen View/subView.
2. Double click on the connection you want to look at.
   
   
   
   
3. The Link Details window will open. The Link Details window lists all connections between the two connected managed objects.
   
   
   
   The status and direction of each connection is displayed, along with the SubViews/components (and their parent devices) that are connected. You can click on each subView, component or device to open the Summary dashboard for the selected managed object.
4. You can filter the list with free text via the Filter Table field in the top right:
   
   
   
   Or by clicking the Overflow Menu and clicking Edit Filter, which opens the Filter Columns form:
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. You can also remove all filters by clicking Reset Filter via the Overflow Menu, or by clicking the small x on the filter itself.
   
   
   
   

To drill down into a subView:

1. Navigate to the Map dashboard for your selected View/subView.
2. Double click on a subView. This will take you to the selected subView's level in the hierarchy, and will open its own Map dashboard.
3. You can also right click on a subView to access more options from a drop down menu. These are:
   • Add to View - opens the Target View form. Select the View to which you want to add the selected subView and click Done in the top right.
   • Create Service - opens the Create Service form.
   • Create View - opens the New View form.
   • Delete View - deletes the View. A deletion confirmation window will open.
   • Edit View - opens the Edit View form.
   • Put Into Maintenance - opens the New Maintenance form.
   • Show Open Incidents - opens the Incidents page for selected subView.
   • Threshold Settings - opens the Thresholds dashboard for the selected subView.

Example workflow for using the Geographical Map:

1. Set up and enable the Geographical Map.
2. Set up your Views to reflect your organizational structure, and assign locations to Views to set up an appropriate geographical hierarchy. This will allow you to drill down into each View and see a gradual increase in geographical granularity.
3. Duplicate the system Map dashboard, so that you can configure the duplicated version how you want. If you name the duplicated version 'Map', then it will replace the system dashboard in the UI.
4. Edit the Map dashlet in your duplicated Map dashboard and turn on the Show Geographical Map as default switch. The Geographical Map mode will now display as default, instead of the Topological Map mode.
5. An example of this workflow might be as follows:
   
   1. A user could start at the My Network level and see markers for subViews that have each have a specified geographical location. One subView could be set to the UK. We can see that there are a number of subViews within the UK View, and of these, we can see that the London subView has 6 critical (red) incidents. Double click on London to drill down into the London subView. 
      
      
      
      
   2. In this case, we can see that there are four subViews within the London View - Customer A, Customer B, Customer C, and Customer D. Double click on Customer A to drill down into that subView.
      
      
      
      
   3. We can see that there are no further subViews within the Customer A View, and so the map will automatically switch to Topological Mode and display a device topology. On the Customer A View, we have set the background of the map to a floorplan of the office, and positioned the objects on the map to simulate the real-world positions of the devices in that office. In the below example, we are hovering the mouse over perf02.entuity.local and this brings up a popup providing at-a-glance metrics for that device:
      
      

Example custom dashboard workflow with the Geographical Map:

Using the above example, you might also want to create your own custom dashboard that displays the Geographical Map, as well as topological map and incident information based on the selection you make in the Geographical Map. You can do this by using the Geographical Map as the Dashlet Source for the other two dashlets.

Below, you can see that we have a custom dashboard called 'Map with Dashlet Source'. It consists of the Geographical Map dashlet on the left, and on the right there is an Incidents List dashlet and a topological map dashlet ('Customer Topology').

The Incidents List dashlet and 'Customer Topology' dashlet both have their Dashlet Source set to the Geographical Map dashlet on the left. This is specified via the New / Edit Dashlet form when creating or editing a dashlet (as can be seen below). Please see this article for further help and information on creating dashlets that draw data from other dashlets in the same dashboard.

On the custom dashboard itself, when you click on one of the subView markers in the Geographical Map dashlet (Customer A, Customer B, Customer C, or Customer D) then the two dashlets on the right will be populated with data from the selected subView.  In the below example, Customer A is selected, which therefore populates the Incidents List dashlet with information about the incidents in that subView, and populates the 'Customer Topology' dashlet with the topological map of that subView. Because we have added a floorplan for the background image of Customer A's topological map, this will appear in the topological dashlet.

This custom dashboard therefore allows you to see both the overall geographical map for the London View and a drilldown into selected subView, all on the same dashboard.

To switch between Geographical Map and Topological Map:

Topographical Map is the other type of map available in Entuity. Please see this section for further help and information on Topological Map.

1. Navigate to your desired View, and access the Map dashboard (or a custom dashboard containing a Map dashlet).
2. Click the Mode toggle at the top of the Map dashlet (which will be showing Geographical Mode, depending on your preferences), and select Topological Mode. The dashlet will then change to the topological map display.
3. To switch back to the Geographical mode, click the Mode toggle (which will be showing Topological Mode) and click Geographical Mode.