About
This blog aims at introducing the all new HTML5 based dashboard functionality added to SCOM 1801 release. For details on implementation and other parameters please refer to the detailed documentation.
After going through this blog, a user would:
- Understand the new dashboard capability
- Learn about the different dashboard actions
The all new Dashboards
The SCOM 1801 Web Console introduces the all new, fully customizable, dashboards. These dashboards are built and fine-tuned keeping in mind the huge volume of IT monitoring data. This ensures that you get next to real-time monitoring information without compromising on performance.
The dashboards, being built in HTML5, support a wide range of modern browsers including Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
Below is a screenshot of a sample dashboard:
As portrayed in the above screenshot, a dashboard is comprised of multiple widgets. These widgets can be completely configured for data, display and positioning within the dashboard in a manner that best suits your needs.
Currently the dashboard supports the following widgets:
- Alert Widget
- State Widget
- Performance Widget
- Topology Widget
- Tile Widget
- Custom Widget
Dashboard Actions
The dashboard supports the following actions:
Creating a dashboard
You can create a new dashboard by selecting the “+ New Dashboard” option in the navigation tree as shown below:
This would popup a right pane as follows:
Wish to add this dashboard in a new MP? Don’t worry, you needn’t go back to the SCOM console. Just hit the “+” next to the MP list and you’d get a section allowing you to create a new MP and add this dashboard to it.
It really is that simple!
Deleting a dashboard
To delete a dashboard simply hit the “Delete Dashboard” button on top and when prompted hit “Yes”
Editing a dashboard
The edit operation allows the user to edit the name of the dashboard as well as the layout of the widgets added to it.
Once you hit the edit action, the dashboard name becomes an editable field.
Also, all the widgets can now be dragged and resized. This is really useful when you want to club together the widgets targeted to similar objects/groups.
Once you are done, hit “Save Changes” and your layout is saved!
Adding a Widget
When you create a new dashboard it is empty and has no widgets. You can click on the “+ Add Widget” action on top of the dashboard that would lead to the right pane popping up as shown below:
There are lots of widgets that are shipped in box. All of them are discussed in detail in the next part.
Viewing in Full Screen
Wish to only view the dashboard in a big screen like a projector? That’s now possible!
Hit the “View in Full Screen” link on top of the dashboard and you’d get a full screen view of the dashboard.
Exporting Dashboards
Dashboard once created can easily be exported. To export a dashboard, the user simply needs to export the management pack in which the dashboard is stored. If you drilldown into the exported management pack, you’d observe that the dashboard is defined as a view. So for ex. If a dashboard is created as shown below:
Then the generated MP would look like this (note below just a snippet from the MP is taken to avoid clutter):
Note the TypeID of the view. This is a new TypeID introduced for HTML dashboards. Rest of the structure of the MP is pretty similar to any other view.
Recommended Next: New SCOM Web Console – Blog series (Post 3/5): The new HTML5 Widgets