Data and Network visualisation

Network maps

Network map objects can be found in “Object browser” under “Network Maps”. There can be created and deleted maps and map groups. Maps can be organized in groups.

Creating Maps

There are 3 types of map that can be created:

Custom - will be created empty map.
Layer 2 Topology - will create map(if possible) with layer 2 topology of selected object. Will be automatically updated on topology change.
IP Topology - will create map with known IP Topology of selected object. (More about network topology can be found there Network topology) Will be automatically updated on topology change.
Internal communication topology - map created based on internal communication between server and node (will show SNMP, ICMP, ).

_images/network_map_l2.png — Network map layer 2

Type of created map affects only on initial map setup.

Edit Maps

Adding Objects

Network map can be populated in 2 different ways: automatically and manually. Automatically are populated Layer 2, IP Topology and Internal communication topology. Object filer (in properties of the map) can be created for automatically populated maps to filter out unrequited nodes.

Objects to map can be added in tow ways:

Just drag and drop object to map from object browser.
“Add object…” from menu.

To remove object from map:

Select object, right click and select “Remove from map” option.

Adding Links between Objects

Objects can be linked with a line.

To link objects:

Select two of objects with help of CTRL button and press “Link selected objects” button.

To remove the link:

Select line, right click and select “Remove from map” option.

Link properties:

Select link line, right click and select “Properties”.

The following properties can be configured:

Link name
Connector names (shown on the link line near each connected object)
Line color
- Default - grey
- Based on object status - object(s) should be selected
- Custom color
Routing algorithm
- Map Default - algorithm selected in map properties will be used
- Direct - straight line without bend points
- Manhattan - line with automatic bend points
- Bend points - bend point can be added manually with double click on the line
Label position - defines position of label containing link name and DCI values on the link. 50 means middle of the link.
Data Source (allows to configure DCI values and text near them that will be displayed on a link)
- For each Data Source can be configured: Data collection item, name, format string, in case of table DCI also column and instance. If format string is not provided, default formatting including multipliers and measurement units is used.
  
  Java format string syntax is used, e.g. Text: %.4f, syntax description is available here: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/Formatter.html#syntax.
  
  Additional format specifier can be provided in curly brackets after % sign to display multipliers and measurement units, e.g. %{units,multipliers}f. Format specifier is comma-separated list supporting the following options:
  units - add measurement units from DCI’s properties. For Epoch time and Uptime this will also convert the value.
  
  u - same as units
  
  multipliers - display values with multipliers (e.g. 1230000 becomes 1.23 M)
  
  m - same as multipliers

Example of DCI data displayed on a link:

Decorations

Decorations like picture and group box can be added to maps. To add picture it should be previously be uploaded to “Image Library”.

When creating group box you should specify it’s size, color and name.

DCI Container

DCI Container is part of decorations. It can be used to display separate dci values on a map.

Container properties:

Background color

Text color

If border should be shown and it’s color

Data Source - there can be configured DCI values and text near them that will be displayed

For each Data Source can be configured: Data collection item, name, format string (e.g. “Text: %.4f” or “Text: %*s”), in case of table DCI also column and instance

More examples:

DCI Image

DCI Image is part of decorations. It can be used to display DCI status change in pictures.

DCI image properties

Data source - DCI which data will be taken to process picture display rules
Column - required only for table DCI
Instance - required only for table DCI
Default image - image that will be displayed if no rule is applicable on current value
Rules
- For each rule can be configured: operation, value, comment and image that will be displayed if this rule is applicable

Hints:

To use image it should be first uploaded to image library.

Rules are processed from up to down, so if you want to describe in rules something like:

DCI > 3 => image1

DCI > 2 => image2

DCI > 4 => image3

They should go in this sequence:

DCI > 4 => image3

DCI > 3 => image1

DCI > 2 => image2

Object Layout and display options

All object layout properties and display options are applicable only on objects, not on decorations.

Grid

Align to grid - will move all objects to grids

Snap to grid - all objects will be moved in grids and it will not be possible to place them not inside grid.

Show grid - will show grid according to which objects are located.

Layout

Objects can be placed manually on a map or can be chosen one of automatic layouts:

Spring
Radial
Horizontal tree
Vertical tree
Sparse vertical tree

If there is chosen automatic layout, then after each refresh object best matching place will be recalculated. So if new object is add - it is just required to refresh map to have correctly placed objects.

If there is chosen manual layout, then after each object movement map should be saved, to save the new place of object.

Display object as

Show status background - will display background behind object image according to it’s state.

Show status icon - will display icon of object state near each object

Show status frame - will display frame around object icon according to it’s state

Floor plan - will display nodes as adjustable rectangles. This can be used to display hardware placement on room plan.

Routing

Default routing type for whole map:

Direct - objects are connected by links drawn to shortest route
Manhattan - objects are connected by grid-based links

Zoom

Map can be zoomed in and out with help of top menu buttons and to predefined percentage selected from menu.

Object display options

Objects can be displayed in 3 ways:

Icons
Small labels
Large labels

Map Background

It can be set background for map:

Colour
Image - image should be uploaded to “Image Library” before.
Geographic Map - place on map is chose with help of zoom and coordinates

This can be used to show object physical please on map or on building plan.

Examples:

Dashboards

Dashboards are defined by administrator and allow to combine any available visualization components with data from multiple sources in order to create high-level views to see network (or parts of it) health at a glance. For example, below is a dashboard showing traffic information from core router, as well as CPU usage from vital nodes:

There are two ways to access dashboards:

Open dashboard from Object Browser

Open dashboard from Object Browser
Switch to Dashboard perspective and select dashboard with left-click

Configuration

Dashboards is a special type of objects created in Dashboards tree. To create a new dashboard, right click on Dashboards root object or any other existing dashboard and select Create dashboard. To configure dashboard content, open object’s properties and go to Dashboard Elements:guilabel: page. Here you can define number of columns and manage list of elements. Press Add:guilabel: to add new element. You will be prompted with element type selection dialog:

When a new element is added, you can edit it by double-clicking on it’s record in the elements list, or by pressing the Edit button. Each element have Layout property page which controls the element’s layout inside the dashboard, and one or more element type specific pages to control element’s appearance and displayed information. The following element types are available:

Label

Text label with configurable text and colors.

Line Chart

Line chart.

Bar Chart

Bar chart.

Pie Chart

Pie chart.

Status Chart

Bar chart which shows current status distribution for nodes under given root.

Status Indicator

Shows current status of selected object.

Dashboard

Another dashboard object (or multiple objects) rendered as element of this dashboard.

Network Map

Network map object rendered as dashboard element.

Get Map

Geographic map centered at given location.

Alarm Viewer

List of alarms for given object subtree.

Availability Chart

Pie chart showing availability percentage for given business service

Gauge

Gauge have 3 types of widgets

Dial is radial gauge with configurable maximum, minimum values. Scale can have fixed color or can be separated to 3 color configurable zones.

Dar is linear gauge with configurable maximum, minimum values. Scale can have fixed color or can be separated to 3 color configurable zones. (Not yet implemented)

Text is text gauge, that can be colored using fixed color, changed depending on 3 configurable color zones or colored using threshold color (severity).

Web Page

Web page at given URL rendered within dashboard.

Bar Chart for Table DCI

Bar chart built from data collected via single table DCI.

Pie Chart for Table DCI

Pie chart built from data collected via single table DCI.

Separator

Separator, can be shown as line, box, or simply empty space.

Table Value

This widget displays table with last values of Table DCI.

Status Map

Status map has three views: Flat view, Group view and Radial view.

Flat view and Group view display nodes as rectangles, using color to indicate their status. In Flat view nodes are displayed without grouping, whether in Group view nodes are grouped by containers.

Radial view displays containers and nodes as hierarchical colored radial layout.

DCI Summary Table

DCI Summary Table widget provides summary DCI information about objects under container.

Syslog Monitor

Syslog monitor widget. Has additional option to set root object to filter objects what will be shown in monitor. One object or a container that contains required objects can be set as root object.

SNMP Trap Monitor

SNMP Trap monitor widget. Has additional option to set root object to filter objects what will be shown in monitor. One object or a container that contains required objects can be set as root object.

Event monitor

Event monitor widget. Has additional option to set root object to filter objects what will be shown in monitor. One object or a container that contains required objects can be set as root object.

Service component map

Map displays hierarchy of objects in Infrastructure Service starting from selected root object.

Rack diagram

Shows rack front, back or both views with object placement in it.

Object tools

Shows buttons with pre configured object tools, that are executed on click.

Object query

Shows columns with filtered objects’ information.

Object query has 2 main configurations. Query that filterers objects and provide option to create additional information about object in columns and Object Properties that lists information that should be shown in table.

Query

It is a script that is executed on each object and should return true if object should be displayed in the table and false if it should not. It has special syntax that provides option to calculate additional values for columns in Object Properties section. This syntax is optional and usual NXSL script can be used instead. Usual NXSL script should return true or map (where key is column name and value is value for this column) if node should be shown and false if not, additional self calculated columns can be defined as global variables.

Syntax:

with
  varName = { code or expression },
  varName = { code or expression }
  /* Might be as many blocks as required.
   * varName is a name of the variable where result of a code will be assigned.
   * It can be used later in the code in expression or to be displayed in table
   * using the same name in the Object Properties part.
  */
expression
/* Short circuit evaluated expression. This expression is executed first and if it contains not yet calculated
 * varName then variable is calculated and used in expression. Expression that should result as true or false
 * as a sign if this object should be displayed in table or not. No semicolon at the end.
*/

This page provides option to configure columns that should be used for ordering, refresh interval and record limit. To order column write a coma separated list of attribute named or varNames with - sign to order in descending order and with + sign to order in ascending order.

Object Properties

This property page is used to organize required columns and column order in table. Each column configuration consists of name of object’s attribute or varName defined in Query page, display name used as a name for a column and data type of the column.

Example

This example will show how to filter nodes that only have alarms on them, are not in maintenance mode and show count of critical alarms on the node, order by critical alarm count the list and then by node name. Example shows two different options how to write the same script so only one of them should be used.

Configuration:

_images/dashboard_object_query_query.png — Option 1. Query script with “with” syntax

_images/dashboard_object_query_query2.png — Option 2. Query script with usual NXSL script and global variables

_images/dashboard_object_query_object_properties.png — Configuration of Properties to display will be the same for both scripts

Result:

Port view

Shows ports schematic with each port status. One object or a container that contains required objects can be set as root object.

Element Property Pages

Chart

Chart page is available for all chart type elements: Bar Chart, Bar Chart for Table DCI, Dial Chart, Line Chart, Pie Chart, Pie Chart for Table DCI. It defines basic properties of a chart.

Data Sources

Data sources page is available for all DCI based elements: Bar Chart, Dial Chart, Line Chart and Pie Chart. Here you can define what DCIs should be used as data sources for the chart. Up to 16 DCIs can be added to a single chart. You can configure multiple properties for each data source. To edit data source, either double click on appropriate item in the list, or press Edit button. Data source configuration dialog looks like following:

Property	Description
Data collection item	DCI object to be used.
Display name	Name for this data source to be used in chart’s legend. If left empty, DCI description will be used.
Colour	Allows you to define specific color for this data source or let system to pick one automatically.
Area chart	This option is valid only for line charts and toggles data source display as filled area instead of line.
Show thresholds	This option is valid only for line charts and toggles display of configured thresholds.