Legacy Documentation for Statseeker version 5.5.4

Index

Default Dashboards

Every Statseeker install contains a number of default dashboards that are located in the Default Dashboards folder and are available to all users. These non-editable dashboards are created and maintained by Statseeker, the current default dashboards being:

  • Network Summary - a high level summary of the current state of the network with details on down devices and device-level events, ping statistics highlighting latency issues, and identifying potential interface and link congestion. The dashboard features drill-down links to events-based reports, as well as the Device and Interface Overview dashboards
  • Device Overview - provides details on a selected device including current state, availability, latency, interface usage and traffic volume, event records (device events, threshold breaches, syslog and trap messages) and basic device health metrics such as temperature, CPU and memory load. The dashboard features drill-down links to events-based reports, interface utilization baseline reports, and the Interface Overview dashboard.
  • Interface Overview - offers a detailed look at the interfaces of the selected devices, detailing interface configuration, utilization, traffic volume and rate, and errors and discards. The dashboard also offers links to the Device Overview and drilldowns to an interface events report.
  • Asset Overview - an overview of the infrastructure makeup of your network, providing details on device and interface counts, MAC/IP configuration, and operational status. Most panels in the dashboard feature drill-down links to breakdowns of this data.
  • MAC-IP-Switchport Overview - an overview of the network's MAC/IP/Switchport configuration with breakdowns by VLAN, device, interface, and ARP Router
  • Syslog Overview - Syslog counts and message details broken down by group, device, and source. The dashboard features drill-down links to detailed syslog reports, and the Device Overview dashboard.
  • Server Overview - A single device overview providing current state and historical records for a range of server health metrics including ping, CPU load, memory and disk usage, traffic volumes, as well as event and outgoing syslog counts. The dashboard features drill-down links to detailed device event and syslog reports, and the Interface Overview dashboard.

These default dashboards are maintained by Statseeker and are not editable. If you would like to edit any aspect of the default dashboards you will need to create an editable copy of the dashboard. To do this:

  • Open the dashboard Settings by clicking the icon in the top-right of the dashboard
  • Select Save As
  • Specify a name and save location for your new dashboard and click Save

The newly created copy will inherit permissions from the parent folder and will specify a user-specific edit permission for the user that created the copy.

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Create a New Dashboard

To create a new dashboard:

  • Select Dashboards > Dashboards Home from the main navigator

  • Click the new dashboard icon

Dashboards can also be created from within the Dashboard Manager:

  • Select Dashboards > Dashboard Manager from the main navigator

  • Click the new dashboard button

Once a new dashboard has been created:

  • Add and configure dashboard panels as needed and Save the dashboard when done.


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Importing Dashboards

Importing dashboards allows you to create a new dashboard from the configuration file of an existing dashboard. Importing can be achieved from either the Dashboard Manager, or from the Dashboard Home page. To import a dashboard from Dashboard Home:

  • Click the import dashboard icon


:

  • If you saved the dashboard configuration to file, click Upload .json file and select the saved file
  • If you saved the dashboard configuration to the clipboard, paste the config into the import panel and click Load JSON Text

  • Update the dashboard name
  • Set the folder to house the new dashboard
  • Update the UID - failure to do so will result in the original dashboard being overwritten
Note: overwriting a default dashboard may lead to the loss of your changes on upgrade of your Statseeker server. To prevent this, always provide a new UID when copying a default dashboard. It is also recommended that the dashboard titles be unique to avoid confusion that may lead to unintentionally overwriting existing dashboards.

If you are importing a copy of one of the default dashboards, then it will be flagged as non-editable. To resolve this:

  • Click the icon in the top-right of the dashboard to open dashboard settings
  • Click Make Editable and save the dashboard

The copy of the default dashboard is now editable, and you can proceed to tailor the dashboard to your needs.

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Dashboard Panels

Dashboards consist of one or more panels, each panel providing one of:

  • A view into your Statseeker data
  • Static text
  • HTML content
  • A clock
  • A dashboard layout element

Statseeker offers a range of panel types:

  • Graph - a graph of one or more monitored metrics
  • Singlestat - a single summary value for a data series (min, max, average, sum, etc.), which can optionally be represented as a gauge
  • Table - a data table
  • Text/HTML - text which can be static, or dashboard variable driven. This panel can also be used to house imported content such as Statseeker reports or 3rd-party web content.
  • Row - a collapsible row used to manage panel layout within your dashboard
  • Clock - a clock displaying server time, or countdown to a marked deadline
  • Pie Chart - can be used to present timeseries, configuration or asset data
  • Worldmap - data related to geographical locations on a map background
  • Image Map - place nodes over a custom background, and have those nodes display configuration, state, or timeseries data

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Adding Panels

To add a panel to a dashboard:

  • Click the Add Panel icon form the top-right of the dashboard
  • Select the panel type to be added

A dashboard can hold any number of panels, but do consider the use of Row panels to manage content within dashboards containing a large number of panels. When a dashboard is opened, an API query is sent to your Statseeker server for each panel in the dashboard. These queries are handled sequentially in a first-come-first-served manner and dashboards containing many panels, or panels with requesting large amounts of data that must be sorted for presentation can take time to fully load.

Panels residing within collapsed panel rows do not send queries, and are not populated, until the row is expanded. This feature can be used to ensure critical panels are loaded promptly and less critical panels can be accessed upon demand by expanding their parent row.


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Moving and Resizing Panels
  • Click and drag the panel header to move a panel
  • Click and drag the bottom-right corner to resize a panel

Panels will always 'float' to the top of a dashboard, if space permits.

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Copying Panels

To duplicate a panel, creating a copy of the panel in the current dashboard:

  • Click the panel header and select More > Duplicate

To make a copy of the panel to add to another dashboard:

  • Click the panel header and select More > Copy
  • Open the destination dashboard, click the Add Panel icon
  • Select the Paste tab and then the panel to add to the dashboard

Note: most panels in the default Statseeker dashboards make use of dashboard variables to filter their content. If you copy a panel which uses a variable in this way, then it will not work in the destination dashboard unless that dashboard features a variable with the same name.

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Deleting Panels

To delete a panel:

  • Click the panel header, select Remove and confirm the action when prompted


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Saving and Restoring Dashboard

When saving dashboards, you are presented with the option to add a note identifying the changes made.

These notes, along with the time of the save-point are used to build a version history of the dashboard. The version history allows dashboard editors to roll-back changes, restoring a dashboard to a previous state.

To view the version history:

  • Click the dashboard Settings button

  • Select Versions

The versions screen allows you to compare any two versions, displaying a summary of the changes made as well as the option to view a diff of the JSON underlying the dashboard configuration.

If needed, you can roll the dashboard back to a previous state by clicking the Restore button associated with that version.

Restoring the dashboard to a previous state adds the restored state as a new version, retaining all saved states of the dashboard.

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Copying a Dashboard

A local copy of an existing dashboard:

  • Select Dashboard Settings
  • Click Save As
  • Specify a name and save location and click Save


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Exporting and Sharing Dashboards

There are 3 options for sharing your Statseeker dashboards:

  • Link - create and copy a link to your dashboard, optionally including your current timefilter and variable settings.
    Requires that those receiving the link have both access to the Statseeker server and the ability to view all data displayed in the dashboard.
  • Snapshot - creates a record of the current state of the dashboard and caches the data displayed, allowing anyone to view the data as contained in the snapshot.
    Requires access to the Statseeker server to view.
  • Export - used to create a copy of the dashboard configuration and from that configuration, create a new dashboard.

To link, snapshot, or export a dashboard:

  • Select Share from the dashboard actions in the top-right

Dashboard Links

The current time filter, and any dashboard level variables used by panels within the dashboard, can be included when creating the link.

Snapshots

The current state of a dashboard, including the data can be saved as a snapshot. This snapshot can be shared with anyone that has access to the Statseeker server and includes not only the dashboard configuration but also a cached copy of the data displayed in the dashboard at the time the snapshot was taken. Once created, a snapshot cannot be edited in any way, only viewed, and deleted.

When the snapshot is created, Statseeker effectively reloads the dashboard in the background and caches everything. If the dashboard typically takes a while to load all data on refresh, then consider running a refresh first to get a rough estimate of how long is needed, then set the snapshot timeout value accordingly. If the timeout is set too low to retrieve all the required data, then users viewing the snapshot may see empty panels and panels presenting error messages.

Note: dashboards do not load data for panels in collapsed rows. If a snapshot includes collapsed rows, then no data for the content of those rows is included in the snapshot. When the snapshot row is expanded, a call is made to populate the panels, if the current user has limited visibility to your infrastructure, then those limits will be applied to the data contained in the response.


Export

A dashboard configuration can be exported and shared with any other Statseeker user. This export includes the dashboard panels, filters, and settings, but not the data. Exporting a dashboard allows you to share your dashboard with another user, providing them with a copy which they can view and edit as their own.

The dashboard configuration can be saved to a file (in JSON format) and then imported to create a new dashboard.


Alternatively, the configuration can be copied to the clipboard and from there, copied into the configuration file, creating a new dashboard.

Importing an exported dashboard configuration is handled in the Dashboard Manager, see Dashboard Manager > Manage

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Moving and Deleting Dashboards

Moving and deleting dashboards can be handled from either the Dashboard Manager, see Dashboard Manager > Manage tab, or from within the dashboard itself.



Moving a Dashboard
  • View the dashboard and select the Settings icon in the top-right

  • Select General
  • Update the specified Folder and click Save


Deleting a Dashboard
  • View the dashboard and select the Settings icon in the top-right

  • Select General
  • Click Delete and confirm the action when prompted

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Dashboard Settings

Select the icon to view the Dashboard Settings.

General

Note: you may need to save your dashboard prior to all options in the settings panel being available. If you have a newly created dashboard, and the Settings page is mostly empty, then:

  • Return to the dashboard view
  • Save the dashboard
  • Return to Dashboard Settings
  • Name - edit the dashboard name
  • Descriptions - set a description
  • Tags - apply tags to be used when searching for or filtering dashboards
  • Folder - move the dashboard
  • Editable - toggle the ability for non-Admin users to edit the dashboard (overrules the user-role level viewer/editor permissions when unchecked)
  • Auto-refresh - define refresh options available in the time filter
  • Now delay - can be set to resolve issues where 'now' typically returns NULL for the last polling interval
  • Hide time picker - toggle to hide the time filter in the dashboard
  • Graph Tooltip - configure tooltip behavior, this setting can be cycled with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/Cmd+O
    • Default - crosshair and tooltip are only displayed for the graph under the mouse
    • Shared crosshair - the tooltip is displayed for the graph under the mouse, but the crosshair is shown on all graphs on the dashboard
    • Shared tooltip - both crosshair and tooltip are displayed on all graphs


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Variables

Instead of hardcoding values into your panels, you can create dashboard level variables and reference them in your panel configurations. This can be seen in the default Device and Interface Overview dashboards.


Note: the drop-down list of values provided by variables is limited to the first 1000 entities as determined by the Sort parameter.

Variable Configuration

  • Name - referenced by panels making use of the variable with the syntax $name
  • Label - optional display alternative to the specified Name
  • Type - select variable type (see below)
  • Hide - toggle to display variable in the dashboard

Type: Query

  • Refresh - refresh rate for variable values
  • Object - the Statseeker object list to offer as a variable (e.g. selecting Device will present a list of all devices in the variable)
  • Value - the value that will be passed to the panel when the variable is referenced (e.g. If Object = Device, selecting ID will pass the device ID to the panel, selecting Name will pass the device name to the panel)
  • Label - The label to display in the variable list (e.g. If Object = Device, and Value = ID, and Label = Name, the variable presents a list of Device names, when an entry is selected the device ID is passed to the panel)
  • Regex - set to filter the query
  • Sort - sort variable by displayed Label when set, otherwise sort by Value
  • Multi-value - toggle to allow multiple selections
  • Include All option - toggle to add an 'All' option to the variable list
  • Custom All - Requires Include All option. Apply a custom regex to be used when selecting the "All" option
Note: when specifying a Custom All value

  • The regex will be run against the variable Value, not the Label
  • A blank Custom All field will return a list of all Object entities. Dashboard panels referencing the variable will iterate through that list running a match against each of these values - this can be slow when a very large number of entities are returned. Specifying .* as the Custom All will more efficiently select all entities.

Type: Custom

  • Values - csv list of values to display
  • Multi-value - toggle to allow multiple selections
  • Include All option - toggle to add an 'All' option to the variable list
  • Custom All - Requires Include All option. Apply a custom regex to be used when selecting the "All" option
Note: when specifying a Custom All value

  • The regex will be run against the variable Value, not the Label
  • A blank Custom All field will return a list of all Object entities. Dashboard panels referencing the variable will iterate through that list running a match against each of these values - this can be slow when a very large number of entities are returned. Specifying .* as the Custom All will more efficiently select all entities.

Type: Text box

  • Default value - optionally include a default value
Note: the drop-down list of values provided by variables is limited to the first 1000 entities as determined by the Sort parameter.

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Example: Group Selector

This variable will offer a list of all Statseeker groups. Any panel where Groups = $Groups will have the content of that panel filtered by the content of the selected group/s.


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Example: Device Selector

This example will create a variable which presents all monitored devices on your network. Dashboard panels can be configured to reference this variable, filtering their content by the device/s selected in the variable. This example uses the Groups variable from the previous example. The device list presented in this variable will be filtered by the selection in the Groups variable.

This variable is featured in the default Device and Interface Overview dashboards.


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Example: Interface Selector

This example will create a variable which presents all interfaces found on a device. This example uses the Device variable from the previous example. The interface list presented in this variable will be filtered by the selection in the device variable.

This variable is featured in the default Interface Overview dashboard.


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Links

The links tab allows you to add links to the top-right of the dashboard. These links can be either a list of dashboards and dashboard folders, or a URL.

  • Type - the link type, either Dashboard or URL

Type: Dashboard - a list of dashboards and dashboard folders found on the server

  • With tags - filter the dashboard list by the specified tags
  • As dropdown - toggle to display the list as a dropdown
  • Title - displayed dropdown title
  • Time range - toggle to pass the current time filter through to the selected dashboard
  • Variable values - toggle to pass the current variable values through to the selected dashboard
  • Open in tab - toggle to launch the selected dashboard/folder in a new tab
Note: the Statseeker Default Dashboards feature a dashboard level link where Type = Dashboard and With Tags = statseeker. Applying the statseeker tag to any custom dashboard will add that dashboard to the dropdown list available in all default dashboards.



Type: Link - specify a URL to link to

  • Url - the URL to link to
Note: when linking to resources on the Statseeker server, the domain name part of the URL can be omitted.

  • Console report: https://MyStatseekerServer/cgi/nimc02?rid=53410, can be defined as /cgi/nimc02?rid=53410
  • Dashboard: https://MyStatseekerServer/#dashboards:StatseekerDefaultDeviceOverview, can be defined as /#dashboards:StatseekerDefaultDeviceOverview
  • Title - displayed link title
  • Tooltip - content will be displayed on hover
  • Icon - icon to display with the link title
  • Time range - toggle to pass the current time filter through to the selected URL
  • Variable values - toggle to pass the current variable values through to the selected URL
  • Open in tab - toggle to launch the selected link in a new tab

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Setting Variables from Links

The link setting Variable Values enables you to pass the value from any variable on the dashboard through to a variable with the same name (not label) on the destination dashboard. In some instances, you may wish to set a variable on the destination, but the source doesn't include that variable, so the option to pass through variable values cannot be used. In this instance you will need to append the desired variable setting as a parameter in the URL.

The syntax for this is:

  • /#dashboards:<DASHBOARD_REFERENCE>?var-<VARIABLE_NAME>=<VARIABLE_VALUE>

For example, a link to the Device Overview dashboard with the Device variable set to London-rtr would be:

  • /#dashboards:StatseekerDefaultDeviceOverview?var-Device=London-rtr

Versions

View the dashboard version history, compare version, and restore the dashboard to a previous state. See Saving and Restoring Dashboards.


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Permissions

Alter the default dashboard permissions. All dashboards inherit their parent folder permissions, in addition, dashboard editors are able to apply custom permissions specific to that dashboard.

For details on managing permissions and how they interact with users and data visibility, see Statseeker Dashboards and the Dashboard Manager.

Note: when assigning permissions on a per-user basis, the dropdown will only display 10 users. Typing in the field will display a filtered list of up to 10 users.

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JSON Model

View and edit (not advised) the raw JSON configuration for the dashboard.


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Time Filter

The dashboard time filter is used to define the time range of the data to be displayed in the dashboard, as well as refresh rate for the dashboard content.

The dashboard time filter is applied to all panels within the dashboard. This time filter can be overridden with a panel level override set in the Time Range tab of the panel.


The dashboard time filter cannot handle complex timefilters such as those featuring:

  • Multiple time ranges (see Note below for clarification)
  • "OR", "AND", or "NOT" operators

These timefilters cannot be applied, and if they are contained in your TimeFilter Favorites list, then they will be hidden from that list in the dashboards. However, these timefilters can still be used with your reports, and a report featuring such a timefilter can be embedded in a dashboard via the Text/HTML panel (set Mode = Link).

Note: the restriction of not supporting multiple time ranges refers a time filter requesting multiple 'time of day' blocks:

  • "(7am - 11am) and (2pm - 4pm)" - not supported

There is no requirement for the reporting period to be a continuous block of time, a time filter with a single 'time of day' across multiple days is supported:

  • "(7am - 11am), Mon - Wed, for the last 3months" - supported

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Keyboard Shortcuts

There are a number of keyboard shortcuts available when working with dashboards, a summary of these can be accessed with the shortcut: Shift/Cmd + ?.


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