How to scope tiles
The scope of a tile defines for which objects data will be shown.
How to scope tiles on dashboards
For some tiles on dashboards, defining a scope is mandatory. For other tiles, defining a scope is optional. For example, the API tile doesn't need a scope, but you can use the scope to filter the results further.
Options for scoping tiles on dashboards
Tips and scope examples
FAQs
I'm missing certain objects or groups. Why can't I find them?
SquaredUp DS adheres to SCOM Role Based Access Control (RBAC). This means users will only see in SquaredUp DS what they are allowed to see in the SCOM. Any SCOM user can log on to SquaredUp DS and RBAC will be applied. See How do SCOM roles affect what users can do in SquaredUp DS?.
Only for Performance and Matrix tiles: Why do I get the error "No values found for the given metric for the last <time period> at the resolution '<raw/hourly/daily>'"?
You may get this message returned if you change the scope after setting the metric.
Symptoms
A Performance tile or Matrix tile shows no graph (graph tile is blank) or an error similar to the following:
The server encountered a problem whilst processing the request.
No values found for the given metric for the last <time period> at the resolution 'raw/hourly/daily'.
Cause
This error indicates that there is no data to show. There are several reasons why there may not be any data:
- No data is being collected.
- The SCOM collection rule is saving data to the Operations Manager database, but not to the Data Warehouse database.
- For the chosen timeframe and resolution there is no data.
- For the chosen scope and metric there is no data.
- The group specified contains only subgroups and you have not specified, or have removed, the class.
Procedure
- Install the latest version of SquaredUp DS
- Check the Data Warehouse connection
If this message is shown for all performance graphs in SquaredUp DS then you should check that Data Warehouse specified is correct.
See Troubleshooting the Data Warehouse connection. - Check data is being collected
SquaredUp DS uses data from the Data Warehouse database. If the data is available in SCOM this means the data is being collected and stored in the Operations Manager database. SCOM Reporting uses the Data Warehouse database, so if the data appears in a report then it is in the Data Warehouse.Flush the health service state and cache to trigger the workflows to collect the data, either using SCOM or SquaredUp DS.
To do this in SquaredUp DS, browse to the object in SquaredUp DS, then:
- Click on the Monitored Entity perspective.
- Click on Health Service in the Children section.
- Click the task button at the top of the page.
- Select the task Flush Health Service State and Cache.
- Click execute.
- Change the timeframe
Change the page timeframe, or tile timeframe if applicable, to see if there is data over a different period of time. See Timeframes for tilesWhy is no data shown?
There may be no data points available if you are using hourly data and looking at the last 1 hour (metric > resolution is set to hourly and the tile or page timeframe is set to last 1 hour), or using daily data and looking at the last 24 hours (metric > resolution is set to daily and the tile or page timeframe is set to last 24 hours). Try changing the resolution to auto and the tile or page timeframe to a longer time period.
The timeframe section allows you to determine the timeframe for the data. You can choose either to use:
Use page timeframe
The page timeframe is the timeframe setting a dashboard or perspective is currently using. These timeframes are all relative to the current time, for example 7 days ago until now. When a user changes the page timeframe, all tiles that have use page timeframe set will adapt to the new timeframe. (Tiles that do not have use page timeframe set (i.e. are set to specific timeframe or custom timeframe) are not affected and won't change.)
Specific timeframe
These timeframes allow you to set a fixed timeframe such as last 1 hour or last 7 days. You can use the sample relative timeframes button to get some examples for different timeframes. These timeframes are all relative to the current time, for example 7 days ago until now. Using this setting means that any change the user makes to the page timeframe is ignored.
The custom option can be used to set timeframes using
SquaredUp DS does not support the week notation.
Custom timeframe
This allows you to set a fixed timeframe window from the time and calendar picker. This sets a completely customizable timeframe window, not relative to now.
- Check the resolutionData resolution in the Data Warehouse
Resolution refers to the raw, hourly or daily data stored in the Data Warehouse.
The data available in the Data Warehouse is determined by the retention period set in SCOM.
Whether raw or hourly data is available for the whole timeframe will depend on your Data Warehouse data retention settings. Using the default SCOM data retention settings means that SquaredUp DS timeframes of 1 week or less will probably be using raw data, for timeframes between 30 days and 12 months SquaredUp DS will be probably be using hourly data. The SCOM data retention settings may well have been changed from the default.
Understanding how SquaredUp DS uses the different resolution data from the Data Warehouse
For Performance tiles the resolution is set in the Metric panel. Try changing metric > resolution to auto.SquaredUp DS, when using the auto resolution setting, uses the highest resolution data available (raw, hourly or daily), based on what data is available in the Data Warehouse for the whole graph timeframe. So SquaredUp DS will use raw data as long as it is available for the whole reporting timeframe, then it will use hourly, and when that is not available for the whole timeframe it will use daily data.
For Performance tiles the resolution is set in metric > resolution
Using the autoresolution setting on a Performance tile automatically changes to a more suitable resolution when the page timeframe is changed by a user, in order to optimize the time to return the graphs.
The auto setting applies to visualizations that use time periods, such as line graphs, sparklines and reports. Visualizations that do not show a time period, such as Bar Top N, Heatmap and Scalar, use the latest data point. These visualizations do not change when a user changes the page timeframe. For these visualizations the auto resolution setting defaults to daily.
Why is no data shown?
There may be no data points available if you are using hourly data and looking at the last 1 hour (metric > resolution is set to hourly and the tile or page timeframe is set to last 1 hour), or using daily data and looking at the last 24 hours (metric > resolution is set to daily and the tile or page timeframe is set to last 24 hours). Try changing the resolution to auto and the tile or page timeframe to a longer time period.
Why is daily, rather than hourly, data shown for a 6 month graph?
When the retention period for hourly data is set to 180 days and a SquaredUp DS graph is set to display 6 months of data, this can actually be 182 or 183 days. SquaredUp DS will switch to daily data because hourly data is not available for the full 6 month period, i.e. the retention period is less than the date range. The solution is to modify the retention period to reflect 6 months i.e. an extra 5 days and set the retention period to 185 days, this should not affect your storage levels too greatly. After a few days this will resolve the problem because 6 months of hourly data will then be available, when SquaredUp DS checks the retention period against the requested time frame, the retention period would be higher and SquaredUp DS would show hourly data.
For more information see How to optimise the Data Warehouse - 5 Point Plan - 4. Data Retention - Check the metric
The quickest way to check the metric is correct, is to clear the existing metric and use the down arrow button on the keyboard to view all the metrics available for the scope you have chosen.
You may get theNo values found for the given metric
message returned if you change the scope after setting the metric.
How to scope tiles on perspectives
Note: If you never used a perspective, you should read Working with perspectives before scoping tiles on perspectives.
The power of perspectives is that tiles on a perspective can use a dynamic scope. A dynamic scope considers the currently viewed object. A dynamic scope consists of two different states:
- the configuration of the scope in the tile (for example, "consider child objects of type logical disk for the currently viewed object")
- the actual resolved scope that depends on which object you are currently viewing ("this object has 5 child objects of type logical disk")
After configuring the dynamic scope once in the tile, you'll get different results depending how the scope is resolved on the different objects you are viewing.
General advice for scoping tiles on perspectives
Remember that a tile scope on a perspective usually needs to work for many different objects. You need to consider:
- For which objects will this perspective be visible? (determined by the target of the perspective)
- Is the scope I am configuring appropriate for all objects the perspective will be visible on?
Example:
You create a perspective with the target "class: Windows Server". The perspective will therefore be visible for all objects of the class Windows Server.
Now you create a tile on the perspective and scope it to "this object's children of class: Windows Server 2016 Logical Disk". This means that when you view a 2016 Windows server, you'll see data about the server's logical disks in the tile. But when you view a 2012 Windows Server the tile will show no data because the tile's scope is limited to logical disks on 2016 servers. Instead of picking "Windows Server 2016 Logical Disk" you should pick "Windows Server Logical Disk" to make the tile adjust to any object that uses the perspective.
There are two different sets of options when scoping tiles on perspectives. It depends on the tile you want to scope which set of options you'll see.
Suggestions
Suggestions are generated based on the object you are currently viewing. You'll see a list of relevant scope options based on the object's relations to other objects. Suggestions don't cover every possible scope, but they are a quick and easy way to select a suitable scope for your tile.
Note: Suggestions won't be shown if an object has no children, parents or siblings.
Tip: If the exact scope you want isn't listed in the suggestions, you can select a suggested scope that is similar to the one you want, and then click on custom. The custom section will now automatically be filled with the suggestion you picked and you can edit the scope here to adjust it exactly to your needs. This is a more intuitive way to pick a scope than starting in the custom section and navigating the SCOM object model for classes and groups.
Double-check the scope when using suggestions: Using suggestions is an easy way to pick a scope, but you need to make sure that the generated suggestion is appropriate for all objects that use the perspective.
For example, when you pick a suggestion for an EA, you will get suggestions that are specific to the map, dependencies, and availability tests for this one EA. On perspectives you want to use for all EAs, you have to change the scope suggestion in the custom section so that the tile work for all EAs.
You can pick between "this object" and objects that are related to this object as parents, children or siblings. The suggestions for children are written as paths that follow the SCOM object tree structure, parents and siblings can be identified by the word parent or sibling in the suggestion.
A parent of an object is any object that hosts or contains that object.
A child of an object is any object that this object hosts or contains.
A sibling of an object is any object of the same class that is hosted by the same parent.
Enterprise Applications are designed so that you can map out the servers that make up the application. You can then configure tiles to show information related to just the servers on the EA's map. When you create a perspective that will be used for all EAs, you need to make sure that you scope the tiles so that they work for any EA. When you start with a suggestion, the tile's scope only works for the one EA you're currently looking at, and this is why you need to edit the scope:
- For an EA you want to scope to the servers that are specified on the EA map by selecting something from the suggestions (SquaredUp DS 4.2 and above) that shows something similar to the following:
This /<YourApplicationName> Map / ... / Windows Computer
The above will scope the tile to all the objects of class Windows Computer on this EAs map.
The screenshot below shows some scope suggestions for an application called FinanceXS. The bold text shows the currently selected scope is This object. The cursor shows the optionThis / FinanceXS / ... / Windows Computer
. Once chosen this scope will show all the Windows computers shown on the applications map. Next, we need to adjust the specified scope to allow it to work for all EAs, rather than just this one. - In the scope section click custom.
- Click on the text
<YourApplicationName> Map (children)
which is your first scope step. This will expand the scope step so you can edit it. - Remove the auto-populated class
<YourApplicationName> Map
by clicking the cross x next to it. - Start typing
Enterprise Application - Map
and select this from the list to add this class. This is so that this tile scope will work for all EAs, rather than just this one EA. - The scope is now configured to show all the Windows computers on the EA's map, whichever EA you happen to be viewing with the perspective.
If you are looking at an EA, the path to find all windows computers in that EA may read Map / ... / Windows Computer
. It returns all objects of the Windows Computer class contained within all of the paths under Map
.
To narrow the scope down, you can click on the triangle to expand the suggestion and select one of the more specific paths. If you select Map / Web / Windows Computer
you will find all objects of the Windows Computer class in the path Map / Web
.
If you choose the option Map / *
you'll find all objects contained in the map. If you extend this suggestion by clicking on the triangle, you'll see suggestions to select all objects in a more specific path, for example Map / Web / *
.
Custom
Here you can pick objects that are related to the object you are currently looking at. If you want to create a specific scope that is not listed under suggestions, you can create the scope here.
Tip: You can pick a similar scope under suggestions first and then click on custom to edit it.
- At the top, you'll see the name of the object you are currently looking at. Now you can choose if you want to pick parents or children of that object, and if this parent or child relation should be considered only one level up or down the SCOM model or through all levels.
- Class:
Here you pick the class of the objects you want to select. If you leave this field empty, the scope falls back to the "this object" scope.
Note: You will only see groups and classes that the object you are currently looking at is a member of.
Tip: If you want to pick objects of any class, enter the SCOM base class logical entity in the class field.
Tip: If you want to find out what classes the object you are interested in belongs to, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of that object. You'll see all the classes the object belongs to listed there. - Criteria:
You can narrow the selection of objects of a particular class down further by entering criteria for those objects. For more help see How to use criteria when scoping objects.
Tip: If you want to find out what properties you can base your criteria on, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of the object you are interested in. You'll see all the properties for criteria listed there.
.
For example, for a perspective created for the group IIS8 Computer Group adding a Status tile scoped to show children with a class of object
will show the group members, i.e. the members of the IIS8 Computer Group.
If you need to traverse a more advanced SCOM object model like an EA, you can use the + button to add more steps. This creates a scope that can go through any kind of path of the SCOM object model.
Complete the following steps and then click the + button after you're done to add the next level of SCOM objects:
- At the top, you'll see the name of the object you are currently looking at. Now you can choose if you want to pick parents or children of that object, and if this parent or child relation should be considered only one level up or down the SCOM model or through all levels.
- Class:
Here you pick the class of the objects you want to select. If you leave this field empty, the scope falls back to the "this object" scope.
Note: You will only see groups and classes that the object you are currently looking at is a member of.
Tip: If you want to pick objects of any class, enter the SCOM base class logical entity in the class field.
Tip: If you want to find out what classes the object you are interested in belongs to, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of that object. You'll see all the classes the object belongs to listed there. - Criteria:
You can narrow the selection of objects of a particular class down further by entering criteria for those objects. For more help see How to use criteria when scoping objects.
Tip: If you want to find out what properties you can base your criteria on, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of the object you are interested in. You'll see all the properties for criteria listed there.
.
Other specific objects
Gives you the normal, non-dynamic scope options you are used to when scoping tiles on dashboards. This means the tile will not dynamically adapt it's content to the currently viewed object, it will always show data for the static object picked here.
Since the power of perspectives is that their tiles can show data for different objects depending on what object is currently being viewed, you should only select this option when you are sure that there is no relationship between the desired scope and the currently viewed object.
The Alerts and the SCOM task tile have slightly different options than other tiles because they require different settings.
This object
The dynamic scope will be the resolved to the object that is currently viewed.
Relative objects
The dynamic scope will be resolved to relative objects (parents or children) of the object that is currently viewed.
- At the top, you'll see the name of the object you are currently looking at. Now you can choose if you want to pick parents or children of that object, and if this parent or child relation should be considered only one level up or down the SCOM model or through all levels.
- Class:
Here you pick the class of the objects you want to select. If you leave this field empty, the scope falls back to the "this object" scope.
Note: You will only see groups and classes that the object you are currently looking at is a member of.
Tip: If you want to pick objects of any class, enter the SCOM base class logical entity in the class field.
Tip: If you want to find out what classes the object you are interested in belongs to, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of that object. You'll see all the classes the object belongs to listed there. - Criteria:
You can narrow the selection of objects of a particular class down further by entering criteria for those objects. For more help see How to use criteria when scoping objects.
Tip: If you want to find out what properties you can base your criteria on, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of the object you are interested in. You'll see all the properties for criteria listed there.
.
Note for SCOM task tiles:
You have to pick one single object for SCOM task tiles since the task has to be run for one specific object. If you pick the scope option relative objects, you need to narrow the scope down to one object with the help of a class and criteria.
Other specific objects
Gives you the normal, non-dynamic scope options you are used to when scoping tiles on dashboards. This means the tile will not dynamically adapt it's content to the currently viewed object, it will always show data for the static object picked here.
Since the power of perspectives is that their tiles can show data for different objects depending on what object is currently being viewed, you should only select this option when you are sure that there is no relationship between the desired scope and the currently viewed object.