Performance tile
The Performance tile enables you to view a wide range of visualizations using performance data from the SCOM Data Warehouse.
SquaredUp DS accesses the Data Warehouse directly using the published schema, so must have a Data Warehouse connection (see How to check and reconfigure the Data Warehouse connection) with the correct permissions for Performance graphs to work.
Performance tiles can be added to both dashboards and perspectives.
This short (2 min) video gives you and overview of performance reporting features, including using the page timeframe, aggregation and resolution options, drilldown to a full page graph, compare to other objects/groups and export to Excel (Export to Excel).
How to configure a Performance tile
The following steps guide you through configuring all visualizations except the Report, since configuring a Performance Report works a little bit differently. If you want to configure a Report jump to How to configure a Performance tile Report.
- Add a new tile to a dashboard or perspective and choose the Performance tile.
- Select the visualization for your Performance tile and click next.
Uses the latest data to compare data, such as the top or bottom ranking metrics in descending or ascending order, as 'Top N'.
Visualizes both a number and the resulting bar width based on the number value.
Example:
Displays a metric value as a color shade.
Jump to Walkthrough: Adding a Line Graph to show % Processor Time..
Shows time-series data over time, in a graph with an x-axis (time) and a y-axis. You can show several objects, such as servers, in one graph.
Example:
Jump to Walkthrough: Adding a Line Graph to show % Processor Time..
Visualizes time-series data as vertical columns.
Example:
Shows data over time (like line graphs), but each item gets its own graph instead of showing all lines in one graph.
Example:
A Scalar displays one value. A Scalar is useful to show a specific number like "total cost of my services" or "free disk space on this server".
When multiple values are returned (meaning a table with multiple rows), you will still be able to pick the Scalar visualization, but the Scalar will only show the value of the first row.Example:
Jump to How to configure a Performance tile Report.
Allows you to compare metrics, such as two different metrics or metrics over different time periods. For example, compare
Processor Time
withMemory Available
, or comparePercentage CPU
with the same period last week. - Scope:
The scope allows you to define which objects are shown, which in turn determines which metrics are available.
Note for using the group or advanced option:
By default the scope of Performance tiles will look at multiple levels of membership (recursive search) for objects, so they will look at multiple-levels of membership rather than just one level. This means the tile shows data for objects that aren't directly contained in a group, but are contained within other objects. For example, this allows you to find disk metrics when scoped to a server.
If the scoped group contains only subgroups and you have not specified a class, then no metrics will be available in the metrics drop down list. By specifying a group AND a class it means that you can extend this recursive search to use top-level groups to show graph data for objects within sub-groups (as well as objects).
To enable recursive searching to work for sub-groups you should specify a group AND a class in the advanced scope option. This will allow the dropdown list to show the metrics for the objects in the sub-groups.
Note for choosing a class:
Choose your class carefully as for a Performance tile this will determine which metrics are available in the Metric panel.
Note for Scalars:
The Scalar visualization should be scoped to only one object using the list option, as only one figure is shown. Do not use a group.
Tip: If you experience any problems with scoping tiles, you'll find FAQs and help in the article How to scope tiles.
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.
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 underMap
.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 pathMap / 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 exampleMap / 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.
- Metric:
Here you define which value the graph will show. For example, if you want to see the response time of different servers, your metric value would be response time. If you want to see the number of tickets, your metric value would be number (of tickets).
Quick find:
The drop-down list will show you a list of all metrics available for the scope you have set. Press the down arrow on your keyboard in the choose metric field to see the list.
Advanced:
Allows you to specify the object, counter and/or instance. For example, you can use the quick find to find and select the metric
LogicalDisk - % Free Space
, and then click on advanced and specifyC:
in the instance box to only view C: drives.You can also use metric > advanced to show multiple metrics on one graph (How to show multiple metrics on one graph (v4.2 and below)) or use wildcards in metrics (How to use wildcards in metrics).
Resolution refers to the raw, hourly or daily data stored in the Data Warehouse.
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.
The data available in the Data Warehouse is determined by the retention period set in SCOM.
See How to optimise the Data Warehouse - 5 Point Plan and No values found for the given metric for the last <time period> at the resolution '<raw/hourly/daily>'
When a resolution of hourly or daily is chosen you can select whether you'd like to see the average, minimum or maximum figures for that aggregated time period. For example, for a web transaction you might want to see the maximum or minimum figures rather than the average.
This allows you to specify that metric label, which is then displayed on the y-axis and hover value.
You should select the label that matches how the the data is being returned, or use the other option to specify a custom metric label, such as pages/sec or count.
- Configure the settings for your visualization:
Which timeframe does this visualization use?
This visualization always uses the latest data and ignores the dynamic page timeframe set by users.
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.)
The custom option can be used to set timeframes using ISO 8601 format
SquaredUp DS does not support the week notation.
Settings:
Data Range
The Data Range option allows you to choose the range of data the graph will display. For line graphs, this means the data on the y-axis.
Sort
Sort allows you to change the order of the results displayed. You can sort by value (ascending or descending) or label (alphabetically ascending or descending).
Limit number of results:
This option is only available when you sort by values, not by labels.
Here you can define a limit for the number of results you want to see. Activate the limit number of results displayed checkbox to enter a limit for results. You can choose if this limit should be applied from the top ranking results down (ascending, default option) or from the bottom ranking results up (descending).
Value
Value formatter
Allows you to format the value by using the mustache picker. For example, you can round the value up or down or convert it.
Label
Allows you to change the label of the results.
Display
Vertical:
Tick this option to show vertical bars, otherwise horizontal bars are shown.
Bar width:
Allows you to set the width of the bars with a slider.
Color
Which timeframe does this visualization use?
This visualization always uses the latest data and ignores the dynamic page timeframe set by users.
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.)
The custom option can be used to set timeframes using ISO 8601 format
SquaredUp DS does not support the week notation.
Settings:
Display
Here you can change the width and height of the individual blocks of the graph. Use the sliders for width and height to change the settings.
Fixed width:
All blocks have the same width and height according to your settings.Property based width:
The blocks' size depends on the property you chose. The more of property x an object has (for example, the number of processors), the bigger the block will be displayed proportionally to the other blocks. You can still define the overall width and height with the sliders.Color
Here you can choose the color scheme for your heatmap. Higher values are shown in a lighter shade of the color, and lower values in darker shades.
Data Range
The Data Range option allows you to choose the range of data the graph will display. For line graphs, this means the data on the y-axis.
Label
Timeframe
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.)
The custom option can be used to set timeframes using ISO 8601 format
SquaredUp DS does not support the week notation.
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 ISO 8601 format
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.
Top N
Here you can define a limit for the number of results you want to see. Activate the limit number of results displayed checkbox to enter a limit for results. You can choose if this limit should be applied from the top ranking results down (ascending, default option) or from the bottom ranking results up (descending).
Threshold
You can choose to apply a threshold line at a specified value, and whether you wish to fill above or below this value, or just show the line. For example, for free disk space you might want to fill below the line to highlight when space goes below a particular threshold. For processor information you might want to fill above the line to highlight when processor percentage goes above that threshold. The threshold is also shown on the drilldown view.
Max, min, avg
When drilled-down to view a graph, you can select the min, max and avgoptions for each object (displayed to the right of the graph), which displays a line cutting horizontally across the graph a each of the selected value points.
Data range
The Data Range option allows you to choose the range of data the graph will display. For line graphs, this means the data on the y-axis.
Display
Height:
Allows you to set the height of the tile with a slider.
Show hover details:
Shows the value for all lines at any point you hover. There may not be a value exactly where you hover so the value is interpolated from the values either side.
Show points:
Shows where the data points are on the line. Useful to identify missing points, or detail for changing data.
Show trend
Enable the Show Trend Linestoggle to display a trend line for the line graph data. Disable the toggle to hide the trend line.
Custom colors:
You can display the data in different colors based on labels. For example, you can display data in green for a specific user.
- Click on select color.... to open the color picker. Select the color for this condition.
- Enter your condition in the field next to the color. You can use the
label
property and manipulate it with JavaScript String and Regex APIs. When you click on the mustache picker, you'll get some examples:- Condition is true if the label contains something
For example:{{label.indexOf('SQL') != -1}}
(The color you pick will be used if the label contains 'SQL') - Condition is true if the label contains multiple things
For example:{{label.match(/C:|D:|E:/) != null}}
(The color you pick will be used if the label contains 'C:', 'D:' or 'E:') - Condition is true if the label contains multiple things with multiple variations
For example:{{label.match(/^[Ss]erver[0-9]+$/) != null}}
(The color you pick will be used if the label is 'Server' or 'server' with a number after it)
- Condition is true if the label contains something
Label
Allows you to change the label of the results.
Show legend:
Allows you to show or hide the legend of the graph.
Label:
Timeframe
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.)
The custom option can be used to set timeframes using ISO 8601 format
SquaredUp DS does not support the week notation.
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 ISO 8601 format
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.
Threshold
You can choose to apply a threshold line at a specified value, and whether you wish to fill above or below this value, or just show the line. For example, for free disk space you might want to fill below the line to highlight when space goes below a particular threshold. For processor information you might want to fill above the line to highlight when processor percentage goes above that threshold. The threshold is also shown on the drilldown view.
Data range
The Data Range option allows you to choose the range of data the graph will display. For line graphs, this means the data on the y-axis.
Display
Height:
Allows you to set the height of the tile with a slider.
Show hover details:
Shows the value for all lines at any point you hover. There may not be a value exactly where you hover so the value is interpolated from the values either side.
Solid bars:
Show the bars as solid color or translucent.
Custom colors:
You can display the data in different colors based on labels. For example, you can display data in green for a specific user.
- Click on select color.... to open the color picker. Select the color for this condition.
- Enter your condition in the field next to the color. You can use the
label
property and manipulate it with JavaScript String and Regex APIs. When you click on the mustache picker, you'll get some examples:- Condition is true if the label contains something
For example:{{label.indexOf('SQL') != -1}}
(The color you pick will be used if the label contains 'SQL') - Condition is true if the label contains multiple things
For example:{{label.match(/C:|D:|E:/) != null}}
(The color you pick will be used if the label contains 'C:', 'D:' or 'E:') - Condition is true if the label contains multiple things with multiple variations
For example:{{label.match(/^[Ss]erver[0-9]+$/) != null}}
(The color you pick will be used if the label is 'Server' or 'server' with a number after it)
- Condition is true if the label contains something
Label
Allows you to change the label of the results.
Show legend:
Allows you to show or hide the legend of the graph.
Label:
Timeframe
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.)
The custom option can be used to set timeframes using ISO 8601 format
SquaredUp DS does not support the week notation.
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 ISO 8601 format
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.
Data Range
The Data Range option allows you to choose the range of data the graph will display. For line graphs, this means the data on the y-axis.
Sort
Sort allows you to change the order of the results displayed. You can sort by value (ascending or descending) or label (alphabetically ascending or descending).
Label
Allows you to change the label of the results.
Color
Which timeframe does this visualization use?
This visualization always uses the latest data and ignores the dynamic page timeframe set by users.
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.)
The custom option can be used to set timeframes using ISO 8601 format
SquaredUp DS does not support the week notation.
Settings:
Scalar
Color
Conditional formatting:
You can display the data in different colors based on values you define here. For example, you can display the data in green when the value is below 100 and in red when it is above 100.
- Click on add to configure a condition.
- Click on select color.... to open the color picker. Select the color for this condition.
- Enter your condition in the field next to the color. You can use the
value
property and manipulate it with JavaScript String and Regex APIs. When you click on the mustache picker, you'll get some examples:- Value is greater than something, less than something, etc.
For example:{{value < 10}}
(The color you pick will be used if the value is less than 10) - Value is present in the result (scalar tiles only)
For example:value.IndexOf('error') != -1
(The color you pick will be used if the string value "error" is present in the results) - Value matches one of the regular expressions you defined (scalar tiles only)
For example:value.match(/healthy|good|up/)
(The color you picked will be used if the string values arehealthy
,good
, orup
)
- Value is greater than something, less than something, etc.
Display:
Here you decide how the color is used:
Link options
Allows you to turn the graph item(s) into links. You can either enter plain text to create a fixed link (URL always stays the same) or use dynamic properties to create a dynamic link.
Dynamic links make use of dynamic properties which are inserted as part of the URL. This creates a template URL that will be resolved to an actual URL based on the items properties.
For example, if you want to link to tickets in your ticket system and the format of the URL for tickets in your system is
https://www.my-system/ticket-123
, where123
is the ticket ID, you can use the dynamic property that contains the ticket ID and enter the dynamic URLhttps://www.my-system/ticket-{{ticketID}}
.- For scalars, you can only use the dynamic property
value
in dynamic links, which means the link changes when the value of the scalar changes. Since a scalar is just one item, it would also make sense to use a fixed link, for example the link to the website of which you are displaying the response time. - For status icon or bars and the rows of a grid, you usually want to use a dynamic link since you get multiple items or rows that represent different things. You can use any of the dynamic properties the mustache picker offers you.
Dynamic mustache properties and values you need to change according to your instance are highlighted in bold.
ServiceNow incidents:
https://<your-instance>.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=%2Fincident.do%3Fsys_id%3D{{sys_id}}
PagerDuty incidents:
{{incident.html_url}}
Azure DevOps projects:
https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/{{name}}
Azure DevOps builds:
https://dev.azure.com/<your-instance>/_build/results?buildId={{id}}
Zendesk tickets:
https://<your-instance>.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/{{id}}
Azure Application Insights
https://portal.azure.com/#@squaredup.net/resource/{{ResourceId}}
Click done to save the tile.
The tile now shows data according to your settings.
How to configure a Performance tile Report
- Add a new tile to a dashboard or perspective and choose the Performance tile.
- Choose the Report visualization.
Allows you to compare metrics, such as two different metrics or metrics over different time periods. For example, compare
Processor Time
withMemory Available
, or comparePercentage CPU
with the same period last week.For a step by step guide to using this tile jump to Walkthrough: Adding a Report to compare different metrics and/or time periods..
- Report editor:
Click on Configure report to switch to the report editor.
In the report editor, you can compare different metrics and time periods with each other:
Examples:
Timeframe (at the top of the editor)There is only one timeframe for the report and it can be controlled from two different places, in the timeframe panel in the tile and in the report editor. If you change the timeframe in the panel, the timeframe in the report editor changes. If you change the timeframe in the report editor, the timeframe changes in the panel.
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.)
The custom option can be used to set timeframes using ISO 8601 format
SquaredUp DS does not support the week notation.
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 ISO 8601 format
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.
SquaredUp DS automatically uses the highest resolution data available for the time period. If for example you are comparing a weeks worth of data with this time last week, then last weeks data (days 8-14) will most likely being showing hourly data, because by default the retention settings only keep raw data in the Data Warehouse for 10 days (see How to optimise the Data Warehouse - 5 Point Plan).
ScopeIf your report uses the page timeframe, some page timeframe settings might make it impossible to show a time comparison. The page timeframe must be set to a shorter range than the time comparison.
Example: Your report uses the page timeframe and your time comparison is set to last week (which means 7 days ago from today). When a user changes the page timeframe to last 30 days (which means 30 days ago from today), the time range of the report data is longer than the time comparison.How to identify this issue:
When the comparison line cannot be shown a yellow exclamation mark will be shown at the top right of the tile with a message similar toTimeframe from 5/25/2019 10:26:00 AM to 6/24/2019 10:26:00 AM cannot be shifted by the range 'Last7Days' because it is longer than the range
.How to fix this issue:
If you set your report to a specific timeframe, this issue will not occur since the page timeframe will be ignored.The scope allows you to define which objects are shown, which in turn determines which metrics are available.
Note for using the group or advanced option:
By default the scope of Performance tiles will look at multiple levels of membership (recursive search) for objects, so they will look at multiple-levels of membership rather than just one level. This means the tile shows data for objects that aren't directly contained in a group, but are contained within other objects. For example, this allows you to find disk metrics when scoped to a server.
If the scoped group contains only subgroups and you have not specified a class, then no metrics will be available in the metrics drop down list. By specifying a group AND a class it means that you can extend this recursive search to use top-level groups to show graph data for objects within sub-groups (as well as objects).
To enable recursive searching to work for sub-groups you should specify a group AND a class in the advanced scope option. This will allow the dropdown list to show the metrics for the objects in the sub-groups.
Note for choosing a class:
Choose your class carefully as for a Performance tile this will determine which metrics are available in the Metric panel.
Note for Scalars:
The Scalar visualization should be scoped to only one object using the list option, as only one figure is shown. Do not use a group.
Tip: If you experience any problems with scoping tiles, you'll find FAQs and help in the article How to scope tiles.
MetricNote: 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.
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 underMap
.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 pathMap / 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 exampleMap / 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.
Here you define which value the graph will show. For example, if you want to see the response time of different servers, your metric value would be response time. If you want to see the number of tickets, your metric value would be number (of tickets).
Quick find:
The drop-down list will show you a list of all metrics available for the scope you have set. Press the down arrow on your keyboard in the choose metric field to see the list.
Advanced:
Allows you to specify the object, counter and/or instance. For example, you can use the quick find to find and select the metric
LogicalDisk - % Free Space
, and then click on advanced and specifyC:
in the instance box to only view C: drives.You can also use metric > advanced to show multiple metrics on one graph (How to show multiple metrics on one graph (v4.2 and below)) or use wildcards in metrics (How to use wildcards in metrics).
Resolution refers to the raw, hourly or daily data stored in the Data Warehouse.
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.
The data available in the Data Warehouse is determined by the retention period set in SCOM.
See How to optimise the Data Warehouse - 5 Point Plan and No values found for the given metric for the last <time period> at the resolution '<raw/hourly/daily>'
When a resolution of hourly or daily is chosen you can select whether you'd like to see the average, minimum or maximum figures for that aggregated time period. For example, for a web transaction you might want to see the maximum or minimum figures rather than the average.
Top NThis allows you to specify that metric label, which is then displayed on the y-axis and hover value.
You should select the label that matches how the the data is being returned, or use the other option to specify a custom metric label, such as pages/sec or count.
Here you can define a limit for the number of results you want to see. Activate the limit number of results displayed checkbox to enter a limit for results. You can choose if this limit should be applied from the top ranking results down (ascending, default option) or from the bottom ranking results up (descending).
Time comparison
Creates a new line in the graph that shows the same data, but how it looked like in the past. The line will be a dashed line to be easily identifiable as a time comparison. If the line refers to the same object, the lines will be the same color, with the time comparison line in a lighter shade.
You can choose different points in the past between yesterday and 12 months ago. If you don't want a time comparison line in your graph, leave the setting to none (default).For SquaredUp DS v4.4 and above:
The time comparison always shows the same objects. The top n setting is applied to the objects for the current time period, and then the same objects are shown for the time comparison as dashed lines.For SquaredUp DS v4.3 and below:
When you limit the number of results using the top n option in a time comparison in the Report tile, the top n lines are shown for the current time period can be different from the top n lines shown for the time comparison period. For example, if your top n settings limit the number of results to the top 5 results (ascending) and compare them to the results 30 days ago, there might be different results in the top 5 which leads to different objects shown in the graph.Note: Only the lines shown for the current time period are shown in the legend, which may not be clear when using Open Access.
Y-axisSquaredUp DS automatically uses the highest resolution data available for the time period. If for example you are comparing a weeks worth of data with this time last week, then last weeks data (days 8-14) will most likely being showing hourly data, because by default the retention settings only keep raw data in the Data Warehouse for 10 days (see How to optimise the Data Warehouse - 5 Point Plan).
Here you can decide if the values (y-axis) and labels for this layer will be shown on the left or right side of the graph.
If you want to compare two different metrics, it makes sense to put one layer's metrics on the left side and the other layer's metrics on the right side.
Label- A Layer contains the object and the metric. By adding new layers, you add new metrics and compare them with each other.
- Time comparisons compares different time periods of the same metric in the same layer.
- If you want to compare how one metric looks compared to the same metric six months ago, you only need one layer with a time comparison.
- If you want to compare the CPU usage to the memory usage of one computer, you need two layers with different metrics.
- Click back to dashboard in the upper left corner to get back from the report editor to your dashboard.
- If you want to define further settings for your report, you need to switch the dashboard to edit mode and edit the tile.
- Timeframe:
There is only one timeframe for the report and it can be controlled from two different places, in the timeframe panel in the tile and in the report editor. If you change the timeframe in the panel, the timeframe in the report editor changes. If you change the timeframe in the report editor, the timeframe changes in the panel.
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.)
The custom option can be used to set timeframes using ISO 8601 format
SquaredUp DS does not support the week notation.
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 ISO 8601 format
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.
If your report uses the page timeframe, some page timeframe settings might make it impossible to show a time comparison. The page timeframe must be set to a shorter range than the time comparison.
Example: Your report uses the page timeframe and your time comparison is set to last week (which means 7 days ago from today). When a user changes the page timeframe to last 30 days (which means 30 days ago from today), the time range of the report data is longer than the time comparison.How to identify this issue:
When the comparison line cannot be shown a yellow exclamation mark will be shown at the top right of the tile with a message similar toTimeframe from 5/25/2019 10:26:00 AM to 6/24/2019 10:26:00 AM cannot be shifted by the range 'Last7Days' because it is longer than the range
.How to fix this issue:
If you set your report to a specific timeframe, this issue will not occur since the page timeframe will be ignored. - Data range:
The Data Range option allows you to choose the range of data the graph will display. For line graphs, this means the data on the y-axis.
- Height:
Height:
Allows you to set the height of the tile with a slider.
- Legend:
Allows you to show or hide the legend of the graph.
Click done to save the tile.
The tile now shows data according to your settings.
How to enable graph color matching
Graph color matching means that one item (a specific resource, object, site, anything you are displaying in your graphs) is shown in the same color in different graphs on one dashboard or one perspective.
Line Graphs, Sparklines, Bar Graphs and Reports (available in Performance tiles) support graph color matching.
Color matching only works when the item uses the exact same label in all graphs.
For SquaredUp DS v4.8 and above:
Graph lines on a dashboard will show the same color when the object labels match, even if those graphs show different metrics.
For SquaredUp DS v4.7 and below:
Graph lines will only show the same color for the same object when displaying the same metric.
How to use graph color matching
- Graph color matching must be enabled for the dashboard or the perspective. The default setting for all dashboards and perspectives is color matching enabled.
The default setting for graph color matching is on. Here's how you can check or change this setting:
- On a dashboard or perspective click the edit button
- Click the settings button.
- The match by label button is under Graph colors.
If you want to disable color matching, toggle the match by label button to OFF.
If you want to enable color matching, toggle the match by label button to ON.
- The label for the item must be the same in all graphs that you want to display the same color.
- In the label panel of your graph, set the label to custom label.
- If you are using a mustache property, make sure that you use the same property in all graphs you want to color match.
If you are using a manipulated mustache label (for example, custom text between labels likeName: {{properties.name}}
), make sure to use the exact same label in all graphs you want to color match.
If you are using custom text, make sure to use the exact same custom text including upper and lower cases. - For resources that show the same label the colors will now match:
- For Sparklines and Bar Graphs (called Bar Top N in Performance tiles), you need to switch on multiple colors to enable color matching. Multiple colors is switched off by default, you need to switch it on for each Sparkline and Bar Graph.
- Go to the color panel of the Sparkline or Bar Graph.
- Toggle multiple colors to on.
The Sparkline or Bar Graph will now color match, as long as the dashboard setting match by label is on and the labels do match.
Walkthroughs
Walkthrough: Adding a Line Graph to show % Processor Time.
The Performance tile can be used on a dashboard or a perspective. This walkthrough shows you how to add a Line Graph to a dashboard.
- In SquaredUp DS navigate to where you'd like the dashboard to be created. Hover over the + button and click dashboard.
- Give the dashboard a title, by replacing the text that says New Dashboard.
The dashboard is saved as you go along so there's no need to save your changes. You can find your dashboard by clicking on the right-hand menu ☰ > system > unpublished. - A new tile has already been added to the dashboard. Edit the title by overwriting the placeholder value New tile with your own title.
- The tile selector will already be open. Click Performance. The Performance tile button (along with several other tiles) displays a little plus up the top right. This indicates that there are more tiles available from this one button.
- Click on the Line Graph button to create a line graph.
- Next we need to scope the tile. In the scope section select group then type the name of a group, such as the
IIS Computer Group
and then click on the group from the results.
Correctly scoping the tile is very important. To find out more about advanced scoping options see How to use criteria when scoping objects. On perspectives the tile scope will only show you the groups and classes that the object you have drilled down to is a member of. - Click next.
- The quick find option will find metrics available for the scope you have set. Either start typing, or press the down arrow on the keyboard to see a list of all the metrics available. For this walkthrough type
processor
and then select the metricProcessor Information - % Processor Time
.
Performance graphs for the servers should appear after a moment. You could stop here, but we'll continue to configure the tile. - Under metric label click on percent. % symbols will show on the y-axis of the graph, and very small values will be shown in percent rather than milli values (see Understanding the figures on Performance graphs).
- Click next.
- Leave the Timeframe set to use page timeframe so the time period for this tile changes when users change the page timeframe.
- Click next.
- In the top n section limit the number of results displayed to 3, and tick descending to show those with the highest processor utilization.
- Leave data range as it is.
- In the display section drag the slider to increase the graph height.
- Leave the label section as it is. For more information on changing the label see How to use Custom Labels.
- Click done.
Walkthrough: Adding a Heatmap to show % Processor time and Logical Processors.
- Click the orange + plus button to add a new tile to the dashboard.
- Click Performance, and then the Heatmap button.
- In the scope section select group then type the name of a group, such as the
IIS Computer Group
and then click on that group in the results. On perspectives the tile scope will only show you the groups and classes that the object you have drilled down to is a member of. - In the metricquick find section type
processor
and then select the metricProcessor Information - % Processor Time
.
A heatmap should appear after a moment. - Once you've chosen a metric give the tile a title which explains what the tile shows.
- In the display section adjust the width and height sliders to change the heatmap sizes.
In addition, you can choose to use a property to determine the size of each rectangle, for example logicalProcessors. By default objects with no data are hidden, you can choose to show them by ticking the box show objects with no data. - The color section allows you to change the heatmap color.
- Leave the data range section as it is for now. This allows you to change the range of values shown.
- Leave the label section as it is. For more information on changing the label see How to use Custom Labels.
- Click done.
Walkthrough: Adding a Report to compare different metrics and/or time periods.
This walkthrough shows you how to add metrics as layers to the Report tile, and also how to compare them with historical data.
- Click on the Report button to create a Report.
- Give the tile a title.
- The Report tile uses layers to allow you to add multiple metrics to one graph for comparison. This could get difficult to view in a narrow column, so this tile allows you to edit the tile full screen in a report editor). Click configure report to open the report editor and add layers. The report editor has opened full screen, but you can return to your dashboard at any time by clicking the back to dashboard button at the top right. The layer configuration appears on the left side of the screen, and a preview of the graph will show on the right as your proceed.
- The first layer is expanded ready for you to edit. Give the layer a title, such as the metric you intend to add.
- For this walkthrough we are going to compare two metrics for one machine. In the scope section click list then type the name of a machine, and then click on that machine in the results.
- In the metric > quick find box type the name of the first metric you want to add.
For this walkthrough typeprocessor
and then select the metricProcessor Information / % Processor Time
.
The right side of the screen will show a preview of the graph. You could stop here, but we'll continue to configure the tile. - Click done.
- Click the orange plus button to add a second layer for your next metric.
- Give this layer the title of the metric you are adding.
- Click list then type the name of machine you used for the first layer, and then click on that machine in the results.
- In the metric > quick find box type the name of the first metric you want to add.
For this walkthrough typememory
and then select the metricMemory / PercentMemoryUsed
. - Leave the top n section as it is for this walkthrough.
You might like to add a line to allow you to compare this data with historical data. Adding the time comparison is optional. - In the time comparison section click one of the time periods to compare with this data, for example click yesterday.
- To add a time comparison for the existing layer, hover over the existing layer and then click the compare layer button to jump straight into the time comparison section and then click yesterday.
- In the y-axis section click on right to get the PercentMemoryUsed graph to use the right-hand y-axis.
This is useful because the two metrics use quite different scales, so the two graphs show more clearly using two different y axes. - Leave the label section as it is. For more information on changing the label see How to use Custom Labels.
- At this point the graph is complete, so you can click done and then the back to dashboard button up the top right of the page.
- Return to editing the Report tile by clicking the edit this dashboard button at the top right, and then the edit tile button to the top right of the tile itself.
- Click into the legend configuration section and click on show legend to tick the box.
- Click done.
Using the Performance tile
The Performance drilldown
Clicking on a line graph, bar chart or sparkline will take you to a Performance drilldown page. On a line graph you can click on an individual line to drilldown to that one line, or click on white space to drilldown to multiple lines.
From here you can:
- Change the timeframe using the options along the top, the custom timeframe picker, or by clicking on the graph itself.
- Compare the data to another object or group of objects.
- Export the performance data to Excel for further analysis (see Export to Excel).
- View trend lines for the objects in the graph.
- See the minimum, maximum and average for the time period. See Understanding the figures on Performance graphs.
FAQs
How do I get the line colors to match for the same objects on different graphs?
Ensure that the labels match, jump to How to enable graph color matching.
How do I show a metric that has a comma in the name?
See How to use wildcards in metrics.
How can I show more than one metric on the same graph?
For SquaredUp DS v4.3 and above use the Report tile (jump to How to configure a Performance tile Report), for v4.2 and below see How to show multiple metrics on one graph (v4.2 and below).
What does the m µ k or M mean on the performance drilldown page? Why isn't GB shown?
See Understanding the figures on Performance graphs.
Why is the time comparison line not shown?
If your report uses the page timeframe, some page timeframe settings might make it impossible to show a time comparison. The page timeframe must be set to a shorter range than the time comparison.
Example: Your report uses the page timeframe and your time comparison is set to last week (which means 7 days ago from today). When a user changes the page timeframe to last 30 days (which means 30 days ago from today), the time range of the report data is longer than the time comparison.
How to identify this issue:
When the comparison line cannot be shown a yellow exclamation mark will be shown at the top right of the tile with a message similar to Timeframe from 5/25/2019 10:26:00 AM to 6/24/2019 10:26:00 AM cannot be shifted by the range 'Last7Days' because it is longer than the range
.
How to fix this issue:
If you set your report to a specific timeframe, this issue will not occur since the page timeframe will be ignored.
Why is the time comparison line less detailed than the original line?
SquaredUp DS automatically uses the highest resolution data available for the time period. If for example you are comparing a weeks worth of data with this time last week, then last weeks data (days 8-14) will most likely being showing hourly data, because by default the retention settings only keep raw data in the Data Warehouse for 10 days (see How to optimise the Data Warehouse - 5 Point Plan).
Why are the time comparison lines showing different objects to those shown on the legend?
For SquaredUp DS v4.4 and above:
The time comparison always shows the same objects. The top n setting is applied to the objects for the current time period, and then the same objects are shown for the time comparison as dashed lines.
For SquaredUp DS v4.3 and below:
When you limit the number of results using the top n option in a time comparison in the Report tile, the top n lines are shown for the current time period can be different from the top n lines shown for the time comparison period. For example, if your top n settings limit the number of results to the top 5 results (ascending) and compare them to the results 30 days ago, there might be different results in the top 5 which leads to different objects shown in the graph.
Note: Only the lines shown for the current time period are shown in the legend, which may not be clear when using Open Access.
Troubleshooting the Performance tile
The Performance tile accesses the Data Warehouse directly using the published schema, so must have a Data Warehouse connection with the correct permissions for Performance graphs to work.
No Performance graphs anywhere in SquaredUp DS
If no graphs are showing anywhere in SquaredUp DS, SquaredUp DSis particularly slow, or you are seeing connection or login failed errors on all Performance tiles, you should check the Data Warehouse connection, see Troubleshooting the Data Warehouse connection.
Only some graphs are shown in SquaredUp DS
If you are seeing some graphs in SquaredUp DS, this means the Data Warehouse connection is configured correctly. If some Performance tiles show blank or show an error you should troubleshoot these tiles individually.
Errors
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.)
The custom option can be used to set timeframes using ISO 8601 format
SquaredUp DS does not support the week notation.
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 ISO 8601 format
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.
Symptoms
A Performance tile shows the following error instead of data:
timeout-command: Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.
Cause
The Performance tile accesses data from the Data Warehouse directly using the published schema.
The SQL timeout is 30 seconds by default and it is not configurable.
It is not configurable for two reasons:
a) If the query is taking longer than 30 seconds then it's already putting a significant load on your Data Warehouse
b) 30 seconds is already a long time for a user to wait.
Procedure
- Install the latest version of SquaredUp DS.
- Check the Data Warehouse.
One option to address these timeouts is to check the performance and load on the SCOM Data Warehouse server, and if necessary provide your Data Warehouse with more compute resources.
See How to optimise the Data Warehouse - 5 Point Plan. - Reconfigure the dashboard.
- Reduce the scope of the dashboard to fewer servers, by clicking on Scope and selecting a group with fewer members. i.e. create a small group in SCOM for testing.
- Performance bar charts are expensive. In the metric section check the resolution.
If raw is selected this may account for the Data Warehouse timeout, change this to hourly as this is the recommended and faster setting.
If hourly is selected, then change it to daily, or perhaps raw just to see if this then displays data. - Try changing the visualization to a Performance line graph or sparkline to see if data is returned.
- Remove one or more of the Performance graphs from the dashboard.