Dashboards and perspectives are both pages that show tiles of data and graphs that update every minute. The difference is that for dashboards each tile on the page is configured separately to show information about whichever objects you choose, whereas perspectives can be configured so that all the tiles on the page dynamically change to show information about the one object you have browsed to.
You should create a dashboard if the page will show information about a variety of objects.
You should create a perspective if the tiles will be showing various information related to one specific object. For example, memory, CPU, alerts, for one object. You can create one perspective and have it dynamically show you the data for the objectthe user has drilled down to view.
For a series of short videos taking you through building and designing your own dashboards see the SquaredUp DS video series.
For a series of short videos taking you through building and designing your own dashboards see the Fundamentals video series (Fundamentals).
If you're looking for some real-life examples of dashboards, check out the Dashboard Gallery. You'll find dashboards that users from SquaredUp and the Community have created to help you get the most out of SquaredUp DS:
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 unpublished. Draft dashboards are not visible to anyone other than you.
You can toggle between Edit mode and View mode by clicking the edit this dashboard button at the top right.
In SquaredUp DS navigate to where you'd like the dashboard to be created. Hover over the + button and click dashboard. This image shows creating a dashboard at the top level of the navigation bar:
Or you might prefer to navigate to a subfolder and create the new dashboard there:
You may also like to watch this 7 minute video about creating a NOC (network operations center) dashboard, which is part of our Fundamentals Quick Win video series:
The most important part of any dashboard is the data. The edit tile (cog) button and configure tile links both allow you to choose the kind of tile you want to add and then configure it.
There are detailed articles for each of the different tiles, that take you through all the configuration options and a walkthrough to get you started.
For more information about how to configure each tile type see the list of tile articles here:
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. Draft dashboards are not visible to anyone other than you.
A newly created dashboard will not be visible to others until it is published.
Only admins can publish dashboards, unless you have been given author permissions to a Team Folder see Team Folders
If you made changes to an existing dashboard, the changes will only be visible to others after you published the dashboard again.
You can identify a dashboard that has not been published yet or has unpublished changes by the unpublished button at the top:
When you click on the unpublished button, you'll have two options:
Publish will make the dashboard or changes visible to others. Note: A newly created dashboard will appear on the menu where you created it. To move the dashboard to a different place on the navigation bar see How to edit the Navigation Bar.
Discard will delete your draft dashboard if it has never been published or, if you made changes to an already published dashboard, discard the changes.
On the main menu your dashboard will be visible to everyone.
If it is within a Team Folder then it will only be visible to those with access to that Team Folder (see Team Folders).
If the dashboard has Open Access enabled, or is added to the Open Access navigation bar, then it will be visible to anyone, even unlicensed users (see Sharing Dashboards with anyone - Open Access).
All SCOM data in SquaredUp DS is subject to SCOM's role-based access control (RBAC), so users will only see SCOM data that they have permissions to view. For more information see User Management.
If a dashboard or perspective is not published yet (draft), the discard and discard changes buttons will delete it.
If the dashboard or perspective has been published, and then you make changes, discard will discard the changes and leave the previously published dashboard or perspective live.
If you unpublish a dashboard or perspective and then discard changes then the dashboard or perspective will be deleted.
Whenever you make a change in edit mode, the Undo button is enabled, clicking this button will undo the last change you made to the dashboard.
Whenever you perform an undo action, the Redo button is enabled, clicking this button will reverse the undo and re-implement the change you last undid.
The following keyboard shortcuts are also supported for this functionality:
SquaredUp DS admins can view a list of all the published perspectives from System > Perspectives.
The Delete button allows you to delete a perspective quickly.
You can navigate to a dashboard, perspective, or pinned perspective, click the edit button and then click the delete button.
Note: If you are deleting a pinned perspective, you only delete the pinned perspective, not the original perspective.
Note about the discard button:
If a dashboard or perspective is not published yet (draft), the discard and discard changes buttons will delete it.
If the dashboard or perspective has been published, and then you make changes, discard will discard the changes and leave the previously published dashboard or perspective live.
If you unpublish a dashboard or perspective and then discard changes then the dashboard or perspective will be deleted.
More options to delete a dashboard or pinned perspective
Note: These options only work for dashboards and pinned perspectives, not for perspectives. If you delete a pinned perspective, only the pinned perspective will be deleted, not the original perspective.
Other options to delete a dashboard or pinned perspective are:
You can delete the dashboard or pinned perspective from the navigation bar. Deleting it from the navigation bar will delete it completely, not just from the navigation bar.
The global navigation editor is accessible only by SCOM administrators (Types of users in SquaredUp DS) from the right-hand menu ☰ > edit navigation or system > dashboards.
This allows SCOM administrators to reposition globally viewable folders and Team Folders on the navigation bar, as well as the ability to move any globally viewable dashboards.
Globally viewable (normal) dashboards are shown simply by the dashboard name.
Globally viewable folders (normal folders that appear on the navigation bars for everyone) are shown by a folder icon:
Team folders are shown with this icon:
Managing the dashboards within Team Folders is done from the Team Folder settings page.
Click on the dashboard 'handle' to drag it to a new position, for example, drag it to the right to move it into a subfolder.
Reordering content is saved automatically and any changes are instantly reflected.
There are 3 icons across different elements of the navigation editor when hovering on a folder:
The edit team folder icon is shown next to Team Folders and clicking it will take you to the Team Folder settings page where you can view and sort the dashboards within the Team Folder.
The view folder button takes you to the folder itself to view or edit that folder.
The delete button will delete items. This deletes the dashboard or folder and sub-contents completely, not just from the navigation bar. (Admin users can restore deleted dashboards and perspectives from the Recycle Bin
If the dashboard or pinned perspective is in a folder, you can go to the folder settings , click the edit button, and delete it from the folder. Deleting it from the folder will delete the dashboard, not just from the folder. Admin users can restore dashboards and perspectives, see Recycle Bin
This allows you to see and edit the JSON behind the dashboard, which can be useful for troubleshooting with the help of SquaredUp Supportor for some editing such as when using the Matrix tile (see How to use the Matrix tile).
Click on the edit dashboard button
Click on the edit JSON button. You see the dashboard's JSON.
You can easily convert an existing dashboard into a perspective. This is useful when you have multiple objects you want to get the same kind of information about. Instead of creating separate dashboards for each object, you can use one perspective that will dynamically show the information depending on which object is currently viewed.
Note: Converting a dashboard does not delete the original dashboard. It preserves the original dashboard and creates a new perspective based on that dashboard.
Click the edit button.
Click the Convert To Perspective button.
Choose the target for the new perspective under Create perspective for.
The target of a perspective determines two things:
for which set of objects the perspective will be visible in the perspective ribbon
which set of objects will be used for the dynamic scope of the tiles Note about the relation between the perspective's target and the scope of the perspective's tiles: Usually, when you create tiles on a perspective you use a dynamic scope for them that adapts to the currently viewed object. When you define a perspective's target, you define for which objects the perspective will be available. Since the target determines the objects that can be viewed and the currently viewed object determines how the dynamic scope is resolved, the target directly affects the scope of those tiles.
specific object
Creates a perspective for a single object with the target setting "this object only"
group
Creates a perspective for a group object with the target setting "this object only"
members of
Creates a perspective with the target setting "members of" the group or class you picked
Example: If you want the new perspective to appear for all Distributed Applications (DAs) choose Create perspective formembers of and in the Class box type service and then select System.Service from the drop down list:
Click convert. The dashboard will be converted to a perspective, and you will be navigated to the new perspective.
Note: Converting a dashboard does not delete the original dashboard. It preserves the original dashboard and creates a new perspective based on that dashboard.
After converting a dashboard to a perspective, the scope of each tile will be set to the non-dynamic scope option "other specific objects". To take advantage of the power of perspectives, you need to edit the tiles on the perspective to use a dynamic scope. Example: If you want a Status tile to show the health status of each of the DA components change the scope to custom, select the children and one level options, and set the Class to object.
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.
This object
The dynamic scope will be resolved to the object currently viewed.
This / child / child / class of object
The dynamic scope will be resolved to children of the object currently viewed.
You select objects of a particular class that are contained in path. The class of the objects you are selecting is stated at the end of the path.
This / *
The dynamic scope will be resolved to children of the object currently viewed.
If a path ends with a wildcard (*) it means that you select all objects of any class within the path.
Example: This / IIS Web Server / * selects all objects of any class in the level below This / IIS Web Server.
This / child / ... / class of object
The dynamic scope will be resolved to children of the object currently viewed.
If a path contains an ellipsis (...) it means that you select objects of a particular class that are contained in all of the objects that are contained in the path preceding the ellipsis. The class of the objects you are selecting is stated at the end of the path.
Example:
This / Sales App Map / ... / Windows Computer selects all objects of the class Windows Computer in the This / Sales App Map path.
Parent class of object
The dynamic scope will be resolved to parents of the object currently viewed.
Sibling class of object
The dynamic scope will be resolved to siblings of the object currently viewed.
Show more triangle next to a suggestion
You can click the show more triangle to expand the list of suggestions and see more specific paths.
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 option This / 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Graph colors are set to match by label by default, meaning that the same color will apply to an object with the same label across several graphs. See How to enable graph color matching.
Within SquaredUp DS, it decides which timeframe a dashboard or perspective uses when a user goes to the dashboard or perspective. Tiles set to use the page timeframe (not a fixed, specific timeframe) will use the default page timeframe every time the dashboard or perspective is opened. Users can change the page timeframe temporarily while they are on the dashboard or perspective, but their setting will only last until they leave the page. Their setting will only affect their view of the dashboard or perspective, not other users' views.
On Open Access dashboards, tiles that use the page timeframe according to their settings always use the default page timeframe.
Settings for the default page timeframe
You can change the default page timeframe for individual dashboards, or globally:
Changing the default page timeframe of a dashboard will affect this individual dashboard and it's Open Access representation. The default page timeframe for perspectives can't be changed individually, they always use the global default page timeframe. Pinned perspectives are treated as dashboards, which means you can change their default page timeframe settings.
The global default page timeframe is "last 12 hours". Changing this default setting will affect all dashboards (including Open Access dashboards) that don't have an individual default page timeframe setting. Perspectives always use the global default page timeframe as their timeframe can't be changed individually.
Note: If you are sharing the dashboard or pinned perspective via Open Access, these changes will also affect the Open Access dashboard.
Note: You can't change the individual default page timeframe of a perspective.
Go to the dashboard or pinned perspective you want to change the individual default page timeframe for.
On the dashboard, click the edit button
Click the settings button.
Choose the new default timeframe under Dashboard timeframe.
Click on the publish button to make the changes go live. The dashboard will now by default use the page timeframe you chose. Users can still temporarily change the page timeframe while looking at the dashboard. Tip: If you want to undo the individual page timeframe setting to let the dashboard use the global default timeframe again, you need to switch to the JSON view of the dashboard and delete the parameter that defines the dashboard's page timeframe (for example "timeframe": "last7days").
By default dashboards (and their Open Access versions) refresh every 60 seconds.
This setting allows you to change the refresh interval on a per dashboard basis, both for the normal dashboard and its Open Access version.
This setting overrides the global dashboard refresh interval.
For example, you may need to reduce the load on your external data, or for an API that has an access cost.
You can increase the refresh interval in increments, up to 6 hours. You can also decrease the interval down to 30 seconds on any given dashboard if you need to see the data refreshed more often.
If you're looking for general information about what kind of timeframes can affect a tile please read Timeframes for tiles.
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.
Default page timeframe
The default page timeframe affects two areas:
Within SquaredUp DS, it decides which timeframe a dashboard or perspective uses when a user goes to the dashboard or perspective. Tiles set to use the page timeframe (not a fixed, specific timeframe) will use the default page timeframe every time the dashboard or perspective is opened. Users can change the page timeframe temporarily while they are on the dashboard or perspective, but their setting will only last until they leave the page. Their setting will only affect their view of the dashboard or perspective, not other users' views.
On Open Access dashboards, tiles that use the page timeframe according to their settings always use the default page timeframe.
Settings for the default page timeframe
You can change the default page timeframe for individual dashboards, or globally:
Changing the default page timeframe of a dashboard will affect this individual dashboard and it's Open Access representation. The default page timeframe for perspectives can't be changed individually, they always use the global default page timeframe. Pinned perspectives are treated as dashboards, which means you can change their default page timeframe settings.
The global default page timeframe is "last 12 hours". Changing this default setting will affect all dashboards (including Open Access dashboards) that don't have an individual default page timeframe setting. Perspectives always use the global default page timeframe as their timeframe can't be changed individually.
Note: If you are sharing the dashboard or pinned perspective via Open Access, these changes will also affect the Open Access dashboard.
Note: You can't change the individual default page timeframe of a perspective.
Go to the dashboard or pinned perspective you want to change the individual default page timeframe for.
On the dashboard, click the edit button
Click the settings button.
Choose the new default timeframe under Dashboard timeframe.
Click on the publish button to make the changes go live. The dashboard will now by default use the page timeframe you chose. Users can still temporarily change the page timeframe while looking at the dashboard. Tip: If you want to undo the individual page timeframe setting to let the dashboard use the global default timeframe again, you need to switch to the JSON view of the dashboard and delete the parameter that defines the dashboard's page timeframe (for example "timeframe": "last7days").
Note: This setting affects all dashboards and perspectives (including Open Access dashboards and pinned perspectives on Open Access).
On the SquaredUp server, run Notepad as administrator (Start, Run, type notepad, and then right-click and select Run as administrator).
In your SquaredUp DS folder, go to \User\Configuration and find the extensionpacks.json file.
Name of the SquaredUp folder
The default name of the SquaredUp folder is SquaredUp for v6 and above.
For v5 it is SquaredUpv5, and for v4 SquaredUpv4.
Location of the SquaredUp folder
A custom location may have been chosen during the installation.
The default location for the SquaredUp folder is C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SquaredUp
For v5 it is C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SquaredUpv5 and for v4 C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SquaredUpv4.
Open the extensionpacks.json file and add the property default-timeframe with the value for your new default page timeframe for all your dashboards and perspectives. Example for a default timeframe of 24 hours:
{
"default-timeframe": "last24hours"}
Possible values for the default-timeframe property:
last1hour, last12hours, last24hours, last7days, last30days, last3months,last6months, last12months, all
The Set Home Dashboard button at the top of each dashboard allows you to set that dashboard as your personal home dashboard. A panel opens which allows you to Set Home, if no homepage is set, Clear Home if this dashboard is already set as the homepage, or Replace Home if another dashboard is already set as the homepage. The home dashboard will then be shown first when you log in or click the SquaredUp logo. This replaces the default home dashboard, which is the first dashboard on the navigation bar.
If a personal home dashboard is already set, you will have the option to replace it.
In System > Personalization you can see which dashboard is set as your personal home dashboard. Clicking Clear Home will revert you to using the default home dashboard.
The edit team folder icon is shown next to Team Folders and clicking it will take you to the Team Folder settings page where you can view and sort the dashboards within the Team Folder.
The view folder button takes you to the folder itself to view or edit that folder.
The delete button will delete items. This deletes the dashboard or folder and sub-contents completely, not just from the navigation bar. (Admin users can restore deleted dashboards and perspectives from the Recycle Bin
