6.2 Understanding Dashboard Basics

Each dashboard comes with a default set of visuals and search options that can assist you in finding the relevant data.

The following topics cover the basic actions you can perform on dashboards, starting with the operations on the Dashboards page, followed by the operations on individual dashboards. Most of the operations apply to all dashboards unless specific otherwise.

6.2.1 Searching For Dashboards

You can find specific dashboards by using one of the following options:

Search by Tags

This option is selected by default. To search for dashboards with a specific tag, select a tag from the Filter Dashboards list and then click outside the list. You can add multiple tags to refine your search results.

Search by Name

Select the Search by Name option, select the name of the required dashboard in the Filter Dashboards list, and click outside the list. You can select multiple names.

6.2.2 Customizing Dashboards

The Dashboards page has a default view that you can customize to your preference.

Sort

By default, the dashboards are arranged in ascending alphabetic order. To sort in reverse order, click the Sorted icon.

Card Size Scale

Click the Dashboard card size scale icon and slide to adjust the size of all dashboards cards.

Reload

Click the Reload icon to load the latest Dashboards page.

6.2.3 Viewing Individual Dashboards

Each dashboard has a Load option that allows you to load the dashboard data and all its infographics for visualization. For more information on how to interact with these infographics, see Interacting with Your Dashboard Data.

In addition to the Load option, each dashboard also has the option to Edit or Clone it. The Clone option is only available on default dashboards or those created by ACDI. These dashboards cannot be edited directly. However, the Edit option is available if you clone the dashboard or create a new one using the Dashboard Editor. For more information about how to clone a dashboard, see Cloning Dashboards and to create a new dashboard, see Creating a New Dashboard.

When you access a dashboard, ACDI automatically saves it to Dashboards > Favorites for quick and easy future access.

HINT:If you want to see a list of all dashboards and their last updated time, click Dashboards tab next to the one you are currently viewing.

6.2.4 Full Screen for Better Viewing

Enhance your dashboard viewing experience with the Full screen option. When you click on it, the full-screen mode maximizes your view by hiding the toolbar. To further elevate your experience, minimize the navigation pane by clicking the triple bar icon located at the top left corner of the screen.

When you are done with the full screen mode, click Exit full screen to switch back to the regular view.

Each visualization panel in a dashboard can be maximized further for a better view of the information. Click located in the top right corner of the panel and select Maximize panel. When a panel is maximized, other panels in the dashboard will be hidden. To switch back to the regular view, click again and select Minimize.

You can use the Toggle Legend option to show or hide legends on each panel.

6.2.5 Generating Dashboard URLs for Sharing

If you have created a custom dashboard on ACDI and wish to share it with other ACDI users, ACDI offers several options to do it. You can either send a URL of your current dashboard view or a URL that enables users view the latest version of the dashboard. In addition, ACDI additionally offers two distinct formats to generate dashboard URLs:

  • iFrame: The dashboard URL is embedded within the <iframe> </iframe> HTML tag that can be easily embedded into another HTML document.

  • Permalinks: Permalink of a dashboard is the complete URL that enables users to see all dashboard content.

To embed the dashboard link into the HTML iFrame element, perform the following steps:

  1. On the ACDI’s Home page, click Dashboards.

  2. Click Load on the dashboard of your choice.

  3. Click Share > Embed code and choose any one of the following options depending on whether you want to share the dashboard with a relative or fixed timeframe:

    Snapshot

    Generates a URL that encodes the current state of the dashboard as a snapshot, including the time selection as absolute dates. Your recipients sees the same data you are viewing now. Any changes saved after generating the URL will not be visible through this URL.

    Saved Object

    Generates a dashboard URL with a relative time selection. Share this URL if you want users to access the latest saved version of this dashboard.

  4. (Optional) Select the dashboard components you want to include in the generated URL. Available options:

    • Top Menu

    • Query

    • Time filter

    • Filter bar

  5. (Optional) Only applies if you choose to share the snapshot URL of a dashboard, as in Step 3.

    Enable Short URL to generate a shortened URL for the snapshot. This option is useful in cases when browsers have limitations on URL length and are not fully compatible with the full-length version.

  6. Click Copy iFrame Code.

To generate a permanent link of your dashboard, perform the following steps:

  1. On the ACDI’s Home page, click Dashboards.

  2. Click Load on the dashboard of your choice.

  3. (Optional) Only applies if you choose to share the snapshot URL of a dashboard, as in Step 3.

    Enable Short URL to generate a shortened URL for the snapshot. This option is useful in cases when browsers have limitations on URL length and are not fully compatible with the full-length version.

  4. Click Copy link.

6.2.6 Generating OSD Reports

ACDI offers you the ability to generate reports in three different file formats, namely PDF, PNG, and CSV. You can generate reports in PDF and PNG formats using the Dashboards user interface, while the option to generate reports in CSV format is available on the Discover page under the Manage menu.

To generate a report from the Dashboards user interface, perform the following steps:

  1. On the ACDI’s Home page, click Dashboards in the navigation pane.

  2. Click Load on the Dashboard of your choice.

  3. Click Reporting from the toolbar.

  4. Click Download PDF or Download PNG based on your requirement.

To generate a report from the Discover page, perform the following steps:

  1. On the ACDI’s Home page, click Manage > Discover in the navigation pane.

  2. Select the dataset and the time range to generate data.

  3. Click Reporting > Generate CSV.

Report generation time may vary depending on the size of your data. Do not close the Generating report dialog while the report is being generated. You will receive a notification when your report is ready for download. To view the report, click Reports in the notification window.

All generated reports are kept on record on the Discover page. After the report is successfully generated, you can also view it by going to Manage > Discover > Reporting > View reports. Click the report link you wish to view.

Creating Schedule-based Report

To create scheduled reports, you must create a report definition first. Go to Discover > Reporting > Create report definition. The option pre-fills many of the fields based on the data you were viewing. For more information, see Creating reports using a definition in the Opensearch Documentation.

6.2.7 Cloning Dashboards

Cloning creates an editable copy of the original dashboard, duplicating all existing visualizations. You can then modify the visualization on the cloned dashboard.

  1. Click Clone on the dashboard you want to clone.

    ACDI automatically assigns a new Dashboard ID to the cloned dashboard.

  2. In the Dashboard Editor, specify a new Display Name.

  3. Click the Save icon.

6.2.8 Interacting with Your Dashboard Data

Dashboards allow you to analyze and visualize your data in depth. ACDI offers various options to construct filters, also known as search terms or queries, which help to narrow down the result. You can filter for data based on different criteria such as “within the last 7 days” or “contains the Object Name:Smith”. These filters allow you to interact with the data on a dashboard and get desired insights.

The following sections explains in a sequence how to explore your data on a dashboard:

Setting the Time Filter

When your data contains time-based events, the visualization panel displays data within a specified time range. Using the time filter, you can limit the time range of data displayed. The default time range is last 24 hours, but you can customize it.

If you want to change the time filter, you can use one of the following options:

  • On a dashboard, click and select one of the time filter options:

    • Quick select: Choose a time based on the last or next number of seconds, minutes, hours, days, or another time unit.

    • Commonly used: Choose a common time range like Today, Last 7 days, or Last 30 days.

    • Recently used date ranges: Use a previously selected data range.

    • Refresh every: Specify an automatic refresh rate. You can configure a refresh rate to periodically resubmit your searches.

      Sometimes, your view might be broken when checking data. To search and visualize data without any breaks, click Stop.

  • To set start and end times, perform the following steps:

    1. Click Show dates and then click anywhere inside the toolbar to access the time filter window.

    2. Select Absolute, Relative, or Now and specify ranges.

    3. Click Refresh to apply changes.

Timeline Visualization

To zoom into a specific period, click and hold the left mouse button in a timeline-based visualization panel.

For example, in the NetIQ Audit Dashboard, apply a time filter to display audit events for the last 7 days. The audit events histogram shows a count of events collected for 3 hours each day from 12:00 to 18:00 hours for 7 days. Click and hold the left mouse button for any particular day to zoom in and see visualization for every hour of that day.

Searching Your Data With Queries

ACDI provides you the following options for building search queries:

Both DQL and Lucene offer different sets of features. DQL is a simple text-based query language that filters data based on whether a field has a value, matches a given value, or falls within a specific range. Lucene, on the other hand, provides more advanced features, such as regular expressions or fuzzy term matching. However, Lucene cannot search nested objects or scripted fields. Choose the option that best suits your business requirements. Lucene is the default query language for all dashboards.

Using OpenSearch Dashboard Query Language

You can combine free text search with field-based search using DQL. Type a search term to match across all fields, or start typing a field name to get suggestions for field names and operators that you can use to build a structured query. The ACDI will filter data and return only matching results.

For example, to search for text in a particular field (field-based search), specify the field name before the colon:

Object Name:Smith

The analyzer for the field you are searching for parses the query text into tokens and matches documents in which any of the tokens appear.

For more information on DQL search options, see Dashboards Query Language (DQL) in the OpenSearch documentation.

Using Lucene Query Syntax

When you turn off DQL, OpenSearch Dashboards uses Lucene query syntax for building search queries and filtering. Lucene’s syntax is based on the Apache Lucene query syntax.

For more information on DQL search options, see Query string query in the OpenSearch documentation.

Saving the Search

If you frequently use any of the search options, click the See saved queries icon to save or load a previously saved query. The saved query always contains the semi-structured search query, and optionally the time filter and extra filters.

6.2.9 Using the Inspect Feature for Debugging

Inspect is a feature of OpenSearch Dev Tools that helps you explore data and debug issues. You can use it to troubleshoot queries that do not return the desired results by inspecting the request and response data.

The Inspect option on each dashboard visualization panel offers the following two options to view:

  • Data: Click to view data behind the visualization.

    You can also download the data in CSV format. Click Download CSV, then choose a download option from the list below:

    • Formatted CSV: Downloads the data in table format.

    • Raw CSV: Downloads data in its original format, such as dates as timestamps.

  • Requests: Click to view the request query sent to OpenSearch to fetch data for the visualization panel, the response received in return and the statistics related to the query.