Managing Live Dashboards

Create and maintain dashboards with Live Dashboards, a dashboard builder with numerous widget options and powerful Nexthink Query Language (NQL) for data visualization and drill-down possibilities.

Preparing for dashboard design

Identifying plots that employ operational data and trends

Define the plot for your dashboard and assess if the information provided by the plot is best conveyed by:

• Operational data that is granular and extensive, and is retained for up to 30 days.

• Trends available in the Nexthink data model, with less granularity and stricter limits which is stored for up to 13 months.

• Custom trends that allow you to define critical data specific to your needs and store them for the extended period of time.

Refer to the Data we collect and store and Data resolution and retention for more information.

If you identified any plots that can be covered using operational data or built-in trends, you can already move to Creating dashboards section of this page. Otherwise, you will likely utilize Infinity custom trend functionality.

Before defining new custom trend, check if there is any existing one that provides you with the data you need. You can do that by reviewing all your previously configured custom trends NQL definitions or using the autocomplete functionality in the Investigations module.

Creating custom trends for long-term data

Identify which NQL tables store data you want to monitor long-term. Refer to NQL data model for a complete list of NQL tables and fields. Once you identified the tables and specific fields and metrics to monitor, go to Administration → Content management → Custom trends and create new custom trend according to the guidelines included in the Custom trends management page.

Bear in mind that plotting data based on the custom trends consist of two steps:

1. Custom trend NQL definition (storing relevant data)

2. Dashboard widget NQL definition (computing and aggregating data)

Avoid unnecessary filtering and aggregating data within the custom trend definition. Custom trends are mainly intended for storing data rather than for computing it. We recommend all the computation happens upon retrieval, that is, within the NQL definition of the Live Dashboard widgets.

Avoid creating multiple custom trends that capture the same data. Instead, use specific custom trends in multiple plots.

Creating dashboards

To create a dashboard for the first time:

1. Select Live Dashboards from the main menu.

2. Click on Create a dashboard in the top-right corner of the empty Dashboards page.

3. Enter a meaningful name for the dashboard and click Save.

The main menu of Live Dashboards displays existing dashboards sorted by tags.

After you save your first dashboard, create new dashboards:

1. Select Live Dashboards > Manage live dashboards from the main menu.

2. Click on Create a dashboard in the top-right corner of the Dashboards page.

3. Enter a meaningful name for the dashboard and click Save.

Use the Live dashboards main menu or the Dashboards page to access available dashboards.

Importing dashboards

From the Dashboards page, import custom dashboards previously exported from the Live Dashboards module, or a pre-built dashboard from the Nexthink Library module. All imported dashboards are categorized as custom content.

To import a dashboard:

1. Select Live Dashboards > Manage live dashboards from the main menu.

2. Click on Import in the top-right corner of the Dashboards page.

3. Choose the JSON file with the dashboard information you want to import.

The import and export functionality is restricted to those with the Manage all dashboards permissions.

Tagging dashboards

Tagging allows you to quickly sort dashboards as you can filter the table by typing/selecting Tags.

From the Dashboards page:

1. Hover over a dashboard to display the action menu on the right side of the table.

2. Click Edit tags to open the Tags pop-up.

3. Type in a new tag or choose an existing one to add it to the dashboard.

4. Open the tag’s action menu to remove the tag from the dashboard or change the tag color.

Deleting a tag only removes it from the dashboard it is associated with.

Managing dashboards

To edit a dashboard, click on a dashboard’s name from the Live Dashboards main menu or navigate to the Dashboards page by clicking the Manage live dashboards button.

Use the action menu in the top-right corner of the page to:

• Edit dashboard content (edit mode).

• Duplicate dashboards.

• Export a dashboard as a file.

• Delete a dashboard.

Editing dashboard content

To activate the dashboard’s edit mode, choose the Edit option from the action menu in the top-right corner of the dashboard details page.

While in edit mode, you can modify the dashboard content:

• Add and manage widgets.

• Add and manage widget filters.

• Add and manage tabs and tab descriptions.

• Rename a dashboard and change its properties.

When you activate edit mode, the Nexthink web interface displays editable dashboard elements in light blue.

Adding widgets

To add widgets in edit mode:

1. Click on the + icon to add a new widget.

2. Select the widget type you want to add:

   • Visualizations to present data as a line chart, bar chart, gauge chart, table or other type of visualization.

   • Heading to enter the name of the new section or a group of widgets on your dashboard.

If you choose to add a visualization-type widget:

• Fill in the Add a widget pop-up.

• Click Save widget.

The following table displays the visualization widget fields and how to define them:

Context-sensitive fields are not included in the table above as they vary based on the selected chart.

*Consider using the Data updates with fields to define visualizations when:

• You must keep the timespan constant.

• You wish to look at the inventory, e.g., all devices, users or binaries, and not just those active in the widget timespan.

• The query depends on a metric or threshold based on a time duration. For example, 5 daily crashes.

Refer to the Widget types documentation for more information.

Managing widgets

To manage widgets in edit mode:

1. Hover over an existing widget to open the action menu.

2. Select the Edit, Delete or Group with right/left/top/bottom option.

3. Click Exit edit mode to save changes.

The Edit option allows you to modify the visualization fields of the widget.

The Group with right/left/top/bottom option clusters adjacent widgets under the same section or heading.

To move a widget, click and drag the widget box highlighted in light blue.

Adding widget filters

Widget filters allow you to view a subset of the data, displaying values from a specific field. The system currently supports strings, enumerators, Booleans and versions as field types.

To add a widget filter in edit mode:

1. Click Add filter widget in the top-right corner of the page.

2. Fill in the Add filter widget popup to define the custom filter widget:

   • Filter label: provide a meaningful label for the filter widget.

   • Table and Field: select the NQL table and field to populate the filter’s drop-down menu.

   • User can select multiple values: tick this option to enable users to select one or multiple values from the filter's drop-down menu.

3. Save filter and Exit edit mode to use widget filters.

Filter widgets operate on a dashboard level and apply to charts in all dashboard tabs.

Managing widget filters

To manage widget filters in edit mode:

1. Hover over the top-right corner of the filter widget to open the action menu.

2. Select the Edit or Delete option.

3. Click Exit edit mode to save changes.

To change the position of a widget filter in the Nexthink web interface, delete the filter and then add it back into the desired position.

Adding tabs

Further organize widgets by adding tabs to the dashboard. Each tab can contain different sets of widgets and layouts.

To add tabs in edit mode:

1. Click on the + icon below the filter bar to add a tab.

2. Use the tab’s action menu to rename or delete a tab.

3. Click and drag on individual tabs to reorder them.

4. Click Exit edit mode to save changes.

When adding tabs to a dashboard, consider the following:

• The first tab you create takes on the layout of all existing widgets in your dashboard.

• Add up to 8 tabs in total.

• The system exclusively runs the NQL query of the currently selected tab.

• The timeframe picker and filters operate on a dashboard level and apply to charts in all tabs.

Managing tabs

To manage tabs in edit mode:

1. Hover over the tab and click on the action menu.

2. Choose the Rename or Delete option.

3. Click Exit edit mode to save changes.

When managing tabs, consider the following:

• Deleting the last remaining tab removes the tab, but keeps all widgets/visualizations.

• If there are multiple tabs, deleting a tab deletes all widgets on that tab and removes the tab.

Adding tab descriptions

Tab descriptions allow you to communicate the purpose of the dashboard to other users by providing details of how to interpret and use the data in a specific tab.

To add tab descriptions in edit mode:

1. Click on the question mark on the right side of the Nexthink web interface.

2. After the bar expands, click Edit to add text.

3. Save the tab description.

4. Click Exit edit mode to save changes.

When adding tab descriptions, consider the following:

• There is a rich text editor with the following features: font size, bold, italics, bullets, links.

• Descriptions are tab-specific.

Renaming a dashboard and changing its properties

To rename a dashboard or one of its properties in edit mode:

1. Hover and click on the action menu in the top-right corner of the page.

2. Choose the Edit properties option.

3. Fill in the fields in the Dashboard properties pop-up:

   • Name: This field allows you to rename the dashboard.

   • Default timeframe and graularity: This drop-down allows you to set the default timeframe and granularity to apply when a user opens and loads the dashboard. The global default timeframe is Last 7 days.

Refer to the Using Live Dashboards documentation to learn how to use the timeframe picker.

Duplicating a dashboard

To duplicate a dashboard, click on a dashboard’s name from the Live Dashboards main menu or navigate to the Dashboards page by clicking the Manage live dashboards button.

From the dashboard page:

1. Click on the action menu in the top-right corner of the page.

2. Choose the Duplicate option from the action menu.

Duplicating a dashboard opens the new, duplicate copy with an automatically generated name.

Exporting an existing dashboard

To export a dashboard, click on a dashboard’s name from the Live Dashboards main menu or navigate to the Dashboards page by clicking the Manage live dashboards button.

From the dashboard page:

1. Click on the action menu in the top-right corner of the page.

2. Choose the Export option from the action menu. The system exports dashboards as JSON files.

Sharing dashboards

If you have Manage all dashboards permissions, you can share dashboards with users who don’t have Live Dashboards access.

Refer to the Profiles documentation to learn how to manage Live Dashboards permissions.

To share a dashboard:

1. Navigate to Live Dashboards > Manage live dashboards.

2. Hover over a dashboard to reveal the action menu on the right side of the table.

3. Choose the Share option.

4. Fill in the Share dashboard pop-up:

   • Add the profile you wish to share the dashboard with.

   • Select permissions for the profile from the drop-down menu. The options are View or Edit.

   • Click Grant permissions to add them to the dashboard list.

Giving Edit permissions does not grant View permissions. Both permissions are required for editing rights.

In the Share dashboard pop-up, you can view the profiles with access to the dashboard. To remove permissions for a specific profile:

• Hover over the permissions column of a profile to reveal the action menu.

• Click Remove all permissions.

Scenarios for shared dashboard permissions

Share dashboard permissions reference table

RELATED TOPICS

• Using Live Dashboards

• Widget types