Creating custom dashboards (classic)

Create a new dashboard in the Nexthink web interface whenever you wish to get a visual representation of a part or an aspect of your IT infrastructure. Dashboards summarize large amounts of data and complex investigations into a single web page and are most useful when built with a consistent set of graphical items.

Administrators can create content in the Nexthink web interface and share it with other users in the form of dashboards. Users with profiles that allow them to create personal dashboards can equally create their own content. In addition, users with profiles that allow them to publish dashboards can share their dashboards with other users.

Types of dashboards

Dashboards are grouped into modules. The type of module determines the type of dashboards that it can hold. There are three types of modules:

Basic module

A basic module holds dashboards based on metrics. The dashboards of basic modules are highly customizable, allowing you to mix different metrics and distinct visualizations or widgets for the metrics in the same dashboard. Carefully combine the widgets and metrics in a dashboard to get the most complete and consistent view possible on a topic of interest.

Service module

A service module holds dashboards based on services. Each dashboard in a service module represents a different service. Because service-based dashboards are not as customizable as metric-based dashboards, they are even easier to create. A predefined set of widgets gives you a variety of points of view on the service: the number of devices using the service, the network traffic generated, the issues related to connectivity or software malfunction, etc.

Software metering module

A software metering module holds dashboards that assess the use of software licenses within your company. Each dashboard presents you with information about the number of installations and actual use of a particular application, relating this information with the number of licenses available.

Creating modules and dashboards

To create a dashboard, you first need a module. Depending on the kind of content that you want to add to the dashboard, the module must be of an appropriate type.

Follow the instructions in the corresponding section of the documentation to create or reuse a module of a particular type and add a new dashboard to it:

• To follow the evolution of metrics, choose a module of the type Basic.

• To follow the evolution of services, choose a module of the type Service Monitoring.

• To keep the usage of software licenses inside your company under control, choose a module of the type Software Metering.