Configuring dashboards, panels, and queries

As a tenant administrator or an editor, you can configure dashboards, panels, and queries to gain insight into your data. You can also configure a time range for the data and explore a query to troubleshoot it.

For example, you can create a dashboard to understand CPU utilization on a device and view the number of open events on the device. In this dashboard, you can also specify a time range to understand the data in more detail.

To create a dashboard

As a tenant administrator or an editor, you can create dashboards.

1. Hover the mouse over the Dashboards icon , and click the New Dashboard button.
2. On the New dashboard page, click Add new panel.
   Alternatively, you can add an existing panel from the library panels. For more information, see  Library panels .
3. In the Query section, select a data source for your dashboard, and add a query for the data source.
   Use the Query Inspector button to inspect and verify your query. For more information about queries, click  Queries .

4. In the Panel tab, expand Visualization to select a visualization type. 
   (Optional) For example, select the BMC Bar Chart visualization type. To use this visualization type, do the following tasks:
   To use this visualization type, do the following tasks:

   1. In the Display area, choose the display, mode, order and tooltip type for your panel.
   2. Select the settings for legends in the bar chart.
   3. Select the fields and units for the chart axes and data.

   On the basis of the query data, the Suggestions tab will display the list of the suggested Grafana visualization plugins. 

   If a panel displays an error while rendering the data, click Open visualization suggestions to see the list of the suggested panel plugins. 

5. (Optional) If you want to add a cross-launch to another dashboard or an external URL from the dashboard, do the following:
   1. In the Panel tab, expand Links and click Add Link.

   2. Add a title and the URL for the link.

      Important: While adding a link to the Discover tab, the ISO date format is required

      
      

      You can add a cross-launch to BMC Helix Log Analytics > Discover tab with the date filter intact so you can view data from the selected date range in the Discover tab. To do this, ensure that you use the ISO date format while adding a link to the Discover tab.

       Click to view instructions:

      In the URL field, add the URL for the Discover tab. For example:

      https://<BMC Helix Log Analytics host>/loganalytics/app/kibana#/discover?_g=(filters:!(),refreshInterval:(pause:!t,value:0),time:(from:'${__from:date:iso}',to:'{__to:date:iso}'))&_a=(columns:!(_id),filters:!(),index:'1524107586_default_index_pattern',interval:auto,query:(language:kuery,query:''),sort:!())

      Ensure the following:

      • You selected the ISO format to add the from and to values as shown below:
        from:'${__from:date:iso}',to:'{__to:date:iso}'
      • You added single inverted quotes for the from and to values.

   3. Click Open in new tab and save the link.

6. (Optional) Use other options in the Panel tab to further enhance your panel.
7. Repeat these steps to add multiple panels to the dashboard. 
8. Save your changes.

You can also create a dashboard on the Manage Dashboards page by doing the following:

1. On the left navigation panel, hover the mouse over the Dashboards icon .
2. Click New Dashboard and proceed.

To edit a dashboard

As a tenant administrator or an editor, you can edit dashboards. You can add a panel to an existing dashboard, edit an existing panel, or remove a panel from the dashboard.

1. Open the dashboard that you want to edit. 
2. Do any of the following:
   • Add a panel. To do this, do the following tasks:
     1. On the top right corner, click the Add panel icon .
     2. Click Add new panel.
     3. In the Query section, select a data source for your dashboard and add a query for the data source.
        Use the Query Inspector button to inspect and verify your query.
     4. Repeat these steps to add multiple queries to the panel.
     5. Save your changes.
   • Edit a panel. To do this, do the following tasks:
     1. On a dashboard, click the title bar of a panel and click Edit.

     2. Update the panel and save your changes.

        Validate the query

        If you change the query configurations, ensure that you validate the query. Use the Query Inspector button to inspect and validate the query.

   • Delete a panel.
     To do this, click the title bar of a panel and click Remove.
3. Click Save .
4. (Optional) Select one of the following options:
   • Save current time range as dashboard default—Select this option to save the current time range as default time range. This option appears after you change the time range in the dashboard. 
   • Save current variable values as dashboard default—Select this option to save the current filter values as default. This option appears after you change the filter values in the dashboard.
5. Save the dashboard.

To set up a long-lived session for NOC dashboards

As a tenant administrator, you can set a dashboard session to never expire for one or more users as required.

To prolong the dashboard session, enable the following option from BMC Helix Single Sign-On:

1. Log in to the BMC Helix Single Sign-On Admin Console.
2. Set the long-lived refresh tokens as shown in the following image.
   For more information, see  To configure the token timeout for OAuth clients using BMC Helix SSO. .
   
   
   
   
3. Save the changes. 
4. Log in to the BMC Helix Dashboards and add the dashboard permissions for the required users. 
5. The specific NOC dashboard session window is active as long as required.

To configure time range

As a tenant administrator or an editor, you can control the time range that is used in the dashboards to further refine your data. To change the time range:

1. On a dashboard, click the Time Range icon  and select an absolute time range or a relative time range for your report.
   For example, filter the data in the dashboard by days, months, year, fiscal quarter, fiscal year, and so on. To filter data on a dashboard by fiscal time ranges, perform the following actions:
   • Select the fiscal time range and click Change time settings on the Time Range pop-up window.
   • Select the Fiscal year tab.

   • Select the fiscal year start month.
     By default, January is selected. Based on this selection, the data in the dashboard is filtered by the fiscal time range.

     Example

     Jordan, a tenant administrator, wants to view ticket resolution dates for the current fiscal year. He can filter the dashboard by This fiscal year to display tickets that have a resolution date within this fiscal year. However, if Jordan wants to see only those tickets that have a resolution date till date, he can select This fiscal year so far to filter the dashboard.

2. Apply your time range.

The dashboard displays data for the time range that you selected.

To copy a dashboard

As a tenant administrator or an editor, you can copy a dashboard in a different folder with a different name. You can copy any out-of-the box dashboards and make your changes to the copied dashboards.

To copy a dashboard:

1. Open the dashboard that you want to copy.
2. Click the Dashboard Settings icon .
3. From the left navigation pane, click Save As.
4. In the Dashboard name field, add a name for your dashboard. 

5. In the Folder field, select a folder for the dashboard.
   You cannot create a folder from this dialog box. To create a folder: 

   1. Hover the mouse over the Dashboards icon , and click the New Folder button.
   2. In the Folder name field, add a name and click Create.

6. If you want to copy the tags from this dashboard, select Copy tags.
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7. Save your changes.

To customize BMC Helix Dashboards home page

As a tenant administrator or editor, you can customize the home page of BMC Helix Dashboards. The home page of BMC Helix Dashboards is a dashboard with multiple panels that can be edited. 

To customize the home page, do any of the following:

• Copy and edit the home page:
  1. Copy the home page of BMC Helix Dashboards. For more information about copying a dashboard, see To copy a dashboard.
  2. Access and edit the newly created copy of the home page. For more information about editing the home page, see To edit a dashboard.
  3. Set the the newly created copy of the home page as default. To set the default home dashboard, click Settings > Preferences and select this newly created home page under Home Dashboard drop-down menu.
• Save and edit the home page:
  1. Click the  icon from the BMC Helix Dashboards home page and then edit the details and save.
  2. Access and edit the newly created copy of the home page. For more information about editing the home page, see To edit a dashboard. 
  3. Set the the newly created copy of the home page as default. To set the default home dashboard, click Settings  > Preferences and select this newly created home page under Home Dashboard drop-down menu.

To delete a dashboard

As a tenant administrator or an editor, you can delete the dashboards you created. Do one of the following:

• To delete a dashboard from the Dashboards page:
  
  1. From the left navigation pane, hover your mouse over the Dashboards icon  and then click Browse.
  2. On the Manage tab, select a dashboard.
     If dashboards are arranged in folders, click a folder, and then select a dashboard from the list.
  3. Click Delete.
• To delete a dashboard from the dashboard settings:
  1. Open a dashboard and click the Settings icon .
  2. On the General page, click Delete.

To explore a query

As a tenant administrator or an editor, you can view query details from a panel or from the Explore page and troubleshoot any problems in the queries.

1. Do one of the following:
   1. Click a panel title and click Explore.
   2. In the left navigation pane, click the Explore icon .
2. On the Explore page, view your query details and use the following buttons:
   • Split  — To view queries in a split view for comparison.
   • Time range —  To change the time range in the query.
   • Run Query —  To run the query. You can specify a time interval at which the query runs automatically.

Localizable dashboard fields

As a tenant administrator or an editor, specify values for custom dashboard fields in your language of choice. Currently, BMC Helix Dashboards does not support complete localization. However, the following dashboard fields can be manually configured in your own local languages:  

You can perform many other functions on the dashboards, such as annotate a point on a graph or view the history of a dashboard. To learn about these functions, click here .