Troubleshooting administration of the BladeLogic Dashboard

The following questions may help you resolve problems encountered while administering the BladeLogic Dashboard.

Can I customize the default schedule for the job that refreshes the dashboard?

The BSA Dashboard Job is an NSH Script Job that runs regularly to refresh the data displayed in the BladeLogic Dashboard. By default, the job runs daily at 5:00 AM. If necessary, use BMC Server Automation to modify the default schedule of the BSA Dashboard Job. You can find the BSA Dashboard Job in the Jobs/BMC Maintenance folder.

How do I update the dashboard on demand?

The BSA Dashboard Job is an NSH Script Job that runs regularly to refresh the data displayed in the BladeLogic Dashboard. Use BMC Server Automation to run the BSA Dashboard Job immediately. You can find the BSA Dashboard Job in the Jobs/BMC Maintenance folder.

Why does the BDSSA section on the dashboard display a gray dot?

Either you did not specify the BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation (BDSSA) server during installation or a connection could not be established to the BDSSA server or the reports data warehouse. Check connectivity to the BDSSA server and the reports data warehouse.

What do the red, yellow, green, and gray dots on the home page signify?

Red dot—An error has occurred for at least one of the parameters needed to obtain information for a section. Buttons on the left of the dashboard provide detailed information about each section. Click the button for the section with the red dot to display detailed information. Parameters that are causing errors are highlighted in red.

Yellow dot—At least one of the parameters needed to provide infomation for that section requires attention. Click the button at left for the section with the yellow dot. The dashboard displays detailed information. Parameters requiring attention are highlighted in yellow.

Green dot—No parameters for that section are experiencing errors.

Gray dot—BladeLogic Dashboard is not able to collect data for this section.

Where do I find older reports?

You can find older reports on the Application Server under the NSH/dashboard/reports folder.

Can I increase the number of older reports that are stored? How long are reports stored?

BladeLogic Reports stores reports from the last five runs of the BSA Dashboard Job. You can modify a parameter in the BSA Dashboard Script to change that value.

How much space is required to store reports?

Each run generates a report folder of 2 MB or less. The actual size depends on the environment.

How do I know which version of BladeLogic Dashboard I am using?

The version appears at top right of any dashboard page when viewed in a browser.

What happens when I run an updated version of the configure_dashboard.nsh script?

The BladeLogic Dashboard displays an updated version of the dashboard and its information.

Can I export report results?

The BladeLogic Dashboard presents its results as HTML pages. You can export or print results just as you would any other HTML page.

Can I set up access to the dashboard with a minimum set of permissions?

Yes, you can set up a role so users can access the dashboard but have few permissions to perform other actions in BMC Server Automation. For more information, see Accessing the dashboard with minimum permissions.

Can I change the user, role, and password needed to access BladeLogic Dashboard?

Yes, you can change those values in the NSH script needed to run the BSA Dashboard Job and in a corresponding Tomcat properties. For more information, see Changing the user, role, and password needed for access.

The logs are showing this error: "Authentication failure: SRP Authentication Failure."

Do the following:

Confirm that the user, role, and password are set correctly in the parameters for BSA Dashboard Script. For more information, see Changing the user, role, and password needed for access.
Ensure the password for the user does not contain a dollar sign ($), which is not supported.
Confirm that an authentication profile for SRP exists.
Ensure that authentication profiles also exist on all Application Servers defined as Job servers. The dashboard script job requires an authentication profile. Alternatively, you can define a job execution rule so the dashboard script job only executes on Job servers where an authentication profile exists.
If the error occurs in the Tomcat logs, check the settings for user, role, and password in the localPropFile.properties file in <dashboard_install_directory>/Tomcat/webapps/dashboard.