8.7 Configuring a Network View Portlet

The Network View Portlet renders an enhanced layout of the element hierarchy, including relationships between such objects as technology and service components. The Network portlet provides similar functionality as the Network tab found in the Operations Center console.

  • Click an element node to drill-down. Click the back or home button to navigate upwards.

  • Using condition buttons, filter elements in and out based on severity.

  • Select the depth of child elements to show.

  • Connector styles correspond to relationship type:

    Basic parent-child

    One element is a natural child of the other element, meaning it was created directly under its parent. This occurs most often in relationships between elements under the Elements root element.

    Linked parent-child

    One element is a linked child of the other element. This occurs in the Services hierarchy when a child element is linked using the Link option. It contributes to the condition of the linked parent.

    Dependency

    One element is dependent on the other element. This occurs when dependency relationship information is available, mostly through the use of Discovery Tools.

    For information about the discovery tools that Operations Center supports, see the Operations Center Adapter and Integration Guide.

  • Select from various preset layout styles including circles, compact tree, diagrammatic, left to right, legacy network, molecular, network, and top down. These presets types are available to all users (GLOBAL), for a user only (USER), or for a single element (ELEMENT).

To configure the Network portlet:

  1. Click the options icon and select Preferences.

  2. In the Diagram Width field, specify the height in pixels, or auto to allow the portlet to grow vertically as needed.

  3. In the Diagram Height field, specify the height in pixels, or auto to allow the portlet to grow horizontally as needed.

  4. Select or deselect the following check box options:

    Show navigation options: Selected by default. Displays the home and back/history icons in the diagram. Deselect to hide the options.

    Automatically scale diagram: Select to render the SVG diagram using the specified width and height. Deselect the check box to render the diagram using the dimensions calculated by the software, which, in general, provide the best scaled view.

    Enable navigation mode: If selected, enables the Network portlet to function as a driver for the content displayed in other portlets except for the Navigation portlet. Selecting an element on the Network portlet displays information about the element in other portlets on the page. This feature is only available when using SVG on IE, and is not supported on Firefox. For more information about setting up portlets to be driven by other portlets, see Section 7.4, Using Navigation Mode to Drive Multiple Portlets.

    Then, specify additional options for navigation mode:

    • Allow drill-down when clicking on elements: If selected, updates to display children of a selected element. If not selected, the diagram does not change. Navigation mode must be enabled for this option to apply.

    • Portlet Identifiers: Specify a comma-separated list of portlet tags corresponding to other portlets on the page that should update to display information related to an element selected on the Network portlet. For information on tagging portlets, see Section 7.4, Using Navigation Mode to Drive Multiple Portlets.

    Refresh portlet when updates occur: Selected by default. Enables the Dashboard to receive automatic updates from the Operations Center server as content changes occur. Deselect to manually control updates.

    Refresh portlet every X Seconds/Minutes/Hours: If selected, forces a refresh of Network portlet content. Specify the time interval to perform the refresh action.

    When using SVG, and containing charts with a refresh interval (configured in Operations Center), the chart refresh interval is used if set to be more frequent than the Refresh setting above. If there is more than one chart in the layout, the shortest (most frequent) refresh interval configuration is used for the portlet.

  5. Click Save, then exit the preferences for the portlet.