8.2 Configuring the Charting Portlet

The Charting portlet allows you to graphically measure up to 10 metrics from any of these types of data:

  • Element Performance Metrics: shows element performance or alarm data over time.

  • Availability: shows element availability (not in a CRITICAL state) during a period of time.

  • Downtime: shows element downtime (in a CRITICAL state) during a period of time.

  • SLA Compliance: view SLA data charts to determine if the objectives of a Service Level Agreement are being met.

It creates line, area, column bar, or condition charts that allow you to easily navigate and compare performance over time, and view raw data points if required.

The Charting portlet has the convenience of a left settings panel to configure the chart without having to go back and forth between view-side and edit-side preferences. Once your chart is configured, you can collapse or hide the left panel.

When configured and more than one metric is requested, the chart displays using two scales for y-axis points: one on the left, and the other on the right. There are two ways to check the corresponding y-axis for a metric:

  • In the tooltips, arrow indicators show next to metrics that are charted using the right y-axis scale.

  • In the legend, metric indicators display to the right of metric names for those that are charted with the right y-axis scale.

To view charts:

  1. Do any of the following to configure your chart:

    • Click the Manage Elements link to add or remove metrics from the chart.

      • Click a parent or child element to navigate through the element hierarchy.

      • Select specific metrics to chart, or configure metrics matchers using a regular expression. If more than 10 metrics are selected or found, only the first 10 found are charted.

        When selected element or metric identifiers are not always predictable, it is best to use a regular expression to match profile expressions. For example, when the portlet is driven by another portlet, the selected element will not be fully predictable and a regular expression can match a number of predicted expressions for the element. For instructions on driving, see Step 3.

        Or, if the selected profile captures metrics against a correlated service model created by an SCM definition, regular expressions are necessary to match a number of predicted expressions because expression identifiers for correlated metrics are renamed during the Operations Center server restart process or if the correlated service model element is renamed. Correlated metrics are easily recognizable by their naming convention of Correlated Element_Name: Unique_Identifier.

    • For manually selected metrics:

      • Change the metric name, type, line color, thickness and fill for any of the selected metrics.

      • A next to the metric name indicates this metric is used to populate the data display in the preview slider bar. Click the grayed icon next to a different metric to change the display.

    • Click the Basic tab to configure titles, threshold, y-Axis value range, auto-refresh, and hide or show various chart features.

      Select Allow multiple axis for the chart to use two sets of axis points (an additional y-axis is added on the right side of the chart) when there is a request for more than one metric. If y-Axis minimum and maximum values are configured or if you use the custom y-Axis option, this feature is automatically disabled.

      If the administrator disabled all of the Time Intervals Visibility options in the portlet preferences, the Show time buttons option is not available.

      If the administrator disabled the Enable Calendar option in the portlet preferences, the Show date range option and the associated calendar is not available.

    • Click the panel’s arrow button to collapse the left panel, widening the chart viewing area. Click the arrow button again to expand the left panel.

    • Hide the left configuration panel. On the portlet title bar, click Options, select Preferences, and select Hide View Side Options.

    • Click Update to view changes in your chart. Click Publish to save changes and push them out to users.

      Non-published changes are not persisted between sessions. Only administrators and owners have permissions to publish.

  2. Do any of the following when viewing data in the chart:

    • Use the preview slider bar to zoom in, click any of the range buttons, or select new dates and times from the date range.

    • Select a smaller charting range when data is summarized or incomplete.

      When a request exceeds the maximum number of data points can be charted at one time, Operations Center generates an automatic representation of existing data and trending. When information can be summarized (for example, when values are numbers and not element conditions), the chart uses averaged data points from the original data and displays a message that there is summarized data. If the data cannot be averaged, metric data is clipped to the maximum number of points possible and the chart displays a message that there is incomplete data.

    • Click any metric name in the legend to hide it from the chart.

    • Click the icon and select Chart Data to view a list of values for all data points currently showing in the chart. Any hidden metrics are excluded.

    • (NetIQ AppManager elements only) Click on a specific data point to open a Details dialog showing more information about the data point in that series. Currently, this is only available for NetIQ AppManager elements:

      • The chart display format is FLASH. Data point details are not available for JPEG or PNG outputs.

      • The chart type is line. Data point details are not available for bar charts.

      • The Plot actual data points, instead of normalizing data option is enabled.

      When charting raw data, increase performance by reducing the number of data points returned while preserving the natural shape of the line. For more information about configuring this custom setting, see Section 7.8.2, Configuring Performance Data Point Retrieval from the Operations Center Server.

      For more information, see AppManager Operations Portal Features for Charting NetIQ AppManager Data in the NetIQ AppManager Operations Portal Getting Started Guide.

  3. Use the Charting portlet in drive mode:

    1. Configure your metrics using a regular expression.

      While it is not required to use a regular expression when driving, it is likely the most effective way to configure the matcher since metric names are usually slightly different even if similar. By casting a wider net, there is a better chance metrics can be found from element to element.

    2. The next to the element name shows that this is the configuration to use when driving. Click the grayed icon next to different configuration to change driving configurations.

    3. Click a new element in a Navigation, Search, Starter, or Status portlet to update the chart. If data is found for that element using the driving configuration, data shows in the chart.

      For information about driving, see Section 7.4, Using Navigation Mode to Drive Multiple Portlets.

    4. Click to exit drive mode and return to the configuration point.