Console Dashboard

Overview

The AlertSite Console Dashboard screen delivers a visual representation of overall of Web site performance. Eight tabs are displayed:

• Home – simple, consolidated overview of your AlertSite account
• Devices – availability summary, graphs and recent status information for each site and transaction device
• Security – status of security devices and scans
• ServerAgents – current status of devices monitored systems and servers
• Load Tests – on-demand load test status
• Notifications – alert notifications that have been sent
• Messages – important system messages affecting your account
• Preferences – dashboard customization

The active tab is indicated in red, and a yellow "warning" symbol will appear in the tab if there are any device errors and/or notifications.

The dashboard is automatically updated with new data. The Devices tab, including the device grid and graphs, is updated at a refresh rate equal to your lowest monitoring interval or every 5 minutes, whichever is higher. The Notifications tab is updated every 15 minutes. The Security, ServerAgents and Notifications tabs are updated every 15 minutes. The Load Tests and Messages tabs are updated once an hour.

Below is a detailed description of each tab.

Home Tab

This tab provides a high-level overview of:

• Notifications
• Recent Errors
• Account Status
• Messages
• Benchmarks

The Notification section displays the number of notifications that have occurred in the last <N> hours, where <N> is the period selected in the Preferences tab (24 hours by default). The more... link navigates to the Notifications Tab.

The Recent Errors section displays the number of errors that have occurred in the last <N> hours, where <N> is the period selected in the Preferences tab (24 hours by default). The more... link in the Recent Errors section displays the Devices tab.

The Account Status contains current device and notification information. The Device Configuration Summary displays the number and monitoring status of configured transactions, sites, ServerAgents, and security scan devices. The Notification Configuration Summary shows the number of notifiers that are active for availability alerts and performance alerts.

The Messages section shows the top 1 or 2 newest messages and clicking on more... in that section navigates to the Messages tab.

The Benchmarks section provides a Business Benchmark report for all customers to compare up to 5 devices with a Market Index. Business Benchmark customers can select from the full Market Index list. Non-business benchmark customers can compare to the Top 25 US Sites, and can click the icon to see the full Market Index list. Selecting the Graph Type radio button toggles the graph focus between Availability and Response Time.

Business Benchmarks measure Fullpage response times, so only devices with the Fullpage option enabled are available for selection in order to provide a valid comparison.

Click on any other tab in the Dashboard to change views, and collapse any of the sections on the Home page by clicking the blue-dash icon in the upper right of each section.

Devices Tab

The Dashboard tab is designed to provide device-level detail at a glance. The Device table is scrollable, sortable, and vertically re-sizable. Sorted columns are highlighted in light blue. The table is re-sized by dragging the bottom edge. The modified size is retained on subsequent visits.

The Device table displays the following columns:

• Device Name
• Owner (displayed for Corporate accounts only)
• Type (device type)
• Mode (icons for enabled or disabled)
• Interval (monitoring interval)
• 24-hour Availability (color-coded bar graph)
• Status (current error status)
• Last Check (timestamp of last measurement)
• Status Duration (how long current status has persisted)
• Response Time (the latest response time)
• Recent Errors (number of errors/time of last error)

The grid can be collapsed by clicking on the dash-box icon next to CLICK TO HIDE DEVICE GRID.

The first row of the Device table is an Availability Summary displaying the availability percentage for all devices on a per-hour basis.

Clicking on the selection box to the left of the Device Name brings up the Performance Chart response time graph for the selected time period (24 hours by default, selectable in the Preferences tab ) below the Device table. Select as many devices as you want, and the charts will be displayed in a 2-column array. Device names in error are displayed in red, and the chart for that device will have a red border.

Hovering over any graph point on the performance chart will bring up a box with measurements for that time period. Clicking on the point will display the full Detail Report.

The graphs can be rearranged manually by dragging by the title bar to the new location within the same column or to the adjacent column. Once the graph is positioned near the new location and the source column and destination column rearrange themselves, the graph will snap to the grid when the cursor is released.

By clicking on the "wrench" symbol in the upper right corner of the response time graph, the following elements of each graph can be individually configured:

• Primary metric
• Secondary metric
• Time period zoom (24 hours, or 7, 14, or 30 days)
• Show locations (all or selected monitoring locations)
• Apply metric and zoom configuration to all open graphs

The default Availability overlay shows a green background to signify that a device was available, and red to indicate that the device was unavailable.

The Google Analytics icon will be displayed next to the device name in the device grid when analytics data are applied to the device. The Google overlay provides a comparative view between response times and other background metrics.

Devices are mapped to Google Analytics data through the Google Analytics Setup page. To map an AlertSite device to Google Analytics, first create a Google Analytics account (free from Google) and create a profile for your device. Then go to the Google Analytics Setup page in your AlertSite Console by navigating to Configuration→Google Analytics and login to map the device to the profile. After device mapping is completed, it can take a few hours for the Analytics data to be available in the Dashboard. Clicking on the icon next to the device name in the grid will also display the Google Analytics Setup screen for changing profile mapping.

For more information, see the Google Analytics knowledge base.

Security Tab

Systems that are being monitored for security vulnerabilities will be listed in a table under this tab. The following fields are included in the table:

• Device description, either a name or system IP address
• Hostname, which may be the web address or IP address
• IP address
• Scan interval, either daily or weekly
• Monitor status, either enabled or disabled
• Status of the last scan
• Date of last scan

The device description includes a "wrench" icon to bring up the configuration screen, and clicking the last scan date will bring up the Document Manage in order to view the vulnerability scan report.

ServerAgents Tab

ServerAgent devices monitor the health and resources of systems and servers and provide feedback based on configured thresholds. This tab displays a table with the following:

• Device name
• Status indicators for any configured thresholds (Connect, CPU, Disk, Processes, User scripts)
• Last status code
• Last check-in timestamp
• Monitoring interval
• Monitoring status (enabled or disabled)
• Status Duration
• Recent errors

Clicking the status indicator triangle displays a dialog box with the configured thresholds and current status. Clicking on the value in the Recent errors column brings up a Device Status report.

Load Tests Tab

Any load tests that have been configured will appear in this tab. A table displaying the state and status of each test contain the following fields:

• Test name
• Load Test configuration status
• Last run status
• Last time the test started
• Last time test completed
• Test duration
• Number of simulated users
• Average response time over the total test

The Test name and Load Test status entries have "wrench" icons that will bring up the Load Test Management screen for configuring and selecting additional tests.

Notifications Tab

This panel contains a table with the following information:

• device name the alert was sent for
• number of alerts sent
• the location the alert was sent from
• the date/time of the alert

All devices that received any notification are displayed by default, and individual devices can be selected from a drop-down list. The date range is also selectable, and you can page through the list of notifications by clicking on left and right arrows below the date selection.

To view specific alerts, click the '+' next to the device entry to expand the list of notifications sent at that time stamp. The expanded list will show the type of alert sent, the recipient, and notification method. Clicking on the alert type will display a dialog box with the exact notification. The pop-up box gives you the ability to resend the alert to the recipient.

Messages Tab

From time to time, AlertSite will post a message on the Console with important information. It may be to announce a new feature, enhancement or product, or a reminder notice about our services. The number of messages listed appears in the tab. The messages may be retained in this list or dismissed by clicking the Dismiss Message check box below the message.

Once the message is dismissed, it cannot be recalled to the Messages tab, but a message repository is archived in the Announcements section of the AlertSite Users Forum. You can access the AlertSite Forum by selecting Support → AlertSite Forum from the Console Control Menu. If you are not registered for the Forum, you can register from this Console page by clicking the link Click here to register for the Forum. If you are already registered, click the link Click here to enter the Forum.

The messages in the Announcements Forum are sorted by date. Click on the Topic Name to display the full message text.

Preferences Tab

The following components can be configured on a per-user login basis:

• Period for Devices tab indicator (1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 24 or 48 hours; default 24)
• Device type to display
• Device status to display
• Preserve graph layout on dashboard (retains displayed graphs on next visit; default Yes)
• Automatically display graphs for devices in error on top of layout (within Devices Tab period; default No)
• Graph style to display(2-column standard graph, 4-column "spark-line" graph, or 4-column headers only)
• Enable pagination of device grid
• Number of devices per page if pagination is enabled
• Period for Notifications tab indicator (1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 24 or 48 hours; default 24)
• Dashboard startup tab
• Sub Account(s) to view (displayed for Corporate accounts only)

The tab indicator refers to the yellow warning icon in the Devices and Notifications tabs. If there were errors or notifications during the selected time period, this warning indicator is displayed.

The Devices tab indicator setting also affects the device name and graph border, displaying both in red if an error occurred during the selected time period, as well as the error count displayed when hovering over the tab indicator.

It is possible for the device name and graph border to indicate an error even if the current 24-hour availability history and graph do not display any active errors. It is also possible for them to indicate no error, even if the current 24-hour history and graph display active errors.

For example, say an error occurred on Device A at 8 AM yesterday, it's currently 9 AM, and you selected 48 hours for the Devices tab error indicator. The 24-hour availability history for Device A would show no errors and the graph would be all green, yet the name would be displayed in red, the graph would have a red border, and the error count would include the error from 8 AM yesterday.

In another instance, say an error occurred on Device B at 8 AM today, it's currently 5 PM, and you selected 4 hours for the Devices tab error indicator. The 24-hour availability history for Device B would show errors and the graph would show red at 8 AM, yet the name would be displayed in black, the graph would not have a red border, and there would be no warning indicator in the tab, because it was set to show errors between 1 PM and 5 PM.

If you've selected to preserve the graph layout, the response time graphs being displayed when you exit the console will be displayed in the same order the next time you log in.

To have the response time graphs for devices currently in error during the specified time period displayed at the top of the list of graphs, select Yes for that preference.

The Dashboard Start tab field is the tab displayed when returning to the Dashboard from another page, and, if the Start-Up Page in the Manage Account screen is set to Dashboard, it is the Dashboard tab displayed when you log in.

Corporate accounts, which are master accounts that maintain one or more subaccounts, can configure the Dashboard to display their subaccounts' devices and notifications through the dropdown selector.

To reset the Preferences back to the default settings, click the Reset button.

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