Operational Dashboards

Overview

Operational Dashboards provide a centralized workspace for monitoring and managing operational situations detected by ITOSS. They consolidate information generated by monitoring processes and present it through multiple operational views, enabling support users to identify, analyze, and prioritize situations affecting the managed environment.

Operational Dashboards are one of the primary tools used by support teams to assess service health, investigate operational issues, and monitor the effectiveness of operational management processes.

Purpose

Operational Dashboards help support users to:

• Monitor active operational situations.
• Identify components requiring attention.
• Prioritize actions based on business impact.
• Analyze operational issues from different perspectives.
• Verify the effectiveness of monitoring processes.
• Track situations currently under investigation.
• Assess overall management quality within the monitored environment.

Dashboard Scope

Dashboard content is populated through dashboard entries generated by monitors when evaluating metric rules. Each monitor is associated with a container that defines the operational scope in which dashboard entries are organized and displayed.

This approach allows organizations to structure dashboards according to operational responsibilities, technologies, customers, business units, services, or any other logical grouping required by operational teams.

Examples of Dashboard Scopes

• Database technologies (Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, SAP HANA)
• Application platforms
• Customer environments
• Infrastructure domains
• Support teams
• Business services

Dashboard Views

Operational Dashboards provide several views that present the same operational information from different analytical perspectives.

Container View

The Container View organizes dashboard entries according to the containers included within the selected dashboard scope.

Containers display counters representing the number of dashboard entries associated with each operational situation.

Container Types

Semaphore Containers

Used to group and summarize operational situations within a specific scope.

Exception Containers

Used to highlight operational situations requiring special attention or handling.

Typical Use Cases

• Team-oriented operational monitoring.
• Service domain supervision.
• Operational workload distribution.
• Escalation management.

Component Type View

This view groups dashboard entries according to the type of managed component involved.

Support users can quickly identify which technologies are generating operational situations and determine where investigation efforts should be focused.

Typical Use Cases

• Technology-specific monitoring.
• Infrastructure health analysis.
• Problem trend identification by component type.

Metric Category View

The Metric Category View groups information according to the metric category that generated the dashboard entry.

This perspective helps operators understand the nature and origin of operational situations.

Typical Use Cases

• Identifying problem domains.
• Analyzing recurring operational issues.
• Understanding the source of alerts and situations.
• Prioritizing investigation activities.

Dashboard Entry List View

The Dashboard Entry List View provides a traditional event-oriented representation of operational situations. Dashboard entries are displayed chronologically based on their creation time.

Support users can apply filters dynamically to refine the displayed information and focus on the most relevant situations.

Typical Use Cases

• Incident investigation.
• Real-time operational monitoring.
• Situation tracking.
• Event analysis and troubleshooting.

Component List View

The Component List View presents all managed components included within the dashboard scope.

This view provides a consolidated inventory-oriented perspective and allows operators to verify that monitoring and operational processes are functioning correctly.

Typical Use Cases

• Monitoring validation.
• Managed component verification.
• Operational coverage reviews.
• Troubleshooting monitoring issues.

Operational Indicators

Operational Dashboards display several indicators that remain visible across all dashboard views, providing a consistent overview of the current operational situation.

Component Status

The Component Status indicators provide an aggregated view of operational availability within the dashboard scope.

Indicators

Status	Description
Up	Component is operational and available
Down	Component is unavailable or experiencing operational issues

These indicators enable support users to rapidly assess service availability across managed environments.

Dashboard Entries by Priority

Dashboard entries are categorized by priority to help operators focus on the situations with the greatest operational impact.

Priority Levels

Priority
Highest
High
Medium
Low
Lowest

Dashboard entries without an assigned priority are grouped within the Lowest category.

Operational Value

Priority indicators help support teams:

• Identify critical situations.
• Prioritize remediation activities.
• Allocate operational resources effectively.
• Evaluate workload distribution.

Level of Management

The Level of Management indicator measures the operational quality of monitoring associated with managed components.

This metric evaluates monitor health and reflects the system's ability to successfully collect and process operational information.

Management Levels

Level	Description
None	No monitors are operating correctly for the component
Bad	Between 51% and 99% of applicable monitors are failing
Deficient	Between 1% and 50% of applicable monitors are failing
Good	All applicable monitors are operating correctly

When calculating this indicator, monitors associated with Status and Availability metrics are excluded from the evaluation.

Operational Importance

Monitor failures directly affect operational visibility because metrics cannot be collected, evaluated, or presented accurately. The Level of Management indicator helps identify monitoring gaps that may reduce operational awareness.

Situation Management

Attended and Unattended Situations

Dashboard entries can be marked as attended to indicate that the associated operational situation is currently under investigation or remediation.

In list-based views, attended entries are visually distinguished from unattended situations, helping support teams coordinate activities and avoid duplicate efforts.

Situation Filters

Operational Dashboards provide filtering options that allow users to display:

• Attended situations
• Unattended situations
• All situations

These filters help operators focus on unresolved issues or review activities already in progress.

Advanced Filtering and Custom Views

Operational Dashboards support advanced filtering capabilities that enable support users to create customized operational views.

Filters can be applied using multiple operational dimensions, including:

• Locations
• Companies
• Managed components
• Workgroups
• Other entities associated with dashboard entries

Saved Views

Customized dashboard views can be stored as user preferences and reused whenever required. This capability allows operators to create personalized dashboards aligned with their responsibilities and operational focus areas.

Operational Considerations

• Operational Dashboards provide the primary workspace for monitoring active operational situations.
• Multiple dashboard views present the same information from different analytical perspectives.
• Dashboard entries originate from monitor evaluations and metric rules.
• Priority indicators help focus attention on the most important operational situations.
• Attended status supports collaboration among support teams.
• Management quality indicators help identify monitoring coverage and data collection issues.
• Custom views allow operators to tailor dashboard information to specific operational responsibilities.

Related Features

• General Status Dashboard
• Monitoring
• Events
• Notifications
• Managed Components
• Metrics
• Reports
• Operational Views