Overview

This section reviews a new dashboard NOCBoard for use with GroundWork Monitor 7.2.1.

1.0 About NOCBoard Dashboards

NOCBoards are dashboards which display an at-a-glance view of your network operations. The configuration options offer the selection of host and service groups, a display window of past and future downtime and calculated availability, contractual SLA percentage, and specific display filters for acknowledgements, downtime, and status. In turn NOCBoards present a focused view of your network host groups and service groups status that can be monitored and acknowledged directly from a dashboard.

2.0 Configuring and Setting Up NOCBoards

This section walks you through some initial setup including configuring the downtime scheduler, importing of the NOCBoard applications, and creating a NOCBoard Dashboard administration page. You'll then be ready to create a NOCBoard xml files to be used in a NOCBoard portal pages for viewing host and service group operations.

2.1 Configure the downtime scheduler

First, you'll need to configure the NOCBoard to log in to the downtime scheduler. To do so, use a current portal login (or create one) that can access the downtime pages. You will need the username and password.

1. Log in to the command line as a superuser (e.g., root).
2. Type the following replacing password with the user password for the account you are using:

   /usr/local/groundwork/foundation/scripts/encrypt.sh encrypt --value=password
   

   • This will provide a text string as a return value. Save this string.
3. Then edit the following:

   /usr/local/groundwork/config/noc.properties 

   • And change the lines from:

     # NOC Board Configuration
     noc.downtime.username=
     noc.downtime.password=
     

     to:

     # NOC Board Configuration
     noc.downtime.username=user
     noc.downtime.password=string
     

   • Where user and string are the username and the encrypted string of the password you generated above.

2.2 Import NOCBoard applications

The NOCBoard applications are included in GroundWork Monitor Enterprise 7.2.1 and must be imported with the root portal user account.

1. Log in to GroundWork Monitor as user root (or the equivalent in your installation).
2. Hover over Group > Portal Administration and select Application Registry.
   
   
   
   
3. Click on Import Applications from the upper right side of the screen.
4. Confirm the import by clicking OK.
5. Click on Site to get back to the main portal page.
   
   

2.3 Create the NOCBoard administration portal page

Next, add a page for the NOCBoard Dashboard Configuration Admin portlet. This page will be used to configure the NOCBoard xml files.

1. Continuing as user root, hover over Site Editor on the toolbar and select Add New Page. Check to see the Selected Page Node reads the location of where you want the admin portal page, here we use /Dashboards.
2. Enter a Node Name (e.g., nocboardadmin), no spaces permitted, and a Display Name (e.g., NOCBoard Admin), spaces are permitted, then click Next.
   
   
   
   
3. Select Empty Layout, click Next. Then select the Containers tab, and drag the One Row option over to the left panel.
   
   
   
   
4. Select the Applications tab, under the Dashboard category scroll-down to and drag the NOCBoard Dashboard Configuration Admin portlet into the row container.
5. Click the Save disk icon in the upper right side of the screen. Now your admin page is ready to create NOCBoard xml files.
   
   

2.4 Configure a NOCBoard xml file

Here we create a NOCBoard file (.xml) using the admin page we just created. These will then be used in your NOCBoard portal page.

1. You should be positioned in the NOCBoard Admin page, if not hover over Dashboards and select NOCBoard Admin. Then click New.
   
2. A New NOCBoard screen will display. Fill in the various fields describe in the table below. In our example we focus on the Linux Servers host group and accept the default settings, just adding the Acked (acknowledged) filter.
3. Click Save.
   
   
   
   Table: Configuration options

   Name	A unique NOCBoard name.
   Display Title	The full title of the NOCBoard, this is displayed in the NOCBoard dashboard.
   Host Group	A GroundWork configured host group.
   Service Group	And/or a GroundWork configured service group.
   Downtime Window	The range of time for past and future downtime, (default = 2 hours).
   Availability Window	The calculated past availability, (valid values 1-48).
   SLA Percentage	The contractual SLA percentage, (default = 90).
   Auto-expand when non-ok items are present	If checked, filter info expands if non-ok items exist, (default = checked).
   Rows	Number of rows to display in the NOCBoard, (default = 20).
   Refresh Rate	How often to refresh the NOCBoard, (default = 60 seconds)
   Filters	Checked items will be displayed in the NOCBoard, (default = Acked unchecked)

4. Click Save. These .xml files are saved in /usr/local/groundwork/config/dashboards/. Next we create a portal page to display a NOCBoard file.

2.5 Create a NOCBoard portal page

Next, add a portal page to contain the NOCBoard Dashboard portlet which will be configured to display a NOCBoard xml file.

1. Continuing as user root, hover over Site Editor on the toolbar and select Add New Page. Check to see the Selected Page Node reads the location of where you want the new portal page, this should read /Dashboards, (to change just click on the green arrow to the left of the screen).
2. Enter a Node Name (e.g., nocboard), no spaces permitted, and a Display Name (e.g., NOCBoard), spaces are permitted, then click Next.
   
   
   
   
3. Select Empty Layout, click Next. Select the Containers tab, and drag the One Row option over to the left panel.
   
   
4. Select the Applications tab, under the Dashboard category scroll-down to and drag the NOCBoard Dashboard (not configuration) portlet into the row container.
   
   
   
   
5. Next, to edit the portlet URL setting, mouse over the NOCBoard Dashboard title and select the pencil icon.
6. Replace the existing URL with one of your choice (e.g., LinuxServers).
7. Click Save and Close.
8. Then click the Save disk icon in the upper right side of the screen, this saves the dashboard.
   
   
   
9. You may need to refresh the screen. Then sign out and back into the portal as your NOCBoard user (created above).

3.0 Viewing NOCBoards

1. Go to Dashboards > "NOCBoard".
2. A NOCBoard display includes (based on your NOCBoard configuration):
   • A status bar indicating the NOCBoard name, the total and status count for hosts and services, and the SLA (Met) percentage.
     
     
     
     
   • Click to show filters / Click to hide filters toggles count of total problems and list of configured options, also shows SLA met and actual percentages.
   • Each column can be sorted by clicking its title.
   • Acknowledgements of a non-ok item may be performed by clicking the corresponding Ack column.
   • If an item is configured for downtime the Maintenance column will reflect this.
   • Comments can be added and the count is displayed.