Relates to GW Version 6.6x and earlier. Does not apply to JBOSS JPP 6 based versions of GW.
This issue over Portlet Preferences is covered in the Resource online reference and comes up in various ways when people are setting up dashboard pages. If you don't make sensible choices for the portlet then you can get errors because the default value may not be valid on your system. Attributes of portlets that can be adjusted are only made accessible if the "render mode" is set to "dashboardRenderer". In the normal operating situation the render set is "default" and editing is not permitted.
As the "admin" user (NOT merely a user with admin privilege), open Administration tab, Portal Management, Groundwork-Monitor portal, Dashboard, and drill to the page you added. In that page's links open "themes" and change the render-set to "dashboardRenderer". Press Update.
Now open the Dashboard tab from the task bar, drill to the displayed dashboard page you are concerned with and in the upper right corner of the portlet(s) you will see the Edit icon (red green and blue cluster of shapes). Press the Edit icon and you can change the variable attributes of the portlet. For example the Hosts portlet allows selection of Entire Network or a specific Hostgroup, an option to show hosts that are not UP, and a custom Title. Other portlets have specific attributes.
Once you make the edit, go back to Administration, drill back to the level where you changed renderer, and reset it to "default", pressing update to save it.
The true "admin" user "owns" the JBOSS portal resources and the settings for any created pages are inherited from this special user. It is important to remember that while other users with access to the portal admin pages may create pages, the associated attributes are only effective for that user; other users who have access to the created pages will get the default preferences (for whatever is assigned to the page, for example a HostGroup Status portlet.)