Visualize data using dashboards
Use dashboards to analyze your metrics by creating visualizations of query results that you can customize, filter, and focus. You can use this to identify and act on trends, correlate changes in data to incidents, and monitor real-time statuses.
Chronosphere Observability Platform provides two types of dashboards:
- Standard dashboards, documented on this page
- Classic dashboards, based on Grafana
Standard dashboards are purpose-built for observability with Observability Platform, and are the only dashboards with a commitment to ongoing development.
Standard dashboards aren't available to all Observability Platform users and might not be visible in your app. For information about enabling this feature in your environment, contact Chronosphere Support.
View dashboards
Select from the following methods to view your available dashboards.
To search for a dashboard from anywhere in Observability Platform:
- Click the global search bar to focus on it, or use the keyboard shortcut Control+K (Command+K on macOS).
- Click the Dashboards filter.
- Begin typing any part of the dashboard's name.
- Click a dashboard listed in the search results to view it, or use the arrow keys to select the result and press Enter (Return on macOS).
To view all dashboards, in the navigation menu select Dashboards. This displays a table listing every dashboard in your organization.
In the table's Owner column, the collection icon indicates a dashboard is part of a collection. The service icon indicates a dashboard is part of a service.
The table's Type column indicates whether the dashboard is a classic or standard dashboard.
The table's Source column indicates how your organization manages each dashboard as an Observability Platform resource. Dashboards managed in Observability Platform or with Chronoctl list no source, and you can manage and modify them with either the app or Chronoctl. You must manage dashboards created in Terraform with Terraform.
You can toggle the visibility of columns and pin selected columns to the left or right sides of the table by holding the pointer over the column and clicking the column settings icon.
You can also filter the table's contents to display only those with certain names or properties.
- To filter the table's contents by name, enter part or all of a dashboard name into the Search dashboards field.
- To filter the table by team or owner, select their name from their respective Select a team and Select an owner dropdowns or enter part or all of their name into the fields to filter the dropdown options.
- To filter the table by tag, click Select a tag and select its name from the suggestion list, or enter part or all of a tag name into the field to filter the list. Only classic dashboards support tags.
- To filter the table to display only your favorite dashboards, click the View only my favorites toggle.
Observability Platform displays your favorite dashboards and those you have recently opened on your personal home page. Your favorite dashboards also appear first in global search results.
View Chronosphere-managed dashboards
Observability Platform includes several dashboards to visualize information about itself and its usage within your organization. For more information, see Chronosphere-managed dashboards.
Create a dashboard
Select from the following methods to create a dashboard.
These steps apply only to standard dashboards. For classic dashboards, see Classic dashboards.
To create a new dashboard:
- In the navigation menu select Dashboards.
- Click + Add.
- In the menu that appears, click New dashboard to open the Add dashboard dialog.
- Enter a descriptive name in the Dashboard name field.
- Enter an Owner in the corresponding fields to associate the dashboard with a Collection or Service.
- Optional: Enter Tags in the corresponding field to associate the dashboard with key/value tag pairs.
- Click Save.
After creating a dashboard, you can populate it with panels, add and edit dashboard variables and events, and configure its layouts. You can also associate Services to dashboards by using either Chronoctl or Terraform.
You can also import a Grafana dashboard or define them in YAML with Chronoctl.
Designate your favorite dashboards
You can designate certain dashboards as your favorites. Observability Platform lists your favorite dashboards on your personal home page and prioritizes them in global search results.
To designate a dashboard you're viewing as a favorite, click the () star icon next to its title.
To designate a favorite dashboard from the Dashboards table:
- Hold the pointer over the dashboard you want to designate.
- Click the star icon that appears next to the dashboard's name.
Customize your dashboards
Users cannot modify Terraform-managed resources in the user interface, with Chronoctl, or by using the API. Learn more.
These steps apply only to standard dashboards. For classic dashboards, see Classic dashboards.
Rename a dashboard
Select from the following methods to rename a dashboard.
To rename a dashboard:
- Select the dashboard you want to rename.
- Click Settings.
- Click General.
- Enter a new name in the Dashboard name field.
- Click Apply, and then click Save on the dashboard itself to save the change.
Reassign a dashboard's owner
Select from the following methods to reassign a dashboard to a different collection or service.
To reassign a dashboard:
- Select the dashboard you want to reassign.
- Click Settings.
- Click General.
- Click the Owner dropdown.
- Scroll through the list and click the collection or service to which you want to assign the dashboard. To filter the list by owner name, begin typing a name into the dropdown field.
- Click Apply, and then click Save on the dashboard itself to save the change.
Modify a dashboard's layout
Dashboard layouts help you organize related panels into panel groups.
For more information, see Organize dashboard content with layouts.
View and compare specific time ranges
Comparison mode, sometimes called week-over-week (WoW) view, helps you overlay historical data on your current data in dashboards. This provides additional context for comparing your current metrics with historical trends and expectations, or identifying recurring trends and outliers.
For details about using comparison mode, see Manage dashboard time ranges.
Time units
Observability Platform supports a range of standard time units:
| Unit | Abbreviation |
|---|---|
| Nanoseconds | ns |
| Microseconds | mu |
| Milliseconds | ms |
| Seconds | s |
| Minutes | m |
| Hours | h |
| Days | d |
| Weeks | w |
| Months | M |
| Years | y |
The abbreviations for minutes (m) and months (M) are case-sensitive.
Additionally, times that use 12-hour clocks designate morning hours with AM and
evening hours with PM. These abbreviations prefer uppercase and don't use periods.
Certain features, such as
dashboard time ranges, display
only second and larger units and automatically convert units accordingly. For example,
dashboard time ranges automatically convert a manually entered custom time range
of 1ms to 0.001 seconds.
Observability Platform also automatically converts units in certain display-only contexts. For example, dashboard panels might convert the numeric values of data points depending on the unit type you designate in a panel's Unit > Time setting and the context of that value.
If you select the Nanoseconds unit, Observability Platform interprets a numeric
value of 120 for a data point as 120 nanoseconds and displays it as 120ns. However,
if you select Days as the time unit, Observability Platform interprets the same
value as 120 days, converts it to the larger unit of months, and displays it as
4 months.
Create and configure dashboard variables
Dashboard variables let users dynamically redefine parts of panel queries and other features by selecting values from a dropdown or entering them into a field.
For details about creating and configuring dashboard variables, see Customize panel queries with dashboard variables.
Delete a dashboard
Select from the following methods to delete a dashboard.
Users cannot modify Terraform-managed resources in the user interface, with Chronoctl, or by using the API. Learn more.
These steps apply only to standard dashboards. For classic dashboards, see Classic dashboards.
To delete a dashboard while viewing it:
- Click Settings.
- Click General.
- Click Delete dashboard.
- In the Delete dashboard dialog, click Delete to confirm the deletion.
You can also delete a dashboard from the Dashboards table:
- Hold the pointer over a dashboard's row.
- Click its settings icon.
- Click Delete.
- In the Delete dashboard dialog, click Delete to confirm the deletion.
Export a dashboard
To export a dashboard's JSON configuration while viewing it:
- Click Settings.
- From the menu, select JSON. The Dashboard JSON dialog displays.
- Copy the JSON from the dialog. You can also update the JSON and click Apply to change the dashboard.
Add events to a dashboard
For information about adding events to a dashboard while viewing it, see Enable change events on dashboards.
Connect a dashboard to a service
Services and collections can own dashboards, but you can also connect a dashboard to a service that doesn't own it. You might have dashboards where different groups have responsibility for handling issues, but the information is important to other groups.
To connect a dashboard to a service:
- Select a dashboard.
- Click Settings.
- Click Connections.
- Add or remove a connection.
Query Accelerator
To help reduce the impact of slow queries on Dashboard performance, Observability Platform automatically optimizes queries. The optimization process detects slow aggregation queries in dashboard panels, creates pre-aggregated time series to reflect those rollups, and replaces the slow results with the optimized results at query time.
For an overview of the optimization process, see the Query Accelerator section of the licensing information dashboard, as documented in Chronosphere-managed dashboards.