Visualize dashboard contents with panels

This feature isn’t available to all Chronosphere Observability Platform users and might not be visible in your app. For information about enabling this feature in your environment, contact Chronosphere Support.

Panels allow you to visualize, filter, and transform the results of a query. Standard dashboards provide visualizations designed to work with other Chronosphere Observability Platform features, such as Metrics Explorer.

Panels react to the time range set on a dashboard and can be dynamically customized through the use of dashboard variables.

Classic dashboards have their own panels and methods of configuring them. For details about panels in classic dashboards, see Classic dashboard panels.

Add panels to a dashboard

To add and use panels in a dashboard, you must first create a dashboard or select an existing dashboard to which you’ll add the panel.

Each panel on a dashboard belongs to a panel group. If a dashboard doesn’t have any panel groups, Observability Platform creates one for you when you add a panel.

To add a panel to a standard dashboard with no panel groups:

Open the dashboard. You can view a list of all dashboards or select from a list of dashboards in a collection.
Click Edit on the dashboard.
Click Panel.
In the Add Panel interface that appears, provide a Name for the new panel.
Optional: Configure the panel based on the panel options and panel type you want to use.
Click Add to add the panel or Cancel to discard it.

To add a new panel to a panel group:

In the panel group to which you want to add a panel, click the Add panel to group icon.
In the Add Panel interface that appears, provide a Name for the new panel.
Click Add to add the panel or Cancel to discard it.

Panels aren’t permanently added to a dashboard until you save all changes to the dashboard by clicking Save on the dashboard.

You can save a new panel to a dashboard with as little as a name, then edit it later to configure it and add or modify queries.

Panel options

All panels consist of common settings and features. You can add these during panel creation, or edit them at a later time.

Name: The panel’s configured name.
Group: The panel group that contains the panel.
Description: A description of the panel displayed when holding the pointer over an Information icon.
Type: A panel’s type defines its visualization method or content. By default, new panels are the Time Series Chart type.
Links: An icon that reveals any links configured for the panel.
Expand: Expands the panel to a the full width and height of the browser for a more detailed view.
Options: Opens a menu of panel-related actions, depending on the panel type.
- Edit panel: Used to update the panel.
- Add to dashboard: Copy this panel to another dashboard.
- Copy panel link: Copy a link directly to this panel. When used, the link opens the panel in full-screen mode.
- Open in Metrics Explorer: Click to open a new tab using the panel’s queries in Metrics Explorer.
- Metrics DDx: On time series panels, use this link to open the metrics differential diagnosis page.

Panels can also have additional options presented in tabs of the Edit panel interface. Most panels provide these tabs:

Query: Queries whose results Observability Platform uses to populate the panel’s visualization.
Settings: Configuration options for the selected panel type.
Links: Links associated with the panel, which can optionally use variables provided by Observability Platform related to the panel or dashboard.
JSON: An editable, automatically updated JSON representation of the panel’s configuration.

Panel types

For details about these settings or unique features in a panel type, see its documentation. The panel types available for visualizing data include:

Time Series Chart: A line or bar chart representation of time series data returned by the panel’s queries.
Bar Chart: A bar chart representation of data returned by the panel’s queries.
Heat Map: The density of data points across ranges of values returned by a query, visualized by colors that represent the magnitude of data for each range of values.
Stat Chart: A stat chart visualizes statistic numbers returned by a query.
Gauge Chart: A value for each data point returned by a query, visualized as a configurable gauge depicting a minimum and maximum range and configurable thresholds.
Table: Presents the data returned by the query as a customizable table.
Pie Chart: A pie chart representation of data returned by the panel’s queries.
Service Topology: View trace data related to this dashboard.

Some panel settings include a button to Reset all settings to defaults.

Additional panel types unrelated to the results of a query include:

Markdown: Renders the given Markdown text.

Edit a panel

You can customize the features of each panel on a dashboard and edit the queries used to populate it.

To edit a panel on a standard dashboard:

Open the dashboard. You can view a list of all dashboards or select from a list of dashboards in a collection.
Click Edit for the dashboard.
Click Edit on the panel you want to edit.
In the Edit panel interface that appears, modify the panel’s settings.
Click Apply to apply the changes or Cancel to discard them.

After you’ve finished editing panels, click Save on the dashboard to save your changes.

Change a panel’s type

You can change the type of panel at any time.

To change a panel’s type:

Open the panel’s editor.
Click the Type dropdown.
Select a panel type.
Click Apply to save any panel type changes and exit the panel editor.

Change a panel’s query

Queries populate panels with data to visualize.

You can change the query a panel uses when the data doesn’t match your needs.

Open the panel’s editor.
In the Query tab, enter PromQL expressions in line-numbered field for the query you want to edit.

The visualization preview changes as you edit the query. If the query doesn’t return any data, the visualization preview doesn’t indicate any changes. If the query or results return an error, an icon appears next to the panel name.
Optional: Add a Series alias to define the name displayed for the series in the panel’s tooltip and legend.
Optional: Add additional queries by clicking Add query.
Optional: Hide a visualized query by clicking Hide query, or show a hidden query by clicking Show query.
Optional: Configure the type of query by selecting one from the Query type dropdown.
Click Apply to save any query changes and exit the panel editor.

For details about writing queries, read the querying documentation.

You can use dashboard variables in a query to let dashboard users dynamically customize them without modifying the query itself.

If you include a dashboard variable that doesn’t exist, Observability Platform notifies you of the missing variable in the query editor and includes a link of the variable name that automatically creates and configures the suggested variable.

Add links to a panel

To add links to a panel:

Open the panel’s editor.
Click Links.
Click Add link.
Choose a Link type, and then configure it:
If you select Dashboard:
1. Click the Select dashboard box and choose a dashboard.
2. Select or clear the following options:
  - Include current time range
  - Include current variable values
Click Save link to save the link.

Exit the panel editor

To save changes to a panel and exit the panel editor, click Apply.

To exit the panel editor without saving changes, click Cancel.

Delete a panel

To delete a panel:

Open the dashboard you want to change.
In the panel you want to delete, click the Delete icon.
Click Delete to confirm or Cancel to go back.

Save changes to a dashboard

Changes made to panels in a dashboard aren’t saved until you save all changes to the dashboard, even after applying the changes to the panels in the Edit panel interface.

To save changes to a dashboard’s panels and layout from the dashboard view, click Save.

Dashboards Bar chart