Here it is...
Thank You
Below is a summary of what I am trying to achieve:
My setup/workflow:
* I am using dashboard for service desk as shown here, the top one - clean & simple: Here is my one - rotates between WAN (with interface utilisation) and Service Status (with configurable notes)
* All balls & cubes on this dash are dynamic groups
* I use custom properties to record all the important info about nodes/applications, such as Environment, Impact, Maintenance notes, Emergency Contacts, etc.
* In the event when a specific object is down/critical/warning or whatever - service desk logs an internal incident
* To avoid Dashboard being a rainbow colour and obscuring other alerts - the object is being removed from dash by setting object's "MUTE" custom property to "True" at the front-end, until issue is resolved
* All groups are dynamic and will include "MUTE" custom field check. If it is set to "True" - object will be excluded, which brings dashboard back to green colour
* The main reason for doing so as opposed to UNMANAGING object - I want to continue monitoring and gathering stats for the object.
Here is my challenge:
* Some (if not all) groups contain mix of nodes and applications and when I set node's "MUTE" custom property to "True" I also want all applications related to this node to disappear from the group. (at the moment it is only possible if I go and set "MUTE" to "True" on every application which belongs to this object as well). Of course I can UNMANAGE, but this is not giving me continuous monitoring for the object
* So, to solve this,I would need the above feature to set the following: ORION OBJECT IS APPLICATION > NODE-MUTE IS NOT TRUE
Further thoughts:
* Overall I have a feeling that Dynamic Query Builder for Groups can be your next biggest improvement. It is very limited the way it is now. I have raised a couple ideas already as I was not able to achieve what I wanted few time:
-- ability to have negative conditions: http://thwack.solarwinds.com/ideas/3304
-- ability to compare by date: (same idea URL as above, see my additional comment below). The main reason for this (and this is something I am really looking forward to implement) - instead of setting "MUTE" to "True" and potentially forgetting to set it back to "False" once issue is resolved - we would be better setting up "MUTE_UNTIL" (this is exactly what we are doing now with email alerts and I am really missing this feature on Dashboard)
* The good thing is - you already have an absolutely brilliant way of slicing and dicing data via web-based interface and displaying only necessary objects with pretty much unlimited functionality - this is your web-based reporting tool. I am not sure how difficult it is, but if you can do the same level of filtering here, in Dynamic Queries - this would be MASSIVE improvement in SAM as far as my experience goes
Thank you for you FABULOUS work,
Alex
Agreed on all points and want to add that both Dynamic Queries and Account limitation builder not having an IS/IS NOT NULL and more Boolean operators such as AND/OR has been severely limiting.
If I build groups on custom properties, and limit accounts based on groups then I end up in a horrible Bermuda triangle when regional admins (node managenent but account limited by group) can add nodes by discovery central but since it doesn't include a custom property step the nodes become invisible to them. They need to request I set the custom property so they can see it or as a workaround I have a group dynamic query based on snmp contact so they can change it and see the nodes.
But requiring catchall group just because group and account is missing IS NULL?
Alex if you are looking to do this now.. I think using the Nodes - Caption would be your best option. Example you could add - mute to the end of the caption or something. I know this is less then ideal but just thinking on how you can solve for this now. You could have a db trigger or something on the nodes table that when you update "mute" that it updates the caption to add/remove " - mute" or w/e to the caption field.
Just bumping it up... I really, really, really miss this functionality
it would be cool to be able to populate groups based on combination of any fields from any objects... Maybe even with SQL query. For example: show me all components, where node custom property "Environment" = 'LIVE' and application custom property "IMPACT" = 'HIGH' and component is either warning or critical ... that would do magic for me
Thanks,
I have a solution for this
mkomeara has liked my comment above and this has popped up in my inbox. I then realised that I have had a solution for this for some time already and if anyone is interested - I will post it here.
In summary - I have SQL job which runs on SQL database server and updates one of the application custom property with all my custom properties from nodes after concatenating them all into one text string
Example:
Node "CP1" = "123"
Node "CP2" = "abc"
Node "CP3" = "bleh-blah"
App "NodeCPs" = "CP1--123; CP2--abc; CP3--bleh-blah;"
That's pretty much it. Then, when you need to filter apps based on Node's CPs you just filter by App custom property "NodeCPs", which contains ... whatever you need
@Alex Soul,
I like this feature request, but I wouldn't limit it to just Node CPs. I feel there should be the ability to use any resource or resource custom property when creating groups or defining Reports, Alerts, Filters, etc.. Let's open it up and allow us to easily define items by any associated data the user feel is appropriate.
Best Regards,
Derik Pfeffer
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