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View customization that ISN'T global?

I recently implemented Orion NPM + EOC and I'm a little shocked about how view customization works within NPM (We use Windows accounts for both tools, so each user is unique).

Here's a simple example for NPM...

Network Guy #1 doesn't like a particular Top 10 graph and changes it to show the Top 100 instead. Later that day, Network Guy #2 pulls up the same graph to find it's been changed to show the Top 100. Network Guy #2 doesn't want to see the Top 100 and changes back to show the Top 10 instead. Now add 20 more users and mix in a troubleshooting situation where everyone is manipulating views (node details or interface details, perhaps) at the same time in hopes of finding the silver bullet for the issue. You have a recipe for frustration because everyone is overwriting each other.

Here's a simple example for EOC...

Network Guy #1 doesn't like a particular Top 10 graph and changes it to show the Top 100 instead. Since the change is tied to his account, this isn't an issue because he's the only person who can see the change.

I understand the usefulness behind making global changes to views within NPM, but why not at least have the option for users to somehow make changes that only THEY see? I spoke with support earlier today to confirm this is working as intended. The guy even shrugged off the suggestion of opening an enhancement request.

Am I the only person who thinks this functionality is incredibly necessary for ANY monitoring tool? I can't anticipate what everyone wants to see, so I can't build a magical view that will work in every conceivable situation. Users must have the ability to customize their views in a non-destructive fashion. Sure, I could just tell people to be mindful of the changes they're making, but (that won't happen) it won't prevent the situation described in my example NPM scenario from happening.

...or maybe I completely missed something?

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byrona

While I agree that it would be nice for individual users to be able to modify their view provided the proper permissions, I don't find it to be necessary functionality.

With Orion you can create a different view or dashboard for each team and assign all of the people from that team to it. You could also create different summary views and link them on the menu bars under your different tabs, this way different people or teams could go to the summary views that they find most useful.

In our case I find it important to make sure all of the people on our NOC team are looking at the same information and can't change it. By doing this I minimize how much training and support is necessary for use of the monitoring system.

cory.cousins

I agree that it's important for certain groups to view the same information, but your suggestion still suggests I need to dust off the old crystal ball and conceive a collection of static dashboards tailored to our environment with every possible view/chart/gauge that folks may find useful in any situation.

I don't want to keep dragging this on and on, but there's another important aspect to this argument. This certainly doesn't apply to everyone, but in my experience with enterpise monitoring tools of all shapes and sizes, one of two things will happen if you don't empower users to help themselves:

1 - Users like the canned dashboards created by the omnipotent tool administrator and all is well. Obviously the best scenario, but furthest from reality. This is the utopia promised by pre-sales.

2 - Users continuously send requests to the administrator for new dashboards (or worse...they don't), based upon the current hot topic of the day/hour/past 15 minutes and are also patient enough to wait because the administrator must not have any other work to do, right? Not an ideal scenario because IT users are just as impatient as non-IT users. May also result in the administrator becoming the primary user of the tool.

I guess someone thought this was a good idea because this sandbox functionality is built into the EOC already.

byrona

My apologies, I didn't intend to suggest that this wouldn't be a nice feature to have, I was just attempting to submit a different approach on the matter that is supportable with the current implementation which has worked well for us.

There is certainly a valid use case for functionality that allows users to create their own customized views provided the proper permissions. I have seen this requested many other times in the forums. I would certainly allow some of my users to do this if the functionality was available.

My understanding is that the SolarWinds team is working on improvements to he WebUI and I wouldn't be surprised if this was one of them.

ovader

Could agree more with core.cousins

this is the exact scenario I am facing and it's frustrating that solarwinds thinks everyone would want the same view.

Each individual user should be able to customize views and not have it effect other views.

ctopaloglu

Could agree more with core.cousins
this is the exact scenario I am facing and it's frustrating that solarwinds thinks everyone would want the same view.
Each individual user should be able to customize views and not have it effect other views.

Couldn't agree more. Here is my scenario. If I don't give the customize view right to users then they won't see the config resources! If I can give the rights than they start to change everything on every other view. I can't follow them.

We are different from one another! So +1000 for this BASIC so called enhancement request!