More Orion Map improvements necessary

[JaroslawLadyga]

Orion Map feature on platform 2020.2 is great, cool, getting better and better and I know that many new functionalities on Orion Map are under development but let me add a few:

• Line connection - let it be editable for size/thickness, color and not only straight (able to get curve or broken).
• Labels for connection - needs checkbox to Enable/Disable and ability to edit size, font, color and position.
• Possibility to edit the set of icons - add new icons and/or graphics as icons.

When working with Orion Map will probably need more musthaves but I appreciate it's improvements compared to the platform 2019.4.

[sja]

Hi

I will call it "feature alignment" to Atlas  ..

😎 

[martin.lkab]

Hi,

Yes these things are a must if we are going to be able to make the transition from Atlas to Orion maps.

And also the possibility to have UNDP poller statistics in the new Orion Maps.

/M

[robertcbrowning]

@sja "feature alignment" I like that phrase. 🙂 

[krc85aggie]

Actually if you bring in a graphic and use it as an icon, it places it in the available icons tray.

I suggested to @jblankjblank the ability for the utilization "pills" be aligned with the connection link where it took up virtually zero real estate.

[cggkevin]

In addition to the features already requested O have some other issues I would like addressed as well.

1. the Information displayed on a live connection. Atlas maps changed color based on utilization. The new live connections seem to change color based on utilization or errors which can make for a confusing display, especially for managers.

2. It would be nice to turn off the display of errors altogether.

3. The data displayed in the map connection only seems to be for 1 random interface when there are a number of interfaces between to switches such as a LAG group. Summarization of all the interfaces would be nice or some other way of showing the total data.

[jblankjblank]

@cggkevin - Thanks for sharing feedback and adding your requests. I am hoping you can expand on some of your mentions above.

1. the Information displayed on a live connection. Atlas maps changed color based on utilization. The new live connections seem to change color based on utilization or errors which can make for a confusing display, especially for managers.

Atlas changed colors based on utilization if automatic topology was detected. If manual connections were created, they would not change color. In Orion Maps manual and automatic topology connections do change color, and these colors are based on status. Status is derived from thresholds pointing to a problem. Many users often indicate they want to be made aware of when there is a problem, and don't necessarily need every bit of detail otherwise. Can you elaborate on why having an assortment of colors would make it easier for your managers to interpret the map? I assume you would need to be able to include a Legend on the map as well that shows: 0-30% Green, 31-60% Blue, 61-90% Yellow... and so on... You could absolutely still build a legend for your map, as well as adjust thresholds (for example defaults are 0-80% Green, 81-90% Yellow, & 91%+ Red), but you would be limited to the three colors. Interested in hearing about what you would do in your environment.

2. It would be nice to turn off the display of errors altogether.

Errors are another reason an interface may be in a bad state. There are some customers that are interested in seeing this data. It looks like your example map is in fact triggering off warning and critical thresholds for errors and discards. If these are not a concern and you wish to "remove" them from the map, simply adjust the thresholds. 

3. The data displayed in the map connection only seems to be for 1 random interface when there are a number of interfaces between to switches such as a LAG group. Summarization of all the interfaces would be nice or some other way of showing the total data.

It is not necessarily a random interface, it is the connection in a poor state, but a number of customers indicated they would not want these consolidated, and would rather see all the connections between the two endpoints. In your example, you have at least 6 connections in that LAG configuration, how would you prefer to see those on the canvas? Are you wanting to see them all separated but shown? Or were you hoping to see some "Math" done and get a rolled up utilization percentage across all six?  Which would be more valuable? What about when there is an issue? Do you want to see that from a representation of the collection, or the individual?

[cggkevin]

For 1 & 2 I make maps for two groups of people, one for managers who are just interested in the amount of traffic flowing between various switches. For that audience, seeing links change color because of errors would not be welcome but for the engineers it would be useful so that's why I think an option to turn on or off errors in the maps would be nice. If I change the threshold to keep them out of maps then the engineers might miss them.

For 3, that is a complicated link. it is actually a 4 port VRRP LAG group and a 2 port lag for heartbeat. What I would like to see reflected on the map is just the 4 port lag, in total or put another way the port channel utilization not an individual interface. of course that would be useful in other places as well.

Is it possible to remove the 6 connections shown and make a new manual connection using just the port channel?

[cggkevin]

I just add a manual connection for the port-channel but I am unable to delete the auto-discovered interfaces, another feature request?,

I see the connection legends of the port-channel but again errors are showing instead of the higher utilization which is what I would have seen in Atlas and would prefer to see here.

the port-channel statsNew manual connection for the port-channel

[jblankjblank]

@cggkevin - great feedback and insight! Really appreciate you sharing that info. To answer your question, there is not a way that you can hide individual connections at this time, only ALL connections of a certain type like "Topology". That wouldn't help you in this case so we will take that as a +1 for the ability to hide individual connections. Different maps for different audiences absolutely make sense, and your use cases certainly help to illustrate those needs. Thank you for sharing.  

[avrilspirit]

+1, we need improvements !!! 🙂 

Possibility to display graph on map like other solution :