OP5 Monitor ["OP5 Monitor"]

Create monitoring visualisations with NagVis

Overview

NagVis is an extension to OP5 Monitor for creating visual network maps, for use in situations where images are more explanatory than data, such as showing server temperatures or airflow by colour, monitoring objects by geographical location or displaying your own custom images of your network with personalised labels.

The OP5 Monitor NagVis extension interacts with OP5 Monitor through checkable monitoring objects, allowing you to perform basic monitoring actions such as scheduling downtime on hosts and services directly from your maps.

You can use NagVis to create the following:

  • Automaps: based on an automatically generated tree of your monitoring network and its parent-child relations.
  • Geomaps: based on a geographic view of your monitoring network, can be interactive or static.

For more information about NagVis, see the NagVis website.

NagVis user permissions

You need special user permissions to use NagVis. For more information, see Manage NagVis.

Get started with NagVis

To get started with NagVis in OP5 Monitor, click Monitor > NagVis. NagVis opens on an overview page with some demo maps and rotation pools to help you get started with creating your own.

From the overview page, you can perform the following:

Note: Although you can view rotation pools, you cannot configure them in the user interface. Configuring rotation pools is an advanced configuration task, which is described in Create a new NagVis rotation pool.

Configure NagVis

Update the general configuration

The NagVis general configuration includes global settings for all maps, such as background colour and icons, and some map specific settings, such as the Automap defaultroot parameter. For more information, see Create a new Automap.

To update the general configuration:

  1. Click Options > General Configuration.
  2. In each tab, update the required settings. For more details on specific settings, see the NagVis documentation.
  3. Click Save.

Manage backgrounds

You can add background images to use in NagVis maps. You can upload an image file in any of the following formats: jpeg, jpg, png, or gif.

After you add a background image, you can add it to a map using the Map Options dialogue. For guidance, see Edit maps.

To upload a background image:

  1. Click Options > Manage Backgrounds.
  2. Click Choose File and choose the file from the dialogue which opens.
  3. Click Upload.

To delete a background image:

  1. Click Options > Manage Backgrounds.
  2. Select the image from the Choose a background drop-down list.
  3. Click Delete.

Manage back ends

NagVis is delivered with four back ends by default, which represent the data layer. Working with NagVis back ends is an advanced configuration task. You can set a NagVis back end as default or add, edit, or delete a NagVis back end with menu option Options > Manage Backends.

Create an Automap

When you create a new Automap, NagVis automatically generates a view of your network based on a configuration parameter specifying where to start the tree. By default, Automaps show the whole network.

You can:

  • Hover over a monitoring object to view a summary of OP5 Monitor data.
  • Click on the object to go to its OP5 Monitor detail page.
  • Right-click on the object to refresh its status, schedule downtime, or reschedule the next check in the respective OP5 Monitor function.

Create a new Automap

To create an Automap:

  1. Specify the location in your network where you want to start your map, by clicking Options > General Configuration, selecting the Automap tab and changing the defaultroot setting to the name of the host to display at the top of the map. Note that after the map is created, you can right-click on any of the objects and make it the root of the tree. You can skip this step if you want to show the whole tree.
  2. Click Options > Manage maps.
  3. In the Create Map section, specify an internal ID for the map and a display name for the map in the Alias field, then choose Automap based on parent/child relations from the Map Type drop-down list.
  4. Click Create. OP5 Monitor displays your new map.
  5. Update any map settings as required. For guidance , see Edit maps.

Create a Geographical map

You can add interactive server and relationship icons to a Geographical map to represent your monitoring network in its geographical location. Any monitoring object you add to a Geographical map and associate with an existing OP5 Monitor object gives you access to OP5 Monitor data for that host or service interactively. The interactive options are as follows:

  • Hover over the object to view a summary of OP5 Monitor data, as shown in the screenshot below.
  • Click on the object to go to its OP5 Monitor detail page.
  • Right-click on the object to refresh its status.
  • Right-click on host and service objects to schedule downtime or reschedule the next check in the respective OP5 Monitor function.

Create a new Geographical map

To create a new Geographical map:

  1. Click Options > Manage maps.
  2. In the Create Map section, specify an internal ID for the map and a display name for the map in the Alias field, then choose Automap based on parent/child relations from the Map Type drop-down list.
  3. Add objects to your map. For guidance, see Add objects to a map.

  4. Update any other general map settings as required. For guidance, see Edit maps.

Add objects to a map

To add objects to a Geographical map:

  1. Click Edit Map.
  2. Select the object type to add:
    • Click Add Icon to add a new icon representing a host, service, host group, service group, dynamic group, aggregation, or map.
    • Click Add Line to add a new line to connect two objects, representing a host, service, host group, service group, dynamic group, aggregation, or map.

      Note: This line must be associated with an object. To add a line with no object association, choose Add Special > Stateless Line.

    • Add Special, to add a new shape, textbox, stateless line, or container.
  3. Click the location for the object on the map. For a line, click once for the line's start location, drag to the end location and click again.
  4. Specify the additional details for the object, such as:
    • Associated host or service name.
    • Object appearance, for example, you can add extra options to line displays, such as a usage percentage or bandwidth, or specify if it is a graph. For more information, see Add a graph object.
    • Object statuses to display.
    • Actions and menus to associate with the object.
    • A label for the object.
    • Zoom properties.

Add a graph object

You can add new hosts and services to your map as graphs. For more details of NagVis graph objects, see the NagVis documentation.

To add a new graph object:

  1. Create an Icon object, as explained in Add objects to a map.
  2. When you specify the object details, in the Appearance tab, check the view_type checkbox and select gadget from the drop-down list.
  3. Specify the options for the graph:
    • gadget_url — pnp_graph.php
    • gadget_opts — a list of additional options, one after the other with no spaces; possible values are:
      • &source=x — source of information for the graph, such as 0 for Round Trip Times and 1 for Packet Loss, in the case of a Ping service.
      • &view=x — time period for the graph, possible values are 0 for 4 hours, 1 for 24 hours, 2 for one week, 3 for one month, and 4 for one year.

Clone an object

To clone an object on your Geographical map:

  1. Right-click the object you want to clone and select Clone object.
  2. Click the location for the cloned object and specify any additional details.
  3. Click Save.

Delete an object

To delete an object from your Geographical map, you need to first unlock it, as follows:

  1. In your map, right-click the object you want to delete and select Unlock. NagVis displays Edit Mode! at the top.
  2. Right-click the object again and select Delete object.

Edit maps

You can use the following procedures to update, delete, rename, or import and export configurations for any map types.

Edit a map

NagVis comes with a standard set of options you can use to edit the characteristics of any map type after creation. You can use these options to override the general configuration. For more information, see Update the general configuration.

Some examples of map settings you can change are as follows:

  • The background image — in the Appearance tab,select the map_image checkbox to select a background image for your map.
  • The icons — in the Obj. Defaults, tab, select the iconset or icon_size checkboxes to specify new icon values.

For more details of the map settings you can change, see the NagVis documentation.

To edit map settings:

  1. Open the map from the Open menu or the Overview page.
  2. Click Edit Map > Map Options.
  3. Select the checkbox of the required setting and edit its associated value.

Delete a map

To delete a map:

  1. Click Options > Manage Maps.
  2. In the Delete Map section, select the map from the drop-down list.
  3. Click Delete.

Rename a map

To rename a map:

  1. Click Options > Manage Maps.
  2. In the Rename Map section, select the map from the drop-down list.
  3. Click Rename.

Import a map

To import a map:

  1. Click Options > Manage maps.
  2. In the Import Map section, click Choose File and choose a map file in .cfg format.
  3. Click Import. You can now reuse your map configuration when creating new maps.

Export a map

To export a map:

  1. Click Options > Manage maps.
  2. In the Export Map section, select the map from the drop-down list.
  3. Click Export. OP5 Monitor downloads your map as a .cfg file.