Metric Chart Widget

You can use the Metric Chart widget to monitor the workload of your objects over time. The widget displays data based on the metrics that you select.
Screenshot of the widget displays Capacity Analytics Generated|Capacity
					Remaining Percentage metric for an object type at a specific time
					interval.

How the Metric Chart Widget and Configuration Options Work

You can add the Metric Chart widget to one or more custom dashboards and configure it to display the workload for your objects. The data that appears in the widget is based on the configured menu items for each widget instance.
You edit the Metric Chart widget after you add it to a dashboard. The changes you make to the menu items create a custom widget with the selected metrics that display the workload on your objects.
To select metrics, you can select an object from the object list, then select the metrics. Or, you can select a tag from the object tag list to limit the object list, then select an object. You can configure multiple charts for the same object or multiple charts for different objects.
To use the metric configuration, which displays a set of metrics that you defined in an XML file, the dashboard and widget configuration must meet the following criteria:
  • The dashboard
    Widget Interaction
    menu items are configured so that another widget provides objects to the target widget. For example, an Object List widget provides the object interaction to a chart widget.
  • The widget
    Self Provider
    options are set to
    Off
    .
  • The custom XML file in the
    Metric Configuration
    drop-down menu is in the
    /usr/lib/vmware-vcops/tools/opscli
    directory and has been imported into the global storage using the import command.

Where You Find the Metric Chart Widget

The widget might be included on any of your custom dashboards. From the left menu, click
Visualize
Dashboards
to see your configured dashboards.
To customize the data that appears in the dashboard widget, from the left menu, click
Visualize
Dashboards
. To create your dashboard, from the left menu, click
Visualize
Dashboards
. From the
Dashboards
panel, click
Create
. To edit your dashboard, from the left menu, click
Visualize
Dashboards
. From the
Dashboards
panel, select the dashboard you want to edit and select
Actions
Edit
. Toggle between the
Views
and
Widgets
option to view and add a widget or view to the dashboard. The widgets list panel displays a list of all the predefined widgets. Drag a widget to the dashboard workspace in the upper panel.

Metric Chart Widget Toolbar Options

On the title bar of the widget, click the
Show Toolbar
icon to access the toolbar options.
The toolbar contains icons that you can use to change the view of the graphs.
Option
Description
Split Charts
Displays each metric in a separate chart.
Stacked Chart
Consolidates all charts into one chart. This chart is useful for seeing how the total or sum of the metric values vary over time. To view the stacked chart, ensure that the split chart option is turned off.
Dynamic Thresholds
Shows or hides the calculated dynamic threshold values for a 24-hour period.
Show Entire Period Dynamic Thresholds
Shows or hides dynamic thresholds for the entire time period of the graph.
Static Thresholds
Shows or hides the threshold values that have been set for a single metric.
Anomalies
Shows or hides anomalies. Time periods when the metric violates a threshold are shaded. Anomalies are generated when a metric crosses a dynamic or static threshold, either above or below.
Trend Line
Shows or hides the line and data points that represents the metric trend. The trend line filters out metric noise along the timeline by plotting each data point relative to the average of its adjoining data points.
Show Data Values
Activates the data point tooltips if you switched to a zoom or pan option.
Show Data Point Tips
must be activated.
Zoom All Charts
Resizes all the charts that are open in the chart pane based on the area captured when you use the range selector.
You can switch between this option and
Zoom the View
.
Zoom the View
Resizes the current chart when you use the range selector.
Pan
When you are in zoom mode, allows you to drag the enlarged section of the chart so that you can view higher or lower, earlier or later values for the metric.
Zoom to Fit
Resets the chart to fit in the available space.
Remove All
Removes all the charts from the chart pane, allowing to you begin constructing a new set of charts.
Refresh Charts
Reloads the charts with current data.
Date Controls
Opens the date selector.
Use the date selector to limit the data that appears in each chart to the time period you are examining.
Select
Dashboard Time
to activate the dashboard time panel. The option chosen in the dashboard time panel is effective. The default time is 6 hours.
Dashboard Time
is the default option.
Generate Dashboard
Saves the current charts as a dashboard.
Save as PDF
Saves the current metric chart as a PDF file.
If you have added many metrics for different objects to a metric chart, you can quickly download and share the PDF file with another user or VM owner. You can create ad-hoc reports when analyzing metrics. You can also add notes to the metrics to provide context to the user.

Metric Chart Widget Graph Selector Options

The graph selector options determine how individual data appears in the graph.
Option
Description
Close
Deletes the chart.
Save a snapshot
Creates a PNG file of the current chart. The image is the size that appears on your screen.
You can retrieve the file in your browser's download folder.
Download comma-separated data
Creates a CSV file that includes the data in the current chart.
You can retrieve the file in your browser's download folder.
Save a full screen snapshot
Downloads the current graph image as a full-page PNG file, which you can display or save.
You can retrieve the file in your browser's download folder.
Units
You can display the data with dots or as a percentage.
Thresholds
You can choose to show/hide
Critical
,
Immediate
, and
Warning
thresholds in the current chart.
Scales
You can choose a scale for a stacked chart.
  • Select
    Linear
    to view a chart in which the Y axis scale increases in a linear manner. For example, the Y axis can have ranges from 0 to 100, 100 to 200, 200 to 300, and so on.
  • Select
    Logarithmic
    to view a chart in which the Y axis scale increases in a logarithmic manner. For example, the Y axis can have ranges from 10 to 20, 20 to 300, 300 to 4000, and so on. This scale gives a better visibility of minimum and maximum values in the chart when you have a large range of metric values.
    If you select a logarithmic scale, the chart does not display data points for metric values less than or equal to 0, which leads to gaps in the graph.
  • Select
    Combined
    to view overlapping graphs for the metrics. The chart uses individual scales for each graph instead of using a relative scale, and displays a combined view of the graphs.
  • Select
    Combined by Unit
    to view a chart that groups the graphs for similar metric units together. The chart uses a common scale for the combined graphs.
Move Down
Moves the chart down one position.
Move Up
Moves the chart up one position.
You can take the following actions on the Metric Chart graph.
Option
Description
Y Axis
Shows or hides the Y-axis scale.
Chart
Shows or hides the line that connects the data points on the chart.
Data Point Tips
Shows or hides the data point tooltips when you hover the mouse over a data point in the chart.
Zoom by X
Enlarges the selected area on the X axis when you use the range selector in the chart to select a subset of the chart. You can use
Zoom by X
and
Zoom by Y
simultaneously.
Zoom by Y
Enlarges the selected area on the Y axis when you use the range selector in the chart to select a subset of the chart. You can use
Zoom by X
and
Zoom by Y
simultaneously.
Zoom by Dynamic Thresholds
Resizes the Y axis of the chart so that the highest and the lowest values on the axis are the highest and the lowest values of the dynamic threshold calculated for this metric.
Vertical resize
Resizes the height of a graph in the chart.
Remove
icon next to each metric name in a stacked chart
Removes the graph for the metric from the chart.

Metric Chart Configuration Options

On the title bar of the widget, click the
Edit Widget
icon to configure the widget.
The configuration options are grouped into one or more sections. You can select the objects on which you want to base the widget data and refine the objects in the following sections. Each section filters the objects further and pushes the filtered objects to the next section. The widget data is based on the objects that are the output of the last section.
The
Configuration
section provides general configuration options for the widget.
The
Input Data
section provides options to specify input for the widget. This section appears when the widget is in self provider mode.
The
Input Transformation
section provides options to transform the input for the widget.
The
Output Data
section provides options to select object types on which you are basing the widget data.
The
Output Filter
section provides options to restrict the widget data based on the selected filter criteria.
Option
Description
Title
Enter a custom title that identifies this widget from other instances that are based on the same widget template.
Configuration
Refresh Content
Activate or deactivate the automatic refreshing of the data in this widget.
If not activated, the widget is updated only when the dashboard is opened or when you click the
Refresh
button on the widget in the dashboard.
Refresh Interval
If you activate the
Refresh Content
option, specify how often to refresh the data in this widget.
Self Provider
Indicates whether the objects for which data appears in the widget are defined in the widget or provided by another widget.
  • On. You define the objects for which data appears in the widget.
  • Off. You configure other widgets to provide the objects to the widget using the dashboard widget interactions options.
Input Data
Metrics
Select metrics on which you want to base the widget data. You can select an object and pick its metrics.
  1. Click the
    Add New Metrics
    icon to add metrics for the widget data. Select an object to view its metric tree and pick metrics for the object. The picked metrics appear in a list in this section.
    The metric tree shows common metrics for several objects when you click the
    Show common metrics
    icon.
    While selecting objects for which you want to pick metrics, you can use the
    Filter
    text box to search for objects. You can also expand the
    Tag Filter
    pane on the left hand side to select one or more object tag values. A list of objects with the selected tag values appears. If you select more than one value for the same tag, you can choose objects that have any of the tags applied. If you select more than one value for different tags, you can choose only the objects that have all the tags applied.
  2. Optionally, select metrics from the list and click the
    Remove Selected Metrics
    icon to remove the selected metrics.
    Click the
    Select All
    icon to select all the metrics in the list.
    Click the
    Clear Selection
    icon to clear your selection of metrics in the list.
Optionally, you can customize a metric and apply the customization to other metrics in the list.
  1. Double-click a metric box in the list to customize the metric and click
    Update
    .
    You can use the
    Box Label
    text box to customize the label of a metric box.
    You can use the
    Unit
    text box to define a measurement unit of each metric.
    You can use the
    Color Method
    option to define a coloring criteria for each metric. If this option is set to
    Custom
    , you can enter color values in the
    Yellow
    ,
    Orange
    , and
    Red
    text boxes. You can also set coloring by symptom definition. If you do not want to use color, select
    None
    .
    For example, to view the remaining memory capacity of a VM, select
    Virtual Machine
    as an object type, expand the
    Memory
    from the metric tree and double-click
    Capacity Remaining(%)
    . Define a meaningful label name and measurement unit to help you when you observe the metrics. You can select
    Custom
    from the
    Color Method
    drop-down menu and specify different values for each color, for example 50 for
    Yellow
    , 20 for
    Orange
    , and 10 for
    Red
    .
  2. Select a metric and click the
    Apply to All
    icon to apply the customization for the selected metric to all the metrics in the list.
Objects
Select objects on which you want to base the widget data.
  1. Click the
    Add New Objects
    icon and select objects in the pop-up window. The selected objects appear in a list in this section.
    While selecting objects, you can use the
    Filter
    text box to search for objects. You can also expand the
    Tag Filter
    pane on the left hand side to select one or more object tag values. A list of objects with the selected tag values appears. If you select more than one value for the same tag, you can choose objects that have any of the tags applied. If you select more than one value for different tags, you can choose only the objects that have all the tags applied.
  2. Optionally, select objects from the list and click the
    Remove Selected Objects
    icon to remove the selected objects.
    Click the
    Select All
    icon to select all the objects in the list.
    Click the
    Clear Selection
    icon to clear your selection of objects in the list.
All
If you select this option, the widget data is based on all the objects in your environment. The following sections provide options to refine the objects for the widget data.
Input Transformation
Relationship
Transform the input for the widget based on the relationship of the objects. For example, if you select the
Children
check box and a
Depth
of
1
, the child objects are the transformed inputs for the widget.
Output Data
Empty drop-down menu
Specifies a list with attributes to display.
Select metrics on which you want to base the widget data. You can select an object and pick its metrics.
  1. Click the
    Add New Metrics
    icon to add metrics for the widget data. Select an object to view its metric tree and pick metrics for the object. The picked metrics appear in a list in this section.
    The metric tree shows common metrics for several objects when you click the
    Show common metrics
    icon.
    While selecting objects for which you want to pick metrics, you can use the
    Filter
    text box to search for objects. You can also expand the
    Tag Filter
    pane on the left hand side to select one or more object tag values. A list of objects with the selected tag values appears. If you select more than one value for the same tag, you can choose objects that have any of the tags applied. If you select more than one value for different tags, you can choose only the objects that have all the tags applied.
  2. Optionally, select metrics from the list and click the
    Remove Selected Metrics
    icon to remove the selected metrics.
    Click the
    Select All
    icon to select all the metrics in the list.
    Click the
    Clear Selection
    icon to clear your selection of metrics in the list.
Optionally, you can customize a metric and apply the customization to other metrics in the list.
  1. Double-click a metric box in the list to customize the metric and click
    Update
    .
    You can use the
    Box Label
    text box to customize the label of a metric box.
    You can use the
    Unit
    text box to define a measurement unit of each metric.
    You can use the
    Color Method
    option to define a coloring criteria for each metric. If this option is set to
    Custom
    , you can enter color values in the
    Yellow
    ,
    Orange
    , and
    Red
    text boxes. You can also set coloring by symptom definition. If you do not want to use color, select
    None
    .
    For example, to view the remaining memory capacity of a VM, select
    Virtual Machine
    as an object type, expand the
    Memory
    from the metric tree and double-click
    Capacity Remaining(%)
    . Define a meaningful label name and measurement unit to help you when you observe the metrics. You can select
    Custom
    from the
    Color Method
    drop-down menu and specify different values for each color, for example 50 for
    Yellow
    , 20 for
    Orange
    , and 10 for
    Red
    .
  2. Select a metric and click the
    Apply to All
    icon to apply the customization for the selected metric to all the metrics in the list.
Output Filter
Refine the widget data further based on the filter criteria for object types. The widget data is based on the objects for the filtered object types.
If the objects have an input transformation applied, you define filter criteria for the object types of the transformed objects.
  1. In the first drop-down menu, select an object type.
  2. In the second drop-down menu, select the option based on which you want to define the filter criteria. For example, if you select
    Metrics
    for the
    Datacenter
    object type, you can define a filter criteria based on the value of a specific metric for data centers.
  3. In the drop-down menus and text boxes that appear, select or enter values to filter the objects.
  4. To add more filter criteria, click
    Add
    .
  5. To add another filter criteria set, click
    Add another criteria set
    .