Visualization UI

Dashboard

[Improvement]

Summaries displayed in tiles are now independent from the status of the tile

• • To remove it, click on the crossed EYE icon.
    • The crossed EYE icon will be replaced by the EYE icon.

The tile is also displayed on the dashboard

 The tile is located on the top left corner of the dashboard:

• • It is exactly the same tile displayed in the hive. 
    • It will prevent you to go back and forth between the hive and the dashboard in order to see the status and summary displayed.
       
  • Any change (Dashboard status or adding/removing a summary) will be seen immediately in the tile. 

In edit mode, Widgets catalog is now in a panel on the right

The widgets catalog is vertical, the user can see more widgets without scrolling.

Locate a widget used in the dashboard status by clicking on its name

It is useful in 2 cases:

• • Click on the widget in the status bar of the Dashboard will help you to locate it, if for example the dashboard is too big to be totally displayed on your screen () 
  • If the Widget is not totally viewable, it is quicker to click on its title than moving the mouse on slide bar.

The dashboard automatically focuses on the new created widget 

In case the newly created widget is added on a hidden part of the dashboard, the User doesn't have to search for the added widget.

The widget layout has been improved

• • Limits of the dashboard are now displayed (a grey background, surrounded by a black Area).
  • The size of the dashboard can be increased by dragging a widget on the left or bottom edge.
  • Dragging a widget doesn't change immediately its layout:
    • Moving a widget outside the visible part will now generate an automatic scroll of the dashboard. The widget will always be visible.
    • While dragging the widget, a shadow is displayed, showing its future position.
    • When you release the dragged widget on the spot of another one, the latter shifts to the bottom.

Detail panel

[Improvement]

The user that has set the acknowledge is displayed 

• • Once the acknowledge is set:
    • A purple area surrounds the Submit/Remove acknowledge button
    • Inside this area is displayed:
      • Who (User name) has set the acknowledge.
      • When (Time) it has been set.
    • A hover shows the comment written by the user.

Tab Historic is updated in real time 

• • The historic of a host is now updated on every refresh of the detail panel.
  • The name of the user that sets the acknowledge is displayed on the historic.
    • a hover box will also display the comment wriitten by the user.

Tab Graph re-developed

The graph has been re-developed for a better user experience

• • • click on a metric to display the associated curve.
      • A broom will appear near to the check name.
      • Click on the broom to remove the curve.
         
    • Checks without metrics will be in grey.
       
    • Many curves can be displayed.
       

• The user can change:
  • the period of the whole graph:
    • click on period available to set the size of the whole graph
      • 1 day, 1 week, 1 month or 1 year
      • The selected range will be in blue

• • the size of the zoomed period:
    • by default the zoomed period has the same size as the whole graph
    • click on zoom buttons to reduce the zoom.
      • proposed zoom depends of the selected period.

• • • Use the range selector button to zoom in and out 
      • drag them to reduce or increase the period.

• • • click inside the zoom period to shift the period without changing the length of the period.

• The graph is not updated in real time
  • Use the refresh button () to re-draw the graphics
     

[Bugs]

Check Tab: Setting or removing an acknowledge on a host refreshes the checks tab

• • When an acknowledge is set on a host, all checks will automatically have the acknowledge context.
    • If the check tab is opened, it will be automatically refresh to show the acknowledge context on all checks.

Widgets

[Improvement]

[Bugs]

Graph Widget

• • A check with a name containing a space wasn't displayed.
  • If there is no value for a metric during a period, the graphic was not showing this period. Activity period were directly concatenated.
    • (For example, if the check has run up to 10:00, then stop 1 hour then restart, it was displaying a continue graphic)
    • It will now show a period with metric set to 0

Root Problem widget

• • When the mouse was over an element in the list of root problem widget and the detail panel is opened, the tooltip describing the host was displayed over detail panel, hiding it.

Widget 

Lists

[Improvement]

Overview: new design and behavior

The behavior of list has been improved to get a better user experience.

• • On the previous list:
    • By default, filtering fields in the column were basic selector or string filter.
    • Advance filtering was possible, but wasn't user friendly:
      • it was difficult to see the link between the complex filter defined and the result in the list.
         
  • So the new list has been designed with the following objectives:
    • integrating the advanced filtering directly in the list
    • more flexibility on the layout of the list
    • all modifications done on the list will be saved. User will have the same layout and filter on the next load of the list.

Hiding/Showing column

We kept this feature from the previous list:

• • Each column can be removed or added depending of the user need
  • You can make it in two different ways:
    • In a column, open the column menu and click on the entry "hide the column".
    
    
    
    
    
    • In the right side of your screen, open the column selector menu and choose which column to display or to hide.

Moving column

The user can choose the column order displayed:

• • Click on the header of the column and maintain pressed.
  • A copy of the header will appear.
  • Drag it to the location you expect.
  • Release the mouse.

Docking column on the left side

A column can always be seen:

• • If the number of column is to big to be displayed because of the navigator width, it can be useful to always see the host name for example.
  • Adding a column;
    • open the column menu.
    • click on the entry "pin on the left".
    • the column will be transferred to the left and always be visible.
  • Removing the column:
    • open the column menu.

    • click on the entry "Unpin".

    • the column will be removed from the left container and will come back to it previous location in the list.

Sorting column

A column can be sorted:

• • In ascending or descending natural order
    • click on the column header to sort a column
    • on the right of the column name:
      • Ascending will show this icon ( ) 
      • Descending will show this icon (  ) 
    • click again to change the order type or remove the sorting.
      
      

Many columns can be sorted:

• • The first column will be sorted, then all identical values of the first column will be sorted in the second column
  • To activate the multi-column sorting
    • Click on the first column ( the icon  will be displayed on the left of the column name
    • then on the second column, while maintaining the shift key pressed (the icon  will be displayed on the left of the column name )
    • You can select as many column as you need.
    • Clicking while maintaining the shift key on a column already sorted will change the ascending or descending order.

• When you set the first filter, the following button (  ) appears on left side of the list 

  • Clicking on it will add a new filtering line, below the header
  • You can set has many filters as you want, but performance will depend of your web browser.

• Elements linked to a filter will be highlighted with the corresponding color.

  Highlight may be resource consuming. You can deactivate it by clicking on the crossed eye button at the top of the screen.

• Clicking on the button (  ) will remove all filters.

Configuration UI

General

Refreshing your cache is no more necessary to get the last version

The backend is now generating an ID preventing the user to keep static file in cache if not necessary.

HTTPS

The UI can be now protected by an HTTPS access

• • The file /etc/shinken/synchronizer.cfg has new parameters.
     
  • to activate the HTTPS:
    • http_use_ssl=0
      • by default it is set to 0. 
      • Set it to 1 to activate.
         
  • Set certificates by updating the 2 following parameters
    
    • http_ssl_cert=/etc/shinken/certs/server.cert
    • http_ssl_key=/etc/shinken/certs/server.key
       

Menu

• The menu is updated dynamically:
  • In the home page, the menu element is updated every 2 seconds.
  • On other pages, it is updated every 30 seconds.
     
• It is now responsive, adapting itself to any navigator size.

Home Page

[Improvement]

SOURCE Syncui Added

  The UI Configuration is displayed as a special source module to be able to choose its priority during Automatic Detection Module merge.
 

• • • We added this features because previously the UI was the most important source. So the merge of sources was not showing element's properties that have been modified also via the UI

SOURCES BEHAVIOR

It can be directly modified in the home page (in the previous version, a restart of the Synchronizer was necessary).
 

The user can:

• • • ENABLE / DISABLE a source:
      • Enabling the source will run the source and show if any, all differences and new elements.
      • Disabling the source will clean the display to remove all differences and new elements of this source in the menu and the staging table.
         
    • FORCE the import:
      • The user can manually run the source to detect differences and new elements (no more need to restart the Synchronizer or to wait for the next automatic import).
      • Press the play icon (  ) :
        • "Import in progress" will be first displayed in the column state.
        • Then "Computing difference" will indicate that the import is finished and that the merge with all other sources is on-going.
        • When finished, the "OK" will be displayed.
           
    • CLEAN the last import result: 
      • cleaning the result can be interesting to remove the import result without disabling the source.
      • Press the broom icon (  ):
        • The element column will be set to 0.
           
    • CHANGING PRIORITY ORDER
      • Each active source will import data and then all data discovered will be merged together.
        • If 2 SOURCES need to update the same information, the one with the highest priority level will win (level 1 is higher priority than level 2).

          • In the screen example, if for a host the description is set in the  "cfg-file-shinken" source and the "cfg-file-nagios" source , then it will always be the  "cfg-file-shinken" that will win (order 1).

        • The column Order has been added to show this merging priority of each source
      •  Changing the priority Order is easy:
        • Move the mouse over one of Source.
        • The mouse cursor will change to the shifting icon (  ).
        • Drag the table line containing this source to the order you want.
          • All sources order below the new position will change of order (increased by one).

SOURCES DISCOVERY ENHANCEMENT

The discovery line displays range defined for the source. 

• • • Each range can be enabled or disabled in the range line:
      • Enabled: the line is brown and the button is green
      • Disabled: the line and button are light gray.

SOURCES Discovery Improved 

• • Port range can be set on each scan range
  • Optional parameter can be also provided to nmap.

[Bugs]

SOURCES DISCOVERY

• • Range name can now contain any character ( like /, :, -, ... )

Elements List

[Improvement]

Filtering the list

• • There are 2 types of filters (depending of the column type):

• • Setting a filter in many column will display lines that are matching all filters

• • Removing a filter:
    • for a typed text, delete it, and press enter.
    • for a selected element of a filtering list, set the filter to "-- All -- ".

Mass Actions

Elements Count

• • 3 type of elements are counted: 
    • elements displayed in the page (all elements, including new and difference),
    • elements that are new (in yellow)
    • elements that have differences (in green)
       
  • for each type, it will be displayed: 
    • the total amount of elements.
    • the number of selected elements for this type ( in blue).

Elements Page

[Improvement]

Colored Template

Template type are now highlighted with color : 

• • • Normal template in Green
    • Unactive template in Grey
      • Unactive templates are templates already included in other template (MyLinux include the linux template, so linux in in grey and MyLinux in green).
      • Checks in double are removed of the unactive template. 
    • Not existing template in Orange
    • New Template (detected via sources, but not already accepted) are in Yellow.
      
      

• • New local data are displayed in Yellow ( the new color)
    • While editing, it helps the user to see which data haven't been saved.
       

• • The "Evaluate check" has been added:
    • Instead of running the check, the user can click on the gear icon (  ) to evaluate the check.
      • It will display each evaluation step without running the check.
      • It is very useful when the command behind the check take some time to be performed.
         
  • Any error encountered by the command itself will now be displayed as a result to help the user to understand errors.
    • previously, the check running was endlessly running.
       

Errors Displayed

• • Error mainly occurs when a host is imported via a source module:
    • If the element refers to an undefined value, element or property, the missing or corrupted information is highlighted in red.
    • A tab containing errors will have the errors counts on the left of the tab
    • the total number of errors in the page will be displayed on the validate button.
       
  • Solving errors that have appeared during an import may take some time to the user. So the page does not block the save of any object even if there are errors inside.
    • But the Apply page will not accept to publish elements with errors. 

[Bugs]

Host and Host group not displayed

• • A host added in a group via the host page was not displayed in the host group page
  • it was the same if a host was added in the host group page (The group was not displayed in the host page).
     

Data including other data weren't resolved

• • For example, the data $_HOSTDOMAIN$ containing $_HOSTDOMAINUSERS\$_HOSTDOMAINUSERSHORT$ was not evaluated.
     

A template containing a space was not displaying its checks

• • The space was blocking the checks list retrieval.

All level of inheritance will be present in elements page

• • Only 2 levels of inheritance were previously displayed.
  • there are no more limits in page that need to handle inheritance (hosts, checks, contacts).
     

Backend

Clusters

[Bugs]

Cluster with a regular expression

A cluster calling itself was unable to be evaluated and its status was staying in 'UNKNOWN'.

• • Now the backend automatically remove the reference to itself and the status can be evaluated.

SLA

[Bugs]

Fix an error on the SLA (%) computation

• •  the error occured when the day was incomplete (by special check_period or by a poller setup without spares)

UIs Active Directory Authentication

 [Improvement]

Active directory authentication also checks the email address

• • If the login set by the user cannot match the user name, try to lookup at the contact by the email address. 
  • Allow the users to login with their emails if the contact name is not the same as the Active directory principal name.

Installation

Mixed installation (US/FR)

[Bugs]

• • Allow an update to replace the previous installation whatever the installed language, even if versions are the same.

SSL/HTTPS daemons

[Improvement]

• • The pyopenssl package needed by daemons and UIs to open in HTTPS is now installed by default.

Plugin NRPE available

[Bugs]

• • The nrpe client plugin (check_nrpe) is now installed by default.
  • But no checks or host template are linked to it.
    • Using nrpe plugins require a specific configuration per monitored equipments. It is not possible to provide easy to use check using nrpe plugin.

Maintenance Tools

Enabling/Disabling daemon commands

[Bugs]

• When disabling, if the daemon was running, stop it in the same time.
• Daemons in DISABLE state are not displayed in the init.d script start/stop/ commands.
• There was a "Central" daemon type on the previous version of the commands shinken-daemons-[list, enable, disable]. Now this daemon type is removed.

Additional parameters for Backup/Restore commands

[Enhancements]

• There are now parameters to select which part of the data application to backup and/or restore:
  
  • --sla: backup/restore all SLA and history data for your elements
  • --user: backup/restore the visualization UI data for your users (hive, list parameters, ...)
  • --configuration: backup/restore the whole configuration of your installation (daemons and ui configuration databases)
  • --metrology: backup/restore all your metrology data (all metrics)
  • --log: backup/restore all your logs

Health check commands

[Enhancements]

• If launched from the central server (arbiter/synchronizer), the shinken-healthcheck executes a "global" check and also looks at distant daemons states.
• if launched from a distant server (not arbiter/synchronizer) then the shinken-healthcheck only look at the local daemons states.

Monitoring Pack

Linux Pack

[Bugs]

Ntp check

The distant ntpq command called was with an absolute path 

• • Was working on Redhat/Centos but did fail to check a distant debian8 host . Now the distant command is searched on the PATH.

Nfs check

On the first run, the check did return a CRITICAL state

• • Now the first run returns an UNKNOWN state.

Windows Pack

[Improvements]

Check_wmi_plus upgraded to 1.60

The check_wmi_plus.pl version is upgraded from 1.49 to 1.60 version in order to fix a problems:

• • with the checknetworks command that did not detect all interfaces by default.
  • with accents in output (accents were preventing any metrics display).