About Status

Best used to view monitoring details. The Status Summary is the main view of monitored resources in GroundWork Monitor. Status offers real-time updates, responsive graphing and top-problem displays. This dashboard is a fast, scalable, interface designed to provide easy visualization of monitoring data, including high level status of all servers, applications, networks, and services as they near or breach thresholds. Status lists monitored host groups, hosts, service groups, services, and custom groups with drill down capability to monitoring details. Upon launching Status, the default view Host Groups is displayed and sorted by availability.

Creating Host Groups

Host Groups, groups of monitored hosts, can be created in Configuration > Nagios Monitoring > Hosts > Host Groups, in Configuration > Custom Host Groups, and automatically created by Cloud Hub. All Host Groups, no matter how they are created, can be seen in the Status Summary and selected in configurations such as NOC Boards, SLA Dashboards etc.

Status Operations

• It is important to note that Status, by design, limits the load to 200 rows for any entity type. The worst case status is displayed at the top, and items which do not need attention may not be listed. If you want to view an item not listed in the top 200, you can use the sort, filter, and search options.
• The Status sort order is not the same as that for Top Problems which is an availability sort order. Instead, the Status sort is a numerical score computed on the state of the services and hosts that make up the resource. In the case of a list of services, this is simply a sort of critical first, then warning, then OK at the bottom. Ties in state are sorted alphabetically. In the case of hosts, those which are actually down are listed first, then those with services in both warning and critical states, then critical states, then warning states, etc. Ties in these categories are sorted alphabetically. The intent of the Status sort is to give you a clear list of the worst problems that are occurring right now. You can quickly drill in to the top of the list and begin acknowledging or commenting, or taking other actions to manage the issues detected.

Selector, Search, Time Picker, Sorting, Filtering

Upon opening the Status dashboard (Dashboards > Status), there are several options available for displaying monitored data. 

1. Taking a look at the top rows of the Status display, the icon  fas fa-bars fas fa-caret-down enables you to switch between views including Hosts, Host Groups, and any configured Service Groups and Custom Groups. 
2. The Search Inventory... box lets you search for a specific monitored component (e.g., icmp_ping) and opens the selection in an information panel.
3. Farthest to the right, the Time Picker (e.g., 48H  fas fa-caret-down ) shows component status and metric graphs for the selected time range, the default being 48 hours.
4. And the second row allows for sorting and filtering of elements. You can sort by clicking a column title e.g., Host Groups (sort by state) or Name (sort alphabetically). You can also use the filtered by name feature to find specific monitors, with the option of saving filters for future use. The Monitor Status filter can be combined with the filter by name or used independently to display for example only those elements in a specific state.

Accordion View of Monitors

In the Status dashboard, as each component (e.g., host group, host, service) is selected, the monitoring data is displayed left to right. Status works in an accordion view method collapsing the previously viewed component and showing the next selection along with its member list and information panel. Within the expanded entity screens, detailed monitoring data is presented along with various display options:

1. Breadcrumbs are displayed at the top of the Status screen indicating the selected path. In this image a host group and a host were selected, and you can see the path of the selection in the light green color. Within each breadcrumb, you can click the link to view its information panel, or click the X to expose the previous component in the path.
2. Each list offers Search/Actions options:
   • Search: You can sort elements by Status, Availability, or Alphabetical, filter by name (and optionally save filter), and add a monitoring status to the search.
   • Actions: After a search you can check the box next to any of the components and apply actions; Ack Selected: Acknowledge the selected, Comment Selected: Provide a comment for selected, Delete Selected: New as of 8.2.1, as an administrator you can use this option to purge the selected entities (host group, hosts, service group, services) from the Foundation (GroundWork) inventory. It is important to note this option should only be used if you are are having trouble with orphan hosts or services.
3. A selected component displays an information panel and provides detailed status information including the current State of the component and its members, and date/time indicators.
4. Mid way down there are three tabs; Top Problems, Ack Required, and Unschedule Issues for host and services. Each of these lists can be filtered by name, sorted by availability far fa-calendar-plus fas fa-sort-numeric-down which is the percentage the host has been available over the selected time period. Additionally, each monitor can be acknowledged using the actions icon  fas fa-toolbox . If the problem has been acknowledged fas fa-user-shield it is indicated by a fas fa-check .
5. Availability and Performance and Availability graphs are displayed for the selected component for the selected Time Picker range.
6. Component specific option include More Actions, Ack Now, and Analysis provide:
   • More Actions: The Add Link feature described in detail in Appendix A: Resource Links, is available to all entities and lets you add internal and external resource links to point to related information. Comments can be used to share component information with other users and this is available for hosts and services. And, the Edit Thresholds option described in detail in Appendix B: Service Threshold Overrides, is a direct threshold editing action for services.
   • The Ack Now button allows for problems to be acknowledged.
   • For services, the Analysis option displays an Insight dashboard for the selected service and time period, providing a deeper analysis of performance data.
7. The Events tab displays activity for the select component.

States and Indicators

In the Status screens, color-coded icons represent the current state for a specific monitored component.

Explanation of Icons (Hosts)

State: Description	Custom Group	Host Group	Host
Pending: Usually temporary and signifies the actual state has not yet been determined.
UP: All hosts are responding.
Down: At least one host in group is not responding and are not in scheduled downtime.
Unreachable: The system can't check the state of the host(s) for a reason that needs resolving (dependency or lost connectivity).
Unknown: Cannot be determined for a reason that needs resolving (dependency or lost connectivity).
Suspended:
Scheduled Downtime Scheduled Pending state: Host pending while in scheduled downtime.
Scheduled UP state: Host up while in scheduled downtime.
Scheduled Warning state: Host warning while in scheduled downtime.
Scheduled Down state: Host down while in scheduled downtime.
Schedule Unknown state: Host unknown while in scheduled downtime.

Explanation of Icons (Services)

State: Description	Custom Group	Service Group	Service
Pending: Usually temporary and signifies the actual state has not yet been determined.
OK: Service operating normally.
Warning: Service is degraded and needs attention.
Critical: Service are out of thresholds and not in scheduled downtime.
Unknown: Cannot be determined for a reason that needs resolving (dependency or lost connectivity).
Scheduled Downtime Scheduled Pending state: Service pending while in scheduled downtime.
Scheduled OK state: Service OK while in scheduled downtime.
Scheduled Warning state: Service warning while in scheduled downtime.
Scheduled Critical state: Service critical while in scheduled downtime.
Scheduled Unknown state: Service unknown while in scheduled downtime.

Badges

The icons for Custom Groups, Host Groups, Service Groups, and Hosts outlined above, also show numeric totals (badges) for the non-ok states of their underlying members. The left side displays Down and Suspended state totals for underlying Hosts. The right side displays Critical, Unknown and Warning state totals for underlying Services. The color of the element icon itself reflects the most severe state its underlying members.

Appendices

Appendix A: Resource Links

About Resource Links

Links provide easy access to resources from Status pages. This action is used to add an internal GroundWork link or an external web link URL, to provide more information about an entity; host, service, host group, service group, or custom group.Links added to entity pages can link viewers to, for example; a documentation system (e.g., a runbook), a ticketing system, an application performance monitoring system, maps, dashboards, or simply emergency contact instructions.

Link to options are based on the entity type, for example, when adding a link to a host entity, the link can be added to just the host, to all of the host services, or to all hosts or all services in GroundWork Monitor (globally).

Additionally, an administrator can permit all roles or specific roles visibility to links.

Adding a Link

1. Go to a Status page in which to add a link to.
2. From the right side of the screen, select Actions > Add link.
3. The New Resource Link dialog displays link association options on the left side, and link details on the right.
4. Referencing the table below, select where the link will be added (Link to), the type of link to add (internal, external, current tab, new tab), the actual external URL or GroundWork internal Link, and the roles to be permitted access to the link.

5. Click Create. 
   

   Property	Description
   Link to?	This is the location the link will be added to. The options listed will depend on the entity selected.
   Link type?	The link type External uses https and links outside of the GroundWork Monitor system, while the Internal type links to a relative GroundWork internal network URL. Type options include the link to be opened in a new tab or current tab.
   URL/Link	For External link type: The absolute path URL to the location on the web (https://...).For Internal link type: The relative path URL to the location on the GroundWork system (e.g., /it/graphs…)Service and host substitutions: For a selected service (host) you can substitute the service name or GroundWork service ID (host name or GroundWork host ID) using one following options: [[HOSTNAME]] [[HOSTID]] [[SERVICENAME]] [[SERVICEID]].
   Link Display Text	Optional. The link text displayed on the status page.
   Roles	The roles permitted access to the link.
   Details	Created on: Date/time link createdCreated by: User link created byLast updated: Date/time link updated
   Advanced	Priority: Options for listing alpha, higher, highest. Link priority is used for when there are many links for a give resource, and determines how they will be ordered, the default is alpha, higher is over alpha and highest is the top.
   Make link visible to admin user only	Overrides any Roles and restricts to admin user only.

Removing a Link

1. Click on the small pencil icon  fas fa-edit to the right of the link.
2. Click Delete Link.

Appendix B: Service Threshold Overrides

About Service Thresholds

Thresholds are markers that indicate certain levels were reached. For example, a service that measures disk usage is typically set with a warning threshold of 80% and critical of 90% of disk used. If thresholds are set too low, you will receive more frequent alerts, and if they are set to high you may not be alerted of important issues. GroundWork service status is set by the source application (Nagios, Cloud Hub, etc.), and is fed to GroundWork Foundation for display in the user interface. Nearly all services have thresholds, though there are exceptions and custom service checks that do not.  However, when a service follows standard formatting and completeness rules, you can override thresholds in GroundWork on an individual host-service basis. Such threshold overrides can be edited for both Nagios monitored and Cloud Hub monitored resources.

Editing Thresholds

1. Threshold overrides can be edited by selecting More Actions > Edit Thresholds for a service resource in the Status dashboard.
2. To edit just type over the existing value and select Save. Only users who have rights to see and act on a monitored resource will be able to edit a service threshold.

Appendix C: Deep Links

Linking to Status Summary

The GroundWork UI platform is designed to support direct links from outside the system which, when accessed, presents a login page, followed by the resource you linked to (so-called deep linking). This can be done using the default host and service ID numbers which you will see in the URLs while using Status Summary.  These look something like this:

https://groundwork.local/status?hostGroupId=1&hostId=41&serviceId=230&selectedEntityType=HostGroup

What may be less obvious is that names are also supported.  You can refer to a specific host, for example with a slight variation on this URL:

https://groundwork.local/status?hostName=host123&link=best

In that example, the GroundWork 8 host is "groundwork.local" and the monitored host is "host123". You would of course use your own hostnames for the GroundWork monitor server and host to link to.

Similarly, you can also refer to specific host-services, such as:

https://groundwork.local/status?serviceName=host123:serviceabc&link=best

for "serviceabc" on "host123". 

Why do you need deep linking?

The most important use case is for notifications. You can easily embed links in GroundWork Messenger templates like this:

<a href='https://groundwork.local/status?serviceName=[HOSTNAME]:[SERVICENAME]&link=best'>[SERVICENAME]</a>

There are other uses, too. For example, when creating automation scripting you could use a defined link to verify a host status manually, or to see whether it has been configured for monitoring at all. You can also use it in documentation or run books. Think of it as the inverse of Resource Linking above.  

Here are some details to keep in mind as you work with deep links. 

• The order of the parameters does not matter. CamelCasing correctly is important, as the status summary expects the URL query parameters to be properly camelCased.
• Every external link REQUIRES a single additional URL query parameter link=best.
• Every link can contain any number of entities and child entities IDs or name parameters.

Available parameters are:

• serviceId
• serviceName
• hostId
• hostName
• hostGroupId
• hostGroupName
• serviceGroupId
• serviceGroupName
• customGroupIds
• customGroupNames

An optional parameter called selectedEntityType is also available. This parameter can be one of:

• CustomGroup
• ServiceGroup
• HostGroup
• Host

This will force the Status Summary to display the indicated resource with the selectedEntityType as the top Status Summary parent object, given that a path through that parent exists to the other objects provided.

Here's an example of a link which brings you through custom groups to a service group, and using IDs instead of names.

/status?customGroupIds=5,6&serviceGroupId=1&serviceId=2&link=best

If you wanted to link to a specific service but also show only the host/service relationship using names, you would include the literal string selectedEntityType=Host as a query parameter.  For example:

/status?selectedEntityType=Host&serviceName=host123:serviceabc&link=best

You can also add the hostName, hostGroupName, serviceGroupName, or the customGroupNames (separated by commas), to the URL if you like:

/status?serviceName=localhost:local_load&customGroupNames=cgname1,cgname2&link=best

or:

/status?serviceName=localhost:local_load&hostGroupName=hg1&link=best

Related Resources

• Page:
  Home Dashboard
• Page:
  Nagios
• Page:
  Events
• Page:
  Graphs
• Page:
  Hit List
• Page:
  Insight
• Page:
  Log Analysis
• Page:
  NOC Board
• Page:
  SLA Carousel
• Page:
  Virtualization