How to create NOC boards

NOC Boards (Dashboards > NOC Board) are dashboards which are used to display custom at-a-glance views of your monitored resources and their states. This page steps through configuring and navigation a NOC Board dashboard. 

NOC Boards can be set up with a selected host group or service group. They can define downtime and availability windows, a contractual SLA percentage, and acknowledgment, downtime, and state filters to restrict output of to specific information.

Once a NOC Board is created it's added to the list of available NOC Boards each showing a single line status. A user can simply toggle a NOC Board link to view/hide a the boards details. And the content can be sorted by service status and services can be also acknowledged. As outlined below, a user can easily edit a NOC Board's directives.

NOC Boards can also be added as an internal link within a top-level or sub-level menu page. Doing this enables permitted users access to a page containing associated NOC Boards.

Creating a NOC board

  1. Go to Dashboards > NOC Board.

  2. For an initial NOC Board, select the link Default NOC Board - Hosts: 0 [0 UP,0 DOWN] Services: 0 [0 OK, 0 CRITICAL] SLA: [NOT MET]: 0%, which is the NOC Board template used to create a new board. 

    After defining a new NOC Board, select Save As New. Select Save when you want to override/clone the NOC Board you selected to edit.

  3. Click the edit button button located on the right.

  4. Enter the NOC Board directives, described here:

    FieldDescription
    NameSystem name for the NOC Board, must be unique.
    Display TitleDisplays the entered title in the list of available NOC Board dashboards (Dashboards > NOC Board).
    Host Group or Service GroupSelect to create the NOC Board for a host group or a service group.
    Downtime WindowDisplays the NOC Board scheduled and past downtime status data over the time entered.
    Availability WindowCalculates the SLA percentage availability for the NOC Board content over the time entered.
    SLA PercentageProvides a calculated SLA percentage based on this entered contractual SLA percentage and selected time windows and filters. For example, a 78% calculated SLA% for a given host group means that of the total time for all hosts and services in the group, the resources were Up or OK for 78% of the Availability Window. If you set the SLA Percentage to 80%, your SLA will show NOT MET. If you set it to 75%, it will show MET.
    RowsNumber of rows to display in the NOC Board output.
    Refresh RateNumber of seconds before the NOC Board content is refreshed.
    Ack FiltersDisplays NOC Board content that matches the selected acknowledgment filters.
    Downtime FiltersDisplays NOC Board content that matches the selected downtime filters.
    StatesDisplays NOC Board content for selected states. The Ack Filters, Downtime Filters and States selections are exclusive, in that resources must meet all selected criteria to be displayed.
    ColumnsOnly selected columns of data are shown.

  5. Click Save As New.

    After defining a new NOC Board, select Save As New. Select Save when you want to override/clone the NOC Board you selected to edit.

Navigating NOC boards

NOC board list

  • Configured NOC Boards are listed by going to Dashboards > NOC Boards. 
  • Click a NOC Board link to view or collapse the NOC Board.
  • As shown in the image below, single line status for each shows:
    • NOC Board name NOC Board 1
    • Host Group or Service Group: GroundWork Servers
    • Number of Hosts in an UP or DOWN state
    • Services in an OK, CRITICAL, or WARNING state
    • An indication if the contractual SLA percentage has been MET or NOT MET, along with the actual SLA percentage.

      noc board status line

NOC board summary and display

Upon opening a NOC Board, the top display shows a large number indicating the total number of service problems for the selected host group or service group along with the details of the defined directives. The settings edit button button is used to open the NOC Board settings configuration dialog.

The main part of the NOC Board screen displays the individual host group hosts member status.

  • Host: Hosts within the host group
  • Status: Status of the host
  • Service: Service name and detail with color coded status
  • Status: Status of the service, sortable by column title
  • Duration: Indicates how long the service has been in the reported state
  • Maintenance: Indication if service is in downtime or if any is scheduled based an the downtime window
  • Ack: Indicates if service has been acknowledged, clicking entry allows direct acknowledgment
  • Availability: Indicates the percentage of availability for the service based on the availability window

    noc board summary and display

Clone a NOC board

Open an existing NOC Board, click the edit buttonbutton located on the right, update as needed, select Save As New.

Add a top-level NOC board

To add a NOC Board to a top-level or sub-level page with restricted users, see How to manage menu items.

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