Get Started > Create your first dashboard

Create your first dashboard

Step 1: Before You Begin

  1. Make sure Visio is installed on the system where you plan to create dashboards for BVD.

  2. Log into BVD:

    1. Access BVD at the following URL:

      https://<external_access_host>/bvd

      Enter your login name and password.

    2. Recommended. Open the Personal User Settings Personal User Settings > My Account menu and specify a new password.

  3. In BVD, open Administration Administration > System Settings, and copy the API Key.

    This key identifies your BVD instance and must be included in the data submitted by the data senders.

    Note The System Settings page is only available to users with administrator privileges.

  4. Download the following tools and samples in Administration Administration > Download Tools & Samples, and install them:

    • Visio Stencil (Contains the BVD widgets for Visio.)

    • Data Generator Sample (Contains a VBScript and a batch file to send data to the OMi sample dashboard.)

Step 2: Try the OMi Sample Dashboard

BVD provides the sample dashboard OMi Event and KPI Status Samples (omi_sample) as well as a batch and a VBScript file for sending data to the example. By following the steps below, you will become more familiar with the BVD dashboards, sending data to BVD, and connecting the data to dashboard widgets.

You could also look through the BVD Getting Started dashboards, which are based on the OMi sample dashboard and guide you through the process of modifying a Visio file, uploading the exported SVG file to BVD, and then sending data to the dashboard.

  1. Run the data generator samplegen.bat after extracting it from samplegen.zip. When prompted, enter the URL of your data receiver, your API key, and the HTTP proxy and port, if required.

    Example

    Please enter the data receiver URI, e.g. 
    https://receiver.coloryourdata.io/: https://bvd.example.com/bvd-receiver Please enter your BVD API Key: 47a648e9065d465012e541288b5a345e
    Host name of your HTTP proxy server (leave empty if not required):
    httpproxy.example.com
    Port name of your HTTP proxy server: 8080
    Sending sample data to ...

    Note If you send data to BVD from an application that is not part of the suite container deployment (for example a classically installed OMi), define the receiver URL as follows:

    https://<external_access_host>/bvd-receiver/api/submit/<API key>

    If you send data to BVD from an application that is also installed as a suite container, define the receiver URL as follows:

    http://bvd-receiver.<namespace>.svc.cluster.local:4000/bvd-receiver/api/submit/<API_key>

    <namespace> is the namespace assigned to your suite deployment. You can check the namespace by accessing SUITE > Management in the Management Portal.

    The batch file generates random values and sends them every two seconds to the sample dashboard.

  2. View the OMi sample dashboard in Dashboards Dashboards > omi_sample. Take a moment to explore the information displayed and watch it updating as new data arrives.

  3. Configure the omi_sample dashboard in Administration Administration > Manage Dashboards > omi_sample. Take a moment to look at the properties of the dashboard widgets, the data channels, fields, and rules.

    The following steps demonstrate to you how BVD maps data to widgets:

    1. Edit the text value widget below JBoss Cluster System Performance, and delete the existing data channel (tagomitagkpidimOprSampledimIT JBoss ClusterdimSystem Performance).

    2. Place the cursor in the Data Channel field and type omi. The editor displays a list of all data channels that match the search string omi. Select tagomitagkpidimOprSampledimIT JBoss ClusterdimSystem Performance again.

    3. In the Status Field, click the down arrow and select status from the drop-down list. This step configures the text value widget to retrieve the data from the status field in the connected data channel.

    4. Click Cancel to return to the Manage Dashboards page.

    For more information on sending data to BVD, see Example: Sending JSON Data to BVD.

Step 3: Send Your Own Data to the Dashboard

Before creating your first BVD dashboard, think about the data you want to send and show. You may have numbers indicating the currently logged-in users of your online banking system, metrics indicating the response time of your web servers, or measurements of the temperature in your data centers.

BVD expects to receive your data as HTTP post requests in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format.

The URL should look something like this:

https://<external_access_host>/bvd-receiver/api/submit/<API_key>/dims/<dims> (if the application sending the data is installed classically)

http://bvd-receiver.<namespace>.svc.cluster.local:4000/bvd-receiver/api/submit/<API_key> (if the application sending the data is also installed as a suite container)

<external_access_host>

The fully qualified domain name of the host which you specified as EXTERNAL_ACCESS_HOST in the install.properties file during the Container Deployment Foundation installation. Usually, this is the master node's FQDN.

<namespace>

The namespace assigned to your suite deployment. You can check the namespace by accessing SUITE > Management in the Management Portal.

<API_key>

Identifies your BVD instance. You can find the API key in Administration Administration > System Settings.

<dims>

The names in your JSON name-value pairs. Select and combine dims that uniquely identify your data.

For more information on the URL of the BVD data receiver, see Sending dimensions and tags in the receiver URL.

Example URL:

http://bvd.example.com/bvd-receiver/api/submit/47a648e9065d465012e541288b5a345e/dims/viewName,ciName,kpiName/tags/omi,kpi

Example data channel in BVD:

Example data channel resulting from JSON data sent to BVD

Tags: omi, kpi

Dims: OprSample (=viewName), Employee Self Service (=CiName), Unassigned Events (=kpiName)

Step 4: Design Your Own Dashboard in Visio

  1. In Visio, create a new drawing. Drag and drop the BVD shapes to your drawing and then arrange and modify them as required.

    HPE recommends that you do not change the shape data of the BVD shapes in Visio itself. BVD enables you to adapt the widgets in the uploaded dashboard, which is faster and more convenient (Administration Administration > Manage Dashboards).

    For an overview of the available widgets and the associated properties, see Widgets.

  2. Save your drawing as an SVG file, making sure that the following Visio settings are selected:

    • Save as type: Scalable Vector Graphics (*.svg)

    • Select: Include Visio data in the files

    • Tip: Press Ctrl+A to select everything in the drawing. This ensures that your entire drawing is exported and not the currently selected element only.

    Alternatively, click the Export Dashboard button in the Dashboard ribbon, if you have installed the BVD Visio Add-in.

Step 5: Upload your Dashboard to BVD

  1. In BVD, open Administration Administration > Manage Dashboards and click + Add, select your SVG file, and then click Upload Dashboard to import it. The BVD dashboard editor opens and displays your uploaded dashboard.

  2. You can change the properties of the dashboard itself (for example, the SVG file associated with the dashboard, the title, or the background color).

    To edit the properties of a widget, click the widget. When you click the Data Channel field, a drop-down list opens showing all data streams that have been received by BVD. The data you sent in Step 3 should be included in the list. Select it, adjust any of the other properties as required, and click Save. For more information about the different types of widgets, see Widgets.

  3. By default, newly imported dashboards are visible in the Dashboards menu. To show or hide a dashboard, click the Dashboards Show in Menu/Hide from Menu button.

  4. View your dashboard by selecting it in the Dashboards Dashboards menu. Then watch your dashboard updating as you send data over your data channels.