Previous Topic: Add Custom Links to the DashboardNext Topic: Display CA SOI Dashboard in SharePoint

Customization and Maintenance › PC Dashboard Customization › Add Custom Metrics to the Dashboard

Add Custom Metrics to the Dashboard

You can add custom metrics to the dashboard that appear as table columns on the Services pane or as line charts on the Details pane. CA SOI can retrieve custom metrics from Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase databases to add important service-related data that CA SOI does not monitor by default to the Dashboard.

Note: To retrieve metrics from another database type, use your own driver that works with those databases. CA Technologies supports only Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase database metrics.

Follow these steps: for custom table columns

  1. Open the SOI_HOME\SamUI\webapps\sam\thinuiconf\custom_metric_definition.xml file in a text editor on the UI Server.

    This file contains detailed instructions and examples for adding custom dashboard metrics.

  2. Create a custom metric table using the provided example, or find the METRIC_TABLE tag and uncomment the example entry in the section labeled '<!-- Put custom metric here'. For either method, populate the following attributes in the entry:
    MAPTODASHBOARDTABLENAME

    Retain the default MyServicesStatusTable value. This attribute must have this value for the metric to display.

    NAME

    Specifies the custom metric name. This name follows the Java class name convention, such as no spaces or special characters.

    COLUMNLABEL

    Specifies the column labels to display in the Services pane. The number of values in this attribute equal the number of values in the DATANAME attribute minus one.

    COLUMNALIGN

    Specifies the column alignment of each label. The alignments are not used. The number of values in this attribute equal the number of values in the COLUMNLABEL attribute.

    COLUMNDATATYPE

    Specifies the data type for each column. The number of values in this attribute equal the number of values in the COLUMNLABEL attribute. Use 'string' as the data type for normal text display, or select from one of the following icon styles: image_sla, image_health, image_quality, image_risk. See the dashboard for examples of these icon styles.

    COLUMNSORTABLE

    Specifies whether each column is sortable. Enter 'true' or 'false'.

    CONNECTION_URL

    Specifies the connection URL for the database that contains the metric information. The only supported driver is JTDS, which supports most major database vendors.

    USERNAME

    Specifies the user name for connecting to the database.

    PASSWORD

    Specifies the password for connecting to the database. Use the SOI_HOME\tomcat\bin\WSSamEncryptCmd.bat utility to generate an encrypted password for this file.

    QUERY

    Specifies the query for obtaining the metric information from the database. Note the following items:

    • For best results, use a simple query. If a complex query is required, create a database view to mask the complex query and expose only the relevant metric data.
    • Ensure that the service name is the first field in the query, because it is used as the key to map to data in the dashboard table.
    • CA SOI does not verify the external connection, so ensure that the database is always available to avoid errors.
    DATANAME

    Specifies the column names in the SELECT query. These values map directly to the SELECT statement. If the column names in the query are mixed-case, use exact characters.

    DATATYPE

    Specifies the data type of the columns defined in the query.

    REFRESH_RATE

    Specifies the refresh rate to retrieve custom metric data in minutes. The refresh rate must be greater than 60 seconds. A high frequency rate affects UI Server performance.

  3. Save and close the file.
  4. Restart the CA SAM User Interface service.

    The metric appears as a table column in the Services pane. If you defined multiple metrics, you cannot control the relative order of the metrics.

Follow these steps: for custom line charts

  1. Open the SOI_HOME\SamUI\webapps\sam\thinuiconf\custom_metric_definition.xml file in a text editor on the UI Server.

    This file contains detailed instructions and examples for adding custom dashboard metrics.

  2. Create a custom metric chart using the provided example, or find the METRIC_CHART tag and uncomment the example entry in the section labeled '<!-- Put custom metric here'. For either method, populate the following attributes in the entry:
    NAME

    Specifies the name of the custom metric chart. The name must be unique, so prefix the chart name with 'CUSTOMMETRIC_'.

    TITLE

    Specifies the chart title that displays on the tab in the dashboard Details pane.

    XLABEL

    Specifies the label of the X-axis data on the chart.

    XDATATYPE

    Specifies the data type of the X-axis data on the chart. The current supported types are 'string' and specific time unit data types (hour, date, month, and year). For more information about these types, see the text in the configuration file.

    XDATATYPELOCALE

    Specifies the locale value of the datetime data that is retrieved from the database. This parameter only applies when the XDATATYPE value is a time-unit data type. The value should conform to the appropriate standard local type, such as EN_US. If this value is empty, the chart uses the locale of the UI Server system as the default.

    YLABEL

    Specifies the label of the Y-axis data on the chart. You can have up to six Y-axis labels.

    YDATATYPE

    Specifies the data type of the Y-axis data on the chart. Enter the same number of data types in the YLABEL attribute.

    YDISPLAYUNIT

    Specifies the display unit in the Y-axis chart.

    CHART_REFRESH_RATE

    Specifies how often the chart sends requests to update data in minutes.

    CONNECTION_URL

    Specifies the connection URL for the database that contains the metric information. The only supported driver is JTDS, which supports most major database vendors.

    USERNAME

    Specifies the user name for connecting to the database.

    PASSWORD

    Specifies the password for connecting to the database. Use the SOI_HOME\tomcat\bin\WSSamEncryptCmd.bat utility to generate an encrypted password for this file.

    QUERY

    Specifies the query for obtaining the metric information from the database. Note the following items:

    • For best results, use a simple query. If a complex query is required, create a database view to mask the complex query and expose only the relevant metric data.
    • Ensure that the number of values in XLABEL plus the number of values in YLABEL equals the number of columns in the query.
    • CA SOI does not check the external connection, so ensure that the database is always available to avoid errors.
    DATANAME

    Specifies the column names in the SELECT query. These values should map directly to the SELECT statement. If the column names in the query are mixed-case, use exact characters.

    DATATYPE

    Specifies the data type of the columns defined in the query.

    REFRESH_RATE

    Specifies the refresh rate to retrieve custom metric data in minutes. The refresh rate must be greater than 60 seconds. A high frequency rate affects UI Server performance.

  3. Save and close the file.
  4. Restart the CA SAM User Interface service.

    The metric appears as a separate tab in the Details pane that displays a line chart.