The Altiris 6.5 console provides a number of reports and dashboards that give us good high level information about what's happening within Altiris but the problem with this is that all the information is found in a number of different places. What I get asked continually is where can I go to see all the high level information that I need to see? Management or Executives may not have permission to see all the reports within the console or they may not want to have to browse for different summary information. This guide will help you build what is called an executive dashboard which is one page that provides people such as executives or managers all the information they need at the right level of detail and nothing else. See the image below for what the finished dashboard will look like.
Once you have gone through this guide you can create a few different dashboards for each level or type of management providing the right data needed. You can then secure the console dashboards through the security role manager. This can be found under the menu configure > Notification Server > Security role management menu. You can also find more information under the Notification Server user guide found under the documentation section of the Altiris website.
This guide will not go through how to create your own menu structures. If you want to start building your own menus please look at the article on the Juice found at the following location more information: http://www.symantec.com/connect/article/2460/customizing-ns-console-6.5
Where to Put Your Dashboard
The first thing you need to decide is where to put your executive dashboard. There is a pre built dashboard that comes out of the box and you can get to this by going to the Home > Altiris Console Home menu item as shown in the image below.
This dashboard is locked down so you can't change or add to this dashboard and you get 4 basic high level summaries. You will find a list of quick starts that have been loaded into the system, solution licenses and what's being used or what has expired, Altiris agent roll out status and a resource manager launch page so that you can investigate individual machines. These items are good but would not be needed by management as summary items so it's probably best to create a new dashboard and delete this one. You can always rename this home page into something else rather than delete the item. One note to remember is that if you run into any problems or change a menu structure by mistake you can always reset the menus by clicking on the reset menus to default icon found under the Configure > Console > Menus link.
Deciding on Dashboard Contents
Before you create your dashboard it's important to decide on what's relevant for you audience. You can either ask someone what they would like to see in a dashboard or browse through the Altiris console and see what's there already.
If you go to the Manage menu as shown in the image above, you will see a list of areas that are installed. If you select one of the items such as Assets and Inventory you will notice that several dashboards have been created already. Take note of any dashboard items that you think would work within your executive dashboard as this will help you work out which items will need to be created and which items you can simply reuse.
For this example I am going to be using the following web parts. Some are pre built web parts and some have been created. There is a section further on in this article to show you how to build your own web parts.
- Software Update Execution Summary - (this web part shows Patch updates and their success)
- Microsoft Vulnerabilities - (this web part shows a breakdown of Microsoft patches by severity)
- Anti-Virus Protection - (this web part Lists anti-virus product, version and number of machines)
- Users with most incidents - (this web part that shows the top number of incidents raised by users)
- Computers with most incidents - (this web part Shows the top number of machines that have incidents linked to them)
- Resource Manager - (this web part is a launch page for opening resource manager)
- Disk Usage - (this web part showing file extensions discovered on machines)
- Games Installed - (this web part Shows games installed and number of machines)
- Helpdesk Summary - (this web part Shows summary of incidents by severity)
- Manage Resource Real Time - (this web part is a launch page for managing real time system manager)
- Most Used Applications - (this web part Shows application usage by product and version)
- Operating systems - (this web part Shows a breakdown of operating systems and service pack)
- Installed vs. Used - (this web part Shows applications and how often they are being used)
- Solution Licenses - (this web part Shows Altiris licenses installed and how they are being used)
- Google - (this web part Shows a Google web page allowing you to browse the web from within Altiris)
Creating Your New Dashboard
To create you new dashboard go to Configure>Console>Portal Pages. Right click on portal pages and select new>portal page as shown in the image below.
You will now get to add your web parts to the dashboard by finding the web part in the columns down the left hand side and then clicking on the add button at the bottom of the page. It is important to understand how portal pages are built before you add you web parts. As you can only have 2 columns you must insert your web parts as you want to see them appear from the top down. If you want your helpdesk summary web part at the top of the page, you must add that web part from the list first.
Web Parts
Before you add your web parts to your newly created executive dashboard its worth spending a moment on web parts and explaining what they are and how they are created.
Web parts are a fundamental building block of a portal page. They are individual web pages displayed within the web part. This flexibility enables you to create web parts from existing Notification Server pages, external web pages or even your own HTML. Web parts, like all Notification Server items, can be secured so only authorized users are able to view them when added to a portal page.
Web parts come in two sizes, or in this case, widths. Fixed-width, about 250 pixels wide, web parts are displayed on the left side of the page. Flexible-width web parts 'fit-to-page' and resize with the browser's window size. You will need to play around with your web parts if you intend on using customized sizes.
The following steps allow you to create a web part from an existing report.
- Click Configure > Console > Portal Pages.
- Right-click on the Web Parts folder and select New > Web Part.
- Name it 'Enabled Policies'.
- Click the Results from report option.
- Select the link and choose Enabled Policies report. (Notification Server Infrastructure, Server, Policy Reports)
- Click Apply.
You can click Show Preview to see what it looks like. With four columns this web part is best displayed wide. If you don't see any information, make sure you selected the Results option.
Repeat this process to create a few web parts that you would want to add to your executive dashboard. You may want to create your web parts in a separate folder so that you can keep track of web parts that are being created.
Once you have added all your web parts to the dashboard you will need to click on apply. Once the page is refreshed you can view the dashboard to make sure that no more changes need to be made and you have all the important web parts within your dashboard.
Putting it All Together
Now that your menu item has been created and your portal dashboard is ready it is time to put the two together and create your executive dashboard. Go to Configure > console > Menus and find your menu item that you created earlier in the article. Where there is a drop down menu for 'Show', select Single page view from the list. Click on portal page and browse and select your executive dashboard that you just created as shown in the image below.
You will need to click on apply and wait for your page to reload before you test your new executive dashboard. You can now follow instructions within the Notification Server help on securing this portal so that the relevant people get access to see the executive dashboard from their internet browser.