Documentation forSolarWinds Platform Self-Hosted

Customize modern dashboards

This topic applies to all SolarWinds Platform (self-hosted) products.

  See this video: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Modern Dashboards on the Orion Platform ‚ SolarWinds Lab #93. | Read the THWACK Post

These dashboards improve website performance. You can customize the position of widgets on them and resize the widgets as required. Data on these dashboards is updated automatically; you don't have to refresh the page in your browser.

You need Administrator Rights or Manage Dashboard rights to customize modern dashboards.

Modern dashboards are not compatible with Internet Explorer 11. SolarWinds recommends using another supported browser (Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge), or working with classic dashboards.

Create a dashboard

  1. Click Settings > Manage Dashboards.

  2. Click Add modern dashboard.

    Creating dashboards from scratch might take some time. If you have a similar dashboard already defined, select it and click Duplicate. Provide a new name and adjust widgets. If you clone the base dashboards like this, all widgets are linked to their base widget and reflect any change made to the original widget. See Clone and duplicate modern dashboards.

  3. Provide a name and click Create.

    To start adding widgets, select the Immediately open this dashboard box. The Edit dashboard page opens automatically and you can start adding widgets.

    If you click Create and don't have the box selected, an empty dashboard is created and added to the dashboards list on the Manage Dashboards view.

    By default, the new dashboard is private - it is visible only to you and to administrators. See Set visibility to make the dashboard available to other users.

Add widgets and specify the widget type

If not already on the Edit Dashboards page, go to your modern dashboard and click the pencil icon in the top right corner to enter the edit mode.

  1. To add a new widget, drag the widget placeholder button by the handle and position it on the dashboard. You can place the widget anywhere and resize it horizontally and vertically.

    If you click Done editing in the top right corner now, an empty widget is added.

  2. Click Finish configuring to configure the widget. A panel opens on the right.

  3. In Source dashboard, select Empty widgets, select one of the options, and click the Customize button at the bottom of the panel.

    If you click Create widget, an empty widget of the selected type is added to your dashboard. You can finish the configuration later.

    See Clone and duplicate modern dashboards to learn how to copy widgets that change together with the base widget and how to make them stand-alone.

    To configure your widget, follow instructions for the widget type:

Set visibility for the dashboard (private or public)

By default, a dashboard is only visible for the user who created it and to administrators. Without administrator rights, you can edit only the dashboards you created or dashboards you are the "owner" of.

If your user has administrator rights, you can:

  • Edit dashboards of other users (add, edit, or remove widgets, configure widgets, ..)
  • Set visibility for dashboards - make private dashboards public and vice versa.
  • Change ownership for a dashboard. If you set a user to be the owner of a dashboard, the user can see and edit the dashboard.

 

To set visibility:

  1. Click Settings > Manage Dashboards.

  2. Select the dashboard and click Set visibility.

    1. Select public to make the dashboard visible to all users.

    2. Select private to make the dashboard visible only to the owner and to administrators.

  3. Click Save.

    The dashboard is now visible to users according to your settings.

Set owner

If you want another user without administrator privileges to see or edit your dashboard, set the user as the dashboard’s owner.

  1. Click Settings > Manage Dashboards.

  2. Select the dashboard and click Set owner.

  3. Select the user and click Save.

    The user can now see the dashboard, add, edit, or remove widgets on the dashboard.

Add the modern dashboard to My Dashboards

To make a dashboard available for users without administrator privileges, you need to add the dashboard to My Dashboards mega menu.

Accessing the dashboard from the menu might also be faster and more convenient.

  1. Click Settings > Manage Dashboards.

  2. Select the dashboard and click Copy Link to Dashboard.

  3. Go to Settings > All Settings, and click Customize Menu Bars in the Customize Navigation & Look section.

  4. Click Edit for the Menu Bar you want to add the new dashboard to.

    To add the new dashboard to My Dashboards > Home menu, click edit for Menu Bar: Default

  5. Now on the Edit Default Menu Bar screen, scroll down and click Add.

  6. On the New Custom Menu Item popup, provide the name and description for the new dashboard.

  7. Paste the link to the dashboard from the Clipboard to the URL field.

    The new dashboard is added into the list of Available items.

  8. Drag the new dashboard to Selected items, between items where the menu link should appear, and click Submit.

    The new dashboard now appears in the menu.

Troubleshooting

How do I rename my modern dashboard?

You cannot rename modern dashboards at the moment. To work around the issue:

  1. Duplicate the widget: On Manage Dashboards, select the dashboard and click Duplicate.
  2. Provide the new name.
  3. Delete the original dashboard: Select it and click Delete.

My dashboard disappeared after I changed its visibility

If you change the visibility of a modern dashboard, you might need to refresh the Manage Dashboards page repeatedly to display the dashboard.

Known issues

Different dashboard totals in Manage Dashboards filter

If you add the numbers in different filters on Manage Dashboards page, the result might not match. This is due to the different ways the SolarWinds Platform evaluates properties for individual filters.