1.0 Dashboard Basics
In this section, we'll take a look at basic access to the FileWave dashboard and give information on it's various built-in components. If you intend to use this dashboard, but you are new to it, then this is the place to start.
- 1.1 Accessing the FileWave Dashboard
- 1.2 Default Dashboard
- 1.3 FileWave Provided Dashboards
- 1.4 Switching Between Dashboards
- 1.5 Dashboard Panel/Widget Layout
- 1.6 Exposing an Association to Dashboard
- Importing a Grafana Dashboard
1.1 Accessing the FileWave Dashboard
What
Your account will need permission to access the FileWave Dashboard.
When/Why
There are three permission levels for the dashboard for each admin logon:
- No Access
- Read-Only Access
- Read-Write Access
The permissions are defined with the following options in the Manage Administrators Assistant:
How
Accessing the dashboard itself is quite simple once your account has proper permissions. From the WebAdmin, simply choose the Go To Dashboard link:
You will automatically be authenticated using the already established credentials to the WebAdmin. Note that all access to the dashboard is routed through the WebAdmin
1.2 Default Dashboard
What
Once you access the dashboard, you are going to be presented with a default system dashboard that looks something like this:
When/Why
This simple dashboard (called FileWave System) is basically the equivalent of the dashboard in the native admin. It shows you basic configuration elements, and let's you know whether there are configuration issues with a simple color code.
How
Taking action to remediate issues will resolve the reporting. i.e. In the above, I do not have a macOS client specified for use by DEP, therefore the DEP widget shows as red. If I uploaded the pre-configured client in my admin, this issue would be resolved, and the widget would turn green.
1.3 FileWave Provided Dashboards
What
FileWave provides a number of default dashboards, some of which will be useful to you directly, and others that will be more useful to support staff.
When/Why
Of course everything that we do with the dashboard is about reporting. There are hundreds of things you might want to report on...we give you many examples to work with which you'll see below:
How
The important thing to note is that these dashboards are starting points for you, not necessarily destinations unto themselves. You can slice/dice/transform and re-imagine all of these elements in your own dashboards at your discretion. Note that the FileWave provided dashboards can not be modified directly, but they can be copied to dashboards of your own.
1.4 Switching Between Dashboards
What
Switching between various dashboards is the first thing you are going to want to do once you login.
When/Why
Switching between various dashboards allows you to look at different types of data in different ways. I may want to open new browser tabs with different content, I may want to switch between views in the same tab. Or, I may even want the singular tab to cycle through content for me on its own (called a playlist).
How
We'll start simple here, and just discuss switching between different dashboards. The easiest way is to simply use the header links to switch as shown below:
Note that there are other methods too...such as Dashboards→Manage:
1.5 Dashboard Panel/Widget Layout
What
The dashboard panels are highly customizable and allow you to change the appearance of your dashboard to suit your needs.
When/Why
Just copying and pasting content into a dashboard is a good first step, but we can tailor the information to be portrayed in just the way we like.
How
Simply put, every panel/widget can be resized and moved around to your chosen location, as shown below:
1.6 Exposing an Association to Dashboard
What
FileWave can expose an association to the Dashboard so deployment progress is visible as a Dashboard widget.
When/Why
Use this when a rollout is important enough that administrators or other stakeholders need a quick progress view. It is most useful for larger deployments, client upgrades, or staged rollouts where completion, remaining devices, warnings, and errors need to be watched without opening the association every time.
How
- Open the association you want to track.
- On the association options, enable Expose to Dashboard.
- Save the association and confirm the change through your normal FileWave workflow.
- Open the Dashboard and review the association progress widget.
The exact surrounding labels may vary by FileWave version, but the association option is shown below.
After the change is active and clients report status, the Dashboard shows progress for the exposed association.
Related content
Importing a Grafana Dashboard
What
There's no need to build a grafana dashboard from scratch if you can "borrow" one from a friend. This article explains how to import a grafana dashboard from another system.
When/Why
We'll want to import a dashboard whenever someone else has done the work for us, and we'd like to have a dashboard the easy way.
How
The steps are actually quite simple...from FileWave Anywhere, Go To Dashboard:
Within the dashboard, go to Home> Dashboards:
Then to New, Import:
And then either import the JSON file or copy and paste the JSON content:
Now just set a name and a destination (note: every dashboard must have a unique UID):
And that is it, our new dashboard is imported:
