Dashboard (Grafana)
The FileWave dashboard is a collection of custom code and open-source solutions. We'll give you the beginner's guide here for customizing your dashboard up to some more advanced topics.
- FileWave Dashboard Intro
- 1.0 Dashboard Basics
- 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
- 2.0 Custom Dashboards for Beginners
- Using Grafana for Data Aggregation
- 2.1 Creating Your Own Dashboard
- 2.2 Copying Widgets (Panels)
- 2.2.1 Copied Panel is Blank
- 2.3 Widget/Panel Elements
- 2.4 Creating a New Panel (existing data)
- 3.0 Advanced Dashboard Primer
- 3.1 Aggregating Data
- 3.1.1 Grouping Data Using Prometheus
- 3.1.2 Testing the Prometheus Scrape
- 3.1.3 "Exploring" Your New Aggregate Data
- 3.1.4 Creating your Data Panel
- 3.2 Extra Metrics
- 4.0 Dashboard Alerts
- 5.0 Grafana Plugins
- Troubleshooting
FileWave Dashboard Intro
What
The FileWave Dashboard provides summary information about your FileWave server, your deployments, and pretty much anything else you'd like to know about your FileWave environment.
When/Why
The best time to use the dashboard is when summary data is important to you, particularly regarding server performance and deployment progress. It is a great tool to communicate with senior management, or to simply keep a watchful eye on your environment.
How
We won't go into detail in this article about using the Dashboard, but we will do that in all of the great articles in this section of the KB. That said, the FileWave dashboard is a collection of custom code and open-source solutions. We'll give you the beginner's guide here for customizing your dashboard up to some more advanced topics, but if you really want to understand how things work, you'll want to take a look at some of the following resources as well:
- Grafana (graphing engine): https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/
- Prometheus (data scraping/monitoring): https://prometheus.io/docs/
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
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:
Related Content
2.0 Custom Dashboards for Beginners
Once you get the hang of the elements that are provided for you automatically, you may want to take the next step and start creating custom dashboards of your own.
FileWave supplied dashboards will only take you just so far. As soon as you want to know specific information about your environment and your deployments you are going to want to create your own dashboards with your own dashboard elements.
The contents for customization are broken into two parts. In the first (this section) we'll look at the components of dashboards and show you how you can build your own simple custom dashboards. In the next section, we'll get much more detailed and advanced.
Using Grafana for Data Aggregation
What
Grafana has been included within FileWave for quite some time, but only with a recent update does Grafana have the ability to do data aggregation without using Prometheus. This article shows you how to use this feature.
When/Why
We'll use Data Aggregation whenever we want to look at an overview of data. For instance, if we want to understand how many devices are missing OS patches, we might create a report showing all devices, and their missing patches. To give a graphical representation of this, we would likely Group this data by patch name, and Count the number of devices missing each. This data is perfect for a visualization like a bar or pie chart.
How
To create an aggregated visualization, we need to start with a report in FileWave. In this instance, we'll create a report on the version of the FileWave client on Mac and Windows devices:
Note that we included that the client versions is not null...this prevents having placeholders, etc in the data. Also note that we only included two fields here: FileWave Client Version (which we intend to Group By), and Device ID (which we intend to count). There aren't may devices in this system, so the data just looks like this:
Now we are ready for the "dashboard" part of the exercise, so go into your Dashboard from FileWave Anywhere and follow along with this short video:
2.1 Creating Your Own Dashboard
What
The beauty of the FileWave dashboard isn't in what we give you...although we definitely give you some great stuff! The beauty of the solution is that you can make it what you want it to be using your own dashboards.
When/Why
Dashboard elements (or widgets as we will call them) can be combined to create dashboards of your own. You can copy these widgets from pre-existing FileWave Dashboards, or even create your own widgets directly.
How
In this example, we'll just look at creating the new empty dashboard we want, but do make sure and follow this up with the article below on copying widgets. Note that we create a new folder first, as we expect we'll create more than one dashboard eventually:
2.2 Copying Widgets (Panels)
What
If we have the power to create our own dashboards, then surely we must be able to add content to them...
When/Why
We are going to copy a widget (referred to as a panel in Grafana) whenever one already exists and we can leverage it without doing any extra work. For instance, watch below, as we "steal" content from various pre-existing dashboards for our own custom dashboard.
How
Taking pre-existing content from other dashboards is as easy a copy and paste (rinse and repeat):
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If you find that your copied panel is blank, take a look at resolving that in this article: Fixing Blank Copied Panel |
2.2.1 Copied Panel is Blank
What
In certain circumstances, when you copy/paste a panel into another dashboard, you may find that the new panel is blank.
When/Why
This will happen most often if the dashboard that you copied from has variables defined that the panel relies upon. For instance, if a panel relies on $host to be the address of your server, but the destination dashboard doesn't have that variable, then the panel will copy, but be blank.
How
Below you'll see the issue:
Fixing the issue requires replicating the variables in the destination dashboard. (Unfortunately there is no method for copy/paste, so they must be regenerated.). In any dashboard, you can see the variables in Dashboard Settings → Variables:
then 
Replicate the variables in your own dashboard:
And, once you save those new variables, you should find your copied panel now works:
2.3 Widget/Panel Elements
What
All panels (or widgets) on the FileWave dashboard are comprised of the same basic elements. This article reviews those elements at a high level.
When/Why
If you are using pre-existing panels, you won't care too much about how they are built. However, as soon as you want to build your own panels, the building blocks become quite important.
How
All panels have the following three elements:
- The Query (Choosing what data you want to see in the panel)
- The Visualization (Choosing the visual representation of the data: gauge, bar chart, table...)
- General (Panel properties such as title, comment, links)
In the below you'll see examples of each of these elements:
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The Query |
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The query you choose defines the data provided to the panel. In this case, an inventory query was selected. |
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The Visualization |
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Because we chose an inventory query as our data source, a table was our only possible visualization. In our more advanced example though, you'll see that we can do charts and graphs here of all sorts. |
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General |
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We only specified a name in this case for this panel, but it is very useful to also set a link for the panel to tie directly into a report in the webadmin. |
2.4 Creating a New Panel (existing data)
What
It is possible in the FileWave dashboard to add panels directly from an inventory query (report) with some limitations (no data aggregation).
When/Why
The data panels are simple enough to add as you'll see below, but the only representation available for them is a table format, which is the equivalent of the report/inventory query itself, but in the dashboard, so easier to share.
How
All Inventory Queries (reports) are available automatically when you choose FileWave Tabular Datasource for your panel's query. See a quick walkthrough below of creating a new table based panel to show all macOS clients:
3.0 Advanced Dashboard Primer
Aren't you an intrepid explorer! Look at you jumping right to the advanced section! Well, we are glad you are here. In this section we'll be looking at how you can create much more complex dashboard content.
As soon as you want to go beyond supplied panels, or direct data from inventory queries, then things are going to get a bit more complex. However, don't be daunted! We are going to give you the building blocks here for building complex and very meaningful aggregate data from FileWave sources.
Please see the articles below for the elements we'll build on:
3.1 Aggregating Data
What
The FileWave dashboard can show raw device data, but aggregated data is what gives you the quick summary. Aggregation rolls many records into something easier to read, such as counts by version, model, or status.
When/Why
Use aggregation when you need the big picture instead of a long list. For example, if you are rolling Java from build 183 to build 196, a per-device report shows every record, but an aggregated view shows how many devices are still on each version. That makes rollout progress much easier to understand at a glance.
How
To get aggregated data into Grafana, create a Prometheus scrape job that summarizes the inventory-query data you care about. The next articles in this section walk through that process: define the Prometheus job, test the scrape, review the resulting metric in Explore, and then turn it into a panel.
3.1.1 Grouping Data Using Prometheus
What
In order to do summary reporting, we need to leverage the power of Prometheus.
When/Why
Anytime we want to do something like report on a rollout or general status, we are going to want to summarize a report. We will accomplish this by using a Prometheus config file on the FileWave server itself.
How
The configuration (or yml files) that we'll create will always be placed in the /usr/local/etc/filewave/prometheus/conf.d/jobs/https directory on the FileWave server. Anything placed in this directory will automatically be read by Prometheus, and the data presented to our dashboard. (Example yml files can be found in /usr/local/etc/filewave/prometheus/conf.d/jobs)
The syntax of these files is quite picky, so it is best to copy an existing one, and then modify it. It may seem complicated, but we are always going to do the following steps:
| Step | Example |
| 1. Place a new (or copied) yml file into /usr/local/etc/filewave/prometheus/conf.d/jobs/https with a meaningful name. |  |
| 2. Edit the new file to specify the following 3 things: * The inventory query (report) to use * The field you want to count by...device_id is almost always a good one if reporting by device * The field you want summarize (aggregate) by...in this case, the filewave client version |
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| 3. Once your report is created, the report id to use is most easily accessed through the webadmin. Note that the fields you want to use for aggregation must be in the report. |  |
4. Get the definition for the fields you want to use from the API...the easiest way is to do a curl from the command line like this: bash<br>curl -s -k -H "Authorization: <Base64_API_Token>" https://<my.server.address>:20445/inv/api/v1/query/<report_id> | python -mjson.tool<br>Make sure and substitute in your values for the <Base64_API_Token>, <my.server.address> and <report_id> You'll get a response that includes the component and the field names as shown at right |
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| 4. Edit the YML file to specify the 3 items as they match your report definition, then save the file. If using the sample file, remember to take out the comment # at the beginning of each line. Example at right: |  |
Within a minute or two of creation of the file, the data should be available in your dashboard for a new panel.
3.1.2 Testing the Prometheus Scrape
What
Assume for a moment you made a typo in the yml file, or some other problem occurs and your new scrape isn't showing in Grafana...how can you see what is going on?
When/Why
Thankfully there is a service running that allows you to see the status of all Prometheus scrapes, and will usually give you an idea about what is going on. We can check a web page to get this detailed information.
How
The webpage/port in question though is NOT open by default to external systems and we must access it in a special way. If the port were open, we would normally just go to https://my.server.address:21090/targets. But, to work around the port not being opened, we can do the following (from terminal, macOS):
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ssh -L 8000:localhost:21090 user@my.server.address |
Alternatively, if you are on a Windows device, you can do the same thing through Putty by configuring a "tunnel" with local port of your choosing redirecting to the FileWave server:
These configurations redirects our requested traffic back to port 8000 on our local device, based on the ssh connection being established. The result is that in our own browser then, we can go to http://localhost:8000/targets to see the scrape data.
See below how I have a mistake in one of my jobs (query 153 doesn't actually exist):
3.1.3 "Exploring" Your New Aggregate Data
What
Before you build a formal Grafana panel, it often helps to look at the aggregated data directly. The Explore view is the fastest way to sanity-check what your report is producing.
When/Why
Use Explore after you have configured the Prometheus scrape and want to confirm the metric looks right before turning it into a panel.
How
Aggregated inventory-query data is exposed in Dashboard metrics as filewave_inventory_query_<id>, where <id> is the report ID you used. The attached video shows the Explore workflow for one of those metrics.
In this example, the data is no longer shown as five separate records. Instead, it has been grouped into three records because only three different FileWave client versions are present across the endpoints. That grouped result is much easier to use when you build a chart, such as a pie chart, in the next step.
3.1.4 Creating your Data Panel
What
Once your aggregated metric is available in Grafana, you can turn it into a panel that answers the question you actually care about.
When/Why
Pick the visualization based on the story the data needs to tell. Pie charts work well for a current distribution, such as how many devices are on each client version right now. Line or bar charts are better when you want to watch that same data change over time.
How
Creating the panel is similar to the earlier dashboard examples, but now you are working with aggregated Prometheus data instead of a simple raw query result. The video below shows the basic workflow.
Grafana gives you a lot of freedom in how a panel is presented. One small detail that helps immediately is the legend format. In this example, using {{genericdesktopclient__filewave_client_version}} makes the legend display the actual version value instead of a less useful raw field name.
We chose Instant in this example because the goal is a current snapshot, which is usually the right choice for a pie chart. If you want to see the same metric trend over time, use a visualization such as a bar or line chart and query the time-series data instead.
3.2 Extra Metrics
What
We learned in the 3.1 section how to build our own custom panels. "Extra Metrics" is an independently built tool to automate creation of a few reporting elements for us without doing it manually. This solution is NOT directly supported by FileWave, but you may find it useful in your environment.
When/Why
"Extra Metrics" gives data on applications, and generally on patch status of your devices. The patch status elements are hard-coded, but the application versions panels are driven by dynamic reports that you can tweak to fit your needs. All information for installation and upgrade of this solution is found here: https://pypi.org/project/filewave-extra-metrics/#description
How
In this example, we have Extra Metrics installed, and are adding a new report to view Firefox information on macOS devices.
4.0 Dashboard Alerts
With the Custom Dashboards configured you can now choose to configure email alerts based upon conditions met. Alerts are only available for Visualisations of type Graph.
Custom Dashboards provide live information, but for some you will want to receive notifications when certain criteria has been reached. Two elements require configuring, email and the alert itself: Email and Alert
4.1 Grafana Email Configuration
What
Use this process to configure email in Grafana so alert notifications can be sent by email.
When/Why
Configure email before you create or test alert notifications.
How
Edit the Grafana configuration file on the FileWave Server:
/usr/local/etc/filewave/grafana/conf/filewave.ini |
Add or update the [smtp] section with your mail server details. Set enabled = true so Grafana can actually send mail. If your mail relay requires client certificate authentication, you can also set cert_file and key_file.
[smtp]
enabled = true
host = smtp.example.com:587
user = smtp-user
# If the password contains # or ; wrap it in triple quotes, for example """#password;"""
password = """smtp-password"""
cert_file =
key_file =
skip_verify = false
from_address = alerts@example.com
from_name = FileWave Grafana
ehlo_identity =
Leave the existing FileWave-specific settings in place, and only change the SMTP values you need. If your relay does not use client certificates, leave cert_file and key_file empty.
For the full list of available SMTP options, see Grafana's configuration documentation.
After saving the file, restart the FileWave Server so Grafana reloads the configuration:
sudo fwcontrol server restart |
Then open Grafana, go to the Alerting section, choose Contact points, create or edit an Email contact point, and send a test notification.
4.2 Grafana Alert Configuration
What
Set up Alerts for those times you want to be notified.
Alerts are only available for Visualisations of type Graph
When/Why
Leverage your Web Admin Custom Dashboard elements to build Alerts.
How
Select your chosen Graph and from the drop down choose 'Edit':
Select the Notification icon and configure the conditions as desired. In this example if the total device count exceeds 20 devices, a notification will be triggered.
Add any message as you see fit.
5.0 Grafana Plugins
Plugin Installation
Plugins are a great way to extend the features of Grafana, optimising the Grafana experience.
Recommendation is that any installed plugins are signed. All plugins from the built-in search should be approved already, but plugins are available from other sources.
Installation
Plugins are easily searchable through the Grafana Dashboard, via the Configuration tabs
On selecting a plugin though, at the bottom of the description it will indicate necessary permissions are not enabled:
Installation through the Grafana GUI requires a Grafana Admin. FileWave does not allow installation of plugins in this manner. Instead, the command line should be used directly on the server to instal plugins.
Command Line Installation
Scrolling down through the plugin page, there is a section on using command line to instal the plugin, however, this should not be used. It does however highlight the required plugin name to be used in the process.
Taking Apace Charts as an example:
From the description, the plugin name is:
volkovlabs-echarts-panel
As such the command to instal this plugin on a FileWave Server would be:
/usr/local/sbin/grafana-cli --pluginsDir=/usr/local/filewave/instrumentation_data/grafana/plugins --homepath=/usr/local/filewave/grafana plugins install volkovlabs-echarts-panelThe process should report success and the plugin should now be available.
Plugin Configuration
Some plugins may require additional configuration, e.g. they require reference to additional files. An example of this is the CSV plugin by Marcus Olsson.
When selecting the CSV Plugin as a Data Source, the path to the CSV file is required, with a choice of HTTP or Local:
Local Data Source
By default, local data sources are not allowed. It is possible to overcome this via the Grafana 'ini' file, however this has limitations.
The FileWave Grafana 'ini' file is defined as:
/usr/local/etc/filewave/grafana/conf/filewave.ini
Enablement of Local files is achieved by adding the following into this file:
[plugin.marcusolsson-csv-datasource]
allow_local_mode = trueAfter doing so, the server service should be restarted:
fwcontrol server restartLocal files may now be accessed with this plugin. However, the caveat is that this file is overwritten by the FileWave installer on each upgrade. The outcome is the file must therefore be edited on each upgrade attempt.
HTTP Data Source
HTTP Data Source has no similar caveat. If there is already an available HTTP share in-house, this could be utilised. However, the FileWave Server could have the apache configuration adapted to include such files.
Configure Apache
This process will rely on Apache having access to a directory which serves these files. This could either be one that already exists or configuration could be used to add a new directory to serve just the required files.
Recommendation would be to create a new directory.
This is editing FileWave Server files and folders. FileWave upgrades can overwrite files, folders or expansion of product may include new files and folders. Consider using a directory that is unlikely to clash with future updates.
In this example, the new chosen folder is:
/usr/local/filewave/grafana_plugins_custom/csv
'grafana_plugins_custom' does not yet exist. Rather than just creating one custom plugin folder for all possible plugin use, in this example a subdirectory for the CSV files has been created. Additional plugins that also required http file shares could use the same parent, but have their own subfolder.
The Apache file that can be edited to create new http file shares is:
/usr/local/filewave/apache/conf/httpd_custom.conf
As a FileWave Custom file, this will persist with Filewave upgrades.
Alias /plugins_custom /usr/local/filewave/grafana_plugins_custom/csv
<Directory "/usr/local/filewave/grafana_plugins_custom/csv">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>Full details on each option can be found in the Apache Documentation
However, to highlight two key aspects.
Directory
This is the newly created directory from which the files may be shared from
Alias
When accessing the files from a URL, this is essentially a shortcut for the URL, which will be redirected internally to this folder on access. In this instance, the alias (shortcut link) is:
/plugins_custom
Other options should be configured as required.
FileWave Server process should be restarted once configured:
fwcontrol server restartDownloading CSV files
Once configured, CSV files may be populated into the newly created document. For example:
# ls -l /usr/local/filewave/grafana_plugins_custom/csv
total 184
-rw-r--r-- 1 root _www 14425 Aug 3 17:06 admin.csv
-rw-r--r-- 1 root _www 19364 Aug 3 17:06 data.csv
-rw-r--r-- 1 root _www 36694 Aug 3 17:06 paint.csv
-rw-r--r-- 1 root _www 19345 Aug 3 17:06 video.csvTest download may be achieved by way of the server URL appended with the alias. For example if the server were called 'demo.filewave.ch', then the URL from the above configuration would be:
https://demo.filewave.ch/plugins_custom/
However, a file should be addressed directly. Taking the paint.csv as an example:
https://demo.filewave.ch/plugins_custom/paint.csv
Accessing this URL in a browser should show the contents or download the file.
Plugin Data Source
Other Data Source settings should be configured as desired.
Troubleshooting
Custom Grafana Dashboard - YML Files not being processed
What
You may notice that your Grafana dashboard won’t process data from YML files. This can happen if the API key is regenerated for FileWave, but the file that Grafana uses is not updated. As recently as FileWave 14.9.0, this can be an issue with an easy solution outlined below. Development is looking at possibly always overwriting this file at server startup which would eliminate this problem from appearing, and it should only appear as an issue if the API key for the server is regenerated, causing it to not match. For most customers, this is not likely to be an issue.
When/Why
When you 3.1.2 Testing the Prometheus Scrape as you set up a custom Dashboard with a YML file, you may see that the files show “DOWN,” as seen below. This is a sign that you are experiencing this issue. You’ll also see no data on your widgets in the Dashboard.
How
To fix this issue, SSH to your server and remove the file, as shown below. the bearer_token_file has the wrong API key, and if you restart FileWave after deleting it, then a new correct one will be regenerated. If you are a hosted customer, then you will need support to remove this file for you, and very likely, they helped you upload the YML file, to begin with.
rm /usr/local/etc/filewave/prometheus/conf.d/bearer_token_file
/usr/local/bin/fwcontrol server restartResolving “Login failed: User sync failed” Error in Grafana
What
This article explains how to resolve the “Login failed: User sync failed” error when an administrator signs in to the FileWave Dashboard through Grafana.
When/Why
This error occurs when a FileWave administrator account uses a username that conflicts with Grafana. The most common case is a FileWave Central administrator named “admin”, since Grafana also uses an internal “admin” account. The conflict can appear when that administrator tries to open the FileWave Dashboard through Grafana.
How
Avoid using “admin” as a FileWave administrator username. Use the steps below for a built-in administrator account. If the affected administrator comes from LDAP or an IdP, rename or adjust the account in that identity source instead.
- Access FileWave Central:
- Open FileWave Central.
- Navigate to Preferences -> Manage Administrators.
- Rename the “admin” Account:
- Identify if an “admin” user exists.
- Rename this user to a specific named account, such as a real administrator name.
- Ensure the new username is unique and does not conflict with other system usernames.
- Create Named Accounts:
- Create individual named accounts for each administrator.
- Named administrator accounts help prevent this Grafana conflict and make audit trails easier to understand.
- Update Login Credentials:
- Inform administrators whose usernames changed.
- Update any saved login credentials in browsers or password managers accordingly.
Related Links
Digging Deeper
Grafana uses a default “admin” account during initial setup. If FileWave also has an administrator named “admin”, Grafana user synchronization can fail because the username is already reserved or in use.
Named accounts also improve accountability because administrator activity can be tied to a person instead of a shared generic login.
For FileWave administrator-account setup, see the related administrator-management article above.