Modifying the Instana user settings
You can control the look and feel of the Instana UI. You can set the navigation layout and appearance, select the display language, show maintenance notes, manage third-party services and personal API tokens, and set preferences for communication from IBM. To modify the Instana user settings, click Settings > User Settings.
General settings
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Show maintenance notes | Display upcoming Instana maintenance prompts. |
| Prompt for URL shortener | Prompt to generate a shortened URL when you use the CTRL+L/CMD+L shortcut. |
| High-quality chart rendering | Toggle the quality if chart rendering. |
| Table refresh rate (3s) | Ranges from once per second to once every 10 seconds. |
| Format time according to UTC | Requires a browser refresh to become active. |
| Format numbers in en-US format | Numbers are formatted in your locale's format. Select to format in en-US format. |
Advanced settings
Form the sidebar, click Settings > User Settings > Advanced.
Troubleshooting (self-hosted only)
This setting is only available in a self-hosted (on-premises) Instana installation. Instana support team might ask you to enable this setting temporarily to get
access to the information as follows, which can be useful for troubleshooting issues raised in a support ticket. The setting is turned off automatically after 30 minutes.
Service troubleshooting tab
An additional Troubleshooting tab is available on the service dashboard. It provides technical information on service mapping. If you have an issue with the naming of a service, you can take a screenshot of this tab, and then attach it to the support ticket.
Internal tags
Some internal tags are available in the Unbounded Analytics dashboard. Instana support might request you to do some queries by using these internal tags for troubleshooting. Do not use any of these internal tags during regular use of Instana. These tags can be changed or removed at any time.
Personal settings
Managing your profile
You can view the email associated with your Instana user account and add your name to the Instana profile.
The email is to identify the user account on Instana. You cannot change the email after the user account is created. If you use the Standard authentication method to sign in to Instana, you must set the name when you sign in for the first time. If you use an Identity Provider (IdP) to sign in to Instana, the name is automatically set depending on the IdP. To change your name on the Instana profile, go to Settings > User settings > Profile. Then enter your first name (given name) and last name (family name) without a comma. Reload the Instana page for the changes to take effect.
The name that you set is overridden when you sign in to Instana with IdP.
Changing your Instana password
To change your Instana password, complete the following steps:
- In the Instana UI, click Settings > User Settings > Password.
- In the Password field, enter your current password.
- In the New password field, enter a new password.
- In the Repeat password field, enter the new password.
After changing the password, you will be logged out of Instana. Sign in with the new password.
If the Instana users are automatically provisioned from an identity provider (IdP), the Change Password option is not displayed in the UI.
Two-factor authentication (2FA)
Two-factor authentication (2FA) in Instana provides enhanced security when compared to a standard authentication.
When 2FA is activated in your authentication device, a QR code is displayed. You can scan this QR code with an authentication app, such as Authy, Duo, or Google Authenticator to create an account in the app. The account in the app shows the rotating 2FA codes.
After 2FA is activated for your account, you must use the 2FA code every time you login.
If you ever lose access to your authentication device, scratch codes serve as a backup . Immediately after activating 2FA in your device you can see five 8-digit scratch codes, and you can use each of them only once. You cannot access Instana without an authentication device and scratch codes.