Displaying the Configuration and Event Timeline

You can display a timeline showing, for all devices in a selected network view, device configuration changes and network alert data over a time period of up to 24 hours using the Configuration and Event Timeline widget. Correlation between device configuration changes and network alerts on this timeline can help you identify where configuration changes might have led to network issues.

About this task

To display a timeline showing device configuration changes and network alert data for all devices in a selected network view, proceed as follows:

Procedure

  1. Network Health Dashboard
  2. In the Network Health Dashboard, select a network view from the network view tree in the Network Views. The other widgets update to show information based on the network view that you selected.
    In particular, the Configuration and Event Timeline updates to show configuration change and event data for the selected network view. A second tab, called "Network View", opens. This tab contains a dashboard comprised of the Network Views GUI, the Event Viewer, and the Structure Browser, and it displays the selected network view. You can use this second tab to explore the topology of the network view that you are displaying in the Network Health Dashboard.

    For information about specifying which network view tree to display in the Network Health Dashboard, see Configuring the network view tree to display in the Network Health Dashboard.

  3. In the Configuration and Event Timeline widget, proceed as follows:
    Configuration changes displayed in the Configuration and Event Timeline can be any of the following. Move your mouse over the configuration change bars to view a tooltip listing the different types of configuration change made at any time on the timline.
    Note: If you do not have Netcool® Configuration Manager installed, then no configuration data is displayed in the timeline.
    Changes managed by Netcool Configuration Manager
    These changes are made under full Netcool Configuration Manager control. The timeline differentiates between scheduled or policy-based changes, which can be successful (Applied) or unsuccessful (Not Applied), and one-time changes made using the IDT Audited terminal facility within Netcool Configuration Manager.
    Applied
    A successful scheduled or policy-based set of device configuration changes made under the control of Netcool Configuration Manager.
    Not Applied
    An unsuccessful scheduled or policy-based set of device configuration changes made under the control of Netcool Configuration Manager.
    IDT
    Device configuration changes made using the audited terminal facility within Netcool Configuration Manager that allows one-time command-line based configuration changes to devices.
    Unmanaged changes
    OOBC
    Out-of-band-change. Manual configuration change made to device where that change is outside of the control of Netcool Configuration Manager.
    Events are displayed in the timeline as stacked bars, where the color of each element in the stacked bar indicates the severity of the corresponding events. Move your mouse over the stacked bars to view a tooltip listing the number of events at each severity level. The X-axis granularity for both events and configuration changes varies depending on the time range that you select for the timeline.
    Table 1. X axis granularity in the Configuration and Event Timeline

    If you select this time range

    Then the X axis granularity is

    6 hours

    15 minutes

    12 hours

    30 minutes

    24 hours

    1 hour

    For more detailed information on the different types of configuration change, see the Netcool Configuration Manager documentation at https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/SS7UH9/welcomeexternal link.
    Select from the following controls to define what data to display in the Configuration and Event Timeline.
    Time
    Select the duration of the timeline:
    • 6 Hours: Click to set a timeline duration of 6 hours.
    • 12 Hours: Click to set a timeline duration of 12 hours.
    • 24 Hours: Click to set a timeline duration of 24 hours.
    Events by Occurrence
    • First Occurrence: Click to display events on the timeline based on the first occurrence time of the events.
    • Last Occurrence: Click to display events on the timeline based on the last occurrence time of the events.
    Show Table button Show Table
    Displays the configuration change data in tabular form. The table contains the following columns.
    Note: If you do not have Netcool Configuration Manager installed, then this button is not displayed.
    • Number: Serial value indicating the row number.
    • Device: Hostname or IP address of the affected device.
    • Unit of Work (UoW): In the case of automated Netcool Configuration Manager configuration changes, the Netcool Configuration Manager unit of work under which this configuration change was processed.
    • Result: Indicates whether the change was successful.
    • Start Time: The time at which the configuration change began.
    • End Time: The time at which the configuration change completed.
    • User: The user who applied the change.
    • Description: Textual description associated with this change.
    Show Chart button Show Chart
    Click here to switch back to the default graph view.
    Note: If you do not have Netcool Configuration Manager installed, then this button is not displayed.
    Use the sliders under the timeline to zoom in and out of the timeline. The legend under the timeline shows the colors used in the timeline to display the following items:
    • Event severity values.
    • Configuration change types.
      Note: If the integration with Netcool Configuration Manager has been set up but there is a problem with data retrieval from Netcool Configuration Manager, then the configuration change types shown in the legend are marked with the following icon: Indicates that the integration with Netcool Configuration Manager is set up but no configuration management data is available