Viewing a topology

Once you have rendered a topology, you can refine and manipulate the view.

View a topology

1. From the Visualization toolbar below the Navigation toolbar, you can manipulate the topology using a number of visualization tools.

   View legend

   Toggle View Legend to open a Help panel that describes the visual elements used in the topology to display, for example, added or removed resources, their status, and types.

   Timeline

   Use this to open or close the History timeline, which shows how a topology has changed over time.

   The timeline is closed by default.

   Delta

   Use this to shows how a topology has changed between two specific moments in time.

   Delta is off by default.

   Select tool submenu

   When you hover over the Select tool icon, a submenu is displayed from which you can choose the Select, Pan or Zoom Select tool.

   Select tool

   Use this icon to select individual resources using a mouse click, or to select groups of resources by creating a selection area (using click-and-drag).

   Pan tool

   Use this icon to pan across the topology using click-and-drag on a blank area of the visualization panel.

   Zoom select tool

   Use this icon to zoom in on an area of the topology using click-and-drag.

   Zoom in

   Use this icon to zoom in on the displayed topology.

   Zoom out

   Use this icon to zoom out of the displayed topology.

   Zoom fit

   Use this icon to fit the entire topology in the current view panel.

   Overview

   Use this toggle to create the overview mini map in the bottom right corner.

   The mini map provides an overview of the entire topology while you zoom in or out of the main topology. The mini map displays a red rectangle to represent the current topology view.

   Layout

   Use this icon to recalculate, and then render the topology layout again.

   You can choose from a number of layout types and orientations.

   Layout 1

   A layout that simply displays all resources in a topology without applying a specific layout structure.

   Layout 2

   A circular layout that is useful when you want to arrange a number of entities by type in a circular pattern.

   Layout 3

   A grouped layout is useful when you have many linked entities, as it helps you visualize the entities to which a number of other entities are linked. This layout helps to identify groups of interconnected entities and the relationships between them.

   Layout 4

   A hierarchical layout that is useful for topologies that contain hierarchical structures, as it shows how key vertices relate to others with peers in the topology being aligned.

   Layout 5

   A peacock layout is useful when you have many interlinked vertices, which group the other linked vertices.

   Layout 6

   A planar rank layout is useful when you want to view how the topology relates to a given vertex in terms of its rank, and also how vertices are layered relative to one another.

   Layout 7

   A rank layout is useful when you want to see how a selected vertex and the vertices immediately related to it rank relative to the remainder of the topology (up to the specified amount of hops). The root selection is automatic.

   For example, vertices with high degrees of connectivity outrank lower degrees of connectivity. This layout ranks the topology automatically around the specified seed vertex.

   Layout 8

   A root rank layout similar to layout 7, except that it treats the selected vertex as the root. This layout is useful when you want to treat a selected vertex as the root of the tree, with others being ranked below it.

   Ranks the topology using the selected vertex as the root (root selection: Selection)

   Layout orientation

   For layouts 4, 6, 7 and 8, you can set the following layout orientations:

   • Top to bottom
   • Bottom to top
   • Left to right
   • Right to left

Use the Update Manager

2. If auto-updates have been turned off, the Update Manager informs you if new resources have been detected. It allows you to continue working with your current topology until you are ready to integrate the new resources into the view.
   The Update Manager is displayed in the bottom right of the screen.

   Show details

   Displays additional resource information.

   Render

   Integrates the new resources into the topology.

   Choosing this option will recalculate the topology layout based on your current display settings, and may therefore adjust the displayed topology significantly.

   Cogwheel icon

   When clicked, provides you with quick access to change your user preferences:

   • Enable auto-refresh: Switches auto-refresh back on, and disables the Update Manager.
   • Remove deleted resources: Removes the deleted resources from your topology view when the next topology update occurs.

   Hide

   Reduces the Update Manager to a small purple icon that does not obstruct your current topology view.

   When you are ready to deal with the new resources, click on the icon to display the Update Manager again.

Modify a topology

3. The displayed topology consists of resource nodes and the relationship links connecting the resources. You can interact with these nodes and links using the mouse functionality.

   Dragging a node

   Click and drag a node to move it.

   Selecting a node

   Selection of a node highlights the node, and emphasizes its first-order connections by fading all other resources.

   Context menu (right-click)

   You open the context menu using the right-click function. The context menu provides access to the resource-specific actions you can perform.

   For resource entities, you can perform the following:

   Resource details

   When selected, displays a dialog that shows all the current stored properties for the specified resource in tabular and raw format.

   When selected while viewing a topology history with delta mode On, the properties of the resource at both the reference time and at the delta time are displayed.

   Resource status

   If statuses related to a specific resource are available, the resource will be marked with an icon depicting the status severity level, and the Resource status option will appear in the resource context menu.

   When selected, Resource status displays a dialog that shows the time-stamped statuses related to the specified resource in table format. The Severity and Time columns can be sorted, and the moment (that is, the historical time point) that Resource status was selected is also time-stamped. You can use the Show active only toggle to remove inactive statuses.

   In addition, if any status tools have been defined, the status tool selector (three dots) is displayed next to the resource's statuses. Click the status tool selector to display a list of any status tools that have been defined, and then click the specific tool to run it. Status tools are only displayed for the states that were specified when the tools were defined.

   The severity of a status ranges from 'clear' (white tick on a green square) to 'critical' (white cross on a red circle).

   Table 1. Severity levels

   Icon	Severity
   	clear
   	indeterminate
   	information
   	warning
   	minor
   	major
   	critical

   Comments

   When selected, this displays any comments recorded against the resource.

   By default, resource comments are displayed by date in ascending order. You can sort them in the following way:

   • Oldest first
   • Newest first
   • User Id (A to Z)
   • User Id (Z to A)

   Users with the inasm_operator role can view comments, but not add any. Users with inasm_editor or inasm_admin roles can also add new comments. See the Configuring DASH user roles topic for more information on assigning user roles.

   To add a new comment, enter text into the New comment field, and then click Add comment to save.

   Build a template

   Opens the Create a new template dialog, from where you can create a new resource group template.

   Get Neighbors

   When selected, opens a menu that displays the resource types of all the neighboring resources. Each resource type lists the number of resources of that type, as well as the maximum severity associated with each type.

   You can choose to get All neighbors of the selected resource, or choose a specific resource to add to the topology using the Choose neighbor option. This lets you expand the topology in controlled, incremental steps.

   Selecting Get neighbors overrides any existing filters.

   You can Undo the last neighbor request made.

   Follow relationship

   When selected, opens a menu that displays all adjacent relationship types.

   Each relationship type lists the number of relationships of that type, as well as the maximum severity associated with each type.

   You can choose to follow all relationships, or only the neighbors of a specific type.

   Show last change in timeline

   When selected, will display the history timeline depicting the most recent change made to the resource.

   Show first change in timeline

   When selected, will display the history timeline depicting the first change made to the resource.

   Find path

   When selected, opens the Path tool dialog, from where you can define the criteria for the system to find the shortest path between two resources in your topology. See the Using the Path tool topic for more information.

   Recenter view

   When selected, this updates the displayed topology with the specified resource as seed.

   Topology Swagger

   Opens the Swagger UI.

   Swagger

   Agile Service Manager uses Swagger for automated documentation generation and utilizes a Swagger server for each micro-service.

   You can access and explore the REST APIs of the topology service and observers using Swagger via the proxy service.

   For more information, see Swagger reference.

Filter the topology

4. Open the Resource Filter toolbar using the Filter toggle in the Topology Visualization toolbar. From here, you can apply filters to the topology in order to refine the types of resources or relationships displayed.
   The Filter toolbar is displayed as a panel on the right-hand side of the page, and consists of a Simple and an Advanced tab. If selected, each tab provides you with access to lists of resource types and relationship types. Any types that have been excluded from view in order to optimize performance when rendering topologies are listed here. The seed resource of a topology can not be blocked, and neither can resource groups.

   Note: You can override the exclusion using the context menu functionality.

   • If you are filtering a topology before rendering it: All resource types and relationship types are displayed, except those that have been excluded. After rendering the topology, you can toggle the Show all types switch so that only types relevant to your topology are displayed.
   • If you are filtering a topology already displayed in the viewer: Only types relevant to your topology are displayed, for example host, ipaddress, or operatingsystem. You can toggle the Show all types switch so that all types are listed (apart from the excluded types).

   Simple tab

   When you use the Simple tab to filter out resource or relationship types, all specified types are removed from view, including the seed resource.

   It only removes the resources matching that type, leaving the resources below, or further out from that type, based on topology traversals.

   By default, all types are On. Use the Off toggle to remove specific types from your view.

   Advanced tab

   The Advanced tab performs a server-side topology-based filter action.

   It can exclude or include types:

   • Exclude removes the resources matching that type, as well as all resources below that type. However, the seed resource is not removed from view, even if it is of a type selected for removal.
   • Include displays the selected types in the topology.

   Tips

   Reset or invert all filters: Click Reset to switch all types back on, or click Invert to invert your selection of types filtered.

   Hover to highlight: When a topology is displayed, hover over one of the filtering type options to highlight them in the topology.