Sometimes dashboards can be slow to load and to manipulate. Don't we all wish there were an easy way to speed them up? Maybe a dashboard speeder-upper one could get from Acme Holdings Direct?
While not all dashboards can be sped up, some can. Specifically those which use row-oriented tables. These are the ones that look like this:
These tables present information in rows and columns, each row usually being related to one topology object such as a Host. A clear exception to the "related to one topology object" is the Rule Management Dashboard.
The display of both the host dashboard and the rules dashboard can be sped-up by removing from teh display information which is "expensive" to gather. Examples of such information are the alarms in the Hosts dashboard and the threshold values in the Rule Management dashboard.
On my test rig, displaying the Rules Management dashboard takes around 4.5 seconds. Removing the display of the thresholds brings that time down to just a smidgeon over 1 second.
"Isn't this difficult? I've never learnt how to modify dashboards?" I hear you ask. No it's not difficult and doesn't require any advanced training. In fact, it's core functionality!
Row-oriented tables often provide the user with a "customiser":
This icon is found in the top-right corner of the table. Once you have clicked on it, Foglight gives you the option of displaying or hiding some columns. To speed up the display of dashboards, consider hiding the "expensive" columns such as the count of alarms or, as shown in the figure below, the thresholds for the rules:
Foglight will remember this change, however it does this on a user by user basis and so other Foglight users will not be affected by your customisation.
Thanks to Stefan Marx for the idea.
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