View data in the Operations console

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Applies To: Operations Manager 2007 R2, Operations Manager 2007 SP1

Operations Manager 2007, with the appropriate management packs imported will provide you with a comprehensive view of what is going on with your monitored applications, hardware, and processes. This can result in a very large volume of data being displayed in the Operations console. Learning how to quickly locate the data you need is essential to efficient interaction with the console. You can use the Scope, Find, and Search buttons on the Operations console toolbar to filter your view of monitoring data so that you can find the exact monitoring object or group of objects that you need. You can also filter your data based on the number of hours or days you would like to show.

The Scope, Search, Find, and Time tools apply a temporary filter to the data you are viewing in the console. While you can locate a specific object using Search or Find, you can also use Scope or Time to display a set of objects that meet a set of criteria. The following table shows the differences between the different filtering options:

Filter When to use

Scope

Use to limit the data in a view to only those objects that meet your criteria. This scope remains in place until you clear it.

Search

Use to display a list of objects that meet your criteria. You can then act on those objects; however, when you navigate away from this list, the filter is removed, and any view will show all objects (not just those from your search criteria).

Find

Use to display a known single object.

Time

Use to limit the data displayed to only that data (such as alerts) that has been generated within a defined time frame.

If you need to view the same set of monitoring data, you can personalize a view so that the same filters are always applied to the data when you open that view in the console. You can also save a search for later use.

Changing the scope

Changing the scope of the monitoring view enables you to view only those objects that meet a certain criteria, such as management servers. For example, if you want to view only those computers in your environment that are running Windows XP, you can apply a scope that uses “Windows XP” as the criteria; no other computers are displayed.

Note that the scope used within the Operations console is different from that used for security roles. In a security sense, the term “scope” applies to the realm of responsibility (such as being responsible for all computers in the Northwest running Microsoft Exchange). A security role is made up of the scope plus a profile.

To change the scope

  1. In the Operations console, click the Monitoring button to display the objects in your monitoring environment.

  2. Click the Scope button on the Operations Manager toolbar. If this button is not available, check to make sure that you have an object, not a folder, selected in the Monitoring pane.

  3. The Change View Scope dialog box displays a list of existing groups and distributed applications. If the list is too long, you can find a specific group or distributed application by entering a word or phrase in the Look for box. Once you make a selection, click OK.

    Now only the objects that meet the scope criteria are shown in the Results pane.

Use the Find button when the list of objects in the Results pane is too long to quickly pick out a particular object. Use the Search button if you want to find all objects that meet a certain criteria.

To use the Find button to locate an object within a list

  1. In the Operations console, click the Monitoring button.

  2. Click to select a view that is available in the Monitoring pane. This displays a list of objects.

  3. Check to see if a Look for box is at the top of the Results pane. If there is no Look for box, click the Find button on the Operations Manager toolbar. In Look for, type a word, such as the name of an object, that you want to find in the list, and then click Find.

    The object that you are looking for is displayed.

  4. Click Clear to go back to the original list of objects.

To use the Search feature to create a list of objects

  1. In the Operations console, click the Monitoring button.

  2. Click the Search button in the Operations Manager toolbar.

  3. In the Search window, type the word or phrase that describes the set of objects you want to find. A list of objects that meet your criteria displays. The list is sorted by object type.

Changing the time criteria

Changing the time criteria of the monitoring view enables you to view only those objects that meet a certain criteria, such as “Last 12 hours.” When you change the time criteria, you limit what is displayed to only what has happened in that time period. For example, if you want to view the last week of data, you can change the time criteria to Last 1 week.

To change the time criteria

  1. In the Operations console, click the Monitoring button to display the objects in your monitoring environment.

  2. Click the Calendar button on the Operations Manager toolbar. If this button is not available, check to make sure that you have an object, not a folder, selected in the Monitoring pane.

  3. Select the proper time criteria you are interested in.

Now only the objects that meet the time criteria are shown in the Results pane.