Managing dashboards through the console

Dashboards are one way for you to view and analyze metric data. The Cloud Console provides predefined dashboards that require no setup or configuration. You can also define custom dashboards. With custom dashboards, you have control over the dashboard content. You decide what you want to display, and if you want to use line charts, heatmaps, or other plot types, such as a gauge. This page describes how to view predefined dashboards and how to create and manage custom dashboards.

Listing all dashboards

To list all of your dashboards, do the following:

  1. In the Cloud Console, select Monitoring or click the following button:

    Go to Monitoring

  2. In the Monitoring navigation panel, click Dashboards.

Predefined dashboards

Predefined dashboards have one of the following types:

  • Google Cloud Platform: These are for Google Cloud services.
  • Applications: These are for third-party applications such as Cassandra and nginx.
  • Amazon Web Services: These are for AWS services.

You can modify the chart configuration and the display period for predefined dashboards. For more information, see Configuring dashboards.

You can't delete or modify a predefined dashboard.

Listing predefined dashboards

To list only your predefined dashboards, you add filters to the filter bar.

For example, to list all dashboards for Google Cloud services and all dashboards for applications, do the following:

  1. In the Dashboards Overview page, click Filter Dashboards and then select Type.

  2. Click Filter Dashboards and select OR.

    By default, when you add multiple filters they are joined with a logical-AND. In this case, the goal is to list all dashboards that belong to one of two categories, so the filters need to be joined with a logical-OR.

  3. Add the filter Type: Applications.

    Display the application or Google Cloud dashboards.

Viewing a G​C​E instance dashboard

To view the dashboard for a specific G​C​E instance, do the following:

  1. In the Monitoring navigation panel, click Dashboards.

  2. In the filter bar , click the text Filter Dashboards, select Type and then select Google Cloud Platform.

    Display the dashboards filtered by type.

  3. In the resulting list, click VM Instances.

    The VM Instances page list your VM instances. From this list, you can view details about each instance, such as the instance name, and access a detailed dashboard for an instance.

  4. To view the dashboard for a specific G​C​E instance, click on the instance name.

Viewing a G​K​E dashboard

To view the dashboards for your G​K​E instances that have the Cloud Operations for GKE enabled, do the following:

  1. In the Monitoring navigation panel, click Dashboards.
  2. In the filter bar , click the text Filter Dashboards, select Type and then select Google Cloud Platform.
  3. In the resulting list, click GKE.

Custom dashboards

You can create custom dashboards to display data that is of interest to you. This section describes how to manage your custom dashboards. For details on the dashboard controls, see Configuring dashboards.

Creating a custom dashboard

To create a dashboard, follow these steps:

  1. In the Dashboards Overview page, click Create dashboard.

    The following screenshot shows a newly created dashboard with the Dashboard editor enabled:

    Example of a new dashboard.

    By default, the dashboard is configured to automatically save your changes, and to let you control the size and position of widgets that you add to the dashboard.

  2. (Optional) Replace the default dashboard title, which starts with New Dashboard, with a descriptive name. You can edit the title after the dashboard is created.

  3. Add a widget to the dashboard by clicking it or by dragging it from the Chart library to the graph area. A preconfigured widget of the selected type is displayed.

    Select the widget to resize it or to change the pre-selected values. For details on configuring a widget, see Creating and managing charts.

    The following example illustrates a Line chart:

    Example of a newly line chart.

    You must add at least 1 widget to the dashboard.

  4. (Optional) In the dashboard toolbar, click Add chart to activate the Chart library and then repeat the previous steps for each widget that you want to add to the dashboard.

Viewing custom dashboards

To view a specific dashboard, do the following:

  1. In the Cloud Console, select Monitoring or use the following button:

    Go to Monitoring

  2. In the Monitoring navigation panel, click Dashboards.

  3. Select the dashboard name. You can restrict the list to only custom dashboards by adding the filter Type: Custom.

For information on changing the content of a dashboard, see Creating and managing dashboard widgets.

Deleting a custom dashboard

To delete a custom dashboard, do the following:

  1. In the Cloud Console, select Monitoring or use the following button:

    Go to Monitoring

  2. In the Monitoring navigation panel, click Dashboards.

  3. To begin the delete action, do one of the following:

    • Find the dashboard you want to delete and click Delete .
    • Open the dashboard you want to delete, click Settings and then select Delete dashboard.

  4. Click Delete in the confirmation dialog.

Copying a custom dashboard

To copy, or duplicate a dashboard, do the following:

  1. In the Dashboards Overview page, identify the dashboard to copy, and then click the Copy icon.

  2. Click Copy in the confirmation dialog.

Configuring dashboards

To set the default configuration for every chart on a dashboard, use the dashboard toolbar. To override the dashboard settings for a specific chart, use that chart's toolbar. For more detail, see Using the chart toolbar.

The dashboard toolbar displays the dashboard name and a series of controls. This section describes those controls.

  • Settings

    Defines the default configuration for all charts. The settings include the following options:

    • Show all legends.
    • Hide chart legends.
    • X-Ray Mode: Show each graph line in white on a black background.
    • Color Mode: Show each graph line with a unique color on a white background.
    • Statistics Mode: Display statistical information.
    • Delete Dashboard: Delete the current dashboard.

  • Fullscreen

    Displays the dashboard full screen.

  • Reset Zoom

    Removes the time interval and range of value selections you made by using your pointer. For information on how to expand a specific time interval, see Changing the graph resolution.

  • Auto Refresh

    Disables or enables the redrawing of all the widgets on a dashboard when new data is available. Auto refresh is automatically disabled by certain analysis features. For example, if you modify the graph resolution, auto refresh is disabled.

  • Time-range selectors

    Sets the display period for all charts on the dashboard. When you select a display period, all charts are redrawn. However, the auto refresh state is not changed. For more information, see Setting the display period.

    You can also change the resolution of a chart by using your pointer. For more information about this process, see Changing the graph resolution.

  • View only and Edit

    To make changes to a dashboard, Edit must be displayed. When View only is displayed, the dashboard can be viewed but not modified.

    To change the mode, use the menu.

  • Undo and Redo

    These buttons are displayed when the Edit is displayed:

    • To undo your previous change, click Undo.

    • To reapply your previous change, click Redo.

  • Mosaic and Grid buttons

    These buttons are displayed when the Edit is displayed. By default, dashboards are configured with the Mosaic layout. With this configuration, you can resize and reposition widgets:

    • To convert a mosaic style dashboard to a grid style, where all widgets have the same dimension, click Grid.

    • To convert a grid style dashboard to mosaic style, click Mosaic.

  • Add chart

    To modify a dashboard, ensure that your Identity and Access Management role for the scoping project of a metrics scope (or the Workspace's host project) includes editing permission. For more information about roles, see Access control.

    To add a widget, such as a chart or gauge, to a dashboard, do the following:

    1. Ensure the Edit button is displayed. If it isn't shown, click the View only menu and select Switch to Edit mode.
    2. If the Chart library is visible, then click or drag a widget from the Chart library to the graph area. A preconfigured widget of the selected type is displayed.
    3. If the Chart library isn't visible, then click Add chart and select a dashboard widget.
    4. Configure the widget by using its configuration pane.

  • Clone chart

    To copy a custom-dashboard widget and save the copy to a custom dashboard, do the following:

    1. Ensure the Edit button is displayed. If it isn't shown, click the View only menu and select Switch to Edit mode.
    2. Select the widget you want to copy.
    3. Click Clone chart, complete the dialog, and then click Clone.

    To copy a predefined-dashboard widget and save the copy to a custom dashboard, do the following:

    1. In the widget toolbar, select More and then select Copy or Add to custom dashboard.
    2. Complete the dialog and then click Copy.

    Not all widgets support the copy operation.

  • Autosave

    To enable autosave, ensure the Autosave toggle is in the on position. When Cloud done is displayed, your changes have been saved.

    When autosave is disabled, you must click Save in the dashboard toolbar to keep your changes.

  • Filter

    Each dashboard page contains a Filter bar that can be used to temporarily change the displayed data. For example, to only show data for a specific instance, you can add one or more filters. Filters apply only to your current view. If you navigate to a different window, the filter configuration is discarded. Filters added to a dashboard are joined by a logical AND.

What's next