Viewing topologies

A topology is a graphical representation of an application (service), or a resource group, or an individual resource. When you render a topology, it displays all of the constituent elements and relationships that make up your topology, and then lets you refine and manipulate the view.

You can use the interactive topoloy tools to drill into the individual resource details and status, enable a timeline to view changes over time, and more. You can also use this view to triage issues when an incident occurs.

When you view a topology, you can zoom in and out of specific areas of the topology or pan across it in various ways. You can auto-fit the topology into the available display window, draw a mini map, or redraw the entire topology. You can also filter your types of resources that are displayed, or your types of relationships that are rendered.

Tip: While viewing a topology, you can click View legend to open a Help panel that describes the visual elements used in the display of the topology. Alternatively, you can click Tabular view to display the topology of an application or resource group in table format instead.

Before you begin

To view a topology, it must be defined first. For more information about creating a topology, see Rendering (visualizing) a topology.

The following procedure details how to view topologies for applications, resource groups and resources. For more information about creating applications, see Defining and editing applications.

About this task

You view a topology from the Resource management page.

To view a topology

  1. Log in to the IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps console.

  2. From the main navigation, click Resource management.

    On the Resource management dashboard, applications, resource groups and resources are presented on separate tabs. In addition, the dashboard is divided into 'All applications results' and 'Favorites' sections. You can display favorite applications and resource groups either as cards or in a table. Resources are always displayed in a table, and cannot be designated as favorites.

  3. Search for the resource or resource group to find the topology that you want to view.

    As you type in a search term, such as a name, tag, entity type or unique Id, a drop-down list is displayed with suggested search terms that exist in the topology service. If you select one of the suggested results, the Search Results page is displayed listing possible resource results. The Results are listed under separate Resources and Resource groups tabs.

    • If the resource that you are searching for is unique, the resource can be included in the drop-down list of suggestions. If you are confident that the listed suggestion is the resource that you are searching for, you can click the View topology for the closest matching resource icon in the drop-down list to render the topology for the closest matching resource to that suggestion.

    • Optional: If the resource that you are looking for might be deleted, you can select Include deleted resources (unless an administrator disables this feature). When this toggle is enabled, the search results include any deleted resources. Deleted templates or resource groups are not included in any search results. Deleted resources are marked as deleted and include the date and time that they were deleted. If you click View topology, the resource topology is displayed with the history timeline open. The timeline is set to 1 ms before the resource was deletion. When you close the timeline, the topology is cleared. When you search for resources with a previous point in time set in the history timeline, deleted resources are not returned and the toggle to include them is not available.

    • For each result, the name, type and other properties are displayed. You can expand a search result entry for more details, such as its status and any associated severity levels, or when the resource was previously updated. If a status other than clear exists for a search result, the maximum severity is displayed.

    • Tip: You can perform more complex searches, such as searching with multiple search terms. For more information about advanced query syntax, see the topology query reference topic.

  4. Click View topology.

Viewing and modifying the topology presentation

When you view a topology, you can zoom in and out of specific areas of the topology, and pan across it in various ways. You can auto-fit the topology into the available display window, draw a mini map, or redraw the entire topology. It is also possible to filter your types of resources displayed, or your types of relationships rendered.

Tip Click View Legend to open a Help panel that describes the visual elements that are used in the rendering of the topology (such as lines styles, icons, and symbols).

Tip: Click the Tabular view button to switch to a table view.

You can manipulate the topology by using a number of tools:

Depending on whether you are viewing the topology for a resource or resource group; or viewing an application topology, the tools that are available can be different.

Topology menu options

The overall Resource management UI also includes a toolbar with the following options for modifying the topology:

Refresh rate

You can expand the Refresh rate drop-down field to select your preferred refresh rate or to pause the option. This rate determines when the topology page auto-updates to search for and include new changes.

You can pause the topology data refresh, or specify the following values: 10 seconds, 30 seconds (default), one minute, or five minutes.

Refresh

You can click Refresh to manually refresh the topology data, which also clears all user-specific session data.

Sharing options

You can share a topology either by obtaining a direct URL linking to the topology view, or by exporting a view of the topology as an image. To select a sharing option, click the Sharing options icon and then click your preferred option:

  • Obtain direct URL

    This option displays the Direct topology URL dialog. This dialog includes a displayed URL, which captures the current topology configuration, including the layout type. The layout orientation is not tracked.

    Click the Copy direct URL to clipboard icon to the right of the URL to copy the direct-launch URL string for accessing the topology view. You can then share the URL with a colleague or use the URL to directly access the topology later.

    Then, click Close.

  • Export as PNG

    Click this option to export a snapshot of the current topology in PNG format. The snapshot is automatically downloaded based on your browser download settings. By default, the file is saved as topology.png. You can now share the image as required.

  • Export as SVG

    Click this option to export a snapshot of the current topology in SVG format. The snapshot is automatically downloaded based on your browser download settings. By default, the file is saved as topology.svg. You can now share the image as required.

Settings

From this menu, you can select to open pages for managing the following types of settings:

  • Topology configuration

    You can configure the following topology elements to change how users can visualize, manipulate, and use topologies:

    • Advanced settings

      Control how the topology user interface works for all users.

    • Topology tools

      Create tools that can be accessed from within the topology's context menu.

    • Resource types

      Customize the style of your resources.

    • Relationship types

      Customize the style and label for relationships.

    • Custom icons

      Add custom icons for resources that are displayed in the topology.

    • Rules

      Define automated processing rules for your topology data.

    For more information, see Configuring topology elements.

  • User preferences

    You can set your personal preferences for how topologies are rendered. The settings that can personalize are grouped into the following categories:

    • Updates

      These settings determine how and how often topologies are automatically updated.

    • Layout

      These settings determine the default presentation of topologies.

    • Miscellaneous

      Other settings, such as displaying messages, screen reader support, and troubleshooting.

    For more information, see User preferences.

Resource group templates

The Resource group templates page opens. From this page, you can view all resource group templates. You can select to create a template or select to edit or delete an existing template.

For more information, see Template builder.

Topology navigation toolbar

The navigation toolbar is displayed at the top of the Topology section. The topology navigation toolbar includes the following tools and options:

Number of hops

The number of relationship hops to visualize from the seed resource. You can define the number of relationship hops to be performed, which can be from zero to four, unless this setting has been customized. The default is set at 'one'.

For more information about configuring the maximum hop count, see the Configuring advanced topology settings.

Type of hop

The type of graph traversal used. The options are:

  • Host to host

    This type generates a view showing host to host connections.

  • Element to element (default)

    This type performs the traversal by using all element types in the graph. If no hop type has been defined, a topology is rendered using the element to element hop type as default.

  • Element to host

    This type provides an aggregated hop view like the Host to Host type, but also includes the elements that are used to connect the hosts.

    Tip: The URL allows you to set h2h for host to host, e2e for element to element, or e2h for element to host.

Open filter toolbar

Click the Filter icon to display or hide the filtering tools. The Filter toolbar is displayed as a panel on the right side of the page, and consists of a Simple and an Advanced tab. If selected, each tab provides you with access to expandable filters by:

  • Resource types
  • Relationship types
  • Resource severity

From here, you can apply filters to the topology to refine the resources, relationships, or statuses that display. If a filter is applied to a displayed topology, the text 'Filtering applied' is shown in the status bar under the topology.

Only resource and relation types that are relevant to your topology are displayed. You can toggle the Show all types switch so that all types are listed, apart from the excluded types. To optimize performance when rendering topologies, any types that are excluded from view are listed here. The seed resource of a topology cannot be excluded.

Note: You can override an exclusion by using the context menu functions.

  • Simple tab

    When you use the Simple tab to filter by resource type, relationship type, or resource severity, all specified types are removed from view, including the seed resource. The filtering removes only the resources that match that type, leaving the following resources, 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. If you changed the topology, you can set filters before you render the topology to prevent a potentially large, resource-intensive topology from being loaded in full. From this tab, you can exclude or include types:

    • Exclude removes the resources matching that type and all resources below that type. However, the seed resource is not removed from view, even if it is of a type that is selected for removal.

    • Include displays the selected types in the topology.

  • Reset or Invert 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 the resources with the associated type within the topology.

Render

This button causes the topology visualization to run to update the topology based on any changes to the topology or the navigation toolbar settings. This process integrates any new resources into the topology. Choosing this option recalculates the topology layout based on your current display settings, which can adjust the displayed topology significantly. Once the rendering is complete, the topology refreshes on a 30-second interval by default. You can pause the auto-update refresh, or select a custom interval.

Tip: The IBM Cloud Pak for AIOps console can time out when a large amount of data is being retrieved for rendering. For more information about how to address this issue, see Rendering (visualizing) a topology.

Tabular view

If you click Tabular view to display the topology in table format, it lists the Name, Type, Resource alerts and Tags for each resource'.

  • You can dynamically filter the table by typing names, types or tags into the Search field.

    Note: Elements that are not displayed when viewing resources in table format, such as relationship types, are not available for filtering.

  • You can display resources at a historical point in the past by clicking click Choose a historical time on the toolbar. From the Choose a historical time dialog, select a new moment in time up to the data retention limit set for your system (the default is thirty days in the past). If you return to the current time, the data is refreshed.

    Tip: If you switch back from a tabular to a topology view, the time pin has moved according to the historical date you have selected.

  • You can click Resource details on the overflow menu to open the Resource Details window.

  • You can perform a number of additional context-dependent activities from the overflow menu of each displayed item in the table, such as viewing comments, showing the item in a map, assigning business criticality, opening it in the topology viewer, or building a template.

Tip: You can share a link to the application (or resource group) in tabular format with other users.

Tabular view overflow menu

The overflow menu (the three dots next to each table entry) gives you access to the following functionality:

  • Click Resource details on the overflow menu.

    The Resource details page has a number of tabs.

    Properties: Displays a window that shows all the current stored properties for the specified resource in tabular and JSON format. If a property has been excluded from view by an administrator, it is only visible in JSON format. The resource name is an active link that opens a topology view of the resource in context. Toggle the Show JSON switch On or Off to display the properties in JSON format.

    Data origin: Displays the point of origin of the resource data, such as a specific observer job. If you have the appropriate user permission, such as the administrator role, the observer job name is an active link, which opens the observer job page from where you can re-run the job, view its history, or edit the job.

    Related applications: Displays all related applications as active links, which open the service topologies in new windows. Also lists the group type, number of groups, status, and tags.

    Related resource groups: Displays all related resource groups as active links, which open the resource group topologies in new windows. Also lists the resource type, number of resources, status, and tags.

    Neighbor resources: Displays all neighboring resources in a table. Click a resource name to open the details page for the resource.

  • Click Comments on the overflow menu to access the commenting functionality.

    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 appropriate permissions can view or add new comments.

  • Click Build a template on the overflow menu to opens the Create a new template dialog, from where you can create a new resource group template.

  • Click Open in Topology viewer on the overflow menu to open a resource as a topology view.

    From here, you can drill into individual resource details and status, enable a timeline to view changes over time, and more. You can also use this view to triage issues.

Delta

You can toggle the Delta button to show how your selected topology changes between two points in time. Click the Timeline button to show how the selected topology has changed over time.

Topology visualization tools

On the topology visualization, an extra set of tool icons is displayed that you can use:

Select tool menu

A tools selection menu is displayed on the topology visualization. This menu has multiple tool icons:

  • You can switch between tools by using the first icon in the tool menu. Hover over the icon to display a submenu. You can select the Select tool, Pan tool, or the Zoom select tool icon.

    • Select tool

      Use this icon to select individual resources by 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 by 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 by 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 icon to create the overview mini map in the lower 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. Note: In some browsers, the use of the mini map might cause performance issues when displaying large topologies.

  • 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 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 resource 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 resource group the other linked vertices.

    • Layout 6

      A system board rank layout is useful when you want to view how the topology relates to a 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 that are immediately related to that rank relative to the remainder of the topology (up to the specified number 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.

Timeline

Use this toggle to open and close the topology timeline. This view shows how the selected resource changed over time. For more information about the details and how you can use this view, see Viewing topology history.

Add to favorites (resource groups only)

Click this icon to set a resource group as a favorite. Any favorite resource groups display in the Favorites section of the Resource management page.

When selected as a favorite, the option for the icon changes to Remove from favorites. Use this to remove the resource group from the list of favorites.

Interaction-based tools

The displayed topology consists of resource nodes and the relationship links connecting the resources. You can interact with these nodes and links. You can use the topology to also view critical issues and interact with the related resource nodes to troubleshoot the issue.

You can select, move, and view more options for managing nodes and the associated resources.

  • Select a node

    Selecting a node highlights that node, and emphasizes its first-order connections by fading all other resources.

  • Move a node

    Click and drag a node to move it.

  • View the context menu

    Right-click a node to view the context menu. From this menu you can select more options for viewing details and managing the topology. For the included options, see Context menu

Context menu

You open the context menu by using the right-click function. The context menu provides access to the resource-specific actions that 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 and values for the specified resource in tabular and JSON format. If a property has been excluded from view by an administrator, it is removed from the tabular view, but remains visible in JSON format.

If opened from the Resource management tool in the UI, the resource name is an active link that opens a topology view of the resource in context, provided you have the correct user permissions (the waiops_manage_integrations or waiops_view_integrations permissions).

When selected while viewing a topology history with delta mode On, the Resource details window displays the properties of the resource at both the reference time and at the delta time.

'Related applications' and 'Related resource groups' are only displayed when not in historical mode.

Toggle the Show JSON switch On or Off to display the properties in JSON format.

Data origin tab: Displays the point of origin of the resource data, such as a specific observer job. If you have the appropriate user permission, such as the administrator role, the observer job name is an active link, which opens the observer job page from where you can rerun the job, view its history, or edit the job.

Related applications tab: Displays all related applications as active links, which open the application topologies in new windows. Also lists the group type, number of groups, status, and tags.

Related resource groups tab: Displays all related resource groups as active links, which open the resource group topologies in new windows. Also lists the resource type, number of resources, status, and tags.

Resource status tab: 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). For the list of status, see the Severity status table.

Tip: If statuses related to a specific resource are available, the resource is marked with an icon depicting the status severity level, and the Resource status tab will appear on the Resource details window, accessible through the resource context menu.

Comments

When selected, this displays any comments that are 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)

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

Assign criticality

Business criticality sets the priority level for a resource (or application, or resource group).

To assign a priority, select a definition from the Business criticality drop-down, then click Save.

Remember: Business criticality definitions must be created by an administrator user before you can assign them to a resource. This is described in the Defining business criticality topic.

Build a template

Select the type of template to use to group resources

  • Dynamic template

    This template automatically finds and updates multiple resource groups based on your criteria and how your services and infrastructure change.

  • Tag based template

    This template creates and updates a single resource group containing the resources that have a specified set of tags.

  • Exact template

For more information, see Resource group templates.

Get neighbors

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

You can click the menu option Choose specific to open a dialog to select specific resources that you want to add to the current topology visualization. You can also choose to include all neighboring resources. When you select a resource, a confirmation option displays for you to either Add neighbors or Cancel. After you select Add neighbors, Undo is available for you to undo the last add neighbor request.

Selecting Get Neighbors overrides any existing filters.

Follow relationship

When selected, opens a menu that displays all adjacent relationship types. Each relationship type lists the number of relationships of that type, and 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, this displays the history timeline, depicting the most recent change made to the resource.

Show first change in timeline

When selected, this displays the history timeline, depicting the first change made to the resource.

Find path

When you click the Path tool, the Find path dialog opens. From this dialog, you can define criteria for finding the shortest path between the currently selected resource and a second specified resource within the topology.

Within the Path definition section, you need to specify the start and end points (resources) for the path:

  • Path start resource

    Identifies the selected resource from the topology.

  • Path end resource

    Search for the resource that you want to use with the starting resource for calculating the shortest path.

Within the Filters section, specify the resource types and relationship types to include or exclude from the calculated path topology.

  • Filter mode

    Choose to Exclude or Include the resource or relationship types from the path.

  • Resource types

    Search for or browse the drop-down list of resource types and select any types to be included or excluded. The list includes all defined types.

  • Relationship types

    Search for or browse the drop-down list of relationship types and select any types to be included or excluded. The list includes all defined types.

  • Maximum number of hops

    The maximum number of hops you can permit when calculating the path. You can set the value at 1-30 hops. The default is 30 hops.

When you have completed your selections, click Find path. A browser tab for the Topology viewer tab opens and is labeled Path topology. The shortest path between the start and end resources is calculated and is shown on this Path topology tab. This view shows up to a maximum of five paths. The time taken to calculate the shortest path depends on the complexity of the links between the selected resources. You can continue to work with the current topology while the path is being calculated and the associated topology rendered.

Within the path topology, the start and end resources are highlighted initially. When you hover over a link between any resources, all the paths that include those resources are highlighted.

If needed, you can further filter the displayed topology by using the Filter toolbar.

Recenter View

When selected, the displayed topology is updated from the specified seed resource to include any changes.

Severity status

Severity status icons
Icon Severity
Clear icon clear
Indeterminate icon indeterminate
Information icon information
Warning icon warning
Minor icon minor
Major icon major
Critical icon critical

Information bar

A bar at the bottom of the topology visualization displays the status of the rendered topology.

This information bar includes a timestamp on the left to indicate the time of the most recent refresh. If two time periods are being compared, both are indicated.

Additional information on the right side of the information bar indicates the number of resources that are rendered, and the number of associated relationships. The bar also indicates whether any of the resources or relationships were added or removed since the last refresh, and whether a filter is applied.

When changes are made to a topology, the following conventions are used to identify the changes:

  • Deleted resources

    A minus icon indicates that a resource was deleted since the topology was last rendered. This icon displays when a topology is updated, and within the history views.

  • Added

    A purple plus icon indicates that a resource was added since the topology was last rendered. This icon displays when a topology is updated, and within the history views.

  • Added (neighbors)

    A blue asterisk icon shows that a resource was added by using the 'get neighbors' function.