Dashboard widgets

Widgets are the building blocks of your dashboard. They visualize data, usually from one or many Kubernetes resources. Widgets can also show static text information to viewers of the dashboard.

Adding a new widget

You can add a new widget in either of the two ways:

  • Click the Add Widget button in the top right of a dashboard.

  • On an empty dashboard, click the Add Widget section in the middle of the screen. A drawer opens where you can configure the new widget.

Adding an existing widget

When viewing an individual component in SUSE® Observability, you can add charts directly to a dashboard by using the "more actions" menu and selecting "Add to dashboard".

This is also available for any pinned items.

The resulting widget in the dashboard has a link to the resource it was added from.

Configuring a widget

Each widget has a number of configuration options. Some are common to all widgets, others are based on the widget type.

Common widget fields

Field name Description

Name

A short, descriptive name shown in the header of the widget.

Description

Additional details shown in the header of the widget behind a tooltip.

Type

The type of visualization.

In addition to these fields, there are some common tabs to all widgets:

Tab name Description

Links

Related resource links, shown underneath the name of the widget. The first link is always displayed. Other links are available in a dropdown menu.

YAML

The raw YAML configuration for the widget, which can be viewed and edited.

Queries tab

Widget types intended to show data from resources will have a Queries tab. You can add one or more PromQL queries to retrieve the data for the widget.

Types

TimeSeriesChart

The TimeSeriesChart visualizes time series data in a line chart. Each query in the widget configuration produces a line on the chart.

You can configure the following settings:

  • Legend - The position and mode of the legend.

  • Visual - Connect null values to create a continuous line.

  • Y Axis - The unit, label and min/max values for the Y-axis.

  • Thresholds - Add horizontal lines to the chart to mark important value thresholds.

BarChart

The BarChart visualizes time series data in a bar chart. It has the same settings for legend, Y-axis and thresholds as the TimeSeriesChart.

StatChart

The StatChart shows a sparkline chart and a single value that is easy to read at a glance. Thresholds can be configured to change the color of the text based on the value.

You can configure the following settings:

  • Sparkline - Show or hide the sparkline chart.

  • Unit - The unit of the value.

  • Decimals - The number of decimals to show.

  • Calculation - The method used to calculate the value from the time series data.

GaugeChart

The GaugeChart displays a gauge with a value in the middle. The color of the gauge and the text change when the value crosses a threshold.

You can configure the following settings:

  • Unit - The unit of the value.

  • Decimals - The number of decimals to show.

  • Max - The maximum value of the gauge.

  • Calculation - The method used to calculate the value from the time series data.

Markdown

The Markdown widget displays markdown text. This can be used to add explanations or other information to your dashboard.