Working with Observability dashboards

From the Observability tab, you can access dashboards that contain collections of metrics represented as charts. Depending on the dashboard, the metrics may relate to all of your services or to the Fastly Deliver or Compute service that you select via the Service menu.

There are two types of dashboards:

  • Platform: dashboards that provide an overview of all your services or that focus on a single service. You can not modify platform dashboards. Platform dashboards are located on the Services, Origins, and Domains pages.
  • Custom: dashboards that you build to surface relevant metrics for a service. You can view and manage your custom dashboards from the Custom Dashboards tab. Custom dashboards are disabled by default.

Before you begin

Be sure you know how to access the web interface controls and understand basic information about the Observability page before learning about custom dashboards.

Limitations and considerations

The platform dashboards included on the Observability tab depend on your access permissions and the products and features you may have purchased. Your access permissions also determine your ability to build custom dashboards.

Custom dashboards are disabled by default and are only available to customers who have purchased an Observability package. Once enabled, you are limited to 100 custom dashboards per account and only you can view the custom dashboards that you've built. Custom dashboards are saved in local storage. If you clear your browser's cache, the custom dashboards you created will be deleted, and you will no longer be able to access them via the Custom Dashboards page.

Viewing a dashboard

To view a dashboard, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to the Fastly web interface.
  2. Click Observability.
  3. Click the name of an Observability tab. Options include:
    • Account Summary: provides a high-level overview of all your services.
    • Services: displays top metrics for a Fastly service or aggregated metrics for all of your services.
    • Origins: provides real-time and historic visibility into detailed response data for traffic from your origin servers to Fastly.
    • Domains: provides real-time and historic visibility into detailed response data for traffic from your domains and subdomains to Fastly.
    • Custom Dashboards: allows you to view and manage custom dashboards that surface relevant metrics for a Fastly service.
  4. (Optional) Use the Observability page controls to change the display of the metrics on the selected dashboard.

Sharing a dashboard

To share a specific dashboard, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the dashboard that you want to share.
  2. Click Options and then select Copy link. The link is saved to your computer's clipboard.
  3. Manually share the link outside of the Fastly app.

To access a shared dashboard, you must have the appropriate permissions.

Working with custom dashboards

From the Custom Dashboards page, you can create and delete custom dashboards.

Creating a custom dashboard

To create a custom dashboard, follow these steps:

  1. On the Custom Dashboards page, click Create dashboard.
  2. In the Dashboard Name field, enter the name of your custom dashboard.
  3. Click Save. The Custom Dashboards page appears and displays the custom dashboard that you created.

After creating a dashboard, you can add charts to it.

Deleting a custom dashboard

To delete a custom dashboard, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the custom dashboard that you want to delete.
  2. Click Options and then select Edit dashboard.
  3. Click the pencil next to the dashboard name.
  4. Click Delete and then Delete. The custom dashboard is deleted and is no longer listed in the custom dashboard menu.

Working with dashboard charts

You can surface relevant metrics on custom dashboards by adding charts that highlight meaningful data and deleting existing charts that aren't needed anymore.

Expanding a chart on a platform dashboard

To expand a chart on a platform dashboard and display detailed information about the metric being tracked:

  1. Navigate to a platform dashboard. Platform dashboards are located on all of the Observability tabs, except for the Custom Dashboards tab.
  2. Click the double-sided arrow in the upper right corner of the chart that you want to expand. The Metric Details page for the chart appears.

Adding a chart to a custom dashboard

To add a chart to a custom dashboard, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the custom dashboard that you want to add a chart to.

  2. Click Options and then select Edit dashboard.

  3. Click Add Chart.

    configuring an Observability chart

  4. Fill out the Add Chart fields as follows:

    • In the Title field, enter the name of the chart.
    • In the Subtitle field, enter a brief description of the chart.
    • From the Data Source menu, select a data pipeline. Data pipeline options include Historic Stats, Original Inspector, and Domain Inspector.
    • From the Metrics menu, select the type of data the chart should report.
    • From the Type menu, select an option to control how the data is displayed.
    • From the Calculation Method menu, select the single metric the chart should report. This field only appears when the Type field is set to Donut or Number.
    • From the Size menu, select an option to control the width of the chart.

    A preview of the title and subtitle appears above the form, and a preview of the chart appears below the form.

  5. Click Save. The chart is added to the dashboard.

  6. Click Exit Edit Mode to return to view mode for the dashboard.

Deleting a chart from a custom dashboard

To delete a chart from a custom dashboard, follow the steps below:

  1. Navigate to the custom dashboard that you want to add a chart to.
  2. Click Options and then select Edit dashboard.
  3. Click the trash to the right of the chart that you want to delete. The chart is removed from the dashboard.
  4. Click Exit Edit Mode to return to view mode for the dashboard.

What's next

Dig deeper into details about all areas of the web interface controls before you move on to using them to work with services.
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