Only one user at a time can edit the same map.
Use the following menu options to navigate the SL1 user interface:
- To view a pop-out list of menu options, click the menu icon (
). - To view a page containing all the menu options, click the Advanced menu icon (
).
This chapter includes the following topics:
Creating a Map
Depending on the permissions assigned to users, some users will be able to create and edit maps and select the default layout. Meanwhile, other users will only be able to view and filter existing maps and update the layout of existing maps. If you do not see the button at the top right of the Maps page, then you do not have the permissions needed to create a map.
Map permissions include the following:
- To edit or create a shared map, you must have the VIEW_SHARED_EDIT hook.
- When creating a map, if it is shared, you must have permissions to see all of the organizations it is shared with.
- If the map is private, only the owner can edit the map.
- If the map is shared, you can only edit the map if you can see all of the organizations that can see the map.
While Classic Maps (Views) used Device Groups when generating maps, the maps on the Maps page use a query that searches for relevant devices as well as services.
To create a copy of an existing map, select the map you want to copy from the Maps page, click the button (
), and select Duplicate. If you are already in a Map window for a map, you can click the Save Map drop-down and select Save As Copy.
To create a map:
-
On the Maps page (
), click . A New Map window appears:
-
In the Search field, type search criteria for nodes in Basic or Advanced Search mode. You can search for Devices, Topology Elements, Relationship Types, and Business Services. The nodes that fit your search display in the Preview Results pane, and the number of each type of node displays in the Node Type Counts pane.
If you are looking for a very specific set of nodes, click the gear icon (
) to the right of the Search field and select Advanced. In this mode you can create an advanced search using "AND" or "OR" for multiple search criteria. - In the Map Name field, type a name for the new map.
-
In the Expansion Depth field, specify the number of tiers or "hops" that you want the selected nodes to expand and display by default. For example, the default value of "1" would expand the selected nodes to show just nodes that are one step away from those nodes. A larger Expansion Depth value expands the selected nodes by that number of tiers or "hops", which can reduce the loading time for a complicated map. If you set this value to "0", only the selected nodes from your search appear in the map, without any relationships displaying.
For example, the following map has an Expansion Depth value of 1:
The following map is the same map with an Expansion Depth value of 3:
-
Click . The nodes that match your query appear in the map:
- If you did not give your map a name already, click the Untitled Map in the upper-left corner and type a new name.
- The default visibility for the new map is Private, which means only you can view it. You can change the visibility by clicking the Private drop-down and selecting Public or Specific Organizations.
- Update the appearance of the map by clicking Settings (
) and selecting Design. For more information, see Changing the Appearance of a Map. - Click Save (
) to save the map.
Editing a Map
If a map does not display the nodes and relationships you need, you can edit the search query for a map by changing the nodes used by the map.
Only one user at a time can edit the same map.
To edit a search query for a map:
-
On the Maps page (
), select the map you want to edit and click on the Map window. The Edit Map window appears:
- To remove the current search criteria, click the Close icon (
) on the criteria button that appears under the Search field.
-
In the Search field, type new search criteria for nodes in Basic or Advanced Search mode. You can search for Devices, Topology Elements, Relationship Types, and Business Services. The nodes that fit your search display in the Preview Results pane, and the number of each type of node displays in the Node Type Counts pane.
If you are looking for a very specific set of nodes, click the gear icon (
) to the right of the Search field and select Advanced. In this mode you can create an advanced search using "AND" or "OR" for multiple search criteria. - If needed, edit the Expansion Depth field to change the number of tiers or "hops" that you want the selected nodes to expand and display by default.
- Click . The nodes that match your search query appear in the Map window.
- Update the appearance of the map by clicking Settings () and selecting Design. For more information, see Changing the Appearance of a Map.
- Click Save () to save the map.
Adding a Node to a Map
If you want to quickly add one or more nodes to map without editing the query for the map, you can simply click the button on a Map window.
To add a node to a map:
-
On the Maps page (
), select the map you want to edit and then click on the Map window. The Add Node window appears:
-
In the Search field, type new search criteria for nodes in Basic or Advanced Search mode. You can search for Devices, Topology Elements, Relationship Types, and Business Services. The nodes that fit your search display in the Preview Results pane, and the number of each type of node displays in the Node Type Counts pane.
If you are looking for a very specific set of nodes, click the gear icon (
) to the right of the Search field and select Advanced. In this mode you can create an advanced search using "AND" or "OR" for multiple search criteria.
-
From the Preview Results pane, select one or more nodes to add to the map.
A node in the Preview Results pane that contains a null icon (
) in the In Map column does notcurrently appear in this map.
- If needed, edit the Expansion Depth field to change the number of tiers or "hops" that you want the selected nodes to expand and display by default.
- Click . The node or nodes are added to the Map window.
- Update the appearance of the map by clicking Settings () and selecting Design. For more information, see Changing the Appearance of a Map.
- Click Save () to save your updates to this map.
Creating a Relationship Between Two Devices on a Map
You can create a link between any two devices in a map to represent a new relationship. After you create a relationship, you can decide if the relationship will only exist in that map, or if that relationship will persist on all maps in SL1 after you save the map.
When creating a relationship between two devices, keep in mind the following aspects of relationships:
- If you want to create two different relationships between the same two nodes, the relationships must go in separate directions.
- If a relationship already exists, you cannot create that same relationship again between the two devices.
- You cannot change the direction of a relationship that was discovered by SL1.
To connect two devices in a map:
- On the Maps page (), select the map you want to edit. The Map window appears.
-
Press and click to select two device nodes. The outlines of the node are thickened when you select the node, and the Selections (
) changes to display the number of nodes selected: 
- Click Selections () and select Create Relationship. The Select a relationship type window appears.
- In the Relationship Type drop-down, select the type of relationship you want to create for these two devices. Your options include: Ad Hoc, CDP, LLDP, Layer-2, and Layer-3.
-
Click . The Relationship pane appears, with the two devices arranged from top to bottom based on the relationship:
- If you selected Ad Hoc for the type, you can edit the name of the link in the Relationship Title field on the Relationship pane.
- If you selected CDP or LDP as the type, select parent and child interfaces as needed.
- To change the direction of the arrow on the edge representing the relationship, click the Change Direction icon (
). - To remove the relationship from the map, click the Delete icon (
). - To make the relationship persist on all maps in SL1 after you save the map, click the Override icon (
). - To add another relationship for the two devices, click and add a new Relationship Title.
-
To close the Relationship pane, click the Close icon (
) at the top right of the pane.To open the Relationship pane to edit this relationship again, or to edit any other relationship in a map, double-click the edge that connects the two device nodes.
-
Click Save (
) to save the map.
Changing the Appearance of a Map
After clicking Settings (), you can use the Design pane and the Filters pane on a Map window to change the appearance of the selected map.
On the Design pane, you can configure the appearance of a map by editing the following settings:
- The node details and labels you want to display in the map
- The edge details you want to show in the map, including labels for the type of relationship, arrowheads, and curved edges.
- The "expansion depth" of the map and the various ways to display the nodes in the map
- Rectangles, circles, and other shapes and text you might want to include in the map
For more information, see Changing the Design of a Map.
On the Filter pane, you can control the amount of data that is displayed in a map by editing the following settings:
- The number and types of devices and services that you want to display in the map as nodes
- The number and types of relationships that you want to display in the map as edges
For more information, see Changing the Filters for a Map.
Changing the Design of a Map
To use the Design pane for a map:
- On the Maps page (), select the map you want to edit. The Map window appears.
- Click Settings () and select Design. The Design pane appears to the right of the viewing pane for the map:
The Design pane contains four vertical tabs: , , , and .
- On the tab (
), you can edit the following options:
- Show Details on Hover. Enables or disables the pop-up Properties pane that appears when you hover over a node in the map. This option is not enabled by default, and if you select this option, it is not retained when you save or close this map.
- Show External Labels. Shows or hides a user-defined label field for the node. You define the labels that will display in the Label Fields section, below. If you enable this option, the external label appears under the node icon in the map.
- Label Fields. If you selected the Show External Labels toggle, you can expand this section and edit the type of label that displays under each node type: devices, services, and topology elements. For example, you could edit the external labels to display the device class or organization name under each device node.
- Devices. You can toggle off devices to hide devices in the map. You can also expand this section to filter the map by device Category, Class, Sub Class, Status, Name, and Organization.
- Services. You can toggle off some or all services to hide those services on the map. You can also expand this section to filter the map by Name or Organization, and by specific Availability, Health, and Risk values.
- On the tab (
), you can edit the following options:
- Labels. Shows or hides the labels for the type of relation next to the link.
- Arrowheads. Shows or hides arrows to represent the direction of the relationships, such as a parent node pointing to a child node.
- Arrow Spacing Ratio. If you selected the Arrowheads toggle, you can use this option to set where you want the arrows to appear on the links. For example, a ratio setting of ".5" would place the arrow at the halfway point between two connected nodes. A ratio setting of ".7" (or 70%) is the maximum, and ".2" is the minimum.
- Curved Edges. Toggles between curved lines or straight lines connecting nodes.
- Show Legends. Shows or hides a small, color-coded legend for the map next to the four blue viewing buttons.
- Color edges by. If you enabled the Show Legends toggle, you can change the color of the links in the map based on one of the following options:
- Status. Colors the links based on the status of the device or service, such as Critical or Healthy, that the link is connecting.
- Type. Colors the links based on the type of relationship, such as DCM (Dynamic Component Map) or Service Connection, represented by the link.
The various options in the bottom portion of this tab let you view the number of various node types along with a toggle button you can use to show or hide that specific node type. These options are the same as the options on the tab of the Filters pane.
- On the tab (
), you can edit the following options:
- Node Fill Style. Specify how you want nodes to appear in the map. Your options include:
- Default (Icon/Image). Nodes in the map are represented by icons or images.
- Solid (Status Color). Nodes in the map are represented by solid colors that correspond with the nodes' current status (healthy, notice, minor, major, or critical).
- Expansion Depth. Specify the number of tiers or "hops" that you want the selected nodes to expand and display by default. For example, the default value of "1" would expand the selected nodes to show just nodes that are one step away from those nodes. A larger Expansion Depth value expands the selected nodes by that number of tiers or "hops", which can reduce the loading time for a complicated map.
- Map Description. Type a description of the map. When you save this map, this description appears in the Description column of the Maps page.
- Map Layout Option. Select the layout for your map from the following options:
- Hierarchical. This top-to-bottom layout works best for a map that flows in a single direction. You can further customize this layout by clicking Customize Layout to show more options. These options include:
- Direction. Select the direction in which you want your hierarchy to flow. Your options include Top to Bottom, Bottom to Top, Left to Right, and Right to Left.
- Arrange via Relationship Direction Select this option to arrange nodes based on the direction of the relationships of the nodes. If this option is selected, the direction of the relationships is from right to left.
- Space Nodes to Fit Screen. Select this option to let SL1 automatically space the nodes on the map. If you do not select this option, you can edit the following two options:
- Horizontal Node Spacing. Edit this value to create more or less white space to the left and right of each node. Use a value between 10 and 1000. The default is 100.
- Vertical Node Spacing. Edit this value to create more or less white space above and below each node. Use a value between 10 and 1000. The default is 100.
- Tiered Hierarchical. This layout explicitly calls out the different tiers of a hierarchy in a map using labels on the left of the map. You can further customize this layout by clicking Customize Layout to show more options. These options include:
- Show Background. De-select this option to his the hierarchy labels on the left of the map.
- Arrange via Relationship Direction Select this option to arrange nodes based on the direction of the relationships of the nodes. If this option is selected, the direction of the relationships is from right to left.
- Horizontal Node Spacing. Edit this value to create more or less white space to the left and right of each node. Use a value between 10 and 1000. The default is 100.
- Vertical Node Spacing. Edit this value to create more or less white space above and below each node. Use a value between 10 and 1000. The default is 100.
- Multi-Parent Hierarchical. This layout best displays nodes that have a large number of parent-child relationships, which get arranged by link direction. This layout is similar to the Classic Maps (Views) from the classic user interface. You can further customize this layout by clicking Customize Layout to show more options. These options include:
- Space Nodes to Fit Screen. Select this option to let SL1 automatically space the nodes on the map. If you do not select this option, you can edit the following two options:
- Horizontal Node Spacing. Edit this value to create more or less white space to the left and right of each node. Use a value between 10 and 1000. The default is 100.
- Vertical Node Spacing. Edit this value to create more or less white space above and below each node. Use a value between 10 and 1000. The default is 100.
- Force Atlas. This is a force-directed layout that uses gravity and repulsion to lay out the nodes. This layout places the most-connected nodes in the middle, and pushes the least-connect nodes toward the outside. Force Atlas is similar to other algorithms used for network spatialization that integrates different techniques, including the Barnes Hut simulation. You can further customize this layout by clicking Customize Layout. An option is updated in the map as soon as you change that option. These options include:
- Node Spacing. Edit this value to create more or less white space around each node. Use a value between 1 and 400. The default is 10.
- Force Type: Select one of the following options to specify the type of gravitational force to apply to the nodes:
- Disjoint. This layout works best with disconnected data, as it attempts to pull disconnected data together in a cluster. With highly connected data, this layout clusters groups of nodes into circles and spreads them out.
- Central Force. This layout applies a central gravitational force to all the nodes, pulling them toward a unified center point.
- Directed Tree. This layout works best for hierarchical or semi-hierarchical data. It attempts to fan out the nodes like branches of a tree.
- Fixed Current Nodes in Place. When this option is enabled, any changes you make by dragging and moving the nodes will be retained after you click Save () . You will need to click Save () twice to ensure this setting is saved.
- History Tracking. When this option is enabled, SL1 tracks the click path of opened or expanded nodes. History tracking provides context for the actions that you and other users have taken in the maps in SL1. If you enable history tracking, any nodes that you previously selected will have a slightly brighter border than usual. Click the button to clear the click path history.
- On the tab (
), enable the Edit toggle if needed to add rectangles, circles or ovals, cloud shapes, text, and images to a map to organize nodes, such as showing a specific business workflow or grouping related nodes:
- button. The default shape is a rectangle, which you can change from the Shape Type drop-down.
- button. If you added multiple shapes or text boxes to this map and the objects are overlapping, select the object you want to send behind the other object and click this button.
- button. If you added a shape or text to this map and you want to remove it, select that shape or text and click this button.
- Shape Type. Select a shape type. Your options include a rectangle, a circle or oval, a cloud, text, or an image.
- For a shape, you can click and drag to resize the shape, change the fill color and the line color of the shape, and change the width of the lines in the shape.
- For text, you can add text in the text field, adjust the font size, change the alignment of the text, and change the color of the text. There are no character limits for the text field, but ScienceLogic recommends that you limit the text to ensure readability. Text might not appear on the map if the amount of text or the font size exceeds the available space in the text field.
- For an image, click the button that appears when you select this option. For example, you use the image of a world map or an office floor plan as a background to better illustrate how your nodes are working within the context of their physical location. From the Select an Image window, you can select one of the existing images, or you can click to upload an image in SVG, JPEG, or PNG format that is less than 10 MB and not animated.
If you uploaded an image and want to prevent the image from getting stretched vertically or horizontally, select Maintain Aspect Ratio under the button.
The map of the United States that is available from the Select an Image window does not work with Firefox browsers.
- Click Save () on the top navigation bar to save the map.
NOTE: For more information on map layouts, see http://visjs.org/docs/network/index.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force-directed_graph_drawing.
Changing the Filters for a Map
To use the Filters pane for a map:
- On the Maps page (), select the map you want to edit. The Map window appears.
- Click Settings () and select Filters. The Filters pane appears to the right of the map:
The counts for each node type display in a blue badge on each tab.
- On the tab (
), you can toggle off devices to hide devices in the map. You can also expand this section to filter the map by Category, Class, Sub Class, Status, Name, and Organization. This tab does not display if you do not have devices in the current map. - On the tab (
), you can toggle off some or all services to hide those services on the map. You can also expand this section to filter the map by Name or Organization, and by specific Availability, Health, and Risk values. This tab does not display if you do not have services in the current map. - On the tab (
), you can edit a variety of display options related to edges, along with a toggle button you can use to show or hide that specific node type. These options are the same as the options on the tab of the Design pane. - Click Save () to save the updated filters for this map.
Exporting a Map
If you want to use maps on another SL1 system, you can package one or maps into a PowerPack and export it to the other system. All of the settings, designs, and filters that are selected for the map or maps at the time of the export will be saved in the PowerPack.
Tips for successfully exporting maps:
- Set the map or maps you want to export to Shared by opening the map, clicking the Private/Public/Share drop-down on the top navigation bar, and selecting Specific Organizations. Specify the organizations with which you want share the map, and click . You will not be able to export a map if it is not set to Shared.
- You should only create maps for dynamic groups of devices, such as relationships or service types, and not static groups of devices or services. The static devices will not have the same device IDs from one SL1 system to the next. As a result, if an exported map contains static groups, the map will fail as it searches for those static devices on the other SL1 Systems.
To package and export maps:
- Go to The PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks).
- Click the button and select Create a New PowerPack.
- On the PowerPack Properties page, type a name for the PowerPack in the Name field and click .
- Select AP Content Objects from the left-nav on the PowerPack Properties page. Your maps appear in the Available AP Content Objects pane.
- Click the lightning bolt icon (
) next to the maps to add them to the PowerPack. The selected map or maps move up to the Embedded AP Content Objects pane:
- Select Build/Export from the left-nav to open the Compiled PowerPacks window, and then click the Create a new build link:
- In the Configure New Export File window, select Administrative (including export & license) from the Embedded license key drop-down list. Click .
- When the PowerPack finishes building, you can download the build with the download icon (
) and use that file to upload the map to a new SL1 system.
Installing a Map from a PowerPack
- On the SL1 system where you want to install the maps, go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks).
- To import the PowerPack, click the button and select Import PowerPack.
- After the PowerPack is done importing, click . After you install the PowerPack, you can access the maps on the Maps page.
The map will be set to Public after you import it from the PowerPack.