Skylar Analytics 1.8.0 Release Notes

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Skylar Analytics contains a set of tools that lets you view, analyze, and use the data Skylar One (formerly SL1) gathers and sends to the Skylar AI engine. Skylar Analytics insights are presented in the Skylar One user interface, in a ScienceLogic-hosted instance of Apache Superset, and in the Skylar AI API.

Version 1.8.0 of Skylar Analytics includes a new dataset sync option, the ability to connect more than one Skylar One system to a single Skylar AI system, multi-factor authentication (MFA) options for Skylar AI, and other new features and addressed issues.

While ScienceLogic recommends that you use the most recent version of Skylar One, version 12.3.2 is the minimum Skylar One version you can use with this release. ScienceLogic strongly recommends that you always use the most recent Skylar One and AP2 releases in conjunction with the most recent Skylar AI release. Using the most recent release ensures that your Skylar AI system has access to the latest datasets and features. For more information, see the Skylar One (SL1) Platform and AP2 Release Notes.

New Features and Enhancements in Version 1.8.0

The following new features are included in this release of Skylar Analytics:

Skylar Analytics Dashboards and Charts

  • Added the Sync Skylar Datasets button to the Customizations tab on the Dashboards page (Analytics Admin > Dashboards > Customizations) in Skylar Settings. 

    Clicking this button updates all of your datasets based on Skylar One PowerPacks, including PowerPacks that have been updated in Skylar One. If all datasets have been updated, the button does not appear, and the text "Datasets are current" appears instead. This button is only available to owner users in Skylar. (Jira ID: SKY-1788)

  • Added the "OLAP Schema Documentation (Skylar)" dashboard to the Dashboards page in the Data Visualization component of Skylar Analytics. If you do not have this dashboard on the Dashboards page, you can add it from the Dashboards page (Analytics Admin > Dashboards) in Skylar Settings. (Jira ID: SKY-1940)

  • Presentation objects, labels, and metrics collected by Dynamic Applications that include SNMP index collection objects are now exported to Skylar AI. (Jira ID: EM-76641)

  • On the Dashboards page (Analytics Admin > Dashboards) in Skylar Settings, owner users can search for existing dashboards and upgrade existing dashboards. (Jira ID: SKY-1571)

  • On the Dashboards page (Analytics Admin > Dashboards) in Skylar Settings, owner users can also install dashboards with (Sample) in their names by clicking the Add to Skylar button. These dashboards display a variety of visualization or chart configurations to show users different ways to display data, and users can reference these dashboards as examples. Many of the (Sample) dashboard layouts display multiple visualizations of the same raw data that would not typically be used at the same time on a production dashboard. These charts can also be copied and modified as needed, saving development time when building new dashboards. ScienceLogic recommends that you keep the original versions of these (Sample) dashboard as unpublished draft dashboards and use them only for reference. (Jira ID: SKY-1571)

Skylar Analytics Platform

  • Added the ability to connect more than one Skylar One system to a single Skylar AI system to consolidate multiple instances into one reporting configuration. (Jira ID: SKY-1544)

  • Added a Consolidated Instance Reporting option to the account provisioning wizard in Skylar Settings to enable reporting on multiple Skylar One systems on a single Skylar AI system. Data from all instances under the account will be merged into a single database called reporting. You must enable the Consolidated Instance Reporting option during the account provisioning wizard, and you cannot change it or enable it after you complete the wizard. When this option is enabled, a note stating that consolidated instance reporting is enabled displays on the Dashboards page (Analytics Admin > Dashboards) in Skylar Settings. (Jira ID: SKY-1879, SKY-1802, SKY-1514, SKY-608)

  • As a result of the consolidated reporting feature, the data source target for Data Visualization in Skylar Analytics was changed from <instance>_reporting to reporting. (Jira ID: SKY-1549)

    If you upgraded to Skylar Analytics version 1.8.0 from an older version, you will still have access the original <instance>_reporting database if you need time to update your dashboards with the new naming. Data in the <instance>_reporting database will still be populated, but new instances provisioned after 1.8.0 will not have access to that database.

    Skylar Analytics environments upgraded from before version 1.8.0 will have historical data in the <instance>_reporting database. When you upgrade to 1.8.0, a historical backfill procedure run to backfill data from <instance>_reporting to reporting. After the backfill is complete, tables in '<instance>_reporting' will have a 33-day Time to Live (TTL) modification applied to them. Historical data older than this will then be available only in the new reporting database. The backfill process can take several hours to complete.

  • Updated the Time to Live (TTL) settings for all dynamic application tables in the Skylar AI environment. Previously, the data eviction policy was set to 400 days, but it was reduced to ten days to better align with current data retention requirements. (Jira ID: SKY-1460)

  • The Add IP Range button lets you add an IP range for the allow list (whitelist) settings for user accounts on the IP Whitelist page in Skylar Settings ( Account Access > IP Whitelist). (Jira ID: SKY-1939)

  • Added a number of updates to improve the performance of Skylar Analytics data visualizations. (Jira ID: SKY-2353)

Anomaly Detection and Predictive Alerting

  • Improved the accuracy of the data displayed on the Anomaly Chart modal and the Skylar Analytics Summary chart for Predictive Alerting in Skylar One. (Jira ID: SKY-2475, SKY-2585)

  • Skylar One will not generate predictive alerts if the data has a sudden drop in data of 70% or more. Instead, Skylar One will generate predictive alerts only on data after that drop in the data. This updated behavior allows predictive alerts to behave more consistently with file systems that repeatedly fill up and are cleared. (Jira ID: SKY-2073)

  • Added a number of updates to improve the performance of Predictive Alerting. (Jira ID: SKY-2346)

Skylar AI User Interface

  • The Skylar Settings user interface includes the following new elements:

    • Added a new menu button () at the top left that contains links to the home pages for Skylar Analytics and Skylar Settings. (Jira ID: SKY-1862)

    • The Skylar Settings pages were organized into sections on the right: User Preferences, Instances, Analytics Admin, and Account Access.

    • The Profile page (User Preferences > Profile) in Skylar Settings includes three tabs: Identity for user information, Accessibility for dark and light theme options, and Security for password and authentication options.

    • The Authentication page (Account Access > Authentication) in Skylar Settings includes two tabs: Email Authentication for setting multi-factor authentication (MFA) status and session inactivity timeouts, and Single Sign-On (SSO) for setting up authentication with the SAML2 protocol.

  • Added a Logout option on the Settings menu in Skylar Analytics that lets you return to the Skylar AI login page, where you can select another Skylar AI component or click Sign Out to log out. (Jira ID: SKY-1939, 1955)

  • Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is available for Skylar AI instances, in a variety of configurations:

    • Skylar AI owner users can set up MFA for all users on a Skylar AI instance. MFA is enabled by default on all new 1.8 or later systems. Owner users can specify if MFA is required or not required on the Email Authentication tab (Account Access > Authentication > Email Authentication) in Skylar Settings(Jira ID: SKY-1588)

    • Skylar AI owner users for a site will need to configure MFA for user accounts that use Time-Based One-Time Password (TOTP) authentication applications such as Google Authenticator or Authy. (Jira ID: SKY-1588)

    • On a site where MFA is required, users will need to scan a QR code or type in a secret key to set up MFA the next time they log in (if MFA is not already set up for their user accounts). (Jira ID: SKY-1686)

    • Users on a Skylar instance that does not have MFA required can set MFA for their account on the Security tab of the Profile page (User Preferences > Profile > Security) in Skylar Settings. Users can use the Reconfigure MFA option on the Security tab to update MFA. Owner users can use the Reset MFA option from the Actions menu for a user on the Users page (Account Access > Users) in Skylar Settings to update MFA for a user; for example, if a user loses his or her phone.

  • The owner of the Skylar account can create a user that is local to Skylar that bypasses single sign-on (SSO) to access that Skylar AI instance. For example, the account owner could give this local user access to the Skylar AI instance, without help from the user's IT department, to add or edit a user in their SAML identity provider configuration.

    To create the local user, add the ?local=true parameter at the end of the sign-in URL for the Skylar AI instance. For example: https://test.skylar-ai.com/skylar-auth/sign-in?local=true(Jira ID: SKY-2231)

  • Administrator user sessions that have been idle for ten minutes are automatically terminated. Admin users can adjust the timeout value on the Authentication page (Account Access > Authentication) in Skylar Settings. (Jira ID: SKY-1586, SKY-1654)

  • Non-admin user sessions that have been idle for 15 minutes are automatically terminated. (Jira ID: SKY-1585)

Skylar AI Page in Skylar One

  • Updated the text on the Skylar AI page in (Undefined variable: ApplianceNames.full_noun_cap) to reflect new buttons and new functionality:

    • Added the Advanced: Anomaly Alerting button to enable Anomaly Score alerting management. Clicking this button takes you to the Anomaly Detection page in (Undefined variable: ApplianceNames.full_noun_cap). The text in the bullets under Skylar Anomaly Detection was also updated. (Jira ID: SKY-1933, SKY-1702)

    • Clicking the Visit button for Skylar Anomaly Detection takes you to an Events page filtered by Messages of type Anomaly, which displays a list of the anomaly score events that are currently active in the system. (Jira ID: SKY-1702)

    • Removed the Visit button for Skylar Automated RCA and the corresponding text about the button on this page. (Jira ID: SKY-1626)

Issues Addressed in Version 1.8.0

The following issues were addressed in this release of Skylar Analytics:

  • Addressed an issue with the Data Visualization component where the ifstattab and the fsstattab datasets created duplicate rows on non-unique column value changes. (Jira ID: SKY-1956)

  • Addressed an issue where if a dashboard was deleted in the Data Visualization component, the Dashboards page in Skylar Settings (Analytics Admin > Dashboards) still showed it as installed. (Jira ID: SKY-1893)

Known Issues

This release has the following known issue:

  • Skylar uses unique PowerPack naming conventions for creating datasets in the Data Visualization component. If you change the name of a PowerPack, Skylar triggers a new dataset, which will cause charts to fail and lose the historical data for that PowerPack. At this time, ScienceLogic recommends that you do not rename any PowerPacks in (Undefined variable: ApplianceNames.full_noun_cap) if that (Undefined variable: ApplianceNames.full_noun_cap) system is connected to a Skylar environment.