25 August 2016 blogs Klaas Hulder 5min read
We are always improving our solutions to give our customers what they need. We are excited to announce that in our latest release, v8.2, we have added much more functionality to Live Maps. Below we have summed up all the details on the new features and enhancements that are part of this release. Overall, Live Maps 8.2 is all about speed. We have added a couple of great new features that focus on making the tasks you use it for every day faster and more user-friendly. All these awesome new features can be defined in two categories:
1) Rapid Installation: We know everyone is busy. Getting the most out of SCOM shouldn’t take time. In this version of Live Maps, we made getting the dashboards that you need installed in a snap. Now within minutes, you can see your SCOM data transformed into elegant and easy-to-understand dashboards.
2) Do it Once: Managing an IT environment often results in repetitive tasks. We’ve made it easier to execute those tasks by introducing quick search, search history, and better alert and health explorer navigation. And, we even made it faster for people with visual disabilities requiring higher contrasts and distinct visual cues.
Below is a quick guide through the new features:
Express Installation
Users now have the option to install Live Maps in an express mode. This dramatically streamlines the installation process for purposes of a Proof of Concept (POC) or evaluation. The express installation will install the Live Maps Portal and get the user up and running quickly without having to worry about some of our more advanced installation options, such as ITSM integrations.
Quick Navigation
The users of Live Maps have a lot of tasks to do during the day, so it is important that the navigation within the product is as efficient as possible. We made three improvements to the Live Maps Portal in this area.
Quickly search for SCOM objects and dashboards
Users now have the ability to quickly search for any object in SCOM, or any dashboard they have created with Live Maps. From the search results, users can quickly navigate to the Live Maps dashboard or to the details of the selected SCOM object.
This search feature is so advanced you can already filter the result by type in one search string. For example, “ams ‘windows computer’” will result in all computers with “ams” in its name. Because the search engine is also checking the host objects, it is also possible to search, for example, for databases that are on certain servers.
Improved Menu structure
To keep the navigation efficient, we have created a new toolbar and menu structure design. We almost removed every button and reduced the number of menus to two, one for navigation and one for the page functions.
Improved Health Explorer
Within this release, the health explorer in the Live Maps Portal has the same functionality as the native health explorer in SCOM. This means you don’t need to open another console for doing root-cause analysis or resetting monitors.
Knowledge
SCOM contains a lot of knowledge on how to solve certain IT challenges. For each monitor this knowledge can be displayed in the context of the SCOM object or dashboard.
State Change history
Health state change events are very important to understand the behavior of an IT environment. Our new Health Explorer shows your state change history in a concise and easy-to-read way. This makes it easy to spot issues that affect the health of a service.
Reset and Recalculation functionality
With the ability to reset and recalculate monitors in SCOM there is no need to open a second console to perform these tasks anymore.
Improved Alert Management
Users now have visibility into all alert properties available in SCOM, such as: Ticket ID, Age, and Custom Fields. In addition to managing the alert state, users can now update the Owner and Ticket ID fields directly from the Live Maps Portal.
Configurable Columns in the alert lists
Not all users are interested in the same alert information. Sometimes there is business critical information in a custom field that always needs to be visible in the alert list. Users can now choose what columns they want to see in the alerts lists which are visible on several different dashboards.
More information on the Alert Details dialog
We extended the number of properties visible in the alert details dialog. This will provide all the information needed to help you understand what is going wrong in your IT environment.
Editing of Ticket ID and Owner
In IT, processes tickets and alert owners are important. Our newest release makes it possible for operators to edit and update this information.
Quick navigation to monitor details in the Health Explorer
It is now possible to open the health explorer from the alert details dialog. In that case you are already in the context of the monitor that raised the alert. This will make it even more efficient to take the necessary actions.
Performance Data Export
Users now have the ability to export the performance data shown in any of the Live Maps performance graphs. This will generate a CSV file with all of the performance data which can be useful to include in any reporting mechanisms.
SQL Server 2016 support
The SQL Server and SharePoint dashboards can now show detailed property and performance information about SQL Server 2016.
Special health state colors for users with color vision deficiency
As many as 8 percent of men and 0.5 percent of women with Northern European ancestry have color vision deficiency or daltonism, commonly known as color blindness. Because it is so common, we have added a special color scheme so people with this disorder can still distinguish the health states without checking out the state icons.
Support for UI customization
Branding is important for companies. The UI flexibility is a strong point of Live Maps, the change we made takes that strong point to a deeper level. It is now possible to control every UI element in the Live Maps Portal.
Are you a Live Maps customer? Reach out to your Account Manager to find out how to upgrade to Live Maps 8.2.
Not a Live Maps customer yet?
Alternatively, you can schedule a customized demo with one of our experts who will show you how Live Maps can make your life easier or sign up for our upcoming webinar, which will guide you through the many benefits of Live Maps and its new features.
About Klaas
Lead Developer- Savision
Klaas is Savision’s first employee. He has been working for Savision since it was founded by Dennis Rietvink and Douwe van de Voort in late 2006. At the moment he is leading the development team responsible for the development of Live Maps. He has over 17 years of software development experience working for banks, utility and telecom companies at EDS.
Klaas studied Information and Communication Technology in the Netherlands.
