Trend views use historic data to generate trends and forecasts for resource use and availability in the monitored environment.

Where You Find the Trend View

From the left menu, click Operations > Views. From the Views panel, click Create. Click Trend from the right panel.

Name and Configuration Tab

Option Description
Name Name of the view as it appears on the Views page.
Description Description of the view.
Settings
The maximum plot lines

Enter the maximum number of plot lines. Limits the output in terms of the objects displayed in the live preview of the view type on the left upper pane. The number you set as the maximum number of plot lines determines the plot lines.

For example, if you plot historical data and set the maximum at 30 plot lines, then 30 objects are displayed. If you plot historical, trend, and forecast lines, and set the maximum to 30 plot lines, then only 10 objects are displayed as each object has three plot lines.

Make the view available for > Dashboards through the View widget Select if you want to make the view available in a dashboard.
Make the view available for > Report template creation and modification Select if you want to make the view available in a report template.
Make the view available for > Details tab in the environment Select if you want to make the view available in the Detail tab of a specific object.
Hide the view for the selected object types

Select an object type for which you do not want to see this view.

For example, you have a list view with the subject <virtual machines>. It is visible when you select any of its parent objects. You add a data center from the list. The view is not visible anymore on the data center level.

Data Tab

The data definition process includes adding properties, metrics, policies, or data that adapters provide to a view. These are the items by which VMware Aria Operations collects, calculates, and presents the information for the view.

How to Add Data to a View

If you selected more than one subject, click on the subject for which you want to add data. Double-click the data from the tree in the left panel to add it to the view. For each subject the data available to add, might be different.

You can see a live preview of the view type when you select a subject and associated data, and then click Select preview source.
Option Description
Add Subject Select the base object type for which the view shows information. The subject you specify determines where the view is applicable. If you select more than one subject, the view is applicable for each of them.
Data Grid options
Data selection tree Select a metric or a property.
Data column Click the metric or property to enter configuration details in the configuration column.
Transformation column Displays the type of transformation applied to the data.
Configuration column
Metric name Default metric name.
Metric label Customizable label as it appears in the view or report.
Units Depends on the added metric or property. You can select in what unit to display the values. For example, for CPU|Demand (MHz) from the Units drop-down menu, you can change the value to Hz, KHz, or GHz. If you select Auto, the scaling is set to a meaningful unit.
Data Series You can select whether to include historical data, trend of historical data, and forecast for future time in the trend view calculations.
Ranges for metric coloring You can associate colors to metrics by entering a percentage, range, or specific state. For example, you can enter Powered Off in the Red Bound field when you select virtual machine as an object. You can set the colors only for views and not for csv or pdf formats.
Series Roll up

The time interval at which the data is rolled up. You can select one of the available options. For example, if you select Sum as a Transformation and 5 minutes as the roll-up interval, then the system selects 5-minute interval values and adds them.

This option is applicable to the Transformation configuration option.

Available for all views.

Threshold Lines You can set a threshold for a single metric:
  • None. You have not set a threshold.
  • By Symptom Definition. You can set a threshold value based on a symptom definition.
  • Custom. You can set the threshold value as Warning, Critical, or Immediate. These options are available only for the Custom option.

Time Settings Tab

Use the time settings to select the time interval of data transformation.

You can set a time range for a past period or set a future date for the end of the time period. When you select a future end date and no data is available, the view is populated by forecast data. Data is calculated based on the browser time.

Table 1. Time Settings Options
Configuration Option Description
Time Range Mode

In Basic mode, you can select date ranges.

In Advanced mode, you can select any combination of relative or specific start and end dates.

Relative Date Range

Select a relative date range of data transformation.

Available in Basic mode.

Specific Date Range

Select a specific date range of data transformation.

Available in Basic mode.

Absolute Date Range

Select a date or time range to view data for a time unit such as a complete month or a week. For example, you can run a report on the third of every month for the previous month. Data from the first to the end of the previous month is displayed as against data from the third of the previous month to the third of the current month.

The units of time available are: Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, and Years.

The locale settings of the system determine the start and end of the unit. For example, weeks in most of the European countries begin on Monday while in the United States they begin on Sunday.

Available in Basic mode.

Relative Start Date

Select a relative start date of data transformation.

Available in Advanced mode.

Relative End Date

Select a relative end date of data transformation.

Available in Advanced mode.

Specific Start Date

Select a specific start date of data transformation.

Available in Advanced mode.

Specific End Date

Select a specific end date of data transformation.

Available in Advanced mode.

Currently selected date range

Displays the date or time range you selected. For example, if you select a specific date range from 5/01/2016 to 5/18/2016, the following information is displayed: May 1, 2016 12:00:00 AM to May 18, 2016 11:55:00 PM.

Filter

The filter option allows you to add additional criteria when the view displays too much information.

To add a filter to a view, from an existing or new view dialog box, click the Filter tab. Fill in the details for each row and click Add. You can activate Business Hours for the metric selected.

Each subject has a separate filter box. For Alerts Roll up, Alert, and Symptom subjects not all applicable metrics are supported for filtering.
Table 2. Filter Add Options
Option Description
Add Adds another criteria to the criteria set. The filter returns results that match all the specified criteria.

If you add a filter for an instance metric or property, all the instances of the object for which the criteria is met, will be displayed in the preview screen.

For instance metrics or properties, you can filter based on transformations such as, Current, Average, First, Last, Maximum, Minimum, Sum, and Timestamp.

Add another criteria set Adds another criteria set. The filter returns results that match one criteria set or another.

Previous, Next, Create, and Cancel Options

At the end of each tab, you can go to the previous or next tab. You can also cancel the creation of the view. After you have added all the details, click Create to create the view.