Understanding the Connectivity Services Director User Interface

This topic describes:

Connectivity Services Director Banner

Use the Connectivity Services Director banner to select the working mode. You can also use the Connectivity Services Director banner to perform other global tasks, such as setting up your preferences or accessing Junos Space. Table 1 describes the functions available to you on the banner.

View pane

The Service pane provides you with a unified, hierarchal view of your networks in the form of a tree that is expandable and collapsible. By selecting a node from the tree, you indicate the scope over which you want an operation or task to occur. For example:

For example, by selecting the MX240 node in Device View, you indicate that the scope for a task is all MX240 routers in your network.

Views list

You can use the Views list on the Connectivity Services Director banner to choose any one of the following network views:

• Dashboard View—This is a customizable view that provides information about your network. You can select and add monitoring widgets to the Dashboard View based on your requirements. This is the default view that opens when you log in to Connectivity Services Director.

• Service View—You can create services, policies, and filters for devices that are managed by Connectivity Services Director. The service templates and attributes for services, policies, and filters help you classify and control the way packets are handled by the various services.

• Device View—Devices are organized by device type: routers. Within each device type displayed in the Device View pane, devices are organized by device model. For example, all models of MX240 routers are grouped together under one node in the tree.

• Custom Group View—If you have defined one or more custom groups, Connectivity Services Director displays groups in this view. You can manually add devices to a custom group or define a rule to automatically add devices to the custom group after they are discovered in Connectivity Services Director.

• Topology View—This view displays a graphical representation of the discovered devices in your network, organized by groups or zones. The topology map window displays important links and node properties. Links are color coded according to utilization. You can also view physical and logical connectivity between various discovered interconnected devices.

Tasks Pane

The Tasks pane is available in the Service View, Device View, and Custom Group View of the Views list. The Task pane lists tasks specific to that view. In addition to changing according to the view selected, tasks listed in the Tasks pane can change. For example, some tasks are appropriate only at the device level and thus appear only when you have selected an individual device. Clicking a task brings up task-specific content in the main window. To perform a task in Connectivity Services Director, you navigate to the task.

Main Window or Workspace

The main window or workspace displays content relevant to ta particular view, scope, and task you have selected. When you log in to Connectivity Services Director, the main window displays the dashboard. The dashboard enables you to allow users who are assigned roles to quickly monitor health and status of the managed devices. The sections of the dashboard allows the operator to understand the device problem or fault at the macro level (comprehensive and widespread network health and status) and the micro level (individual device health and status).

Filtering the Network Tree

To make it easier for you to focus on selected aspects of your network, you can apply predefined filters to your network tree so that only nodes and devices that meet the filter criteria are shown.

1. From the View pane, click the filter icon:

   The Filters page is displayed.

   Note

   The view pane displayed depends on the network view you choose from the Views list. The filter feature is available only in the Service View and Device View.

2. From the Filters page, click Show available filters.

   The Available Filters section of the page appears.

3. From the Available Filters page, select the tab for the view you want to use to define your filter. For example, if you want to filter devices, click the Device tab.

   The filters that you can apply are listed below the Device tab.

4. To select a filter, click click the add (+) icon next to the device.

   The filter appears on the Selected Filters section of the Filters page.

   Note

   You can add multiple filters at a time. Alternatively, you can remove a filter from the Selected Filters section of the Filters Page by clicking the trash can icon next to the device.

5. Click Apply.

   The Filters dialog box closes and the filters are applied. The words 'Filter applied' appears below the filter icon. Alternatively, you can click Clear (next to 'Filter applied') to remove any filters applied. `

To remove a filter, click the filter icon, click the trash can next to the filter on the Selected Filters list, and click Apply.

• Expanding or Collapsing Nodes in the Network Tree

• Searching the Network Tree

Expanding or Collapsing Nodes in the Network Tree

To expand a node in the network tree, select the node and then click the Expand All (+) icon:

The node you selected and any child nodes under the selected node are expanded to show their contents.

Similarly, to collapse a node in the network tree, select the node and then click the Collapse (-) icon (next to the Expand icon). The node you selected is collapsed and no nodes under it are shown.

Searching the Network Tree

To quickly find and select a device or device group, use the search function.

To perform a search, type three or more characters in the search box and press Enter.

Connectivity Services Director finds the first instance of a node whose name contains the characters. You can use the arrows next to the search box to see the other instances..

Tables in Connectivity Services Director

Tables are used throughout Connectivity Services Director to display data. These tables share common features. By becoming familiar with these features, you can navigate and manipulate tabular data quickly and efficiently.

The following sections describe:

• Moving and resizing columns

• Navigating pages

• Displaying column lists

• Sorting a column

• Hiding and exposing columns

• Searching table contents

• Filtering table contents

Moving and Resizing Columns

You can reposition and resize columns in a table. To move a column, drag the column head to the new location. Connectivity Services Director displays a green check mark when you mouse over a valid column location. To resize a column, mouse over the edge of a column until the cursor becomes two vertical lines with outward arrows. Drag the column width to the new size.

Navigating Pages

Controls at the bottom of a page allows you to navigate through entries on the pages when the inventory is too large to fit on one page. Using these controls, you can go to a specific page, navigate between pages, or refresh content in a page.

Displaying the Column list

A list allows you to perform additional operations on columns. To display the column list, mouse over the column head. An arrow appears. Click the arrow to display the list.

Sorting a Column

You can sort a table based on a column by clicking the column head—each click changes the direction of the sort. In addition, you can use the Sort Ascending and Sort Descending options on the list.

Connectivity Services Director uses a lexical sort for tabular data that is not strict numeric data, which means that data such as IP addresses do not sort in numerical sequence, as shown in Table 2.

Hiding and Exposing Columns

You can customize your tables by hiding or exposing columns. This way, you can choose to see only relevant information.

To hide or unhide columns, display the column list of any column head and mouse over the Columns option. In the list that appears, select the check box beside a column head to unhide it. Clear the check box beside a column to hide it.

As a general rule, Connectivity Services Director displays all columns in a table by default. However, some tables have more columns that can fit easily within the page and columns are hidden by default.

Searching Table Contents

You can search for specific data in large tables by using search criteria.

Filtering Table Contents

For large tables, it is helpful to be able to sort data to show only relevant entries. When you mouse over the Filters option on the column list, a fill-in box appears where you can type filter criteria. If you type a text string and click GO, entries that do not contain the text string (filter criterion) are removed from the table. The filter icon appears on the column head to indicate that the column has been filtered. To restore all entries to the table, clear the Filters checkbox in the list.

1. Mouse over the IP Address column head and click the arrow.

   The Column list is displayed.

2. Mouse over Filters to display the fill-in box.
3. Type 192.168.1. in the field and click Go.

The devices in the 192.168.1.0 subnet are shown.