Overview of the CMDB User Interface
While the Summary and Widget dashboard views of your IT infrastructure provide real-time monitoring and reporting on your IT infrastructure, the CMDB view provides more in-depth detail about devices, applications, users, and other IT infrastructure components as they are listed in the CMDB, as well as the ability to manage these objects.
Tab Overview
Inventory Management and Edit Details Controls
User Interface Controls for Device View
Data Collection Status
Tab Overview
This screenshot shows the Device view of the CMDB tab with Devices selected in the Device View of the IT infrastructure hierarchy. For any type of object you select in the hierarchy, the CMDB will load a Summary view of the objects in the top pane, and Details for any individual object you select from the summary in the bottom pane. While the available details will change depending on the type of object you select, all objects in the CMDB view will have Inventory Management controls in the summary pane, and an Edit Details control in the Details pane.
Inventory Management and Edit Details Controls
| UI
Control |
Description |
| New | Add a new object to the CMDB
Manually Adding Devices to the CMDB In most cases you will want to add devices to the CMDB through the device discovery process, but there are some situations in which you may want to add them manually, as described in Adding Devices to the CMDB Outside of Discovery and Adding a Synthetic Monitoring Test to a Business Service. |
| Delete | Delete a selected object from the CMDB |
| Edit | Edit details about the selected object. You can also use the Edit Details button in the Details pane for the same purpose. You can also set device-specific properties to use in defining per-device thresholds. |
User Interface Controls for Device View
The view of devices in the CMDB provides you with a number of ways to access information about a device. Some of the device user interface controls in the CMDB view you can also find in the dashboard summary view of devices, such as the Analysis menu and the Quick Info view of a device.
| UI Control | Description |
| Views | Inventory
A summary of all devices of that type in the CMDB Topo Shows all devices of the selected type in a topology view Performance Shows a Performance Summary dashboard for all devices of that type |
| IP
Management |
Hover your mouse cursor over the IP address associated with a device to open the IP Management menu
Quick Info Loads the Quick Info for the device, which you can also see by selecting Quick Info in the Analysis menu Topology Shows the device’s location in the network topology, which you can also see by clicking the Topology button in the device Details pane Show Real-Time events on this IP Loads a Real Time Search with the selected IP address in the search criteria Show Events on this IP for the Past 5 Minutes Loads and Historial search with the selected IP address in the search criteria and the Time filter set to Last 5 Mins Add to WatchList Add that IP address to a WatchList |
| More | Location
Displays any location information associated with the device Change Org For multi-tenant deployments, change the organization associated with the device Impacted Org Shows organizations that device is associated with Maintenance Displays the maintenance schedule for the device Export General Info Exports a summary view of selected devices, or a detailed view of information for a specific device, in PDF or CSV format |
| Approve | Approve any newly-discovered devices |
| Analysis | The Analysis menu contains a number of options for component analytics, depending on the component selected. See Using the Analysis Menu for more information. You can also access the Analysis menu for a component by hovering your mouse over the component’s Device IP menu until the blue Quick Info icon appears, and then clicking the icon. |
| Quick Info | The Quick Info view of a device, which you can also access through the Analysis menu or hovering your mouse cursor over the Device IP column, displays General and Health information for the device, and when appropriate, Identity and Location information. It also contains links to additional information about the device:
Incidents An exportable summary of incidents associated with the device Health Availability, Performance, and Security health information for the device. You can also access this information by clicking the Device Health user interface control, or by selecting Device Health in the Analysis menu. BizService Any business services impacted by the device. You can also access this information by selecting Impacted Business Services in the Analysis menu. Applications Displays a report on the top 10 applications associated with the device by Average CPU Utilization over the past hour Vulnerability and IP Status (Not used in the Dashboard view) Displays the vulnerability status reports that are also available by selecting Vulnerability and IPS Status in the Analysis menu Hardware Health (Used only for the CMDB/Storage view) Displays health information for the hardware being used for storage Interfaces Displays a report on the top 10 interfaces associated with the device by average throughput Topology Shows the device’s location in the network topology. You can also access this information by selecting Topology in the A nalysis menu. The Quick Info view also contains two links, Goto Config Item, which links to the device entry in the CMDB, and Goto Identity , which links to Analytics > Identity and Location Report, where you can edit this information for the device. |
| Device Info | Each tab contains information about a specific aspect of the device, as well as an Edit button to change information:
Summary General organizational and operational information about the device Health Availability, Performance, and Security health reports for the device. You can also access this information by selecting a device in the Summary dashboard, and then click Health, or by going to Quick Info > Health after selecting the device. If any Incidents are displayed, click the number to view the Incident Summary. Depending on the reported metric, you can zoom in for a closer look at graphs and reports by clicking the Magnifying Glass icon that appears when you hover your mouse cursor over them. Monitor Shows Event Receive Status and Performance Monitor Status – when data was last collected and status Contact Contact information for the device Interfaces Interfaces connected to the device Software Software running on the device. Categories include Installed Software, Running Applications, Windows Services, and Installed Patches. In the Installed Software category you can use the Diff… button to compare different versions of software you’ve installed. Hardware Information about the hardware associated with the device. Categories include Processors, Storage, SAN Storage, Syst em BIOS, Components, SAN Ports, RAID Groups, LUNs, and Storage Groups. Configuration Configuration files associated with the device. You can compare configuration files by selecting two or more, and then clicking Diff… Relationships Other devices that this device interacts with |
| Topology | Shows the selected device in the Topology view |
| Edit Details | Click to edit the Summary, Contact Info, Interfaces, and Properties for the device |
Data Collection Status
Real time data collection status is shown for each device
Performance Monitor Status
Normal – if every performance monitor job status for this device is Normal
Warning – if at least one performance monitor job status for this device is Warning and none is critical Critical – if at least one performance monitor job status for this device is Critical
Event Receive Status
Normal – if the event receive status of every protocol for this device is Normal
Warning – if the event receive status of at least one protocol for this device is Warning and none is critical Critical – if the event receive status of at least one protocol for this device is Critical
Performance Monitor Job Status is computed as follows. Two global constants are defined in Admin > Device Support > Custom Properties.
- Performance Monitoring Time Gap Warning Threshold – multiples of polling interval (default 3)
- Performance Monitoring Time Gap Critical Threshold – multiples of polling interval (default 5)
Event Receive Job Status is computed as follows. Two global constants are defined in Admin > Device Support > Custom Properties.
- Event Receive Time Gap Warning Threshold in minutes (default 10)
- Event Receive Time Gap Critical Threshold in minutes (default 20)
These constants can also be specified at a per device level from CMDB > Device > Bottom pane Edit > Properties. Write new values for these thresholds in the edit box and click Save.
| Metric | Status | Condition |
| Performance Monitor Job
Status |
Normal | Performance Monitoring Time Gap LESS THAN Performance Monitoring Time Gap Warning Thresh old |
| Performance Monitor Job
Status |
Warning | Performance Monitoring Time Gap GREATER THAN Performance Monitoring Time Gap Warning T hreshold BUT
LESS THAN Performance Monitoring Time Gap Critical Threshold |
| Performance Monitor Job
Status |
Critical | Performance Monitoring Gap GREATER THAN Performance Monitoring Time Gap Critical Threshol d |
| Event Receive Job Status | Normal | Event Receive Time Gap LESS THAN Event Receive Time Gap Warning Threshold |
| Event Receive Job Status | Warning | Event Receive Time Gap GREATER THAN Event Receive Time Gap Warning Threshold BUT
LESS THAN Event Receive Time Gap Critical Threshold |
| Event Receive Job Status | Critical | Event Receive Time Gap GREATER THAN Event Receive Time Gap Critical Threshold |
The following table shows how the various job types are classified into Performance Monitor or Event Received types
| Job Type | Classification in CMDB > Device >
Monitor |
| Jobs defined in Admin > Setup wizard > Monitor Change/performance | Performance Monitor |
| Jobs defined in Admin > Setup wizard > Pull Events (e.g. | Event Receive |
| Protocols via which data is pushed to us – syslog, SNMP Trap, Netflow, SFlow, Windows Agents etc | Event Receive |
The following rules trigger when certain data collection exceptions happen.
| Rule | When does it trigger? | When does it clear? |
| Missing specific performance metric from a device | Triggers when Performance Monitor is Critical for one job for a monitored device | Clears when Performance Monitor is
Normal for that job from that device |
| No performance metrics from a device | Triggers when Performance Monitor is Critical for ALL jobs for a monitored device | Clears when Performance Monitor is
Normal for all jobs from that device |
| FortiSIEM Performance
Monitoring Relay Not Working – All Devices delayed |
Triggers when Performance Monitor is Critical for all devices
monitored by a Worker/Collector (that is acting as a Performance Monitoring Relay) |
Clears when Performance Monitor is
Normal for all devices from that Worker/Collector |
| No logs from a device | Triggers when Event Receive Job Status is Critical for one devi ce | Clears when Event Receive Job
Status is Normal for that device |
| FortiSIEM Log Relay Not
Working – All Devices delayed |
Triggers when Event Receive Job Status is Critical for all devic es to a specific Worker/collector (that is acting as a Log Relay) | Clears when Event Receive Job
Status is Normal for all devices from that Worker/Collector |